Report of the Library Director for April 2009

Circulation
Circulation for April was 4,823 items. This is slightly more than last month (6.6% increase) and a bit higher than April of 2008 (12.5% increase). 4,945 items were checked out at our circulation desk.
Patron visits: Last month I mentioned that we were due for a quarterly count of visits to the library in April. For the two weeks we counted, we averaged 647 visits per week. In April 08, we had 604 visits, and in April 07, 630 visits. We had slightly more visits in April 2009 than in previous years, but not a statistically significant amount.

New Patron Registrations
19 new patrons registered in April.

Collection Development
We added approximately 78 items to our collection in April. Lisa and I placed an order for $1,300 worth of nonfiction titles from Sebco Books. Most of that order is new travel guides for the adult collection, the remainder are a few juvenile non-fiction books.

Periodicals Vendor for FY10.
I have received three written quotes for vendors to supply the Library’s periodical subscriptions for FY10. Based on those quotes, I will recommend to the Board that we go back to Demco Periodicals for FY10, and that we ask them to start all our subscriptions in August 2009, even if that means we have some overlap in issues. I think that the advantages of having all our subscriptions start on the same month (easier to track, easier to renew and change subscriptions all at once) will outweigh the one-time duplication of a few issues.

Job Descriptions
The new job descriptions were sent out to department heads by the Personnel Board, and corrections and comments were requested to be returned by April 29th.
John Robertson, Judith Katz-Goodman and I looked them over and sent some corrections to the P. Board. We suggested some minor edits and word changes to the Library Director and Circulation Specialist positions, and added 4 more essential functions to the Children’s and Young Adult Librarian position. The Personnel Board emailed me back to say that they had received the corrections and would change the job descriptions at their next meeting.

Programs
Library book group: 12 people met on Wednesday, April 29th.
Senior book group: 7 people met on April 7th.
Thursday storytime averaged 10 children per session.
TinyTots lapsit averaged 16 participants.
Teen Tuesday was attended by 10 young adults.
Library Table: 5 visits, averaged 6 patrons and 11 items.

Special Events in April
115 people attended our storytime / live animal demonstation by Creature Teachers on April 22nd.

Volunteers
12 items were delivered to two patrons on April 7th.

Upcoming Events in May
Meet Tillie, May 14th, 2:30 in Town Hall, Author Terry Golson will read her picture book and bring the real-life star of the story, Tillie the Hen.

3rd grade field trip, May 20th and 27th, the 3rd grade classes from Memorial school are having their annual field trip to visit the Historical Society, Library and Town Hall.

Plans for Next Month

1) Assemble summer reading packets and prepare for registration

2) Compare quotes and options for public wireless laptops.

3) Begin adult non-fiction weeding process.