We're still discovering how to deliver the best service possible in Edgartown's new $11-million public library building, but real progress was made in April, and we appreciate everyone's patience as we learn the rhythms of managing this beautiful new facility.

One of the challenges for your library staff has involved fashioning policies for the use of library features we've never had to administer before -- because they simply didn't exist. For example, the new Edgartown Library has two small study rooms and one larger room with a circular table upstairs, and these are proving to be quite popular. In April, our first full month of operation here, we recorded nearly 120 hours of patron use in the three rooms. With the busy season approaching, we plan to add some structure on study room use -- perhaps limiting to an hour per patron if other people are asking to use the space. We hope you'll bear with us as we dial this in.

The biggest single change created by the library's move into this new building is that instead of having just two main spaces -- upstairs and down -- we now have four: the children's room, the main floor with its young adult space, tables and benches; the upstairs floor with the library's core adult collection, and the new program room.

In our first month here, we've discovered that this new and larger building format allows us to give Edgartown's patrons something the library really hasn't been able to provide before -- a quiet space that offers the sort of peace and sanctuary that most of us associate with a public library at its very best. To foster this sort of environment, we've designated the second floor of our main building as the library's "quiet space," and we've also begun conversations with a team of acoustic engineers about ways to reduce sound transmission across the library. Again, we hope you'll tell us how you think we're doing, and we ask your patience as we explore ways to make the most of the opportunities presented by our new building.

Lisa Sherman,

Director