Report of the Library Director for August, 2012

Summer reading ends – Library improvements update – Storage usage plan

Circulation
After completing the ARIS form, I am getting more confident in using Evergreen reports functions.
The most important circulation number to judge how busy we are is the number of items checked out or renewed at our circulation desk, so going forward I’ll be reporting that statistic as our “monthly circulation”.  I am still a little wary of comparing that number directly to previous year’s Millennium statistics, but I will continue to include the % change from the average of the previous 3 years.

For August, 2012, our circulation was 5,789 items.  This is 11% lower than last month, and 11% lower than previous years.  June and July are typically our peak circulation months, so a dip as fall starts is normal.
Laptops: 11.  Nooks: 10.  Games: 81.

Unique Patrons
471 Upton patrons have items due in the next 3 weeks. 

Digital Content Use
BYKI: In August, 6 users accessed byki for a total of 18.6 hours.  Our top languages were English for Spanish speakers, German and Spanish.
Wowbrary: 2 new users signed up for Wowbrary, for a total of 114 active subscribers.
Overdrive: eBook circulation to Upton patrons: 177, eAudio circulations: 41. 

New Patron Registrations:  24 new patrons registered in August.

Passport Applications processed in August: 4.

Programs
Library book group: 3 people met on August 29th.
Senior book group: 6 people met on August 7th.
Thursday storytime averaged 5 children per session for 8 sessions.
TinyTots lapsit averaged 3 children per session for 5 sessions. 
Library Table: 4 visits, averaged 11 patrons and 37 items.
Lego Days: averaged 5 children per session for 4 sessions.

Special Events
Summer Reading Pizza Party – 7 patrons attended on Aug 3rd.
Summer Reading Finale Ice Cream – 42 patrons attended on Aug 18th.

Upcoming Events in September
Saturday, September 29th, 9am-2pm Friends of the Library Annual Booksale

Plans for Next Month
1) Financial report for State Certification
2) Storage and weeding project
3) Re-publicize programs and services

Collection Development
We added approximately 137 items to our collection in August.
Nicole and I have a plan for a weeding and storage project over the next two months.  Our goal is to withdraw approx. 1,500 volumes from storage in the next month and donate them to the booksale.  This is about 1/3 of the items currently in storage.
In October, we will move approx. 500 picture books and 300 juvenile non-fiction books into the open storage space.  This will allow us to shelve and display the remaining picture books in a much more patron-accessible method, and to create a rotating seasonal non-fiction display occupying 4 shelves in juvenile non-fiction.

ARIS Report Highlights
Our Annual Report Information Survey was due to the MBLC in mid-August.  This report covers our library services and holdings, and is required as part of the certification process.
This year we saw about a 7% increase in our physical holdings (books, audios, and videos).  Our shelves are overfull, and I expect the weeding projects this fall to bring that number back down.
Our access to ebooks through CWMARS and the Overdrive system doubled, going from 4,318 titles to 9,754.
Circulation remained very close to FY11 numbers, decreasing by 1.4% overall.
We continue to receive 20% more items in interlibrary loans than we send out.   
ILLs remain steady at 16% of our total circulation.
Total visits to the library remained steady, while attendance at programs decreased by 15%
We have 4,455 registered borrowers, and were open a total of 2,055 hours in FY11.

Summer Reading Program
297 children registered for this summer’s reading program.
Our finale event had to be moved inside the library due to rainy weather, but 42 patrons still came down to enjoy free ice cream.
Thank you to JJ’s Ice Cream in Upton for donating the icecream and toppings!

New Public Computer
A new computer for the library was purchased from Technology Expense account.  This computer replaces our oldest public workstation, which has been running slowly.
We will need to purchase additional licenses for our security software to install on this computer.  Licenses are purchased in blocks of 10, and will cost $320, but then we should be covered for all the library computers.

Matthew to participate in Book Awards
I’ve been invited to participate in the 13th annual Massachusetts Book Awards.  This will involve some meetings and webinars over the months from September to March, along with a lot of reading.

Library Improvements
We have received an initial cost estimate for the items on our library wish list of approx. $40,000.  This is an encouraging number, as it is within the budget we anticipated for this project.  The next step is to decide exactly which items on the list to pursue, then to look for funding sources.

Circulation Policies
I have received some feedback from patrons and staff that our current circulation policies are unclear and not specific enough to be properly enforced.  Our current policy manual does not address specific questions such as “do I need my library card” and, “can I renew or pick up items for a family member.”
I would like to draft a specific policy to address these questions.  Hopefully we can approve this policy at our October meeting, then I will take a few months to publicize it to patrons, and it can go into effect on Jan 1st.

We try very hard to accommodate patrons and make the library convenient to use, but we need to balance this with our duty as custodians of public property and commitment to the privacy protections contained in State Law and our own Public Service policy.