Thank you for publishing the story of Ko Htoo in last Thursday’s Carrboro Citizen (8/26). The Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library wanted to honor the memory of former board member Mary Frances Eldridge with a scholarship in her name. Ko’s story of his journey from Thai refugee camps to Carrboro in 2004 was one of courage, inspiration and faith, values that Ms. Eldridge would have championed.
In addition, I would like to thank you for all the publicity about the Carrboro Branch Library that you have published over the years. As you know, the very existence of our library is under constant threat.
The budget for 2010-11 has been cut by almost $30,000, while the number of patrons and requests for services increases. Although open for only 26 hours a week, circulation has increased to almost 45,000 a year, while approximately 5,000 residents have used the CBL in the past year. Internet users total more than 2,500. Countless visitors come to the CBL to view the art exhibits hung in the library, the largest public art space in the county, while children and outreach programs bring in hundreds more.
With the budget cuts and increased demand, programs will have to be scaled back or eliminated.
By publicizing our news releases, The Citizen is helping to call attention to the mission of the Carrboro Branch Library and its importance as a community resource. In the next months, we hope that you will provide continued coverage of the search for a site for a proposed free-standing library in southwest Orange County. We all need to know if the commissioners and others in charge will follow through with their promises of a full-service library for the 17,000-plus Carrboro and southwest Orange residents, many of whom do not wish to travel to Chapel Hill or Hillsborough to use a full-service library.
With The Carrboro Citizen partnering with us, we look forward to a future where we can better provide services to all southwest Orange residents.
Linda E. Browner
Recording Secretary
Carrboro Branch Library