Pamlico’s new library building, a community center with ‘something for every single person’

Facing crowds bursting into the hallways, members of the Gospel Ensemble and Friends navigated through the new library’s Hollowell Auditorium and Community Center to go to a quieter section nearby. The Pamlico Library’s grand opening was starting soon and they wanted to join hands and bow their heads in prayer beforehand.

When they returned to the front of the room, they sang "On Time God” to kick off the ceremony in Alliance on Highway 55 for the first building in the county built as a standalone library in over 60 years.

The county’s original library was founded in 1964 largely due to the efforts of Marybelle Hollowell, who advocated for a county library to make information public and free. Before that, a bookmobile came from Craven County to deliver books to Oriental and Hobucken. The first library was housed briefly in the old law building behind the courthouse in Bayboro and was  moved about 10 years later for the expansion of the courthouse.

In 1978, the library joined spaces with the high school, where it was housed until this year. The new library facility was years in the making as technology and culture evolved and the previous library space shrank.

From its conception to the time the library moved out of the shared site, it went from 18,000 square feet in 1978 to around 6,000 square feet as the school reallocated library space for school needs.

The old library, a beige space lit by fluorescent lights, was filled with shelves of books that occupied every crevice, including offices and activity areas. Staff members said they often had to hold meetings in the middle of the library while other events were happening.

The new building is about 10,000 square feet and located in the center of the county. The facility has free hotspots, instruments, computers, puzzles, art, genealogy records, DVDs, archival documents and books, with a collection of about 37,000 physical and 184,000 digital, according to data provided by the library. The facility includes a teen and adult library, a genealogy section, workstation areas, a business center and conference room, a family classroom, an exhibit hall, a literary garden, an auditorium and a children's room.

Programming includes help applying for jobs, basket weaving, dissecting owls pellets, translation services, book clubs, tutoring students in Spanish, magic shows and story time for babies.

Sidney Phibbons, the county library’s branch manager, began working as a library assistant in 2017 after she graduated from Pamlico High School and did some volunteering there. She said the facility is more than just a library; it’s also a community center. Having the new, bigger building in a more visible location, where people won’t mistake it as being part of the high school, may inspire more people to use the library’s services, she said.

On opening day, a couple of weeks before the grand opening ceremony, Phibbons said, “It always felt like a dream. Now that we're here, it's real. We did it, we built this community center and now we can begin to serve.”

In 2018, the library staff, board of directors and Pamlico County Friends of the Library, a nonprofit under a larger national organization that carries out the mission of supporting county libraries, started to discuss plans for a new library. They expected that building a new facility was going to take time. However, once the county announced plans to build a new high school and demolish the old building to pave the way for a school parking lot, the library staff moved with urgency to secure funds and start building.

The library used a $1.8 million state grant to buy the old Hardees building in 2019. Donations from community members bumped up the funds to $2.4 million.

Sen. Norman Sanderson cut the ribbon at the grand opening. “The surprise I got when I was over in Hyde County, which I represent also, one of the smallest counties in the state of North Carolina and probably the one most economically challenged: They have a library,” he said. “And it's a very nice library … No matter what time of day it was, there were always cars.”

Phibbons’ predecessor, Katherine Clowers, served as Pamlico’s branch manager for about 15 years before 2020, when she became the director of Craven-Pamlico Regional Library which has six locations. She called the new facility an interactive community center.

“We're not just a vestibule of books. We help economic and social growth in our community,” Clowers said. “The libraries in rural areas tend to become more community centers and a resource for social services and other (things) that a library in a huge town would not be offering because they have resources already existing.”

Clowers, who grew up in South Carolina and was a librarian in the Charleston area, was recruited to serve as the director in Pamlico. She said she chose to come to the county more than 25 years ago because she was inspired by the library leadership. “Their vision of the library was a library for everybody,” she said. “A library of equity and resources that anybody could walk through the door and feel safe, secure and welcomed.”

Josh Rose, a county dentist and chair of Pamlico County Friends of the Library, was essential in securing a statewide grant.

Rose, who became the chair of Pamlico's FOL 8 years ago, said he started to engage more with the library when his daughter was young and she needed a place to be around other kids. He became involved in library leadership when more of its space, particularly the children’s library, was being allocated to the high school.

During the time period the library was joined with the highschool, Rose said that’s what was best for the county at that time. Now, he said, separating the library from the school board and letting the county continuously manage it will make it more secure.

In addition to building a facility that supports the community at large, Rose said that building the children’s library to support literacy is a priority.

Fran Benninger has served as the children’s librarian since 2000 and said that working with children is not a 9-to-5 job, but a 24/7 engagement.

“That's the future,” she said while standing in the new children’s room. “They have to read, they need to read, they have got to read. They've got to understand how important books are ― stories, imagination.”

Sheila Cantine, a Pamlico County FOL board member who helped secure funding for a children’s library, sat in tears as she listened to Benninger.

Cantine said that from an early age her parents instilled in her the importance of reading. She bought a new library card two months before the old library closed and waited until opening day to check out a book from the new library.

Cantine, who was born and raised in the county, said “it gives (children) the opportunity to not see their world as a bubble. The library allows them to step outside of the bubble and it opens their minds to more than what they have inside.”

Sanderson, who said he used to volunteer in the library when he was in high school, explained that, “If you want to travel anywhere in the world, you can get a ticket right here and it doesn't cost you anything. … You can get a ticket to go to the highest mountaintop to the depth of the ocean, to any jungle, to the moon and beyond.”

Marjorie Dufek, who sang in the choir during the grand opening, has lived in the county for 12 years and grew up on a farm in Virginia. She said she used to receive books from a bookmobile that would come to her area. “We didn't have much money, so being able to have books that didn't cost us anything, yeah, that makes a difference,” she said.

Maryann Hartmeyer, who attended the grand opening, said that the library is the future of the community. “It's to bring some of the adults in the area into the 21st century with technology,” she said. “It's done a tremendous amount of training people to use technology, which we really can't avoid anymore.”

Cantine affirmed that the new library is just in the beginning phases, and that it will progress and grow.

Phibbons said that, “at the old space, we didn't anticipate the technological growth that happened over the last 50 years.” With a standalone space designed specifically for a library in the context of an evolving society, technology can be added and the building can adapt.

One of the library’s services is to provide internet and computer access for those without it. “A lot of our county does not have the infrastructure for broadband,” Phibbons said. “We are one of the few places that offer three different (hotspot service provider) options for you.”

Edward Riggs, chair of the county commissioners, said it was hard to believe that the building used to be a Hardees. “It’s just beautiful,” he said.

Riggs said the county did not have the budget to fund a new library, and it did not contribute to this project. But the county, which has always provided a budget for maintaining the library and supporting staff, will continue doing so with $323,458 for the 2024-202525 fiscal year and $370,000 for the following fiscal year.

With the state grant mandating that the library building be turned over to the county, Riggs said  it’s beneficial to have libraries be a part of local government as opposed to for-profit. “It provides a resource,” he said. “That library is going to be used for a lot more than just checking out books.” for example, he mentioned literacy and after-school programs for kids.

Phibbons, who moved to the county when she was 16, said the library was how she found  community and inspiration for her career. After graduating from high school, she came to the library to bring her daughter to storytime, but along the way, she met Clowers and Benninger, who offered good conversation and advice. The library became a safe haven for her and her daughter.

“There is something for every single person in this community at this library,” she said. “I would invite them to come get a tour, see what we have to offer and I promise that they will find something for them, no matter who you are.”

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