The Salem Public Library is a 15,000 square foot facility located in the center of downtown Salem in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The library has a collection of 140,000  items, including books, movies, audio books, magazines, and newspapers.  In the 2009/2010 fiscal year,  245,807 people visited the library and checked out 290,309 items from our collection .  In addition, more than 58,517 internet sessions were logged that  made use of our computer stations for job hunting, research, personal correspondence, homework assignments, and social networking.

The Salem Public Library’s mission is to continually improve the usefulness of its facility and holdings by fulfilling the following roles in the community: 

• Popular materials library for all ages 
• Reference library for the community 
• Children’s door to learning 
• Independent learning center for all ages
• Meeting place for the community