Hello,

The Durham Library Foundation helps to provide a margin of excellence for the Durham County Library in order to offer enhanced programs and services to our community. 

A large portion of the library’s budget comes from supportive members of the community who give generously to help maintain the quality and variety of programs and services we provide.  I’m writing to let you know why your support is so important. These programs and services are enhancing the lives of many in our community and you can help to make that possible. Here are just a few examples of how gifts to the Durham Library Foundation were used in past year.

The Foundation is fully supportive of the library’s focus on early literacy outreach and provided funding for “Get Set, Get Ready…Let’s Read!”, a program which serves children ages birth to five by bringing good books and proven book-sharing techniques to Durham County’s lowest-quality child care centers. Early literacy prepares children for imp roved school performance and is an indicator for later success in life. Durham Library Foundation funds 50% of this valuable program.

More than 3,000 people attended dynamic, thought provoking, one-of-a-kind humanities programs. This is a 106% increase over last year! Exploring topics from Renaissance Science to Banned Books to the Dickens Initiative, humanities programs have educated and expanded dialogue in the Durham community. In collaboration with Duke University, Art with the Experts delved into “Picasso and the Allure of Language.”Outstanding North Carolina writers, including Elizabeth Spencer and Randall Kenan, plus nationally renowned writer, Sue Monk Kidd, were co-presented with the Regulator Book Store. Humanities programs also included the award-winning “Poetry for Everyone,” which featured community members reciting their favorite poetry; some even read their own work. Children and young people were included and one young man’s participation led to a North Carolina Central University scholarship. The library does change lives…and your help makes that possible with the Durham Library Foundation providing 75% of the funding for humanities programs.  

Once again, we had a phenomenal Summer Reading Club. The topic of the “summer slide” was the focus of national news this past year. Durham’s children have been the victims of this phenomenon which has them forgetting what they learned in school while their minds are idle during the summer months. With your support and funding by the Durham Library Foundation, this is a problem that the library continued to confront head-on, reaching more than 27% of Durham’s school age children this past summer. Our Summer Reading Club engaged more than 11,000 children and their families in programs and activities that encourage them to read daily. Through this important program and others like it, the library reinforces learning and gives children a head start to increase their chances of success in school and beyond.  50% of the funding for the Summer Reading Club comes from your support of the Durham Library Foundation.

As you can see, while tax dollars provide for the basics of maintaining the library, many of these special programs would not be possible without your gift to the Durham Library Foundation. That support is particularly critical in these tough economic times. This past year, the library budget was cut by 10%. The funds from the Durham Library Foundation are helping to decrease the impact of these cuts on our collections and services. The Foundation is committed to providing funds that help the library maintain a ”margin of excellence” in the programs and services that are so important to all of us. This year, we know that some of our donors may need to decrease their support for the library due to financial hardship. Thus, your gift is more important than ever. Please be as generous as possible.

Thank you!

Ann  Craver
President
Durham Library Foundation

"It would be very difficult to tell you how much your services mean to me," wrote Grace P, OASIS customer (Older Adult and Shut-In Service). "I have always used the Durham County Library, but I never knew how special it was until I moved to Forest at Duke. As we are able to drive less ...we would be lost without you. My thanks to the library. ... You make my life better."

The Durham Library Foundation develops and encourages the long-term financial health and growth of the Library through annual gifts, endowment and capital contributions.