Michael Carlson, Gilpin County.  December signaled the end of another successful year here at the Library. We had a busy month that included eight different programs, ranging from a visit from Santa to our usual 1st Wednesday book club. Santa alone drew a crowd of over 40 people. Patrons have enjoyed visiting Virginia Unseld’s painting exhibition entitled “Gilpin County….and Beyond” currently on display in the meeting room through January 30th. Overall, we are proud of our programming successes in 2016 but are exploring new ways to increase programming for children, teens, and adults in the upcoming year.

One area that we will be focusing on this year is teen programming. In December, we met with Irene Shonle and Kirsten Springer, of the Gilpin Extension Office, to discuss collaborating on a teen robotics program. The Extension Office has applied for a grant from the Alan Green Memorial Foundation to support purchasing Lego Robotics kits and several computers for programming. Although we will not know the outcome of the grant until mid-February, we have enough materials on hand to kick off the program starting in February. The 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month will feature a STEAM focused teen program. The initial program for “Teen Tech Thursdays” begins February 9, 2017 and starts with participants constructing a robotic Mars rover.

In November, the Library Board approved moving forward with plans to revamp the logo for the Library. The Library never really had its own official logo, and in most cases, relied

on the one used for Gilpin County. Gabrielle Gewirtz is an established graphic designer in Gilpin County and offered her help in this process. In December, she submitted seven concepts to library staff for consideration. During a recent staff meeting, we reviewed the concepts and offered up a few suggestions on one particular logo that all members felt represented the Library. We should have a finished design ready for Board approval at the February or March meeting.

The end of the year signals the time when all statistics for the previous 12 months must be submitted to the state. The year-end review shows that 13,564 patrons visited the Library in 2016 and checked out 24,484 items. Two of the more significant areas of increase were in new card registrants and meeting room usage. The Library experienced a 34.3% increase in new card applicants last year and a 50.7% increase in the use of the meeting room. In the upcoming year, we hope to have a more detailed account of program attendance, website visits, and computer sessions. All three are popular services that need to be reflected in our year-end review.

Statistics for December 2016: We circulated 1,911 items during the month. Books accounted for 48% of the circulation along with DVD’s 36%, eContent 12%, and CD Books 4%. eBook and eAudio circulation for the month was 224. Our estimated attendance for December was 980 for the 21 days the library was open, an average of 47 patrons per day.

There were 1,272 patron visits to our website. There were 32 new library cards issued. The meeting room was used 10 times.