We’ve got a new look — and you’ll start seeing it all across Mecklenburg County. The Library recently unveiled its new brand identity, and the Library Foundation received a refresh, too. We’re excited to share a vibrant new look and voice that reflects who we are and the community we serve.
With this renewed energy, we’ve also given our e-newsletter a new name: Storyline.
Storyline is your inside look at how donor support is changing lives, expanding opportunity, and strengthening our community through the Library every day.
Stay connected. Stay informed. Follow the Storyline.
Dear friends,
Ten years ago, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools set an ambitious goal: ensure every single CMS student had a library card.
By the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, that goal was reality. The ONE (One Number Equals) Access initiative was born, built on a simple and powerful idea: one number — a student ID number — equals access to everything Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has to offer.
Today, ONE Access serves more than 140,000 CMS students across 186 schools, connecting them to digital research tools, e-books, audiobooks, databases, and physical collections with no overdue fines. What began as a bold pledge has grown into a model for school-library collaborations across the nation. This year, we were thrilled to celebrate its tenth birthday!
In the decade since its inception, the program has expanded to include more than a dozen charter and independent schools and now extends to CMS teachers and staff as well. The Library continues to welcome new school partners because every student who walks through CML’s virtual or physical doors deserves to feel at home here.
It’s just one example of innovation happening every day at your public library.
To celebrate, we invited CMS students to compete in the spring Engage, Excite, Elevate ONE Access Contest, completing grade-level online scavenger hunts highlighting ONE Access and Library resources.
Over ten thousand students earned a spot in a drawing for the grand prize of a shopping spree at local independent bookstore Troubadour Booksellers to expand their home library. Second place winners received book bags packed with Library swag, food coupons to local Jersey Mike’s and Dave Hot Chicken restaurants, as well as a selection of the most popular grade-appropriate books of 2025.
Ten years of ONE Access equals a decade of students discovering that the Library belongs to them. Thank you for being part of that story.
With gratitude,
Martha Yesowitch
Community Partnerships Manager
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library