Digital access soars, construction projects a success, and happy 10 years to “But Have You Tried”
From Nic Gunning, Director of the David A. Howe Public Library,
When I think of 2025, my thoughts shift first to one word: Construction! We were fortunate that our two major projects, the stairs and parking lot, were funded primarily through New York State Aid for Library Construction. Still, the disruption led to a lot of uncertainty and many phone calls and online messages, “Are you open?!” Yes! And I appreciated your patience and resilience. I’ll be asking for that again as I look ahead to our upcoming capital projects. This building is a marvel, and I intend to keep it that way.
In other news, 2025 turned out to be a banner year for our local patrons making full use of the digital collections! Libby (or Overdrive, as it was originally known) is the go-to app for ebooks, digital audiobooks, magazines, and more. It’s always a pleasure to introduce new patrons to this app because it soon becomes a favorite. Some of the newer apps include Kanopy (a dedicated video streaming app) and Mango Languages (which is a language learning app). I’ve enjoyed streaming BBC mysteries and classic sci-fi on Kanopy, and have been learning Portuguese on Mango. These are great additions to library services because you are able to access these collections wherever you are in between visits.
2025 also marked the tenth year of the library podcast which former teen services librarian Eric Mikols and I started in August of 2015. Nowadays youth services coordinator Ally Fesmire and I trade off introducing each other to new things on the podcast But Have You Tried. Some of the highlights of 2025 included us learning cross-stitch, discovering new music, and rediscovering old classics like Animal Farm.
It is an exciting challenge for us to find new ways to interact with patrons and serve the community. So whether you experienced the library regularly in person, discovered new ways to connect digitally, or a little bit of both, we were happy to be connect with you!
Learn more about the library in 2025 in the Community Annual Report: https://davidahowelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2025-Annual-Report-to-the-Community.pdf
