'It's been quite a year': East Central Regional Library's executive director an open book about highlights, challenges in 2025

With the page slowly turning on 2025, East Central Regional Library executive director Carla Lydon was an open book in sharing highlights and challenges from the library system in an interview last week.

"It's been quite a year," said Lydon, who has been in the position since 2017.

Lydon said ECRL started 2025 with a new strategic plan, and progress on those goals included a growing readers program piloted by the Mora Public Library.

The program connects a student in grades 1-5 with a volunteer reading mentor.

"It's just been really wonderful to see the positive impact it's had on the student and the family, and the volunteer who's had the opportunity to work one-on-one with students to help improve their reading skills," Lydon said.

Lydon said ECRL is hoping to launch the program in other locations.

ECRL has also expanded community partnerships in 2025. Lydon said ECRL is teaming up with Lakes and Pines Community Action Council to have their staff more available at branches to provide resources to area residents.

"We've expanded, in some locations, our partnerships with local food shelves," Lydon said. "I know in Mora, in particular, they've had that for years, but we've launched partnerships in both Aitkin and McGregor in the past year as well."

ECRL has seen both an uptick in the system's digital library usage and a return to pre-pandemic statistics.

"It's hard to keep up with, but it's very exciting," Lydon said.

The library system is launching some extended access projects at the Wyoming branch, which will move to other branches if they prove successful.

"We'll have the ability for people to sign up and use library services kind of self-service, so it's basically unstaffed," Lydon said. "We're excited about the potential for increasing access for our communities in that area."

'A bit of a challenging year'

Lydon also called 2025 "a bit of a challenging year," due in part to the loss of a book distributor shuttering after close to 200 years in business.

She explained that the library system's largest book vendor, Baker & Taylor, abruptly ceased operations, which has left ECRL looking for alternative providers.

"That's caused us a lot of additional work, and we've had to cancel and reorder materials that were on purchase, and people may have noticed a significant slowdown in materials, especially new releases, getting on shelves," Lydon. "The whole library ecosystem has navigated to some new providers for that; not a challenge we thought we'd be looking at in 2025."

More than 3,000 titles were canceled when the vendor ceased service, but Lydon said ECRL is working to source materials from other vendors.

"From a patron standpoint, I'm sure people have noticed a slowdown of new materials, but it will catch up," Lydon said.

Lydon also acknowledged that funding continues to be a challenge "both for this region and for libraries in general."

ECRL is working on a flat budget for 2026, which Lydon said will necessitate the loss of some service hours.

"The service hours are a county funding decision," Lydon explained. "Some of our counties have indicated that they will fund our services beyond our request to keep their existing hours, but others, we will be making cuts in service hours in 2026."

Lydon said she doesn't anticipate impacts to the statewide interlibrary loan program — which is federally funded — for 2026.

"The Minnesota library community is looking at some contingency plans for state funding that would allow us to continue interlibrary loan services if that federal funding doesn't continue beyond the next fiscal year," Lydon said. "We don't know where that will head, but we know how important interlibrary loan services are."

In 2024, Lydon said ECRL saw more than 21,000 items borrowed by ECRL patrons from other Minnesota libraries.

"That ability to use interlibrary loans really allows us to stretch our collection dollars," Lydon added.

Lydon said ECRL patrons can always reach out to their elected officials to share feedback about the value of library programming.

"I think that's important even when funding isn't in jeopardy," she said. "We receive local funding, county funding, state funding, and of course, federally helps provide some of the statewide services. So they're all very important to use, and provide different things."

Local funds pay for buildings, county and state funds pay for ECRL operations, and federal funds assist with efficiency, Lydon explained.

"We'll be navigating that challenge of funding," Lydon said. "When you have reduced staff and reduced hours, it's always a capacity issue for what you can and can't do."

Looking ahead in Mora

The City of Mora has worked in tandem with the library system on a needs analysis study for the Mora Public Library, which was built in 1974.

Mayor Jake Mathison explained the city has been approached by a potential anonymous donor to help seed funding for a new library facility, which he called a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" at a council meeting in December of 2024.

"It's been great to see the interest and the commitment from the city to work on that building," Lydon said.

Lydon explained that, from a space perspective, the building has been inadequate for modern library services.

"Our staff is doing a really good job with what they have," Lydon said.

The effort is a long-range endeavor — Mathison anticipated a new library project getting off the ground would be a "five-to-ten year deal" — but Lydon said it's an exciting prospect for Mora library patrons.

"I think it's exciting for the citizens in Mora to think about what a modern library facility would look like, and the value that it would provide ... and hopefully would serve them well for another 50 years."

'More than just books'

Lydon said ECRL is also working on expanding its library of things that are loaned out to patrons, including a sizable donation of specialty cake stands.

In the past year, ECRL also launched a craft and hobby database after noticing a recent increase in attendance to craft programs.

"There's a lot of really interesting things as we look at what modern library services look like, and what services people in ECRL are looking for from their library," Lydon said.

Lydon said word-of-mouth is often the library system's best advertising to share information about available services.

"It's more than just books and digital materials," Lydon said. "There's all sorts of things for people at the library."