Category: Fun and Social

Staff Shout Outs

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 Val for going above and beyond, exemplary customer service, solving a problem and ALWAYS keeping it positive. Val spent a lot of time and put a lot of thought into troubleshooting various headaches associated with the lockers and new printing system. Her work ethic and commitment were noticeable across library departments and she should be recognized for the effort she undertook to help things run as smoothly as they could. From Anonymous.

Shout out to Lisa Racine for coming up with a new idea. Shout out to Keeper of the Babies, Miss Lisa! I covered her Babytime program, and she had 22 babies in attendance (48 people overall)! She created this program because she saw a trend and need in the community, and people are appreciating it! Way to go! From Olivia. P.S. Lisa was specifically mentioned by someone at the New Resident Open House for being so enthusiastic at the Babytime program.

Shout out to Ally for going above and beyond and leading by example. Congrats to Ally for finishing a year-long programming grant!!! We hosted programs run by NAGLY, Wee the People, the Massachusett Tribe, YAMA, RESPOND, and more. Run by Ally’s thoughtful design and creative execution, we got to reach out to different organizations and help patrons see what they have to offer. Way to go, Ally! From anonymous.

Shout out to Andrea H. for going above and beyond, exemplary customer service, solving a problem, and keeping it positive: Andrea does battle every day to get folx their ILLs. And no matter how nonsensical the person on the other end of the phone is, she is calm and patient! Then she hangs up and we all commiserate with her. From Tilly.

Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond and coming up with a new idea: Cate’s Halloweentown has been a hit with kids and adults alike! What a fun way to decorate the pillar for everyone’s favorite holiday! From anonymous.

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, solving a problem, and Keeping it positive: Meaghan is always ready, willing, and able to fill in our crazy gaps in the Children’s Room skej! And she does it with a smile on her face and a song in her heart! 🙂 From Cate

Shout out to Meghan McCabe for going above and beyond and keeping it positive: Meghan M has been hustling all Fall. School visits, teen programming, loads of professional development, and everyday kindness and warmth to the various patrons she helps. Even when stressed or trying to track down teens, Meghan maintains a positive vibe that can lighten any workroom on dreary, cold, rainy days 😉 From Ally D.

End of Community Read — Thank you!

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.

Staff Shout Outs

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 Andrea F, Susan, Susie, Chris & Michelle for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, exemplary customer service, solving a problem, and keeping it positive. Each of these staff members deserves a big thank you, and perhaps a hug, for managing a difficult patron situation while coordinating many last-minute changes and technical difficulties associated with the Autumn Concert that moved indoors due to weather. There was a lot of grace and kindness shown to patrons and each other with a bit of humor to help everyone get to 9pm. From Ally D.

Shout out to Ashley W for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea, and exemplary customer service. Ashley has spent the past year thoughtfully developing every piece of the new Healing Library from book titles to resources to overall packaging. This was a special project and Ashley put a lot of care into each piece, working with local partners to ensure patrons have access to resources and content that support a variety of mental health needs. From Ally D. and Cate.

Shout out to Jamie for juggling a variety of tasks and workloads while Lauren is out. She has done it with humor and cats. From Michelle.

Shout out to Olivia and Lisa R. for going above and beyond, coming up with a new idea and keeping it positive, You two are the Halloween dream team! The new play area is inspired, the TikTok is spoooooky, the ideas are as sweet as PSL, and the Halloween vibe is contagious! Boo! From Cate.

Staff Shout Outs

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 Carol for helping a co-worker. Shout out to Carol for helping with the craft prep for the Fall Faire! Thank you for helping to cut out sooo many tiny apple leaves. You rock! From Lisa R.

Shout out to Suzy and Louise for helping a co-worker, Big shout out to Suzy and Louise for helping out with the fall faire craft prep! You two rock! From Lisa R.

Shout out to the Borrower Services staff for keeping it positive, Thank you to everyone at Borrowers’ Service for all of your hard work and patience this past month and a half. Adjusting to Lauren being gone, training on the lockers, and dealing with multiple internet/phone outages (among our normal day-to-day tasks and weirdness) has been challenging, and you have been awesome. I especially appreciate your patience with me and Jamie as we’ve been trying to navigate through it all. You all rock! From Valerie.

Shout out to Jocelyn and Amy for going above and beyond and coming up with a new idea, Amy and Jocelyn have been working on digitizing the microfilm for both the Reading Advocate and Reading Chronicle. This will be a great improvement for all those researching Reading history. Thank you! From Andrea F.

RPL On Wheels

It may have taken a year but the Library finally received its very first Book Bike!

The Book Bike Trike was custom built by Haley Tricycles in Philadelphia and our goal is to use it attract new patrons, bring the library to people who might mistakenly believe the library is not for them, and to serve the community in new and exciting ways.

The RPL Book Bike will be for staff use only at special events and outreach. If anyone is interested in being a member of the Librarians By Bike club, please reach out to Ally to take this shiny new toy for a spin!

Staff Shout Outs!

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 Meghan M for coming up with a new idea. Meghan had a great rookie year of teen summer reading. She came up with fun, creative programs, and engaged a lot of happy campers. Well done! From Andrea F.

Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, leading by example. Cate has been a rock during rocky times. She shows up, works hard, handles messes like a boss, and keeps the hits coming for the small set 🙂 From Andrea F.

Shout out to Everyone who helped look for my planner, and the mystery person who left it on my desk! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! From Melissa S.
(It was in my mailbox-from Michelle)

Shout out to Ally for coming up with a new idea. Ally delivered on our shiny new book bike after much hard work and endless poking. Yay! From anonymous.

Shout out to Lisa R. for helping a co-worker. Lisa volunteered to weed the adult graphic novels and the help was so very welcome. Thank you! From Andrea F.

Shout out Andrea F. and Valerie for going above and beyond. When Andrea F. heard from another co-worker that I wanted to attend the Craftivism event but was not able to because I was scheduled to work that evening, she volunteered to cover my GF shift (without me even asking her!!) so I could attend the event. And when Valerie noticed that there were just a couple of spots left, she signed me up! Such kind and thoughtful co-workers!! From Judy T.

Shout out to Meghan M. for exemplary customer service. Meghan jumped in to welcome residents of RPL’s new neighbor STEPS and show them the library. They left with smiles and armfuls of books. From anonymous.

Staff Shout Outs-August 12

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.

Staff Shout Outs — August 5, 2022

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 Megan White for Going above and beyond. The carts in Children’s have been chaos and madness the past week or so, and Megan contained the chaos and did some amazing cart control on a pretty busy Saturday! From Lisa R.

Shout out to Kath and Michelle for Going above and beyond, Helping a co-worker. Shout out to Kath and Michelle for covering for us this last week! We appreciate you both so much for being able to jump in and taking on all the chaos that comes with the Children’s Room. You’re the best! From the Children’s Room.

Shout out to Smirtha & Nemaya for helping a co-worker, going above and beyond, and being creative. Smirtha and Nemaya helped build and spray paint the book boxes that will be placed around town full of RPL’s Community Read titles. The boxes are bright and bold and awesome! A second thank you to Lisa R for picking the perfect colors on a whim! From Ally.

Staff Shout Outs!

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.