Grafton Public Library

Director’s Report: July 2021

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The Grafton Public Library was open 98 hours over 24 days in July 2021, and had 1,979 visitors, an average of 82 per day. Much of July was spent on moving and relocating logistics, and on the Summer Reading Program. The Director attended construction meetings and Building Committee Meetings. The Friends of the Library Annual Meeting was held Sunday July 11, and had over 80 people in attendance. We honored former staff member and Friend Elinor Tidman and Friend Karen Kara’a for their contributions.

Children’s Services
In July, the Children’s Room continued to offer take and make kits as part of this year’s Summer Library program. In addition to our kits we also offered a number of live zoom programs including Koi Fish, Cat & Dog, Frog Prince, and Ice Cream Truck LEGO Mini Builds and Fox Paint Night presented by Pop Up Art School.

This month also brought big changes as we prepared for our move back to the Common. We packed and organized our staff spaces and the supply closet to make the transition to our new space and unpacking more streamlined.

Keep an eye out in August for a Comic Book Workshop with Matt Ryan on Thursday, August 12 as we lead up to Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, August 14. Matt Ryan of Free Lunch Comics will present an intro to comics followed by a figure drawing demonstration/lesson.

Teen Services
Allison worked on Kit pickup of Summer Reading Program DIY programs, taught online, and began planning the Winter Reading Program.

Adult Services
Staff placed 343 holds. Crescent Manor Book Wagon had 11 participants with 26 checkouts, and 6 requests. We delivered 31 items to 6 Home Delivery recipients. There were 78 museum pass reservations, 62 pickups and 16 no-shows.

We issued 51 new Grafton Public Library cards, and corrected 2 accounts for Grafton patrons after running the “Patrons with wrong home library” report, which we are now running monthly.

Two adult volunteers put in a total of 6 hours. We received 6 new volunteer applications. We anticipate welcoming teen and additional adult volunteers in the fall, and plan to offer a group training.

Adult programming included LEGO mini-builds: Koi Fish, Cat & Dog, Frog Prince, and Ice Cream Truck; a virtual visit with cartoonist Joel Christian Gill, Skype a Scientist: Cat Behaviorist and Coral Reef Painting for Adults. We held the following virtual book discussion groups:

• “Not Just for Young Adults” Book Discussion Group met on Slack to discuss Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett.
• Daytimers Book Group met on Slack to discuss Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.
• The GPL Mystery Book Group met on Slack to discuss Muzzled by Eileen Brady.
• The “Reads Well with Others” Adult Book Discussion Group met on Slack to discuss 142 Ostriches by April Davila.
• The “Inspirational Book Club” met on Slack to discuss Second-chance cats : true stories of the cats we rescue and the cats who rescue us, edited by Callie Smith Grant.

Technical Services
746 items were added in June. The majority of Donna’s time that was not cataloging was spent organizing, packing & moving.
Staff Update
Staff attended trainings on Romance Reader’s Advisory and EKRooms, our Room Reservation software.

YES Log
Yes, we can renew your card (many, many requests)-SL
Yes, we will have book clubs in the new building-SL
Yes, you can pick up kits here-SL
Yes, we can request something out of network for you-SL (many)

NO Log
No, we don’t have public computers here now -SL
No, we do not have an AA meeting scheduled here today -SL (I contacted the website where the church is still listed as a meeting site and asked them to remove the church from the list)
No, we do not have public computers at this time -SL
No, we are not booking our meeting rooms yet for events right now at our new location -SS
No, we do not have passes/tickets for Six Flags – SS
No, we do not have passes/tickets for Breakers Mansion, RI tours – SS

Patron Comments
7/22 “Thank you, my daughter is having fun with all your activities.” HF
7/16 “Thank you to our amazing Librarians Sarah & Allison! My kids are loving this year’s programs and all the amazing effort you have put into to the projects and kits to make the summer library program a bit hit in our home <3 We just wrapped up a virtual Lego build and my kids can’t stop smiling!” -FB
7/14 Trisha loved the workshop. Thanks! -FB
7/10 “You are awesome in case no one has told you today. Thanks again. I appreciate your help.” (Help updating her library account) -HF
7/6 A patron called to let us know that she just came to collect her book from curbside pickup and is very pleased to have her book (since she’s been waiting for it since February). She wanted us to know how much she appreciates being able to get it. She said she’s going to read it right away so she can return to another library and the other people on the hold list can have it. -HF
7/6 My daughter has had so much fun doing these!
7/5 “Since we’ve had to stay in, I’ve so appreciated being able to get a book from the Boston Public Library at 11pm at night.” (I made sure he also knew about Overdrive’s “Partner Libraries”, Hoopla and Novelist). -HF
7/4 Thank you for all the rainy-day activities!-FB
7/2 ‘Thaaaaaaaaanks soooooo much for your help!!! Words fail me one more time when trying to express my appreciation to you. It’s absolutely amazing to have the information you’ve provided and hope someday we could meet in person! Thanks very much!” -HF
7/2 “Wow. Updating my library card over the phone was so easy. Thank you. If only all my phone business was so easy!” -HF
7/2 “I did a canvas for the quilt. When is it going to be put up? I’m so excited to see it.” -HF

Respectfully submitted,

Beth Gallaway

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