43
Check out the growth at Hubbard’s library
Hubbard
When it comes to anniversaries, 75 years is a long time for the survival of anything.
But for the Hubbard Public Library, where state cuts were threatening its closure in 2009 and where the digital age has some questioning the validity of a physical library, its survival is a story of adaptation.
Its overall circulation in February was up more than 50 percent compared with last February, said Sherry Ault, the library’s director.
“Some months it’s reached 70 percent,” Ault said.
Those figures include the downloading of e-books, MP3 music files and other digital content available since the Hubbard library joined the library consortium CLEVNET in October 2011. The consortium among Northeast Ohio libraries brings Hubbard’s patrons access to 10 million books, music, self-help tips and e-books for the Kindle.
And its prereading development program AlphaBop, which began in January, has become so popular that another session has been added to accommodate all of the children.
Nancy Grapevine, one of the two instructors for the program, said it combines movement to music and other actions proven to foster reading skills.
This month the library, at 436 W. Liberty St., celebrates its 75th anniversary during its third annual open house next Sunday.
The library will have gift basket giveaways, classes on how to use the digital database and demonstrations on its activities for children.
Also the library will unveil its poetry post outside the kids room on the first floor, a concept librarian Mary Anne Russo got from Portland, Ore.
“There, people have them in their neighborhoods,” Russo said.
She said each week new tabs with a children’s poem written on them will be available to grab.
“We’re kind of a community center here,” Ault said. “That’s why we do the open house, because people don’t realize what all we do here.”
The library predates 1937, according to library and Vindicator records. Its history begins in 1929 with 12 women who formed a club operating under the mantra “A public library for Hubbard!”
After eight years of lobbying, they received funding through Hubbard’s board of education to open the city’s first public library in the old Roosevelt Elementary School formerly on School Street.
By the late 1950s, it had outgrown the two rooms it occupied there and sought its own building. In 1961, the Hubbard Board of Education leased land for a new library building on Liberty Street. Its construction was completed in 1963. The library has been there since.
Between 2000 and 2009, the state cut more than $300,000 from its budget.
“The only time I was truly afraid was in 2009 when the state started cutting,” she said.
The library lost nine employees then and slashed the 60-hour work week to 40.
In 2010, the library turned to Hubbard residents to help with library costs, placing a 1.9-mill continuous levy on the November ballot. It passed and brings in about $400,000 each year.
After averting financial ruin, Hubbard joined the five other independent libraries in Trumbull County — Girard, Bristol, Kinsman, Newton Falls and McKinley in Niles — and joined the CLEVNET consortium, which has accelerated library use, Ault said.
In late April Ault plans to implement a virtual library card system. “You can sign up online and get a card without even entering the building,” she said.