Category: Boonville Community Public Library
The Boonville Community Public Library came about as a result of a group of interested citizens calling themselves “Friends of the Library.” The first meeting of the “Friends of the Library” was held at the home of Mrs. Ann Lawrence on December 22, 1997. Mr. Grady Hunter gave the first amount of money ($100.00) for the Boonville Community Public Library. This donation was given on December 23, 1997. Mrs. Frieda Speer, elected Treasurer gladly accepted this donation from Mr. Hunter.
The Boonville Community Public Library was housed on the back porch of the Boonville Town Hall and in the 12’X 12’ bedroom in January 1999. The library operated first on volunteer basis until September 1999. Then it was fully run by two paid staff of only operating 20 hours per week. The Friends of the Library still continue to volunteer their time and effort in assisting were needed.
After writing several grants, fundraising, and the lot being donated by our own Frieda Speer, we moved the library with the help of the Friends of the Library to 121 West Main Street Boonville, NC June, 2003. The new library is a 3000 square feet facility with three paid staff staffing it, was opened to the citizens of Boonville. The Town of Boonville borrowed $75,000 through a USDA loan to supplement the $250,000 raised by the Friends of the Boonville Library. In addition to raising funds, fifteen volunteers continue to give their time to the library by working at the library and arranging patron collections to be displayed in the display case. The library now operates thirty-six hours a week with a paid staff. As of 2014, we now operate on a 43.5 hours per week with one full time employee, two part-time employees to assist our Boonville patrons with service. Our collection is approximately 17,000 books, and DVD’S. We now offer other services such as; 8 public computers, copying, faxing, scanning, genealogy, Wi-Fi 24hrs/7 days and other services to accommodate. As of May, 2017 our collection total is 17, 469 Items and we have 1, 451 adults and 853 juvenile patrons registered users.