Alice M. Ward Library

The Alice M. Ward Library is a public library in Canaan, Essex County, Vermont, located at 27 Park St., Canaan (mailing address: PO Box 134, Canaan, Vermont 05903-0134).

History

Built in 1846, it was formerly the northernmost U.S. stop on the Connecticut River route of the 19th century Underground Railroad. (There is no actual evidence other than local folklore to support this, and past studies found no evidence supporting the theory that this library was a part of the Underground Railroad.) The Library is registered as an historic example of Neo-Palladian temple-form design.

Statistics (2004 figures)

According to 2000 Census figures as reported by the Vermont Department of Libraries, the Alice M. Ward Library serves a population of 1078, with staffing hours equivalent to 1.38 full-time employees, with no employees having an American Library Association accredited Masters of Library Science. Also, volunteers provided an average of 1 hour of services per week.

In 2004 the 3114 square foot (289 m²) library reported having a collection of 10,398 books, or about 10.15 books per capita. In addition the library had 196 videos and 216 audio items, for a total collection size of 11,350. The library subscribed to 35 periodicals.

The library reported 358 registered borrowers (275 adult, 83 juvenile), 33.2% of the population served. Patrons visited the library a total of 7124 times, or 6.61 visits per capita. It circulated 6697 books (3605 adult, 3092 juvenile) or 6.21 items per capita. A total of 1040 reference questions were also handled. 137 items were requested from other libraries through inter-library loan, 115 lent to other libraries. The library offered 9 adult programs and 10 juvenile programs. Total program attendance was 933 for the adult programs, 1249 for the juvenile programs. The library was open 30 hours per week.

The annual budget was $43,304. $38,765 of this was raised by local taxes — $35.96 per capita, additionally $20,765 was obtain in grant money, and $4539 from other sources. $35,662 was spent on staffing, $4446 on book purchases, and $13,971 on other expenditures.

As of the 2004 data, the library offered dial-up Internet access. The library owned 5 computers of which all 5 were available for public use. It did not use content filtering. Users logged an average of 60 signups per week. The library did not report having a website.

The library was reported as meeting state standards.

See also

External links

Coordinates: 44°59′45″N 71°32′21″W / 44.995845°N 71.539305°W