Town of Mechanic Falls Annual Report 2019-2020

Town of Mechanic Falls Annual Report 2019-2020

Library The Mechanic Falls Library has seen some changes on our Library Board. Melinda Straight resigned as our Chairman. She has been a dedicated participant in all aspects of the library since she was a teen, and was head of the board for 5 years. Melinda was always willing to go the extra mile for the library and designed our “Stuart Little” float in the Mechanic falls Community Day Parade. We will miss her energy! Elizabeth Yates is now heading our association. We have three additional new members of the board: Ann Hobart, Patricia Dyer and Laura Vincent. We are looking forward to a busy year.

Monday Morning is story time. We meet at 9:30am to read 2 books and then do an age appropriate craft. It is a lively group. Story time is a good time for children to learn listening skills and a chance for parents to talk while the stories are read. All are welcome. Our Summing Reading Program was “A Universe of Stories”. Monday was project day. We were able to learn a lot about Space and Planets. The Seadogs again donated a ticket to each participant and Gifford’s Ice Cream donated a free kid’s cone. Callen Wentworth (age 4) had 139

books read to her and was top participant again this summer. Ezekiel Cleary (age 2) had 88 books read to him, he was second. Phaedra Cleary was top reader in her age group reading 43 books. I was very pleased with all of the participation. Our program is “Imagine Your Story” this Summer. Stop in at the library in June to get the details. With the participation of our patrons and our association, we had a very successful pie sale this year. All the pies sold out, along with homemade cranberry sauce. Look for our pie sale the Wednesday before Thanksgiving again this year. Our book sale was help in the gymnasium at the Town Office. We had a lot of books donated! We didn’t sell as many as we hoped to. I was accepted into the year-long “Academy for Small/Rural Library Directors” through the Main State Library. Twenty librarians meet five times in Augusta and attend further classes in our area to receive a Certificate of Academy Completion and Advanced Library Certification from the Voluntary Public Library Certification Program. I am learning quite a bit about Library Science. The Mechanic Falls Library had 4,082 patron visitors in 2018. We had 3,599 adult fiction and non-fiction books circulate, 464 inter-library loans requested and filled and 113 electronic books downloaded from the cloud library. Our Adult and Children’s programs had a total of 337 people attending this year. We checked out 446 DVD\s and 3,216 young adult and children’s books. The library has three computers and one lap top for public use. They were used a total of 641 times. A total of 1141 reference questions were asked and answered. By applying the information above to the Library Use Calculator from the Maine State Library, our services to the Town of Mechanic Falls has an estimated value of $163,788.50. A Mechanic Falls Library Card is available for free to residents with proof of their address. We offer a free inter-library loan system through the Maine State Library for books available in the State. We are also part of the cloud library for audio and electronic books. New books come in monthly. Stop by, get a card and see what we are all about.

Nancy Petersons, Mechanic Falls Public Library Director

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