You may recognize some of the faces in the above picture. This time of year it is so fun to reflect on the past. What did your holiday look like? What memories from this Christmas season are you taking to the future? Did you start something that you would like to make a tradition? What were your favorite holiday books this season?
For us at the Library we wrap up not only our calendar year, but the reports for our fiscal which closed out in September. 2021-2022 was the highest attendance we have ever seen at the Library. Increased attendance comes from the growth of our programs. In 2021-2022 we received around $80,000 to assist in programming expenses. That money was brought in to our Donnelly community to pay for staffing, programming resources, additional materials, wifi services, healthy snacks, and so much more. We bought microscopes, ipads, shelving, and a playground. Some of our additional funding this past year came from ARPA funds with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho Out-Of-School Network, and Idaho Commission For Libraries. We also had scholarships and books funded by our very own Friends of The Donnelly Library.
Some of our greatest donations this past year came from our Friends group and the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation to jump start our Building Project. We received $50,000 from the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation to pay for planning of our Building Project and many of the begining steps. Building is our #1 goal for 2023. Many people choose a word for the year. A resolution word or a focus word. My word for 2023 is EXPANSION. I want to see the Library expand. Not just our building, but in our services we offer as well.
If you are wanting to do some year-end giving and need to have it dated by the end of 2022, no worries you can VENMO your donation.
What was the most checked out book in 2022? Circulation was not what you would anticipate at all. Our Apple iPads were our most circulated item in 2022. The top 10 items are a slew of “things.” Just that tops the list, “things.” We have become a Library of Things. American Girl dolls, Airpods, Oculus, Wifi Hotspots, KReady learning tools and so much more. We circulated books as well in 2022, but our Library Of Things tops the list.
Top books are 5 Little Pumpkins, Star Wars and Unbroken. Unbroken is a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash in the Pacific theater, spent 47 days at sea, and then survived torture beyond words. It is a story of survival, triumph and so much more. We have several copies available because it is part of our Book Club In A Bag. You can come in and check out the entire bag. Inside the bag is a minimum of 5 copies of the book, a study guide, possibly the movie and maybe a recipe or two.
Our librarians have not had a whole lot of time to read this year, but we did get some reading in. Sarah shares her reviews on our website. Director’s Corner.
Summer Reading our big reading accomplishment was reading the unabridged version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. It was huge! DRC (Dragon Readers’ Club) has read several Roald Dahl books this year including Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, James And The Giant Peach and The Witches.
A few years ago a patron challenged me to keep track of everything I read for the year. I set out to document everything on GoodReads. I set out to do so.









