Weekly Report March 13-18, 2023
This week we circulated 2,798 items, received 189 items in transit and sent 613 items. We requested 475 items and filled 311 hold requests; registered 20 patrons for library cards, and added 174 new items. The most popular book this week is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. We hosted 30 meetings in our conference, study, and tutoring rooms for 132 people including Grafton Girls Softball, Grafton Neighborhood Planning, Republican Town Committee, Brownie Troop 65197, NGES PTG Fun Fair Planning, Girl Scouts Gold Award Planning, and Tai Chi Ladies, as well as private -work, study, homeschool, and tutoring sessions.
The Grafton Public Library was closed Tuesday, March 14, 2023 due to inclement weather. Staff worked from home on various projects.
Admin
Beth submitted a grant to the MA Historical Commission to supplement restoration and preservation of the Library’s cupola, which has weather damage and missing flashing and has leaked into the historic Wheelock Reading Room, it was last restored over 20 years ago. She attended a budget hearing with FinCom to review the Library’s FY24 budget request of $1,106,760, a 6.6% increase for additional staffing. Beth covered in the Teen Room, submitted bills, set up a display of nonfiction with an Irish theme, drafted an interview schedule for candidates for the on-call temporary Library Associates vacancies, prepared Board of Library Trustee documents for the upcoming Board meeting, and corresponded with patrons about Hoopla, meeting room and facility rental reservations, and training requests.
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 tasks for the Board of Library Trustees. She processed incoming applications for open temporary Youth Services positions, reviewed applications with Sarah, and attended and recorded minutes at the Board of Library Trustees joint meeting with the Finance Committee 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 created procedure for merging Overdrive user IDs, reviewed industry newsletters to add upcoming titles to purchase lists, asked CW MARS about database MARC records, checked CW MARS top titles against our collection, reviewed the next Ingram standing order, placed the March DVD order, and prepared for the opening of the Seed Library by reviewing seed library opening tasks with staff, preparing letters requesting seed donations and promotional materials, updated website content, and helped with other opening tasks. Jane replenished the Irish Heritage endcap display, processed pending patrons, continued weeding adult fiction, corrected patron records with the wrong home library, viewed two Niche Academy webinars (“Back Up–How to Back Up Your Coworkers During a Crisis”, and “Advanced Body Language”), and began working on the endcap for April for Stress Awareness Month. 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. Allie performed troubleshooting on the Children’s Room Star printer, watched part of a webinar on “Sexual Harassment: How to Respond to a Customer’s Inappropriate Comments,” observed the staff development active shooter trainings, performed troubleshooting with Bibliotheca on the AMH Staff Induction barcode scanner, requested two newly published books to be added to the next order to fill patron requests, created a new brochure to present the GPL New Library Patron Welcome Packet content, and performed tasks for the April Newsletter, including creating graphics for spotlight on fiction, museum of the month, and upcoming events. 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, contacted patrons to pick up new library cards, processed pending library card applications, coordinated museum pass renewals with museum contacts and accounting, updated information for renewed museum passes, and worked on the home delivery service, including ordering items, making calls, and coordinating volunteers.
Children’s Services
Sarah communicated with many of the local schools to finalize spring field trip details, scheduled the spring session of Young Scientists, communicated with Willard House & Clock Museum regarding summer programming, planned upcoming outreach Storytime programs, planned for April School Vacation, planned for the upcoming summer reading program, touched base with staff about scheduling and programming, met with other department heads, met with Debby to review applications for the temp positions in Youth Services, contacted William Blake about low temps in the library, ran three outreach Storytime sessions at NGES, attended the Library’s staff meeting on working with the homeless population, and worked on collection maintenance and development. Jen worked on upcoming Storytime lesson plans, planned for upcoming programming including April Vacation and Summer Reading, attended the staff meeting on working with the homeless population, updated EventKeeper and social media, and shifted the collection. Stacie planned for upcoming programming including April Vacation and Summer Reading, attended the staff meeting on working with the homeless population, updated EventKeeper and social media, prepped the Egg Hunt craft, and shifted the collection. Mare assisted patrons, communicated with and supervised volunteers, completed the Niche Academy homelessness training, and shelved materials. Kristin delivered C.A.R.E.S. books to NGES and SGES.
Teen Services
Allison telecommuted working this week finalizing book orders and summer reading plans. Sarah S. worked on decorating the Teen Room for spring, put up displays for Mermaid Day, cosplay, Transgender Day of Visibility, and Graphic Nonfiction, and worked on stickering and shelving new nonfiction and manga.
Reference Services
Heidi and Eric assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation. Heidi continued to work on things for the Friends of the Library Community Read and made a display to publicize the upcoming Beekeeping Workshop (the same program will run Monday, March 20th; 7-8:30pm and Wednesday, March 22nd; 1-2:30pm). Eric worked with Cynthia and Borrower Services to send two boxes of items to Better World Books. Eric also refreshed bookends, planned the April book display, and worked on non-fiction collection development and weeding.
Technical Services
Cynthia ordered new books and unpacked items as they arrived; cataloged new young adult books, children’s books, and adult nonfiction; worked on fixing problem items; worked with Bibliotheca to help fix the problem with my RFID tag reader; put together a Demco order; and watched two training webinars–one on Violence in Libraries and the other on Preventing Conflict.