2003-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Mashpee Housing Authority hopes to work hiring freeze. The library tried to maintain hours and with federal, state, county, and local offices to make services for several months,but when it became appar- 2002 a successful year as we strive to provide safe, ent that the hiring freeze would last indefinitely, the decent, and affordable housing to all Mashpee resi- Library Board of Trustees made the difficult decision dents. We look forward to working together to meet to reduce hours of service at the library. It was with the challenges of the coming years and firmly believe deep regret that the Trustees reached this difficult deci- that our success will only occur through a cooperative sion. The Trustees hope to restore the Friday hours community effort. when the hiring freeze is lifted. taff: Loss of that position reduced the circulation staffing by 40 percent. Remaining staff was no longer Leila Botsford, PHM, Executive Director able to cover six days of operation,so the decision was Alice Eld, Administrative Assistant made to close on Fridays. There was no good day to Dexter Christian, Maintenance Laborer close, so the decision was made to cut a half-day to minimize the loss of hours to patrons. Fridays was a Respectfully submitted, half-day of service so cutting that day allowed the library to preserve the longer days and evening hours. David Harsch—Chairperson This allowed students and working people the oppor- E. Stuart Peoples, State Appointee, Vice-Chairperson tunity to continue to use the library most afternoons Laverne Williams - Treasurer and two evenings. It was also hoped the situation Dan Homeyer would be temporary and that the hiring freeze would David Harsch be lifted before.year's end. Unfortunately, the year Leila Botsford,Executive Director ended with no change in the staffing shortage. Current hours are Mondays and Wednesdays 9 am to 5 pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays noon to 8 pm and Saturdays 9 am to 1 pm. Report of the On a brighter note, the library has completed its Library first year on the new Millennium software. Staff has adjusted well to the changes and appreciates how much more they are able to do with this windows- To the Honorable Board of Selectmen based software. It is now possible to provide patrons and the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee with printed receipts of titles of items they have out as well as the dates they are due back. The library staff Circulation for FY 2003 totaled 105,434 items. can place requests on the patron's record without hav- The library had 5,808 registered cardholders and 4,078 ing to go into a separate function.This eliminates steps people attended library programs. During the year, and makes the process easier and faster. Under 63,995 patrons visited the library to make use of its Millennium, libraries can easily transfer a request to services. This was the first year that circulation another library's available item if the local item is out declined, largely due to a reduction in hours. The or missing. Libraries can generate lists of requests library reduced hours from 41 per week to 36 hours waiting to be filled several times per day, so requests per week due to staff cuts. are filled faster. Formerly, the CLAMS office gener- ated a list of requested items once a day. This system A portion of the decline was also due to length- created a one-day delay before libraries were aware of ening the time period patrons could keep videos from an outstanding request. The new request system gets two days to one week.The shorter time period allowed many items into the delivery stream the same day they more circulations of the same title, but library patrons are requested so patrons receive out-of-town items had requested a longer loan period because of the dif- much more quickly. frculty of viewing a film in only two days. Patron reac- tion to the longer loan period has been very positive, Customer satisfaction has been very high with n numbers. Overall, circula- web-based but rt did affect crrculatro b s. O changes to the public online catalog. This we tion was down 7%from the same time period last year. catalog is easier to use and patrons with personal com- puters with access to the Internet can view the same In January, Sandra Price was promoted to screen from home. Patrons can view what items they request est Technical Services Librarian followingthe retirement renew or q have out, when they are due, and can of Gerda Sano. Mrs. Prices former position, items or use a number of online databases from the Circulation Assistant, was left unfilled because of a comfort of their homes. The library staff calls the 114