Brighton Memorial Library asks town to fund replacement of 20 aging staff computers

Jennifer Rees Taggart and library board members told the Brighton Town Board on Thursday that the Memorial Library continues to see rising usage and program participation and asked the town to fund a one-time capital purchase to replace 20 staff computers.

"These computers are over 6 years old. They're out of warranty, and most importantly, they're not Windows 11 upgradable," Jennifer Rees Taggart said. Library presenters showed year-over-year gains — including a 7% increase in circulation and a 7% increase in streaming — and highlighted a recent Sunday with about one patron entering every 23 seconds, which they said translated to 626 patrons in four hours. The library also reported 728 child registrations, 173 young adult and 412 adult registrations in the summer reading program.

Library leaders framed the computer purchase as a way to reduce mounting technology debt and ongoing repair costs. "If you amortize this out rather than looking at it as a budget line expense, it would not appear to be as significant an increase as it looks like because we're cramming it all into one year," Michael Berger, vice president of the library board, said. They asked the town to consider the capital request in the 2027 budget so staff machines can be upgraded before failures cause service interruptions.

The presenters identified a mix of other modest supply and subscription increases tied to system-level cost shares and inflation, and stressed that many new programs are funded by outside sources such as Friends groups, grants and federal E-Rate discounts. Town board members said they would review the library's capital requests as part of the larger budget process and noted that insurance and retirement figures remain pending until later in the budget season.