The New Year is almost upon us, and before we all start making our resolutions for 2026, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of you for a wonderful 2025!
Over 29,000 people attended more than 1,700 events here this year, with more than 800 people at our largest ‘8 Countries in 1 Day’ Celebration in September. Our study rooms were reserved more than 4,000 times, and our Sound Studio a record 668 times! More than 120,000 people came through our doors, and we hope every single one (and more) will be back in the coming year.
Seen together as a list of data, a year in the library can sound impressive, but the real magic of our library is what can happen on any given day. I’d like to invite you to imagine one day at our library, any ordinary day, when you choose to stop in. You might be coming for a book, a movie, or to read the newspaper, but if you had walked in on certain days in 2025, you might have seen something extraordinary.
On one day, you would have had to avoid the “Save the Egg!” landing zone, as Family Fun Science sent eggs to their potential demise from the second floor balcony. On another day, you would have heard baby goats bleating as they hopped around a yoga class in our lower level. On another, you might have run into Jacob Haish or Joseph Glidden, visiting from the distant past. An Aztec dance troupe would have been audible on a different day from the very moment you walked in, and on another, the sound of Korean drums and flutes. Santa Claus was here only last week, as was a band of fearsome vikings-in-training, on the hunt for treasure. On another very special day in March, at our ‘World of Reading’ Celebration, you would have found yourself walking down the yellow brick road.
An on another day, many other days, in fact, you would have heard a sound we love just as dearly as music and marauding vikings: silence. Not awkward, but comfortable, comforting, and warm. The kind of bustling quiet that only happens when people are lost in books.
All of this is to say that we want to thank you, DeKalb, for an incredible year. We are thankful for all of the extraordinary days we had here in 2025, yes, and also for all of the ordinary ones.
Happy New Year, and we hope to see you all back with us in 2026! Stop in to see us, and your day could be extraordinary.
