AGENDA #3a(2)

 

October 18, 2005

 

 

Mayor and Town Council
Town of Chapel Hill
306 N. Columbia Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

 

RE: Request to Work With Representatives of the Council to
Determine Ways to Use Naming Rights to Help Fund
Collection Improvements Recommended in the 2003 Library
Services Master Plan

 

Dear Mayor and Town Council:

 

The Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation hereby requests an opportunity to work with representatives of the Town Council to determine how best to use naming rights as a tool to help achieve the Library Foundation’s $2.5 million capital campaign.  The $2.5 million will be used to fully-fund the collections improvements recommended in the 2003 Library Services Master Plan. 

 

I.     Background

Our community truly is fortunate to have the Chapel Hill Public Library as a dynamic, reliable source for stimulating our minds and the minds of our children.  It goes without saying that we are a community of readers, and that is borne out by the numbers:

Being a community steeped in academic and educational endeavors, it also is no surprise that the people and government of our town have again and again voted to support the Library’s needs as our community has grown and as the definition of “library resources” has reinvented itself to adapt to our modern era. 

 

In 2003, when it became abundantly clear that our Library was much too small for our community’s needs, the people of Chapel Hill approved a $16 million bond to expand it.  And when it became clear that the technology at the Library needed to be brought into the 21st Century, the Town Council voted to invest half a million dollars in technological upgrades. 

 

II. The Need

 

Now the time has come to take on the challenge of bringing the Library’s collection of print and non-print materials up to the levels recommended in the 2003 Five Year Services Plan.  The library consultant hired by the Town to prepare that plan made detailed recommendations concerning the appropriate number of books, periodicals, audio books (tapes/CDs), e-books, documentaries, as well as other collection items, for our Library.  Full funding of these recommendations, using 2010 population figures (when the building expansion hopefully will be complete), will cost over $2 million. 

 

There are two possible sources for that money – i.e., Town revenues or contributions from the private sector. 

 

All of America’s leading community libraries are supported by both tax dollars and private contributions.  In Chapel Hill, we are fortunate to have two community groups to support our Library:  (1) The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library and (2) The Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation.

 

           While both the Friends and the Foundation raise private funds to support the Library, they do not overlap.  Rather, the roles of each are complementary.  The Friends funds supplement the Library’s operating budget to provide materials and programs that enhance the Library’s services, while the Foundation’s goals are directed toward long-term development and investment of funds with which to expand the Library’s collections and services. 

 

III. The Capital Campaign

 

It therefore falls within the Foundation’s role to launch, if it so chooses, a capital campaign to fund major long-term improvements to the Library’s collections.  The Foundation’s Board of Directors has deliberated whether to take on the challenge of leading a capital campaign of the magnitude required to fully-fund the collection improvements recommended in the Town’s 2003 Library Services Plan.  The Foundation was mindful that its role is to supplement, not supplant, public funding. 

 

The Foundation believes that the Town and its taxpayers have made a significant commitment to the Library, particularly through approval of the $16 million bond for expansion of the Library and through the $0.5 million in technological upgrades.  Bearing this in mind, the Foundation believes that seeking $2.5 million in private donations to ensure full funding of the recommended collections improvements is, indeed, a matter of supplementing already significant levels of public funding.

 

 

The Foundation therefore is pleased to announce that it will lead a community-wide capital campaign to raise $2.5 million over five years to fund the collection improvements recommended in the 2003 Library Services Master Plan.  Our goal is to reach the $2.5 million by 2010, when the expanded library opens. 

 

IV. Naming Rights

 

The Foundation recognizes that the task of raising $2.5 million is not to be taken lightly.  Indeed, in a community such as Chapel Hill that has so many active non-profit groups that also need funding for their own worthy causes, raising $2.5 million is even more daunting.  The Foundation is aware of at least eight capital campaigns that will be running concurrently with ours.

 

The Foundation will use many different fundraising tools during the capital campaign, but it believes that the $2.5 million goal is achievable only if it can raise some of that amount through naming rights.  The Foundation is not recommending that the name of the Library be sold; rather, it would like to offer community members an opportunity to name conference rooms, collections, and other items (perhaps benches, bricks, etc.) within or outside of the Library.  Many, many other public libraries around the country have used naming rights as a way to raise needed funds.  Indeed, public universities, such as our own, rely on naming rights to support their institutions.

 

It would be premature for the Foundation to present a “naming rights plan” to the Town Council at this point because the floorplan for the building expansion has not yet been designed.  Also, we recognize that the Town Council may want to use some spaces within the Library to honor community members who do not have the resources to purchase naming rights.

 

So the Foundation hereby requests an opportunity to begin working with a few representatives of the Town Council to explore the ways the Foundation could use naming rights to help raise some of the $2.5 million needed to fully-fund the collections improvements recommended in the 2003 Library Services Master Plan.  The Foundation is pleased that the Board of Trustees for the Library supports the Foundation’s request.  (See Memorandum from Library Board to Mayor and Town Council, October 12, 2005.)

 

Respectfully Submitted,


Michelle Lewis 
President, Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation