Michael Carlson, Gilpin County. The Library is currently in the process of finalizing plans for this year’s 2018 Summer Reading Program. The national theme this year is “Libraries Rock!”. This year we are going to be including a game for adults. Adults will be able to participate and complete tasks to be entered into our grand prize drawing to be held on August 11. Children from preschool through high school will also be able to complete various assignments and collect prizes as well as be entered into the grand prize drawing. The Summer Reading Program officially kicks off on June 5, 2018.

We currently have several special 10 a.m. Wednesday story time programs scheduled that coincide with the Summer Reading Program. On June 13, HawkQuest will be conducting their “Birds of Prey” program in the Library’s meeting room. All ages are welcome. Ventriloquist Mark Hellerstein presents Puppets & Things on Strings on June 20. Storybook character Splat the Cat will be visiting story time on July 11. Magician Ann Lincoln will be headlining our grand finale ice cream party on August 11 at 1:30 p.m.

In celebration of our “Libraries Rock” theme, the Friends of the Library are sponsoring a Summer Concert Series this year. After hours on Wednesday evenings in the summer, the Library will be hosting a series of four music recitals at 7 p.m. on June 13, June 27, July 11, and July 25, 2018. We currently have a woodwind trio scheduled for June 27 and a harp recital on July 11. We are still in negotiations to add a jazz trio and string quartet to the remaining two dates. Please check t

he website for the most current information as we continue to add performers.

The Library reached an all-time high for the month of April with 2,900 items checked out. We continue to see a steady increase in people visiting the Library as 6.5% more patrons visited last month compared to the same time last year. Our programs continue to be well attended. We hosted 11 programs and had 149 people attend for the month of April. We are continuing to have difficulty accommodating all of the requests for community groups to use our meeting room. Although we were only open 20 days last month, we had 19 various groups booked in our meeting room. We are excited to see that circulation, door count, and program attendance are well above last year’s numbers.

Patrons can receive more information on upcoming programs by visiting our website www.gilpinlibrary.org.

Statistics for April 2018: We circulated 2,900 items during the month. Books accounted for 56% of the circulation along with DVDs 30%, eContent 11%, and CD Books 3%. eBook, eAudio, and Database usage for the month was 319. Our estimated attendance for April was 1,210 for the 20 days the Library was open, an average of 60 patrons per day. There were 28 new Library cards issued. The meeting room was used 19 times. There were 12 requests for notary service.