Author: Michelle Filleul

Staff Shout Outs!

Ally and I are really excited about the first week of shout-outs. Here they are:

  • Shout out to Olivia for helping her co-worker by sharing copies of a book so that they could have what they needed! Thank you, from anonymous.
  • Shout out to Judy T for keeping it positive and creating the adorable Winnie the Pooh cross stitch project for the Children’s Room! Thank you, from the Children’s Room Team.
  • Shout out to Lisa for keeping it positive and creating the awesome rainbow book display! Read the Rainbow!! Thank you, from Cate.
  • Shout out to Lisa Racine for coming up with a new idea by initiating our Around the World in 80 Days Program, and she’s the Queen of Displays here in the Children’s Room! All the rainbows that make us smile this month, that’s her! Thank you, from anonymous.
  • Shout out to Ally for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, leading by example, exemplary customer service, solving a problem, and keeping it positive. “Ally had my back … twice. On a rather stressful day with patrons, one of our regulars yet again had his mask off his face. I’d had it and let Ally know about our repeat offender. She grabbed a copy of the mask policy and promptly went to speak to the patron!! Ally also had me covered, with a somewhat volatile patron who becomes quite loud when he is unable to access his email. Again, Ally was standing right behind me for support if I needed it! ” You rock, Ally! Thank you for your kind and patient, yet firm, support!! From Susan B.
  • Shout out to Amy for leading by example and for guiding us back to being a YES place! Thank you, from Cate.
  • Shout out to Louise for helping a co-worker and leading by example: among all the other stuff she does to support us, Louise now keeps events up-to-date on community calendars, a big help in spreading visibility for programs. Thank you from Desiree.
  • Shout out to the Children’s room for exemplary customer service, much appreciation to the Children’s Room staff for the Winter Wonder bags. A patron’s granddaughter loved these every week, especially the one with the crown!

If you want to give a shout-out, fill out this form. We will post these every other Friday.

Staff Shout Outs!

We all know that the RPL staff are awesome, so let’s shout it out. Complete this form (it is also saved on the Forms page on the intranet) to share patron praise, recognize a colleague/department’s hard work, or to say thanks to a staff member or department for doing something exceptional.

No praise is too big or too small, we want to hear it all! Ally or Michelle will post these bi-weekly on the staff intranet.

Locations Taking Book Donations

Here is a brief list of locations in the area that are currently taking book donations! If a patron asks about donating books, feel free to direct them to the following:

Goodwill – Drop off at HomeGoods, Main Street, Reading

More Than Words – Drop Off 48 Stevens Street Stoneham, MA

Used Book Super Store – 149 South Main Street, Route 114, Middleton MA, 978-304-0345
*They are only taking books that are in excellent condition, and donations are limited to two boxes or bags*

Used Book Super Store – 256 Cambridge Street, Burlington, MA, 781.272.6650
*They are not accepting encyclopedias, magazines or VHS tapes*

Vending Machine Refunds on Trial Basis

We are going to try an experiment and have an envelope of money labeled GBL Vending Refund available at the Borrower Services desk to provide change for those who have lost money in the vending machine. This does not mean that we will be contacting Carmen about any vending issues and if this becomes time consuming, we will stop providing the refunds and revert back to having people contact Carmen directly. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Updated – RPL’s First Steps to Respond to the Hate Speech at the High School

The Justice League met on Wednesday morning to come up with a plan to address the Hate Graffiti found at the high school. We decided to focus on the library as a space, that brings people together and is a gathering place of peace.

Our first steps were to change the sliders on the website, social media and the Brightsign monitors to have human rights quotes and Libraries are for Everyone images on them. If anyone asks about these images and quotes, please let them know they are in direct response to the hate graffiti found at the high school.

We will also be creating social media posts with thoughtful, inspirational quotes and if possible, include Evergreen links to books or the book by the author of the quotes. Feel free to post ideas on this google sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_s1D-c7lGw9dzLmmt8nKXhwqq4MPYKXFRPxkyBd_OyQ/edit?ts=5bd9ebcf

We will also brainstorm and post random acts of kindness stories and other inspirational stories as we see them. This will begin sometime in the near future.

There is a display of books near the magazines about the holocaust, we will be adding titles to this display over the next few days.

The Teen room has 2 book displays–“Books to Inspire Social Change” and “Libraries are For Everyone.” Plus our bulletin board Question of the Month will be updated with a question for teens to respond to along the lines of Are You a Change Maker? drawing inspiration from the ISFR recent conference. We are also working to bring in author Sara Farizan who’s new book release Here to Stay focuses on bullying, hate, and phobia.

The Children’s Room is going to have some more displays and will possibly run another Kindness Rocks program.

Unfortunately, as you know, the library has not been immune to this type of hate speech/graffiti. Be alert and aware and let Amy or the librarian in charge know of any suspicious activity.

Peace.