Grafton Public Library

Library Updates

Director’s Report for September 2023

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Director’s Report September 2023

The Library was open 23 days in September and had 6,786 visitors. We had to delay opening to 1pm on Saturday September 30 due to multiple staff out on leave. We offered 9 programs for 56 attendees (no children’s or teen data as of 10/5/2023) and hosted 2 days of the Friends Book Sale for 954 attendees. We had 158 meeting room reservations for 418 participants, 0 cancellations, 1 postponement, and 0 no-shows. We hosted an additional 18 meeting room uses for staff use (photography, meetings, programs etc.), and filed 6 incident reports, including for disruptive behavior and first aid.

 

Admin

Beth attended Union Negotiation meetings and met and corresponded with patrons regarding meeting room and facility rentals, Unattended Child Policy, and Code of Conduct; with Trustees, staff, and the Town Administrator’s office. She submitted bills for payment, made updates to the schedule, procedures manual, website, event calendar, and social media pages.

 

Beth shepherded the monthly GUM Jam session in partnership with Apple Tree Arts and the return of Eric the Plant Guy, who did a lecture and demonstration on cannabis harvesting. She attended the BoLT policy committee meeting, worked on policy and procedure updates, and attended the monthly Board of Library Trustees meeting. Beth reviewed and submitted payroll and bills, approved meeting room usage; updated the website, social media, and calendar of events.

 

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby worked on scheduling and payroll, compiled Weekly Reports, worked on upcoming social media posts, assisted with planning Staff Development Day and Grafton Celebrates the Holidays, covered the Teen Room, and worked on Board of Library Trustee tasks.

Staffing
We have added one additional On-Call Temporary Library Associate-Teen Services: please join me in welcoming Nicole Granstaff. The Director has put in for FMLA and will be on leave through the end of the year.

We recorded 30 low coverage instances – more than 1 each day we were open—due to scheduled, earned leave of benefitted staff, chronic understaffing in the Teen and Reference departments, and staff out on leave.

The Director will be taking an FMLA-eligible leave of absence through the end of the calendar year.

Budget
We continue to have unexpected building expenses, such as water absorbers to all entrances in the event of future flooding and writeable CDs and zip drives for public record requests.

Building
ServPro began demolition in the Community Room, Children’s Room and Children’s Program Room, Children’s Staff Workroom, and Children’s Storage Closet on Monday September 25. Preserve 24 will begin reconstruction as soon as ServPro completes demolition. Reconstruction is expected to last 8-10 working days. The Children’s Room remains closed to the public, with a selection of materials available in the Friends Corner (many thanks to our gracious Friends for temporarily relocating items and giving up this space!). Community Meeting Room Reservations continue to be suspended until reconstruction is completed. The Director addressed a heating issue, a door issue, and key card issues; reached out to three roofing/gutter companies for quotes for necessary work to address gutter issue near the exterior patron book return.

 

Construction Update
The Building Committee met in September to review and pay bills. Beth sent the completed the Post Occupancy survey, the July, August, and September MPLCP report, and a final grant narrative. The Final Financial Report is pending final payment to CTA Construction.

 

We are still waiting for return of chairs from Tucker, they are repairing stitching issues on the upholstery of several chairs.

IT Update
IT has been supportive through the rough transition to Outlook, and plans to introduce teams next month.

Volunteers, Outreach and Partnerships
Crescent Manor BookWagon had 7 participants, 32 check-outs and renewals, 15 requests, and 2 sign ups (1 new card & 1 expired renewal). We delivered 9 items to Homebound patrons. We had 18 volunteers who put in 56 hours.

 

Social Media
We have 1,019 followers on TikTok, 2,226 followers on Facebook, 811 on Instagram, 113 on YouTube, 419 on Twitter, 429 on Pinterest, and are holding steady at 8 on Flickr. We have 2,118 subscribers on Constant Contact.

Children’s Services
Due to flood remediation, the Children’s Room staff have relocated to the Friend’s Café to set up a temporary Children’s Room while our space was demolished in preparation for construction to begin.  Staff have been adjusting to working out of the Friend’s Café, but it has been a rocky transition. Children’s Room staff have been fielding near-constant questions and concerns from the public ranging from sympathetic understanding to frustration about the closure of the Children’s Room, our current programming hiatus, and the temporary suspension of the Friends of the Grafton Public Library’s book sale. Notifications were sent out to the public via social media and signs were hung in the library, but people are still taken by surprise by the current state of Library.

 

Children’s Room staff have worked through a number of programming scenarios depending on when the room construction is completed, but are unable to move forward and finalize or publicize any plans until we have more information from the construction company.

 

Teen Services
Back to school kicked into full gear during September. We asked new and returning teens to complete an updated contact for the new school year. The form now asks for grade, age, birthdate, and guardian phone number. In addition to getting this information it also provided us the opportunity to remind teens of the behavior expected of them in the Library.

 

Several staff members attended the parent’s Open House events at schools throughout the district to reach parents of our tweens and teens—Allison at Grafton Middle School, Debby at North Street Elementary for 6th grade, and Kristin at Millbury Street for 6th grade.

 

Teens coming after school is our biggest traffic time. We usually see between 8-20 teens each school day afternoon, and on early release days we are seeing closer to 40 teens coming to the Teen Room. I’ve also noticed that teens are staying longer in the teen space since they have in the past. Historically after 5-6 pm there would be few, if any teens left in the teen room. Lately 4-8 teens have been staying until 7-8:30pm.

 

Borrower Services
We circulated 9,220 physical items and 3,077 digital items, a significant decrease from last month and last year, due to the Children’s Room limiting programming due to space and staffing and relocation for construction, and the unavailability of the Community Room for programming and meetings. This is demonstrably proof that our Children’s staff, services and programming brings in users that check out books!

There were 55 museum pass reservations; 45 were picked up and there were 10 “No Shows.” We registered 79 new borrowers and corrected 1 account for Grafton patrons. We made 6 out of network requests; 1 was unfillable.

The seed packets program is wrapping up for the season; materials were created to request seed donations from this year’s growth.

Our main display for September was Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring books by Hispanic authors. The 4 smaller displays were: “Happy Birthday Stephen King,” Banned Books, Positive Thinking Day, and Healthy Aging Month. A graphic novel display was set up for fall. Sandhya hosted 1 daytime “Unplug with Art” program for adults: 6 people attended. She hosted the second session of the Diamond art program for adults: 8 people attended (and 3 registrants were out sick).

Reference Services
We held the following in person book discussion groups:  “Not Just for Young Adults” Book Group discussion of The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy; Daytimers Book Group discussion of Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown; GPL Mystery Book Group discussion of Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet; “Reads Well with Others” Adult Book Group discussion of The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams; The “Inspirational Book Club”and Guided Meditation discussion of 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets.

Other Events: Happy Harvesting with Plant Guy Eric (Monday, September 11th; 6pm-8pm); Grafton Ukulele Musicians – GUM (Wednesday, September 13th; 6:30pm-8pm); Saturday Afternoon Knitting, Etc.  (Saturday, September 23rd at 2pm).

Displays: Eric made a “Fall into a Cozy Book” staircase display. Heidi made an “In Memoriam” end cap display for Jimmy Buffett.

Outreach: Heidi set up a table at the Grafton Farmers Market and interacted with 26 adults, 7 kids, and 1 young adult. She checked out one book and answered one reference question.

Heidi assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation and room reservations, and worked on collection development, program planning, PR, and statistics. Eric assisted patrons with technology, reference, room requests and circulation questions; ordered new books for the non-fiction collection, planned for October displays, shifted the collection to make more space, performed collection maintenance, gathered monthly statistics, and put out new non-fiction books.

 

401 Staff Placed Holds

Data base uses: Gale 25, Transparent Language 4, Novelist 4, Ancestry.com 141, ComicsPLUS 6, Pronunciator 0, MA Driving Tests 38, Tutor.com 10, PebbleGo 0, Peterson’s 0.

Computer use: Adult – 93, YA – 17, CR – 58 and 4,121 WiFi users.

 

Technical Services

Cynthia added 559 items in September and deleted 114 items; she worked on fixing 74 items.

She ordered book through Ingram for each department and unpacked items as they arrived, sent in requests to the CatCenter for records to be added to the Catalog, worked on adding grids to carts in Ingram, worked on replacement items, requested quotes and ordered more RFID tags, and created records for Library of Things items and added holdings to the catalog. She also reports in Ingram and Baker and Taylor to see if there were any cancelled items and sent them to the appropriate selectors if they had any. Cynthia attended meetings and prep sessions regarding the union, and helped cover the desk for Borrower Services.

 

Friends

The Friends Book Sale was a success, taking in over $2,500. They are unlikely to schedule another sale before spring 2024.

 

The next Friends meeting will be posted to the Friends Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GPLFriends.

Completed and edited,

Debby Jackson

 

Respectfully submitted,

Beth Schreiber

 

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November and December 2023 Library Closures

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The Library will be closed on the following days in November and December:

Saturday, November 11 CLOSED – Veterans’ Day
Wednesday, November 22 EARLY CLOSING – Close at 5 p.m.
Thursday, November 23 CLOSED Thanksgiving Day
Friday November 25 CLOSED Thanksgiving holiday
Friday December 15 EARLY CLOSING – Close at 12 p.m.
Saturday, December 23 CLOSED – Christmas
Monday, December 25 CLOSED – Christmas
Monday, January 1, 2024 CLOSED New Year’s Day

Items may be returned in the automated return outside. Please visit our online digital branch 24/7 at www.graftonlibrary.org – you can even get a digital card for the OverDrive catalog if you do not have a library card.

For a complete calendar of 2023 Library closings, please visit https://graftonlibrary.org/2023-closings/

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Weekly Report October 8-14

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Library Weekly Report 

Week of October 8-14, 2023 

This week we circulated 1,969 items, received 495 items in transit, and sent 517 items. We requested 437 items and fulfilled 402 hold requests; registered 11 patrons for library cards, and added 138 new items. The most popular book this week is The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. We hosted 24 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 138 people including GPL Capital Campaign and Small Stones Festival Planning, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.  

The Grafton Public Library was closed on Monday, October 9, 2023 in observance of Indigenous People’s Day. 

Building Update 

The Children’s Room and Community Rooms remain closed as we await reconstruction of walls and replacement flooring from flood damage in August. ServPro completed their demolition work over a week ago and we are waiting on our insurance to give the go-ahead for reconstruction crews to begin. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.  

 

Admin 

The Director will be taking an FMLA-eligible leave of absence through the end of the calendar year. Town Administrator, Evan Brassard, and Assistant Town Administrator, William Blake, have begun a search for an Interim Director.  

 

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, sent late notices, prepared bills, paid invoices and assisted with coverage for Borrower Services.  Debby compiled the Weekly Report, and worked on payroll, scheduling, social media, and tasks for the Board of Library Trustees. She communicated with Town Administration, trustees, and staff to facilitate communication and develop plans to keep things running smoothly, and attended to numerous tasks to keep things moving forward in various areas in Beth’s absence. 

 

Borrower Services  

Staff managed the adult circ desk, delivery, museum passes, the lobby, room reservations, and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. We assisted patrons, placed holds, performed readers’ advisory, and supervised volunteers. 

Kara put out new adult fiction and graphic novel titles for October; reviewed industry newsletters to add upcoming titles to purchase lists; corresponded with volunteer applicants and staff coordinators; ordered requested e-book and e-audio titles; placed an order of music CDs; ran Evergreen reports for lost, transit, and missing items for September; prepared a third adult fiction order for October; worked with staff on shelving adjustments in media and graphic novels; and created bookmarks for circulation desks. Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase; corrected patron records with the wrong home library; collected items with alerts from invalid RFID tags and alerts from old displays; processed pending library card applications; continued weeding adult fiction; and assisted a patron with A/V issues. Ranjita posted the New York Times Best Seller List; for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase; processed ComCat requests; processed pending library card applications; and performed a routine check of the Library of Things. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials and followed up on open issues; worked on interlibrary loans and followed up with patrons; cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons; planned for and tested adult programming options for November and December; processed museum pass renewals and reviewed upcoming expiration dates; worked on the home delivery service, including processing holds, coordinating volunteers, and registering a new patron; and prepared for next season of the seed library to reopen in March or April of 2024. Allie edited room use reservations sheet; planned, requested materials, and created display graphics for November’s Native American Heritage Month staircase display; contacted a patron about a problem with holds notices not automatically generating; performed; troubleshooting on the receipt printer; helped a patron find a cancelled title on their account; gathered content for the November newsletter; and recorded statistics for 7-day bestsellers. 

 

Children’s Services 

The Children’s Room staff continues working out of the temporary CR space while we await repairs to damaged sustained in the August flood. They continue to field questions and concerns from the public ranging from sympathetic understanding to frustration about the closure of the Children’s Room, our current programming hiatus, and the temporary suspension of the Friends of the Grafton Public Library’s book sale. At this time, the timeline of the project continues to be unclear, making it challenging to alleviate the concerns of the public. 

 

Teen Services 

Allison attended the department head meeting, coordinated with other departments in regards to Beth’s absence, worked on a book order, and teen program planning. Sarah S helped teens set up the switch, performed readers’ advisory, checked in new YA fiction, and coordinated with teen volunteers. Shawn interacted with teens and provided supervision in the Teen Room during after-school hours.  

 

Reference Services 

Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation, room reservations and museum passes.  Heidi also hosted the “Not Just for Young Adults” Book Group discussion of The Downstairs Girl, by Stacey Lee and worked on a grant and event PR.  Eric also performed collection maintenance and new book ordering for the non-fiction collection. 

 

Technical Services 

This week, Cynthia ordered new books and unpacked items as they arrived; cataloged new adult fiction, graphic, and YA books; added grids to items in Ingram; worked on fixing problem items; sent in requests for records to the CatCenter; worked on fixing problem items; attended the staff meeting; and covered the desk for Borrower Services. 

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Library CLOSED in Observance of Veteran’s Day Saturday Nov 11, 2023

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White text Veteran's Day with an American FlagThe Grafton Public Library will be CLOSED in observance of Veteran’s Day, honoring all who served the US in the military, on Saturday, November 11, 2023. No items are due this day. The Library will reopen at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, November 13.

Thank you to all who serve or have served in the military and to their families for their support.

Please pick up museum passes for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before the Library closes for the long weekend at 6pm on Friday November 10.

Please visit our online digital branch 24/7 at www.graftonlibrary.org – you can even get a digital card for the OverDrive catalog if you do not have a library card.

For a complete calendar of 2023 Library closings, please visit https://graftonlibrary.org/2023-closings/

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Weekly Report October 1-7, 2023  

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This week we circulated 2,305 items, received 455 items in transit, and sent 523 items. We requested 529 items and fulfilled 442 hold requests; registered 12 patrons for library cards, and added 149 new items. The most popular book this week is The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. We hosted 27 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 87 people including Capital Campaign, Girl Scouts, Small Stones Festival planning, Brownie Troop 65219, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.

Admin
Beth addressed emergency staffing issues over her holiday weekend so the Library could open by 1pm Saturday. This week, she completed payroll, submitted the Financial Report for State Aid, submitted construction reports to MBLC, and responded to patron, staff and trustee requests,

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, sent late notices, prepared bills, paid invoices and assisted with coverage for Borrower Services.  Debby compiled the Weekly Report, wrapped up minutes from several meetings last week, provided desk coverage for the Children’s Department, and worked on payroll, social media, tasks for the Board of Library Trustees, and scheduling, working through numerous staffing issues in an attempt to avoid additional library closures.

 

Borrower Services
Staff managed the Borrower Services desks, delivery, museum passes, room reservations, and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. We assisted patrons, placed holds, performed readers’ advisory, and supervised volunteers.

Kara checked CW MARS top titles against the collection; reviewed industry newsletters to add upcoming titles to purchase lists; corresponded with volunteer applicants and staff coordinators; ordered requested e-book and e-audio titles; pulled materials for Crescent Manor, made the monthly visit, and ordered items for next month’s Crescent Manor visit; placed an order of CD audiobooks; placed an order for new DVDs and Blu-rays; prepared the ARIS, circulation statistics, and September narrative; and sent September’s OverDrive MARC records to CW MARS. Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase; corrected patron records with the wrong home library; collected items with alerts from old displays; continued weeding adult fiction; watched a webinar on substance abuse; and attended a CW MARS training seminar on running metabase reports. Ranjita processed ComCat requests; processed pending library card applications; set up a monthly endcap display for “Autumn Fiction”; performed a routine check of the Library of Things and processed collection items; and performed the monthly check of the AED and first aid kit. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials and followed up on items stuck in transit; worked on interlibrary loans and followed up with patrons; cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons; prepared for adult programming in November and December, including planning and testing activities; and collected and prepared supplies for upcoming programming. Allie edited and proofread the October newsletter; created signage during the internet outage; created the printable October Adult Event Calendar; removed July New Fiction books and recorded 7-day New Fiction stats for July; setup Stranger Reads endcap display for October; and printed shelf labels for the DVD/Blu-ray section.

Children’s Services
The Children’s Room staff has been adjusting to working out of the temporary CR space. They have been fielding questions and concerns from the public ranging from sympathetic understanding to frustration about the closure of the Children’s Room, our current programming hiatus, and the temporary suspension of the Friends of the Grafton Public Library’s book sale. Notifications have gone out to the public via social media and signs have been hung in the library, but people are still taken by surprise by the current state of Library. CR Staff are working through a number of programming scenarios depending on when the room construction will be completed, but are unable to finalize or publicize any plan until we have more information from the construction company.

 

Teen Services
Allison worked on a book order and researched ideas for potentially bringing back the winter reading program. Sarah S. coordinated with volunteers to run teen led activities, put up Halloween themed, staff picks TBR, LGBTQ history month displays. She also monitored the first session of teen-led Dungeons and Dragons. Posted flyers for upcoming programming.

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation, museum passes and room check-ins.  Heidi also worked on statistics, collection development and event planning.  Eric also did collection maintenance for the  non-fiction collection, put out new non-fiction books and worked on the monthly ARIS statistics.

Technical Services
Cynthia ordered new books and unpacked items as they arrived; cataloged new children’s books, adult nonfiction, and fiction; she added grids to items in Ingram; worked on fixing problem items; sent in requests for records to the CatCenter; and ran reports to gather statistics for her monthly report and wrote her monthly narrative for September. She helped cover the desk for Borrower Services.

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Weekly Report, September 25-30, 2023

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This week we circulated 1,794 items, received 496 items in transit, and sent 566 items. We requested 439 items and fulfilled 363 hold requests; registered 12 patrons for library cards, and added 139 new items. The most popular book this week is The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. We hosted 31 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 62 people including Grafton Youth Football & Cheer, and Operation Friendship, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.

Admin
We remember with fondness and gratitude Trustee Marilyn Cusher, who passed away on last week. She dedicated four years of service to the Board of Library Trustees and was a strong library advocate during the construction grant process. Her daughter-in-law Allison is a staff member, and staff attended the funeral and shiva. May her memory be for a blessing.

This was the final week of National Library Card Sign Up Month. We’ve added 76 new cards in September to date. Through Saturday September 30, get your first card (or a FREE replacement card) to access online resources like Tutor.com, and check out materials, including items from our Library of Things: metal detectors, telescopes, cake pans, ukuleles, a sewing machine, yard games, and more.

This week, ServPro removed about a foot of drywall all around the interior of the Community Room and Children’s Room. Patrons are advised there may be noise typical of construction work on the lower level between 10am-4pm over the next few weeks, as Preserve 24, the contractor who will install new drywall, flooring and millwork as needed for flood remediation, will be on site soon and expect the process to take 8-10 days. We are still not booking any meetings or events in the Community Room or Children’s Room, and the Small Stones Festival of the Arts has been postponed until December.

We continue to assess the doors and drainage to ascertain to why the water from this particular storm of August 18 breeched the emergency door gaskets and infiltrated the Library. Beth signed up for COSTEP (Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness for Cultural Heritage in Massachusetts) alerts, registered for accessing to a platform for developing an Emergency Response Policy, and registered for the Northeast Summit on Climate Adaptation for Libraries, taking place via Zoom in November. DPW is not yet available to snake drains, so Beth is working with a septic company that might be able to perform the work sooner.

Last week, Beth attended the MPLCP Construction team meeting, Town Department Heads meeting, responded to emails from Capital Campaign, connected with the Board of Library Trustees chair for a weekly check-in, and met with another board member regarding Long Range Planning. This week, she forwarded reference questions to the Trustee in charge of LRP. She met with staff, department heads, and attended the Board of Library Trustees meeting. She responded to two public records requests, connected the Town Clerk to the Head of Children’s Services for Kids Voting in mid-October, and fielded questions from partners on programming.

We are still trying to resolve several building issues from last week, including a network error message for first floor thermostats in the HR-1 group. Beth reviewed the Operation and Maintenance Manual for door warranty information, for instructions on cleaning the skylight, and for warranty information on the folding panels in the Community Room. She and IT did some troubleshooting on the door scheduling software that failed last Tuesday morning following an unscheduled entry through an unauthorized door; it did resolve by Wednesday morning. Three staff key cards stopped working last Tuesday as well, only for one day—it’s unclear if it was related. She reached out to multiple roofing companies for quotes to install a metal flange as recommended by the architect to address an issue with water not being directed into the downspout.

Staff reported an issue with EKRooms and Beth reached out to Plymouth Rocket regarding an alerts issue–meeting room requests are not showing in the web interface, resulting in delays to responding to patron requests for room reservations, they are working on resolving it.

Patrons who came to the Library on the early release day were generally well-behaved and well-managed. Beth corresponded with people regarding meeting room reservations, updated the calendar and approved requests, made updates to the Procedures Manual, website, and event calendar, and reviewed and submitted bills.
Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, sent late notices, prepared bills, paid invoices and assisted with coverage for Borrower Services. Debby compiled the Weekly Report, covered scheduling gaps in the Teen Room, and worked on payroll, scheduling, social media, and tasks for the Board of Library Trustees. She attended and recorded minutes for the staff meeting, library department heads meeting, and the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees. She checked in daily on the progress of flood remediation and communicated updates with staff, trustees, and town administration.

Borrower Services
Staff managed the adult borrower services desk, delivery, museum passes, the lobby, room reservations, and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. We assisted patrons, placed holds, performed readers’ advisory, and supervised volunteers.

Kara checked CW MARS top titles against the collection; reviewed industry newsletters to add upcoming titles to purchase lists; corresponded with volunteer applicants and staff coordinators; ordered requested e-book and e-audio titles; worked on displays including creating signage and pulling titles for the October staircase and graphic novel displays, taking down September’s displays and setting up October displays; and created bookmarks for October. Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase; corrected patron records with the wrong home library; collected items with alerts from invalid RFID tags; processed pending library card applications; prepared materials and graphics for the October endcap display celebrating International Coffee Day and National Homemade Cookie Day. Ranjita posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase; processed ComCat requests; processed new adult fiction; and performed a routine check of the Library of Things. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials; worked on interlibrary loans and followed up with patrons; cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons; prepared for adult programming in November and December; contacted Roger Williams Park Zoo museum pass about renewal; prepared graphics and selected additional materials for the October endcap display; and performed troubleshooting on the Bibliotheca self-check. Allie worked on newsletter graphics and curation of sections and events; requested books for the October endcap display “Stranger Reads”; created October graphics; and attended to meeting room glitches and email correspondence.

Children’s Services
This week the Children’s Room staff settled into their temporary space located in the Friends Cafe. Patrons seem disappointed that the CR is closed again, and we have had some tearful friends, but we assure them the CR will be back as soon as possible so they can come play again. Staff also coordinated with local schools about upcoming school visits, prepped for Octoberfest, started a “Name the Frog” contest, and assisted patrons.
Teen Services
Allison attended a department head meeting; spoke with Children’s Staff in regards to possible Winter Reading Program, and worked on a book order. Sarah S worked on endcap display lists for next month, attended a suicide prevention workshop at Forbush Library in Westminster, performed reader advisory, and coordinated with teen volunteers. Allison and Sarah held a T.A.G. (Teen Advisory Group) meeting. Shawn monitored the room and interacted with teens during after-school hours.

Reference Services

Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi hosted the “Reads Well with Others” Book Group discussion of The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams and the Inspirational Book Group (and Guided Meditation)’s discussion of 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time, by Annabel Streets; and worked on collection development and event planning. Eric also did collection maintenance for the non-fiction collection, worked on October displays, ordered books for the adult non-fiction collection, and put out new non-fiction books.

Technical Services
This week, Cynthia ordered new books and unpacked items as they arrived; cataloged new adult fiction, nonfiction, DVDs, audiobooks, and CDs; created brief records MARC for new Library of Things items; added grids to items in Ingram; worked on fixing problem items; sent in an order for RFID Tags from Bibliotheca and requests for records to the CatCenter. She helped cover the desk for Borrower Services.

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Director’s Report August 2023

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The Library was open 25 days in August and had 7,275 visitors. We offered 51 programs for 727 attendees. We had 156 meeting room reservations for 331 participants and nine cancellations due to library closures August 18 & 19, and 2 no-shows.  We hosted an additional 67 meeting room uses for staff use (photography, meetings, programs etc.) and filed 5 incident reports, included 2 Unattended Child issues, 2 Meeting Room issues, and 1 for first aid dispensed.

Admin
Beth met and corresponded with people regarding meeting room and facility rentals, with Trustees, staff, the Town Administrator’s office. She submitted the FY24 ARIS report, which Roger Trahan reviewed and signed. She submitted bills for payment, made updates to the schedule, procedures manual, website, event calendar, and social media pages. She presented a CPA funding request at CPC’s meeting August 3 to meet the gap for the cupola restoration project, and was asked to revise the proposal to include the full $20,000 committed by the Capital Campaign. On August 24, CPC voted unanimously to fund up to $74,144 for restoration of the cupola; this request will go to the voters at Town Meeting on October 16.

Beth shepherded the monthly GUM Jam session in partnership with Apple Tree Arts, and participated in an extra session on Saturday August 26 for Play Music on the Porch Day. She worked on policy updates, and attended the monthly Board of Library Trustees meeting. Beth reviewed and submitted payroll and bills, approved meeting room usage;  updated the website, social media, and calendar of events; and made updates to the procedures manual.

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby worked on scheduling and payroll, compiled Weekly Reports, worked on upcoming social media posts, helped clear the sprinkler room to meet compliance standards from the Grafton Fire Department, and covered the Teen Room, and worked on Board of Library Trustee tasks. Debby compiled the Weekly Report, worked on upcoming social media posts, payroll and scheduling, as well as tasks for the Board of Library Trustees for their upcoming meetings.

Staffing
The Library received 17 applications for the Part Time Young Adult Librarian vacancy, through August 2,2023. Debby Jackson, Allison Cusher and I interviewed candidates and we recommend Shawn O’Connell without reservation. As a resident of Grafton, Shawn was seeking additional employment in the Town of Grafton and saw the job posting on the Town’s website. He has immeasurable life experience and currently works as a paraprofessional in the Special Education Department at Grafton High School. Shawn’s experience working directly with teens at Grafton High School coupled with his down-to earth demeanor, and the care and consideration with which he spoke about his understanding of teens, their social-emotional development, and the need to build relationships with teens made him the top candidate. Shawn’s references from Grafton High School provided glowing recommendations and I am confident he will be a wonderful asset our team.

We recorded 45 low coverage instances. Beth prepared a draft vacancy notice for the 12 hours remaining from Marilyn Wilcox’s retirement.

Budget
We learned from Ingram that overpaid invoices due to a change in their accounting system, and they returned $9,218 which we deposited to State Aid. We also received a gift of $5,000 from the Friends for museum passes and summer reading program expenses.

Building
The Library sustained significant damage from flooding on Friday morning August 18, with damage to the flooring and drywall in the Community Room (103), A/V Storage closet, Kitchen (108), Children’s Room (111), Children’s Staff Workroom (112), Children’s Program Room (114), and Children’s Storage Closet (115). Thank you to town and library staff who acted heroically to sweep out water, dry out the space, and save materials and furniture from damage. ServPro and MIIA assessed, and remediation work begins Monday September 25. We do not have a timeline for repair, which is challenging given our meeting room bookings.

Construction Update
The Building Committee met in August to review and pay bills. Beth met with MBLC Construction Specialist Lauren Stara for a post-occupancy tour of the building, and completed the Post Occupancy survey. Beth worked on the July MPLCP report.

The Maker Space and Presentation Area doors we replaced, this time with kickstands. Unfortunately, there is a rattle on both left side doors where the bolt is to lock the door at the top and bottom. Locks still need to be installed.

HVAC commissioning was completed August 31 by Evan from Colliers. His report is attached.  We continue to have water cascading off the roof near the book drop and surpassing the lower downspout and gutters, creating water pools in the mulched blueberry bush garden, which makes the mulch overflow onto the concrete pathway to the exterior book return, and creating an obstacle and potential trip hazard for visitors with wheelchairs, walkers or other mobility issues. The architect suggested drain cleaning (Beth is investigating) and that perhaps a metal flange along the side of the roof edge can direct the water to the gutter. We are still waiting for return of chairs from Tucker, they are repairing stitching issues on the upholstery of several chairs.

IT Update
We began transitioning over from Google Suite and Gmail to Office 365 and Outlook during the last week of August, which was challenging timing as we were still operating in crisis mode from the flood, and we have many teens and tweens returning as it is the first week of school. IT met individually with staff to train and test new procedures for accessing email on a rolling basis, and email and email discussion groups were unavailable from late Monday through Thursday, resulting in delays in communication and inability to perform basic functions of our jobs. As of September 18, mailing lists for Trustees and Building Committee are still in process.

Volunteers, Outreach and Partnerships
Crescent Manor BookWagon had 35 check-outs and renewals, and 3 requests. We delivered 9 items to Homebound patrons. We had 22 volunteers who put in 66 hours; the drop is a result of several days of closure and people going back to school.

Social Media
We increases followers on TikTok, with 1,015 subscribers! We have 2,217 followers on Facebook, 804 on Instagram, 112 on YouTube, 419 on Twitter, 426 on Pinterest, and are holding steady at 8 on Flickr. We have 2,112 subscribers on Constant Contact. Trustees voted against subscribing to HootSuite for streamlining posts and suggested staff take advantage of the free trial or look for a less expense software.

Children’s Services
August saw the conclusion to a very successful Summer Reading Program. The Children’s Room remained a summer staple with families taking the opportunity to take a break from the heat and high humidity to relax and attend programs in a cool and comfortable space.

Disaster struck in mid-August when a strong thunderstorm brought torrential rain and flash flooding to the area. Unfortunately, the Library was directly in the water’s path leading to significant flooding effecting a large portion of the first floor, including the Children’s Room. Children’s Room staff spent a significant amount of time dealing with issues regarding the flood, and staff work spaces had to be moved to Room 202. The Children’s Room was closed to the public for the remainder of August, so a selection of children’s materials was made available in the Historic Reading Room.

Shifting and re-organizing the selection of materials made available to patrons was an ongoing challenge and Children’s Room staff did their best to keep the pop-up collection in order. The end of summer is a very busy time for Children’s Room returns as families are preparing to make the transition back to the academic year, so we experienced a high volume of materials making their way back to us. Before opening, staff worked hard putting the room back together, shelving materials, and assessing what was lost to the flood waters.

Teen Services
Summer reading wrapped up in August; successful teen programs included soap making, diamond art, and movie & perler bead nights. We welcomed a new teen room staff member – Shawn O’Connell, who also works part time at Grafton High School. Shawn was able to join us for our August staff meeting and get trained in time for the first day of school.

The library flood of August 18 didn’t lead to any damage in the Teen Room ,but the television and computers were unavailable for a short period as they were on the same breaker as other damaged areas.

The Teen Behavior Contract was updated for back to school. The content is the same, but we asked for a few additional pieces of information including grade, birthday/age, and guardian contact. Teens have been asked to fill out a new contract for the new school year, even if they had filled one out previously. Allison asked the Director to send reminders of our Unattended Child Policy and Code of Conduct to school principals to share with students and parents/ guardians, and this really helped with back to school behavior. We saw about 45 different teens the first day of school and we currently have over 100 newly signed contracts. Shawn, Sarah S. and I were able to attend the T.A.G. meeting together which helped us plan future programs for the fall, including the return of Dungeons & Dragons.

Borrower Services
We circulated 11,993 physical items and 3,315 digital items, a slight decrease from last month and last year. There were 114 museum pass reservations; 93 were picked up and there were 21 “No Shows.”

We registered 102 new borrowers and corrected 10 accounts for Grafton patrons and made 9 out of network requests; 2 were unfillable.

Reference Services
We have X database uses, X computer users and 4102 WiFi users.

Technical Services
489 items were added in August and 295 items were deleted. Cynthia worked on fixing 96 items. She ordered books through Ingram for each department and unpacked items as they arrived, sent in request to the CatCenter for records to be added to the catalog, worked on replacement items, set up the packaging for the telescopes that were returned after our program, created records to Library of Things items. She worked on adding grips to existing carts in Ingram and ran reports in Ingram and Baker and Taylor to see if there were any cancelled items and sent them to selectors if they had any. Cynthia also helped cover the desk for Borrower Services.

Friends
Book and media donations in saleable condition were accepted beginning Aug 28, with the next Book Sale running Sept 9-10. The next Friends meeting will be posted to the Friends Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GPLFriends.

Patron Comments

 

 Respectfully submitted,

Beth Schreiber

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The Children’s Room is closed for construction.

Posted by mcneilj on

On Friday 8/18, portions of the Children’s Room, Children’s Workroom (where staff offices are located), and Community Rooms, as well as the entirety of the Children’s Program room flooded during a late summer storm. Construction began Monday, 9/25 to remove and replace damaged sections of walls and flooring in the above-mentioned areas.

A limited selection of children’s books is available in the lobby. No toys, games, or seating space is available in the lobby.  Please remember that the teen room is exclusively for teens in grades 6 and above.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

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Weekly Report, September 18-23, 2023

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This week we circulated 2,181 items, received 576 items in transit, and sent 667 items. We requested 406 items and fulfilled 383 hold requests; registered 19 patrons for library cards, and added 105 new items. The most popular book this week is The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand. We hosted 34 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 185 people including office hours for the office of Senator Michael Moore, MetroWest Building Officials Association, Girl Scouts, Small Stones Festival planning, Blackstone Watershed Association, and GPL union negotiations, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.

Construction will begin on Monday, September 25, 2023 to repair damage sustained when portions of the first floor flooded on August 18. ServPro will be on site for up to five days to remove up to one foot of drywall and insulation around the perimeter of the Community Rooms, the kitchen, and portions of the Children’s area including the Children’s Room, Children’s Program Room and storage closet, and Children’s Workroom (where staff offices are located). Preserve24 will follow replacing and painting drywall and replacing damaged flooring if necessary. During the construction, the Community Room and Children’s Room will be closed. The Children’s Room will be relocating a portion of their collection to the Friends Corner for our youngest patrons to browse and check out books. Thank you to Friends of the Grafton Public Library for being so gracious with our need to use the space. A big thank you to Friends President Mary Ann Brayer for working with staff to move their books into storage for the time being to make space for the Children’s temporary collection.

Admin

Beth worked on a public records request for security camera footage in the Library’s parking lot, corresponded with patrons regarding meeting room reservations, wills and bequests, and behavior issues; made updates to the Procedures Manual, website, and event calendar;  and reviewed and submitted bills. She prepared for the upcoming Board of Library Trustee and policy committee meetings, worked on potential budget changes due to the proposed Union Contract, attended the Union Negotiation meetings, and worked on the State Aid financial report due October 6. She will be out Monday for observance of Yom Kippur.

Beth attended the MPLCP Construction team meeting, Town Department Heads meeting, connected with the Board of Library Trustees chair for a weekly check-in, and met with another board member regarding Long Range Planning. She dealt with several building issues, including a network error message for first floor thermostats in the HR-1 group.  She signed up for COSTEP, registered for accessing to a platform for developing an Emergency Response Policy, and registered for the Northeast Summit on Climate Adaptation for Libraries, taking place via Zoom in November. She followed up with a septic company that we are trying to engage to snake the underground drains, reviewed the Operation and Maintenance Manual for door warranty information and instructions on cleaning the skylight.

She and Sarah did some troubleshooting and called Kevin from Veterans, who is checking with LG to see if something needs to be rebooted. Additionally, the door scheduling software failed on Tuesday morning following an unscheduled entry through an unauthorized door; it did resolve by Wednesday morning. Some staff key cards stopped working—it’s unclear if it was related—so we are now troubleshooting staff key cards.

Beth and Debby accompanied William Blake and Sarah Banister on a walkthrough with Mark and Christian from Preserve 24, the contractor who will install new drywall, flooring and millwork as needed for flood remediation.

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, sent late notices, prepared bills, paid invoices and assisted with coverage for Borrower Services.  Debby compiled the Weekly Report; covered scheduling gaps in the Teen Room and Children’s Room; attended and recorded minutes at the Policy Committee meeting; represented GPL at North Street Elementary’s 6th grade curriculum night; and worked on payroll, scheduling, social media, and tasks for the upcoming meetings of the Board of Library Trustees and Trustee Policy Committee. She attended the construction walkthrough on Wednesday morning, collaborated with Children’s Room staff on their plan for closing for construction, and helped Mary Ann Brayer from Friends of the Grafton Public Library clear donated books from the Friends Corner to make a space to temporarily house a selection of Children’s items during their closure.

Borrower Services
Staff managed the adult circ desk, delivery, museum passes, the lobby, room reservations, and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. We assisted patrons, placed holds, performed readers’ advisory, and supervised volunteers.

Kara checked CW Mars top titles against the collection; reviewed industry newsletters to add upcoming titles to purchase lists; corresponded with volunteer applicants and staff coordinators; ordered requested e-book and e-audio titles; prepared adult fiction orders for October; prepared an order of adult graphic novels and manga for October; placed an order for new DVDs; worked on the title list for the October staircase display and graphic novel display; and checked classic horror title lists against the collection, adding missing titles to order lists. Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase; processed pending library card applications; corrected patron records with the wrong home library; continued weeding fiction; provided AV support to a program in the community room. Ranjita posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase; processed ComCat requests and returns; processed pending library card applications; performed a routine check of the Library of Things; provided AV set up support to a presenter in the community room; printed out new library card welcome packet materials for volunteers. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials; cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons; worked on interlibrary loans and followed up with patrons; returned calls from patrons about museum passes; prepared for adult programming in November; and updated the programming survey. Allie planned the endcap display for October for “Stranger Reads”; processed pending library card applications and CLIO returns; performed maintenance cleaning of the AMH; and worked on the October newsletter, including requesting event content from staff members, creating content, and creating graphics.

Children’s Services
The Children’s Room prepared for upcoming demolition and construction to remediate damage caused by the flooding that occurred on August 18, 2023. Several staff members represented GPL at curriculum nights at Grafton Elementary schools in the last two weeks.

Teen Services
Allison was on leave this week. Sarah S contacted volunteers to plan for week; designed and printed fall and Halloween bookmarks; posted flyers for upcoming events including Dungeons & Dragons; put up displays for Sports Manga and Bisexual+ Visibility Day; and changed the Question of the Week. Shawn monitored the room and interacted with teens during after-school hours. Thank you to Shannon, Betsy, Sarah L, and Jessica for filling in this week!

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi also hosted the Daytimers Book Group discussion of Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown and the GPL Mystery Book Group’s discussion of Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet. She also worked on collection development and event PR.  Eric also did collection maintenance for the non-fiction collection, started planning October displays.

Technical Services
This week, Cynthia ordered new books and unpacked items as they arrived; cataloged new adult nonfiction and adult graphic novels and manga; added grids to items in Ingram; worked on replacement items and fixing problem items, specifically a large amount of replacement spine labels that had faded; sent in requests for records to the CatCenter; and helped cover the desk for Borrower Services.

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Library CLOSED Monday October 9 In Observance of Indigenous People’s Day

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The Grafton Public Library will be CLOSED in observance of Indigenous People’s Day, a commemoration of Native American history and culture, on Monday October 9, 2023. No items are due this day. The Library will reopen at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 10 at 10:00am.

Please pick up museum passes for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before the Library closes at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday October 7.

Please visit our online digital branch 24/7 at www.graftonlibrary.org.

For a complete calendar of 2023 Library closings, please visit https://graftonlibrary.org/2023-closings/.

For more information about Indigenous People’s Day, please visit the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness.

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