Director’s Report for November 2023
Library Director’s Report for November 2023
The Library was open 23 days in November and had 4,467 visitors. The library was closed on Veterans Day (November 11) and on November 17 and 18, 2023, due to installation of spray foam insulation. We closed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 22 for the Thanksgiving holiday and reopened on Saturday, November 25, at 10 a.m. with regular hours.
We offered 14 programs for over 30 attendees. We had 134 meeting room reservations for 344 participants. We hosted an additional 18 meeting room uses for staff use (photography, meetings, programs, etc.)
Eight incident reports were filed, including: an accidental triggering of the silent alarm, disruptive teen behavior, misuse of library resources in the Teen Room, a facility event, an unattended child, and first aid.
Administration
Debby Jackson took on many of the tasks left by the director in her absence. She also worked on scheduling and payroll, Weekly Reports, upcoming social media posts, and Board of Library Trustee tasks. As of the end of November, she is transitioning to her new position as Head of Teen Services. She helped to train Shannon Phelan to take over the role of Administrative Assistant for the library.
Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills.
Staffing
Several staff members cross-trained to take over new positions, including Debby Jackson as Head of Teen Services, Allison Cusher as Head of Technical Services, and Shannon Phelan as Administrative Assistant.
We recorded at least 17 low coverage instances (others may not have been documented due to short staffing) due to scheduled, earned leave of benefited staff, chronic understaffing in the Teen department, a vacancy in the Technical Services department (since filled by Allison Cusher), and staff out on leave.
The Director is taking an FMLA-eligible leave of absence through the end of the calendar year.
Budget
At the end of October we were at 47% of our budget for the 2024 fiscal year. 90% of those expenses attributed to contracted services billed annually at the beginning of the fiscal year such as Bibliotecha and CWMars.
Building
Assistant Town Administrator William Blake is overseeing building issues and had several meetings with various contractors regarding general maintenance as well as flood remediation.
Construction Update
Insulation has been replaced, walls have been repaired and painted, and flooring has been removed in the Children’s Program Room and Children’s Work Room. No definitive timeline has been provided for completion of construction activities.
IT Update
Staff are working on developing procedures for laptop in-library use.
Volunteers, Outreach and Partnerships
Crescent Manor BookWagon had seven participants, 22 check-outs and renewals, and five requests. We delivered 16 items to homebound patrons. We had seven volunteers who put in 8 hours of work.
Social Media
We have 1,036 followers on TikTok, 2,234 followers on Facebook, 825 on Instagram, 113 on YouTube, 430 on Pinterest, and 8 on Flickr.
Children’s Services
The Children’s Room staff has continued to work out of the Friend’s Café. Staff have adjusted to what has become our new normal, but it has been challenging. Children’s Room staff have continued to field near-constant questions and concerns from the public ranging from sympathetic understanding to frustration about the closure of the Children’s Room, our current programming hiatus, and the temporary suspension of the Friends of the Grafton Public Library’s book sale.
Due to ongoing remediation in the Children’s Room, we still don’t expect programming to begin again until the new year. Once construction has been completed, staff will need at least a week to set the room back up, unpack boxes, clean and organize, and set up workstations before we can welcome patrons back into the space. We need a minimum of 4 weeks lead time to plan and advertise any programs.
It seems likely that Community Rooms will be completed before the Children’s Room, so we will be moving into that space to allow the Friends of the Grafton Public Library to reclaim their space. Since the Community Room is larger and carpeted, we will be able to bring in a selection of toys and computers to add to the books we are offering. We will keep the layout flexible so children’s programming can also be held in the space.
Outreach programming continued with visits to NGES, Busy Bee, SGES, and Silver Spruce.
Teen Services
During the month of November, Allison C. (Head of Teen Services) spent about a third of her time cataloging materials for the library, since she prepared to take over the Technical Services position in December. One of the teen programs scheduled for this month (fabric gift wrapping) was cancelled due to the building being closed for spray foam installation. There were no attendees at our monthly Manga and Anime groups this month, and our D&D program reboot hasn’t taken off as expected. With Debby starting in December, this is a great time for the teen department to re-evaluate and try new things to better serve our population.
Borrower Services
Museum Passes
There were 42 museum reservations: 35 were picked up and there were 7 “No Shows.”
Circulation
We registered 64 new borrowers and corrected three accounts for Grafton patrons.
Evergreen
The CWMARS Users Council meeting on 11/14 included a preview of Aspen, the new public catalog that will be debuting in March 2024, and a list of upcoming trainings for administrators and front-line staff.
ILL
We made eight out-of-network requests; three were unfillable. We sent out five items to certified libraries.
Displays
Our main display for November was Native American Heritage Month. The four smaller displays were: Carnegie Medal, Warm Family Stories, Thanksgiving: Gobble Up a Good Book, and World Vegan Month. A graphic novel display was set up for National Author’s Day.
Programs
Sandhya hosted one daytime “Unplug with Art” program for adults on 11/14: eight people attended. She organized and hosted an evening Stencil Art program for adults on 11/13: ten people attended.
We had a department staff meeting over Zoom when the library was closed for construction on Friday 11/17.
Seed Library
The seed packets program has been closed for the season.
Reference Services
We recorded the following statistics for database uses: Gale 288, PebbleGo 0, Peterson’s 0, Transparent Language 1, Novelist 10, Ancestry 654, ComicsPLUS 4, Pronounciator 1, BookFlix 0, and Teachables 0. We had 93 adults and 2 teens record public computer use. WiFi statistics were unavailable. Staff placed 489 holds for library materials.
Heidi assisted with tech and reference questions as well as circulation and room reservations / check-ins and museum passes. She also hosted book groups, worked on collection development, program planning, PR, statistics and prepared for Grafton Celebrates the Holidays.
Eric assisted patrons with technology, reference, museum passes, room requests / check-ins and circulation questions. Eric ordered new books for the non-fiction collection, put out new non-fiction materials, planned for December staircase display, organized parts of the new and general non-fiction collection, watched training videos on Niche Academy while the library was closed for repairs, assisted with cataloging and technical services tasks, and worked on monthly statistics.
Displays
Eric made a “Meet Someone New” staircase display. Heidi made an “In Memoriam” end cap display for Henry Kissinger and a Gnomevember display to support the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill.
Programs
We held the following in person book discussion groups:
“Not Just for Young Adults” Book Discussion Group: Bittersweet, by Sarah Ockler.
Daytimers Book Group: Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng.
GPL Mystery Book Group: The Ghost of Christmas Past, by Rhys Bowen.
“Reads Well with Others” Adult Book Discussion Group: The Kitchen Front: a novel, by Jennifer Ryan.
The “Inspirational Book Club” and Guided Meditation: Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: the case for good apologies, by Marjorie Ingall & Susan McCarthy.
Technical Services
Allison Cusher prepared to take over as Head of Technical Services at the beginning of December. Eric Lindstrom and Allison Picone cross-trained to provide uninterrupted service to patrons during the transition. Over 300 items were added to our collections in November.
Friends
The Friends of the Grafton Public Library book sale remains on hold as the Children’s Room continues to use the Friends Corner as their temporary collection location. The next Friends meeting will be posted to the Friends Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GPLFriends