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BOXFORD TOWN LIBRARY

2016 Annual Report

The Boxford Town Library is a resource for residents of all ages. The Library supports
emergent and developing literacy; promotes lifelong learning; encourages all ages to
engage in recreational reading; bridges the technology knowledge and access gap; and
provides a space for the community to interact and exchange ideas.

The Boxford Town Library is governed by an elected board of seven trustees known as
The Library Board of Trustees. The Library Board of Trustees is a town agency,
established by vote of a special town meeting on December 17, 1965. It is governed by
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 78 and other pertinent statutes. Staff and Trustees
are committed to providing personal and professional attention to each person using
library services.

Facilities and Operations

The Boxford Town Library began the year 2016 having successfully operated ten months
in the east wing of the ground floor of Town Hall. The Library was in operation 6 days,
and 50 hours a week. Being in the Town Hall building has been a positive experience for
the library with circulation and patron count numbers surpassing pre-closure numbers by
the end of 2016. The meeting rooms in Town Hall are great spaces for library
programming and the wide hallways allow for periodic art displays. The buildings that
housed the Boxford Town Library, at 10 Elm Street, are still in the care and custody of
the Library Board of Trustees.

In May of 2016, Selectmen Chuck Costello sponsored a Town Meeting warrant article to
expand library services to encompass the entire ground floor of Town Hall. Article
Twelve passed with a majority vote and funds were secured to renovate and expand the
library in Town Hall. M.E.D. Architecture and Design was contracted to develop plans
to relocate the Town Clerk office to the second floor and renovate and expand the library
creating a new Children’s Room, Adult Non-fiction Reading Room, and relocate the Staff
workroom within the ground floor library footprint. Construction began November 14
and was completed one month later by the end of the week of December 12. The
renovation and expansion allows the library to modestly expand our services and program
offerings with the understanding that it is a temporary solution. Even with the expanded
space the library is still unable to offer spaces for small group work and tutoring,
adequate comfortable seating, dedicated PC’s for children, and access to the entire
collection for visual browsing by both children and adults.

With the limited space available in the Town Hall location for shelving the book
collection, two thirds of the collection remained in storage in the former West Library,

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