In 1846 the Book Society of Pietermaritzburg was established, supported by David Dale Buchanan, editor of the
Natal Witness. It had a reading room and a small library and opened as Pietermaritzburg's first public library in 1849. It initially struggled, but was later supported by the Natal Society (launched in 1851) which, by 1865, had absorbed the Book Society and started to raise funds for a permanent location. For 2,000 guineas, the Society bought 20 Longmarket Street in 1876; it opened as a public library and museum in February 1878. was officially opened on 12 July 2007 and named after
Bessie Head, a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist born in Pietermaritzburg. Today the library is one of South Africa's five legal deposit libraries. It is the only KwaZulu-Natal institution holding all books written by the Indian political activist
Mahatma Gandhi. == References ==