Jake Lehrer
When an Orange County Official referred to the Carrboro Library as the ‘Carrboro Country Club’ in 1997, I knew our path to a freestanding library in Carrboro would indeed be bumpy. Though our public-service hours have(or should I say ‘had’) increased from 19 hours per week to 26 by 2008 and our circulation had quadrupled during that time, no permanent staff positions have been funded for the Carrboro Library in over 10 years. Even with our dramatic increase in hours and circulation, no increase in permanent personnel has ever been realized. My requests for additional staff have been ignored by library administration for over a decade.
How has the library survived, growing in service hours and circulation so substantially, without any corresponding increase in permanent staff? The answer is, simply, through the consistent use of volunteers and unpaid library interns. Currently the Carrboro Library employs 1.67 full-time employees, a number similar to other Orange County branches, but our circulation figures are 10 times higher than either the Cedar Grove Library or the Cybrary, and our collection outstrips both branches by a multiple of 20. Carrboro Branch Library operates with approximately 40 hours per week of volunteer and intern assistance. These dedicated individuals currently number 13, all of whom devote between two to six hours of service a week. This doesn’t count the many hours donated by Friends of the Carrboro Library: Nerys Levy, Mary-Frances Eldridge, Dolly Triantafillou, Martha Tyson, Linda Browner, Karla Reed, Heidi Perry, and Alexandra Brown. Our library couldn’t function without these wonderful people, and I am indebted to their selflessness.
I think the citizens of southwest Orange County deserve better library service, and the 36% cut in the Carrboro Library hours this fiscal year is an affront that should not be tolerated. Please make your voices heard.
Jake Lehrer will resign as director of the Carrboro Branch Library in September. He has worked in county libraries since 1984 and the Carrboro branch since 1996.