As of 2000, Alabama had 20 county and multi-county regional library systems. Alabama's 206,000 public libraries had a combined total of 8,600,000 volumes in 2000, when the total circulation was 15,340,000. The University of Alabama had 1,896,687 volumes; the Birmingham Public Library had 19 branches and 973,936 volumes. The Alabama Department of Archives and History Library, at Montgomery, had 260,000 volumes and several special collections on Alabama history and government. Collections on aviation and space exploration in Alabama's libraries, particularly its military libraries, may be the most extensive in the US outside of Washington, D.C. In 1997 the Alabama Public Library Service and its regional library for the blind and physically handicapped had over 480,000 books, videos, and audio tapes, including more than 25,000 books in Braille. Memorabilia of Wernher von Braun are in the library at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville; the Redstone Arsenal's Scientific Information Center holds over 227,000 volumes and 1,800,000 technical reports. Total income for the public library system in 2003 was $64,927,000; including $908,978 in federal grants and $4,479,963 in state grants. State libraries spent 64.2% of that income on staff, and $15.1 on collections.
Alabama had 81 museums in 2000. The most important art museum is the Birmingham Museum of Art. Other museums include the George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee Institute, the Women's Army Corps Museum and Military Police Corps Museum at Ft. McClellan, the US Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, the Pike Pioneer Museum at Troy, the Museum of the City of Mobile, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Also in Montgomery are Old Alabama Town and the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald home. Russell Cave National Monument has an archaeological exhibit. In Florence is the W.C. Handy Home; at Tuscumbia, Helen Keller's birthplace, Ivy Green.