Grafton Public Library: Weekly Report, October 25-30, 2021

Press release from Grafton Public Library:

2021-10-29

This is our second full week of being open, and we have all really enjoyed seeing patrons return. The reactions have been very positive!

Beth covered in the Children’s Room, Teen Room, Circulation Desk and Reference desk, and spent very little time in her office completing Director duties. She fielded questions about meeting space, and corresponded with Bibliotheca on the gates and self-check, with Integra on phones, with Scott Ricker regarding ADA issues, with Sunshine Sign to procure operating hours signage, with amateur photographer David Paist on construction photos, and with the Massachusetts Office on Disabilities regarding a grant application. She met with Olde Bostonian regarding refinishing some furniture that was excluded from their contract, and with a donor regarding placement and style of a clock for the Large Print and New Book room. She attended a construction meeting, ran a staff meeting and presented at the Board of Library trustees meeting, and Town of Grafton trainings on ClearGov (our new budgeting software), and on Cybersecurity Awareness. She worked on nonfiction book orders for new materials and replacements, put seasonal items on display, posted signage, and renewed the Freegal database (www.freegal.com/grafton for FREE streaming and music downloads!).

Heidi covered the reference desk, worked on bulletin boards (we encourage local businesses to drop off 5-10 cards for us to post!) and led book group. She dressed in creative costume daily, but wasn’t’ the only one – most staff began celebrating Halloween on Monday.

Borrower Services staff have been busy managing the Lobby and covering the Circulation Desk. We’ve been troubleshooting tech issues with printer set up, sorting errors with the AMH system, and the self-check machines. We are really looking forward to the day when the technology in the building behaves!

In addition, Sandhya has reorganized all of the forms we use, and sorted the masters in a new file so we can easily find them. Sandhya also updated some of our handouts, updated the Museum pass information, and handled all the CLIO and ComCat loans. Ranjita and Jane have each spent a lot of time in the lobby and on the Circulation Desk, along with updating the New York Times Bestseller list, processing new material, printing and collating brochure packets and keeping the Circulation desk supplied with new cards, brochures, handouts, etc. Allie continues to handle our issues with printer connections, along with covering the Circulation desk, and the lobby. When she has off desk time, she has been finishing up the November newsletter, creating a seed packet template, adding Screen Reader to describe photos and graphics in the newsletter, and finalizing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Susan has been overseeing all of the above, as well as delivering material to Homebound patrons, ordering supplies, ordering new material, working on the schedule and interfacing with Bibliotheca for tech support.

This week in the Children’s Room Jen, Cyndi, Kristin, Mare, and Sarah handed out break out bags for tweens, hosted a painting program on the half day, collected animals and took posed photos for the teddy bear sleep over (pics on Facebook!), assisted patrons, shelved, placed holds, and fielded questions from patrons.

Sarah covered in the teen room, was manager on duty for an evening shift, hosted a tween seasonal painting program and a teen needle felting program, reviewed the schedule and coordinated with Beth, and will participate in the Quite Fetching community program on the Common this Saturday. She also worked on collection maintenance and development, and coordinated with staff on various projects. Jen began preparing for Library Babies and posted the Children’s Room November newsletter, while Mare worked on volunteer correspondence.

Allison created a survey for teens in regards to Dungeons & Dragons scheduling and content, to help plan future programs. Additionally we held a Felted Fall Scene program for teens this week. She contacted summer reading winners and emailed digital gift cards. Cyndi will be collecting the remaining physical cards to give out next week.

The Library will be open for trick or treaters on South Street on Halloween, Sunday 10/31/2021, from 5-8pm.

This press release was produced by Grafton Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.