2/25/2003 BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES Minutes

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Mashpee Public Library P.O. BoK 657 Mashpee, Ilia 02649 library circulated 10,140 iters du fi ng J anuary 20 . 'phis vias 1,4.345 items more than circulated last Januar)!. The increase in the monthly circulation was 16% greater than the same time period last year. To date} the-library has circulated 72,454 sterns. At this gate the library will probably exceed 120,000 sterns for the fiscal year. In Born throw h some files I came across a CL AMS circulation report fror l ,duly 199' . The library circulated 7,046 Items that month. July is traditionally our busiest month. Less, than 10 years tater, we are doing three thou sand more iters than that in the dead o inter. Circuletion last July was almost 15,000 sterns; double what it was in July 199.3. expanded tremendously over the last few gears and nfoi unately; The workloadhas e . staffing levels have not kept pace with the workload. We have been operating with a vacancy for four months. First Debbie Umina resigned and we were short handed at the circ desk for six weeks. Next, Gerda Sano's positron was open due to her retirement. Sandy Price was promoted to fill the cataloging vacancy. We received permission to advertise to fill Sand r s full-time C1 rc Position at the Select r en meeting on January 27'11. .ids were placed and applications were received for the vacancy. The following week, the Board of Selectmen placed a hiring freeze on filling positions. David and I attended the Board of'Selectmen's meeting on February 10 to provide information on how vital filling that posi.tion i's to the library operation. The Selectmen indicated they gold like to wait until further "Into the budget process to decide about filling the position. I spoke to Jim Marr this moming to see if any decision had been reached on filling this position. ,ism told a the Selectmen decided not to fe l any positrons. not ��r over what time frarne, but Fm sure Joyce 11 provide the details at a Department Head meeting tomorrow roman .- If we are talking any length of time, I'm sin the'trustees to lool .at the hours the library"is open. Not illin this position is a huge step backwards for the library. f an distributing a fact sheet, which I preset-it ed to the hoard of Selectmen on February I01h.. I compared Mashpee Public Library to three other libraries of similar sized communities. Brewster and Harwich have libraries more than fur bines our size. I also included figures for Hyannis Public Library, which is one of the largest libraries on the Cape. Mashpee actually exceeded circulation to date of Hyannis by almost 3.000 items. Hyannis has a staffing level of I I ill-time equivalents. Brewster exceeded l ashpee circulation by abort 4,000 iters with a staffina level of 8.3full-time Harwich exceeded Mashpee's total bly about 7,500 items A,%pith a staffing level of 9 full-Mime a uivaients. At the Mart of this fiscal year, shpee-Public Library had a staffing level of 5 full-time equivalents. Not filling this position brings us down to 4 ill-time equivalents, This is a % reduction is circulation staff. We nowhave one frill-time circulation assistant and one 19-hour cl rc 9-hour- circ lation assistant. We are using a temporary person t help fill some ofthe gap when