Off the Shelf: Reflecting on the Library Year of 2025
By Angela Spatafore on January 14, 2026 from Off the Shelf
As we settle into 2026, I want to take a moment to look back and reflect on 2025. The library had an excellent year full of great memories, and it is all thanks to our community. We can’t express how much your support means to us. They say a library is only as good as the community who uses it! 2025 was a year of change and growth as many of our staff settled into new roles and new faces came through our doors. In fact, we had 817 new patrons join the library, and we had over 67,000 visits to the library throughout the entire year.
In this blog, I am always talking about the unique events we run for all ages. We ran a total of 800 events in 2025. Some of our event highlights included our Game Night and Tabletop Roleplaying Night done in collaboration with Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library and Stone Tower Brews, two Mario Kart Tournaments, several presentations by Dick Duez about Bridgeport history, and of course—our annual Trunk of Treat.
One of our goals for the year was to increase our involvement with the community, and we met that goal by increasing partnerships for these events, serving as a drop-off location for donation drives that benefit community resources, and bringing our services out into the community. We attended 82 community and outreach events including the Bridgeport Farmer’s Market, Pop-Up Libraries in the Parks, StoryWalk events, and Tuesday is for Toddlers at the Meadowbrook Mall—just to name a few!
We also introduced a few new features to the library building. We installed our indoor holds locker at the beginning of 2025, which helped streamline the process of picking up holds. We also added a study pod, bike rack, a ScanEZ machine, and new checkout kiosks. Our community garden also saw improvements—namely, a new fence!
Of course, our collection continues to grow. For fun, I looked at the most checked-out fiction books from different age categories. The top 3 adult fiction books of 2025 are The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, The Women by Kristin Hannah, and The Perfect Son by Freida McFadden. The top 3 teen books are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, and Divergent by Veronica Roth The top 3 children’s books are Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney, An Elephant & Piggie Biggie Vol. 1 by Mo Willems, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney.
We look forward to an even better 2026! I can’t wait to share some of the exciting things we’ve been working on behind the scenes. Stay tuned for more library news in the coming editions of Off the Shelf.
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