John Grisham Helps Launch Campaign
Best-selling author promotes the Foundation's Ensuring Excellence Capital Campaign (photos)
November 10, 2006 — Best-selling author John Grisham, a master writer of literary suspense, made one of his rare personal appearances to help launch the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation's Ensuring Excellence Capital Campaign. The gala benefit event held at the home of UNC System President, Erskine Bowles, raised over $60,000 toward the Campaign's five-year fundraising goal of $2.5 million. Many of the area's finest restaurants donated food and beverage for the occasion.
Mr. Grisham, who has written 19 best-selling novels, discussed his new non-fiction book, The Innocent Man. He also addressed the importance of private support for public institutions such as libraries. Mr. Grisham and his wife Renee, have a long history of supporting charitable causes, including, most recently, their Rebuild the Coast Fund, which raised $8.8 million for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
At the benefit, Gene Pease, President of the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation, explained the role of the Foundation's Ensuring Excellence Capital Campaign in securing significant private support to supplement the Library's buying power. In order to best serve its users, the growing Library needs to purchase 68,000 additional items for its collection over the next five years.
Mayor Kevin Foy remarked, "The Chapel Hill Public Library plays an important role in our Town, and I thank the Foundation and its members for their hard work and commitment to ensuring the continued excellence of this valuable community resource."
As the result of the 2003 library expansion bond, a spacious addition is planned for the Library building which will more than double its current size. Library users will enjoy a larger, more efficient, more comfortable library facility, and one that will require more books. By the year 2011, when the expanded Library opens, 68,000 more items must be added to the Library's collection at an approximate cost of $2.5 million. Even with strong financial support from the Town, the Library needs private support in order to enlarge its collection to meet its service goals.
The Library's collection includes print and non-print materials for adults, young adults, and juveniles. Approximately two-thirds of the collection is geared to adults, and the other third to children and youth. The collection of library materials is split evenly between fiction and non-fiction items.
The Chapel Hill Public Library is the busiest public library in North Carolina with library users checking out 14 books per capita each year--over three times the State average. Every hour the Library is open, approximately 230 books are checked out. In a heavy use community such as Chapel Hill, a library collection should have 4.0 collection items per person. The Chapel Hill Library currently has only 2.6 items per person. It is obvious that the community's need to read has surpassed the Library's existing resources.
The Foundation's immediate goal is to raise $300,000 to allow the Library to add "9300 Books Now" in its existing space. The addition of 9300 more books would enable the Library to make an additional 46,500 loans every year to members of the Chapel Hill community.
