Grafton Public Library: Weekly Report: January 24-29, 2022

Press release from Grafton Public Library:

2022-01-28

We continue to operate short-staffed, with multiple people out for COVID-related reasons. We have not yet traced contact to in Library transmission and remain open so long as we have staffing.

The Library will be CLOSED in anticipation of the blizzard Saturday January 29. No materials are due, and we are fine free. Borrowers should stay home and wait until Monday, when we know our parking lot and walkways will be cleared and safe, to return any items due.

We received several cultural council grants, including one we applied and one that a performer applied for on our behalf. We look forward to welcoming Animal Adventures and up to 10 exotic animals this summer, and  singer/songwriter Matt York this spring for a program on the music of The Highwaymen.

The Library was awarded a grant from MA Office on Disability for over $23,000 in funding for accessibility hardware. Evan signed off on the project and we have been authorized to proceed with procurement.

We registered for the Boston Bruins Cradles to Crayons PJ Drive and will be collecting NEW pajamas from children and teens from February 1 through March 31. Staff will be wearing pajamas on Fridays to promote the program, and host several virtual and passive programs on theme. The goal is to collect 5,000 pairs of pajamas statewide. Monetary donations are also accepted via https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/boston/pjdrive/

Beth covered the teen and reference service desks, and spent a substantial portion of the week working on reports (weekly, monthly, annual – a perfect storm of reports due!) She also did a lot of professional development this week and last weekend, attending virtual workshops on privacy and patron records, weeding library collections, and being prepared for book challenges. She attended online sessions from the ALA midwinter conference on user experience and CVA, future-sight, trauma in the library, project management, youth media, sustainability, fair use, ADA makerspaces, late career motivation, local history, international games week, EDI, comics organization, comics programming, community engagement, middle management, escape rooms, romance collections, team collaboration tools, problematic authors and their works, and more.
Beth met with Renaud HVAC for system maintenance, which took three men sixteen hours to complete. They washed or replaced filters and became familiar with the system. Olde Bostonian brough back a repaired window for the Teen Librarian’s office. IT was on site Thu to set up patron computers – it’s still not clear why the previous IT company did not furnish was what requested for hardware and software. The donor funded clock for the Large Print and New Book room arrived, and Beth is working with DMH to schedule the electrical work, to be paid from the Capital Campaign. Signet returned to deal with a staff key card issue, and recommended reviewing the door and closer (again) as it does not seem be functioning with ease. Beth reached out to Grafton Police to confirm we can use the panic buttons if needed.

Beth met with Evan to review the Library’s FY23 budget request and capital requests, and was asked to make a significant revision. She attended a Library Planning & Building committee meeting, a construction meeting, and a Board of Library Trustee meeting.

Along with the usual circulation activities, Borrower Services staff edited a list of romance titles for a volunteer to put stickers on, Jane, Ranjita, Allie and Sandhya began preparing February displays, Jane removed alerts from a list of items in the catalog, Allie worked on a new Readers advisory chart, put up twelve read-a-like posters and began creating artwork for the February displays.

Sandhya updated the museum passes and made a handy reference chart for which museums require physical passes (information about the museums changes on a weekly basis), and processed ILLs. Ranjita also updated the NYT bestseller lists. Allie and Sandhya expressed interest in attending a weeding webinar. Susan placed orders for overdrive content, Large Print, weeded audiobooks, and delivered nine items to Home Delivery patrons. All of us are looking forward to our first Departmental meeting since October, and are thankful to staff members who are covering the service desks for us to do so.

This week Allison ordered any missing titles from the ALA Youth Media Awards and displaying any YA copies we own. She worked on the Blind Date with a Book program for February. She met with Sarah to talk about summer program ideas and we went through the donated toys that we will be putting together for a Frankentoy program.

Sarah placed a book order with newly announced youth media award winners, handled an unaccompanied adult policy violation and patron complaint, contacted Bibliotheca for ticket support for the self-check printer, held two storytimes via Zoom for SGES, corresponded with the schools, assisted with reader’s advisory, managed volunteers, attended the weekly staff meeting, met with Allison to brainstorm about the upcoming SLP, met with Allison to brainstorm Feb and March programming.

Cyndi coordinated with volunteers and managed the Library of Things in addition to regular circulation duties. Stacie prepped book displays and began to decorate the room for February.

Heidi is working on a resource list for disenfranchised and marginalized people. We have emergency go-bags with a blanket and snacks for homeless, veterans, and displaced people; we are seeing an increase in visitors of all ages struggling with mental health, and provide information and referral services.

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