North Carolina Public Libraries | Governance
click on county in map below to go to its page
Public libraries in North Carolina generally fall under four kinds of governing authority, the first three of which generally receive some level of state funding for their operation.
- County Systems - in which the county library is either a branch of county government, or operated for the county by an authorized non-profit corporation or independent governing authority. State Library Listing
- Regional Systems - in which two or more county library systems have agreed to operate under the guidance of a multi-county regional library association. The participating libraries usually retain their county identification and employees are usually county employees, but the operational direction of the system is in the hands of the regional director. State Library Listing
- Municipal Systems - in which the library system is a branch of city government and is independent of county jurisdiction. State Library Listing
- Independent Public Libraries - in a few cases, libraries do not generally receive much or any public funding (and receive no state funding). They regard their operating authority as belonging to the library itself. Such libraries, however, regard themselves as "public libraries" since they offer their services to the public at large.