April and May were busy months that brought lots of changes for the Jaffrey Public Library. In case any important developments slipped by without you noticing, I wanted to share and explain the happenings.
The most recent and exciting change is the arrival of our new children’s librarian, Andrea Connolly. (Our previous children’s librarian, Sheila Vanderhorst, retired in late April after many years of service to Jaffrey.) Andrea is recently returned from a year teaching English in South Korea. Prior to teaching she worked in libraries in Central Florida while completing her library degree through Florida State University. She has an insatiable love of picture books and, if kept away from storytime too long, is notorious for force-reading them to friends and family. She is an omnivorous reader but especially loves fantasy and humor. She is very excited to join the Jaffrey community and hopes you’ll share your own interests with her.
You’ll have a chance to talk with Andrea soon at a public open house the library trustees and staff are holding for her on Wednesday, June 8. Stop by the children’s room between 2:30 and 4:30 to chat with Andrea and enjoy some goodies!
Another major change at the library, a much sadder one, is that the library had to reduce its hours. We made this change on April 1, and the transition fortunately has not inconvenienced many of our patrons. Of course, creating barriers to using the library for even one patron is a problem in our eyes.
So why did we cut back our hours?
Jaffrey’s Budget Committee had a commendable commitment to reducing the tax burden on citizens, but in order to do so, the Committee asked town departments to cut their 2016 budgets by 5 percent.
To meet the 2015 budget, I had already cut nonessential spending, comparison shopped for vendors, and pared back staff hours, so meeting the additional budget-cut target we were given for 2016 was difficult. We pared back in various additional areas of our budget, including new items, programs, staff development, utilities, and more. Unfortunately, to meet the 5 percent cut given to us, we had to cut most heavily in our largest line item: staff expenses. The director and board of trustees spent many hours working on various scenarios for staff hours and schedules. In the end, we had to cut back by one staff position in order to stay within our reduced budget, and the only way to keep the library running with reduced staff support was to cut back our open hours.
Saturday has been, on average, the least busy day of the week at the library, so we opted to close on Saturdays (and extend the schedule an hour later on Fridays) in order to minimize the impact on our patrons.
The very end of the days on Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually almost empty, so we also were able to cut back then without affecting too many people.
We library staffers pride ourselves on our dedication to providing the best service possible to the people of Jaffrey, so like you we are sad that we have had to shorten our schedule. If you have additional concerns about the hours changes, feel free to contact me at lfeil@townofjaffrey.com.
And if you’d like to help the library restore its hours in the future, you can participate in the budget planning process that will start this fall. The Budget Committee accepts public input on the budget, and listens to feedback on what people consider to be worth funding.
On a more positive note, the remaining change at the library has been a good one for staff and patrons. In order to make the most efficient use of our remaining staff hours, we migrated to a new library catalog, Biblionix’s Apollo. Behind the scenes, it will take over many tasks for staff, freeing up their time to cover the desks and provide more service to the public. The catalog is also very user-friendly and attractive on the patron side. Please visit us at jaffrey.biblionix.com/catalog/ to get a look at our new catalog and see how it works—and don’t forget to add it to your list of bookmarks or favorites! Every week or two we’ll publicize a new feature of the catalog.
This week, we hope you’ll like the new catalog’s home page and the “Most Popular” and “What’s New” lists there. These make it very easy to see what Jaffrey is reading and find out about new arrivals.
More changes are coming in the near future, too. Summer reading is coming soon, starting on Monday, June 27. As was the case the past two summers, adults and teens will also be participating. But we’re adding a new category this year to give even more people a chance to participate—keep your eyes peeled for forthcoming publicity! The theme this year is fitness and health, so expect related programs and prizes.
You’ll also see some variation in our physical layout as we move things around to find a flow that works better for you and allows you to find items more easily.
We always have new movies, audiobooks, and print books of all descriptions for you too! Please stop by soon to check out how our new developments and let us know what you think!