Happy New Year from the Grafton Public Library’s Children’s Room

Posted by mcneilj on 28 December 22

Check out our latest newsletter to see what we’ve got planned for January 2023.

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Weekly Report: December 19-24

Posted by bethg on 27 December 22

This week we circulated 2,237 items, received 528 items in transit and sent 644 items. We requested 457 items and filled 404 hold requests; registered 12 patrons for library cards, and added 154 new items. The most popular book this week is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult. We hosted 17 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 32 people including Girl Scouts, Grafton Girls Softball planning, and Cub Scouts Pack 107 AoL Den, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.

We closed early at 5pm due to the anticipated flash freeze on Friday December 23. As a reminder, the Library will be closed on Saturday December 24 through Tuesday December 26 in observance of the Christmas Holiday – no materials are due. The Library will close at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 31 and remain closed in observance of the New Year Holiday through January 2, 2023. We will reopen on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.

Admin
Beth paid bills, worked on collection development and the FY24 budget, met with various staff members, and covered in the Teen Room. She attended meetings with the construction team and Town department heads.

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby compiled the Weekly Report, worked on social media posts for three different platforms, completed payroll and scheduling tasks as well as taking care of items for the Board of Library Trustees.

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 added patron requests to order lists, prepared graphics for next month’s display for Public Domain Day, started working on the December circ narrative and stats, followed up on open scheduling questions, planned desk and break coverage during times of low staffing, and reviewed industry publications for backlist titles, new releases, and upcoming titles to add to collection. Jane updated links on the library’s site due to the new Town of Grafton website, posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase, and corrected records for patrons with the wrong home library. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials, worked on interlibrary loans, researched adult programming ideas for February, created graphics and gathered books for the January end cap display, provided training to other staff on covering CLIO requests during upcoming time off, and worked on the home delivery service, including updating and archiving files, providing fliers to the Children’s Room for new parents, following up with interested patrons, and signing up a new user. Allie edited the hold slip template to reduce PII (Personally Identifiable Information), added code to hold slips to include patron alias, corresponded with CW MARS to make holds slip edits, prepared the January 2023 newsletter for release, added a “Did You Know” section to the January newsletter about the reduced PII, planned the January endcap display (Art Browsery: Look – Learn – Create), followed up with Bibliotheca on two support cases, performed troubleshooting with Bibliotheca to fix the lobby self-check machine, and added new fiction 7-day and 3-week books to the display.

Children’s Services
Sarah presented four sessions of preschool outreach at SGES, planned for upcoming programming, placed materials orders, met with staff to discuss January and February programming, met with Kristin to schedule Grafton History Day for MSES, and discussed weather procedure with Beth. Jen updated Event Keeper and social media, updated and posted the December calendar, sent out an email blast alerting people to the change in our programming schedule, began working on the January newsletter, and met with Sarah to discuss January and February programming. Cyndi continued to update the Library of Things book, weeded magazines, and assisted Kristin with bulletin board decorations. Stacie decorated the Children’s Room, assisted patrons, and planned future book displays. Mare assisted patrons, managed volunteers and their schedules, shelved items, and shelf-read Children’s Room Blu-Rays and DVD’s. Kristin has communicated with the local schools, met with Sarah to schedule Grafton History Day for MSES, and dropped off C.A.R.E. books to NGES and SGES.

Teen Services
Staff are working on the missing and lost teen items report and a weeding report to make room on our shelves for new books.

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi hosted the Daytimers book group discussion of The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer, and the GPL Mystery book group discussion of A House of Ghosts by W. C. Ryan. She also worked on program planning and PR. Eric continued organizing the non-fiction collection, ordered books for the non-fiction collection, worked on creating a procedure for materials ordering, and created a spreadsheet for program feedback.

Technical Services
Cynthia ordered and unpacked new books; cataloged new adult fiction, children’s books, and audiobooks. She also worked on fixing problem items, sent in requests for records to the CatCenter, and made bookplates for books that were part of a donation to the library.

Weekly Report Week of December 12-17, 2022

Posted by bethg on 16 December 22

This week we circulated 2,462 items, received 538 items in transit and sent 633 items. We requested 477 items and filled 406 hold requests; registered 4 patrons for library cards, and added 205 new items. The most popular book this week is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult. We hosted 31 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 81people including Brownies Troop 65197, Grafton Community Nurses, as well as private work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.

As a reminder, the Library will be closed on Saturday December 24 through Tuesday December 26 in observance of the Christmas Holiday – no materials are due.

Admin
Beth met with the Board of Library Trustees, who approved the 2023 Action Plan, which was submitted to MBLC and is posted on the Library’s website. She worked on the January newsletter, paid bills, and made website updates; corresponded with various town departments, staff and patrons; and  hosted GUM Jam which had a record 16 attendees.
Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby compiled the Weekly Report, worked on upcoming social media posts, and completed payroll and scheduling tasks as well as attending and taking notes for the Board of Library Trustees 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 followed up with the DVD vendor on replacing a locked DVD case, discussed follow up actions for an item error on a patron account with the cataloguer, requested supplies for book displays and items that are new to the collection, and reviewed industry publications for collection development. Jane created graphics for the January staircase display for series starters and selected books to request to fill that display, corrected records for patrons with the wrong home library, posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase, and collected items with alerts for cataloging corrections. Ranjita posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase, processed ComCat requests, performed a routine check of the Library of Things, and processed pending library card applications. Allie assisted senior library book group patrons, created and set snowflake backgrounds for the three self-check machines, issued support ticket to Bibliotheca for the lobby self-check machine not properly reading cards or printing, researched labels for items new to the collection and magnetic shelf label holders, reported a Library Connect labeling discrepancy to Bibliotheca and spoke to support services several times, processed and displayed 7-day and 3-week fiction books, and curated and created graphics for the January 2023 general newsletter. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials, worked on interlibrary loans, cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons, prepared for the January end cap display and created graphics, followed up with a patron and the lending library on replacement of a missing item, and prepared for and hosted a second book folding program for adults.

Children’s Services
Sarah presented at Willard House and Busy Bee Preschool, met with various department heads
about programming and procedures. Jen updated EventKeeper and social media, worked on the January CR newsletter, brainstormed a plan for programming since the program room is unavailable and the community rooms do not have heat. Cyndi prepared for the January Sewing Club, assisted in decorating the CR, cleaned and organized the CR workroom, and managed the Library of Things. Stacie decorated the CR for winter, hosted the winter art activities, planned upcoming book displays, and assisted patrons. Mare worked on scheduling and communicating with current volunteers, reviewed applications for new volunteers, started work on a New York Times Bestseller List display sheet for Children’s picture books/middle grade books, and attended to patrons. Kristin planned for upcoming book clubs, dropped off the C.A.R.E.S. books to NGES and SGES, hosted book clubs and communicated with the local
schools.

Teen Services
Multiple staff covered in teen services due to staff absence. Sarah worked on the lost/missing item list, read reviews for manga and graphic novels, checked 2023 middle grade fiction titles, and made more holiday-themed bookmarks, and finished putting up winter decorations. WE bounced out several teens who returned under a no trespass order.

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation.  Heidi worked on collection development, hosted the “Not Just for Young Adult” book group discussion of Carols and Chaos by Cindy Anstey and worked on program planning and PR. Eric continued adjusting the non-fiction collection to make more room. He also refreshed endcap displays, shipped a box of discarded books to Better World Books, and continued work on weeding.

Technical Services
Cynthia unpacked new books; ordered new adult fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels; cataloged adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, and worked on revisions for the Ingram processing and spine label project.

2023 Library Closings Announced

Posted by bethg on 15 December 22

Monday, January 2 CLOSED – New Year’s Day
Monday, January 16 CLOSED – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Thursday January 19 DELAYED – Professional Development Day – open at 2 p.m.
Monday, February 20 CLOSED – President’s Day
Thursday, March 9 DELAYED – Professional Development Day – open at 2 p.m.
Monday, April 17 CLOSED – Patriots’ Day
Saturday, May 27 CLOSED – Memorial Day weekend (unpaid)
Monday, May 29 CLOSED – Memorial Day
Monday, June 19 CLOSED – Juneteenth
Monday, July 3 EARLY CLOSING – Close at 5 p.m.
Tuesday July 4 CLOSED – Independence Day
Thursday, August 17 DELAYED – Professional Development Day – open at 2 p.m.
Saturday, September 2 CLOSED – Labor Day weekend (unpaid)
Monday, September 4 CLOSED – Labor Day
Monday, October 9 CLOSED – Indigenous People’s Day
Thursday, October 19 DELAYED – Professional Development Day – open at 2 p.m.
Friday, November 10 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
Saturday, December 23 CLOSED – Christmas (unpaid)
Monday December 25 CLOSED – Christmas (observed)
Monday, January 1, 2024 CLOSED New Year’s Day

Weekly Report  Week of  December 5-10, 2022

Posted by bethg on 09 December 22

Millwork to lower counters and sinks to ADA compliance is scheduled to begin next week in multiple areas of the Library. We appreciated your patience as some areas, rooms and services may be out of order, or meetings may need to be relocated. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

This week we circulated 2,766 items, received 636 items in transit and sent 618 items. We requested 469 items and filled 492 hold requests; registered 29 patrons for library cards, and added 205 new items. The most popular book this week is Mad Money by Jodi Picoult. We hosted 34 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 91 people including Girl Scout Troop 11225, Grafton Book Group, Tai Chi ladies, and Grafton 4H as well as private work, study, and tutoring sessions.

Admin
We received notice that we will receive $21,301.90 before the end of the year for our compliance in the MBLC State Aid to Public Libraries program. Beth led the Monday Music and Movement class for a half-dozen families when our contracted performer missed the gig. She covered in the Teen Room on Monday and Friday due to staff absences. She met with various staff and union representation, and corresponded with IT, Evan, HR, Trustees, Capital Campaign, Friends, HDC, Accessibility Commission, accounting, the Town Clerk’s office, vendors, MBLC, and volunteers. She worked on the 2023 Action Plan, FY24 budget, prepared a schedule of work for the sink and counter remediation; scheduled meeting rooms; started the 2023 Food Permit Application; worked on the Building Inspection application; made website updates; paid bills; and prepared materials for next week’s Board of Library Trustees meeting on Wed 12/14 at 7pm via Zoom. She prepared non-fiction and graphic novel book orders; supplied missing Building Committee Meeting Minutes, and made sure a meeting room for Saturday was set up before she left on Friday afternoon.

IT
Staff are preparing for a switch from Google Suite and Gmail to Office 365 and Outlook; IT provided instructions for file backup, which Beth distributed and then completed the task for her account. Multiple staff members have expressed concern over the new authentication procedure which will require use of personal devices to access email on your phone or files from a laptop or tablet from home, for example during work from home days in lieu of snow days or leave time during inclement weather, or during a pandemic. Beth forwarded the concerns to IT.

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby prepared the weekly report and worked on various scheduling, payroll, and Board of Library Trustee tasks.

Construction
Building Committee met Monday evening, and voted to proceed with a $29K revised proposal to install the doors in the YA Maker Space and Presentation Area. The Construction Team met on Monday afternoon. HVAC work is on hold while we wait for the correct part. In the meantime, the Children’s Program closet had to be emptied for the anticipated part installation, rendering the program room unusable, and because the system is turned off for some portions of the building, our community room is 61 degrees. We anticipate part delivery Friday and installation on Monday, followed by system mapping to restore appropriate temperatures to all areas of the building. Sunshine Sign was on sign to replace incorrect donor cells on the donor wall, which has been veiled while we waited for these repairs, and to remove the Dedication Plaque, which has misspellings and omissions due to a miscommunication.

Borrower Services
Staff managed service desks, delivery, museum passes, the lobby, room reservations and Automatic Materials Handling equipment. They assisted patrons, placed holds, performed reader’s advisory, and supervised volunteers.

Kara arranged coverage for open shifts at the end of December, cleared April and May events from EventKeeper to make room for new reservations, discussed CW Mars proposed change to hold slip PII, scheduled a department meeting for next week, and ran Evergreen reports for lost, transit, and missing items for November. She reviewed backlist adult fiction titles, followed up on an account question with the media vendor representative, and placed December orders for new adult fiction, DVDs, CD audiobooks, e-books, and e-audio.

Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase, set up the “we love books a latte” endcap display about coffee, helped a patron pair their laptop to a meeting room TV, registered new patrons who made online library card applications, ran a report for new items with alerts, and brainstormed with Heidi for the January staircase display. Ranjita helped staff Grafton Celebrates the Holidays, posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio nonfiction and recommended titles for purchase, processed ComCat requests, performed a routine check of the Library of Things, processed pending library card applications, and performed the monthly check on AED and first aid boxes.

Allie took down the November endcap display, set up the main display for December, worked with IT on backing up the Google drive, creating a pricing sheet for the Friends’ Corner with the PayPal QR code, researched and discussed the proposed change to the hold slip PII, planned the January 2023 newsletter and endcap display, and reset the Lobby, Reference, and Borrower Services self-checks to print the events calendar QR code on the receipts. Sandhya helped staff Grafton Celebrates the Holidays, managed out of network requests for materials, worked on interlibrary loans, cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and followed up with patrons, and gathered circulation data for the Library of Things to suggest items to weed or relocate to the young adult collection. She prepared instructions for the upcoming book folding programs, planned ideas and dates for January programming, and hosted the Hedgehog Book Folding program for adults.

Children’s Services
Sarah met with Cyndi and Beth and attended a meeting with Beth, Cyndi and Evan. She presented three sessions of preschool outreach at NGES, brainstormed a plan for programming since the program room is unavailable and the community rooms do not have heat, reached out to storytime registrants, and worked at the Library during Grafton Celebrates the Library.

Jen updated event keeper and social media, worked on the January CR newsletter, brainstormed a plan for programming since the program room is unavailable and the community rooms do not have heat. Cyndi worked at Grafton Celebrates the Holidays, prepared for Sewing Club, assisted in decorating the CR, cleaned and organized the CR workroom, met with Sarah and Beth, attended a meeting with Beth, Evan, and Sarah, and managed the Library of Things. Stacie decorated the CR for winter, planned upcoming winter art activities, planned upcoming books displays, and assisted patrons. Mare worked on scheduling and communicating with current volunteers, reviewed applications for new volunteers, started work on a New York Times Bestseller List Display Sheet for Children’s picture books/middle grade books, and attended to patrons. Kristin planned for upcoming book clubs, dropped off the C.A.R.E.S. books to NGES and SGES, assisted Cyndi with Sewing Club, and communicated with the local schools.

Teen Services
Allison completed the monthly stats for November, created BeanStack challenges for 2023, ordered manga books, and worked on additional book carts to order. Sarah decorated the Teen Room for winter, put up displays for holiday reads, continued training with our new volunteer and read weekly manga and graphic novels reviews for future collection orders.

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with technology and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi worked on collection development, monthly statistics, and book group preparations.  Eric finished planning out shifting books in the non-fiction area and worked on monthly statistics.

Technical Services
Cynthia ordered and unpacked items, ran reports to see how many items were added and deleted for November, compiled her monthly report, cataloged children and adult nonfiction books, adult fiction, and young adult books. She worked on revisions for the Ingram processing and spine label project.

Weekly Report: Nov 28-Dec 2, 2022

Posted by bethg on 01 December 22

We have been prepping for our Grafton Celebrates the Holidays Open House on Sunday December 4 from 12-4pm. This year we are offering henna, storytime, seasonal crafts from Grafton RISE, and a Friends table with book bundles, canvas bags, notebooks, bookmarks and memberships for sale. We will host the Girl Scouts Gingerbread House contest and a table from Central MA Foster/Adopt MA Initiative – please stop by!

This week we circulated 2,361 items, received 723 items in transit and sent 742 items. We requested 462 items and filled 403 hold requests; registered 15 patrons for Library cards, and added 323 new items. The most popular book this week is Mad Money by Jodi Picoult. We hosted 29 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 78 people including Brownies Troop 65197, BSA Scout Troop 107 Astronomy Merit Badge class, Cub Scout Pack 107 AOL Den as well as private work, study, and tutoring sessions.

Admin
Beth was out on sick leave for most the week, but responded to urgent email and had phone conversations with the Trustee Chair and Capital Campaign chair. She completed the Library’s December newsletter, 2024 Action Plan, and October MPLCP construction grant report. She setup Niche Academy enrollment for all staff, who will be participating in a year-long online training initiative for responding to marginalized populations, including homeless, teenagers, and mentally ill patrons. She attended a policy subcommittee meeting where we discussed art display, security cameras, meeting room and facility rental and parking We will allow for up to 4 consecutive books for groups or individuals meetings daily, weekly or monthly, and re-evaluate in March 2023—we had been allowing one booking at time to encourage turnover and equity of use. We anticipate installation of a replacement distributor for an HVAC issue on Friday.

Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills. Debby compiled the weekly report, attended and took notes for the Board of Library Trustees Policy Subcommittee meeting, watched the “Good Kids, Bad Behavior” webinar, and completed ordering, scheduling, and payroll tasks.

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 pulled materials for Crescent Manor and made the monthly visit with Susan, ordered requested e-audio materials, reviewed CW MARS top lists against our collection, reviewed a report on top hold titles for CD audiobooks, brainstormed ideas for collection development and readers’ advisory next year, continued processing incoming volunteer applications, re-started a previous volunteer, worked on the ARIS and circulation statistics for November, and prepared the circ narrative. She put up a display of fiction and nonfiction titles for December to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday, created signage, and prepared a list of titles for the library’s website.

Jane posted the New York Times Best Seller List for print and audio fiction and recommended titles for purchase, corrected records for patrons with the wrong home library, collected items with alerts for cataloging corrections, and corrected typos on the library website. 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 titles, performed a routine check of the Library of Things, added new puzzles to the collection, and provided orientation and training for a new volunteer. Allie created laminated shelf labels, proofread and edited the general e-newsletter, inserted alternate text descriptions for screen readers for newsletter graphics, added contacts to the newsletter distribution list, printed copies of the Tough Topics flyer, researched and solved problem with self-check receipts in System Manager, updated the Bibliotheca issues sheet with serial numbers and IPv4 addresses of all the self-check machines, and provided direct web addresses to edit all the self-check machines from the computer. Sandhya managed out of network requests for materials, worked on interlibrary loans, cleared expired holds from the hold shelf and sent follow up emails to patrons. She performed troubleshooting on the AMH, purchased materials for the upcoming book folding programs, processed online library card requests, and worked on the home delivery service, including ordering items, making calls, processing holds, and coordinating volunteers.

Children’s Services
This week in the Children’s Room wrapped up our big Dinovember program and began the transition to all things winter. We also started up our winter sessions of storytime programming!

Sarah ran four session of outreach preschool programming for SGES, ran two sessions of outreach preschool programing for Busy Bee, planned and prepared for GCTH, co-ran a session of Sewing Camp, followed up with staff, met with Allison to discuss programming, followed up with members of Grafton RISE to discuss the craft they will be running during GCTH, lesson planned for upcoming preschool, toddler, and outreach programming, and met with Cynthia to discuss spine label text.

Jen ran a session of Library Babies, planned for upcoming storytime sessions, ran a LEGO Brick Builders program, finalized and sent out the December Children’s Room newsletter, planned for New Year’s @ Noon, began the January Children’s Room newsletter, and updated EventKeeper. Cyndi painted items to hide for the December passive room hunt. She planned programs, window displays, and room decor for the next 3 months and organized the Library of Things. Stacie ran a Dino Egg session, prepped book displays, planned room themes. Mare assisted a patron with placing holds on materials from outside the network, continued to manage volunteers, replenished display books, and assisted patrons by placing holds. Kristin dropped off C.A.R.E.S. books to NGES and SGES, planned for upcoming programs, provided outreach to the local schools, and began planning the January bulletin Board.
 Teen Services
This week the teen room worked on new displays for Pearl Harbor Remembrance, Gifts to Make, and Holiday Books as well as using some of the larger displays to showcase the new books to the collection. Allison worked on monthly stats and book orders.

Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi also worked on PR, Readers’ Advisory with patrons and preparing for Grafton Celebrates the Holidays.  Heidi also hosted the “Reads Well with Others” book discussion of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley and the Inspirational Book Group (and Guided Meditation) discussion of Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are, by Carlin Flora. Eric shifted books to make more room in the non-fiction collections and received training on how to use the Ingram website and shifted book displays for December.

 Technical Services
Cynthia ordered books, unpacked new books, worked on revisions for the Ingram processing/spine labels project, and cataloged new young adult graphic novels, children’s graphic novels and nonfiction, and adult nonfiction.