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Sabra Harris and Kathryn Tees are looking for work.
Because neither has Internet access at home, they've turned to local libraries, where they can search for vacant positions, send out resumes and apply for jobs online.
Officials with the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County have seen a surge in people using its computers to hunt for jobs. And that increased demand is spurring library officials to boost their job search resources, including more training and a link to career resources on its Web site.
Work also is under way for a new 7,500-square-foot job center that will open in coming months at the main branch uptown. It will offer up to three hours of computer access and training for job seekers, as well as workshops in small business, entrepreneurship and networking.
On Friday, library officials announced the job center will be one of the projects paid for using a new $804,100 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Other public and private money will support the job center.
The Knight gift - which library officials said is its largest ever foundation grant - also will help replace computers at the main library, ImaginOn, Freedom Regional and Mountain Island branches, as well as boost Internet bandwidth across the system.
Library Director Charles Brown said the grant comes at a critical time: funding for local libraries has sagged but demand is up. For example, the system reported an 11 percent increase in computer use earlier this year. And a recent survey at the main branch found nearly one-third of reference requests were for job help or literacy.
Sabra Harris said she has gone to the Freedom library branch for years, but mainly to borrow books or movies. But then she lost her job, and further health problems meant she had to get her expenses down to the bare essentials. That included getting rid of her Internet service.
Harris said after running into obstacles looking for work and getting access to computers - many employers now primarily want job seekers to apply online - she remembered the free Web access offered by the libraries. Now she goes to the library about three or four times a week to look for work.
Kathryn Tees says she spends an hour to 90 minutes daily at the library to search job Web sites and read career listings in the newspaper. She still tries to visit businesses in person, though she returns to the library to apply for the job.
Tees said she's been looking for work the past two months, and says past substance use and a misdemeanor conviction makes the search harder. Still, she said she'll keep returning to the library to try to find a job.
"You just got to do what you gotta do," she said. "It'll happen."
