The Grafton Public Library will be CLOSED in observance of Presidents’ Day, on Monday, February 19, 2024. No items are due this day. The Library will reopen at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024.
Please pick up museum passes for Monday before the Library closes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 17th.
Please visit our online digital branch 24/7 at www.graftonlibrary.org – you can even get a digital card if you do not have a library card.
For a complete calendar of 2024 Library closings, please visit https://graftonlibrary.org/2024-library-closings/
The library was open 24 days in December and had 4,680 visitors. The library closed early on December 15, 2023, for the municipal staff holiday party and GPL staff holiday celebration. The library was closed on Saturday, December 23, 2023, and on Monday, December 25, 2023 in observance of the Christmas holiday.
We offered 27 programs for over 894 attendees, including Grafton Celebrates the Holidays on December 3rd and New Years at Noon. We had 169 meeting room reservations for over 321 participants. We hosted an additional 30 meeting room uses for staff use (meetings, interviews, programs, etc.) Five incident reports were filed, including disruptive teen behavior, foreign objects caught on the materials handling equipment, a minor staff injury, a disruptive patron, and a locked front door during opening hours.
ADMINISTRATION
Director Beth Schreiber tendered her resignation in December 2023, and the search for a new director is underway. We would like to thank Beth for her years of service to the Grafton Public Library and the Town of Grafton. We wish her well in all of her future endeavors.
Debby Jackson transitioned to her new position as Head of Teen Services. Shannon Phelan has taken over the role of Administrative Assistant for the library. Eileen maintained the collection of periodicals, took care of incoming mail, and prepared bills.
Staffing
Kara Dzindolet accepted a position at another library and resigned as Head of Borrower Services in December 2023. In the interim, Susan Leto has graciously volunteered to reprise her former role managing the Borrower Services department until a replacement can be found.
We recorded at least 28 low coverage instances (others may not have been documented due to short staffing) attributable to scheduled, earned leave of benefited staff, chronic understaffing in the Teen department, staff out on leave, and staff resignations.
Budget
At the end of December, we were at 58% of our budget for the 2024 fiscal year. Most of those expenses are 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 has been coordinating with various contractors regarding general maintenance, door locking issues, and ongoing flood remediation.
Construction Update
Replacement carpet has been ordered for the Children’s Room and Community Room. No definitive timeline has been provided for completion of construction activities.
IT Update
Staff developed procedures for laptop in-library use and will work to roll out the laptops in January 2024.
Volunteers, Outreach and Partnerships
Crescent Manor BookWagon had 5 participants, 21 check-outs and renewals, and 4 requests.
We delivered 7 items to Homebound patrons. We had seven volunteers who put in 8 hours of work.
Social Media
We have 1,100 followers on TikTok, 2,200 followers on Facebook, 827 on Instagram, 113 on YouTube, 429 on Pinterest, and 8 on Flickr.
CHILDREN’S SERVICES
The Children’s Room continued to take up residence in the Friends Café during the month of December. The Children’s Room drywall repair has been completed and we were excited to see the project move forward with the installation of the flooring in the Children’s Program Room and the Children’s Work Room.
We opened our doors to the community on Sunday, December 3rd as part of the Grafton Celebrates the Holidays festivities. We hosted the Girl Scouts for their annual gingerbread decorating contest for the second year running, and we welcomed Diane Edgecomb back to the library for two performances of her storytelling program, Once Upon a Wintertime.
We continue to provide outreach programming to North Grafton Elementary School, South Grafton Elementary School, Busy Bee Academy, Silver Spruce, and the Willard House & Clock Museum. Through our outreach programming, we presented 15 storytimes for 233 children and teachers.
We rang in the new year with 58 very special guests as we brought back a perennial favorite program, New Years at Noon.
TEEN SERVICES
Debby Jackson took over as Head of Teen Services and spent time moving into the office, getting acclimated, and beautifully decorating the entire space with holiday lights.
Staff supervised teens using the space and met as a group to discuss future plans. Staff also hosted a Teen Gaming afternoon with open play of Mario Kart and Supersmash Bros video games.
BORROWER SERVICES
Museum Passes
There were 57 reservations; 49 were picked up and there were 8 “No Shows.”
Circulation
We registered 64 new borrowers and corrected four accounts for Grafton patrons.
Evergreen
Front-line staff and administration are scheduled to participate in training for Aspen, the new public catalog that will be debuting in March 2024.
ILL
We made two out of network requests; none were unfillable. We sent out two items to certified libraries.
Overdrive/Libby App
The total checkouts for December were 4,496. Of those, 1,429 were audiobooks, 3,049 were books, and 18 were comic books.
Displays
Our main display for December was Holiday fiction. The 4 smaller displays were: Tis the Season to be Freezin; Cozy Fiction; By the Fireside Mysteries; and National Short Story Day.
Programs
Sandhya hosted one daytime “Unplug with Art” program for adults: 5 people attended. She also organized and hosted “Holiday Luminaries” for adults: 9 people attended. We had one department staff meeting.
Seed Library
The seed packets program has been closed for the season and is expected to relaunch at the end of February.
Passports
We are still not accepting appointments for Passports.
REFERENCE SERVICES
We recorded the following statistics for database uses: Gale 747, PebbleGo 3, Peterson’s 2, Transparent Language 1, Novelist 2, Ancestry 97, ComicsPLUS 18, Pronounciator, BookFlix 8, and Teachables 4. We had 64 adults record public computer use. WiFi statistics were unavailable. Staff placed 409 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 and public relations. Heidi also attended professional development, assisted at Grafton Celebrates the Holidays, collected monthly statistics, and did outreach at Crescent Manor.
Eric assisted patrons with technology, reference, museum passes, room requests / check-ins and circulation questions. Eric finished reviewing the lost non-fiction reports, put out new materials, put out new bookends, and worked on book display ideas. Eric also updated the adult non-fiction budget spreadsheet, ordered new adult non-fiction materials, and reported monthly reference statistics.
Displays
Eric made a “Make Something New” staircase display. Heidi made an “In Memoriam” end cap display for Sandra Day O’Connor and Norman Lear.
Programs
We held the following in-person book discussion groups:
• “Not Just for Young Adults” Book Discussion Group: So, This is Christmas by Tracy Andreen,
• Daytimers Book Group: Winter People by Jennifer McMahon,
• GPL Mystery Book Group: The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron,
• “Reads Well with Others” Adult Book Discussion Group: Elevation: a Novel by Stephen King, and
• The “Inspirational Book Club” and Guided Meditation: Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Nhá̂t Hạnh Thích and Lilian W. Y. Cheung. (Ended up being discussed on 1/2/24.)
Saturday Afternoon Knitting was canceled this month (Saturday, December 16; 2pm-4pm).
TECHNICAL SERVICES
During the month of December, 589 new items were added, and 317 items were deleted. Allison Cusher celebrated her first official month as the Head of Tech Services. In addition to her regular duties of ordering and processing new items and repairing items as needed, she worked on the following special projects:
• created options for new spine label stickers to discuss with Children’s Services and other department heads,
• started a list of adult fiction series titles. Once the list is complete, she will go through our collection and update the spine labels to include this information,
• created a new section for teens: light novels, which now live at the beginning of the manga collection, and
• created lists for department heads of item records that should be deleted from the system. These include items that have been missing for 2+ years and items that are lost (not returned) for 2+ years (the item is still on the patrons account). She has been going through our holdings and deleting records that we no longer need.
FRIENDS OF THE GRAFTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (FRIENDS)
The Friends book sale remains on hold as the Children’s Room continues to use the Friends’ Corner as their temporary collection location. The Friends offered book bundles and other gifts for sale over the holidays. The next Friends meeting will be posted to the Friends Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GPLFriends
The Friends had a total of 50 volunteer hours for the month of December, which included meetings and planning and prepping for Grafton Celebrates the Holidays (e.g., making book bundles, attending the event itself).
This week we circulated 1,920 items, received 662 items in transit, and sent 593 items. We requested 501 items and fulfilled 574 hold requests; registered nine patrons for library cards; and added 313 new items. The most popular book this week is The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin.
Carpet is scheduled to be installed in the Community Room by mid-February. When complete, the temporary Children’s Room will be able to move out of the Friends Corner and will occupy the Community Room until the official Children’s Room is ready (no definitive timeline for completion yet).
Due to staff shortages, Winter Hours are in effect from January 2 to March 4, 2024. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Due to the start of Winter Hours last week, the Teen Room is unavailable for after-school use on Fridays through March 1. We apologize for the inconvenience. Staff continue to program plan, create amazing displays, and build relationships with teens after school.
Children’s Room staff presented four outreach programs to SGES and continued planning for late winter/early spring programming, February outreach programming, summer reading, and a Children’s Room Grand Reopening party.
Technical Services staff have been busy cataloguing a large book delivery, training on book ordering, and getting acquainted with a new patron web interface being rolled out by CW Mars.
Borrower Services staff created an Oscars display for DVDs and are previewing alternative event management and museum pass reservation programs, which will be more user-friendly to patrons.
The Grafton Public Library will be CLOSED in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on Monday, January 15, 2024. No items are due this day. The Library will reopen at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 16.
Please pick up museum passes for Monday before the Library closes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 13.
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
The Grafton Public Library will be collecting pet food the entire month of December in memory of our friend, and frequent library visitor, Toto the Tornado Kitten. Drop off your donation before December 16th for holiday distribution. The Grafton Food Bank especially needs dry cat food and wet dog food. Pet toys are also welcome.
Toto and his human, Jonathan, have visited the library as part of our summer reading program since 2014. We are heartbroken and will miss Toto greatly!
The Grafton Public Library is pleased to announce an exciting new addition to the Library of Things.
Along with books, movies, and video games, the Library also offers a sewing machine, a telescope, board games, and several other items in the circulating Library of Things. Today, for the first time, Grafton Public Library is offering patrons access to a special collection: The Library of Cats.
Housed in the restricted section of the library, these fantastic felines were previously reserved for reference or staff use only. Beginning today, the Library’s collection of cats and kittens* are available for patron circulation.
“The existence of our Library Cat-alog is a secret we’ve kept for years,” one Grafton Public Library staff member explained. “It’s been difficult to keep a half dozen cats hidden and quiet! When they were kittens, they could fit in our desk drawers, but as they’ve gotten bigger, it’s been harder to conceal them.”
“I can’t wait to share our Library Cats with the Grafton community,” the staff member said. “They are all such sweeties. Well, maybe not Princess Fluffypaws.”
A lucky local member of the community, 8-year-old Imogen Crookshanks, was given an opportunity to test the Library of Cats program.
“I love the Grafton Public Library cats,” Imogen gushed. “I’m going to check all of them out again. Except for Princess Fluffypaws. She bites.”
Not a feline fan? Talks are in development between the Grafton, Massachusetts library, and Grafton libraries in other areas of the world to exchange animal items. Grafton, England circulates a red squirrel named Scrat. Grafton Library in Chile is eager to exchange a capybara named Fred.
Click on the picture below to reserve a Library Cat. Cats must be returned to the library in good condition. A reasonable amount of wear and tear will be accepted. An unreasonable amount of wear and tear of your furniture should be expected. Library cats are fed a specific diet. If you do not have access to unlimited bluefin tuna, please do not reserve a library cat. Library cats prefer to sleep on computer keyboards and will interrupt your Zoom calls. Please do not dog-ear the cats!
Please note, Princess Fluffypaws requires a special insurance waiver.
Curious kittens
Never where you expect them to be
Always up for an adventure
Often need to be rescued from danger
A little creepy
Lovable
Fierce and protective
Probably an alien
Survivor
Cranky
Prefers dystopian settings
May have mange
Grumpy old man
Enjoys rodents
Toilet-trained
Probably smarter than you
Knows it
Likes: Sharpening claws, promoting a false sense of security in others.
Dislikes: Long sleeves, all things good.
*More cats will become available as soon as Mrs. Doofenschmirtz can trap more feral cats in her barn.
If you would like to request a feline item, you can:
Call the Library at 508-839-4649 between 10am-4pm, Mon-Sat. Please leave a message with your name and phone number, cat preference, and any allergy information.
Email graftonlibrary-ma@gmail.com or info@graftonlibrary.org – please include your name, card number, phone number, and cat preference.
Message the Library on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GraftonPublicLibraryMA/ include your name and card number, cat preference and catnip availability.
Log on to your library account at http://grafton.cwmars.org to place a hold. If the feline is AVAILABLE in Grafton, please select “Copy hold.” Select “Grafton” for your pickup location. The C/W MARS network has instructions for how to search for felines, place a hold using our Evergreen catalog, and how to manage your library account online – visit https://www.cwmars.org/help/catalogaccount-help.
Ask a librarian to place holds for you (they are more than happy to do it!)
You do not have to have a specific breed/cat request. Library staff are also happy to pull together a collection of cats to delight, entertain, and comfort based on cuddle interest, meow tolerance, and age.
