The director of Lynnfield Public Library (LPL), Abigail Porter, presented her budget outlook for fiscal 2026 to the Select Board last Monday night, a presentation that also highlighted the library’s recent achievements.
During the meeting, Porter shared key figures from fiscal 2024, including 112,970 visitors—an average of 388 per day—95,655 items checked out, 9,309 reference questions answered, and 7,466 program attendees.
One achievement Porter said the library is particularly proud of the 2,321 books logged during the summer reading season, a number boosted by annual themed reading drives.
Grants and donations have also been a significant source of pride for the library, funding a popular seed library, 750 museum passes sponsored by the Friends of the Lynnfield Library, and a $6,000 grant to the library’s genealogy collection.
“[The grant] will allow us to preserve that collection for a long time,” Porter said. “We have a lot of really valuable materials in there, and we’re really excited to have that plan going forward on how to take care of them to the best of our ability.”
Following this review of recent accomplishments, Porter presented the library’s fiscal 2026 budget plan.
“We have certain certification requirements through the state. We have to hit the MAR, the Municipal Appropriation Requirement, which is the average of the last three years plus 3.5%,” she said.
The library is also required to allocate 16% of the budget toward materials to meet the Material Appropriation Requirement (MER), a standard necessary for certification by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
In total, the proposed budget is $1,116,608, a 5.5% increase. In addition, to meeting MAR and MER, it includes funding for the North of Boston Library Exchange membership and an estimate of contractual increases currently under discussion.
Porter is also requesting funding for a new full-time teen librarian, a role dedicated to developing and leading programming specifically for teenagers.
“We average at least 16 teens every day, even though we don’t have a teen room, which is really an incredible number considering they don’t really have their own space. They only have a table,” she said.
A part-time intern worked three days a week in the fall in a similar capacity, which led to a threefold increase in teen programming and a 200% growth in teen visits over the three months she worked at LPL.
Potential initiatives the new librarian could implement include resources resources to assist students with college applications, study groups, and book clubs.
To fund the position, the library is requesting $54,558.40 in salary and benefits.
“According to the Youth Risk Survey, only 50% to 52% of high school students have a trusted adult in the school,” Porter said. “Librarians are often trusted adults for teens. Having a teen librarian who is there to answer questions and build relationships would be really key to helping them.”
Recent teen programs at the library include “hugely popular” manga and anime clubs, a board game hangout on early release days, and a monthly book subscription kit.
This request follows the rejection of an $18.3 million comprehensive library renovation at last month’s special election, a project that would have included a teen room.
While no capital requests were made Monday night, Porter noted that with the failure of the expansion project, regular renovation requests are in the future.
“There isn’t a single part of the library that doesn’t need some TLC,” she said.
