Annual Report

Wide Awake Club Library 2021 Annual Report to the Community

Submitted by Roxanne Baker, Director

2020 certainly was a unique year for our library. As challenging as it was, we navigated through it and continued to serve our community in as many ways as possible. Even though we were closed for almost 4 months our circulation statistics are only down by 29%. Since our move in 2015 our circulation increased by 36% in 2019, so to be down by 29% is not too shabby! We are still the 2nd highest circulating library in all of Allegany County, just below Wellsville’s library. We are currently open 39 hours per week for those who want to come in to check out items, use our public computers, send or receive faxes, make copies, scan and use our Wi-Fi.  We sanitize our public computers after each use and are also sanitizing highly touched surfaces and our restrooms twice a day. We will continue to offer curbside service for anyone who requests it. Our wifi is available in our parking lot 24/7 with no password needed.  Thanks to a grant from the Foundation For Southern Tier Libraries we now have 2 Verizon wifi hotspots available for circulation.  These can connect up to 10 wifi enabled devices at a time and provide free internet service as long as you are not in a “dead zone”.  Feel free to ask us about this at the library for more details.

When we closed back in March our Children’s Story Time “Miss Bonnie” (Bonnie Leigh) stepped up to provide weekly virtual stories and crafts, and even read bedtime stories every night while we were closed!  Bonnie is currently doing our Preschool Story Time virtually every Tuesday morning at 10:30 until we can meet in person again. You can access the story times on our Facebook page and our website.  Our Program Coordinator Tonya Hartung organized a town wide scavenger hunt last summer, which was a lot of fun! We plan on hosting another one this year as well. We have also provided various “Take & Make” crafts and have started hosting some family programming on a limited basis.   Our Writers’ Group began meeting again virtually on Zoom in July, they were so happy to be able to support each other again that they started meeting twice a week!

Temporary  Hours of Service:

  • Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10am-5pm
  • Tuesday & Thursday 10am-6pm
  • Saturday 10am-noon

In 2020, at the Wide Awake Club Library:                                   

            •           33,922 materials were circulated

            •           7,885 people visited our library

            •           264 Adult/Children’s programs (virtual and in person) were offered  with a total of 1117 attending (attendance doesn’t include our virtual stories and crafts)

            •           40 memorials, gifts or donations were given.

            •           “Digital WAC Library users” checked out 5,361 digital audiobooks and eBooks. (almost 1,000 more than last year!)

The 2020 Summer Reading Program, “ IMAGINE YOUR STORY”.

            •           101 local children registered for the program and read for a combined total of 360 hours!

            •           23 young adults registered for our Tween/Teen Summer Reading Program to “Read and Rate a Book” and read a combined total of 51 books!

            •           30 adults registered for our Adult Summer Reading Challenge and read a total of 63 books.

Volunteers choose to invest their time connecting and supporting in unselfish ways and we are extremely fortunate to have a fantastic group of volunteers who help support our library in a variety of ways. Thank you!

  • Karen Barber  
  • Christie Spear   
  • Judy Mills 
  • Kim Cockle 
  • Betsy Rutledge 
  • Amy Wolski
  • Gerry McGlynn 
  • Sarah Trumpp
  • Carole McGlynn
  • Lynn Barry
  • Melissa Mills
  • Don Barber
  • Kathy Breuer 
  • Renee Hatfield
  • Bill Breuer
  • Katherine Tiblow
  • Amy Chiu
  • Olivia Chiu
  • Jim Heckathorn
  • Tyler Johnson
  • Will Tetta

 2021 at the Library:

We are very excited to announce that we received two grants this year:

            •           The Pilcrow Foundation has granted us 72 new children’s books! This is a matching grant where the foundation gives $800 towards the books and the Wide Awake Club ladies donated the matching $400. These books are highlighted and displayed in our children’s library, come and check them out!

            •           We’ve been selected as one of 200 libraries to participate in Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, an American Library Association initiative that helps libraries better serve their small and rural communities. The competitive award comes with a $3,000 grant that will help the library host a series of discussions centered around the economic revitalization of our community. Our hope for these conversations is that we will be able to facilitate the joining of individuals and organizations towards this shared goal of community revitalization. Part of this grant funding will be used to purchase 2 more Verizon wifi hotspots that can be used to help with these discussions and will also be available for circulation. If you are interested in getting involved or taking part in these conversations, please contact the library.

While we are still uncertain what the future holds for 2021, we are planning on resuming our regular programming as soon as we can safely do so. These programs include: Bring the World to the Library monthly events, Adult Coloring, Book Clubs, Adult Crafts, Sewing Workshops, Baby & Me and Preschool Story Times, After School Programming and Cookbook Club. Please feel free to suggest new ideas for programs too! Here are some of the things happening now at the library:

  • 1000 Books Before Kindergarten

Beginning in February the Wide Awake Club library will be starting a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. The program encourages parents and caregivers to regularly read aloud to their young children.The concept is simple, the rewards are priceless. Read a book  to your newborn, infant, and/or toddler. The goal is to have read 1,000 books before your precious one starts kindergarten. Does it sound hard? Not really if you think about it. If you read just 1 book a night, you will have read about 365 books in a year. That is 730 books in two years and 1,095 books in three years.Make a record of what you are reading, the library will have paper forms and an app to help you keep track of all the books you read to your child.

            •           Story Time with Miss Bonnie continues every Tuesday at 10:30 either virtually or in person. Check our website for more details.   

            •           The Allegany County Creative Writers Group meets twice weekly to share their work, free-write and support one another. This is a fun-loving, congenial group for the purpose of providing a place for other fun-loving, congenial writer types to spend time together. Writers supporting writers! Please feel free to join in on Thursdays from 1-3pm and Saturdays from 11am-1pm. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

            •           Our library continues to be a host site during 2021 for the Artists Among Us touring art program from Allegany County, NY. The artwork will be displayed in our McGlynn Community Room.  “Artists Among Us” is a touring art program created by the Fountain Arts Center, Belmont, NY. The Artists Among Us program is funded in part by the New York State Council On The Arts Decentralization ReGrant Program with support from Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature administered through the Cattaraugus County Arts Council.

            •           Our Allegany Angel Gown Project continues. These gowns are given to families in our surrounding areas for babies that never make it home from the hospital. We are in need of sewing volunteers to help with this, only very basic skills are needed. We’re looking for donations of wedding gowns and pink and baby blue prom dresses. Currently they are not meeting at the library but are sending projects home with people to work on. Contact the library if you are interested.

The library provides current, popular materials to serve the recreational and informational needs of our patrons of all ages.  Our patrons have access to Starcat, which is the online catalog for all 48 libraries in our Southern Tier Library System.  Patrons are able to place holds on items in Starcat from other libraries by using our inter-library loan system. Free downloadable audio and eBooks are available through Overdrive and it’s Libby app. which makes it easier than ever to download digital books. RB Digital allows patrons to access free magazines. All of these online links can be found on our website at www.fillmorelibrary.com

Maintenance, replacement and upgrades of computer equipment will be provided as the budget warrants.  Expansions of all collections of library materials will be of primary concern as the budget warrants.  Board meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7:00pm. The public is always welcome to attend.

Board of Trustees who generously donatate their time and talents:

  • Rodney Bennett, President
  • Carole McGlynn, Vice-President
  • Bradley Wilber, Secretary
  • Karen Williams, Trustee
  • Pat Ricketts, Trustee
  • Shawn Hotchkiss, Trustee
  • Rebecca Rowley, Trustee
  • Judy Robertson, Trustee

Library Staff:

  • Roxanne Baker, Library Director
  • Joan Tavernier, Library Manager
  • Tonya Hartung, Programming Coordinator
  • Dianne Heim, Library Clerk and Website Manager
  • Marriah Propert, Treasurer
  • Bonnie Leigh, Children’s Story Hour & Summer Reading
  • Don Barber, Maintenance
  • Gordon “Junior” Johnson, Mowing and Shoveling

Library Services:

  •             •           Fax service
  •             •           Wifi Access
  •             •           Public Computers
  •             •           Color Copier/Printer/Scanner
  •             •           Local History Collection
  •             •           Home Delivery to Shut-ins
  •             •           Wireless Printing
  •             •           Adult, Young Adult, Children and Baby Programs