The Board of Trustees monthly meeting will be held on Monday, July 8 at 6:00pm in the Library's Meeting Room.
The Library will be closed Thursday, July 4, 2024 in observance of Independence Day.
Registered voters in the Mattituck-Laurel Library District will be voting on the proposed 2025 budget as well as elect two (2) trustees, to fill two (2) at-large seats, each with a three-year term commencing November 18, 2024 and expiring November 8, 2027.
Budget Information Hearing: Monday, September 9, 2024 @ 5:00pm
Budget Vote & Trustee Election: Tuesday, September 17, 2024 9:00am - 7:00pm
Nominating petitions are due by end of day July 22, 2024. Information about the candidates will be available on this page after that date.
Registered voters residing within the Library District may obtain an application for an absentee ballot at the office of the School District Clerk, 385 Depot Lane, Cutchogue, during regular business hours. Absentee ballot applications are also available for download here in Spanish and English.
The absentee ballot application must be received by the District Clerk at least seven (7) days before the date of the vote, if the ballot is to be mailed to the voter, or the day before the vote, if the ballot is to be delivered personally to the voter.
The full legal notice will appear here when it is available.
Mattituck-Laurel Library: Your Community Library
Many of us remember visiting our local library as children and checking out books with stories about the natural order of things: the beauty of the world, the sky above us and the earth at our feet. Books that affirmed our lived experience, of a world we were bound to, with its ideas of honor, justice, friendship, courage, empathy that related to actual people and that are important for our daily life. At the library, very early on, we were assured that the world is shot through with meaning and value, and that we are its humble caretakers. In short, our childhood experience at the library served as an important part of our early introduction into a meaningful human community.
Mattituck-Laurel Library, your community library, is a vibrant, welcoming space for lifelong learning, discovery, cultural enrichment, and community engagement. We focus on offering a wide range of valuable resources as well as relevant and engaging programs that enhance the lives of our community residents. If you haven’t made a connection with your library, please stop in. We are eager to welcome you.
This past year, we welcomed just over 50,000 visitors and 325 new patrons. We circulated over 80,000 items, both print and digital, with our digital resources continuing to expand in popularity. Access to eBooks, audiobooks, movies, tv series, magazines and more are made possible through our e-resources such as Hoopla, Libby, Kanopy and Flipster, to name a few. Explore our full offering of e-resources by navigating to our website; select “Research and Learn” on the menu bar, and then select “A to Z resources”.
With the help of community partnerships and the careful planning of our Adult Services, Youth and Parenting, and Teen Departments, we hosted 473 programs and saw 7,800 attendees. In 2024, we hosted our first health fair, connecting our community to valuable health and wellness resources.
Our library building plays a central role in keeping our community connected not only through our materials, classes, and programs, but also through our Wi-Fi and computer services. Patrons and visitors enjoy access to our six public access computers which saw 3,294 unique sessions while our Wi-Fi had 3,686 guest connections.
Our three public meeting spaces saw increased use from various community groups, library programs and folks needing a quiet space to study, tutor, or work from home. We expanded meeting space by utilizing the kitchen for small groups and tutors as well as adding the local history area on the first floor as an open meeting space. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year, it's how differently our spaces are being used by our community. We continue to adapt and find new ways we can accommodate these changes.
For a small community library, we offer a wealth of services, resources and opportunities to connect.
For your consideration, the Board of Trustees present a budget for 2025 of $1,739,353. This includes a Tax Levy of $1,718,603 an increase of $2.77 per thousand of assessed valuation. For the average household (assessed valuation of $6,500) this year’s increase amounts to approximately $18 for the year.
Please support your community library by voting at the Budget Vote and Trustee Election at the Library on Tuesday, September 17th from 9am – 7pm. More information about the 2025 operating budget and trustee candidates will be available on the Library webpage. A Budget Information Meeting will be held at the Library on Monday, September 9th, at 5:00pm.
We can’t wait to see you at the Library!
Warmly,
Shauna Scholl, Director, and the Mattituck-Laurel Library Board of Trustees