Page 4 - annual-report-2019

RePoRT fRoM The heAd LiBRARiAn (2019)
Carolyn Waters

As I write my 2019 Annual Report, it is April 2020, and the Library series on our website. As you are well aware, the entire staff, but in particular
building is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The activities and the Circulation Department, are also ever eager to share recommendations
successes of 2019 seem so long ago, but even so, it’s been a comfort to and provide reader’s advisory through our regular online book recommen-
reflect on the past year and to marvel at all we are currently accomplishing dation articles, via social media, one-on-one at the Circulation Desk, and
virtually, while looking forward to our return to 53 East 79th Street. even in the elevator. For the past twenty years, Susan Chan has overseen our
At the beginning of 2019, we introduced new membership categories in Books by Mail service, which puts books in the hands of those members
order to provide better options for members based on how they and their who are unable to make it to the Library. In 2019, Susan mailed 17% more
households use the Library—whether it’s primarily to access our e-re- books to 28% more patrons than in the prior year.
sources, or whether one, two, or multiple family members make use of our The collection itself grew by approximately 3,800 new print and e-book
programs and services. We began hosting member orientation sessions to titles in 2019. We were pleased to receive important funding from Elizabeth
introduce, and re-introduce, members to the Library building, collections, Dobell for our eleventh book fund, The Byron Dobell Fund for American
events, communications, and online offerings. In June, we began rolling out History, in honor of her father. And while we spent the remaining funds
our first ever Membership Cards, featuring our iconic script and a shelf of from the Ethelyn Chase Fund for Poetry, we were delighted to welcome
books by some of our many member writers past and present. Mrs. Chase to the Library to thank her for her generosity over the years and
to celebrate the completion of the cataloging of the Chase Poetry Collection.
To address the overcrowding in the building, in September, I vacated my
office on the Third Floor, and we officially opened the Little Whitridge Thanks to Jeannette Watson Sanger for arranging that visit. And enormous
Room (“Little Whit” for short) to members. I miss the daily singing (and thanks to Peri Pignetti, our Head of Cataloging and Special Collections, who
yes, even the occasional crying) emanating from the Children’s Library, made it her mission to complete that project in 2019.
but I’m so pleased that we were able to carve out additional member space. The Cataloging Department was also instrumental in another special
project: cleaning up the bibliographic data in our historic digital City Readers
The encouraging news in 2019 was that circulations (the total number of
checkouts per year) increased for the first time since 2012! This is primarily database, which is now 90% complete. This project would not have been
due to a surge in e-book checkouts as well as a halt in the decline in check- possible without the generous support of members Ildiko and Gilbert Butler.
outs of print books. While the Acquisitions Department and the Children’s We were delighted to loan several of our Herman Melville materials—the
Librarians are busy sourcing and purchasing the titles that members want circulation ledger recording his checkouts, his New York Society Library
to read, our Head of Acquisitions, Steve McGuirl, has also highlighted many share certificate, and a book instrumental to his research for Moby-Dick—
excellent but under-the-radar titles in the popular “In Case You Missed It” to the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia for their exhibition American