City of Methuen Master Plan

Methuen Master Plan 2007
computers, private offices for all managers, large work spaces for most departments, a silent study area,
and areas for table seating and group study.
Following the renovation, the number of library staff almost doubled, circulation doubled, foot traffic
tripled and interlibrary loan increased more than one thousand percent. The library currently houses 65
computers including 39 for public use, and 5 laptops for computer trainings. During 2005, 120,000
people visited the library, a 350% increase in attendance over the numbers recorded in the library’s 1995
Long Range Plan.
The library is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. Friday and Saturday from 9:00
am to 5:00 pm; it is closed on Sundays and holidays. There is public seating for 190 people throughout
the building, excluding the four meeting rooms.
Meeting Rooms. The meeting rooms are the Hall, which has a full proscenium stage, a viewing balcony
that holds 250 people, the Trustees Room on the Main Floor which is a conference room seating 10
people, the Garden Room adjacent to the Children’s Room which seats a maximum of 60 persons and
the Group Study Room in the Children’s Room which seats up to 15 people. During the year 2004
more than 500 meetings and programs were held in the library’s meeting rooms.
Collection
The library collection includes books, periodicals, tapes, videos, CDs, and audio books, Print holdings
total 85,224 books. The library owns 3,534 video/DVDs, and 2,947 audio music and book titles.
Periodical subscriptions number over 200. Overall the collection is considered undersized when
compared with collection size for libraries in communities over 40,0000 population. Most patrons do
not realize or experience the small size of the collection due to the library’s ability to access materials
efficiently and quickly through the inter-library delivery system. Membership in the Merrimack Valley
Library Consortium gives patrons access via the public access catalog, to 3 million holdings in the 30
libraries in the network.
Circulation
During the fiscal year ending in June of 2005 (NANCY: where is 06 data?), the Nevins Library
circulated 256, 917 items. This represented a 94% increase in circulation since 2002 (the year the new
library opened). Included in this number of items circulated are 51,638 items that were loaned to, and
borrowed from, other libraries, and handled through the statewide regional delivery service as well as
items circulated to New Hampshire residents. The Library is also a member of the Northeast
Massachusetts Regional Library System and is a participant in all regional activities, most significantly the
Inter-Library Loan & Delivery System upon which the library depends for much of what residents ask
for in terms of materials. The following table demonstrates the increase in circulation over time.
Table 48: Circulation Trends: Nevins Memorial Library
Year 1954 1984 1994 2004
Total # of Items 50,189 91,699 133,081 256,917
Programs
Adult programs include book clubs, writing workshops, knitting groups and lecture series. The library
works with Methuen schools, local daycare providers, pre-schools and homeschoolers to provide a
variety of children’s programs. In FY04 the Library sponsored 296 programs for children with a total
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