January 5, 2026 Librarian’s report
Personnel – Gretchen continues to settle in to her job. She has come up with some great programming ideas this past year. The Children’s Room is a very welcoming space.
4th Quarter programs –Farm 2 Library ended after October with numbers continuing to show the popularity of the program. The Food Angel program is continuing on a sporadic basis. Story time did fairly well. Gretchen has made the last Friday of the month into a family story time with an after-school start time so that older siblings can attend. In October we kicked off the Big Read with an author talk with Mary Roach that was followed a few days later with a book discussion of Fuzz. We handed out brochures about the Knox Trail. In November we set up displays about the American Revolution in anticipation of Ken Burns new documentary and won $200 from WMHT for our work. In December we had a hometown holidays story and craft that was well attended. Thanks to Mo we had lights and fun decorations outside and thanks to Kari we had a lovely wreath on the door. Our Big Read painting program kicked off and will continue until the paintings are done. We hosted an emergency preparedness program run by members of the National Guard that was very good. We will repeat that program next year to reach more people.
Upcoming programs – Story Time resumes January 16. January’s theme is Flashback Fridays with retro books and crafts. February’s theme is Folktales All Around the World, and the Korean Day will feature K-pop Demon Hunters. Bring Your Child to the Library Day is February 7. March will be Fairy Tales. Planning has begun for the Summer Reading Program. For Adult programming the Big Read Creative Writing starts January 22. The Painting Workshop started in December and both will continue till spring. If the creative writing proves to be popular we may make that a continuing program after the grant is over.
SALS & Directors’ Council – SALS new director Kim Bolan visited our library and met with Franklin and me. The annual report software comes from Baker & Taylor – no word yet on what NYS will do about the report. There is a possibility of doing a program or workshop in conjunction with the Eric Carle Museum. The organization We Are Instrumental collects musical instruments and distributes them to local school music programs. SALS would like to partner with them and have interested libraries be drop locations (pianos and drum kits are not part of this.) If the board is interested I will check with Jack.
Joint Automation Council / computers –SALS and JA are working on Vega Discover, a new web catalog for patrons. It is similar to the current “classic” catalog but with updates and accessibility features.
Friends – The annual book sale will take place July 25.
Maintenance –Allerdice fixed our cracked window and it made an immediate difference.
Other – The Tax Cap report was filed with the notice that we will be going above the tax cap to cover our budget gap. We will be asking for $89,500 through the CCS budget proposition. This number can be brought to the school at any time.
Accident report. Incident report.
Meetings attended in 4th quarter of 2025:
- 10/9 Rural Libraries Mtg
- 10/21 Directors Council
- 10/28 webinar
- 10/29 JA OP committee mtg at SALS
- 11/20 JA OP virtual mtg
- 12/4 mtg with Kim Bolan at CFL