Category: Resources

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.

Canva Clean Up

To those of you who use our Canva account, it is time to clean it up. Please go through the images, including QR Codes and either move the images to a specific folder (click the three dots on the right of the image and move to a folder.), or delete it.

When uploading a QR code, make sure to name it, especially if you plan to reuse the code.

Questions? Ask Michelle or Desiree.

Some Printing Instructions

Here are some of the instructions for the new printing software.

Wireless Printing. I’ve left copies of the instructions at the print release stations, at Borrower Services, Ground Floor and R and R desks. They are also available under Instructions on the Intranet. Read through them and practice printing!

To override printing, two staff laptops have the TBS staff printing portal software loaded on them. There is one at the Borrower Services desk and one in the white cabinet in the Reference Office, labeled Staff Printing Portal.

Video instructions to use the staff portal are here.

Video instructions to print are here.

Payment/Kiosk information is here. The network upgrade seems to have slowed the payment service down and may not be fixed until Monday.

I know that we’ve had a lot of changes over the past week and I appreciate your patience as we all learn together.

First Amendment Auditors

Town Hall received visits from “First Amendment Auditors” last Thursday. This is happening here and in surrounding towns. The best approach is to remain calm and professional. Please review this presentation from KP Law addressing these visits.

The goal of these individuals is to provoke employees into unlawfully detaining or otherwise violating their First Amendment rights. Employee response should be calm and consistent. The library is a limited public forum, “First Amendment Auditors” are allowed to videotape while in the building. They may not go into the clearly marked staff-only work areas.

Following up on our staff meeting from last week, please contact EAP if you have an upsetting interaction. RPD has also made Taunya available for any of our employees that would like to speak to her.

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!

Access for All

I’ve been attending the Perkins Access webinar series and it’s really good! Each session includes a list of resources to check for and improve access for people with a variety of disabilities. I’m collecting the links in a folder on the G-drive–check them out!

Perkins Access Series: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rlYWWqnPwYE9JEfU9CM8Wc2H7zojYv26?usp=sharing

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.