2024 Year in Review
To download a printable copy of this report, click here.
It’s been a great year!
We welcomed a new library director, we were voted #2 Best Library in the Lansing City Pulse Top of the Town contest, we made libraries more accessible to MSU students, we improved our physical space, and we had a ton of fun at our library programs. Read on to learn more!
Take Our Survey!
ELPL is going through a rebrand! Help shape our future by taking this survey. Survey participants will receive an item from our treasure chest as a token of our thanks, and be entered into a grand prize drawing for a $50 Schuler gift card. Take the survey at https://bit.ly/elplbrand. The survey closes January 26.
Things to Look Forward to
- February 3, 4, & 9: We’ll be hosting some community conversation focus groups as part of our rebranding process! Sign up here.
- March 17: It’s your lucky day! We’ll be revealing our new strategic plan to the public.
- April 11: Celebrate National Library Week with us at our annual fundraiser, Books, Bites, & Bids! This year, funds raised will go towards local history initiatives.
- June 6: The summer reading challenge begins! Track your reading through the summer to earn cool prizes! The challenge ends August 15.
- June 9: We’ll have a big summer reading kick-off party from 5-7pm! Staff will be available to help you sign up for the reading challenge, and you can start your summer off right with food, live music, giveaways, and other fun activities!
Program Highlights
This year, about 8,000 people attended our library programs! Here were some of the highlights:
Our birding program skyrocketed in popularity this year. We also brought back many of our favorite regular programs: Read to a Dog, Stories in the Garden, our annual teen Pride Party, and our STEAM Theme Days like Dino Day and Shark Day were just a few.
We also introduced many new programs! To name just a few: we held thought-provoking programs like the Soul Box exhibit, which teens helped assemble, and which raised awareness of gun violence. We encouraged people to get active with our new biking program, ELPL Rides. And, we expanded on our popular family LEGO program to create Bricks & Brew, an adults only LEGO Night held at a local sports bar.
To see more highlights, watch our Year in Review video. You can also check our upcoming schedule of events.
MSU Student Library Cards
We’ve made it easier for students to use the library! MSU students use their ID for lots of things... a meal pass, a key to the dorms, identification, and now, it doubles as a library card too! Students can bring their ID card to the library and we’ll activate their barcode number. This gives them full access to everything the library has to offer. Library cards are free to all MSU and LCC students!
Library Improvements
We’ve recently made some AV upgrades throughout the library! We have a new announcement system, new equipment for our large meeting room, and coming soon, we’ll have technology available for use in our study rooms as well. We also rearranged our space to better highlight our new books, opened up the children’s area for better visibility and flow, and shifted things in the teen room to provide more study space and conversational groupings.
Check out the top most circulated books and movies of 2024!
We’re sometimes asked, “Do people even still use libraries anymore?” And the answer is a resounding “YES!”
In 2024, we had:
- 2,600+ new library card sign-ups
- 82,000+ total in-person visits to the library
- 62,300+ total check-outs of materials
Spotlight: Marsha’s Friendshop
Did you know we have a used bookstore inside the library? Marsha’s Friendshop is run by a dedicated group of volunteers who raise money for the library. The store is stocked with books, puzzles, art, t-shirts, and other delights, and every purchase benefits the library. You can also donate your gently used books to the Friends to sell in the shop!
Thank you to all of our donors!
We want to give a huge thank you to all our donors! Everything we do at the library, from adding the latest books to our collection, to our popular programs, is possible because of the support we get from our community members. Every day you show us that what we do is making a difference in the city and pushes us to do better every year. We appreciate you!
Director’s Corner: Let’s Go in 2025!
When I stepped out of my car on March 3, I said out loud, “I’m going to be a library director.” If there was anyone close by, they would have heard the giddiness in my voice and witnessed the huge smile on my face. After 25 years serving another college-town community, I had found myself starting a new adventure in a city where I not only attended university, but which was also only 30 minutes from where I grew up. I was scared, excited, weirded out, and full of energy. The next words from my mouth were, “Let’s go.”
The last nine months of 2024 happened quickly for me and the ELPL Team. Most of our energy was spent on the new Strategic Plan. The process started with gathering answers from over 1500 residents on how ELPL can contribute to making East Lansing a great place. This feedback has allowed us to develop priorities and goals that ELPL will dedicate resources to in the next three years, so that our community will grow and thrive. If you participated in the process, thanks for providing the ELPL Team with your ideas, opinions, hopes, and dreams. Your words will be put into action. You can expect to see your ELPL Strategic Plan unveiled this March. In addition to building the new plan, we have also been preparing ourselves so we can hit the ground running when it launches on July 1. This has involved many internal projects, such as staff reorganization into teams dedicated to primary library services, establishing a project management process, and documenting standard operating procedures. The prep work will continue during the first half of 2025, with plans to build a responsible budget focused on the strategic plan, reorganize staff workspaces, implement more efficient workflows, and develop tools to track progress. It is vital that we build the supports needed for success. When the Strategic Plan launches in July, we will be ready to provide you with more intentional services based on the desires of the community. I very much look forward to sharing with the community ELPL’s Strategic Plan and hearing your continued feedback. It has been an honor to start as your Library Director at the beginning of a strategic planning process. It has allowed me to quickly learn not only about how ELPL can contribute, but also about the deep passions of this community. I invite you to attend the celebration of the Strategic Plan in March. Until then, when I see you at a future program, Library on the Go stop, or just wandering within our stacks, please come up to me and say, “Let’s go.”
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