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Report to the Community

In 2019 the Library offered its patrons access to a wide range of items, classes, events, and services to help educate and enrich the community.  Our patrons borrowed or accessed 747,321 items, both physically and digitally.  Our patrons continue to be among the heaviest users in the entire county of the Live-brary (Overdrive) e-book collection, with over 103,000 e-items checked out (that’s up over 29% from last year).  We welcomed 22,690 attendees to 1,057 library classes and events, including 166 events for our annual children’s Summer Reading Club during which our young patrons read over 18,000 books.  It became even easier for parents and kids to log Summer Reading Club books with upgrades to the Beanstack summer reading app that now includes Alexa voice integration.  There were over 5,700 attendees at our Adult programs, 507 attendees at our programs geared toward seniors, and 256 at our All-Adults-All-Abilities programs specially designed for adults with special needs.  Our patrons made over 2,100 visits to museums with eight new museums being added to our offerings in 2019.  We also added Hoopla (a digital media service offering books, audiobooks, music, and streaming movies), and three new online instructional video resources: CreativeBug, hoonuit, and Universal Class.  The Library introduced a new “Library of Things” collection, and also began offering discounted tickets to the Long Island Aquarium.  We interviewed six local military veterans, preserving their stories for posterity as part of the Veterans Oral History project in partnership with the Library of Congress.

The library was out and about in the community as well.  We participated in Culper Spy Day with a colonial music performance, a children’s craft, information table, library materials related to the Culper Spy Ring, and a display of Revolutionary War paraphernalia.  We also were on hand to read to children at the Fiddle & Folk Festival and the annual Apple Festival.  We made several school visits, and participated in district events such as elementary school science fairs and STEM Nights.  We partnered with the Long Island Museum for several programs including a bicentennial celebration of Walt Whitman, an event commemorating the underground railroad on Long Island, and a program for children and parents on slavery during the Revolutionary War.  All the library-museum programs included book readings and tours of the museum’s exhibits. Although we didn’t win this year, the Library entered “Super Reader” into the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s annual scarecrow contest, and our ever-popular Little Free Library was once again installed at West Meadow beach during the summer months.

The Library added two additional hours to its Sunday morning schedule, placing the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library in the top tier of Suffolk County libraries offering the most library public service hours each year.  We’re also one of the few libraries in our area open 7 days a week–all year long.

The library also completed two major infrastructure projects: public restrooms on the lower level were renovated and upgraded to ADA-compliant, single-use restrooms and the library also resurfaced the flat roof sections of the library with an energy-efficient, 30-year warranty solution.  Both of these projects were subsidized by New York State Aid for Library Construction.  Looking forward to 2020, the library will be embarking on some exciting new infrastructure projects that include creating more quiet space on the main floor, adding a small café area, and creating a pleasant outdoor reading area that our patrons can enjoy during the warm weather months.

We encourage all of our patrons to visit the library and to take advantage of the materials and services available to them.

January 2020
Emma S. Clark Memorial Library Board of Trustees:

Orlando T. Maione, President

Deborah Blair, Vice-President

Christopher Fletcher, Treasurer

Carol Leister, Secretary

David Douglas

Linda Josephs

Anthony Parlatore

Richard Russell

Suzanne Shane