Library Group Announces Campaign
Chapel Hill News, June12, 2005
Local residents like to read. But the public library has only about 155,000 books -- well short of its 372,000-item goal.
To help narrow the gap, the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation will launch a capital campaign in the fall.
No goal or completion date has been set, but foundation President Michelle Lewis said the campaign will wrap up by 2009 or 2010 to coincide with the opening of the library's expansion. That project, funded by $16.26 million in town-issued bonds, will expand the library off Estes Drive from 27,000 to 70,000 square feet.
In the meantime, the foundation recently announced it is giving the library $12,000:
- $5,000 to buy additional copies of the school system's summer reading books.
- $1,000 for shelving so those books can be located together.
- $5,000 to update the children's nonfiction collection.
- $1,000 for a "One Community, One Book" event organized by the Foundation.
"It's a very hard thing to explain to your child that something they've read in a book is wrong," Lewis said, noting the updated children's materials and other gifts were a way for the foundation to immediately affect the library's offerings.
Library Director Kathleen Thompson said the gift could pay for 500 new books. With each book in the collection circulating about five times per year, "that's 2,500 more uses of our collection than would otherwise be possible," she said.
To get even more people using the library, the foundation will organize a "One Community, One Book" event in February. The program will encourage community members to read the book and will include lectures, visits by the author to local schools and senior centers, and other events. The title will be announced in the fall.
