NC Cardinal

What is NC Cardinal?

• NC Cardinal is a consortium of North Carolina public libraries that share an online catalog and integrated library system (ILS), and share resources with other member libraries.  The program’s mission is to maintain and continually develop a working, efficient, and sustainable ILS for public libraries and library staff within North Carolina. It is a program of the State Library of North Carolina, supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Federal Library Services and Technology Act. NC Cardinal has been operating since July 2010.

When will Brunswick County Library move over to NC Cardinal?

• Brunswick County Library will go live on NC Cardinal the week of December 9, 2024. The library will be 'offline' for about three days before bringing NC Cardinal online on December 12th. During our down time, the online catalog will not be available and patrons will need to have their physical library card with them in order to check out. Please be patient as the tech team moves all the Library data from our old ILS to NC Cardinal's ILS and gets everything running smoothly! 

What will the new library catalog software look like?

• Get a sneak peak at the new online interface through the NC Cardinal Catalog. 

Will I still be able to get phone calls when my holds are ready?

• At this time, NC Cardinal does not support phone calls - only e-mails and text messages for due date reminders, hold notifications, and other library-related communications. Please ask a Brunswick County Library staff member to update your account with an e-mail or cell phone number so you will continue to receive Library notifications. 

How can I get a book if everyone across the state wants it, too?

• Don't worry - Brunswick County Library patrons have first dibs on Brunswick County materials! There's always going to be a wait for the newest best sellers, but once that list goes down Library patrons will have options both local and state-wide. Plus, if you're looking for something obscure or out-of-print, there's a good chance that another library has it and can just ship it to Brunswick County for you.  

What is the advantage for Brunswick County Library in joining NC Cardinal?

• One of the most exciting aspects of NC Cardinal is the sharing of items across our state. More than 80,000 items move among the member libraries each month. Resource sharing, which launched in February 2013, had two immediate impacts for patrons: (1) member libraries have seen hold request wait times cut from an average of 6.5 days to 1.8 days, and (2) patrons now have access to numerous materials they previously didn’t. Daily, NC Cardinal libraries pull a list of hold requests from the ILS, package these items, and ship them to their partner libraries in the consortium through a shared shipping account. Patrons of member libraries enjoy this service at no cost.

Will this give me access to more e-books and e-audiobooks?

• NC Cardinal only shares physical items. Brunswick County Library is unable to join NC Digital, E-iNC, or any other library systems to share our main e-book collection in Libby at this time. Brunswick County Library patrons still have access to e-books in Libby and Hoopla, plus NC Kids Digital Library and NC Kids Level Up for younger readers.