New Canaan Library Inc

Learning programsadultsas the community's platform for lifelong learning, the library provides programs to support the creativity and curiosity of our youth and adult populations. We strive to support and promote our community's pursuit of lifelong learning through thoughtful and varied programs curated by our professional team, designed to ensure that many different styles of learning are available including lectures, workshops, classes, hands-on, discussion groups and more.new canaan library offered 727 total programs and classes to our adult community in fy 2025. 20,031 individuals attended these programs. Of particular note:- we welcomed high profile speakers such as ambassador john sullivan, sebastian smee, carl safina, emily rubinfeld, ed burns, brooke shields, naomi watts, and more to capacity audiences of 300 each- we fostered partnerships with many town nonprofit organizations, cosponsoring many community programs with a variety of local organizations- we have brought an array of introductory, hands-on arts classes for adults, which have proven immensely popular and highly sought-after- we activated programming on the library green, including dance performances with nead and our second annual groove on the green music celebration that brought 900 people- we implemented new instructional courses to increase technological literacy, covering topics such as microsoft office, google suite, and canva- we instituted several language instruction and conversational classes in french, spanish, and esl- we ran six librarian-led book groups per month as well as supported over 20 private book groups in the communitychildrenour learning programs for children 0-12 are professionally developed and delivered as part of a curriculum of literacy development that includes developmentally appropriate, scaffolded learning experiences for children from 6 months - five years and then further age appropriate literacy development for older children with book groups and a summer reading program which is both wildly popular among our families and ensures that students in our local schools do not lose ground on their reading comprehension during the summer months. In addition to literacy development programing, we also offer a breadth of other learning and cultural programs on topics including math, science, creative writing, steam programming, as well as strong arts programming with music and visual arts, and much more.during fy 25 our children's team delivered 893 learning programs for children with 34,618 attendees. Highlights of our programming for families include: - 1,117 children and teens participated in our summer reading program in the summer of 2024- we welcomed beloved children's authors including jan brett, dan gutman, alan katz, lauren tarshis, and more to full and enthusiastic crowds.- we conducted programs in coordination with our multicultural parents committee to educate and inform community members about various cultural celebrations and traditions including diwali, hanukkah, ramadan, lunar new year, and more - we continued to support services and programs for families of children with disabilities, including a monthly parenting meet-up and a regular rotation of adaptive programs designed specifically for the needs of this demographic- our professional librarians conducted 10 weekly storytimes for ages birth - five, serving well over 500 children and parents per week for storytimes alone. Teensour programming for teens is primarily conducted by our teen services librarian and our technology education coordinator, who devise programs that are responsive to and informed by the particular needs of the teen demographic. During fy 25 our team delivered 186 learning programs for teens with 1787 attendees. Highlights of our programming for teens include: - popular and devoted recurring programs for teens include d&d/role-playing sessions, painting and visual arts instruction, cooking and baking classes, knitting, sewing and crochet, and coding and engineering challenges in our makerlab, and more.- stressed out teens appreciated our study bunny break during midterms - dozens of appreciative teens enjoyed holding furry friends to reduce their stress levels during exam time.- teen volunteers also create and run their own programs for children. These have been devised to include art instruction, math buddies, finance, debate, technology, chess, crochet, and more, to draw on the teens' expertise and interest, so that teens can connect with and inspire local children while growing themselves and gaining valuable experience- this fiscal year, 151 teens participated in our teen volunteer program, donating more than 2,025 hours of their time.

Space offeringsproviding a variety of accessible spaces for individuals and groups from our community to meet and work is an integral part of our offerings. Our community is enriched by a very high level of volunteerism and participation in community interest groups and nonprofits. The library's provision of meeting spaces for the board meetings and committee work of these groups is critical to our role as an anchor institution in the town. Our nine meeting rooms plus additional large-scale conference spaces are some of our most well-used resources; in fy25, over 11,000 non-library affiliated meetings occurred in one of our meeting rooms. Additionally, informal space to work, read, and research for individuals and groups for all ages is an important element of the library's unique role as provider of inclusive, accessible spaces. Library spaces are of course also critical infrastructure, housing not only our collections but also the venues for our program and service delivery. In addition, our library green adds additional outdoor seating, program, and meeting space for the community.to maintain clean well-functioning space requires significant monetary and human resource. Our new building has been designed to be efficient and sustainable, however energy delivery costs continue to rise even as our usage decreases. Our building continues also to be extremely popular with the community with a door count increase of over 70% from our pre-construction/pre-pandemic heights, and consequently sees more wear and tear from usage and requires more attention to cleaning and upkeep.