People of Sayville: Alice Lepore, library director

It's the people that make a community come to life. Here is a quick interview with Alice Lepore, Sayville Public Library director.

Alice Lepore

Sayville Public Library director for the past eight years

Tell me how this community uses the library.

We saw tremendous growth when we moved here in the summer of 2009. Before that we were about a half mile away in a much smaller building. In our first year, we issued 2,000 library cards, which is double what we had normally done. Now we issue about 100 a month.

So the community has really embraced the new building?

I feel they have. It is appreciated that they have this facility -- this is new to them. In the old building, we had one meeting room and it was usually used by the library. Here, we have six meeting rooms and one can be split. So we can have up to seven groups meeting here at one time. It can be a really busy building.

Other than being a meeting place, how has the library been a part of the community?

Since we moved here, we've been able to partner with the schools. So March is student art month, April is poetry month, we had a poetry open mic night. We also participated in "Sayville Reads: One book, One town," with the chairman of the [public school] English Department. We picked a theme -- last year it was dogs -- and there were four books for each of our age groups from young children up to adults. We held programs like an author talk for the adults, and they really encouraged it in the schools. That was something really different for us.

Were you at other libraries before Sayville?

Yes, a few. I moved up in different positions at each.

How are Sayville residents different from others you've worked with?

It has very much of an identity. Sayville is their town and they are proud of it and supportive of it. They do support the retail shops to keep an active and vibrant Main Street.