THANK YOU, fellow colleagues, for all you did to help make our Animal Extravaganza event a success on Saturday, May 11!
From preparing materials to staffing the event, providing promotional prowess, fielding questions, coordinating organizations, managing patron traffic and more, it took a whole crew to pull it off, and I am grateful for your time and talents. Fun photos to come 🙂
If you are interested in riding the Book Bike around this summer and creating good cheer, please fill out the Book Bike Form.Â
There are a few requirements; you need to have gone through the Book Bike orientation, and you must check with your supervisor before we give the go-ahead. Once you’ve done that, you are ready to bike! The Book Bike will be stationed at the commuter rail on some evenings and will also appear at the Wednesday Reading Rec. Summer performances happening at Memorial Park. This is paid time. Please do not sign up for an event during your scheduled desk shift hours. If you have any questions, speak to Michelle, Cate, Andrea F or Andrea H.
For over a year, the Reading Public Library has been forging a relationship with the Massachusett Tribe to understand the history of this land and its peoples.
If any patrons call or come in and ask if we are giving out eclipse glasses, the answer is YES! The eclipse this Saturday is likely to garner less interest than the one in April, so we don’t anticipate a lot of interest just yet.
We hosted a huge Summer Sizzler party Friday night! We had 125 very happy people. We could not have pulled this off without every department helping out. Lynda was brilliant with set up and break down. She is the best of the best. Book reviewing speed talkers Alissa, Andrea H., Dawn, Desiree, Susanne, and guest star Liz Whitelam were the stars of the show along with M.C. Elizabeth! Michelle helped us get the sound system up and running. The Friends got to shine; showcasing their support of our programs and selling a lot of mocktails.
Kath made fabulous flyers, Overdrive, and catalog booklists. The entire tech services department helped process all the extra Sizzlers I purchased with help from Susan.
The communications queens Desiree and Michelle marketing got patrons to beat the doors down in anticipation. Valerie and the entire B.S. department unpacked bins like the bosses they are. Meaghan C and Jocelyn helped me find and deploy pencils, and finally Jocelyn and Meghan M. helped me get the million books I ordered out for display and safely returned to their home shelves. THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, for all your support and for making this popular event possible.
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.
Hi everyone,
There are two events happening this Fall that we traditionally participate in: The Fall Street Faire (Sunday, September 11) and the Discover the Arts Festival (Saturday, October 15). I am looking for a few more staff members to work at these events. Fill out the Outreach Form and get ready to have fun and greet your neighbors!
RPL has installed a Braille-enhanced StoryWalk for increased accessibility and in order to broaden the pleasures of this experience to people with low vision and limited mobility.
The Reading Lions Club sponsored this initiative. Thanks to the Lions, the Braille-enhanced StoryWalk will showcase a new book quarterly.
Library visitors start at the front door of the library, go down the steps to the lawn, and follow the Braille-enhanced StoryWalk signs around the lawn perimeter to experience the adorable picture book, A Good Day by Kevin Henkes. StoryWalk will be on display from August 2—31.
In Susan’s new role as community health librarian, she’s organized outstanding programs. Here is an email that came from an attendee of last night’s Age Well, Be Well: Eating For Your Health presentation:
“Thank you for coordinating the excellent program on aging last night… RPL has done an outstanding job throughout the pandemic to provide services despite many obstacles. Thanks to everyone.”
Be proud of how we’ve kept offering ourselves and our services despite painful times.