Thursday, January 04, 2007

 

What a great 2006!

I have had the great good fortune to be the County Librarian for these past 11 years, and it is good both because of the support we have received from the County administration, and because the recipients of our services have responded so positively to our efforts. Our end of year circulation has risen each year for the past decade (with only a tiny bump due to our hurricane events last year), but this year, it has soared! Here is a short summary:
2005 2006
Total items circulated: 159,768 193,612
Total visitors, all sites: 102,637 124,227

This ignores our public access computer activity, our big programming numbers, and a host of other new areas into which we ventured in 2006, but the sheer differences in one year are just amazing. Look for our Annual Report soon – it will be a humdinger!

As for our normal December activities, well, our Friends of CCLS book sale at White’s Park on the 2nd involved the Friends’ Board, members of the Teen Advisory Board, several staff members, and the valiant County Trustees, who hauled everything for us. Our book sale buyers descended like flies, but they also stuck around to look at the other vendor booths at the bazaar. It’s a win-win situation for all concerned. The proceeds from this sale and one held earlier allowed us to buy some much-needed shelving for Winnie and Mont Belvieu.

Children’s programs in December mean Christmas, and along with singing, stories, and crafts, the jolly old elf showed up a couple of times as well. Our programs are geared for the elementary school-aged crowd, while our weekly story hours focus on pre-schoolers. We had great numbers for all events, of course, and even greater photos of the children having a grand old time. Kudos to all of our children’s programming people, new and old, for these successes through the year.

The staff of the three branches got together for a “technology” workshop on the morning of the 14th, prior to the County employee holiday dinner and service awards event. Keeping all staff members up to snuff in the fast-changing areas of technology is always a challenge, and the chance to have everyone together means the public will get consistent service when they come in with their problems. We reviewed CD burning, scanner use, digital cameras, and the electronic books we added to our database.

We’re looking forward to a great 2007.

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