The Chapel Hill Public Library is known for the variety of free services it offers to community members. This week, it unveiled a new one to those who visit its restrooms: free menstrual products.

The library unveiled new dispensers for tampons and pads on Tuesday, which are in each of the building’s restrooms and do not require any type of payment.

Susan Brown, the library’s director, spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck about the service and feature — saying she was inspired by a vendor pitch by the Aunt Flow dispenser company and saw how it aligned with the library’s goals.

“This something we’d been thinking about in an effort to make our spaces more inclusive, accessible, and all of that,” said Brown. “Also, we’re trying to destigmatize [conversation] around these things. We’re just really happy to [provide] this.”

Brown credited Library Experiences Assistant Taylor Bugge with much of the implementation of the idea. Not only does providing tampons and pads help improve comfort and keep patrons in the library, but the free dispensers improve equity for its visitors.

“Menstrual products are expensive,” Bugge said in a release about the dispensers’ launch. “In North Carolina and many other states they are taxed on top of their retail price as ‘luxury goods.’ Providing these products may be the difference between whether a patron can stay at the library to take advantage of our resources and programs, or missing out on these experiences due to a lack of access.”

Brown said she believes while the initiative furthers the library’s individual hospitality goals, but it sets an example of how other institutions can provide such services. She added that having the products in all bathrooms helps combat stigma around menstruation, who needs such products, and periods as a topic of conversation.

“Just like we provide free books and [can help] if you need a paper clip or some scotch tape, this is kind of in that same vein,” Brown said. “And it’s also, hopefully, trying to set a new standard and say, ‘This is how a public institution could operate.'”

The five total dispensers in its public restrooms cost the Chapel Hill Public Library $2,245 — which was paid for through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. With its purchase, the library got a one-year supply of tampons and pads, and will stock the machines with funds from its own budget in the coming years.

 

Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.

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