Director's Report August 2016

Summer program ends – Several lecture programs – need estimate for Nov STM request.

Circulation

August circulation activity was 4,611.  This is 1.9% lower than last month, and 3.1% lower than August of 2015.  We had increases in Children’s and Young Adult book circulation (summer reading), and decreases in most other categories.

Laptops: 0. Nooks: 4. Games: 40.

Unique Patrons

August 2016: on Sept 8, Upton Library had 1,845 items checked out to 774 unique patrons.

Digital Content Use

Transparent Language: 4 users for 5.8 hours learning ESL.

Overdrive: eBook circulation to Upton patrons: 405, eAudio circulations: 184.

Wowbrary:   We have 175 active subscribers to Wowbrary. (+9)

New Patron Registrations:  20 new patrons registered in August.

New Items: We added 297 items to the collection in August.

Passport Applications:  processed in August: 9.

Programs
Library book group: 7 people met on August 31.
Senior book group: 4 people met on August 9.

Thursday storytime 2 sessions, averaged 4 children.
TinyTots lapsit 2 sessions, averaged 10 children.

Library Table: 5 visits, averaged 3 patrons and 9 items.

ESL classes: no classes in August.

Friends of the Library – next meeting Sept 9 at 11 am

Plans for Next Month
1) Weeding to coordinate with Booksale – possibly storage items
2) Start State Certification application and Financial report

3) Resolve plans for Construction Grant letter of intent

Special Events in August

Stuffed Animal Sleepover, Aug 2 – 56 children / animals participated

Spanish Storytime, Aug 2 – 11 children

Tote bag decoration / summer reading finale, Aug 5 – 13 children
Abandoned Asylums author talk, Aug 24 – 27 attendance

Red Cross babysitter class, Aug 26 – 11 students

Upcoming Sept Events

Easy walks in Upton author talk – Sept 14 6:30 Town Hall

Regular storytime schedule resumes

Booksale / Herbal medicine program / Heritage Day – Oct 1 9-2 Library Lawn

Comments on Off-site programs

I’ve been getting patron feedback that our locations for off-site programs are uncomfortable and make it hard to enjoy the content.  Specifically the Main hall of Town Hall, and we ran into some issues using Memorial school this year, because of maintenance that was taking place and equipment not being ready to use.  I have one more event already scheduled for Town Hall in September.  After that, I will try to make more use of the reading room at the library, which has nicer chairs and better acoustics, but will be cramped and non-handicapped accessible.

Building / Grounds Maintenance

Bathroom renovations – Town Manager arranged for a construction / building maintenance firm to review our bathroom and front door repairs.  We are expecting a cost estimate from them on Friday, Sept 9.  If I get the cost estimate before the meeting Monday, I will bring it so the Trustees can decide what funding to request at November Town Meeting.  If we don’t have the cost estimate yet, we may need to approve a placeholder number for a warrant article that will be refined later.

Long Range Plan

Our last Long Range plan was submitted to the MBLC in October of 2010.  It is recommended to complete a new plan every 5 years or so, and to submit an annual action plan in December.  Since the major determining factor of what our plan will look like for the next five years is whether or not we expect to build a new facility in that time, I recommend we submit another action plan update for FY18, and commit to writing a new Long Range plan as soon as we know the status of our facility.  (January if we decide not to apply for construction grant, or July if we do apply.)

Blackstone Valley Libraries collaboration

I attended a meeting of public library directors in the Blackstone valley area (Grafton, Upton, Mendon, Uxbridge, Blackstone, Whitinsville, Hopedale, Millville, Douglas, etc.)  11 directors were invited, 7 attended and 2 more have been actively participating in discussion via email.  The purpose of the meeting was to talk about ways to collaborate and share resources locally.  The idea was to start with some simple, “low-hanging fruit” of coordinated activities, and see if further opportunities develop.

We committed to exploring three areas to start with:

1)      Sharing museum passes between all residents of participating towns.

2)      Coordinate Cultural Council grant applications and performers so we don’t duplicate the same performers in close proximity.

3)      Set up a “floating collection”, starting with Large Print books.  A floating collection means that the item can stay and be displayed at the location where it is returned, instead of being sent back to the owning library immediately.  It is commonly used in branch libraries of cities, or in county library systems.  It is ideal for collections where patrons crave a lot of variety to browse, but don’t all want the newest releases immediately.  The end goal would be a system where (for ex.) Upton could buy 20 large print titles and Uxbridge would buy 20 different titles, and after a couple months we swap sets, so patrons at both towns end up seeing 40 different titles.