The Town of Lincoln, MA - Library Trustees

Main issue is the proposed book drop at the Mall. In the past, the old book drop box was often used as a trash bin and if it were placed curbside, it might cause traffic jams. If it were at the Mall, there are the questions of the cost to purchase and installation cost of the drop, and whether the money would be better spent on other library projects. Also, there is the problem of patrons leaving books outside the bin in inclement weather if the box is full. If it is located at the Mall, who would pick up the books to deliver them to the Library? It would not be convenient for current staff. It might discourage people from coming to the Library.

Medicare issue for employees. There was a discussion about whether those employees eligible for Medicare should have that as their insurance, with the town contributing toward medigap coverage. The Library does not pay for our employees insurance out of our budget; the Town includes our employees on the town plan. This then becomes a Town decision, not a Library decision.

Long Range Planning. Running 2-3 months behind. Revisions are being worked on. The goal is to present at Town Meeting, but not for a vote. After final edits and completion of the work, it is intended to have a special Town Meeting in June at which time the MP document can be voted on.

The Friends met on December 2. Barbara Low reported that the November book sale rose over $900. We spoke about the events scheduled for Winter Carnival. The Friends would like the library to host another Mystery Tea during Winter Carnival. The Friends also thought it would be a good idea to start a group for people who are unemployed and looking for work. A committee was assigned to develop this idea into a new library program. Ellen and I were volunteered for this committee. A committee was also formed to work on the staff kitchen upgrade project. New cupboards will be installed to store the Friends’ china and kitchenware.

The Friday morning book group met on December 5 and discussed Bones of the Master by George Crane. They met again on December 15 and discussed Miami, It’s Murder by Edna Buchanan. The Write Stuff met on December 3. Holiday books are the theme of this month’s book display in the lobby. Classic Jazz met on December 10 with Peter Gerler presenting, “Early Rags, Jug Bands, and Blues.” The Photoshare Group met on December 3. Amurta Mudamire is displaying her portraits in the gallery. In the Stay-Put-Gallery is an exhibit of photographs from the “What’s in Your Backyard” juried competition of photographs of Lincoln wildlife taken by Lincoln residents. This exhibit was sponsored by a grant from the Lincoln Cultural Council, a local agency which is part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The programs and book discussion groups in the Children’s Department are winding down for the winter break. Dana is preparing crafts for the December craft week. She is using recycled paper to make owls for children to decorate. Jane and Amy gave storytimes at the Lincoln Preschool and Magic Garden. The staff is already scheduling programs for summer 2009! As soon as they learned that the theme for the summer reading program is “Starship @ Your Library,” they started planning summer programs. Booking events early is one of the ways that the staff plans an exciting summer of events.

Reference staff answered least 251 questions in November, compared to last year’s 265 questions. Jeanne was on vacation for more than half of the month, which at least partially explains the drop in the number of questions answered. She has found that she is able to answer most local history questions despite the limited resources due to construction. Jeanne also went to a demonstration of Overdrive at Minuteman Library Network’s central site on December 4. Overdrive allows patrons to download audio books to their iPods and MP3 players.

The Archives Working Group met on December 10. Jeanne, Marie, Susan Brooks and I reviewed the November 20 TAAC meeting and assigned tasks to everyone. At the next TAAC meeting we will have the Collection Development Policy, the Lay of the Land Survey, and Gift Policy ready for their final comments. We are also working on a mission statement for the Town Archives.

Peter Sugar and I met with the Community Preservation Committee on December 9 and discussed the next phase of the fire suppression project. We learned that there is greater competition this year for community preservation money than in the recent past and the match from the state is reduced from the 100% it was in past years. Peter and I tried to convince the Community Preservation Committee to keep this project moving forward and fund phase two of the project.

I presented the library’s three FY10 budget options (base, level service, and preferred) at the Budget Workshop on December 3. The difference between the base budget and preferred budget is $11,974.13. To achieve the base budget guideline of a 2.5% increase over the FY09 budget, the interns and ten Sundays were cut. It would cost approximately $5,000 to fund the ten Sundays and $4,000 to fund the interns. No decisions are made at this budget workshop. At the second budget workshop on January 13 the Finance Committee will finalize its decisions.

On December 3 I attended a course at NELINET about digitizing collections so they can become part of the Digital Commonwealth. There are two ways to make digital collections available through the Digital Commonwealth. One way is to have a URL on the Digital Commonwealth’s web site to your digital collections. The second way is to store your digital collections on the Digital Commonwealth’s web site. This second option seems the best option for Lincoln because staff from the Digital Commonwealth would take care of all of the technical details while we focus on our core library activities. For example, library staff would catalog the digitized images by encoding the metadata.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) have initiated a pilot project with emergency management and the library community to locate Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) in libraries. I attended a workshop about this new partnership on December 8 for emergency management directors and library directors. The thinking behind this partnership is to pre-survey libraries so they can be better utilized as DRCs when required by a Governor/Presidential declaration. In general residents know where their libraries are located so putting a DRC in a library makes the process somewhat easier for residents. Library staff will be trained to help get DRCs started and help residents apply for FEMA funding. Information about federal, state and non-profit organizations will be kept on hand at these libraries. MEMA staff will make site visits to libraries located in Middlesex County in January.

On December 11 I attended a meeting at Town Offices with Tim Higgins, Anita Scheipers, Lieutenant Kevin Kennedy (Lincoln Police Department), Pam Alberts (Council on Aging) and Dan Pereira (Recreation Department) where we discussed how our departments use CORIs (Criminal Offender Record Information). The Recreation Department makes the most CORI checks because they have summer programs for children that are led by many new staff members. These jobs only last for the summer and every employee must submit to a CORI check. The Lincoln Schools also CORI check their staff and volunteers.

Some of the library staff were CORIed when we were working on a joint project with the schools but a CORI check is not a condition of employment. Rand Refrigeri suggested that the library CORI the construction workers on the fire suppression project but by the time I qualified to ask for CORIs about other people, the fire suppression project was over. Going forward, it makes sense for the library to CORI check all staff and volunteers who have unsupervised access to children.

The carpet installation was completed on March 25. There is a flaw in the carpet color. Specifically, there is a yellow stripe on the edge of many of the carpet tiles. The library would like to replace the carpet. Mike Utley of Milliken told me on October 23 that the carpet would ship next week and that Milliken’s warranty crew would do the installation. He told me that the library would not be charged for either the carpet or the installation. To date we have not received the replacement carpet and we have not heard from Milliken about an installation date.

Another problem is that scratches were made in the lobby floor when the carpet was delivered. Karle Packard received a price quote of $21,000 from DePaoli Mosaic Company for the replacement of 20 tiles in the lobby and Link areas.

Healthy Air Solutions (HAS) has completed this project but the new dampers did not pass at the yearly elevator inspection. The dampers are supposed to open when the fire alarm horns and lights turn on. According to HAS, Norel Service Inc. bypassed the horns and lights during testing because the library was open. They did not want to cause a disturbance. The elevator inspection is scheduled for December 24 at 8 a.m. before the library opens so the horns and lights can be activated without disturbing patrons.

The steel support beams are in fabrication now. The air conditioning units are on order. On December 4 Dan Clifford from Systematics, Inc. worked with staff from K&S Builders to determine how level the vault floor is. They found that it is ¼ inch out of level from back to front. This means that the rails for the shelving can be installed in the vault floor. A new floor does not need to be installed. This is good news because it would have cost over $3,000 to install a floor in the new vault.

Sally Kindleberger, a tax write off worker, gets kudos this month for working with the Children’s Department staff to plan and give two special events: the teddy bear party and a fairy magic program.