Celebrate Fayetteville: Exploring the Greater Fayetteville Region

CUMBERLAND
COUNTY PUBLIC
LIBRARY &
INFORMATION
CENTER
✧
Right: The library’s commitment to
excellence, spirit of innovative thinking, and
determination to serve its community led to
it being honored with the National Medal
for Museum and Library Service.
Below: The library is uniquely positioned to
connect with soldiers when transitioning to
the civilian workforce by providing much
needed employment resources.
The mission statement of the Cumberland
County Public Library & Information Center
is to open windows to the world by
encouraging expression, enlightenment and
exploration. Citizens are served by the
Headquarters Library, located at 300 Maiden
Lane downtown, and seven other locations
throughout the county, and the Court Library
in the County Courthouse. Today, the library
is operated by a $10.7 million annual budget
and 186 employees.
In 1945, Cumberland County citizens
approved a library tax and named the system
the Cumberland County Public Library. In
1951 a groundbreaking took place on Anderson
Street in downtown Fayetteville for the first
county library location. Over the following
decades, the library was relocated several times
and temporary locations were added. In 1968 a
bond referendum to build a new library facility
failed. The library experienced many transitions
as its various branches were often forced to
lease space in commercial shopping centers or
share space in town hall buildings or other
public facilities. In 1969, fire destroyed the
children’s collection that was housed in the
Anderson Street location.
The community continued its quest to
establish a central library despite another
defeated referendum in 1982. A year later,
$700,000 was privately raised and combined
with additional governmental funding for a
total of $4,735,000 to build the Headquarters
Library in downtown Fayetteville. In 1986 the
Headquarters Library opened as well as the first
permanent community location, the Bordeaux
Branch Library.
Expansion of the library system was
delayed and new locations were put on hold
due to a lawsuit by the Citizens for Sound
Government, who were advocating for the
library to censor collection content. The
library successfully defended the free flow of
information and won the lawsuit, but the cost
was detrimental to progress. After recovering
from the toll taken by the lawsuit, the library
regained its footing and has opened six
locations since 1990.
The library’s efforts to be a public resource
have been recognized, receiving the nation’s
highest honor for libraries, the National Medal
for Museum and Library Services, in 2012.
Bestowed by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, medal recipients share a
commitment to excellence, spirit of innovative
thinking and determination to serve their
home communities. The library received
accolades from organizers of the North Carolina
Science Festival for youth programming that
C E L E B R A T E F A Y E T T E V I L L E : E x p l o r i n g t h e G r e a t e r F a y e t t e v i l l e R e g i o n
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