Report of the Library Director for May 2014

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 4^th, 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 28^th.
Senior book group: 5 people met on May 13^th.

Thursday storytime 6 sessions, averaged 7 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 17^th 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raised over $1,000 for the Museum pass program and Circulation desk, and the Library was able to dispose of all the withdrawn items that were removed from the collection for the new shelving arrangement.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 17^th, and the Kickoff event will be a children’s theatre performance at Nipmuc HS on June 24^th.

Plans for Next Month
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 5^th 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.