Medway Public Library

Director’s Report

August 5, 2012

Staff

It has been increasingly difficult to staff the library while missing one full-time staff person, who is going to be out through August. During the past month, there have been several occasions on which a trustee had to fill in due to insufficient staffing - bringing the turnover (deposits) to Town Hall, and meeting the network transfer delivery truck. On one occasion the library nearly had to close when a staff member became suddenly ill. Only one person was left on the desk at a busy time on another occasion when a staff member coordinating a program needed to introduce the program, and we had to ask a member of the Friends to attend the program to help out. No one is able to attend the upcoming union meeting due to staffing issues. Our substitute will unavailable through much of August, and several of the staff will be on vacation during the month.

Overdrive

I placed the first Overdrive Advantage order. There have been six checkouts so far, with eight patrons on the waiting list, mostly for the Kindle version of the eBooks. The Sony e-reader will be cataloged soon. I think it would be advisable to wait to see how well it circulates before buying more of this model. Apparently some Overdrive ebooks cannot be loaded directly to this or other mobile devices, though the vast majority can.

I have attended two meetings of the Board of Directors. Much of the discussion has centered around the future of eBooks, and the future of the network integrated library system. (ILS). The Massachusetts Library System Resource Sharing Advisory committee may propose a statewide eBook model in the near future. Minuteman plans to form a committee of staff from various libraries and Minuteman to investigate ILS products.

Programs

The infant/toddler story hour/song program is going well. The number of participants in the Science Fridays program increased to 10 by last week, and the children are enjoying the sessions. No one signed up for the Young Adult book group/Advisory Council, but we are hoping for signups for the second session. “Imagine That,” a family song and story program, was much enjoyed by the audience. The Paws to Read program was filled to capacity. It was highlighted in the MBLC newsletter, and I was asked for contact information to share with several librarians who contacted MBLC in response to the article. Over 80 patrons attended the Wingmasters Presents World of Owls program, and the presenter has offered to return with a presentation on other raptors later this year.

Other

The Town Administrator’s office offered us the services of an intern who is in a graduate program in Public Administration at Clark University. He has done some research on policies of surrounding libraries for us, which will be useful in updating our policies.

I have been weeding several areas, including Juvenile fiction, picture books, videos, and books-on-cassette, and adult videos and books-on-cassette.

I compiled the statistics for the International City/County Management Association performance benchmarking survey for the Town Administrator’s office, and I am working on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners ARIS report, which is due on the 24^th of August.

-Margaret Perkins

Budget Report