Grafton Public Library: Weekly Report: December 27, 2021-January 1, 2022

Press release from Grafton Public Library:

2021-12-29

Library services were disrupted intermittently on Monday and Tuesday due to an Internet outage at the Municipal Center that affected department phones, Wi-Fi and use of our circulation and cataloging system. Thanks to all for their patience until it was resolved on Tuesday afternoon.

Beth was delighted to receive a citation from the Massachusetts Senate commending the Grafton Public Library on their Library construction project and Grand reopening!

Beth reviewed COVID protocols with staff, ordered office supplies, reviewed a list of outstanding out-of-scope projects for Capital Campaign to consider funding, worked on a non-fiction book order, reviewed the FY23 budget request, and covered multiple service desks during staff leave. She fielded questions to clarify the materials selection policy and set up an appointment to meet with a donor from Willard House to install a Willard Clock in the Historic Reading Room.

Beth met virtually with Trustee Chair Aaron Vandesteen to discuss moving all programming to a virtual or take-home DIY model, and suspending meeting room use, effective January 3 2022,  due to the increasing COVID-19 case numbers; all in-person programming for children ages 0-5 has been canceled and an update will be issued on the Library website by end of the week.

Congratulations to Sandhya Shenoy, who is an authorized Notary Public and has expanded the Library’s capacity to offer notarization. Notary service is available by appointment only; please call 508-839-4649.

Congratulations to Marilyn Wilcox, who achieved Para librarian level II and will be honored at the MA Library Association Conference this spring! This certification is a mark of professional development for library staff without a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science.

The Children’s Room was steady in traffic all week, teen services was quieter. Cyndi spent the majority of time welcoming patrons to the children’s room and giving the layout of the room (aka – tours!); teaching how to use the self-check and shelving books. Stacie updated the Holiday decorations in the Children’s Room and did a room refresh to keep everything with a winter theme. She created a fun Snow Globe Zoo with the animals all having names of alliteration to match their species. The patrons can just gaze at the zoo animals as they browse in the children’s room. I also updated all the coloring sheets and end caps for winter as well.

Cyndi and Jen worked on assembling 60+ tinker bags, planning programs for January, and manned the desk during a very busy school vacation week. Jen worked on finishing the newsletter, and updating the Library calendar. Kristin worked on assisting patrons, shelving books, gathering books for hold requests, preparing displays and bookmarks for upcoming January Bookworms Book Clubs for grades K-5 and creating slides to be included in upcoming Literacy Family Nights for SGES and NGES families.

We renewed our Wowbrary subscription! Wowbrary is a new book newsletter that arrives weekly via email and links to books the Library own. Any titles purchased through Wowbrary net a discount for our annual subscription fee. Sign up at https://www.wowbrary.org/.

Borrower services staff continued to perform circulation duties, provide orientation to visitors to the Library, train and supervise volunteers and more. In the last week, we circulated 2,313 items in the last week, and issued 13 new library cards.

The Board of Library Trustees approved a $10,000 purchase from State Aid that will allow books from other libraries to sort more efficiently into bins, and will also allow borrowers to confirm the titles returned were accepted through the automated materials handler. Thanks to the Borrower Services staff for their advocacy and hearing patron complaints about the issue and assisting with the solution!

Heidi’s appearance on Be Our Guest is online on Upton Community Television at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PvYP82C87M

As a reminder the Library will be closed in observance of New Year’s on December 31st and January 1st. No items are due but materials may be returned 24/7 in the automated book drop.

This press release was produced by Grafton Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.