Serving from 1979 to 1981, James (Jimmy) Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th president of the United States of America. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter previously served from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate and from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia. He was 100 years and 89 days old at the time of his passing, making him the oldest president at time of death.
To learn more about his accomplishments in and out of office see our booklist for a curated selection.
Jimmy Carter: 39th President of the United States (1924-2024)
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Additional resources on Jimmy Carter below:
James Carter: The 39th President of the United States
The Carter Center: About Jimmy Carter
OverDrive will sunset the legacy OverDrive app on January 31, 2025. After this date, the OverDrive app sunset will be complete on all platforms.
Users with Fire tablets running Android 9 or higher can install the Libby app instead.
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For more details on how to make the transition from OverDrive to Libby, see Switching to Libby from the OverDrive FAQs.
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2025 Book Sale Dates
January 21, 2025
This blog was written by Kim Arlia, logistics leader for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
This blog was updated on November 24, 2025, to include new dates and remove dates that have already passed.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! Now is the time to get out and look at all the holiday decorations. There will be so many holiday festivities in every corner of the County and I hope you take advantage of as many as you can. Enjoy family and friends – sing holiday songs and toast a New Year! Just three more sales in 2025 and we are planning to make them special for you! Look for loads of kids’ books, hot novels and maybe a few surprises! Grab something for yourself to enjoy on those chilly evenings.
I love this time of year when we have time off and things slow down. The candles are burning bright, and a cup of hot cocoa warms my fingertips. Personally, I like to settle down with a good book – but only after I make a batch of cookies from a new cookbook. The house smells delightful and soon my tummy will no longer be rumbling – those cookies and cocoa hit the spot. Now I can let my mind race through a lighthearted romance or cottage murder mystery. No matter your preference I am sure we can help you find the perfect holiday read for you and your loved ones.
Start marking your calendar today! Book sales are 9 a.m. – 1 pm (unless otherwise noted).
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Saturday, December 6, 2025 – North County Regional Library
o Loads of good books for all ages
o TONS of KIDS BOOKS!
o Prices starting at $1.00
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Saturday, December 13, 2025 – South County Regional Library
o Last chance before the holidays
o Loads of good books for all ages
o TONS OF KIDS BOOKS
o Prices starting at $1.00
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Saturday, January 10, 2026 – Sugar Creek Library
o Start your New Years Resolution of reading more
SPECIAL BOOK SALES
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Join us in the Founders Room – lower level of Founders Hall
100 N. Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
Wednesday, January 28, 2026, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Join us in the Founders Room – lower level of Founders Hall
100 N. Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King
HOW CAN I DONATE BOOKS?
Book donations are currently accepted at all open Library locations. You can drop off a box/bag per day. The back rooms of our libraries are small, so we cannot accept large donations at branches. Please call your local Library before making a book donation to ensure the location can receive your items. Do not leave them outside – rain and bugs are not their friends!
The Library does NOT accept the following items:
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Encyclopedias
- VHS tapes
- Music CDs
- DVDs
- Albums
The library does accept textbooks, travel guides, and computer books – but they have to be published between 2022 and 2025
Have a large donation? Please contact Kim Arlia at [email protected] or Maurice Huntley at [email protected] for directions to the Library Administration Center (LAC). The LAC operating hours for donations are Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
WHAT HAPPENS TO DONATIONS?
All donations are brought via the library delivery system to the Library Administration Center (LAC). At the LAC, a team of volunteers will go through the donations and determine what will happen to them based on condition, age, and genre. Some may be added to the existing library collection, others may go to various outreach programs, some make their way to the many Free Little Libraries in Mecklenburg County, while others end up at the library book sale or for sale at Thriftbooks.com. Revenue generated by book sales and Thriftbooks.com allows for the procurement of more library materials.
This University City Regional branch closes for the final time on February 1 at 5:00 PM. The new University City Regional branch is located at 5528 Waters Edge Village Drive Charlotte, NC (behind the Applebee's on J.W. Clay Boulevard).
The Grand Opening will be on February 8 from 9:30am to 4:00pm. All invited to partake in the festivities. Activities for the day include family storytime, an Artist Talk with Anne Lemanski, Mother Minter, a 360 photo booth, gaming, a puppet show, music, a dance acrobatics performance, and face painting.
For details about specific events at the new University City Regional branch grand opening see this events page.
UPCOMING MEETING
We want to know what you think! The new space will be filled with books and great staff. But, we want to know what else needs to go inside the new building and how it can best serve the community.
Join us to speak to the designers, and tell us what the new Library needs.
Tuesday, May 20
6:00p-8:00p
Sugar Creek Library
4045 N. Tryon St, Charlotte
Refreshments will be served
The Library is excited to share that the Sugar Creek branch will be getting a new location and a new building. Work on Sugar Creek will commence in early 2025 and the new building is scheduled to be completed in 2027.
The new library will double in size and is planned to be located near the Ella B Scarborough Community Resource Center. The architect selected for this project is Perkins + Will.
The Library is looking forward to sharing soon how the community can share thoughts and support for the new branch location.
This blog post was written by Brandon Lunsford, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room Volunteer
In December 2024, the Carolina Room received a generous donation from the Wing Haven Foundation, forming the new Wing Haven Collection. This collection documents the history of one of Charlotte’s most exceptional hidden gems—Wing Haven Garden and Bird Sanctuary. Located at 248 Ridgewood Avenue in the Myers Park neighborhood, Wing Haven began as the private residence and garden of Elizabeth and Eddie Clarkson. The couple built their home in 1927 as one of the first in the new neighborhood. Elizabeth’s interest in gardening transformed the once barren red clay landscape into a lush paradise of color. Her interest in birds and their habitats soon led to the creation of a sanctuary, attracting both feathered visitors and human admirers. Friends, neighbors, and professional ornithologists were welcomed to enjoy the gardens, where birds even felt comfortable enough to fly through the house and perch on Elizabeth’s arms as she played the piano. It was likely one of the only places in the world where birds and people coexisted in such harmony. In 1970, the Clarksons established the Wing Haven Foundation, officially opening the gardens to the public.
The collection also preserves the decades-long love story between Elizabeth and Eddie, which began in 1924. Author Mary Norton Kratt describes their courtship in her book, A Bird in the House: The Story of Wing Haven Gardens: “Elizabeth Barnhill told Eddie Clarkson on their first date in Boston, where he was working and where she was attending the New England Conservatory of Music, how she and her mother had raised white-winged doves.” After five years of courtship in seven states and one foreign country, Eddie and Elizabeth became engaged. After Eddie’s father urged him not to ‘let that pretty, little auburn-haired girl get away,’ Eddie drove to Uvalde, TX to propose to her.
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Eddie returned to his native Charlotte to build a home and a garden for his new bride following her precise instructions, and she remained in Texas until it was finished. While they were apart they wrote to each other daily–often multiple times on certain days. These letters, now part of the collection, offer a glimpse into their unwavering devotion. So far, we have processed their letters dating from July 1925 to April 1927—over 850 in total! Every letter from Elizabeth begins with some variation of “To My Precious Boy,” and every response from Eddie is addressed to “My Most Precious Girl.” Eddie often slipped wildflowers into his letters, which remain beautifully preserved almost 100 years later.
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This correspondence continued throughout their 60-year marriage until Elizabeth’s passing in 1988. Eddie followed in 1993, having spent their entire lives together in the home and gardens they built with love.
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The Wing Haven Collection is divided into two main series. The first focuses on Elizabeth Clarkson and includes decades of correspondence between her, Eddie, family and friends, as well as photographs, slides, personal materials, and promotional content about Wing Haven. This material spans from the 1920s to the 1980s, with the bulk dating from the 1920s to 1940s. The second series is based around internationally known garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence, who moved to Charlotte in 1948 and cultivated her own garden nearby at 348 Ridgewood Avenue.
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In a city that is rapidly changing, stepping into the house at Wing Haven feels like travelling back to 1927. The home remains untouched since the Clarksons moved in—the original furniture, piano, and even the small window openings designed for birds to enter still exist as they were.
It’s a rare opportunity to experience Charlotte as it was a century ago and to witness a living tribute to a timeless love story.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Wing Haven Collection! To find out more about Wing Haven and its special history, visit Wing Haven.
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Black History Month Recorded on the Microphone
February 28, 2025
This blog was written by Lawrence Turner, adult services librarian at South County Regional Library
The thing about Black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.—Henry Louis Gates, professor and literary critic
Granted, Black History Month is the shortest month of the year but there exists a wealth of information and personal stories that may continue into March and beyond. A book search in the library catalog for “African Americans” and “interviews” brings up a treasure trove of experiences that reflect and document the country and environment with its warts and shining moments. An interested reader can find an eye-opening collection to explore.
A detailed look at African American history covers the institute of slavery and the experiences of those enslaved. One compact book is Slavery Time When I was Chillun edited by Belinda Hurmence. It’s library catalog entry describes the book as: Twelve oral histories of former slaves selected from the more than 2000 interviewed as part of the Slave Narratives of the Library of Congress for the Works Progress Administration in 1936.
Multiple books have been based on those interviews and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has its share with some only available as ebooks and others only available at the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, housing archives and special collections.
The Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room is a valuable resource for investigating segmented groups like North Carolina Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in North Carolina From Interviews With Former Slaves along with events years later as Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine (interviews from the 1950s and 1960s). Currently, the location is available for visit by appointment only with email as the preferred contact.
These books provide a varied history of African Americans would be an appealing read for many concerning life experiences and aspirations. Look at the life of Clarice Freeman of Houston, Texas, as a case in point. In Lift Every Voice: a Celebration of Black Lives, selected older African Americans are interviewed for their perspective on success and looking to the future. Freeman, 101 years-old, an educator and community leader, shared her fight for racial equality as an economic driven concern. She said: “After college, I joined the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE. One of my first experiences with the group was shutting down a restaurant. A group of us decided to go have dinner at this place. And, of course, the manager met us at the door and told us, ‘No Blacks.’ We said, “We’re hungry. We’re not going away until you let us in.’ The manager closed manager closed the door and locked it, not allowing any customers in, including white people. Another time, we were fundraising, and I asked a local CEO for a donation. He looked at me and said, ‘When are you people going to stop begging and support yourselves?’ I said, ‘Well, when we become CEOs just like you, when we have jobs that pay us just like you pay your employees, maybe we will have enough money to support ourselves.’”
Look for Lift Every Voice and other related books in this Black history booklist.
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Integrated Library System Transition
March 3, 2025
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is updating its behind-the-scenes software this April. This software enables our staff to manage and checkout materials and for you to place holds. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this transition.
Schedule
March 22 - extended checkout
Physical materials checked out starting on March 22 will have extended checkout periods. Checkouts will extend from 3 weeks to 6 weeks.
April 1 - limited services
Library services will be limited. Cardholders cannot place holds, submit an interlibrary loan request, or suggest materials for the Library to purchase. New online Library card sign ups are also unavailable, new card signups must be completed in-person at a branch.
April 4 - event registration
Online registration for events will be unavailable.
April 11 - account access
The online catalog will only show materials that the Library currently own. Cardholders will not be able to log into their accounts online or through the mobile app.
April 13 - limited services
Patrons can only check out materials from the branch they are physically at and cannot request items to be transferred between branches. To check if materials are available at a specific branch, we recommend calling the branch directly. Staff will be unable to access inventory at other locations. In order to checkout materials, patrons must have their physical or digital card present.
The Library will be unable to process returns during this time. Any returned materials will remain on a cardholder’s account until April 23. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library does not charge late fines for any materials. If possible, we ask patrons to hold materials until April 23 when the Library is able to process returns again.
Cardholders will also be unable to log in to their accounts, but will be able to see events and browse the catalog.
All checkouts will return from the temporary 6 week checkout period to the original 3 week checkout.
April 18 - temporary closure
All branches and book drops close. The Library will remain closed through April 22.
April 21 - book drops
Book drops reopen.
April 23 - branches reopen
Branches reopen and holds return. A temporary catalog will be available for requests and title searches. Returned materials are removed from cardholders accounts.
May 5 - return to all normal services
All services return to normal. Library catalog/mobile app, interlibrary loans, material purchase suggestions, and Library card signups are all available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the benefit to changing the computer software for materials?
The new software will allow for improved efficiency, materials management, and cardholder account management.
Does this affect digital services?
This transition will not impact the digital services at all. Digital services such as Libby, Hoopla, etc. will all still be available. We encourage you to visit our digital branch during this time by clicking here.
Will I be able to visit MoLi during this transition?
Beginning April 17, MoLi will not be out during this transition. MoLi will return to regular operations on April 24. For details on MoLi and the schedule of our Mobile Library, click here. For any questions about MoLi, reach out to [email protected].