Agenda - 01-23-2007-9d - Laserfiche WebLink

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Z - There continues to be a disparity i n the level of library services for the population. Members of the northern part are less well served than the southern part. - The central library facility is substandard, and so there is heavy dependence on the Chapel Hill library. - Access to historical records is very limited. She made reference to the substandard central library facili ty, and pointed out some statistics. The state standard says that there should be two books per capi to in the County library. There are only .88. The state standard says that there should be full-time equivalent staff members of one for each 2,000 members of the population, and there ar a only .27. The state guideline for the income per capita is $18.88, and in 2002 the income for the central library was $10.12. This has been increased in 2004 t o $12.02. She made reference to the population projections and s aid that they need to look 20 years into the future. They antici pate, from Planning Department estimates, that the popul ation they need to plan for is 100,000. The antici pated highest growth is w ithin the ages of 45-59. The juvenile group of 5-14 is al so growing faster than the average. The Hispani c population is also growing. After examining a lot of data and collecting opinions from citizens, the task force has nine recommendations to make to the County C ommissioners: 1. Adopt a long-range 20-year facility plan. This includes a new central library, a southwest regional branch in Carrboro, a nor them branch in Cedar Grove, a western branch to serve Cheeks, and the Chapel Hil I Public Library to serve the southeast region. 2. Develop a 3-5 year strategic action plan for equitable I ibrary services and resources for all County residents. 3. Construct a new central library in the Hillsborough vicinity. The recommended size, according to the consultant, is 65,000 square feet. The current facility is only 12,750 square feet. The task force recommends a size of betw een 30,000-65,000 square feet. If a library were built within the Waterstone devel opment, the task force would recommend keeping a library presence in central Hillsborough. There are many advantages to co-locating a I ibrary with the satellite campus of Durham Tech in the Waterstone development. 4. Establish a southwest regional branch in Carrboro. T hey endorse the recommendations from the Carrboro Library Workgroup. They would like a freestanding library building that would combine the collection, staff, and resources in the C arrboro branch library in McDougle and the new C ybrary. The 20-year population projection would call for a facility of 25,000 square feet. 5. Establish an Orange County Heritage Center for historical and archival material. There is about $120,000 i n endowment funds set aside for this purpose. 6. Recognize Chapel Hill Public Library as a significant partner in providing County library services and as the primary provider in southeastern Orange County. This would mean maintaining the current County funding I evel of $250,000 and considering expanding this amount. 7. Establish a branch library centered on Cheeks Township to serve the central west area. This is on the 1-85 corridor near Efland and Mebane. There is a possible co-location with the new middle school #3. 8. Monitor the Cedar Grove branch library and consider possi ble future expansion. 9. Evaluate the rural community for library access, possibly through establishing cybraries or small branch Ii braries. The state guidelines say that 90% of the service popul ation should be no more than a 15-minute drive from a library. There are areas in the County that are farther than that.