Chapel Hill Public Library, serving an area of 50,000 residents, has a collection of 126,000 books and periodicals; in addition, there are 6,900 CDs, records, cassettes and other audio materials, as well as . Internet terminals are available for use by the general public.
Staffing consists of 31 employees, of whom 6 are fully accredited librarians, plus volunteers. Annual expenditures on the library collection total $240,000. Patrons make 330,000 visits annually, and check out materials 780,000 times. Forty percent of all check-outs are children's materials.