Report of the Library Director for July 2008

Circulation
Circulation for July was 5,579, a new record for monthly circulation, beating our old record of 5,412 set in August 2007. July 08 was 8.2% higher than June of 2008, and 9.4% higher than July of 2007.

Collection Development
We added 113 items to the collection in July.
The transition to the new fiscal year worked out okay, except for our Amazon.com credit account, which sends invoices about a month after we make the order, so we will have to pay this month’s Amazon bill using the revolving fund, which doesn’t have the same accounting restrictions as our expense account.
The complete set of BBC produced Shakespeare plays on DVD are entered into the catalog and ready for circulation. The shipment included a copyright statement which specifically does not allow public showings of the DVDs, so the library could not use them for a program without contacting the publisher. However, if a book group wanted to do a private viewing in someone’s home, that would be allowed.

Programs
Library book group: met on July 30th in their new location at Memorial School.
Senior book group: 6 people met on July 1st.
Thursday storytime averaged 12 children per session, slightly higher than usual, perhaps because during the summer we are having only 1 session per week.
TinyTots lapsit averaged 11 participants.
Teen Tuesday was attended by 16 young adults.
Library Table: 5 visits, averaged 5 patrons and 9 items.

Special Events
297 people attended “BubbleMania” in Nipmuc Auditorium.

Summer Program
All of our summer programs continue to be well attended, with the exception of our ages 9-12 gardening book club.

As of July 31st, we had 591 children registered for the program (compared to our final total of 514 for last year), and they had logged 1,871 hours of reading time.

Volunteers
19 items were delivered to 2 patrons on July 16th.

Several high-school students have been coming in twice a week to sort books in the attic for the Friends of the Library annual booksale.

Upcoming Events in July
The finale of the summer reading program is Saturday August 16th. Much like last year, the finale will be various drop-in activities going on from 10-2. Our plans include Make-your-own ice cream Sundaes, Games on a Nintendo Wii system (borrowed from CMRLS), free Henna Tattoos, and facepainting.

Staff
Everyone seems to have adjusted to the new schedule, and most staff are taking a vacation week in August or September.

Plans for Next Month

1) Conclude the Summer Reading Program

2) Complete the State ARIS form.

3) Rotate some titles back down from storage, and remove others from the collection.