Chronology

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1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. 1941–1942
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough Orange, Chatham and Person counties share a trained librarian under the new state aid

   In the first year of state aid for public libraries, Chatham, Orange and Person counties shared one trained librarian, Ernestine Grafton, while each county kept its own book collection and bookmobile service. The state's 1941–42 library statistics list her as librarian at Hillsboro, Siler City and Roxboro.

3. Recent decades · 1976–2026

4. 1983
   Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Orange County Public Library refers overdue cases to the Dispute Settlement Center

   County librarian Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer reported in 1983 that the library's first attempt to settle overdue cases through the local Dispute Settlement Center had worked: of five patrons sent mediation notices, three returned or paid for their books. The library planned to use the process every three months for its most delinquent materials.

5. By March 2015
   Law, policy or court · Orange County Board of Commissioners; downtown Carrboro Orange County commissioners approve a letter of intent toward a Southern Branch Library in Carrboro

   The Board of County Commissioners approved a letter of intent setting the terms for negotiating the development and construction of a Southern Branch Library in downtown Carrboro. The new branch, then hoped for around 2017, was to replace both the Carrboro Branch in McDougle Middle School and the Cybrary in the Century Center.

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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 4, 2026.