HAZEN MEMORIAL LIBRARY

 

It is our pleasure to share with the residents of Shirley our 2016 Hazen Memorial Library Annual Report. The activities recounted in this report demonstrate the commitment of the library trustees and staff to fulfill our mission to service the community. This report is just a glimpse into the hard work of our dedicated staff and the many ways in which we are evolving the scope of our library services to better our services to our community. We encourage you to visit your town library and take advantage of all its services.

 

PROGRAMS

Some of the many programs offered in FY16 for children and families were: Mother Goose on the Loose, Preschool Story time, Mini Motions Instructional Preschool Fitness with Karyn Farnsworth, Music with Nancy, with early childhood specialist Nancy Railsback. Read to Sophie the golden lab, from the Pets and People Foundation, a pet reading program. Legos at the Library, Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade Read to Me Book Club; 2nd and 3rd grade Dr. Seuss Stem Book Club. Fairy Tale STEM book club for K through 2nd grade. Mondays with Mandy, and Science Educator Steve Lechner from The Science Works providing an enrichment series featuring creative and innovative inquiry-based science experiences for children aged 3-7. Mandy and Steve’s programs are sponsored by the Family Partnership. The 4th and 5th grade mystery science book club is funded by the Friends of the library; and the Friends sponsored a Superhero Training program with Jungle Jim.

Adult programs of interest included: Grieving and Healing: Journey Through Grief Support Group, and You Too? Me Too! A Saturday Morning Women's Social sponsored by Nashoba Nursing Service and Hospice; American Poodles at Work gave a demonstration of how their dogs are trained as personal assistants. Yoga classes for Seniors and Adults are held in the library and sponsored by Shirley Recreation. Science Fiction and Fantasy book club; Holiday Fair and Cookie Sale; North Central Mass Networkers, for area job-seekers; and more! These are just a few of the things you can find and do at the library. The focus groups that were held in the fall of 2015 provided some of the ideas for the programs we are working to bring to the community.

 

VOLUNTEERS

We give a heartfelt thanks to all our volunteers for their service, especially to Barbara Masiero for her many dedicated years of outstanding service to the library.

The following people and organizations donate their time and talents to further the library mission, and we thank them for all their help:

- Nashoba Nursing and Hospice for providing bereavement counseling.

- Susan Baxter who devotes so much time to beautifying the library grounds.

- Lien Fleming who volunteers in the Children’s room.

- All the generous folks who donated baskets, silent auction items, and baked hundreds of cookies for the Friends’ Holiday Fair.

- The Friends of the Library for supporting our programs and enriching our library.

 

GRANTS and DONATIONS

  1. The minimum State Aid requirement was met, and the library received $11,996.22.
  2. The library won an LSTA Grant entitled “Science Is Everywhere” to provide STEAM based science programs to students in grades 3- 6. The grant amount was $7,500.
  3. A $2,500 Small Libraries in Networks grant is applied directly to C/W Mars network fees.
  4. The library won a Boston Bruins grant and had a visit from the Bruins mascot on 7/28/15.
  5. Bemis Corporation donated $2,000 to the Friends of the Library for the 2016 Summer Reading Program.
  6. A library supporter donated a 2 year subscription to American History magazine.
  7. A local artist donated a watercolor painting to the library, and donated several more to benefit the Friends raffles throughout the year.
  8. The Shirley Charitable Foundation sponsored a live owl show.
  9. Grateful thanks to those who honor their loved ones with a memorial donation.

 

 

FY16 Circulation and Services

FY16 Circulation

Total

Direct - at the Library

55,506

Direct plus state-wide circulations

63,482

Overdrive Digital Circulation:

4,598

Total Direct Circ Activity:

60,104

Interlibrary Loans:

  

Provided to other libraries

11,627

Requested from others

5,928

Net Lender Circulations:

5,699

Visit Counts:

  

Total visits

43,763

Number of days open

244

Number of hours open

1,770

Card Holders:

  

Shirley Residents with library cards

3,189

Other Residents

472

Avg. new Cards per month

19

Copy Holdings:

  

Adult

24,222

Children

17,839

YA

1,847

Copy Total:

43,908

Copies Added:

  

Items added in FY16

3,469

Children's & YA Programs:

  

# Programs held

204

Attendance

3,136

Adult Programs:

  

# Programs held

268

Attendance

3,578

Meeting Room Uses

410


FY16 LIBRARY BUDGET AND EXPENSES

FY16 Budget

 

 

 

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY

Many popular events were again made possible in FY16 by the hard work and inspiration of our Friends. All the museum passes are paid for by the group’s fundraising efforts. The summer reading prizes, adult programs and special children’s performances such as Mini-Motions Preschool Fitness classes and live animal shows are all funded by the Friends.

The Annual Holiday Fair and cookie sale fundraiser was held in November. You can also support the Friends’ efforts through membership dues, buying books from the lobby book sale and by purchasing items from AmazonSmile.com. A percentage of each purchase benefits the Friends.

Ted Reinstein of WCVB Chronicle came to the library in April to talk about his book “Wicked Pissed: New England’s Most Famous Feuds.” If you missed this very entertaining event, look for it on local public access cable channel.

The Summer Reading Kickoff Olympics in June was great fun, and we were lucky to have perfect weather for all the outdoor activities and good food. Big thanks to Jessica Myshrall for all her hard work putting this event together.

Look for the Friends membership flyer and please consider renewing your membership, or perhaps contribute for the first time. The Friends are a 501(c)3 organization, and donations are tax-deductible. If you are looking for a rewarding volunteer experience, check the Library’s online calendar of events and come to a Friends meeting, usually on the third Thursday of the month, from September through June. Stop by the Friends’ booth at the annual Shirley Hoe-Down, (the first Saturday in June on the Common) and talk to them about volunteering and fundraising. Every library needs Friends! We are extremely grateful for ours.

 

LSTA GRANT: “SCIENCE IS EVERYWHERE”

This project allowed us to expand our children’s programming for 3rd grade through 6th grade with hands-on exploration of STEM topics. To do this we brought in 6 qualified science educators to present on the following topics: owl pellet dissection, science of the human body, cloning plants, physics of flight, and animals of the rainforest. We purchased kits from Youth Explorations in Science and held 9 different hands-on science workshops led by our youth services librarian assisted by a library aide. We set up a “STEM Maker-Space” in the children’s room, and kept a rotating assortment of building kits available at all times. We evaluated most programs at the beginning and the end, using a KWL chart method, with the expectation that there would be an increase of 25% in knowledge of the topic from start to finish.

Library materials in the STEM subject matters were added to the collection with grant funds, with the expected benefit of 5% increase in children’s circulation.

Science museum passes to the Discovery Museums in Acton, and the Boston Museum of Science were made available to the community at large with the LSTA funds. The Friends of the library partnered with us to help fund the Boston MOS pass, and the Discovery Museums offered us a half-price discount. The passes have been utilized by families with young children and those in the targeted population, thus broadening the benefits of the grant.

There were 1,079 total participants with our grant. Out of the 308 who participated in our Assessment programs, there was a formative average of 45%. This statistic helped us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our participants and formulate ways to improve their learning. The summative assessment had an average of 58% this helped to evaluate their learning after our programs were finished and resulted in an overall increase of 45% improvement in their knowledge. The entire process made a difference in these 308 participants’ experience. All participants stopped and reflected on what was discussed each session and these results show an increase in their skills and knowledge.

We were very pleased to note that the participants were equally split between boys and girls, because in our proposal we recognized the importance of reaching out to girls with exposure to science topics. We also found that the STEM maker space was more popular than we expected, with an average of 6 children each day for a total of 768 children using the materials in their own ways, without any imposed structure.

 

ENDOWMENT FUND

Early in 2016, the Trustees became aware that the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts was sponsoring a Library Matching Grant Challenge. The Community Foundation was offering to award $5,000 to the first five libraries in their 33-community service territory that raised $10,000 for a Designated Endowment Fund that would be opened at the Community Foundation. The dollars had to be raised and the Designated Fund opened by June 30, 2016, so we had less than six months to raise the $10,000 and get the grant. The Trustees talked to other libraries in our area that have Endowment Funds to find out how they were raising money. The most help came from the Townsend Library that has an Endowment Fund of over $800,000. We learned from them to create Donation Envelopes and instruction sheets for donating on line. These were created for our Library and placed on the counter for patrons to see when interacting with Library staff who didn’t hesitate to mention the Fund! The Director also posted information about the Match Challenge on the Library’s web site and the Children’s Librarian created a “thermometer” to track our progress. The effort paid off as the $10,000 was raised in about five weeks. The $5,000 Match was placed in our Fund on May 5, 2016. Patrons and businesses made donations ranging from $5 to $1,000 and the Shirley Charitable Foundation donated $1,500. With the help of a donation of over $23,500 from the sale of books donated by the Arthur Banks estate, the Fund balance is now over $44,500. Based on a distribution rate of 4.5%, the Trustees will have over $2,000 to use for additional programs to benefit Library patrons. This is in addition to any money provided by the Friends of the Hazen Library. And since this is in an endowment fund, the money will be available in perpetuity with no additional fund raising activity. Any additional donations to the Fund over the coming years will serve to increase the annual distribution.

 

STAFF

Thanks to the Hazen Memorial Library staff: Director Debra Roy, Assistant Director Sue Cusick, Youth Services Librarian Kathleen Farrar, Library Aides Carol Landers and Steven Banks, and Custodian Shirley Lanteigne, all of whom provide the best customer service possible to make our library successful and this board a pleasure on which to serve.

Behind every great community is a great library, and Shirley is fortunate to have both.

Respectfully submitted,

Debra Roy, Library Director, and

Trustees of the Hazen Memorial Library, FY16

Elizabeth Quinty, Chair

Heidi Korhonen, Vice Chair

Kathryn Lyon, Secretary

Dwight W. Smith, Treasurer

Judy Stanislaw

Charles Waite