Moving to NC Cardinal: From County to Statewide Access to Physical Resources

On June 25, 2026, Dare County Library will begin offering book, magazine, DVD, and audiobook CD checkouts from the NC Cardinal catalog. Consisting of 235 library branches in 56 library systems across North Carolina, Dare County patrons will have access to over 8.1 million items at no cost.

The items in the collections of Dare, Currituck, Camden, and Pasquotank will not be added to the NC Cardinal catalog until June 25, 2026. Until then, take a look through their current catalog to see if titles you’ve been searching for—and couldn’t locate in the East Albemarle Regional Library (EARL) system—will be available through NC Cardinal. We think you’ll be surprised by what you find.

Dare County patrons will also have access to items from the Government and Heritage Library of North Carolina, located in Raleigh. For patrons who relied on Interlibrary Loans (ILL), we’ll be able to offer free access to items at the UNC-Chapel Hill University Libraries. We also encourage all of our Dare County patrons to sign up for a College of The Albemarle-Dare (COA) library card, which allows access to the COA library and the NC Community College ILL network.

Please Excuse Our Mess

It takes time to make a transition of this size. Our goal is to keep patron inconvenience to a minimum, but you can expect mild-to-medium levels of disruption to library services of physical materials from mid-June to mid-July. What better time to fire up your Libby account or grab a book at random off our shelves that you’ve never read before—let us help you find something new to love!

Changes You Can Look Forward To

• You can visit any library in the NC Cardinal system to check out a book, DVD, audiobook, or magazine and return it to any other library in the system.
• Camden, Currituck, Dare, and Pasquotank will maintain a regular weekly courier to move books between our four counties.
• Overdue fines will become a thing of the past starting July 1, 2026, but patrons will still be accountable for lost materials.

Check out "NC Cardinal Questions" on the FAQ page of our website for more information.

Thank you for your support and patience as we move towards a bigger, better Dare County Library experience. Contact us with questions:

Hatteras Library: 252-986-2382 hatteras.library@darenc.gov

Kill Devil Hills Library: 252-441-4331 kdh.library@darenc.gov

Manteo Library: 252-473-2372 manteo.library@darenc.gov