Annual Report 2012

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Hall Memorial Library 201218 Park Street, Northfield, NH 03276
www.hallmemoriallibrary.org
(603) 286-8971

Serving the towns of Tilton and Northfield since October 6, 1887

Trustees: Leif Martinson, Northfield, Chair, lifetime appointee

Eliza Conde, Northfield, Treasurer, lifetime appointee , until December 2012 Nell Grant, Tilton, lifetime appointee

Christine D’Amore, Tilton, elected through 2013

Tom Fulweiler, Northfield, Secretary, elected through 2013

Staff: Jennifer Moulton, Director

Kelly Finemore, Children's Services

Brittany Moore, Young Adult and Cataloging Services

Maggie McCall, Programming, Publicity and Inter-library Loan

Jessie Ahlgren, Children's Services and Circulation

Nancy Court, Circulation

Morris Boudreau, Maintenance

Mary Ahlgren, until September 2012

Coral Theberge, until November 2012

Megan Yandian and Amber Groz, Library Pages

Volunteers included Nell Grant, Ginny Timmons, Susan Nadeau, Beverly Green, Cheryl Geiger, Josie Nichols, Don MacDonald, Jeff Tracy, Ralph Nash, Tyrone Hutchins, John Pelletier, Jonathan Ledoux, David Craig, Rita Stone, Cheyenne Patterson, Madeline Hastie, Cam Lewis, Kevin Archibald, Sandra Gibbons, Alicia Gilbert, Janet King, Peggy Graham, Renee Boudreau, Glenn Jette, Bradley Long, Jesse Moore, Clark Roberts, the Daisy Scouts, groups of students and faculty from Tilton School and many others who assist in significant ways. Volunteers help keep our plants alive, take books to our homebound patrons, sponsor programs, work on bulletin boards, recycle, and assist with story time. In 2012 volunteers contributed at least 204 hours to the library! Hall Memorial would not be where it is without the dedication and assistance of its volunteers!

Donations were given by John and Claire Tremblay, Lucinda Hope, Donna Burbank, Glenn Jette, Jeff Milroy, Richard Hartman, Catherine Barrows, Bill Bayley, Chuck and Kathleen Mitchell, the Daisy Scouts, Tanger Outlets, Wal-Mart, Hannaford, Pizza Hut, and Market Basket, along with two donations made in Edna Southwick's memory. We were also blessed to have a large screen TV donated by an anonymous benefactor! Many others gave items to add to our collection or booksale; 661 of those items were added to our permanent collection. We were pleased to use Dan Clark's generous donation of his house, to have the building cleaned and re-pointed, a long awaited and much needed renovation, resulting in a startling difference. Come in to see our before and after pictures of the library!

The library produced 377 programs this year and at least 7,203 people of all ages participated in one or more of them. Our summer reading program was a huge success, with a theme of "Dream Big Read." Together, 210 children read over 6,888 books! The Library's ongoing programs include weekly programs with young adult crafts, the Knit Wits, children's crafts, chess club for all ages, two story times with a craft, Spanish Club, outreach to daycare centers, the Clever Crafters for adults; and monthly art displays, two book clubs and we now serve coffee. Joining these standing programs are many interesting presentations and activities offered throughout the year for all age ranges, so keep a lookout for our schedule of programming in the local newspapers, online, in our newsletter and of course, at the library itself.

Hall Memorial circulated over 62,184 items this year. Our computers were used more than 8,000 times with over 1,800 wi-fi connections. Monthly, the library averages 2,408 active patrons, who come in and check out a book, DVD, large print item, audio book, young adult or children's item, museum passes, VHS Tapes or magazines.

Web-based offerings include EBSCO database, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Mango Foreign Language classes at www.hallmemoriallibrary.org. The library offers 6,322 Audiobooks and 5,602 eBooks through NH Downloadables. Patrons can access these items by going to http://nh.lib.overdrive.com. The "Library Card Number" is 4608 + the patron's barcode number, which is found on their library card. In 2012, we circulated 2113 items through this service.

Our biggest news of the year was that Mary Ahlgren, Library Director for 14 wonderful years, retired in September. A party was held, and farewells given as Mary stepped away from a building and collection she had molded and shaped to form a fantastic, modern, community-oriented library. Jennifer Moulton has stepped in Mary's rather large shoes and hopes to continue to serve the communities of Tilton and Northfield for many years to come.

Hall Memorial is books and so much more! Libraries are the heart of every community and we invite you to come down, try out a program, check out a book, read our newspapers, meet our friendly staff and help us make this place rock!