Ensuring Excellence Campaign
The Chapel Hill Public Library: Where People Connect with Ideas
The Chapel Hill Public Library is our community's most valuable link to the wide world of knowledge. At the Library, we find both print and non-print collections that educate, inspire, and entertain. These materials increase our understanding of complex issues, introduce us to new ideas, and help explain unfamiliar cultures.
Today there are over 9000 public libraries in the United States. In North Carolina, we are served by 75 county, regional, and municipal libraries. And in Chapel Hill, we have the busiest public library in the state. About 230 books are checked out every hour the Library is open. It is amazing that the number of visitors to our Library each year would fill the Dean Dome 12 times!
Only the public library gives people--no matter what their ages, abilities or differences--free and equal access to the world of books and information. In turn, it builds lifelong learners, educators, and leaders. It keeps our nation strong and our minds open. At our Library, local people meet the world of ideas.
The Need to Read
We are proud that the Chapel Hill Public Library is the busiest public library in North Carolina. Our patrons check out 14 books per capita each year, compared to the State average of 4.4. The result is that nearly 812,000 items circulate annually. In addition, over 265,000 library visits occur each year, and over 83,000 public Internet sessions take place.
But with pride comes responsibility. As our community grows, so must our Library. Since 1994, Chapel Hill's population has grown more than 21%. Independent library experts commissioned by the Town of Chapel Hill reported that the current Library building and its collections are not large enough to meet the needs of our ever growing community.
Estimates of population growth indicate that by the year 2010, Chapel Hill will have at least 7,000 more residents. Also, many of our Library's patrons are non-residents of Chapel Hill who live in fast growing Orange County. This means that the Chapel Hill Public Library will have an even larger population to serve.
Our need to read already has surpassed the Library's existing resources. In a heavy use community like Chapel Hill, a library collection should have 4.0 collection items per person. We have only 2.6. To fully fund recommended improvements to our Library's collection by the year 2011, an additional $2.5 million is required.
Tradition, Tradition
Libraries in America began as private institutions, not open to the general public. But Andrew Carnegie changed all of that. Starting in 1881, Carnegie donated more than $56 million that helped build thousands of "free and open" libraries across America. Since Carnegie required communities to use public funding to operate the libraries, he formalized the public-private partnerships to support public libraries. Today, America's premiere public libraries are supported by a combination of public and private funding.
The Chapel Hill Public Library was established in 1958 in a small house in downtown Chapel Hill. In the early 1960s, citizens donated funds to help build a new Library on East Franklin Street. One of these forward thinking philanthropists was Miss Cornelia Spencer Love. For twelve years, Miss Love served the Library as a Trustee. When she died in 1981, she left a trust fund of $350,000 to assist future Library expansion. Today, the Love Trust has matured and remains the single most important source of private support for our Library.
Since 1976, the Library has operated as a department of the Town of Chapel Hill. It provides free library services to all residents of Orange County. Today almost 60% of library patrons are Chapel Hill residents. Most of the other library users are non-Chapel Hill residents who live in Orange County.
In 1986, Chapel Hill voters approved a $4 million library bond to purchase land and build a new 27,000 sq. ft. building on Library Drive. In 1994, that building was dedicated with a new $250,000 opening day collection. That same year, the annual circulation of books was increased by 30%. But before long, the Town of Chapel Hill realized its service population needed an even bigger library, and a larger print and non-print collection. In 2003, voters approved a Library Master Plan and a $16.23 million library expansion bond. Currently, the Chapel Hill Public Library Building Committee is working hand-in-hand with architects to design a spacious addition.
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