Agenda - 06-16-2009 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 1 Carrboro Branch Library located in the McDougle Schools Media Center. Fifteen years ago 2 when the Carrboro Branch library opened in the McDougle Middle School in Carrboro, it was 3 brought to the Friend's attention that only 2% of school-aged children ever went into an art 4 gallery. With that in mind and the fact that the Carrboro Branch Library was to be situated in a 5 school media center, the Carrboro Branch Library Arts Program was launched. 6 Over the past fifteen years and using the walls of the Media center/Carrboro Branch 7 library as an art gallery, the Friends have staged over eighty exhibitions all benefitting the 8 community at large not to mention close to 200,000 McDougle Schools' (middle and 9 elementary) students, staff and faculty. This artist run program has shown the work of over 10 1,000 artists, trained curators and launched careers. All the artists have given their time and 11 work freely at an "in kind" cost of over two million dollars. The program has won state awards 12 and was first runner up in the nation for a Friends of USA Libraries award for the best small 13 library program in the nation. The standards of the Program's work is high and exhibitions 14 range from themed shows, such as our current series, "Global Perspectives" to issue exhibits 15 such as "Natural Balance," our 2006 exhibit on obesity and public health. Now we are being 16 told that all this does not count. The proposal is that the art program, library with its 22,000 17 books and 16 computers are to be done away with, the collection dismantled and the librarian 18 moved to Hillsborough. So the Carrboro Branch Library serving a catchment area of 35,000 will 19 no longer exist to serve the citizens of South west Orange County and all of the County's arts 20 community. 21 If the library closes no one will see our fall 2009 exhibition on climate change and polar 22 scenery, a collaborative effort which you will soon be told about. Neither will the community see 23 our proposed exhibition in the Spring of 2010 on Mayan culture which impinges on the cultural 24 roots of many of our library patrons. And if the Library is to close, how are we to proceed with 25 our Annual School of Library Science Scholarship which the Friends fund each year for a needy 26 student intern? We should be interviewing now but we have no clue as to our fate. 27 Last Sunday, May 3, was Carrboro Day celebrating the Town's diverse community. At 28 the Friends book sale, anxious residents, on learning of the proposed closure of the Carrboro 29 Branch Library, lined up for four hours and at times, five deep, to sign this petition which I am 30 about to hand to you. None of them as taxpayers had been told officially that their library was 31 threatened by closure. People working at the library cannot tell them -and had they not 32 attended Carrboro Day they would have possibly turned up at the Carrboro Branch Library one 33 day to find it gone. These petition signatures represent their concern, outrage, and love for the 34 library. You will see lots of children's signatures -they asked to sign the petition too. And how 35 will people in Cedar Grove learn that their library is to be done away with? How have they been 36 told - or have they? 37 You have a difficult job and I appreciate your great dilemma, but we are talking about 38 people's lives here, people without computers and without home libraries who are underserved 39 by inadequate evening bus routes to libraries even here in south Orange. We owe all taxpayers 40 a service that keeps them connected to the world and enriches their minds and lives. We also 41 owe them a continuous service. Let us all try to help each other with some creative thinking. If 42 you close the Carrboro Branch Library now for $37,000, it will cost you hundreds of thousands 43 of dollars to restart a comparable facility. The collection and art gallery will be gone, the 44 goodwill will be gone -and the Friends will be gone. How will you proceed with a support 45 system for the south west Orange regional branch library whose CIP you are consenting to 46 tonight if there is a disconnect? Please think about this seriously in terms of acost-benefit 47 analysis and not as a simple. line item in a 2009 budget." 48 Carolyn White is the middle school librarian at McDougle and said that she has watched 49 the library grow and she is here in opposition to the closing of the Carrboro branch library. She 50 said they are in the process of an art display in the library and it is like having an art museum in