If you like books and coffee, good news is on the way.

The Chapel Hill Public Library has announced that they will be teaming up with Gray Squirrel Coffee Company to satisfy all of your book-and-coffee needs.

“So, in July/August, the library lobby – which is pretty popular now and people hang out all day long – is going to be even better with coffee,” said Chapel Hill Public Library director Susan Brown during her weekly segment on WCHL’s The Aaron Keck Show.

She says that after the new library building – located at 100 Library Drive – opened four years ago, the staff began to hear some of the same comments repeatedly.

“‘This place is amazing; we love it so much; it would be more amazing and we would love it more if there were coffee.’”

So, in January, assistant library director Meeghan Rosen decided to see what it would take to bring coffee to the library.

“We thought we would take five or six weeks to conduct an experiment with some local vendors and see what happens,” Rosen said in a January interview with WCHL.

After the success of that trial period, the library put out a request for proposals and eventually decided on partnering with Gray Squirrel Coffee Company, a Carrboro coffee roastery currently located inside Yesteryears Brewery.

“They’re ordering this custom coffee counter – it’s not like a coffee cart – it’s really beautiful,” Brown said. “They’ll have hot drinks, cold drinks, maybe some pre-packaged snack foods.”

Brown expects that the coffee “counter” will be up and running by the end of the summer.

And, as for how this new service will change the library, assistant director Rosen said it best.

“It will be like being in a coffee shop…but being in a library.”

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