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Library Card

South Carolina State Library eCard Application

A South Carolina State Library eCard is available to South Carolina residents age 18 and over who do not currently have a library card. eCards are provided during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide access to online resources such as Safari Books, ProQuest Ebook Central, and NewsBank: America’s Newspapers. Qualified applicants will be emailed an eCard number and temporary PIN after the application is processed. eCard requests will be processed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Most requests will be filled in about 24 hours. Those requests received during weekends may take longer. After the shutdown concludes, eCard users will receive a physical library card in the mail.

To apply, please complete our online application form. Items marked with an asterisk are required to process your new library eCard.

If you have any questions, please contact us at reference@statelibrary.sc.gov or 803-734-8026. You may also use our online chat service, Ask a Librarian, at the bottom of this webpage. 

What are our borrowing policies?

During normal operating times, our borrowing policies are as follows:

  • Loan periods: 21 days for books, government documents, audiobooks, music CDs, magazines, paperbacks, and items on reserve; 7 days for DVDs, with a maximum of 10 DVDs checked out per cardholder.
  • Total number of items: A maximum of 30 items total may be checked out per cardholder.
  • Renewals: All items may be renewed twice, provided no one else has requested the item. There are several ways to renew items; patrons may either contact us or log in to their account by selecting “My Account” in the main menu above.
  • Fines: While overdue fines are not charged, patrons are still responsible for paying the full replacement cost for lost items, and may also be asked to pay replacement costs for damaged items.