The directory lists seven Rowan County offices and a non-profit with the same telephone number.

And phone numbers for Rowan-Salisbury schools are scattered throughout the white-page listings.

The book erroneously assigns Rowan County Library’s telephone number — 638-3000 — to the sheriff’s department, planning and the register of deeds.

The same number also is listed for three Department of Social Services divisions:child protective services, child support and food stamps.

And it’s one of two numbers given for Rowan County Literacy, a non-profit organization located in the main library branch in Salisbury.

“Everybody got our number,” Jeff Hall, the library’s operations manager, said Monday.

The new, bright yellow directory began landing on doorsteps late last week, so the number hasn’t gotten a lot of calls for other departments.

“Not yet, but we expect that it will as the year goes on,”Hall said. “I just hope people will hold onto their old books, or tear out those pages.”

Hal Hayes, manager of media relations at BellSouth’s Atlanta offices, said the company will likely mail out a corrected version of the pages containing errors.

Other possibilities include a “memory call box” that lists the correct numbers and tells callers to dial 0 for the library and a message to tell people to look on page 36 of the book, where government agencies are listed.

He said he doesn’t know how the mistake happened. A BellSouth account executive said the information was correct when sent to the company’s publishing division.

“We’re investigating right now to find out what caused the problem,” Hayes said. “We’re really apologetic for any inconvenience this has caused.”

Vickie McCombs, the county’s assistant finance director, is the city’s liaison with BellSouth. She said 638-3000 is the city’s main number for billing with the telephone company.

The number was the first on a new telephone system installed in the late 1980s, and the library was the first department on the system, so it got that number.

The county added other departments gradually to the system, and McCombs said she sent the correct information to BellSouth for this year’s directory.

Easily accessible telephone numbers are essential for county government, and the mix-up could have especially adverse affects on departments that count on calls, like child protective services.

“I think it could,” she said. “That’s the way we’re looking at it.”

While not as critical, the mistakes in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools section are frustrating, said Kathy Walters, the school system’s public information officer.

The schools section of the community listings on page 37 of the telephone book is correct, but the main listings in the white pages omit several schools.

Those schools are listed under towns in which they’re located. For example, Landis Elementary is listed under Landis, but not under Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

“Who’s going to look at Landis to find a school? We’re all one school system,” Walters said. “It’s just totally messed up, just like it was last year.”

Walters said the problem first occurred when the company began including all Rowan towns in one listing, instead of separating them, and she has tried to straighten the omissions out since then.

Hayes said he hadn’t heard of that problem.

“I’m sure that our customer-care people have been informed about that and are taking measures to correct it,” he said.

The county department listings are correct in the blue telephone directory distributed by Carolina Publishing of Salisbury.

The blue book lists the Rowan-Salisbury Schools twice, the second listing directly following the first. Some numbers are omitted from the second listing.

“But at least they have it right in the first place,” Walters said.

Correct county telephone numbers:

Sheriff’s Office: 636-1011

Planning: 638-3101

Register of Deeds: 638-3102

Child Protective Services: 638-3175

Child Support: 638-3166