Apr 11, 2022 Librarian’s report
Personnel – We have applied to Saratoga County Employment and Training to again be part of the Summer Youth Employment program this year. Our volunteer Jane will begin helping out on a more regular schedule this year. Annual anti-harassment training for staff and volunteers is being set up through SALS – this is a cost savings to us and will be about $17.73 per training (so about $53.19). This is virtual and usually must be completed in May. The NYLA organizational renewals were taken care of and we will receive that bill at a later date ($150).
1st Quarter programs –We had two month-long craft kit take & make programs. The King School brought a class for a library introduction and story. For Take Your Child to the Library Day in February we had a book give-away and a special craft take & make give-away. The craft kits are quite popular with all or most being picked up.
Upcoming programs – We have ordered and received an air purifier for the Children’s Room so we will begin using that space for small programs again. Farm2Library – starts up April 7. Rockwell Falls is unable to alternate pickups with us this year. Maybe we can find a volunteer who would be able to fill in occasionally. We are participating with Saratoga County Department of Aging & Youth and SALS to celebrate National Youth Month with a reading challenge. Participants will receive a free prize when handing in a completed entry form. Readers can do up to 4 challenges (1 per week) and get up to 4 prizes. Prizes are supplied by Saratoga County. We are working on plans for Summer Programing and Michael hopes to do some outreach to the nursery schools and the elementary school this quarter as a warm up to that.
SALS & Directors’ Council –Patron self-registration is now live. Jack from SALS is working on a link to go from our website to the form. Basically, people can sign up for a library card online and start using it right away for Overdrive (but not Kanopy). They have to complete the process by coming in to the library for a physical card that will allow them full access. They have 60 days to do that; after that time their account is closed if they don’t follow through. Jack is also working on increasing accessibility for our websites. I’ve volunteered to be on the Central Library Advisory Committee. This is new and will help Crandall Library allocate NYS central library aid; it will meet quarterly. SALS has some new personnel that are replacing retirees. The SALS annual meeting will be virtual again this year. It is scheduled for Monday May16.
Joint Automation Council / computers – The first group computer order is going out this month. I have ordered our usual 2 PCs (these are now all mini pcs), 1 monitor, and stands for the minis. These replace older pcs that are no longer being supported by JA. At $1709 this is under our budget of $2000. These will hopefully arrive by this summer. Polaris (our circulation system) is migrating to a new host server 4/26/21. JA also has some new staff replacing retirees.
Friends – We are still not taking book donations right now. The goal is to resume taking donations after the summer sale. We will need to actively recruit people to the Friends to help with the sale. The Book Sale will be scheduled for Saturday July 30. There is a high likelihood of a small sale during the Fall Festival (if there is one this year) and a children’s book giveaway again during the Hometown Holidays.
Maintenance – The front porch will be cleaned on Friday April 22 at 7am. Windows will be cleaned on May 12. The rug will be cleaned on May 11. We didn’t do any preventative maintenance on the air conditioner last year so we should probably schedule that this year. We may also want to get the elevator serviced.
Meetings attended in first quarter 2022 (all were virtual):
- 1/13 workshop
- 1/19 Director’s Council
- 2/10 SALS workshop
- 2/11 Director’s Council
- 2/16 SRP workshop (Michael)
- 3/11 workshop
- 3/18 Youth programing meeting (Michael)
- 3/23 Director’s Council