7077-R2_NewGloucester_2019_AnnualReport_Web

ANNUAL REPORT Library

We wish to thank the town, our patrons, our staff, and our volunteers for their help in continuing to make the library a significant resource. We are honored to be recognized by many as being at the center of our community. The library recognizes the importance of community and strives to ensure that we offer services and events to enrich everyone. As always, the trustees would like to start this report by making special mention of our volunteers. Our volunteers, which include both young adults and adults, donated approximately 1724 hours of their time this past year. Having volunteers of all ages helps the library recognize the needs of and stay connected with all of the different generations in New Gloucester. The library is a better place because of the time and effort all our volunteers expend. The trustees are pleased to let the town know that the Maine State Library estimates the library provided $241,708 of services to the citizens of New Gloucester on its $99,100 budget. Some of the services included in that figure are: • 4591 Adult books borrowed • 8033 Children’s books borrowed • 304 Audiobooks borrowed from the shelves • 260 eBooks/Audiobooks downloaded • 1198 Movies borrowed • 357 People who signed up to use the computers/internet (does not include people who bring their own devices to use the Wi-Fi) • $1,400 the value of library passes used this year, Another effort to keep costs down is successful because of your donations of books, and movies This year 446 books and movies that were donated by patrons were placed on the shelves. This added about $11,150 to the library collection without having to ask the town for additional funding. This makes a huge difference in what we are able to offer our patrons because the value of the donations almost doubled our annual book and audio visual budget of $7,050.

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