Keep your 100,000 book community library open and growing - donate today.


Adult Fiction Section is Getting Ready to Open

Accomplished

  1. 40' long galley style space
  2. insulation R15 walls and R30 ceiling
  3. sheetrock
  4. security steel door with hardware
  5. 33 bookcases - 130 feet long, 910 shelf feet, max. capacity 1" books=10.920
  6. air conditioner/heater
  7. desk
  8. books

Scheduled work

  1. install security door
  2. adjust slope of air conditioner
  3. finish insulation and sheetrock
  4. install phone, CAT5, and electric wiring
  5. install lights and outlets
  6. install Pepsi machine

Who needs a library at 40/42?

  • 5-mile ring study – 36,279 residents in 2006
  • 10-mile – 131,366 residents
  • 15-mile – 404,388 residents
  • 27% K-12 school age

 

Cleveland Library is one of three libraries in North Carolina that does not receive direct taxpayer funding. 400 families or businesses donating only $10 a month would ensure the library's place in the community.

Watch our web site development this year. If you get trapped in a loop or stuck at a dead end, simply use your back button or start over at the Home Page. Have fun. Send comments on how you like or dislike the new pages. This is part of the learning experience we promised our patrons and our belief in keeping everything public.

Cleveland Library, a private library, is a free to the public library that operates as an educational program of Basic Needs Ministry (BNM) a 501(c)(3) non-profit - public charity. With 100,000 donated books and videos, Cleveland Library has North Carolina's largest private book and movie collection and in Johnston County is second in collection size to the publicly funded library in Smithfield. Public libraries budget $3.5 milion to buy the books and movies that have been donated by local businesses, Internet businesses, publishers, authors, churches, government book exchanges, libraries, librarians, and residents. It is the only library in Johnston directly serving 40,000 subdivision residents, while sited in an unincorporated area.

From 2003-2008, Basic Needs Ministry, a public charity, gave books to North Carolina's public schools, jails, and prisons, each serving a restricted population. Starting in 2008, the public computer lab and all books in inventory were transferred to the Cleveland Library and began circulating on an honor system. The library allowed Partnership for Children of Johnston County (PCJC) full access to its excess books, which were being placed in pediatricians' offices to encourage children and parents to read while waiting. PCJC's report about the low reading skills of children and adults in Johnston County, the 1.7 county ratio of books per person, the lack of a permanent collection of books in a 5-mile circle with 40,000 residents, and the eight schools located between the library on N.C. 42 and those near 210 to the south make a permanent libary collection near the I-40 and N.C. 42 intersection a basic need. When the library started its 10-year 80,000-book acquisition program, it also expanded its program to provide new books to budget strained school and public libraries. The program started with Wake and Johnston counties and spread when the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) delegates agreed to deliver Cleveland's excess new books from their convention in Greensboro to add to their home libraries.

A volunteer put bar code 80,000 on a new book on Saturday, May 15, 2010, just 1 year 9 months and 5 days after starting the 10-year project. The photo shows a volunteer dwarfed by one week's additions to the collection; cases of new books purchased from Scholastic for the children's library and many from Durham County Library donated for the adult library.

All staff and space requirements mentioned on this page are for current needs to handle the 100,000 book and movie collection, with the intention of moving from 100% full shelves to the usual library space standards. The second ten-year acquisition goal was to increase the collection from 80,000 to 120,000 books, which was scheduled to start in 2018 and run to 2028. When that goal is reached, the library should already have added shelving, seating, service areas, and floor space to accomodate the 50% increase in assets. Instead of 2028, the library might reach its acquisition goals by early 2011, 17 years earlier than planned. 16-20,000 square feet are usually built for this size collection.

Children's Library

By May 2010, the children's library had 14,000 books and Alison LeSueur, graduate librarian from UNC-CH, volunteering as the children's librarian and chief organizer. Cases of new books were arriving from Scholastic and other sources. Shelf and spine labels were printed and placed to help define the traditional age bands of Easy Read, Juveniles, and Young Adult. A Wal-Mart grant allowed the library to purchase library cards giving 2,000 children access to the world of books and computers. Four donations of $65 would permit volunteers to build four bookcases, permitting the library to add another 2,800 children's books. A $250 donation arrived covering the cost of upgrading the lighting for reading levels in the children's room. Story time has been delayed while volunteers work out space and temperature challenges. An airconditioned and heated space with carpeting would be helpful. The room did get a center carpet, small table and chairs, a child's rocking chair, and cool open weave office chairs for adults. Considering the potential for major population growth, the children's library collection should grow to 40,000 books and the floor space should increase to 3,000 sq. ft. This would permit a work station for librarians, computer stations for the public, and space for reading and story time.

Paperbacks

During the two-year survey period, many residents asked for a larger paperback collection than libraries they used in the past. Some wanted books that had low costs, so they could read in the bath and not worry about high replacement fees. Others wanted small lightweight books for travel and vacation reading. Cleveland listened and displays more than 7,500 titles in the traditional paperback size, sorted into fiction, science fiction, western, mystery, non-fiction, romance, and inspirational. The paperback collection is using 100% of its alloted shelf space, with 10,000 books waiting for more room and shelves. Elizabeth Johnson volunteers regularly to ensure the books get placed in order, duplicates get put in backstock or moved to the weekly yard sale, shelves are filled to capacity, and the weekly returns are reshelved. Cleveland needs at least 1,260 sq. ft. of space for the paperbacks.

Audio Visual

The Library's decision to provide free loans was extended to the audio visual materials. Once the collection of VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, and audio books grew into the thousands, the library staff was notified it had a larger collection than three of North Carolina's publicly funded county collections. Library Kik step stools are used throughout the library to help patrons reach the top shelves. These are familiar as libraries get more crowded and budgets are trimmed.

Adult Non-Fiction

Adult non-fiction sorting and Dewey Decimal Classification has been started. Besides the books placed correctly in their Dewey Decimal categories, over a thousand books are just placed on the shelves so residents can check them out, while work progresses. To shelve an additional 10,000 books, the library needs materials and carpenters to build thirty five additional bookcases with 980 linear feet of shelving. Computer helpers and shelvers are needed. It has been taking a three-person team three hours to get shelf information, labels, and 102 books on the shelves in the correct library location.

Adult Fiction

Adult fiction genre sorting, labeling, and placement was started 13 months ago, but the delayed modification of the display area is keeping patrons from 9-12,000 books. The estimated cost to finish this area is $5-7,000 for lighting, wiring, air conditioner, fire security, and service counter. The volunteers need a carpenter's assistance to frame in a steel door with steel walls.

Computer Lab

Cleveland Library offered the first free public access computers (donated by Triangle United Way), Internet access (donated by MCNC for 2009-2010), and 24/7 Wi-Fi in the area. Private libraries, even those serving as a free to the public library, are banned from the deeply discounted public libray E-rate for DSL. Cleveland runs 12 computers. The Pentium 4 machines use Microsoft XP Pro for an operating system and have Office Pro 2007 ( both donated by Microsoft) for a common and popular word processor, spread sheet, database, and presentation software. Patrons have been using both the indoor computer tables (donated by SAS) and the outdoor chess tables for their computer work space. At least 1,200 sq. ft. are needed for a new computer lab for volunteers and patrons. This sharing will reduce space needs in the early growth times, while the acquisition team is working very hard and the patron numbers are still growing.

Audio Books

Cleveland Library's computer lab offers its patrons 1,300 audio books made available through NC LIVE, North Carolina’s statewide online library, with a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the State Library of North Carolina. They are compatible with most iPods and MP3 devices.  The entire collection focuses primarily on language learning audio books, classic literature, history, and biography.  Patrons can download and instantly listen to titles, such as Julia Child’s My Life in France, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption, or they can try to learn a new language, such as Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. A library card number and password must be obtained from a North Carolina member of NC LIVE. Cleveland, like Wake, still offers books on tape, in fact it looks like the Clayton library collection just moved in.

Interlibrary loan

Despite having such a large collection, the staff realized it could be years before the organization caught up to the collection. The work load demands many volunteers. This may mean the books are on the property, but boxed in storage. Likewise the early surveys of patrons showed that all duplicate titles should be stored until the library expands, permitting more titles to be displayed. The patrons preferred to wait until volunteers could locate the stored title or until the book could be brought from another library. Staff is prepared to assist patrons in obtaining their books via interlibrary loan.

Evergreen Catalog

By 2010, Cleveland Library was running tests using Georgia's Evergreen open source ILS and starting to load the patron records. Evergreen was developed in Georgia to permit a librarian-driven statewide catalog system without annual fees and restrictive data transfers. For Cleveland patrons it means faster, easier, and more accurate borrowing and returning of records. Collection record loading and transfer from Koha was scheduled to start in early July, which would be the beginning of the public's Internet access to the catalog. The library had a major setback in mid-2010 after the staff discovered its library software and its data were written over and there was an attempt to cancel its server agreement. It is unknown how long it will take to recover.

Fundraiser Sales - From a yard sale to Amazon

8,000 33 1/3 LP records, 2,000 children's books, computer games, college and adult books, videos, games, and even $1 clothing items have been moved to the on-site yard sale or the library's store on Amazon.