Brunswick County to join statewide book-sharing program

Brunswick County is joining NC Cardinal this December, giving patrons access to a catalog of over 7.9 million items with their Brunswick County Library card.

The NC Cardinal program of the State Library of North Carolina is a consortium of public libraries in more than 60 North Carolina counties dedicated to sharing resources and expanding access to library materials through a single online catalog and system-wide borrowing privileges.

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Brunswick is one of a handful of coastal counties in the program. Beaufort-Hyde-Martin Regional Library, Carteret and Onslow county public libraries are members as well.

Brunswick County Library will transition to NC Cardinal from Dec. 9-11. During this time, the online catalog will be unavailable, and patrons will need to have their physical library card with them in order to check out.

Brunswick County Library cardholders can officially begin using the new NC Cardinal software to manage checkouts on Dec. 12. Any book or DVD can be requested from an NC Cardinal member and shipped to their pickup library of choice at no cost to the patron, but local patrons will continue to have first dibs on items owned by Brunswick County.

“Joining NC Cardinal is a win-win situation for Brunswick County,” said Library Director Patricia Dew. “All library card holders will have access to almost any book they could want and the County saves money at the same time.”

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The program is supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina. Brunswick County Library received a $10,000 grant to cover all costs associated with the change and migration to new software. The cost of joining and the first two years membership in the NC Cardinal consortium is funded through the State Library of North Carolina, then an annual cost share for continued membership is determined based upon the size of the library’s collection and patron base. The end result is a cost savings for Brunswick County.

Find more information about Brunswick County Library and NC Cardinal at brunswickcountync.gov/NC-Cardinal.