1994-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Partnership grant. I continue to serve as the Town's the Cape and Islands. Falmouth would search loca- Local Water Resource Management official, on the tions and make the requests to the owning libraries on Resource Protection Subcommittee of the Waquoit behalf of all the libraries. Due to the volume of Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and as the requests, this process was not particularly fast. Being Town's representative on the steering committee able to make direct requests has dramatically short- developing the "Cape Cod Pathways" county-wide ened the time it takes to receive items. on average, network of recreational trails. I have been working most direct interlibrary loan requests are now received with the Cape Cod Commission in securing regulatory in about one week. "pre-screening" of the Mashpee Industrial Park to encourage new businesses that will provide jobs and A second circulation terminal was added in January increased tax base to the town. I was also called to tes- to deal with the heavy volume of circulation transac- tify on behalf of the Town in a number of Land Court tions: The first six months of membership fees for this cases. terminal, as well as two new laser scanners, were pard for by the Friends of the Mashpee Library. The new On a personal level, my wife and I Were overjoyed terminal is used primarily for library card registra- by the birth of a daughter, Ayla, on May 17. While I tions, overdue fine transactions and discharging must admit that she has added to my personal work- returned materials. During peak volume times, it is load, she has also helped reinforce my conviction that also used as a charging station to shorten the amount what we do here, planning for a brighter future for of time patrons have to wait to check out. Mashpee and our children,is worth all the effort. With that thought in mind, and with the support and encour- Circulation increase 9%n over 1993, with 72,151 agement the Department has continued to receive from items charged out to patrons. The number of people Mashpee residents, we look forward to the task. using the library also increased to 48,352; a 7% increase over the previous year. The new schedule has Respectfully submitted, been positively received. Staying open until 5 p.m. on ' Mondays and Wednesdays has allowed more time for F. Thomas Fudala school aged children and working adults to make use Town Manner g g of the library. The numbers of people using the new hours has been very noticeable. k 3; With an eye towards improving library services,the F; Board of Trustees and the Library Director prepared a Report of the long range plan of library services which was p approved by the Trustees before submission to the Mashpee Publie LibraryMassachusetts Board of Librar Commissioners. All y public libraries are now required to have an approved plan on file with the MBLC before being certified for To the Honorable Board of Selectmen state-or federal rants.The plan covers the ears 1995- and the citizens of Mashpee: g p y p 1997 and will be monitored, evaluated and updated The library has completed its first full year of cir- yearly. culation using the CLAMS automated system. Automation has improved patron access to library The library has had a magazine index on CD-ROM materials and information, made charging and dis- on loan for several months. Patrons are able to look up charging materials more efficient and has enabled the current topics in areas such as medicine, business and staff to provide patrons with detailed information current events and are able to print out full-text articles about which items are still out on their cards, and on many of these topics. The library and its users have when they are due or they can provide specific title found this resource very helpful and will be looking to and return dates on items which have outstanding adding this type of technology to the library in FY overdue fine charges. 1996. In January, the library began using the Request Volunteers have continued to play an active role at module of CLAMS to electronically reserve items for the library. A number of volunteers have received patrons. Items which are out at the time of the request training to check items in and out on the computer and generate a "hold" message along with the patron's have assisted patrons unfamiliar with using the name at the time an item is returned from the previous CLAMS PAC (public access computer). The PAC patron. This feature is used for local items and for serves as an electronic card catalog and items added in materials owned by other CLAMS libraries. Formerly, the last two years are accessible only through the PAC• all non-local items had to be requested through Older items may be looked up on the PAC or card cat- Falmouth Public Library, the subregional library for alog, but availability status is available on the PAC. 94