Note: FY 2021 is last year (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021). The report was prepared to cover the business for the FY 2021 period. This year’s report FY 2022 (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022) is in preparation now and is normally available for distribution at the polls for the November election. Updated - 08/15/22
Mission
The mission of the Franklin Public Library is to foster knowledge and engagement through education, enrichment, and technology.
FY 2021 Accomplishments:
● The Franklin Public Library demonstrated an unwavering commitment to serving the community safely during the pandemic. The library staff deserves enormous respect for responding to the unrelenting challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic with transformative services, resilience, competence, and creativity.
● When the COVID-19 pandemic began the library pivoted beyond books to meet the challenges and needs of our community, offering curbside services and outdoor live in person programs, live virtual programs and recorded options.
The range of services offered at curbside included:
○ Curbside pickup of non-traditional library materials - musical instruments, games, digital film scanner, to name a few.■ Over 120,000 library materials were checked out through the curbside process.○ Curbside printing○ Curbside WIFI○ Curbside “Take and Make” monthly craft kits for kids, teens and adults. These crafts have included STEAM, educational enriching crafts, and stress relief kits to help with mental & emotional health. The staff has secured additional funding for this program through grants and the generous support from The Friends of the Franklin Library as demand for more crafts continues to grow.
● The library introduced new services:
○ Binge boxes - a curated collection of movies for fun themed family○ Book & movie bundles to give patrons an opportunity to browse at home.○ Together Time Totes containing board, card, memory, word, and counting games for a variety of ages, skills, and interest.○ Grab bags full with resources for homeschoolers.
● Library staff continued popular education programs online, offering musical performances, engaging story times, parent workshops; and science and arts-focused programs.
● The Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) club made up of middle school kids thrived virtually, and grew from one weekly session to three.
● Girls Who Code program, originally one club for grades 6-12 was expanded to include grades 3-5.
● The Library strengthened and expanded partnerships with Municipal Departments, Franklin Public Schools and community organizations:
❏ Working in collaboration with the Human Resources Director, part time library staff provided valuable assistance to the Town Clerk with elections and census.❏ The Youth Services Department worked in partnership with Franklin’s Virtual Learning Academy - students who opted for fully remote schooling - to provide weekly virtual classroom visits. During these visits library staff conducted storytimes, provided virtual tours of the children’s and teen rooms, issued library cards and promoted library resources, online collections, and services.❏ Franklin Middle School Book Club The Youth Department also collaborated with the Reading Specialist at Horace Mann Middle School to help facilitate the Franklin Middle School Book Club and provide reading recommendations.❏ Build Your Own Zoo: Scavenger HuntThrough community partnerships with the Franklin Cultural District, the Franklin Art Association, and the Franklin Downtown Partnership, the Youth Services Department launched its summer reading program on June 11 alongside a town-wide scavenger hunt and the Franklin ArtWalk celebration.
● Pandemic outreach
● Lent all of the Library’s Wifi hotspots to Franklin Public School students in grade school through high school, without an internet connection at home to make it possible for them to attend school remotely during the pandemic.
● Facilitated monthly book club requests from multiple assisted living facilities.
● Maintained an active website and social media presence with daily program posts, reading recommendations, library news, and activities.
● Preserved and digitized Franklin List of Residents from 1884-2017, and began restoration of the historic painting frames. The library remains incredibly grateful to the FLA for funding both projects and for their commitment to fund future preservation, conservation and digitization projects.
● Provided a virtual extension of the library with the mobile self-check app making it easy for patrons to check out library materials at the stacks. With the Minuteman mobile app patrons can:
○ Search and find materials, events and resources.○ Place requests○ Check out materials on their phones or tablets instead of touching library devices.○ Renew their items.○ Manage their accounts.○ Get notifications and receive event reminders and library news
● Installed colorful, intuitive wayfinding signage for seamless navigation of the building.
● The Library’s innovative response to adapting library services and programs and to introducing new services ensured that Franklin residents had access to library materials and virtual and live programs kept kids and families engaged and entertained. The community’s response to the library’s many services and virtual programs has been overwhelming and heartening. We have heard many stories, a few featured below, of how access to the physical collections, online resources and virtual & live programs provided a lifeline for learning and the essential fuel needed to power through the pandemic.
There is more table data, photos, and information for this section of the Library report. Please visit the full Annual Report linked below and continue reading on Page 166
The full Annual Report for 2021 can be found
The collection of Annual Reports can be found online
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| Annual Report Of The Town of Franklin - FY 2021 |
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