When the fiscal year ended last week, one library quietly realized a professional milestone: South County Regional swiped its one-millionth check-out. Although no balloons or confetti fell from the ceiling, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County is proud of this tremendous accomplishment for all the right reasons.

“In library circles, this is equivalent to achieving a 300+ batting average in baseball or the Dow once again reaching 10,000 – in other words, it’s a milestone,” says Director of Libraries Charles Brown, explaining how this landmark places South County Regional among the most heavily used library branches in the nation. Beyond representing a professional achievement, the millionth circulation also underscores a pattern of increased use of library resources during the economic recession.

The milestone came a bit unexpectedly for South County officials. It was not until the Finance department released statistics for the July 2008-June 2009 fiscal year that employees became aware of what had been accomplished: 1,017,729 total check-outs in a single year.

South County Regional marks the first PLCMC library to accumulate more than one million circulations in a given year.


Since its founding in 1903 as a Carnegie Free Library, PLCMC has provided community service and outreach to the citizens of the Charlotte area. One of the premier libraries in the country, PLCMC has been recognized as a “Five Star” library in a national index of public library service from Library Journal and was named winner of the 2006 National Award for Library Service. The library sponsors a variety of community-based programs, from computer and Internet workshops to the award-winning Novello Festival of Reading, a celebration of the joys of reading and learning. With 24 locations, 1.4 million volumes, 79,000 DVDs, CDs and audiobooks, and a vast selection of titles available to download from the library’s web site, PLCMC is dedicated to its mission of expanding minds, empowering individuals and enriching the community