At the request of one of our Trustees, I’ve created a “how was your visit” survey that will be available at each service desk, at the self-check stations, on the catalog kiosks, and in the elevator.
If patrons would like to provide quick feedback, direct them to these surveys. If they want to provide more expansive feedback, direct them to the comment forms.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
We have a few helpers who will be helping us maintain the exterior native and sensory garden areas – weeding and watering as they can. Please see Amy if yo you have questions or if you they need assistance.
Our Busy Bees Volunteers will be stopping by the Borrower Services desk to sign in and pick up the watering cans (2 blue ones), their gardening apron which signals they are a volunteer, and tools (if they don’t bring their own). Everything (except the watering cans) is in the green Busy Bees Bucket located near the blue watering cans.
In case you didn’t already know, patrons who sign up for ecards through our website are not able to check out physical materials with that card number (which starts with a 5). To check out physical materials, they will need to come in and get a physical card (one that starts with a 2).
If you help a patron with this process, please make sure you change their patron type from Online to Public Patron. Let me know if you have any questions.
Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!
A quick thank you to all who participated and helped promote the Library’s Community Read — Unapologetically Positively You — which officially ended on October 8th. A very special thank you to Olivia and Susan for developing much of the content and leading various programs to support the Read’s theme of body neutrality.
The Library has received a lot of positive feedback but sharing a few circulation statistics to help celebrate its success!
1. Fat Girls Hiking by Summer Michaud-Skog: 89 lifetime circulations/72 circulations during Community Read. 80.9% of circs happened during CR
2. Starfish by Lisa Fipps: 90 lifetime circulations/52 circulations during Community Read. 57.8% of circs happened during CR
3. Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder: 58 lifetime circulations/42 circulations during the Community Read. 72.4% of circs happened during CR
The Library also sent 70 copies into the wild in various book boxes sprinkled around local businesses like the YMCA, Pleasant Street Center, Starbucks, and Fat Larry’s. All copies were taken and hopefully passed around among friends, families and acquaintances.
Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!
Shout out to Desiree, Michelle, Susan & Olivia for helping a co-worker. For all of your help, insight, suggestions, and general support with pulling together the Community Read. This project looks as good as it does thanks to all of you From Ally.
Shout out to Megan, Cate, and Ashley for going above and beyond. Megan, Cate, and Ashley deserve the BIGGEST shout-out this summer for being outside in record highs with large crowds of kiddos doing extraordinary outreach work! Sunrise Storytime got families out and about in Reading discovering new parks and patches of (sadly dead) grass. Nature Stories and Exploration got kids moving and discovering all the wonderful nature spots in Reading (like seeing snakes and more!) I am in awe of all of you for being outside and cheerful in these record-high temperatures. Another shout out to Cate who would bop from Sunrise Storytime to Birch Meadow Elementary in a non-air conditioned cafeteria to work with kiddos. You’re all rock stars and deserve the biggest ice-flavored treat EVER! AGREED. From Olivia.
Shout out to John Davis for going above and beyond. John and his wife, Shirley, generously donated a wheeled cart to one of our patrons in need. Our patron, Craig, was extremely appreciative of this thoughtful gift since his cart had a broken wheel! From anonymous.
Shout out to Sudeshna for keeping it positive and for all her hard work moving Reading forward in these trying times. From Michelle.
Shout out to Jocelyn for coming up with a new idea, exemplary customer service, and keeping it positive. Jocelyn’s Craftivism program was amazing! Lots of new faces, great energy, and lots of laughter in the room as we embroidered patterns of our own making. Jocelyn and Shannon were very helpful and positive. We should definitely do this again! From Valerie and Judy.
Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!
Shout out to Tech Services for going above and beyond. Shout out to the Tech Services team for letting us buy all of our wish lists and then processing all those items….cause there were a lot. You’re a dream team of public servants and we cannot thank you enough! From Children’s.
Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for a great first two weeks! She jumped right in and is already organizing us. Thank you! From Michelle.
Shout out to Suzy for going above and beyond and exemplary customer service. Suzy recently helped one of our patrons who was having car trouble. She helped her call AAA (patron is hard of hearing) and made sure she had a ride home. And apparently, another patron noticed the exemplary customer service Suzy was providing because she told Reference “The people at the front desk are being so nice to that woman!” From Judy T.
Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond and coming up with a new idea. Cate’s passive programming ideas are always a hit. But her Chumley’s Flower Garden puts the rest to shame! So much wonderful pretend play is happening between children and with their engaged caregivers. Cate, your creativity never ceases to amaze! From Ashley.
Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out! And I KNOW there are more shout-outs from other departments. Let’s see them!
Shout out to Chris for keeping it positive. I look forward to her Irish soda bread every March 17th and it NEVER disappoints. Thanks for the tasty treat! From Michelle.
Shout out to the Borrower Services staff for exemplary customer service and keeping it positive. As we pass the 2nd anniversary of the pandemic, I want to give a shout-out to our Borrower Services staff who have consistently rolled with every pivot, all with good humor, kindness, and hard work. It does not go unnoticed. From Michelle.
Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond. Cate did a fantastic, fantabulous, wondrous, most lovely job putting together the March Gladness event! Thank you so much for getting us all together to try new things and have fun! From anonymous.
Shout out to Lyndsay for going above and beyond and helping a co-worker. Lyndsay loaned us her Beach umbrella for our play space in the Children’s Room and it added such a fun prop for the kids! Many thanks! From Cate.
Shout out to Andrea H for going above and beyond. Andrea was outside before we opened this morning with a spade, fertilizer, and fierce lipstick getting the pollinator garden ready for spring! She has a green thumb and golden spoon! From Cate.
Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out! And I KNOW there are more shout-outs from other departments. Let’s see them!
Shout out to Nemaya for going above and beyond, keeping it positive. She came in on a day she wasn’t working to spoil us with the sweetest Valentine’s Day treats. But the best gift is getting to work with Nemaya! From the Children’s Room.
Shout out to Kathleen Wilcox for going above and beyond and exemplary customer service. Kathleen took charge when entering the library this morning. The alarm had been going off since around 3am(?) She called Kevin Cabuzzi (facilities) to make the awful ringing stop! This is my first time working with her and every interaction she has had with patrons has been positive & high energy. From anonymous.
Shout out to Cate for coming up with a new idea with the signs on the stairwell. There was high praise by a patron for such a great idea and learning tool!
Shout out to Desiree for leading by example. Desiree is always on top of the publicity for the library, and she also keeps me on track. We are lucky to have her! From Michelle.
Shout out to Ally for exemplary customer service. When we get push back from patrons outside of our state about Pride Storytime, Ally is there with a firm hand or an outgoing voicemail message. It’s a huge relief not to have to battle these people over the phone from wherever they are across the country. I simply press “forward call,” and I don’t have to think about it anymore. Ally taking the brunt of it and knowing exactly what to say shows what a strong leader she is! Thank you for dealing with all of that! From Olivia.
Shout out to Susan, Ashley and Ally for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea and exemplary customer service: Ashley & Susan developed a brand new series for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual and Developmental disabilities; the amazing new Nature Connection program–such a wonderful addition of services for these patrons and their caregivers!. Despite some bumps and rescheduling, AW & SB hosted their first program the end of March to an almost full house. A big nod to both of them for brainstorming this idea and working hard to pull all the pieces together to create something very special and important to the library and its patrons. From Cate (And Ally-two separate shout outs for this program!).
Going forward, Barron’s will be in library use only, like the other newspapers. It will have a sticker that says library use only and it will not have a barcode. It will still be findable in the catalog, just not allowed to be put on hold or checked out. This will be for ALL Barron’s issues going forward, not just the most recent one.