Quiet month of May – Storytime Guest Readers – Summer Program in June!
Circulation
May circulation activity was 4,270, a low activity
month. This is 8.3% lower than April and
21% lower than last year. I hope to see
an increase in June as summer reading activities start.
Laptops: 16. Nooks: 6. Games: 34.
Unique Patrons
As of June 4th, we had 2082 items checked out to
481 unique patrons.
Digital Content Use
BYKI: 3 users for
1 hour. The most popular language was
Spanish.
Overdrive: eBook
circulation to Upton
patrons: 271, eAudio circulations: 71.
Wowbrary: We have 139 active subscribers to Wowbrary. (-1)
New Patron Registrations: 9 new patrons registered in May.
New Items: We
added 284 items to the collection in May.
Passport Applications
processed in May: 9.
Programs
Library book group: 7 people met on May 28th.
Senior book group: 5 people met on May 13th.
Library book group: 7 people met on May 28th.
Senior book group: 5 people met on May 13th.
Thursday storytime
6 sessions, averaged 7 children.
TinyTots lapsit 4 sessions, averaged 5 children.
TinyTots lapsit 4 sessions, averaged 5 children.
Library Table: 4
visits, averaged 8 patrons and 28 items.
ESL Classes –
Regina Young has completed training as an ESL instructor, and is offering
classes twice a week at Upton Town Library.
Current attendance is averaging 3 students per class.
Special Events
Friends of Library
Booksale on May 17th dried up and had nice weather. The Friends raised over $1,000 for the Museum
pass program and Circulation desk, and the Library was able to dispose of all
the withdrawn items that were removed from the collection for the new shelving
arrangement.
May was guest reader
month at Storytime. The Police
department and Fire department both sent guest readers, and our final guest was
a bi-lingual preschool teacher.
Upcoming Events in June
Summer Reading
registration begins June 17th, and the Kickoff event will be a
children’s theatre performance at Nipmuc HS on June 24th.
Plans for Next Month
1) End of Fiscal year financial matters.
2) Summer reading program outreach.
1) End of Fiscal year financial matters.
2) Summer reading program outreach.
3) If grant=yes, form the Feasibility Committee. If grant=no, start thinking about plan B.
Planning and Design Grant
The official
announcement of provisional grant awards will be made on Thursday, June 5th
at 1pm. Hopefully Upton
will receive a grant award, and we can get started forming the Feasibility
Committee.
Circulation Desk and New Lights
The Friends of the Upton Town Library and I have selected Bill Andrews as a
craftsman to build a new circulation desk.
Bill and I are
working on the final design for the desk.
It should be completed by the end of July, and has been fully funded by
the Friends of the Library fundraising efforts!
Thank you to the
Friends and everyone that contributed to the Circulation Desk campaign.
Knowlton-Risteen Lawn
The DPW has will be
installing bushes and plantings outside the building this fall, after the hot
weather is over. Some funding is
available from Knowlton-Risteen maintenance funds, and I have offered to find
additional funding from the Library budget if needed.
Comparison of Upton Library Facilities
I mentioned at our
last meeting that Upton Library’s facilities are among the smallest and oldest
in the state. Based on information in
the 2013 Public Library data collected by the MBLC, I found the following statistics:
In our population
group (5,000 to 9,999 residents) there are 68 municipalities.
Of those 68, Upton has the third smallest library by square
footage. We have 2,290, Sutton has 2,000
and Freetown has 1,710.
The largest library
in our pop. group is Brewster, with a 22,000 square foot library, about 10
times the size of Upton’s.
If we include the 55
additional municipalities in the next smaller population group (2,000 to 4,999
residents), there are only 13 more which have smaller libraries than Upton.
Of the 68
municipalities in our population group, Upton
has the second oldest library facility.
Upton Library was built in 1876 and renovated in 1972. The only older library in our group is
Hadley, built in 1902 and renovated in 1920.
Just above us is Salisbury, built in
1956 and renovated in 1972. (renovations
in this case refer to significant structural changes, not cosmetic improvements
such as new carpet and paint.)
If we include the 55
additional municipalities in the next smaller population group, there are only
3 more which have older library buildings than Upton.
Across the entire
state, including all population groups, only 20 municipalities have older
libraries than Upton.
There are only 10 public
libraries in the state which are both older and smaller than Upton Town
Library. All of those are in towns with
population under 5,000, and 8 of them are in towns with population under 2,000.
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