Submitted by William H. Teschek, Librarian

And Staff Of The Lane Memorial Library

The Library is able to again report an increase in circulation for the year 1989 to a total of 130,989 items loaned. In addition 1,124 new library patrons were registered. Over 3,000 new books, cassettes, compact discs and videos were added to our collection.

There have been some staff changes to report. Assistant Librarian Helen Skinner resigned at year’s end after 5 years with us. We also welcome to our staff Kathleen Bonerb and Diane Gootee. I have decided to step down as Library Director to take the Assistant Librarian job vacated by Helen. It is my wish to concentrate my efforts on reference and technical tasks and leave the administrative work to a new Director, who is currently being sought. After 10 years as Director, this will be my last report.

Our ongoing automation project progresses slowly due to staff shortages but I am hopeful that by the end of 1990 our circulation system and card catalog will be fully automated. Last year we put up an On-line Public Access Catalog, or OPAC, which allows the general public to access our holdings information by computer. It is still incomplete but grows daily as we add older titles to the main computer, which is located in Durham. The terminals in this library are connected via a dedicated phone line to Durham, the costs of which are paid with the interest from trust fund monies, not tax funds.

The Friends of the Library have donated over $5,000 to fund various services and purchases including tickets to the Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Science in Boston, arid the Children’s Museum in Portsmouth. Other purchases include a CD-ROM player for our public access computer and a CD disk for it that holds the equivalent of nearly 1,500 floppy disks of public domain software for the IBM that can be copied by anyone for their personal collection.

Funds given in memory of former Trustee Stillman Hobbs were used to create a large wall map updating the 1938 historical map of Hampton created by Hazle Leavitt Smith. The new map was done by Alex Wallach and dedicated in a ceremony at the library on November 10. It is hung on a wall of the Wheaton Lane Meeting Room.

In closing, I would like to thank all those - staff, Trustees, volunteers and library patrons - who have worked to bring us continued successes in 1989.

LIBRARY HOURS (all year) Monday - Thursday 9 - 8 Friday & Saturday 9 - 5 Closed Holidays