Our Board of Trustees and volunteers have been busy this winter. The SIES board has hired a designer to create a uniquely identifiable logo for the organization. We have also hired a website engineer to create a site that will provide access to all of our services as well as to other free services you might want to access from your home or mobile device.
Library collection circulations have increased more than 100% to almost 7,000 items in 2012. We will have over 11,000 items cataloged within the next few weeks. Way to go library volunteers! Over 5,000 visits to the library were tallied in 2012 and we know that on some of those busy days not everyone was counted.
After Christmas we stayed busy with some of the programs we have shown in the photographs shown below. In March, Belva Staples held a weekly Creative Writing Workshop. Some of the upcoming spring activities are listed to the right in the schedule.
During the past winter the historical society has been working on several exhibits to share with the island community. Some exhibits will be continuing works that will be added to over the next few years. Island history will be prominent all over the island this summer; at the library, lighthouse, town hall, and the Odd Fellows Hall. Some of the topics will include: Transportation to Swan’s Island, The Color of Buoys, Swan’s Island Maps-How Places on Land and Sea got their names, and finally, a cooperative exhibit with the Lighthouse Committee that will highlight the Chandler lighthouse- keeping family.
Along with all of that, our historical society volunteers are still collecting, scanning, and cataloging Swan’s Island history. Some of the volunteers have been learning how to properly preserve historical material too. Their great work just seems to go on and on.
We will once again be submitting an application for an Island Institute summer intern to serve as a clerk to assist the volunteers and director during the busy summer months. We will also be hiring a person to help with summer programming; especially with programs for children.
Opening the summer Tuesday Series (several of which this year will occur on Friday), Gary Rainford will read from a work which he says is much grittier than his usual. Maine mystery author Gerry Boyle will visit us in July.
On July 19 and August 16, the historical society will present two different programs based on the oral histories that have been collected. These programs will take place at the Odd Fellows Hall.
Still being finalized are several noteworthy events: a Maine film, Native American flute player, music by a Maine musician, and a dramatic presentation by one of our seasonal visitors.
The Annual Bazaar will be much different this year. It occurs during the two weeks we host the Open Studio Artists. We will have a full afternoon of art, crafts and food with several other activities in the works.
And….who is ready to enter their chowder in this year’s Annual Chowder Cook-off? We had some really great and interesting chowders last year. Let’s see what you all can come up with this year!
All of the hard work and dedication to provide quality library and historical collections services and programming would be impossible without the effort and support of our volunteers, the SIES Board of Trustees and donors like you. We can never thank you enough.
THANK YOU!