New technology unlocks library’s offerings

By LAURA PATTERSON
Assistant managing editor

The city of Godwin, inhabitants 129, created its mark for firsts this week with the unveiling of some new library know-how.

Newly put in, automated book lockers ended up unveiled Tuesday when Mayor Willie Burnette slice the ribbon through a ceremony at Godwin City Corridor. He also was the initially to consider out the technological know-how by offering a demonstration, scanning his new library card and opening a locker to uncover a library bag loaded with goodies.

“These library lockers are the initial set of library lockers in Cumberland County,” mentioned Cumberland County General public Library Director Faith Phillips, who additional, if she was not mistaken, this individual established is the initial of its sort in the state.

“I feel kinda very pleased that they picked Godwin,” Burnette reported. “And it is the first just one … I’m definitely enthusiastic about that.”

With these lockers, residents in northern parts of the county are now capable to area holds on textbooks, DVDs, audiobooks and transportable hotspots, choose them up and return them a lot nearer to household. All it requires is a Cumberland County Community Library card.

Library employees will visit the town corridor after a 7 days to fill lockers and accumulate returned merchandise. Typical outreach visits to the group also are planned to share library methods and offer aid from the electronic navigation crew.

The lockers are situated within city corridor at 4924 Markham St. They can be accessed through common city corridor hours.

“One of my important ambitions as director is engaging with our group members and conference people today where by they are,” Phillips reported.

With this objective in intellect, Phillips used for a grant from the Point out Library of North Carolina a very little much more than a calendar year ago. The grant title was “Connecting the Very last Mile — Digital Inclusion and Navigation at Cumberland County General public Library.”

Phillips and her staff were being ready to comprehensive the task in just five months.

“The past two decades has demonstrated us the importance of possessing access to assets and products no matter whether they’re digital or bodily,” she stated. “The earlier two many years have also challenged us as we labored to encourage electronic obtain, equity and inclusion within our neighborhood and to make improvements to and increase our providers.”

Inhabitants of Godwin, as perfectly as other small northern Cumberland County towns like Falcon, Wade and Eastover, have to travel lengthy distances to stop by a library. The present-day higher selling price of fuel was 1 cause the lockers seemed so interesting to group customers.

“We all know … gas is superior these times,” explained Cumberland County Commissioners Chairman Glenn Adams, “and so if you are sitting down down listed here in Godwin and you’ve obtained to go all the way down to North Regional or 1 of those other libraries you may possibly say I’m only going to go the moment or two times a 7 days, or at the time or twice a month, this permits us to deliver that in this article to this community.”

“I’m definitely enthusiastic about our library,” Mayor Burnette claimed, “because we are a minor about 20 miles to the closest library. … Like they say, gasoline, we just cannot get there. The young children up in this area, they will need the textbooks, they need to have to examine.

“I really do not know how it will work, but we’ll study,” he explained. “We’ll study collectively. I know everybody in this area will appreciate the library that we have in this article.”

For more facts about the e-book locker assistance, speak to Division Supervisor Nora Armstrong at [email protected] or at 910-483-7727. Check out www.cumberlandcountync.gov/departments/library-group/library for library details.