AGENDA #7
to: Mayor and Town Council
from: Council Naming Committee (Sally Greene, Bill Strom, Jim Ward)
subject: Library Naming Committee Report
date: September 24, 2007
The purpose of this report is to share with the Council the slate of recommendations from the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation that the Naming Committee has endorsed and recommends to the Council.
By memo of August 1, 2007, to Council Member Greene for the Naming Committee, the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation requested guidelines for donor recognition. The Foundation had presented the Committee with a memo outlining new program requests that included: a donor recognition wall; small plaques on walls of interior spaces; donor recognition on the Foundation website; recognition of donors in printed publications, including a special roster for the opening of the expanded and renovated library; patio and/or sidewalk pavers with inscribed names of contributors; and garden benches with small engraved nameplates attached.
On August 21, the Naming Committee convened to discuss these recommendations, which Council Member Greene had learned more about in a prior meeting with Gene Pease, president of the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation, and the Foundation’s development assistant Mellisa Cain. Committee members supported all of the requests except the one for small plaques on walls of interior spaces, about which they wanted more information.
At a September 6, 2007 Naming Committee meeting, Council Member Greene reported that she had received from Gene Pease, president of the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation, a set of photographic illustrations of various types of plaques used in other libraries. She shared those photographs with committee members. She also shared photos she had taken of a wall in Wilson Library on the UNC campus that honored donors of collections.
Mayor pro tem Strom said the issue was not whether there should be a donor wall (he agreed that there should), but the location of the plaques for the collections. Council Member Ward agreed. All three committee members agreed that it would be appropriate to have two separate donor walls, one for donors to the general cause of the building, and another to honor donors of collections. Mayor pro tem Strom said he would like to have the architect and the public artist involved and the others agreed.
After a brief discussion, Council Member Greene said she would have further conversations with Mr. Pease and report back to the committee. She has met with Mr. Pease and has his support of the two separate donor walls.
Another issue the Naming Committee discussed, which came out of Council Member Greene’s discussions with Mr. Pease and Ms. Cain, was whether there was any circumstance under which a donor could request naming rights for any physical part of the building, for example a room, a wing, or the whole building itself. The committee recommends to the Council that the Foundation should proceed on the assumption that such a request would not be honored under any circumstance.
DISCUSSION
The Committee asks the Council to discuss this matter and asks that the Council support the Committee’s recommendations.
RECOMMENDATION
That the Council adopt the attached resolution establishing a naming rights policy for the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation.