Annual Report

Town Meeting Report (May 2009)

The Pelham Library continues to provide excellent service to the Pelham community using only 1% of the total town budget:

●  Of the 64 Massachusetts small towns with libraries and population less than 2,000, Pelham Library lent the second-largest number of items, over 37,000 in FY2008! Each of these 37,000 items loaned represents information or enjoyment that didn’t require a purchase.
●  Almost 800 library cards have been issued to town patrons.
●  There are 60 town residents volunteering their time at the library! Their work reshelving books and cataloging frees the staff to develop and maintain additional library services to residents.
●   We get hundreds of rarer books, DVDs and audios for Pelham patrons via interlibrary loan.  This is done almost entirely by a crew of volunteers who process the loans.
●  The Community and History Rooms host over 200 meetings a year, ranging from writing groups to the Historical Society, the Planning Board and Energy Committee. 
●  The library continues to host the After-School program, a concert series, the Summer Reading Program and the weekly Story Hour. We are a successful community center.

Adam Novitt, the library director, succeeded in getting over $20,000 in grants during the last year. The “On the Same Page” grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners funded a series of well-attended events around local food. These included themes of bee keeping, backyard chickens, and making cheese at home. A grant from Highland Valley Elder Care enabled the library to get three Amazon Kindle electronic books for loan to patrons. These handheld devices are lighter than a book, have a paper-like display and can display large print. Each Kindle can hold 1500 electronic books, and they will allow patrons who need large print a much wider selection of reading material.

The series of piano concerts, ably directed by Gail and Paul Berube and supported by Pelham Cultural Council and Libraries for the Future grants, has given the many people who attend much joy. We particularly remember the concerts of internationally-known Estella Olevsky and Nigel Coxe in our intimate and beautiful library space.

The Trustees were sad to see staff members Rosalba Baroni-Booth and Margaret Light leave, but are happy that they continue to be seen at the library. We’d like to thank Rosalba for her capable work as Interim Library Director between Rebecca Frank’s leaving and Adam’s arrival. We welcome Ashley Rodkey and Jody Levine as new staff members who are already making their mark.

Gail Berube stepped down this year after many years as Trustee. The remaining Trustees and staff would like to thank her for years of energetic and good-humored service.

The Trustees will do all they can to ensure that the continuing economic troubles do not force cuts in library services. Prospective reductions in town and school library budgets will mean that we have to search for more ways to save money. We invite people in town to volunteer their time or donate money to help us keep Pelham’s library running.

In hard economic times, people turn to their library for help, inspiration and diversion. The free internet access, loan of books and DVDs, use of meeting space and other amenities the library provides become more important. We have been good stewards of our 1% of the town budget, writing grants, recruiting volunteers and working hard to give real value to Pelham residents.

Respectfully submitted,
Jonathan Woodbridge, Trustee Chair

Town Meeting Report (May 2008)