The State Library of North Carolina announced a grant award of almost $150,000 in federal funding for two new projects at Chapel Hill’s public Library.

The first, a library kiosk constructed off-site, will allow patrons to pick up and drop off library books and materials without having to enter into the building.

The other new public library project funded by the grant money focuses on Chapel Hill’s music history and local musicians. A planned online platform from the public library would house a selections of music from local artists. Library officials said they hope this platform will allow patrons to discover new local music, while connecting local musicians to new audiences.

Chapel Hill Public Library Director Susan Brown said the library will pay a small licensing fee to a number of local musicians and then upload their music to the platform.

“Then anybody can stream the music through the site, and people with their handy-dandy public library card can download it,” Brown said.

The portion of the grant that will go to the music programming is $49,500 and will also include oral history programming and live events.

The remaining $100,000 of the grant will go to the off-site kiosk. The money will help construct the kiosk in a to-be-determined site and fund a library vehicle to pick-up and drop-off reserved materials.

“We’re not sure where this is going to be yet,” Brown said. “Probably fairly close to the building but in a place that has plenty of space and parking.”

Brown and other library officials said besides expanding access to the library, the offsite kiosk will free up more parking at the main branch, a frequent problem there.

Officials said patrons who regularly reserve materials online and participate in the self-check-out no longer will have to find parking and enter the building to take out materials.

Library Systems Managers David Green said they expect the off-site kiosk could free up as many as 60 parking spots a day.

That will be very helpful for a library that averages 1,700 daily visitors.

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