ANNUAL REPORT 2003
HIGHLAND COUNTY DISTRICT LIBRARY
| Overview & Hillsboro | Greenfield | Leesburg | Lynchburg | System Statistics |
BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Fred Yochum, President; George Roush, Vice President ;
Margaret Hudson, Secretary ;Delma Fairley ; Stephen Hunter ; Craig Turner ; Sara Lukens
Judith B. Lindley, Director
Jennifer West, Assistant Director
Emily Evans, Clerk-Treasurer
HIGHLAND COUNTY DISTRICT LIBRARY
ANNUAL REPORT
2003
Judy Lindley, Director
The Highland County District Library continues a slow steady growth over the past few years in providing services and programs to the communities of Highland County and surrounding areas. We have a total of 25,593 registered borrowers at our four libraries.
In addition to circulating 533,551 items to our county patrons, we loaned 34,339 books and other items to other libraries, bringing the total to 567,890 items circulated this year.
Library service is becoming more of a shared service among libraries in the state of Ohio as more libraries automate and join consortia to loan items to people across the state. Highland County District Library belongs to the Southeast Ohio Library System, (SEO) operated by the State Library of Ohio. During this last year, 74,844 books, videos, music and other items were shipped among our four libraries and other libraries in the consortia. Our patrons can place a request for any one of more than five million books and items on the database and receive the item in their local library within a few days.
Each library hosted a variety of programming for the public. 13,722 attended over 1,000 children’s programs in 2003. Adult programs in the libraries had a total attendance of 3,531. We would like to thank the many community service agencies providing a program presenter. Several citizens also share their expertise as program presenters.
The Summer Reading Program provides reading incentives, games and books to help children enjoy maintaining their reading skills during the summer break from school. We thank the many community businesses that donate prizes to support this program.
The HCDL system received a federal grant this past year to present “Count on Mother Goose”, a pre-school math program that uses picture books as materials. The children’s staff presented this program in each library with materials purchased form the Vermont Center of the Book.
The Greenfield facility was replaced in June with a 9,700 square foot building. Adding more shelf space for materials, more table space for study and browsing has resulted in a one-third increase in usage of the building and materials.
A lack of parking spaces at the Hillsboro facility continues to be a frustration for library users.
Hillsboro Adult Programs:
Black History Month Program; computer classes; Eric Mathews, Financial Investment programs; Susan Gingerich, Safe Alternatives to Hormone Replacement Therapy, Building Immunity, Ki Points, pH Balancing, Herbs for the Flu Season, Are No-Fat Diets Good for You; the “Bookies” monthly book discussion group, monthly Writer’s Group, “plant swaps”, You Can Count on Mother Goose; Kevin Williams, Amish Culture and Cooking, Jim Higgins, honeybees, and local author book signings (Elouise Postle, Susan Holzheimer, Elmer Williams, Frank Hedges, and Willa Stanforth).
Author Visits: Hillsboro hosted booksignings for local authors Elouise Postle, Susan Holzheimer, Elmer Williams, Kevin Williams, Frank Hedges, and Willa Stanforth.
Artists’ Displays: Virginia Shanholtz ; Mary Harmon Braun ; Marilyn Hoaglin ; Norma Allen ; Gene Tye; “Film Foggers” photography group entries from the 2003 Highland County fair ; Helen Horner ; Nancy Green
Exhibits at Hillsboro: Postage Stamps, African-American Awareness Research Council – Black History Month, Milton Caniff, the C. S. Bell Foundry and Opera House, Highland Nature Sanctuary, the Friday Club – Quilts, Festival of the Bells items, Linda Fugate – Crafts, Petzold Family – Ohio Pottery, Ohio Bicentennial Barns, Rocky Fork Decorative Artists – Crafts, Highland County Ghost Towns, Beads and Jewelry, Military Collectibles, Hand-carved Santa’s, and Angels.
CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT at Hillsboro
Joan Anderson
The year 2003 has been a very busy year in the Children’s Department. We continued to have 8 storytimes each week for children, 2 years old through 6th grade. Children 2 years through 10 years old enjoyed stories, fingerplays, songs and crafts, while the children in 4th grade through 6th grade enjoyed Books, Activities and Games. This “BAG” club always looks forward to books, games and fun as well as getting to create and eat "gross grub”.
Our staff has a new storyteller for our 2 and 3 year olds this year. In April, Rosalind Engle retired to be replaced by Julie Lindsey. Faye Thompson and Betty Daugherty continue programs for older children.
Storytimes in the library were presented to over 3,500 children and outreach programs were presented to over 500 children.
Visitors to storytimes:
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Mr. Higgins presented 2 interesting and informative programs on honeybees.
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The Brinker family presented water safety through books and a play.
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Mr. Kretchmer brought a tame raccoon for the children to see and learn about their habits.
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Hurd Latimer, a park ranger, gave 2 informative programs about wild animals and brought animal skins for the children to guess and touch.
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The Hillsboro and Greenfield Fire Departments presented a program on fire safety and brought their smoke trailer to demonstrated how to leave a smoke-filled room.
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Dawna Jo Kiesling talked to the children about nutrition and brought nutritional snacks.
Joan Anderson and Betty Daugherty introduced the Summer Reading Club by visiting pre-schools, Bright Local School, and all classrooms in the Hillsboro City Schools up through the 6th grade. We had over 1,000 children and teens sign up to read with us and had over 85 come to our end of the program “Happy Birthday, Ohio” night.
The ASTRA Club (high school students) presented 3 Harry Potter programs for children in the 2nd through 5th grades. They were very well attended and children played chess, quidditch, made crafts, and revealed they knew a great deal about Harry Potter through the Trivia game.
We presented “You Can Count on Mother Goose” through a Federal Grant to 15 families. Using 2 or 3 books each session, the parents were introduced to the concepts of Problem Solving, Patterns and Relationships, Numbers and Counting, Shapes and Spaces, and Measuring. The purpose of the program was to involve parents and care givers with children’s books, showing them that they can be used as other learning tools as well as reading.
We participated with displays and information at Kindergarten Registration, the National Bank and Trust “Harvest Week”, and the YMCA Health Fair. Storytelling kits went out over 290 times with over 6,300 children enjoying them. We dedicated 14 books to new babies.
The Numbers for 2003
Includes Main Library, Hillsboro, Ohio, with branches in Leesburg, Lynchburg, Greenfield.
County Population (estimated): 41,439
Circulation: 567,890
Per capita circulation is 13.7 items.
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System Circulation: |
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Hillsboro |
290,225 |
Approx. 51 % of total |
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Greenfield |
128,421 |
Approx. 23 % of total |
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Leesburg |
74,756 |
Approx. 13% of total |
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Lynchburg |
74,488 |
Approx. 13 % of total |
Outreach was provided to 600 elderly or disabled residents at Laurels of Hillsboro, Heartland, and Highland House by Shirley Foster.
The Storytelling kits reached over 6,300 children in 2003.
We own 155,914 books and audio/visual materials.
We have added 23,901 items in 2003.
We have a total of 25,593 registered borrowers. 18,307 are adults. 7,286 are juvenile.
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In-house Use:
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50,078
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Reference, investment items, newspapers, magazines, Genealogy, books and computer patrons |
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Computer Use: |
2,533 |
Databases visited |
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3,731 |
Articles accessed |
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www.highlandco.org |
15,648 |
Visits to our Website for the year |
Programs:
| Whole System | |||||
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System Adult: |
223 Programs |
Attendance: |
3,531 |
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System Children: |
1,072 Programs |
Attendance: |
13,722 |
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Other Locations: |
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6,969 |
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24,222 |
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Hillsboro |
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Adult: |
74 Programs |
Attendance: |
551 |
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Children: |
513 Programs |
Attendance: |
3,501 |
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Other Locations: |
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2,760 |
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Greenfield Branch |
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Adult: |
54 Programs |
Attendance: |
1,095 |
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Children: |
216 Programs |
Attendance: |
4,613 |
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Other Locations: |
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730 |
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Leesburg Branch |
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Adult: |
72 programs |
Attendance: |
1,374 |
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Children: |
167 programs |
Attendance: |
3,601 |
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Other Locations: |
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2,386 |
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Lynchburg Branch |
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Adult: |
23 programs |
Attendance: |
511 |
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Children: |
176 programs |
Attendance: |
2,007 |
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Other Locations: |
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1,093 |
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| Overview & Hillsboro | Greenfield | Leesburg | Lynchburg | System Statistics |
GREENFIELD BRANCH LIBRARY
Margaret Magee, Greenfield Branch Manager
2003 has been the most exciting year ever for the Greenfield Public Library! The construction of our new building was completed, and we moved into 1125 Jefferson Street, the end of April and reopened on May 5. The new building has a community room that will seat 100 +, a beautiful children’s area with a reading loft, a computer/reference room, a great staff work area, and lots of great space for new books and AV material. Our Grand Opening Day was held on June 8.
Statistics show that circulation has increased 37 % with a circulation of 124,749. We also have registered 918 new patrons. This has kept us extremely busy, but has also been very enjoyable.
We had a total of 270 programs for children and adults with an attendance of 5708.
Children’s programs included: Summer Reading Adventure, “Celebrate Ohio”, with a signup of 309 children and an end of program swimming party at Buckeye Hills, a summer Library Camp, a fall reading program entitled “Seasons Reading Christmas Club” with an end of program Christmas Shop, a Kids Craft Club, and 4 weekly storytimes for ages 2-grade 6 and Head Start.
Greenfield is a community in every sense of the word. They have come together to help us in so many ways this year. They helped us move, provided supplies for the move, have presented programs and provided donations for summer reading and Christmas shop needs. They also have donated funds to be used in 2004 to construct a Reading Garden for patrons to use and enjoy. It is a joy to work together with the businesses, schools, and people of Greenfield to enhance this great community.
Greenfield Adult Programs:
Book discussions for teens and adults, perennial exchange, computer classes, WCET programs for preschool parents, scrapbooking, calligraphy, Mother Goose programs for preschool parents, soapmaking, antique roadshow, health screenings, Sojourner Truth presentation, You Can Count on Mother Goose; fall bulb exchange, CPR classes, Teacher’s breakfast, Leone Bihl’s open house, baby signing, Hunter safety, eating disorder support group, weaving demo, tours for : Mothers Club, Lions, Rotary, Garden Club, Elite Club, Quilt Club.
Author Visits: Greenfield Branch Library hosted a booksigning for Frank Hedges.
Exhibitors Greenfield: All the holidays, Art for McClain Elementary, Ohio Bicentennial, New Building Construction, snowmen, nativity scenes, knitting club Christmas stockings, displays of various forms of embroidery, cookbooks, Historical Society Bicentennial display, Frank Hedges visit.
| Overview & Hillsboro | Greenfield | Leesburg | Lynchburg | System Statistics |
LEESBURG BRANCH LIBRARY
Carol Gustin, Leesburg Branch Manager
2003 was a great year for Leesburg! Our first large program was an Ohio’s children’s book illustrator, Christopher Canyon in February. He was fantastic with both children and adults. We raised money for his visit through the local Wednesday Club and our Reading group plus the library itself. Our 72 Adult Programs on varied topics were well attended.
We added to our celebration of Ohio by asking to Dawna Jo Kiesling come this summer for an outdoor program in June with the young people and made baggy ice cream – in honor of Ohio’s Velvet Ice Cream during dairy month.
We continue to have our regular story hours for children. Carol leads the 6 months-36 months on Thursday mornings for the Wee Ones as well as the Tater Tots for the 3, 4, and 5 year olds. Rosalind Engle retired in April so we began a Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 program for the K-4th graders led by Sofia. Shirley Fetters has a K-4th grade evening story time on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.
The rodeo guest, pilots, naturalists, Buckeye, Native American, and snake lovers are extra programs held at various times to try and attract more young people. Our snake program in June was huge success, crowding 75 people into the back room to see real snakes. September 23rd the snakes made a return fall visit for 132 in attendance. We held a series of preschool sessions for caregivers and child known as “You Can Count on Mother Goose” in July and August, as well as a WCET caregiver program on August 14th.
We held a bookmark contest for children in the first through fifth grades and 361 of them participated! This made judging very difficult.
Leesburg Adult Programs:
Soccer parents meetings; the Wednesday Club; Read, Relax, and Review Book Discussion group; Artisan Folk Fair Committee; the Investment Club; Book illustrator Christopher Canyon; State Representative David Daniels and Senator John Carey visit; Recycling presentation; Musical Memorial for Veterans; Support Group for Caring for the Elderly; Mary Raisk, Buckeye Author; Brenda Armstrong, bears; Roger Grimsley, Air Force and commercial pilot; Underground Railroad program; Davis Andrews’ OSU Championship football team; Joe Far Raven, Native American; You Can Count on Mother Goose; 1800’s Clothing presentation; WCET Caregiver program; Diabetic Screening, Lions Club; Rain Forest program; Estate Planning workshop; Christmas Luminaria; Health Screening, Edgewood Manor.
Author Visits: Leesburg Branch Library hosted booksignings for Frank Hedges, Christopher Canyon, Ronda Friend, and Mary Raisk. Ronda Friend also had an author presentation.
Exhibitors Leesburg: Snowmen; Coke display; Tractors; Milk bottles; Summer Reading prizes; Ohio barn photos; Festival of the Bells display; Bonnets; Gourds; and Nativity sets.
| Overview & Hillsboro | Greenfield | Leesburg | Lynchburg | System Statistics |
LYNCHBURG BRANCH LIBRARY
Elaine Williams, Lynchburg Branch Manager
The Lynchburg Branch Library was privileged to take a large role in the community’s celebration of the Ohio Bicentennial. Branch Manager Elaine Williams was co-chair of the Lynchburg Committee for the Bicentennial. We were able to host or co-sponsor events such as the Bicentennial Kickoff reception, the Spring Tour of Historic Homes, and the Building Doctors workshop. The library also served as meeting place for the Bicentennial Committee and the place for volunteers or program attendees to sign up for Operation Clean Sweep, the December Church Walk, and other events. We hope that the community thinks of the library as a willing participant in local events for future years. We had a great time getting involved!
We also continued our involvement in the schools with weekly visits to several grades at Lynchburg-Clay Elementary for the Ohio Reads program. Library staff reads to the younger children at the school, or listens while older kids read aloud. In additional to this, one staff member goes to the Belfast Head Start twice a month to offer storytimes there. Children’s books in good condition that are not needed in the library collection are sometimes donated to Head Start or the elementary school’s new after-school program, Beyond the Bell LLC. Librarian Elaine Williams was invited by the school to help work on a grant for Beyond the Bell early in the year as well.
The Lynchburg staff was again part of the annual Covered Bridge Festival parade in August. This year, our float theme was “Red, White and Blue” for the Ohio Bicentennial. We wore our special red, white and blue Cat in the Hat hats and had a wonderful time decorating our float, which was pulled by Mr. Lyle McLarty.
In the library, we offered numerous programs during 2003 for adults, teens, and children. Storytimes for ages one to fifth grade were offered on a weekly basis. Programs for teens included Volunteens, contest, Money Origami, Window Art, crafts, an indoor campfire, and a summer reading club. For adults, there were 23 programs, including contests, crafts, poetry and computer classes. One of the highlights of our adult programming this year was the Building Doctors workshop. Two Building Doctors came from Columbus for an evening and a day to diagnose and prescribe treatment for eight local homes that were over fifty years old and in need of remodeling or repair. We couldn’t have done this without funding from the Lynchburg Historical Society! Thank you!
Staff member Carol Frost, along with Jennifer West from the Main library, presented a special series this year for parents of preschoolers called You Can Count on Mother Goose. Each week, parents learned how to teach their children math concepts using pictures books and related activities. Participants received a cloth bag, picture books and a kit for faithfully attending these sessions.
We are looking forward to what we can do for you in 2004!
Lynchburg Adult Programs:
New Year’s Resolution Contest; I Love My Library Because…”; Computer Classes; Bicentennial Kickoff Reception; Scrapbooking With Mats and Ribbons; Playing With Poetry; Ohio Trivia Contest; Plant Swap; Historic Homes Matching Game and tour; Collectibles in Your Contest; Victorian Puzzle Craft; Gift Tags and Candy Bags; Make a Luminaria; Kevin Williams, the Amish Cook; Puzzle Wreath Craft; OHS Building Doctors; Summer Reading Club; English Christmas Tea.
Author Visits: Lynchburg Branch Library hosted a booksigning for Frank Hedges.
Exhibitors at Lynchburg: Southwestern theme; Old Valentines; 4-H; Porcelain dolls; Cows; Gone With The Wind collector plates; Scarecrows/harvest display; Nativity sets; Songbirds; Amish Cook books
| Overview & Hillsboro | Greenfield | Leesburg | Lynchburg | System Statistics |
Highland County District Library
10 Willettsville Pike
Hillsboro, Ohio 45133
937-393-3114