April 7, 2025 Librarian’s report
Personnel – Gretchen has almost finished her first year with us. April 15 will start her second year and at that point she will be eligible for time off as noted in the Employee Handbook. Gretchen has been doing a fine job, especially with children’s programming. Jane Kribs continues to be a big help during her weekly volunteer hours. I just received the application from Saratoga County regarding the summer workforce program.
1st Quarter programs – We have had steady attendance at Story Time. There were 10 sessions through the middle of March. In February we had 2 programs on Take Your Child to the Library Day. In March we had an adult craft program. We have had some Food Angel activity this quarter, though there have not been as many food donations from them.
Upcoming programs – Story Time resumes in April and will run through mid-June, Farm 2 Library resumes April 3 and will run through the end of October. For Earth Day we will have an Aromatherapy craft, Rachel Clothier will give a talk on the history of Corinth’s schools on April 29. We have school visits lined up in May and June – some here and some at the school, there is a community night at the elementary school on May 20 (the day of the school budget vote), and the Summer Reading Program will kick off June 30.
SALS & Directors’ Council – The SALS Annual meeting is Monday May 19,2025 from 5-9 at Saratoga National Golf Course. Reservation deadline Friday May 2. I have spent time advocating for libraries. I encourage you to do this as well. The loss of Federal funding for libraries will affect us in a trickle down manner. We only receive about $1100 in Federal aid; however, the New York State Library and Library Development will take a big cut and that will affect us as less money comes from the State to SALS. Whatever hits SALS takes will be a big blow to us and we will lose services.
Joint Automation Council / computers – Microsoft is sundowning Publisher and it will not be on any new PCs. There has not been a group computer order yet this year. As of April 15 MFA will be required to log into all user accounts – we are all set here. The Polaris circulation system is getting an upgrade on April 22. JA has prepared a written overview of the JA fee structure.
This can be found on the JA Council website at the top of the Financial and Budgets – Current page at https://jacouncil.sals.edu/10-2/financials-and-budgets/.
Friends – The annual book sale will take place July 26.
Maintenance – We have set up dates for window cleaning, front porch cleaning, and rug cleaning within the next two months. We had phone problems in March with no service for a few days; then a week or so later no service again. The two issues were related and are (hopefully) fixed. Our new electric meter was installed; it would probably be a good idea to set up our account online.
Other – Our annual report was accepted by the state. The United Way is sponsoring the Dolly Parton Library in our area. There are items available for your folders if you don’t already have them.
The School Budget Vote is on Tuesday May 20; don’t forget to support our proposition.
Meetings attended in 1st quarter of 2025:
- 1/16 Ann Rep Webinar 1/28 CDLC webinar
- 2/3 webinar (Gretchen) 2/4 workshop (Gretchen)
- 2/6 zoom w/ Senator Tedisco 2/10 webinar (Gretchen)
- 2/11 webinar (Gretchen) 2/25 workshop (Gretchen)
- 3/8 webinar (Gretchen) 3/11 workshop (Gretchen)
- 3/12 webinar 3/20 webinar
- 3/26 zoom – directors council