Submitted by William H. Teschek, Librarian
Use of the library was up again this year — our biggest year ever. 107,011 books, records, art prints, magazines, films, etc. circulated in all, up from last year’s record level of 103,444. Ten years ago the figure was only 59,920. Nearly 800 new people signed up for borrowers cards.
For the second year in a row we have been able to keep back issues of magazines previously thrown away. By their frequent use we can tell how important this is, and will continue to keep them as long as we have the room to do so.
Our effort to expand our facilities continues unabated after the townspeople granted us $100,000 at town meeting. We decided it would be less expensive and more practical to abandon the idea of adding an addition onto the present structure, and instead work towards the construction of an entirely new building on a different site. This will eliminate the costs of demolition of the newer wing, renovation of the old wing, and relocation of library books and furniture to another location during construction. At the present the site is still not definite, and our major fund raising work must of necessity wait until it is.
I’d like to express my appreciation to all those who volunteered their limited time to the library over the past year. I couldn’t possibly mention them all, but Ruth Barkley, Laura Blizzard, Arlene Farrell, Ann Hanson, Dona Janetos, Dot Lee, and the members of the Friends of the Library and the Hampton Garden Club deserve our special thanks. And in closing I would like to thank all the townspeople of Hampton who have shown a continuing interest in the library, and we extend an invitation for everyone else to avail themselves of the varied services offered at the Lane Memorial Library.