|
Report from the Trustees
Ruth Keeler Memorial Library Association
Annual Meeting of the Membership
April 17, 2009
The Board is happy to report that the financial condition of the Library is sound. Despite the economic environment, our Annual Appeal was very successful, raising just under $50,000, a record. In difficult times like this, use of libraries and demand for their services increase, so we are particularly grateful to all of those who supported us so generously.
The Town, as you know, is the major contributor of our operating funds, providing about 70% of our annual expenses. I am very pleased, as are all the Trustees, that the success of our fund-raising efforts demonstrates not only that we are doing our part, but that the townspeople from the elderly to our young families care deeply about their Library and are anxious to support it..
Carolyn Reznick recently completed her first full year as Director, and we are blessed to have her. She and her crew are doing a marvelous job. Virtually every indicatorpatron visits, circulation figures on books and materials, children's programs, adult programs, volunteer hours, plus other categoriesall showed strong gains last year, and we have an expanding calendar of events for 2009.
The Board, once again, wants to acknowledge our excellent collaboration with the Friends, who sponsor programs and help us in so many ways during the year. [hank you, Friends.
Although we are happy about the increasing vitality and expanding services we are providing to our patrons, we are aware that the world is changing rapidlya major cause, of course, being the digital revolution. We want to stay ahead of the curve and ensure that we are taking the steps necessary to meet that goal. We have initiated a Long Range Planning effort under the chairmanship of Tim Purdy, and during the coming year his committee and the Board generally will be taking a fresh look at the Library from top to bottom. We are involving others from the community in this discussion, and we invite your comments and suggestions. We expect to complete the planning exercise by the end of the year.
Edward L. Burlingame
President, Board of Trustees
|
|
Ruth Keeler Memorial Library Association
Annual Meeting, April 17, 2009
Highlights of 2008
Services for children
Programs We dramatically expanded our programming in 2008, tripling the number of programs and quadrupling the number of children who attended. More than 4,000 children attended story times, crafts, music, nature demonstrations, book discussion groups, scrabble, chess, summer reading games, and other special programs including one on Duct Tape. We continued to cooperate with the scouts, the nursery schools, the elementary, middle and high schools, the recreation department, and child care centers.
Circulation We added new periodicals including New Moon for Girls, created a collection of graphic novels for young adults and parenting collection.
Services for adults
Programs In 2007 there were 18 programs for adults, in 2008 there were 89 and attendance at these grew from 600 to close to 1000. Our ongoing programs included the Friday night movies, a book discussion group, a knitting group and a writing workshop. Our special programs in 2008 included author talks, Medicare updates, story telling, and lectures on art, politics, economics and technology. A grant from the NY Council for the Humanities funded a four-part book discussion group on George Washington. We co-sponsored programs with groups including the Lions Club, the Historical Society, the Recreation Department, the North Salem Seniors and the Friends of the Library.
Circulation - We added new periodicals including Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Elle Décor, Autism & Asperger's Digest, and Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel. We also created a collection focusing on job searching and college, graduate and professional school admission. We are working with the Danbury Hospital Library to create a collection of health related materials including newsletters, current reference books and pertinent community information. These materials are housed separately for convenience of use. Total circulation for all library materials increased almost 10%.
Plans for 2009
|
|
|
