Chariton Public Library is located in Chariton, Iowa, United States. The Library and Reading Room Association was formed in Chariton in 1879, but it was short lived. The county superintendent of schools started a teachers' library in the courthouse sometime afterward. By this time the community had a library of 800 volumes. There was an effort by study clubs in town in 1898 to raise money and establish a free public library. The Chariton Federation of Women's Clubs took the lead and opened a library with the books from the courthouse in two rooms above Gibbons Drug Store on the town square. Citizens approved a local tax to support the library the following year.