KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — Officials are moving forward with plans to dissolve the long-standing East Albemarle Regional Library (EARL) system and replace it with individual county libraries.
Leaders said the change would allow the libraries to be more responsive to their respective counties and allow the counties to join a state circulation system, providing access to millions of titles.
EARL formed in the 1960s when Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck and Dare Counties agreed to pool resources.
“And for many years that system supported us well, helped us provide staffing and made sure we had a connection to all of our libraries,” said Kim Perry, who currently serves as EARL’s director.
Times have changed, and the respective counties now feel they have the resources to run their own systems.
As state aid to EARL has declined in relative terms since the early 2000s, the counties have taken on more responsibilities. Meanwhile, EARL’s staffing has shrunk. Perry is not only EARL’s director but is also the Pasquotank County Librarian.
“Ideally I would be spending my time working with a single library, not trying to split my time being an EARL director as well as be a county librarian,” she said.
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Perry said the current EARL contract expires in 2026. The counties agreed to a three-year contract this time around, as opposed to the customary 10-year deal as leaders weighed the future of the system.
Each county's Board of Commissioners would have to vote to leave EARL. Dare County became the first to vote do so earlier this month.
Patrons like Susan Holton has long enjoyed the convenience of crossing county lines for library access and hope it would continue under the new system.
“I mean, we get to go into any of those libraries and use them, whenever we want, and I live in Currituck, but kind of on this side,” Holton said outside the Kill Devil Hills Library. “So this is my home library, but I go to Currituck frequently.”
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Dare County Librarian Meaghan Leenarts Beasley said EARL patrons currently have access to more than 100,000 titles. Once EARL is dissolved, the counties then intend to join the N.C. Cardinal consortium.
“That will have somewhere between 55 and 60 counties sharing their resources, so our patrons will actually be able to have access to over 8 million physical items versus what they have now,” Leenarts Beasley said. “And we think that’s really great and so hopefully, if we do it right, and we plan to, our patrons won’t notice any difference except for more access.”
The librarians say they hope the four county libraries maintain a relationship even if EARL dissolves.
Commissioners in Currituck and Pasquotank counties will consider the proposal on March 18. While Camden County Commissioners will hear the plan in April.
