The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library has a strong commitment to the preservation of local history. The area known as the Local History Department (LHD) was created in the CLPLS around 1962. Both the collection and space have greatly increased since then.

The LHD is divided into two major sections: The Buckley Genealogy Room and The Billups-Garth Archival Room. In 1981 the library received a generous gift from Dr. George Buckley in memory of his wife, Margaret Latimer Buckley, which greatly enhanced genealogy holdings and space. The Buckley Room houses the library's printed historical and genealogical materials on Mississippi and other Southern states. This room has over 5,000 books, many periodicals and approximately 1,000 reels of microfilmed Columbus newspapers, county government records, and more.
 
The Billups-Garth Archival Room offers an array of primary source material dealing with Mississippi, Lowndes County, and Columbus history. Made possible through a gift from the Billups-Garth Foundation in 1992, the archive consists of over 1,000 cubic feet of records including numerous original court documents (probate, chancery, and general docket), city minute books, school records, vertical files, manuscript collections, scrapbooks, maps, photographs, and much more. 

In each area, extensive records involving many aspects of Lowndes County history can be found, including education, churches, cemeteries, government, genealogy, businesses, historic homes, and local organizations.​

For more information about local history and genealogy services available at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System, please contact Mona Vance-Ali at 662-329-5300 or via email at mvance@lowndes.lib.ms.us.