See you at the fall 2025 book sale!

The future of our Alamance County public libraries is at risk! At the May 19th Alamance County Commissioners meeting, discussion of the budget for the coming fiscal year mentioned several options for balancing the budget. Among the options discussed: * reducing library staff   * closing one or more branches  * closing all but the May Memorial branch.

The Friends of the Alamance County Public Libraries is a 501(C)3 volunteer nonprofit dedicated to the support of literacy and our local public libraries. Consider these 2024 ACPL numbers: 299,200 visitors; 468,820 items checked out; 79,730 active library cards; 1,650 programs offered with 46,111 attendees; a mobile library that makes over 40 stops on a three-week schedule; 4,202 mobile library patrons; the BookMARK mobile internet service provides free books and internet service to remote neighborhoods around our county. Alamance County is one of the fastest growing counties in our state. Our need for libraries will only increase. We urge you to contact your County Commissioners regarding your personal support of our libraries.

You can reach all five commissioners before the June 2 public meeting by emailing: commissioners@alamancecountync.gov

Your message may have greater impact if you contact the commissioners individually.

• Chair: John P. Paisley   john.paisley@alamancecountync.gov
• Vice Chair: Steve Carter   steve.carter@alamancecountync.gov
• Commissioner: Pamela T. Thompson  pamela.thompson@alamancecountync.gov
• Commissioner: Kelly Allen   kelly.allen@alamancecountync.gov
• Commissioner: Ed Priola  ed.priola@alamancecountync.gov

Please share this urgent message with your friends and neighbors who care about libraries and literacy in Alamance County. In addition to emailing the commissioners, consider attending the June 2 meeting to support Alamance County Public Libraries.

Sincerely,

Directors of the Alamance County Public Libraries

 A video of the full (3 1/2 hour) May 19th meeting may be viewed online :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GJ4UjoeG5Q&list=PL3YFYzGM_pvFlarXXo_K-YCR-lSo6ATT-&index=1

By clicking and dragging the red dot on the progress bar at the bottom of the screen, you can skip ahead in the video or go back and review. Please note the following key moments.

The County Manager presents the budget around the 2:26:00 (2 hours, 26 minutes) mark.

Closing one or more branches is mentioned at about 3:01:00 (3 hours, one minute)

From around 3:05:00 - 3:13:00 a commissioner comments that he has received little public feedback and notes that the June 2 commissioner meeting will be a public hearing where input on the budget will be welcome.