Headquarters Library

The Headquarters Library, located on the banks of the Cross Creek in downtown Fayetteville, was dedicated and opened in 1986. The "central library" was built in part by the contributions of over 600 people in a drive which netted $1.2 million. The facility cost $4.7 million to build and was in large part made possible through the hard working efforts of a community fund drive after voters rejected a $4.5 million referendum in November 1982.

Headquarters is an 80,000 square foot facility which provides a large public meeting room-the Pate Room which seats 255-as well as two conference rooms, an Executive Board Room, a quiet study room, library and city public parking lots, and 32 computer workstations for the public's use. It also provides space on its lower level for the Friends of CCPL&IC to house their book sale collections and space for discarded materials to be stored in preparation for semiannual sales to the public. The Computer Training Lab at the Headquarters Library is for library-sponsored computer training and, when not in use for a library training session, is available to local government, non-profit, and private organizations for the express purpose of providing computer training. The Computer Training Lab holds no more than 20 students per training session. The Story Room in the Headquarters Library Childrens Department holds 156 individuals with no tables or chairs, 104 with chairs only, and 52 with both chairs and tables. The Headquarters Library hosts an excellent collection of North Carolina art on all of its three floors, and a white Georgia marble sculpture, "Windowstone," graces its entrance. "The Fayetteville Triptych" by Bert Carpenter is one of the most notable pieces in the library's art collection.

In Fiscal Year 2007, the Headquarters Library circulated 473,628 juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction titles; 149,720 videos, sound recordings, and periodicals; loaned 16,119 items to other libraries; had an audience of 40,900 at 697 programs; and had 107,524 total public computer uses (includes adult and childrens public lab, and email terminals).

Today's Headquarters Library is unique in the library system in that it houses many of the library "behind the scenes" departments which serve all locations — Community Relations, Technical Services, Computer Services, and Administration. Reference & Information functions as a part of the Headquarters Information Services Department and also answers incoming reference and informational calls from throughout the community. Also housed at Headquarters and unique to the system are the Foreign Language Center, Operations, the Mobile Outreach Service, and the Local & State History Room.