The Year in Review

Hi, everyone.

My name is Jessica Williams, and I'm in the library

director here of the mountain where a public library and

I just wanted to take a few minutes to give

you a quick video update of what we've been up

to over the past year.

So first, I'd like to start off with some of

our check out numbers, which we call circulation and our

visitors statistics.

So I am gonna go ahead and go to the

next slide here, and we'll just zoom in on that.

Um, As you can see, we started out the year

in January with checking out almost 17,000 items, and we

had about 10,000 visitors in the library.

Typically, we do see about 10,000 people come through our

doors on a monthly basis, and our circulation can hover

between 17,000 and 20,000 checkouts per month.

As you can see, in March, when the pandemic arrived,

we definitely dropped off on Dhe.

Then the months that we had to be closed, we

didn't have any visitors.

You can also see that That's when we really started

our drive up service on Dhe.

We are one of the few libraries in Dane County

who are blessed toe have a drive up window.

So, as you can see once that idea, um, took

off and we got familiar with our procedures.

We were serving up to 783 people through our drive

up window in June.

In July, we opened what we call our express library,

and this model allows us to serve up to 10

people in the building at the time.

Um and we call it an express library because it's

really a quick come in and get your holds or

use the copier computers and whatnot.

Um, and under this model, we've been able to serve

2000 to 3000 people per month.

So we're really proud of that number and the ability

to serve our community and this capacity.

Um, next I'd like to talk to you about some

of the new service is that we came up with

in 2020.

We really had to think on our feet and think

outside the box this past year.

Eso Here's a list.

First of all the laptops for check out.

Early on, we applied for a grant through Google to

purchase laptops for check out and the idea for this

waas thio provide a resource for people who might be

looking for employment.

So also loaded on the laptops are a lot of

resource is right on the desktop for employment help, and

these laptops are still available.

You can check them out for up to one week,

and if you are interested in checking them out, please

just give us a call.

Our next service that we brought in the mix is

called the Just for You bags, and I'm gonna go

ahead and zoom in on this image.

So if you go to our website MHP l dot

or ge and look for this image in our slider

bar, you can click on it, and it will take

you to a form where you can fill out what

types of materials your child likes to read.

This is for kids and teens.

Uh, you can fill out what they have already read

what you're looking for, how many items you'd like, and

then once you submit this, this goes directly to our

Children's department and they will fill that, um, order for

you and then let you know when it's ready for

you to come and pick it up.

So this is just a really nice way to get

books into your kid's hands at this time, and we

encourage you to use it.

We also have something similar for adults.

It's called personalized picks.

And again, if you go to our website and just

look for this image in the slider bar to click

on it, it will take you to a form where

you can fill out what you're interested in reading who

you've read in the past, that you really liked things

like that, Um, and this will go to any of

our librarians who will work really hard to match you

up with something that you like.

Another new service that we added this year is printing

from home.

So right now I'm showing you a screenshot of our

Web page.

This is our home page, and in the menu bar

on the far right, you'll see the link for printed

document. So if you click on this link, it will

take you to a page where you can send your

print job from your home to our printers at the

library. The only thing you have to do is given

a name so that when you come into the library

to the kiosk to retrieve your print job, you look

it up by the name that you gave it.

So you don't need a library card to utilize the

service. It's just something we offer right on our website.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about some

of the building projects that we worked on this past

year. And as I'm doing that, I'm just gonna put

this lovely image of our window up eso I mentioned

in an earlier video that we did a restroom upgrade

this past year.

So, um, new automatic doors, new automatic faucets, things like

that. Um, we also installed brand new lighting in the

hallway leading back to the Children's area.

And we also installed new lighting in the storytime room.

So we're really excited for you to see um, just

how that new lighting refreshes the space once we're able

to open that up again to the public.

Another area that we worked on this year was to

install new shelving.

We were hoping Thio introduce the community to our new

Spanish language collection, and we have the shelving installed.

And we've been working on building this collection this past

year, so we are excited to share it with you

as soon as we can.

Um, another project we worked on most recently was Thio

Refresh the inside of the building with fresh paint.

So the room pictured off to the right here had

a new coat of paint um, placed on it in

the last week here, so it looks very nice.

Um, and another final project that we had worked on

was to install new self check out unit.

So we have ah, desktop unit at our check out

counter that you can use.

Or we have a free standing kiosks, which is located

Where are hold?

Shelf is located.

We're just really proud of our programmers this year for

the way that they adapted Thio virtual programming.

Uh, right now we are offering, um ah, virtual storytime.

Ah, virtual toddler music and basically the story.

Time happens each week, and then we supplement that with

take home craft, which we supply through our express library.

Um, we also offer a wide variety of adult programs.

Um, this past fall, we did our big read book,

read on the book The Vanishing Half and offered a

Siris of programs that led Thio.

Just a lot of good conversation around this book.

We had a lot of participation, and we thank you

for joining in on those discussions.

We also currently offer adult taken make craft kids, and

you can go to our website for more information about

that. They're usually available the first of the month and

then until while supplies last.

Lastly, I just wanted to take a few minutes.

Thio Say thank you to our amazing staff who, uh,

really made all of this possible.

Um, just all the hard work and dedication and creativity

Thio help us through the past year wanted to say

thank you to our library board for their support and

their leadership wanted to say thank you to the friends

of the library for supporting us additionally, and thank you

to our community to you for continuing toe.

Use your library

The Year in Review

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