A lot goes on in our little library every day.
Toddlers, small children, large children and teenagers,
young mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers,
store owners, cooks, caterers, fishermen,
businessmen, businesswomen, teachers,
writers and readers
search for books, information, companionship and fun
six days a week, twenty-four hours a day, all year round,
during the day, after school, on weekends, in the evenings, and during vacations.
They do homework, business, research, play games, create games,
plan new ventures, educate themselves,
write music, book, poetry and letters,
design books, make books, find jobs, improve their chances at better jobs,
learn history, write history and read.
There are over 33,000 books in our collection.
Our digitized catalog is joined with those of more than sixty other libraries.
The combined catalog includes over six million items including books, DVD's,
audio books, magazines, and music CD's.
This online catalog is joined with the catalogs
of The Bangor Public Library, The Maine State Library,
Bowdoin, Bates and Colby Colleges and several other large libraries.
A single search, done from the Library computers, or from your computer at home, scans more than 2,500,000 unique titles and nearly 6 million items.
Pretty good for a tiny,
one hundred and twenty-fiveyear old library on an island in Maine!
Recently Gail Gibbons, a well-known writer of non-fiction for very young children visited and shared ideas and excitement with our children.
This was one of many such author visits.
The Library was visited 75,000 times last year.
About twenty first-graders recently visited the Library with their teacher.
All but three of the kids were familiar with the Library because their families use it.
We are second in Maine for per capita attendance at children's programs.
Our Reader Dogs visit the Library every week.
That means that there have been hundreds of sessions
where a small, beginning reader has gained confidence by reading out loud
to this patient audience.
Our Library was one of the first in the nation to have a Reader Dog.
Our per capita circulation is one of the highest in the state.
While whole families are gathered at the Library in the evening to play board games during the winter, the Heimboldt Reading Room upstairs is full of knitters
- from grandmothers to children.
People who do not own their own computers use ours - without cost.
Our high-speed wireless Internet service is available 24 hours a day - and it is free.
Visually impaired people in our community find help at the Library in coping with the paperwork to access the Maine State Library Talking Books program.
Historians around the country and members of the community
consult our Collection of Historic Photographs of Southwest Harbor and the island.
Prints are available for the cost of handling them.
This web site was designed and constructed entirely by volunteers.
Among many other things, it offers the community a virtual Reference Room
designed just for them. The Children's Virtual Reference Room
is non-commercial, informative and fun.
The Southwest Harbor Public Library asks for $45,000 from the Town
- less than 20% of our budget. Our costs are labor intensive so volunteers work
over 40 hours a week
- hours which would cost many times the cost of one more salaried employee
if we had to pay for it.
Volunteers process, mend and shelve books, wash windows, do housekeeping,
do janitorial work, maintenance and repair, wash windows and replace them,
and provide archival and technical support for librarians and patrons.
Part our budget is raised by volunteers who spend literally thousands of hours each year running book sales, art sales, raffles, auctions, dinners, plant sales, and garden tours.
More of our expenses are raised by applying for grants, our Annual Appeal, and local businesses that generously donate goods and services to the Library.
Interest from our small Endowment helps.
A loyal band of volunteers works night and day to build the Endowment
so that it will help to reduce the financial strain.
Local people, many of whose families still work for it every day,
founded the Southwest Harbor Public Library.
The Library exists to serve the community.
Times are difficult for our country today.
In the winter of 2008-2009 our contributions were down.
We thought we might have to close the Southwest Harbor Public Library
one day a week.
We sent an appeal to our patrons and supporters.
They saved the Library.
We will be able to maintain our normal hours…for the moment.
The mission of The Southwest Harbor Public Library is
“Open Doors…Open Minds”
Our doors are open.
We try to keep our minds open too.