Historic SC library restores thousands of titles

The oldest library in the South is restoring thousands of books, some of them even older than the library itself.

The Charleston Library Society on Friday unveils some of its rare titles as part of a weeklong exhibit to mark the start of a two-year restoration of nearly 18,000 titles in the library's natural history collection. Those titles are currently housed in the library vault and after restoration will be available to library guests.

The Library Society was founded in 1748.

Collections from the library helped in the founding of both the College of Charleston and the Charleston Museum, the first museum in the nation.

Some books in the library date to the 1600s.