The Norman Williams Public Library thanks the Town of Woodstock and our many generous patrons for their continued support of our work. In July our Library officially closed its books on another successful year of providing a wide array of valuable services to our community.
In the last fiscal year, NWPL once again worked to reduce our operating costs as well as increase support from our donors. We thank the increasing number of patrons who donated to our library this fiscal year. Both the number of gifts as well as the total donations were the highest ever received by NWPL. Thank you for your generosity and continued support.
Your support enables NWPL to provides access to more than 49,000 print volumes as well as movies, audio books, e-books, free WiFi and staff members to help with technology questions. Literary and cultural programs include children’s story hours, art exhibits, poetry and author readings, offerings by the local and regional performance groups, piano concerts and many others. All are free and open to the public. We circulated 42,590 items last year!
The Norman Williams Public Library is a non-profit corporation. It relies for funding on the Town of Woodstock (about 40% of the budget) and the generosity of many donors. We also hold fundraising programs throughout the year. The largest is our spring gala, with nearly 200 guests and an outstanding speaker.
We manage our services with a staff of three full-time and several part-time employees. Our many volunteers assist librarians on the circulation desk, prepare displays, re-shelve books and sort the many donated books, or help to keep the library running smoothly on a cost-effective basis.
We offered 206 library sponsored programs for adults last year with a total attendance of over 3,200 people. Children’s programs were also very well attended with more than 2,700 children and their caregivers attending over 200 programs. Nearly 1,000 eBooks were downloaded by our patron along with 360 audio books. Our volunteers contributed nearly 3,000 hours at the circulation desk and more than 2,000 sorting and selling books at our ongoing and increasingly successful book sale. A wide variety of volunteers provided more than the equivalent number of hours of three additional full-time employees.
Thank you volunteers and donors. We could not do this important work without you.