OP-ED: Lewiston Public Library continues to grow

Guest Editorial by Jill Palermo

Executive Director

Lewiston Public Library

As we continue our growth in 2024, I would like to report to the community that your Lewiston Public Library is having another strong year. We have put the pandemic and its various restrictions from 2020-22 behind us, and have a solid foundation for us to continue to grow.

Your library is funded by more than $400,000 from the Town of Lewiston and more than $16,000 from Niagara County. On behalf of the volunteer members of our board of trustees and our staff, I can assure the community that we treat those funds like they are our own and make sure they are allocated for the best use in serving the public.

Although we are tucked away in the southeast corner of the village, our facility is bustling with activity and we are bursting at the seams.

For your reference, in 2023, we had a total circulation of 60,139, more than 48,300 visits to the library with 4,391 registered resident borrowers along with another 1,901 borrowers who are non-residents.

They come to us in such large numbers because we have been able to assemble a wide array of reference and entertainment materials.

√ We have nearly 56,806 print items.

√ We have another 10,628 electronic books, audiobooks and downloadable videos.

√ And 9,400 other items such as DVDs, CDs, books on CD and Playaways.

That’s a lot of people coming through our doors and a wide array of materials for them. Our dedicated staff of four full-time employees and eight part-time employees take pride in servicing them. But what they are most proud of is the programming that we design and implement for people of all ages.

Important to our activities is our children’s programming. In the calendar year 2023, we brought to the community 270 specific programs for children and young people. Attendance at these programs was more than 6,700.

Included in that number is programs we targeted to children ages 1-5. We’re getting them involved in reading programs and other activities that will hopefully make them comfortable in coming to the library throughout their lives.

We are also ever-increasing traffic to the library website. In 2023, we had 15,591 visits to the library website.

I could go on and discuss our very popular genealogy program and other activities, but I’ll stop here.

Jill Palermo (Submitted photo)

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Our building is a beautiful building. It was built in 1989. Over its 33 years, it is starting to show wear-and-tear and we are bursting at the seams.

I can speak for our entire staff when I say “thank you” to our community for your support. I would also like to recognize the volunteer service of our board of trustees (Christopher Pannozza, president; MaryJo Farrell, vice president; Nancy Smith, treasurer; John Daigneau, secretary; and trustees Frederick Caso, Matthew Feldman and Wendy Swearingen). Lewiston Town Board liaison is John Jacoby and special recognition to the volunteers of the Friends of the Library who work tirelessly on our behalf.