Grafton Public Library

Weekly Report: March 7-12

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Please join me in welcoming Kate Kazlauskas, appointed as Librarian, Reference, and Sarah Slocum, appointed as Librarian, Teen this week! Timing is excellent, as this week was very short-staffed due to unanticipated leave time on top of approved scheduled staff leave time. The Teen Room had to be closed on Monday evening and some teens who opted to stay and use the adult space were disruptive and had to be asked to leave.

Beth met with the construction team and checked off some more punch list items! We are down to gate for the stairs, study room doors, Community Room doors, and Maker Space doors, video game and 3-D printer setup (locking carts are in!) Flooring was scheduled to complete work on Friday. Beth and the Board of Library Trustees met with Finance Committee to defend the FY23 Budget Request, which included an increase of $100,000 in new building related expenses, no new staff, and eliminates many accounts traditionally covered by the Town of Grafton: dues, conference & seminar fees, professional development, marketing, and programming, to be covered by a mix of grants, state aid and gifts.

We had 15 meeting room reservations, Ukulele 101 met with 8 participants, and we hosted a DIY felted bird program. In the last we circulated 2,770 items, issued 15 new library cards, placed 518 hold requests and filled 436 requests, sent 576 items in delivery and received 688, and added 191 new items. No door count was provided.

Sarah attended a MASSYAC Youth Services Community Chat, a HarperCollins publisher preview, managed and shepherd Young Scientists, presented a virtual NGES preschool storytime, communicated with NSES about a May library visit, lesson planned for programming, brainstormed April vacation programming, and attended the weekly staff meeting. She also worked with the Friends on planning their spring fundraiser, the Easter Egg Hunt on the Common, scheduled for Saturday April 9.

Jen worked on the April newsletter, scheduled social media and reworked in-room signage, brainstormed April break programming with other staff, and helped monitor the YA room while we were short-staffed. Kristin worked in the lobby filling in while we are short staffed, worked on social media posts for the upcoming book clubs, decorated the bulletin board for outside the CR, and listening to the recording of MGH’s Clay Center, “Young Healthy Minds,” with Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins and Will Capriola.

Cyndi added borders to our bulletin boards, started working on labeling the bins for the blu-ray discs & DVDs, went through some donated books to see if we own them or not and then went through those we own to see the condition of the book, and began work on labeling the CDs as well. Mare worked the desk, shelved, attended to volunteer matters, and checked book lists to see what titles we own. Stacie decorated the front window, set up the flower experiment, and finished the display end caps. Come in for a new passive treasure hunt program – can you find all the colored flowers?

Borrower Services staff managed the lobby, adult circulation, teens in the library, interlibrary loans, the Automated Materials Handling system, and delivery.

Allie also worked on the April newsletter, and wrote incident reports about disruptive patrons. Sandhya handled many room reservations, more updating of museum pass procedures (we have passes to 19 museums, which have been changing their procedures regularly during the pandemic. Each change requires edits to our online pass reservation software and internal tracking procedures). She also processed loans coming from out of state and out of network.
Jane was trained in adding recommendations for purchase. She also worked on future display graphics, and managed the NY Times best seller lists.

Susan ordered fiction and DVDs and office supplies, delivered books to two home delivery recipients, prepared for the monthly Crescent Manor program, ran a staff meeting, and completed monthly statistics for physical and electronic circulation, volunteers, museum pass reservations, and new patron registrations.

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