Weekly Report: November 14-19, 2022
This week we circulated 2,576 items, received 524 items in transit and sent 581 items. We requested 541 items and filled 453 hold requests; registered 7 patrons for library cards, and added 68 new items. The most popular book this week is Mad Money by Jodi Picoult. We hosted 27 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 137 people including group meetings of Girl Scout Troop 11225, Grafton Democratic Town Committee, MetroWest Building Officials Association, Brownie Troop 65197, North Grafton Elementary PTG, MLSA Union, Mystery Book Club, and Grafton Girls Softball as well as private work, study, and tutoring sessions.
A reminder that the Library will have several closures in observance of Thanksgiving: Wednesday November 23 the Library will close at 5:00 p.m. and remain CLOSED Thursday and Friday November 24 and 25, reopening Saturday November 26 at 10:00 a.m.
Admin
Staff met Tuesday morning; much of the meeting was focused on Meeting Room reservation procedures. We will be reviewing the Meeting Space and Facility Rental policies at a Board of Library Trustees Policy Subcommittee meeting on Wed Nov 30 at 7pm via Zoom.
Beth covered all day in the Teen Room on Friday so Teen Services staff could attend the Teen Summit. She attended a program in partnership with Willard House and Clock Museum on Monday evening, which had 55 attendees. She prepared for and attended the Board of Library Trustee meeting. The Board voted to update the Code of Conduct with a few minor changes – editing age 14 to age 13 to reflect the correct age for youth allowed unattended at the Library, and eliminating the Policy/Procedure Breakdown. Going forward, all policies will contain a line directing visitors to our website for our Appeals Process for policy disagreements. We also passed a Privacy and Confidentiality Policy. Beth updated staff on new policies. She worked on an action plan update for 2023, updated the website and internal documents, such as the emergency contact list, and worked on the December newsletter. Beth worked on Nonfiction and Graphic Novel collection development and recommended magazine titles for 2023. She had meetings with various staff members and corresponded with Trustees, Friends, vendors and committee members.
Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby created content for and managed social media accounts, updated the lobby display for Dinovember, completed scheduling through March 2023, worked on payroll and current scheduling needs, made a call for service when the elevator stopped working, attended to various tasks for the Board of Library Trustees and attended the Trustee meeting on Wednesday evening.
Borrower Services
Staff managed service desks, delivery, museum passes, the lobby, room reservations and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. They assisted patrons, placed holds, performed readers’ advisory, and supervised volunteers.
Kara attended the Annual Circulation and Resource Sharing meeting, ordered adult fiction and non-fiction e-books and e-audio, prepared an order for new regular print adult fiction as well as replacement copies for worn backlist titles, attended a meeting with the library’s Ingram representatives, followed up with a media vendor about an open order, and prepared lists of materials for a December endcap display. She reviewed staff changes to the orientation and training materials for new volunteers, prepared thank you cards for recently retired volunteers, and started a new volunteer.
Jane assisted a patron with the AV setup for Community Room A/B, posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase, collected items with alerts for cataloging corrections, and worked on display ideas. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials, worked on interlibrary loans, cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and contacted patrons, performed troubleshooting on the self-check, processed pending library cards for new patrons, prepared instructions and materials for the upcoming book folding events, suggested updates to the organization of the library’s website, and worked on updating the volunteer policies, procedures, and project list. She worked on the home delivery service, including ordering items, making calls, processing holds, and coordinating with Children’s Room staff about offering home delivery to their patrons. Allie recorded stats for room reservations, planned the main display for December and created signage, called IT support for Bibliotheca AMH troubleshooting, helped a patron with the Libby App and Kindle, and created signage for Audiobook, DVD, and game shelves. She created graphics, content, and event descriptions for the newsletter. Ranjita posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase. She processed ComCat requests and new adult fiction titles, performed a routine check of the Library of Things, and processed pending library cards for new patrons.
Children’s Services
Sarah attended “Willard House and Clock Museum: 50-Years of Collecting Excellence: An Illustrated Lecture” and assisted with set up, set up drop-in play programs for toddlers and preschoolers, made dino eggs for an upcoming program, attended an Ingram selector’s meeting, communicated with YFCP and STEM Beginnings, shepherded Young Scientists, assisted in running Sewing Club, and updated past stats into the new recording format.
Jen updated EventKeeper, worked on the December calendar, began working on the December newsletter, updated the large in-room calendar, planned for the upcoming session of Library Babies, set up a drop-in play session for babies, planned for the New Year’s at Noon event, and wrote press releases for the Children’s Room. Cyndi ran a session of the Sewing Club making aprons, attended a union session to discuss the dress code, completed the Library of Things Inventory, made fabric bookmarks for December’s sewing club activity, cut fabric to prepare for December’s sewing club, and trained and managed volunteers. Stacie’s move to 20 hours per week was approved; she replenished book displays, ran an Autumn Craft program, planned for winter themed school age art activities, and prepped for upcoming Dinovember activities. Mare, who has dropped to 12 hours per week, coordinated and managed volunteers, assisted patrons, and shelved materials. Kristin held Comic Creators Club and three Bookworm Book Clubs, suggested books for the CARES program at SGES, and NGES and delivered/picked up books at local schools.
Teen Services
We continue to document very cold temperatures in the Teen Librarian’s office. Beth has been in communication with MA Board of Labor relations regarding the HVAC system which is waiting for parts. A space heater and instruction manual has been provided to the Teen Services staff for use in the room. Staff completely cleaning of the Teen Services office.
Allison added a craft program to the teen schedule for December, ordered additional supplies, sent out a reminder email for Manga Book Group next week. Sarah assisted setting up the Nintendo Switch for teens to play Just Dance, performed Reader Advisory, set up displays for Transgender Day of Remembrance and National Family Week. She shelved new YA fiction with so many cool new titles added to the collection. Both Allison and Sarah attended the virtual New England Teen Summit.
Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi worked on statistics and program planning, attended the “Willard House and Clock Museum: 50 years of Collecting Excellence, an Illustrated Lecture” in dress inspired by clocks to publicize this library-museum collaboration. She hosted the meeting of the Daytimers’ Book Discussion Group to discuss The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith and the GPL Mystery Book Group discussion of The Island by Ragnar Jónasson. Eric continued weeding the nonfiction collection, worked on future book displays, and updated the monthly Book Club cheat sheet for staff.
Technical Services
This week Cynthia worked on unpacking, processing, and cataloging children’s, young adult, and adults books and had a meeting with Baker & Taylor to get our account set up. She held a meeting for several staff members with our Ingram representatives about consolidating accounts and getting materials correctly processed upon their arrival.