President’s Remarks Friends of the
Newburyport Public Library 2021 Annual Meeting

We’ve all heard the phrase “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”
From Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

The Newburyport Library: Built of bricks and mortar, filled with books, magazines, programs and comfy chairs and space to enjoy all these things in…until we couldn’t.

But, like the true super heroes that they are, the Library Staff of the Newburyport Library ‘kept calm and carried on” and continued to provide the services that our community needed more desperately than ever throughout the last year.

So we, as the Friends of the Library – the fundraising arm of library supporters – also rallied and continued to provide to support to the library to help them with their mission.

In a year of reduced fundraising capabilities due to the pandemic the
Friends provided funding for:

• Kanopy® – a very popular video streaming service
• Virtual Programs that were (and continue to be) available to the public;
  these are programs that are not produced in house by the Library staff
• Crafts Programs for teens and children throughout the year
• Museum passes once the museums reopened to the public – this is
  historically an ongoing program provided by funding from the Friends
• The Friends also applied for grants to:
  •  Continue digitization for Archival Center materials
  • Purchase and Install a water fountain in the main lobby for water bottles

Of course, NONE of this could have been done without the support of our members and donors!

In a year when we were all wondering what our lives would be like YOU stepped up to make these programs and services available to the community through your ongoing support. At the end of 2020 we ran an Annual Appeal that was even more successful than in the past. Money came in with comments about how important the library was to your lives. This was incredibly motivating
for us as a Board and for the Library staff! Thank you so much!

While we could not be together this year, we were able to do a few things that, we hope, will enable us to communicate more effectively with our membership. One of things that we did was to implement a new Membership Management System. While not without its challenges, our Board stepped up to the task and we now have all our members listed in one database. Should you ask, we can now tell you very quickly if you have renewed your membership and precisely when you did! We were able to
acquire this system at a discount through a program run for non-profits by Microsoft.

Having this system also allowed us to improve our user experience on our website. It is now easier to join, renew and donate! We will continue to improve the website with information and updates to meetings and activities, so stay tuned.

This year we also revived a newsletter that was sent out electronically and, for those members for whom we do not have an email address, we sent hard copies. Being able to do this electronically helped us tremendously as it is very expensive to print and mail a hard copy newsletter. The newsletter is also available on our website for anyone who did not receive one.

As for in person events we were fortunate to be able to host two POP UP BOOK SALES in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021. They were very successful and were a wonderful way to bring our members together outdoors among the books they love!! It was great to see so many people at each sale!

The other exciting news is that we are planning on having the Great Old Books Sale IN the Library. It will run from October 20th through 23rd.

While you will have to wear masks and follow all the usual COVID protocols, it will be exciting to be back! Check the website for details on times and donation information.

As we look forward to our 2021-22 year, again, we are not sure what this year will look like. We do know that our Board is ready and willing to continue to provide the library with the funding it needs to maintain the programs and services our membership and the wider Newburyport Community needs and wants as best we can.

You have heard in Giselle Steven’s report about what the Library staff hope to accomplish and provide in the coming year. The Friends will continue to work to support these goals.

We truly appreciate the financial and volunteer support that our members provide. We are only as good as our member support allows us to be. Please renew your membership if you haven’t already done so yet, and please give generously during the Annual Appeal later this fall.

Please consider donating a book to the library in honor or memory of a loved one or to mark a special occasion, and join us as a volunteer if you have the time!

YOU are the FRIENDS of the Library!