Attend & Reserve: It’s Happening!

Thank you for all your hard work importing and fixing the data in Attend, the new events calendar.   We are live! Please remove the LibCal public events calendar link on your browser. Here are the new links:

ALSO

The new meeting room booking software, Reserve, is live. For now, please send any questions about booking to Meaghan, Louise, or Michelle. Michelle will soon send out information about training.
If you want to help book a meeting room for an outside organization, you are welcome to do so! The meeting room policy has stayed the same.

Niche Academy for Staff

RPL subscribes to Niche Academy for both public and staff use. Niche is an online learning solution with ready-to-use tutorials. RPL can also use this platform to create our own learning modules for public or staff use which we hope to begin doing over the next year or so.

Employees should have access to all the tutorials. However, you will be receiving an invitation to create a Niche account so you can track and save your progress. Topics range from DEIA/Belonging and Customer Service to Safety, Collection Development, and Ethics.

In the meantime, we have gathered a collection of tutorials created by Niche and other libraries for you to look at. There is also a Niche Market with hundreds more tutorials.

Give a whirl and please send comments, questions, or issues to Amy.

Planners / Desk Blotters

It’s that time of year when folks are getting organized. Employees may purchase their own work planner or desk blotter calendar and request reimbursement (not including tax) for up to $15 for work planners or $20 for desk blotter calendars within a 12-month period. Please submit receipts to Meaghan C. and notify your Division Head.

If the planner or blotter calendar is less than these amounts AND is available from Amazon, Staples, or WB Mason, RPL will purchase it for the employee on our tax-exempt accounts. Please send requests to Meaghan C. and your Division Head.

Happy planning!

Opening/Closing Note

Facilities—via our custodians—manage the building’s opening M-F, and are responsible for closing and setting the alarm any day we are open. Like any other team or department, Facilities and the custodians have last-minute staffing emergencies. Therefore, sub or fill-in custodians sometimes have to cover multiple buildings and may not be onsite at opening/closing.

OPENING: If you arrive before 8:00 a.m. M-F, please double check that a custodian has opened the building and use the main entrance if the building seems empty. You may need to turn off the alarm!

CLOSING: If there is no custodian on site at closing, do your best to ensure the building is empty and then leave. The building automatically locks. A custodian is responsible for closing and making sure the building is secure.

RPL Awarded “Dig In” Grant

I am very pleased to inform you that the RPL received an LSTA “Dig In Grant” for $20,000 from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The grant will run from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.

Shout out to the SUPER Grant Team who worked on the application and will turn these fabulous ideas into reality: Michelle Filleul, Kathryn Geoffrion Scannell, Andrea Hogan, Sara Kelso, Megan White, Desiree Zicko.

We also want to thank (and look forward to working with) community partners such as the Reading Garden Club, the Town Forest Committee, the Reading Community Garden, and the Reading Health Department for their input and letters of support for this project.

The abstract of the grant, which will include a combination of modest green improvements (inside and outside) and educational programs, is below:

“Cultivating Community: Growing and Nurturing Sustainable Spaces” aims to transform Reading Public Library into a vibrant hub for intergenerational and inclusive education on nature and sustainability. The project will build community through community involvement and partnerships with local groups to share expertise and resources and form a “Garden Ambassador” volunteer program; establish nature and sustainability programming as a long-term pillar of the educational offerings; enrich the library’s collection with accessible related resources; and add green spaces both indoors with a “Living Wall” and plantings to showcase the benefits of indoor plants and outdoors through enhancing the patio Plant Lab garden and adding sensory and native pollinator garden beds. The initiative will reach individuals and intersectional groups, including children, teens, adults, families, neurodiverse individuals, and those with disabilities. Aligned with the library’s current strategic plan, this Cultivating Community underscores our
commitment to education, equity, access, and accountability.

Special Staff Shout Out-Olivia Edition

On Saturday morning, Olivia expertly handled an incredible influx of eager caregivers and little ones who wanted to attend the Music with Mara and Motoko event, which filled to capacity almost immediately.

At least thirty additional families arrived late and were unable to get into the Community Room immediately, but Olivia gracefully offered them some options to continue enjoying the music, waiting until space opened up, or encouraging them to play elsewhere in the library. She was kind and gentle, and families were understanding. We even had a phone call from a patron asking what in the world was going on in the library this morning because parking was nigh impossible.

I’m sure she will tell you this was incredibly well attended, an extra delight for families on a hot and steamy rainy morning, so her handling even the disappointed people was especially impressive. She kept everything in control and remained calm, and there were no adult or child meltdowns. She had caregivers smiling and thanking her, and families were really kind about taking turns so others could get in the room when there was a crowd waiting in the hallway.

Just another example of Olivia’s incredible professionalism in a challenging situation. Kudos to Olivia!

From Sara.

RPL Professional Workroom Collection

I am working to develop a collection of professional books and materials to eventually be available for internal use by RPL employees in the staff lounge. 

When you get a chance, please take a look around your offices and at home to see if you have any materials marked “workroom” or any other relevant items from your personal collection that you are willing to share to help advance the professional development of your peers. 

Feel free to drop items off to me in Admin or in my mailbox. 

Box For Batteries

RPL buys batteries for lots of our equipment and peripherals. What happens to those batteries? Hmmmm…

Please put used batteries in the new “Battery Box” near the staff mailboxes in the lounge. We will take all types of batteries and find recycling or appropriate disposal sites. Can you bring in batteries from home? Yes, but please use your judgment.

For more about batteries and how to dispose of them, visit https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries.

Website Revamp

Kath GS and Amy L are working on revamping the library website. We are working with Communico, our new calendar, room reservation, and app provider. The new site will be straightforward. We will keep the well-used features of our current website, but other content will go away. One primary goal will be accessibility. The new UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) may not use our favorite colors or fonts. We’ll also get rid of library jargon.

The new website will use the “Create” platform and no longer use WordPress.

Kath and Amy will research UX/UI and work on the infrastructure and core design with Communico.

NEEDS (please email Amy if you are interested in either opportunity):

  1. Testing: A small test group of in-house users for feedback during the initial design process.
  2. Website content development (or conversion): People who currently provide or want to provide content for the website. Some content will transfer to the new site, and some content will go away. There will also be some opportunities to create new content. You will be trained on “Create” and may help maintain sections of the website.