Among the various items in Orange County’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year is the creation of six positions for the new Orange County Southern Branch Library. It is one of the many crucial steps being taking to get the new library off the ground — not just by commissioners, but also by library staff.
Erin Sapienza is the director of Orange County Libraries and is overseeing the build-up of the upcoming Southern Branch Library at 203 S. Greensboro St. in Carrboro. She has been with Orange County Libraries for 11 years.
“This project has extended beyond that [tenure,]” she said in a recent interview with 97.9 The Hill. “It’s been part of my conversation since starting.”
Building a new library from scratch is not common, and it offered a rare opportunity for Sapienza and the rest of the team at Orange County Libraries.
“It’s not uncommon for libraries to expand and open branches,” she said. “But to actually build a library is not a super common thing.”
The first step to that process was designing and building the physical space that would become the library. Sapienza said library staff had input into the layout of the building, and they also were able to consider community feedback.
Erin Sapienza, the director of Orange County Libraries. (Photo via the Orange County Government.)
A rendering of the interior of the Orange County Southern Branch Library via Perkins&Will and the Town of Carrboro.
“We had a great architect, Perkins&Will,” the director said. “We had a lot of input about where we wanted our service desk, for example, where our children’s area was going to go, our meeting spaces, and what we wanted all of that to look like. We were able to take a lot of feedback from the community about what they were needing in Carrboro. The number one thing we heard was space. We need a space to be, a space to gather, a space where we don’t feel like we have to purchase anything. A place to meet.”
With the building of that space nearing completion, the next step is to add personnel — hence the county budget proposal for six positions. One of those jobs will be a branch manager for the new facility, a role Sapienza hopes to fill soon.
“Hopefully we will be able to hire that person as early as July,” she said. “That way that person would be involved in hiring the remaining personnel.”
Maureen Socha is the Collection Development Librarian for Orange County Libraries. It is her job to fill the new branch of the library with materials.
“We are going through our storage items in June,” she said. “I can see how the collection is growing by going through spreadsheets and thinking about what we want to buy. We have to have John Steinbeck, we have to send down the Toni Morrison… stuff like that for school. Our children’s is really good because we have a lot of stuff in storage that I’m going through. It’s just really exciting.”
The 203 S. Greensboro Building will also house Carrboro Recreation, Parks and Cultural Resources; Orange County Southern Branch Library; Orange County Skills Development Center; WCOM Radio; a teen center and performance/multipurpose uses. But Sapienze said she thinks people will come to think of it foremost as the library.
“We kind of have a window seat there, so we are very visible from the street,” she said. “I am a librarian so I’m always going think the library is the coolest thing in the building. It’s exciting to see it come to fruition.”
The Town of Carrboro and Orange County Libraries project the Southern Branch Library to be open in the early fall.
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