MLSC New Hours

Based on the results of a recent survey, the Middletown Library Service Center (MLSC) is supplementing its regularly scheduled hours. On an ongoing basis, MLSC’s regular hours will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

In order to accommodate as many people as possible, we are going to try the following new hours as a pilot April through September:

·             Opening at 7 a.m. on the first Wednesday of the month
·             Staying open until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month
·             Opening from 9 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of the month

April hours will be:
Open 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 1 (the first Saturday of the month)
Open 7 a.m. to 4:30 on Wednesday, April 5 (the first Wednesday of the month)
Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 (the first Thursday of the month)

Don’t want to take the time to browse our shelves? Tell us what you’d like and we will pull the material in advance and have it ready for you to pick it up.

Questions?
Contact us at 860-704-2200.
Contact Linda Williams ( [email protected] ) for specific theme/grade level requests.
Contact Grace Burchard ( [email protected]) to reserve book sets.
Contact Grace or Judy Crooks ( [email protected]) to pull children’s books or Books on CD in advance of your visit.

 

Important Information Regarding borrowIT CT  

1.  borrowIT CT (formerly Connecticard) funding was reduced from  $837,540 in FY2016 to $781,820 in FY2017. 

2.  2016-2017 borrowIT CT Lending and Payments.  Public libraries lent  3,763,472 items to non-residents during the 2016-2017 year (which ended with February).  Payments should go out to libraries within the next few weeks.   

3.  Your Library’s Statistics.  For information on your library’s Payment, Loans, Borrows, and Net-Plus Loans, go to: http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/ccard/statistics 

4.  Reporting borrowIT CT Loans in 2017-2018.  Download an Excel report form which you will then send to me after the borrowIT year ends next February.  Download that form here: http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/ccard/report 

5.  Required Expenditure Report.  Libraries must report now how they spent the payment they received last year in April 2016.  Most libraries have already spent this money, so please go to this survey form and submit your figures:   http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CCardExpReport

You do not need to submit a paper form.   

Thanks for your library’s participation in borrowIT CT.  Contact Tom Newman for more information.

 

Money Smart Week®  is an initiative to promote personal financial literacy.  The American Library Association is in its 7th year partnering with the Federal Reserve Bank to work with libraries to promote this initiative.  Money Smart Week is April 22 - 29, 2017.

Many Connecticut libraries have participated in Money Smart Week over these past years and have provided great programming during that week for kids through older adults.  Libraries can register at ALA's Money Smart Week web site to be included in the initiative for 2017.  Promotional materials and resources are available from the ALA Money Smart site.

Please contact Gail Hurley to let us know what events you have planned during that week.  Thank you.

For more information about Financial literacy resources and Money Smart Week, visit our Financial Literacy libguide.

The eResource Advisory Task Force met on March 16.  After a training webinar in late March, members of the Task Force will be making OneClickdigital title selection recommendations directly in Recorded Books.

requestIT CT Pilot Project

On Wednesday, April 12 a group of libraries will begin a pilot of requestIT CT. requestIT CT is the Interlibrary Loan module of findIT CT, the statewide library catalog. The pilot will test the basic requestIT system which allows staff members to place ILL requests on behalf of patrons. If all goes well with the pilot project, we will roll out the basic requestIT CT system to all interested libraries starting in June and continuing through the summer.

Children's & YA Services  

In collaboration with the YA Section of CLA, we are bringing nationally known speaker, Linda Braun to Connecticut for an all day workshop on Design Thinking for Great Teen Services. The program will be held at the Middletown Library Service Center on April 18, 2017. At this writing there are only 4 spaces left, so if you are interested sign up now. More info and registration is here: http://bit.ly/2nvRs7c. 

The Governor's Summer Reading Challenge Kickoff will be held at the State Library on May 19. The annual summer reading lists are in process, and will be ready soon. They will be posted to the Department of Education's GRC page, http://bit.ly/1oB2Ar6, after the kickoff. Titles on the lists will be available to librarians in April so that they may add unowned list titles to their collections. 

The Collaborative Summer Library Program theme for the summer of 2017 is "Build a Better World." 

The summer of 2017 is the second year of our contract with Evanced for the online summer reading program. It is also the last summer that you have the choice of using Evanced Summer Reader or Wandoo Reader. For the summer of 2018, only Wandoo Reader will be available. 

Updates on Harold and the Purple Crayon: Many remain to be delivered but we are working on getting copies out to the libraries. If you are planning a program around the book, please email Linda Williams at [email protected] and she will try to expedite your delivery.

Hands-On Legal Reference for Public Librarians
In person workshop
Tuesday, April 4; 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main St., Middletown, CT 06457
Cost: Free
For details and to register, visit https://cslib.libcal.com/event/3057799  

Design Thinking for Great Teen Services
Co-sponsored by the Connecticut State Library and the YA Section of the Connecticut Library Association
In person workshop
Tuesday, April 18; 9 am – 4 pm
Middletown Library Service Center, 786 South Main St., Middletown, CT 06457
Cost: $15-$20 (to cover the cost of morning treats and lunch)
For details and to register, visit http://ctlibraryassociation.org/meetinginfo.php?id=238&ts=1488555857

We will be adding more sessions to our calendar soon! Visit the Continuing Education Calendar at https://cslib.libcal.com/ for more training opportunities.