Wallingford Public Library Celebrates 140th Anniversary

The Wallingford Public Library hosted its 140th annual meeting on Monday, October 26, during which virtual festivities were opened to the public via Zoom and Facebook Livestream. The meeting began with a short business meeting, followed by the induction of the newest Poet Laureate, Ms. Deborah Kuan, and concluded with an overview of the library’s ongoing and future events.

Ms. Leah Farrell, the Adult Programming & Community Services Librarian, provided some information about the meeting, as well as current news regarding recent changes in the library and upcoming events. 

“As far as the business meeting, we are an association library,” said Ms. Farrell. An association library is founded by its members, not by the town, like the more typical municipal libraries. She continued, “A lot of town libraries are departments, [and] we are closely connected with the town, but we are an association, so therefore we have a membership.” 

Several new board members were voted in during the beginning portion of the event, replacing those who had recently retired. Afterwards, members discussed logistics such as the library’s annual report and budget.

The next section of the meeting covered the inauguration of the new poet laureate, Ms. Kuan, who is also a member of the Choate community as the wife of music teacher Mr. Matt McLean. Laying out the plans for the event, Ms. Farrell said, “We’re going to introduce her, she’ll talk a little bit about herself and what she plans to do to bring more poetry and love of poetry to Wallingford, and she’ll also read some of her poetry.” As for the reasons behind Ms. Kuan’s nomination, she said, “Kuan’s credentials were just outstanding, and her poetry is wonderful, so we’re overjoyed to have her join us as this year’s Poet Laureate.”

Regarding her particular role as the poet laureate,  Ms. Kuan said: “The poet laureate is like an ambassador of poetry and literature,” she said. “They communicate the value of poetry to the entire town in various ways, whether it be via readings, writing workshops, or other methods. They may also write poems to commemorate events that are of significance to a place. As poet laureate, I will be showcasing contemporary poetry and making it accessible for a wider audience.” 

As the first person of color to fill this position, Ms. Kuan looks forward to, as she put it, “amplifying the voices and the work of other writers of color who have been marginalized for far too long.”

In order to make some of her work more accessible to the public, she also plans on featuring some of her more notable poems on the Instagram account @poetlaureate_walling.

The meeting came to a conclusion with a session surrounding the “A to Z’s” of the library. According to Ms. Farrell, “The ‘A to Zs’ of the library is a presentation by staff and our board. We go through the alphabet and talk about all the things A through Z that you didn’t know we have or do.” Currently, the library offers many events and resources, from virtual Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game sessions to a makerspace opened in 2016. 

“As technology changes, we’ll continue to evolve,” Ms. Farrell said. 

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