Submitted by Bradley A. Green, Library Director

The Lane Memorial Library had an excellent year of service to the public in 1991. We circulated 137,270 items, an increase of 3,147 items over 1990. We added 4,231 books, cassettes, compact discs and videos to our collection and withdrew 4,752 old and damaged items to make room for our new acquisitions. We borrowed 199 items on interlibrary loan and loaned 1,350 items. We registered 906 new borrowers. As of January 8, 1992 we have 3,640 registered borrowers. We estimated that 98,176 people visited the library and that we received 11,908 reference questions.

Our town appropriation for 1991 was $320,304.00. In April we accommodated a $14,493 budget freeze by eliminating 10 weekly service hours for the public. We are now open 50 hours per week.

We earned $21,005.01 in overdue fines, meeting room rentals, video- cassette rentals, computer use, book sales, fund raisers and donations. We expended $20,337.24 of this money, mostly on books, audio books, periodicals subscriptions and videocassettes.

The Trustees’ accounts earned $716.96 in interest. They expended $9,155.62 on the Bibliofile automated cataloging system and the borrowers re-registration project. The balance in the accounts is $70,568.99.

Joanne Straight was promoted to the position of Assistant Children’s Librarian in September, following Pamela Jautaikis’s resignation. 97 youngsters completed the “Some Enchanted Reading” program in the summer and read a total of 4,213 books. 3,826 people attended 168 programs. We participated in the “Gift of Reading” program for the second consecutive year and 59 Hampton children each received a new hardcover book and an introduction to the library’s resources, services and programs.

The Friends of the Library again purchased tickets to the Science Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and to the Children’s Museum in Portsmouth.

488 people attended 13 adult programs. On April 2nd we celebrated the library's 110th anniversary and in June we officially dedicated the Dorothy M. Little Meeting Room. We received a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities Council for a women’s history program, “It Had To Be Done, So I Did It.”

In September we began to re-register all of our patrons so they can borrow items anonymously. We implemented this procedure to comply with New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated Title 16, Chapter 201- D:11, which stipulates that library circulation records must be confidential. In November we began cataloging books with the Bibliofile automated cataloging system which has expedited our technical processing. The Trustees are still considering how and when we will automate our circulation system.

We will endeavor to meet Hampton residents’ information needs in 1992. I extend my appreciation to the staff, Trustees, volunteers, Friends, Hampton Garden Club and library patrons for their support.