Category: Fun and Social

Shout out to Sara for wrangling the snakes, mini horses, bunnies and all the other animals in her first big program at RPL. Kudos to you! From Michelle.

Shout out to all the Children’s staff for going above and beyond. This month’s turret design is PHENOMENAL–don’t miss it!! You are all so talented!!! From Emily the anemone.

Shout out to Judy T. for going above and beyond. Judy presented at this year’s MLA Conference at the request of the Paralibrarian Section. She did a fabulous job, especially since the section had to change the format at the last minute because so many people showed up for the program. Judy was awesome, and we are so grateful and lucky that she was part of our program! From Valerie, Desiree, Andrea, the rest of the Paralibrarian Section board, and Michelle!

Shout out to Ashley and Dina for going above and beyond and helping a co-worker. They helped set up for painting in BeTween Time! Their help made the setup go so much faster, and they very wisely warned me not to use the glitter! From Emma.

Shout out to Judy Terrazano, and team RiPpLe Effect for coming up with a new idea and keeping it positive Judy recruited the winning team for a trivia night held by the Refugee Community Alliance to benefit the Ukrainian Support Project. The event was very successful, raising enough money to begin the process of supporting a Ukrainian family in this area – and we had a lot of fun as a team, only missing 2 questions! From Rebecca Bailey, Elizabeth Weilbacher, Meaghan Clemente, Suzy Axelson, Alyssa Landau, Valerie Gould-Heithaus, Desiree Zicko, Judy Terrazano.

Shout out to Elizabeth for exemplary customer service and keeping it positive. Elizabeth has a way of making patrons having trouble faxing/copying/printing feel at ease and empowered to know how the system works. It’s wonderful to hear a patron who was initially defensive leave sounding upbeat and grateful! From Valerie Gould Heithaus

Shout out to Amy for keeping it positive and creating the sports-themed send-off for John, from Anonymous.

Shout out to Desiree, Andrea Hogan and Valerie for going above and beyond, and coming up with a new idea. Desiree, Andrea Hogan and Valerie created the take and make paperwhite kits. They spent many hours collecting jars, putting together instructions, and setting up the display. The kits were picked up by library patrons within an hour! Kudos to them! From Michelle.

Shout out to Meaghan C. for going above and beyond and helping a co-worker; first, congratulations to Meaghan for graduating with her Master’s in Library Sciences!! Second, shout out to her for dipping back into her paging roots and helping Borrower Services shelve over a dozen carts this week. She’s such a team player, and we wouldn’t function without her. From Anonymous.

Shout out to Sara for leading by example and solving a problem. Our blistery cold Saturday started with some of our staff computers not connecting to the Internet. Sara handled it like the pro she is and remained calm, cool, and collected. We had the internet back by the time a giant crowd of storytime folks came back upstairs, and we are forever grateful! From Olivia.

Shout out to Emma for Going above and beyond. Emma had a surprising crowd of over 80 people at storytime on Saturday, Jan 20! She picked out books and songs that were perfect for that size crowd without realizing it so she didn’t have to pivot too much when the families kept streaming in! She did awesome and people were really excited afterward coming up to hang out. From Olivia.

Shout out to Andrea Hogan for decolonizing the 200s in the name of Equity and Access. What do you do when Dewey 200-289 is Religion – Christianity and Dewy 290—299 is ALL other religions? You decolonize the system that provide more equitable classification of world religions. Great Job Andrea Hogan who heard about it at conference and ran with it! From Jamie.

Shout out to The Borrower Services Team and Meaghan C. for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and keeping it positive. BS staff spent several days with a malfunctioning AMH and were flooded with bins due to snow delays and no pages. All this on top of some really annoying BEEPING and they kept their chill. Also, special thanks to Meaghan Clemente, who did A LOT of shelving to help with the backlog. From Jamie.

Shout out to Elizabeth W. for going above and beyond, leading by example, providing exemplary customer service, solving a problem, and keeping it positive. One of our regular visitors is hearing impaired and relies on a TTY phone at home to make calls. When her equipment stopped working recently, she visited the R&R desk to ask staff for information on fixing her phone. While several R&R staff got the ball rolling, Elizabeth went above and beyond by reaching out to several organizations, printing out forms, explaining the process to the patron, and ensuring the patron had a liaison for her needs. Elizabeth worked up to the very last minute on a Friday helping this patron, who was so grateful she gave Elizabeth a warm hug before she left. The patron came by a few days later to again personally acknowledge Elizabeth’s efforts, and to offer an update on her progress toward restoring this critical service in her life. Thank you, Elizabeth, for making a positive impact on the life of a valued visitor! From anonymous.

Shout out to Dawn for going above and beyond and solving a problem. Dawn solved a major inputting glitch that occurred with the upgrade. Neither Andrea, Beth Willis, nor Christine Morgan at NOBLE could slay this particular dragon, but Dawn used her years of experience and vast wealth of knowledge to make all as it should be in Tech Services land, from her fellow book processor.

Here are some sample prompts from this optional (but fun!) questionnaire:

• What brought you to work at a public library or RPL specifically?
• What do you love most about your work?
• Where did you grow up or what has been the most memorable place you have lived?
• What are your hobbies, or what do you love to do when you’re not working?
• Where else have you worked?
• What is something about you that would surprise most people?
• What is your favorite book, movie, or musical artist?

Shout out to Tech Services for going above and beyond and for helping co-workers. The Children’s Room launched the new SmartStart collection thanks to the Herculean efforts of Dawn, Andrea, and Kath. The collection includes nearly 250 books and requires tons of special cataloging & processing. We are so grateful and the patrons are already enjoying all the brand-new books! From the Children’s Room.

Shout out to Rebecca Bailey and Desiree Zicko for going above and beyond: Thank you to Rebecca for updating the very useful Libby brochure and to Desiree for proofing the document. Your good work is greatly appreciated! From your grateful co-workers.

Shout out to Lisa and Neftali for going above and beyond. Lisa and Neftali are our heroes! They always do a great job with a smile on their faces. There has been lots to shelve, really full bookdrops to empty and check in, and long pull lists to complete, and they have both handled it all with ease. We are so lucky to work with both of you! Your biggest fans (the Borrower Services staff).

Shout out to Andrea F. for juggling new staff training, public services meetings and fighting for the freedom to read. All done with grace. From Michelle.

Shout out to Ashley, Dina, Cate, and Emma for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, exemplary customer service and solving a problem. Our Poop Museum had about 50 families waiting for our presenter, who was running 45 minutes late. The entire Children’s Team pitched in to make sure that folks were entertained (Ashley read The Poop Song), they knew what time the program started (Emma bravely told folks who arrived late), and made sure the scavenger hunts were refilled, the loom was ready, and there were enough librarians to help the number of people (Cate and Dina staffed the floor). Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who bravely dealt with an influx of people WHILE Evergreen was down and we were trying to keep them in the building so that they didn’t miss all the poopy goodness. You’re the best team in the world! From Olivia.

Shout out to Lynda for going above and beyond. Thank you to Lynda who set up the room for the Poop Museum way ahead of time so we had one less thing to worry about. And also thank you for helping save a parking space for the presenter and turning over the room quickly after the program ran late. She’s truly Superwoman, Wonder Woman, and all the Captain Marvels rolled into one human being. From Olivia.

Shout out to Olivia for going above and beyond, leading by example and keeping it positive. Olivia led the Children’s Team on the best road trip–we met at RPL, snacked at the greatest little market/cafe, explored every nook and cranny of the Eric Carle Museum, lunched at the homiest restaurant in Massachusetts, and dazzled each other with stories, gossip, pop culture, books, parenting, foibles and more! Thanks for a great day, Olivia! From Cate.

Shout out to everyone who participated in the all-staff mockumentaries, specifically shouting out Olivia who was the mastermind behind it all. Olivia’s directorial skills are so fly and casting was on point. From anonymous.

Shout out to Emma for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Emma came in on her day off so we could do the first Monday storytime of the fall session together. She made a gorgeous visual schedule and helped craft & deliver a super engaging storytime routine. The kids and grown-ups got to meet both of their storytime librarians on day one, and Emma helped make everyone feel very welcome and included. It was a great way to start the week! From Ashley.

Shout out to Elizabeth for going above and beyond and for exemplary customer service. Overheard Elizabeth working with three very needy patrons in quick succession–she was so patient and cheerful!! One person said “I was so upset, but you made me smile” From anonymous.

Shout out to R&R Staff (and Desiree!) for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Well done R&R! You (and Desiree) made it through the heat wave and tropics-level humidity with no a/c and most of your sanity intact. Susan will host the first Health Nook Info session and is tackling another messy NF collection, Rebecca is tearing through the cookbook section and covering extra hours, Elizabeth hosted a killer concert, book group, and writing workshop all in one week while still delivering to library takeout folks and the PSC! Jocelyn covered a last-minute author event, hosted trivia, crushed it on local history and genealogy one-on-one sessions, and will represent at the Read-in on the Lawn right before creating a final seed-beading community art project, Meghan welcomed teens back from summer break all while performing an awe-inspiring feat of diplomacy. This team is on fire. From the Hardly Girl Head.

Shout out to Andrea Fiorillo for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea, leading by example, and keeping it positive. Andrea spearheaded a state-wide Read-In initiative, and right here in Reading coordinated an amazing morning of community members celebrating the Freedom to Read. We are so lucky to have her creative thinking, outstanding organizational skills, and intellectual freedom advocacy at RPL. From Ashley-and all the other grateful librarians and paralibrarians in MA.

Shout out to Louise for all her help with the New Resident Open House. She always thinks ahead to what we need and is cool as a cucumber throughout. Thanks, bunches! Michelle

Shout out to Meghan M. for going above and beyond, leading by example, and keeping it positive. I attended the Mini Golf event with my kids recently and was so impressed by Meghan and how she handled the event. The interest was very high and so families were in abundance! She kept her cool no matter how busy it got, kept it very positive despite a few patrons being a bit disgruntled at having to wait , and set boundaries with these same patrons in such a positive and empathetic (yet firm) way that it kept everything moving and ultimately kept all the patrons happy and able to enjoy the event. She really worked that situation like a pro. Man, she’s good at what she does! ! From Lindsay.

Shout out to Elizabeth W for exemplary customer service and keeping it positive. Elizabeth hosted her first program, Drive to Sing, to a fantastic showing of 50+ people! Not surprisingly, Elizabeth had the audience engaged and laughing with her natural ability to interact with a crowd and deliver an introductory speech. RPL is lucky to have EW! From Ally.

Shout out to Olivia for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea, helping a co-worker, leading by example, solving a problem and keeping it positive. For the amazing, inspiring, funny, and adorable videos you created for our staff meeting! From Cate and all your other admiring fans.

Shout out to Jocelyn for coming up with a new idea and keeping it positive. Jocelyn’s trivia night was so fun! The questions were a good mix of general knowledge (thank you, Justin!), the people there were a great group (competitive & friendly) and the picture round was very cool – our team might have gotten a perfect score on that one. AND there was a table of 20-somethings who had never come to the library before, but they will definitely be coming back. We can’t wait for the Pokemon/Star Wars edition. Great job, Jocelyn! From Team Zickhaus (Valerie, Andrea and Desiree)–editor’s note: they came in 2nd but only because the other team had more people.

Shout out to Lindsay Mancuso for exemplary customer service: On July 28 I was on the GF when a patron called about a bill for books her father said he had returned. I transferred the call to Borrower’s Services where Lindsay took the call. The patron called back and, when I answered, she told me she had found the items and then went on to say that the ‘lovely lady” she spoke to before was so nice and suggested she look again. The patron continued to say how helpful, patient and kind Lindsay had been and she was so grateful for her excellent customer service. Nice job, Lindsay. From Andrea Hogan.

Shout out to Lynda & John for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and solving a problem:

“Prologue: …maybe I could defrost this refrigerator…
Act 1: John provides assistance
Act 2: Lynda steps in like a magician
Act 3: Jamie comes back on Saturday, where is the refrigerator?
Finale: Lynda returns the fridge, clean, dry & sparkling!
We are so lucky! ” From Kath.

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for going above and beyond, and helping a co-worker. Meaghan cheerfully wears many hats and covers many public service desks! Thanks for being our back-up!! From Cate.

Shout out to Olivia and Cate. for going above and beyond. Cate and Olivia refreshed our Pride Sidewalk – hard work, positive attitude, and it looks so great! From anonymous.

A huge, ginormous, humongous, gigantor thank you to the Borrower Services team for making the first two weeks of summer easier for us in Children’s. They took on user account issues, sign-ups, and check-ins. We were slammed with people the first week, and it was really nice to have people utilize the smart and capable BS department since they know their way around user accounts much more accurately than we do! Thank you all for your patience, time, and courtesy for doing that even when I know you are all just as busy. You’re the best! From Olivia.

Shout out to Dina for going above and beyond and exemplary customer service. Dina’s first Summer Reading has been quite eventful, and she’s handled it with grace and the utmost empathy! She’s amazing with caregivers and calming down situations at the moment. Shout out to her for telling an adult to take a minute to breathe and remind them that the summer reading program is supposed to be fun and most importantly, optional.! From Olivia.

Shout out to Andrea Hogan for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea, leading by example, and keeping it positive. Love to see the flourishing pollinator garden carefully tended by Andrea Hogan. Andrea is walking the talk supporting native plants and the larger goal of sustainability. Way to go! Anonymous.

Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond and coming up with a new idea. Cate has been amazing this summer at making sure kids know to take their time with reading and doing the program; her patience, calm under pressure, and ability to move in and out of the hoards of kids and caregivers are unmatched. Running a program while a child is having a meltdown and taking the focus away from the room is not an easy task, but she did it flawlessly. We are very lucky to have her, and I am thankful for all that she does! From Olivia.