LANPHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY
The Lanpher Memorial Library is in the village of Hyde Park, Vermont.
Library Hours:
Monday 12-7
Tuesday 10-5
Wednesday 10-5
Friday 10-5
Saturday 10-1
(closed Thursdays and Sundays)
Story Time
Mondays 6:00 pm
Wednesdays 10:00 am
Telephone: 802-888-4628
E-mail: hydeparklibrary@yahoo.com
The Lanpher Memorial Library Trustees meet on the second Tuesday of each month, at 5:00 PM, at the Library.
Lanpher Memorial Library Trustees:
Melanie Dickinson, Term Expires 2021
Susan Hayes, Term Expires 2022
Robert “Sigh” Searles, Term Expires 2022
Ken Geiersbach, Term Expires 2023
Jim Noyes, Term Expires 2024
Fran Aronovici, Term Expires 2024
Emily Dearborn, Term Expires 2025
TRUSTEES’ MINUTES:
The Library Trustee Minutes can be located on the Lanpher Memorial Library website: www.lanpherlibrary.org
LANPHER MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2016 is the 100th Anniversary of the Lanpher Memorial Library!
In 1913, Loomis Lanpher willed $5000.00 to the Town of Hyde Park for the purpose of building a public library. The Town accepted the gift and elected a building committee to find a suitable location. The Town voted to find a spot close to Lamoille Central Academy; however, at a special Town Meeting in early November of 1915, the vote was changed to accept “the Lilley lot, donated by public-spirited citizens, for the library building, and the building committee were instructed to erect the building theron.”
On October 11, 1916, the News and Citizen reported that the contractor visited: “…delivering the keys to the committee. That the building is a fine one is admitted by all. It is more than a ‘fine one,’ it is well-built nothing slighted in either material or workmanship…It is a library of which the town can be justly proud.”
About 50 years ago in the Town Report, Marion Hood, who was at that time a Trustee, wrote: “We have now a collection of nearly 100 records which are loaned on the same basis of books….our circulation figures increased approximately 2,000 over last year—due largely to a summer reading program using the collection of new children’s books and to the planned visits of children from the elementary school during the spring months. The building has been improved by refinishing the hardwood floors with a bowling alley finish, installing gold carpeting, curtains and lamps, to make the small room in the rear into a pleasant and cheerful reading room.”
In 2005, the Lanpher Memorial Library building addition was completed, with 2 floors added onto the back of the original 1916 building. The addition included a restroom on the main floor, an elevator, and a meeting space for the public to use. The gold carpeting was removed, but the summer reading program and planned visits from the elementary school continue!
As the decades go by, we continue to see growth and change. We now offer many services online: searching our catalog, the ability to place holds and renewing materials. We have free downloadable audio and e-books. Library patrons can take free online classes and can research current academic journals and study the past with the Vermont Online Library. All of this information can be found on our website: lanpherlibrary.org.
At the Lanpher Memorial Library, we strive to create an atmosphere comfortable and welcome to all. We care very much about meeting the needs of our community. In spite of all that is different, commitment to community has not changed. To quote Marion Hood again, “We firmly believe ‘if the librarian and trustees have an unshaken belief in the worth of the product they are trying to merchandise, this belief has a way of permeating the entire community.’” We hope you are as justly proud of the Library today, as citizens were 100 years ago.
Amy Olsen, Library Director,
Trustees: Sigh Searles, Chair; Fran Aronovici, Co-Chair; Jim Noyes, Treasurer; Melanie Dickinson, Secretary; Emily Dearborn, Ken Geiersbach, Julie Rohleder
Staff: Ruth Hay, Assistant Director; Christi Dussault, Circulation Librarian