Grafton Public Library: Weekly Report: February 14-19, 2022

Press release from Grafton Public Library:

2022-02-18

The Library had a delayed opening due to the unexpected snowfall over Sun/Mon. If Grafton Public Schools are delayed, the Library delays accordingly to give DPW time to clear our parking lot and Building Maintenance time to shovel or de-ice walkways. The Library’s website and social media is the best place to check for closing information.

The Library lot continues to be very icy due to short staffing at DPW. There is no one responsible for parking lot maintenance after 3pm. Thanks to Todd in the Building Department who came to de-ice!

Completion of the Construction Punch List continues. Beth approved design for a lighter gate for the bottom of the stairs and followed up on procurement requests from December, including gaming equipment, 3D printing equipment, art rail, blinds, shelving, and more. She oversaw DMH’s installation of additional electrical outlets and a new roman numeral clock for the Large Print and Main Reading Room, as well as lighting in the lobby for the Donor Wall. Sunshine Sign installed the Donor Wall Friday morning and it will be unveiled soon! Beth also followed up on additional signage requests.

CTA Construction Managers provided lunch for the staff on Valentine’s Day. Beth set up a Valentine station on Valentine’s Day; we are still conducting a Library Love program all month. Stop in the Friends Corner to complete a valentine (or take one and make it at home). Bring it back and we’ll give you a FREE Library magnet!
Beth and other staff continuing interviewing for three position vacancies and are checking references. She completed a Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners/Perkins Access Library Survey, reviewed January minutes from the Board of Trustee meeting, posted the November & December minutes and drafted the February meeting agenda. She attended a construction meeting and an online seminar on Weeding Library Collections.

Beth also dealt with behavioral issues, including multiple reminders every day for patrons not masking. We remain under the municipal mandate of August 5, 2021, to mask in municipal buildings.

We began allowing meeting room use and scheduling programs for adults this week. Large group meetings and adult programming begins Monday February 28. Beth fielded meeting room requests and scheduled two Farmer’s Markets for March and April, and a discussion and film screening of Pakachoag: Where The River Bends for the Annual Meeting of the Blackstone River Watershed Association. She also worked with Apple Tree Arts to plan a 6-week Ukulele 101 class, which will begin March 2. For a complete calendar of events or to register for a program, please visit www.graftonlibrary.org/events.

Heidi supervised a patron using historical documents, participated in interviews, and facilitated three book discussion groups. In addition to the “Need a Laugh?” display that Kate curated early this month, she has been compiling a social services resource for staff and patrons, which covers Grafton/Worcester area.
Susan and her team worked on faxing and book return/check in issues. Borrower Services also worked on IT support tickets, managing IT issues sheet, Readers Advisory Database, Troublemaker Training webinar, running reports for patrons interested in newsletter, adding patrons’ emails to newsletter contact list, and approving a list of historical fiction books. Sandhya dealt with two patrons angry about having to wear a mask. She did her weekly update of Museum Pass procedures, and processed several CLIO loans.

Ranjita has taken on upkeep of the Library of Things organization. Sandhya is training her. She will maintain the binders, find pictures and create a page for new additions, and send an email to all staff showing each new item added to the collection. Jane was trained to run the “patrons with wrong library” report and will take over compiling that data beginning with March statistics. The Romance sticker project is finished, and we started on Historical Fiction stickers this week.

Susan ran a department meeting, created a template for book club titles, arranged tech help for the fax machine and worked with Bibliotheca to fix a problem with items stalling on the belt. She also arranged two training sessions with Bibliotheca to be held in March, ordered Overdrive content, submitted CORI requests for volunteers, and began organizing staff reviews.

Sarah ran a Children’s Room staff meeting and the weekly all library staff meeting, followed up with Beth and Cori about shelving in the CR, followed up with Beth about story walk stands, communicated with the Friends of the Library about the upcoming Egg Hunt, worked on collection development and material orders, spoke with a patron regarding donations for the library collection, reached out to Willard House to plan a time to meet and discuss partnership opportunities, gave a tour of the teen room, and met with Allison to brainstorm summer programming.

Jen brainstormed programming for Read Across America Day, worked on the library newsletter, updated EventKeeper, attended the weekly staff meeting, attended the CR staff meeting, and ran the Library’s Teddy Bear Sleepover program. Cyndi attended the weekly staff meeting, finished preparing the make and takes for the Feb 23rd yearn dog program, continued to find and wrap books for the Mystery Playdate with a Book display, and gave tours to interview candidates. Mare has been following up with volunteers, attended the CR staff meeting, and assisted patrons. Stacie worked on library displays, decorations, and passive programming. Kristin ran three sessions of Book Clubs, organized in the CR supply closet, and collaborated with local schools.

Allison worked on magnet labels for the media collection to make it easier for patrons to find specific titles and easier for volunteers to shelf. Erin made origami hearts. Cyndi practiced dance moves with teen patrons. Additionally Sarah and Allison met to work more on summer reading and are putting together our notes and we will share with Heidi. Beth has instructed summer reading will have online tracking again, and to pare down the program due to staffing and budgetary limitations.

CW MARS, our library network, will be doing regular maintenance and reorganizing some hardware at our co-location facility that will cause brief periods of down time between 8am-11am on the morning of Monday, February 21, 2022 – the Presidents’ Day Holiday. A reminder: the Library will be closed in observance of Presidents Day on Monday February 21, 2022 – please check out our online databases, available 24/7 at www.graftonlibrary.org/digital.

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