Town of Hampton - Lane Memorial Library

- LANE MEMORIAL LIBRARY -
The 14 full and part-time staff of the Lane Memorial
Library have a combined total of 61 years of
education beyond high school; a total of 22 higher
education degrees; 99 years of part time library
service; and 91.5 years full time library service. Not
all the years of library service have been in Hampton,
but the Town is certainly the recipient of all that
experience!
We were happy to celebrate the Library’s 125 th
anniversary in April. The Friends of the Library participated,
Lane Memorial Library
hiring classical guitarist Peter Fletcher to kick off both
National Library week and the anniversary celebration. The
foyer of the original building was the site of an all day public celebration with birthday cake. Opening
its doors in 1881 as a room in the Town Hall, the library went through an expansion with a separate
building in 1910, an addition in 1957, and a second addition in 1985. Another expansion is not feasible
on this property footprint, and the Board of Trustees is looking forward to planning a new facility for
the future on Town land nearby. The anniversary celebration continued for 125 days from April to
August with free raffle drawings monthly, and a grand prize of a $125 gift certificate to the Library
Restaurant in Portsmouth.
Many improvements occurred in 2006. The Library’s interior received a much needed coat of paint.
Most improved were the three original rooms: the NH Room, the Dearborn Room and the large foyer
connecting the two. The Dearborn Room, the Library’s original reading room, again became a reading
room. The collection of large print books was moved into the room, and the Board of Trustees bought
two wing chairs in memory of the Director’s mother (Stella Shaw McEachern, the granddaughter of
the first librarian, Simeon Albert Shaw), adding to the ambience of the room. The foyer, originally
used as a music area with a record collection, again became the music area with new CD storage cases
and the reuse of the built in record cabinets, all of which allow the public to browse the Library’s
collection of music. The art works which formerly hung in the foyer were moved to the storage room
after they were scanned and posted on our website. They are still available to check out, but take up
less valuable space.
Another large maintenance project was the installation of sliding doors replacing the separate outer
glass doors in March. The inner foyer doors were not replaced with sliding doors at the same time, as
they were not corroding and were not in danger of failing as the outer doors were. The Dorothy Little
Room, part of the original building on the lower level, was painted, the hanging heater was moved
from the traffic area to a corner, and a new rug was installed in November as part of that room’s
upgrade. This room is used as Hampton’s Senior Drop-In Center and sees daily activities.
During 2006 the Lane Memorial Library experienced another busy year, circulating 176,431 items, in
over 128,000 visits by residents and visitors to the Library. We loaned 1841 items out to other NH
libraries and borrowed 863 items for Hampton residents. We registered 1164 new patrons. Computers
were used by the public 25,642 times.
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