To the Editor:

The Hepburn Library of Lisbon has been recognized by the North Country Library System (NCLS) with the 2021 Library Improvement Award. This is what NCLS had to say:

“When we brought back the Library Improvement Award this year, we expected to see libraries with new partnerships, innovative library programs, technological improvements, or building projects. We didn’t expect to see a library who had achieved all of those things and more.

Over the last two years, the Hepburn Library of Lisbon has eliminated fines, increased library service hours, increased hold and circulation limits, increased print circulation despite covid-related building closures, increased youth programming, partnered with their school and other community organizations, strengthened their relationship with local government, increased community engagement through video and social media, redecorated their space on a shoestring budget, updated their strategic plan, and rewritten their policy manual.

In other words, with one public-facing employee, a small budget, a forward-thinking library board of trustees, amazing volunteers, and a supportive community, the Hepburn Library of Lisbon has embraced the opportunity to rethink library service, decreased barriers to library use, and strengthened their position in the community.”

I personally want to thank the library’s board of trustees, Barbara Shoemaker, David Walker, Angela Martin, Carol Smith, and Joyce Flack. They have individually and collectively supported the library’s goals and objectives for not only the past two years, but for the past eleven years during which I’ve been the library director. I also want to thank the Lisbon Town Board, every volunteer who has lent a helping hand, and the entire Lisbon community. Thank you for believing in me, in the library, and in the value our library brings to the residents of Lisbon and beyond.

The library has been a community resource since 1920, and I firmly believe that a century later, we are still adhering to Mr. A. Barton Hepburn’s community-based vision for the public libraries he established in St. Lawrence County. If you haven’t visited us in Lisbon, please do! We are open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3-8 pm and Wednesdays and Fridays from 9-5 pm.

Finally, thank you to the North Country Library System for the collaborative support given to all sixty-five libraries across four counties, and thank you for recognizing the Hepburn Library of Lisbon with the Library Improvement Award.

Michelle Stottlemyer McLagan,
Director Hepburn Library of Lisbon