Hyde Park Free Library Report to the Community For Year 2006

Library Director

Spring 2007

We recently completed our annual report for the State of New York, and we were heartened to see that the library proves to be on an upward trend in most areas.

Our goal has been to become a vibrant community center even a cultural center and the variety of programs we offered for adults, teens and children in the past year would seem to suggest that our efforts have been successful and appreciated by the community at large.

Attendance at library sponsored events was 4,069 up over 9% from the previous year. The acoustic concert series we've been running in the Annex has proven to be extremely popular among music lovers. The series, originally focusing on nationally touring acts, was broadened in the fall to include a number of popular regional acts as well.

And for folks who couldn't get enough of folk music, an informal monthly song circle was begun in the fall for area musicians and songwriters looking for an "open mic" type event.

We ran our third annual Summer Library Festival in August, and it proved once again to be a great success. Children and adults were entertained by a wide variety of performers, including musicians, storytellers, magicians and puppeteers. Nearly all the performers included an educational component in their presentations, stressing the value of reading (and of libraries) in children's lives.

Children's programming in general has been strongly emphasized here at the library. Aside from her three weekly sessions for pre-schoolers, Janet Battistoni ("Mrs. B.") ran several evening story hours and craft sessions for school aged children. And of course, the annual Summer Reading Program offered in July and August was chock-a-bloc with special activities.

Attendance at our various children's programs was over 4,000--up over 9% from the previous year's total. We now have over 12,000 registered borrowers at our library.

We add to that number daily as more and more people come to realize the value of having a library card. Campaigns in the schools, at the Hyde Park Community Day events, and at various other locales in the town in the past year helped raise awareness of the advantages of being a registered borrower at the Hyde Park Library and in the greater Mid-Hudson Library System.

As more and more members of our community register for library cards, we've seen a steady increase in the number of items borrowed. Over 23, 600 adult level books were loaned out from our collection in 2006, an increase of almost 10% over the previous year. Our circulation of children's books increased quite dramatically, from 16,400 items circulated in '05 to almost 19,300--an increase of almost 9%. Overall circulation--including audio-visual materials as well as print--went up by almost 10,000 items circulated.

The very positive response of the community at large to our programming and patron services suggests that we have gone some distance in achieving our goals of becoming a valued community resource and a vibrant cultural center. We thank the community for its continued support.

Hyde Park Free Library