The Carnegie Library opened on Tryon Street in 1903 with a collection of 2,526 volumes and a reading room for public use. Annie Smith Ross was the first and only Librarian, and with one assistant she served in a variety of roles – including Library Director. Today, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library employs over 400 full and part-time staff across 20 locations, outreach and support services.
Library staff today are as diverse as the community they serve, and bring a wide range of education, special skills and experiences. But they have something important in common – a passion for serving the public, learning, growing and helping others. And librarians remain a trusted resource in a world with sometimes too much information.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library CEO and Chief Librarian Marcellus Turner has worked in libraries since the fourth grade. He believes librarianship is a “people-helping” calling, filled with people who thrive in an ongoing scavenger hunt of changing questions and the pursuit of answers.
In the new Main Library, staff will mingle and engage with customers where they are – browsing the shelves, in a program, in a media lab or enjoying sweeping views of Tryon Street from the destination reading room on the new Library’s fifth floor.
This audio tour was created using resources from your Library’s Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room.