Chrissie has already started to book performers for our Summer Reading program. Doing this early allows us to get better rates!

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1 DIRECTOR S REPORT FOR JANUARY, 2011 Submitted February 9, 2011 Circulation Department Report The front door counter: 14,304 (divided by 2 = 7152). The ILL stats are: Lent to adults: 549; to children: 208 (total: 757) + Jersey Cat lent: 19 = 776 Borrowed for adults: 282; for children: 60 (total: 342) + Jersey Cat borrowed: 20 = 362 The circ for January was 10,702. [January 2010: 11,272. January 2009: 9,044.] Note: The library was closed a total of 26 hours due to snow in January. In January, 216 items were added to the collection (159 Adult, 57 J/YA). 212 of those items were print and 4 were non-print. There were 440 total items removed from the collection. Youth Services Department Report The jar donation project carried out in December got some good press on the NJLA wiki: Congratulations to Chrissie and her hardworking teens! January weather has not been kind to storytime. We have had to cancel several children s programs due to the weather and safety concerns. All of the Book Babies classes that were cancelled will be made up, however, the other classes cannot be rescheduled due to programming already in place for the rest of the month. Chrissie visited the Middle School on January 25 th for the monthly Lunch Bunch program. It continues to amaze her how many more boys attend and are clearly more interested in the craft than the girls. Chrissie has already started to book performers for our Summer Reading program. Doing this early allows us to get better rates! Our new bookends have arrived and the old wire book supports on our children s shelves have been replaced with new, magnetic, burgundy bookends. The shelves already look much better with these sturdier supports. In February, Mary will begin participating in CJRLC s Book Evaluation Group. She will receive up to five books every other month, she will review them online, then MAPL gets to keep the reviewed books either to add to the collection or use as summer reading prizes. Program Highlights: Pinkalicious- Saturday, March AM Chinese New Year Celebration- Sunday, February 6 2PM Afterschool Storytime: Bubble Gum Tuesday, February 22 4:15PM 1

2 January Children s Programs = 26 Program Attendance = 241 January Young Adult Programs= 1 (off-site) Program Attendance = 38 Total Program Attendance = 279 January Reference questions = 109 Adult Services Department Report For the month of January, there were 383 reference questions. There were 31 programs offered for adults, with 178 attendees. There were 169 computer-related questions recorded (this number includes the one-on-one sessions on Monday evenings.) Adult Services Librarian Search A total of 56 applications were received for the Adult Services position. Ten candidates were interviewed (1 internal), and information regarding the chosen applicant will be presented to the Board during executive session. I would like to offer the position to that candidate and have that person in place by mid-to-late March. While we have been conducting the search for our new Adult Services Librarian, in one way or another, the staff has been impacted. I d like to thank everyone for pitching in and helping, in small ways and large, during this time of flux. A special notice should be made of Jeanette Walker s dedication as she took on a large number of additional hours so that we would have librarian coverage at the Adult Services desk. Thank you to Diane Meyer for her extra hours, as well! Chrissie McGovern and Laura Beyer provided invaluable feedback as we interviewed candidates, and had to modify their schedules significantly for this purpose. Friends of the Library Book donations for the Friends May book sale are pouring in! The group has very generously agreed to provide us with refreshments for our Staff Development Day on March 18, Visit from the State Librarian The January 27 th visit from the State Librarian, Norma Blake, was postponed due to the storm and was rescheduled to Monday, February 7 th at 2pm. Mrs. Blake was unable to attend, but her representative was here, as well as two of the SWAT grant project leaders. All three ladies were very pleased with the finished product and impressed with the foot traffic they witnessed. The final SWAT project report made to the state library can be viewed at AARP Tax Assistance/Request from Congressman Pallone s Office Starting on Monday, February 14, and continuing through Tuesday, April 12, Mr. Soni and his tax preparer volunteers will be at MAPL assisting patrons with their tax returns. Appointments 2

3 are available on Mondays and Tuesdays from 10am to 5pm, and can be scheduled at the circulation desk. I received a call from Brendan Hennessey from Frank Pallone s Washington office regarding the possibility of the congressman paying a visit to our library basically a public notice event where Mr. Pallone would talk about the AARP s tax services and the earned income tax credit. They re supposed to get back to me about a date. I think it would be a good opportunity for MAPL to get a little statewide press. Listen NJ As some of you may know, due to our membership in LMxAC, we are able to offer our patrons the services of Listen NJ, a provider (through Overdrive.com) of downloadable e-books and audio books. I have recently attended meetings regarding this service, and my curiosity was piqued as to how many of our patrons are actually using Listen NJ. Since these numbers do not show up in our monthly circulation statistics (they are only in the end of year report from LMxAC), I did some research and was astounded by the results. In 2010, we had 1,677 checkouts through Listen NJ. (That s an average of about 140 per month.) That may not seem like a lot, but look at what our neighbors numbers look like: Long Branch: 750; Red Bank: 450; Sayreville: 1,216; Hazlet: 734; Ocean Twp.: 948; Neptune: 10; Old Bridge: 2,513. We have achieved this level of circulation with virtually no promotion and no in-house training of the Listen NJ site. Imagine where we ll be after we market and better inform our staff! In the near future, I will be looking into purchasing a small number of e-readers to make available to our patrons. I have already done some research and will probably go with the Barnes & Noble Nook (retail $149-$249), which is compatible with Listen NJ, and allows for shared copies of books purchased by our library. Several other libraries have already started circulating e-readers and I will be looking at what worked (or didn t) for them before going down that path at MAPL. I foresee e-reader training sessions for patrons and tutorials for staff being necessary, but this is the way of the 21 st century library and we need to keep up to stay relevant. Through Listen NJ, we are also able to take part in the Overdrive Advantage program, where we can purchase additional e-books and audio books that would only be available to our card holders books that may have very long holds lists through Listen NJ or are of specific interest to our community. There is a one-time set-up fee of $500 to enroll in the program, and we would be required to pay a $500 deposit that would be used for content, but going forward, this may be an area where we can bulk up our collection without needing additional shelf space. As 3

4 the interest in e-books increases and more and more patrons purchase the devices, this kind of shift in collection development will be necessary. MAPL is now on Twitter! MAPL can now be followed on Twitter (just click the Twitter icon on our webpage to get started). This will serve as an additional means to disseminate information to our patrons and the larger community. Notices like snow delays and information regarding programs and services will be posted on both Twitter and Facebook simultaneously and may better serve to reach our teen population as well as patrons in their 20s and 30s who might not frequent the library as much as we d like. We will use these tools to promote electronic resources and e-books especially. New Copier/Printing Solutions After continuing my research and asking the questions posed by members of the board at the last meeting, I would like to recommend that we go with Superior Office Systems of Edison to lease the two new copy machines. I did look into Xact as was requested, but the company has moved out of our area (to Robbinsville) and they represent Kyocera machines, which received a poor rating from two of the libraries I polled. I eliminated Xerox from the running, based on the significantly larger price tag for seemingly the same level of machine/service. I am including our current lease information below for purposes of comparison: $70/per month for lease of two machines and coin only unit [b&w, no special features]; $0.02 per copy for paper/service; Approx. $1500 to buy out contract (contract ends 10/15/12); Still no information provided regarding new machines despite many requests. Superior Office Systems, Inc. 60 month lease through Canon Financial services would be $241.57/month for lease of one Canon irc Advanced 2030 color copier with document feeder, and one Canon ir 2525 black and white copier. [48 month lease: $289.17/month; 36 month lease: $352.24/month] Both machines will be equipped with the following: sheet main paper cassettes (Canon ir 2525); sheet and sheet paper cassettes (Canon irca 2030); Duplex copy; Electronic sorting; Zoom 25%-400%; Network printing; Coin and bill vending. Service for the machines would be $.02 for B/W copies, including paper. Color copies would be billed at $.085 for color copies, including paper. The lease price is slightly higher than the previous quote due to a change in machine model (the one originally quoted was discontinued by Canon and has been replaced by a newer model). The 4

5 price includes the buyout of our current lease agreement and delivery of the old machines to the return destination (as long as that location is within 60 miles of Edison, NJ). Confirmation of that fact is to be determined before signing the new lease. Superior works with the following other libraries: Edison, South Plainfield, North Brunswick, Metuchen, Old Bridge, Hillsborough, and Morris County College. The five libraries (underlined) that responded to my inquiry regarding their satisfaction with Superior all had good things to say about response time, quality/reliability of the equipment, and friendliness of the repair personnel. Superior claims that their response time averages less than four hours, and the libraries I spoke with confirmed this. Additional information: Consumer Reports does not evaluate office equipment, but overall, the reaction I read on the web regarding Canon copiers was positive. Other libraries that I spoke to informally said that they are satisfied with their Canon machines. In their promotional materials, Canon claims to have held the number one spot in copier market share for the last 12 years. Once the new copiers are in place, I would like to make the following changes: Continue to charge $.15 cents per black and white copy/print, but charge $.35 cents per color copy/print. We will need to do away with the visitors passes as there will be no printing privileges associated with those numbers. I would like to institute an Internet-only card for visitors. All visitors (anyone from outside of M-A who does not have a MAPL card) will need to show ID, and fill out an application. In turn, they will be issued an Internet-only card. With this card, they may use the computer for 90 minutes, they may add money to their card to print, but they will not have any borrowing privileges. This will help cut down on the abuse of visitors passes (people who repeatedly forget their card or are blocked due to fines, people who ask for and receive multiple passes because they wait for staff changes, etc.) Board action requested. Staff Development In early January, I attended the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, California. While one purpose for my trip was to complete my committee obligations, I also spent time in the exhibit hall speaking with various vendors and publishers, and I attended an informational luncheon provided by Ebsco (a large database provider) regarding new services they are launching this year. My participation in the Great Graphic Novels committee has rendered a large number of books (worth several hundred dollars) that will be donated to MAPL. Webinars are the way of the future as far as professional development is concerned and we will be taking advantage of the many FREE webinar opportunities that are offered by the State Library and LibraryLinkNJ. 5

6 I was scheduled to attend a webinar on New Technologies for Librarians and Libraries on Thursday, 1/27, however, because of our closing due to snow, I will need to read the transcripts and view the slides after the fact. I am registered to participate in a series of four webinars pertaining to marketing that I feel will be especially beneficial. From the promotional materials: The New Jersey State Library is pleased to bring an innovative marketing webcast series to our library community. We are partnering with OrangeBoy, Inc. to offer a four-part marketing series to provide hands-on guidance to acquire new cardholders, meet cardholder and community needs, and align services and programs with mission-critical goals. In this era of belt-tightening and decreased resources, the workshops will identify ways we can use marketing techniques to strengthen our value to the communities we serve. Each of the four webinars is two hours in length and will be presented once a month (February-May). The benefit of these webinars (besides the fact that they are free) is that I can participate from my office so I am available if needed and don t waste any time or money on travel. Our Youth Services Intern, Flora Kim, attended a webinar on one of the electronic resources we receive from the state: Novelist. She feels that the webinar was helpful in teaching her about the tool, and Flora will be presenting information to the other staff members about this resource at our staff development day on March 18. Laura Beyer will be participating in the Super Supervisors series of workshops provided by the State Library this spring. This is a wonderful opportunity for Laura as these workshops are conducted by superstars in the library world, and much valuable information will be gained. The cost of these workshops has been lowered to $199 (from $250) due to the budget cuts that so many libraries have suffered. Laura will also be attending a two-hour workshop at the LMxAC offices next week called An Introduction to Inventory. As far as I know, a complete inventory of the collection has never been done and it is absolutely necessary to successful collection development. Laura will bring back the instructions, and I am hopeful that in the next several months, we can embark on a large-scale inventory of all materials. I continually make staff members aware of webinar offerings (and other professional development workshops) and hope that they will be able to benefit from these opportunities. National Library Week: April 10-16, 2011 NJLA and the State Library want to do a big push this spring for a coordinated marketing initiative promoting National Library Week. LMxAC is gathering information from its libraries to forward to Nancy Dowd and Gary Cooper at the NJ State Library who will then develop a press release and send it to their media contacts promoting this year s theme of CREATE YOUR OWN STORY@YOUR LIBRARY. 6

7 MAPL should be part of this marketing initiative! My idea is to ask patrons to speak to what they love about their library (on camera), then the resulting video will be included in a PSA of the library. We will look to include patrons of all ages as well as interested staff and Board members. We will set up filming times that correspond with the end of a storytime or a senior movie or other program, and Curtis (computer tech assistant) will be the director/filmographer. He and I will work together to edit the finished product that we will then post on YouTube (and link to from our website and Facebook page). We will have a screening at the Library at the end of National Library Week so people can see the PSA, at which time we ll market the library s programs and services. We ll also see if the local TV station would be willing to run the PSA. A photo release form will be used with all participants so that we have permission on file from everyone involved. Taking Steps for Literacy Walk Literacy Programs of New Jersey is sponsoring their 4 th annual Taking Steps for Literacy walk on the morning of Sunday, May 1 st, 2011, and I have recently met with Maria Nelson, their Special Events Coordinator, to discuss how MAPL can be involved. Many staff members are interested in participating and I would like to reach out to the Friends, the Board, and the community to participate in this fun event as well. There is no cost to the library to register a group, and while there is no set minimum, each walker is asked to set a goal of $100. Donations can be made online or at the library. I would like to put out a coin jar for patrons to donate their loose change and post signs in the library, and notices on the website and Facebook. I will be asking the Friends if they could subsidize team tee shirts for the event, and staff members families and friends would also be able to join the group. This would be a wonderful teambuilding experience for staff. The money earned from the walk goes directly to support literacy programs across the state. The mission of Literacy Programs of New Jersey (LPNJ) is to enable adult native speakers of English, and those whose native language is not English, to acquire the necessary basic skills in reading, speaking, and writing English, thereby empowering them to participate more fully in the daily tasks of family, school, job, and community. Action plan for February/March: Hire/train new Adult Services Librarian Finalize transfer paperwork (working with Board members) Work on Annual NJ Library Survey (Due 4/4/11) Continue research into library policies Replace copier machines, work with LMxAC and SAM to install new printing system Continue research into e-readers and Overdrive Advantage program Meet with Stew from Library Interiors to begin plans for capital improvements Respectfully submitted by Kimberly Paone, Library Director. 7