Sharing a Collection in Reading:

The Reading Public Library has a deposit collection on loan to the high school of Young Adult fiction titles. This came about as a result of our desire to make the high school library collection more teen friendly and to encourage pleasure reading here despite having almost no budget for books this year. Prior to the Library lending us the titles, we had plenty of fiction, but no (or very few) Young Adult titles. The deposit collection at the high school is similar in nature to the one Reading Public Library puts at the senior center in that it serves those patrons that might not be able to get to the library, in our case busy teenagers. The way it works is that Reading Public Library created a card for the high school, checks the books out to it, and renews them regularly. We then put them into our system on temporary barcodes and circulate them as we would any other material. We think it is working well. Kids tend to take them out much more than the other fiction. They also lent us for circulation a collection of Toni Morrison's novels for the birthday party we held for the Nobel Prize winning author during Black History Month.

Susan Beauregard and Lorraine Barry, YA librarians at Reading, continue to be very supportive of the high school media center. They have collaborated with us on changes to the summer reading requirements at the high school and have met with Michael McSweeney, the English Department Head, and me twice here at the high school.

Sharon Pineault Burke, Library Media Specialist
Reading Memorial High School

Newburyport Adds Another Dimension to the Library's Role in the Community:

In March, 2002, Newburyport City Council President, Erford Fowler asked Head Librarian Dorothy LaFrance how the City could better manage its public documents and the access to them. After months of research, reviewing means and methods, securing funding, purchasing equipment, receiving training, devising an implementation schedule and educating City officials, the Newburyport Public Library staff has the solution and now adds another dimension to the library's role in the community.

In partnership with the City of Newburyport, the library is now offering access to City public documents via the Internet. The library's new document Weblink imaging system, funded in the FY03 budget, enables the City to publish committee agendas, minutes, reports, budgets, etc. on the WEB. Citizens can access the database from the City's website: www.cityofnewburyport.com by clicking on "document system" and from the library's website: www.newburyportpl.org by clicking on "find information". Most City boards, commissions and committees are participating by submitting approved meeting minutes and agendas, starting in January 2003. Some committees have submitted documents retrospectively to 2000 and the City Council has done so as far back as 1995.

The most exciting feature of this system, which is licensed to and managed by the Newburyport Public Library, according to Dottie LaFrance, is its ability to index all the documents in the database, therefore, allowing citizens as well as municipal officials, employees, and committee members to search issues, projects, events and names from home, office or library computers. Reference librarians are available to assist anyone who needs help in using the database. Newburyport's Assistant Director, Nancy Alcorn is responsible for hardware maintenance and performance while Head Cataloger, Ellen Kaminski and Staff Librarian, Heidi Stadnicki are responsible for the database management. Dottie LaFrance is the liaison between city officials and committees.

While the project is in its initial stages, the public can look forward to documents being added retrospectively as well as currently. The library is also adding selections from its historical photograph collection. Offering this additional service, says LaFrance, is a perfect way to enhance the library's mission to provide community access to information. Additionally, it utilizes the library's strengths of cataloging and archiving, placing the Newburyport Public Library in the mainstream of city government as the primary resource in its efforts to provide the taxpayer with a new service.