Library news & updates
September was a very busy month for me personally. My family moved to Sutton, we had a baby, and I had foot surgery. In the five weeks that I was gone, the staff did a superb job of keeping everything ticking along. Not only that, but they re-modeled, re-organized, and re-painted my office for me, signed up every incoming middle school student up for library cards, and ramped up the new weekly teen movie Mondays that I dropped in their laps right before going out. The Friends of the Library pulled off the the biggest Oktoberfest sale ever. The Trustees formed a joint building subcommittee with the Building and Facilities Construction Committee. Patrons continued to check out more things than they did last year. So thank you, staff. Thank you, friends. Thank you, trustees. Thank you, patrons. You are all awesome.

Keep Reading,

Justin Snook
Fall Storytime

Fall Storytime lasts until November 20. Miss Debbie reads books and follows them up with a related craft! It's not too late to sign up!

Ages 18 months to 2 years: Monday @ 10:00am.
Ages 2 to 4 Wednesdays @ 10:00am
Ages 3 to 5: Monday @ 1:00pm
Ages 4 to 7: Tuesdays @ 6:00pm.
Octoberfest...Oktoberfest... Auchteubierfest?

This year's Oktoberfest activities were the most ambitious and most successful undertaking by the Friends of the Library to date. The book sale, headed by Ellie Chesebrough, re-homed a vast number of items and raised over $1,000 for the Friends. The plant sale, headed by Kristen Stevens, raised an additional $135. The quilt-off, coordinated by Jean Gannon, showcased 10 locally-made creations, with three winners by popular vote:

1st place: Farm Quilt by Liz Chesebrough
2nd place: Penguins by Debbie Soderman
3rd place: Summer Delight by Diane Seely.

Can you pick them out from the line-up below?
Library Under the Hood: CPC

Common sense dictates that bigger libraries offer better services. But common sense isn't always accurate. Bigger libraries have to serve larger populations and meet broader needs. One example of this that I want to highlight is our access to digital material. Among the many types of digital licenses available through Overdrive (our e-book and e-audio platform) is a system called CPC: cost-per-circ.

Instead of buying a digital license for a book, CPC lets us enable access to additional titles without actually buying them. When you out the item, the library is charged a fee per circulation. This allows us to open up access to tens of thousands of additional items without any up-front cost. As a bonus, these titles can be checked out by more than one person at a time.

To keep this viable, though, we have to carefully monitor usage and demand. Right now we limit patrons to 5 CPC checkouts per month. Since you have no way of telling which titles are CPC, they just stop showing as available once you hit your quota and you can place them on hold instead. We can also flip switches that disable all CPC titles of a particular format if the ongoing bill for the month starts to get too high.

Managing which licenses are enabled and and which formats are active is a much easier undertaking when when we are working with a population of 8,000 vs. a population of 185,000. That's why if you log into Overdrive or Libby right now as a Douglas patron, you will see 232,704 available titles instead of Worcester's 32,440. Not too shabby
Calendar:

~Mon Oct 28, 2019
1pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 3 - 5
2:30pm - Teen Craft and Planning Meeting

~Tue Oct 29, 2019
1pm - Music and Movement - Halloween Fun
6pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 5 - 7
6pm - Knitting in the Loft


~Wed Oct 30, 2019
10am - Fall Storytime - Ages 2 - 4

~Thu Oct 31, 2019
7pm - Yoga at the Library with Marise Nazarro

~Mon Nov 4, 2019
1pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 3 - 5
2:30pm - Teen Movie Afternoon

~Tue Nov 5, 2019
1pm - Music and Movement - Nursery Rhyme Time
3:30pm - Young Readers Club - Grades K - 2 - Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse
6pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 5 - 7
6pm - Knitting in the Loft
6:30pm - Bullet Journal Workshop Part 2

~Wed Nov 6, 2019
10am - Fall Storytime - Ages 2 - 4
3:30pm - Lego Club I

~Thu Nov 7, 2019
5:45pm - Reading to Hiro
7pm - Yoga at the Library with Marise Nazarro

~Tue Nov 12, 2019
1pm - Music and Movement - Clifford the Big Red Dog
6pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 5 - 7
6pm - Knitting in the Loft
6:30pm - Intrepid Readers - Crime by Trevor Noah

~Wed Nov 13, 2019
10am - Fall Storytime - Ages 2 - 4
3:30pm - Lego Club II

~Thu Nov 14, 2019
6pm - Book Wizards - Grades 6 - 8
7pm - Yoga at the Library with Marise Nazarro

~Mon Nov 18, 2019
1pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 3 - 5
2:30pm - Teen Movie Afternoon

~Tue Nov 19, 2019
1pm - Music and Movement - My Five Senses
6pm - Fall Storytime - Ages 5 - 7
6pm - Knitting in the Loft

~Wed Nov 20, 2019
10am - Fall Storytime - Ages 2 - 4
3:30pm - Lego Club III

~Thu Nov 21, 2019
5:45pm - Reading to Hiro
7pm - Yoga at the Library with Marise Nazarro

~Mon Nov 25, 2019
2:30pm - Teen Craft and Planning Meeting

~Tue Nov 26, 2019
1pm - Music and Movement - Thanksgiving Celebration
6pm - Knitting in the Loft

~Thu Nov 28, 2019
Library Closed!
Brought to you by the Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library.