Thayer Memorial Library

Folks:

Let’s talk about curbside service. While the Books by Mail service has distinct advantages over curbside, curbside also has some benefits that are worth you exploring.

Curbside service is built on the public placing holds.

Today a “hold” is what some of you and I used to call an interlibrary loan [ILL]. When you place a hold in the online public access catalog [OPAC], the system keeps track of demand relative to the number of copies the Library owns.

So if any of you want to read the latest books like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand, Fair Warning by Michael Connelly, Meghan and Harry: The Real Story by Lady Colin Campbell, or “Title of Your Choice” by Author you should place a hold. Each time someone places a hold, I know how many copies I need to buy.

Perhaps you think if a hold is just like an interlibrary loan, does that mean I can get books from other libraries?

No, not yet.

The Library, like all public libraries in the Commonwealth, is waiting for the state to restart the delivery system so books, DVDs, games, and other media can flow between communities. However, if everyone places hold, the Library will purchase enough titles to meet local demand. This is something we’ve always done so now would be no different. By placing holds, the public helps us buy only the books you say you want us to get.

This will be especially important for youngsters who want to read specific titles over the summer. We already have multiple copies of everything that’s on the summer reading lists provided by the MRES, LBMS, and NRHS. However, there are always titles that most kids want more than others. By placing holds, we can focus on getting kids what they most want.

What also distinguishes curbside service from Books by Mail is that it will save the Library some money.

Naturally, when people come to the Library to pick up their holds, we will be mailing fewer parcels. While we enjoy the ease with which the public receives materials, we prefer to provide this service only under exceptional conditions. Beginning next week, we will be phasing out Books by Mail as we introduce curbside pickup service.

In addition, whereas before you could only request one book per week, now you can place holds on as many titles as you wish. Caveat Emptor: Not every title you place a hold on will be on the Library’s shelves. Place the hold anyway because if you place a hold on something that’s not on the shelf, we’ll buy more copies.

Finally, and from the bottom of my heart, I don’t care how you enjoy reading books. Some folks think that for some reason, eBooks are replacing print and that they need to make the switch sooner than they would like. The truth is only a small smattering of readers only read digital books. Many people only read print, and some people who enjoy reading print also occasionally read eBooks. For a while, I was only reading eBooks, and interestingly enough have switched back to print since March.

So what’s my point?

My point is it’s much, much, much, and much cheaper to fill local demand buying print books than buying eBooks. A brand new eBook of popular fiction can cost the Library as much as $60, which can only be read by one patron at a time and the Library owns for only about two years. For that money, I can buy four copies of the same title in print, and we own the books for as long as we want to keep them.

Long story short, you can start placing holds as soon as you would like, but we won’t start filling them until the next Wednesday.

This email has been gratuitously long, even by my standards, so I will give you more details like directions on placing a hold on Monday.

You don’t have to wait until then if you have any questions. Just send me an email here.

Stay cool.

~ joe​

Folks:

I love you people. You were just as thrilled as I was to open the book drop. It’s been overflowing all week. There are days that we are unloading it three times or more.

Regrettably, next week will be no different from this week. The book drop will remain open, and Books-by-Mail will undoubtedly continue. If you enjoy digital content, the directions to instantly access eBooks, eMagazines, and audiobooks, from Hoopla, RB Digital Magazines, and Overdrive, can be found on this page.

Next week the staff and I will remove from quarantine hundreds of books collected from the book drop for processing. We continue to draft protocols and adequately prepare the building to eventually let everybody in. Unfortunately, I cannot brief you when that will be.

Since Books by Mail is so effective and enjoyed by many of you utilizing it, we may try to wait until July 1 before deploying curbside services. However, that is not etched in stone. It could be sooner. The key to progressively expanding services is to do it in conjunction with the delivery system coming back online. That will enable everyone to place holds and get them from any of the 150 network libraries in CW MARS. It will also enable TML to replenish its collections, so local residents gain broader access to popular titles. I have not yet read any detailed information when the delivery system will be operational.

And now a word from our sponsor.

Now more than ever, we all need to be adequately heard. That’s why every household in Lancaster must participate in the 2020 Census. The more Commonwealth citizens accounted for the greater Massachusetts is adequately represented in Congress. Having everyone counted will,

• Reapportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Help redraw congressional, state, and local district boundaries to contain roughly equal numbers of people to ensure each person’s voting power is closely equivalent.
• Help determine the amount of funding that state governments and local communities receive from the federal government for the next decade.
• Inform a wide range of government, business, and nonprofit decision making.
• Determine the emergency response in the wake of disasters.

For goodness sake, stand up and be counted for what you are about to receive.

The heart is a bloom. Don’t let the days get away from you.

See you next week.

~ joe​

March is Women’s History Month and Lancaster’s Library has exhibits and programs that will highlight some of the struggles in the ongoing march towards equal rights for women in America.

On display in the Library’s Current Topics’ Club case near the first floor elevator are original newspaper articles, pamphlets, booklets, tracts, and song leaflets about Women’s Suffrage. These rare treasures are from the Library’s Constance V. R. Dexter Special Collections Room. Also on display is a reproduction of a baby quilt which was made in 1836 to be auctioned at the 3rd Annual Anti-Slavery Fair in Boston, MA.

Next to the display case is an original ballot box from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, numbered 1483. Dated 1905, this hand-operated wooden container would have held the ballots cast by citizens of Lancaster during each election and may actually have been the box into which Lancaster’s women deposited their ballots after voting for the very first time ever in an election.

Draping a section of Thayer Memorial Library’s rotunda balcony is a 19th Amendment Centennial Quilt which was crafted by Mothertown Quilters. It highlights colors, symbols, and quotes in support of women’s suffrage. The quilt was a group effort utilizing individual members’ various talents such as hand embroidery and inking, hand appliques, computer-generated printing on fabric, machine piecing, machine quilting, binding, and a tremendous amount of planning.

One of the most thought provoking quotes on the quilt reads “If the Law can meddle with the woman, why should not the woman meddle with the Law?” attributed to Lucy Stone in a childhood query to her mother, circa 1820.

In addition to the displays, the following programs will be presented during Women’s History Month.

Tuesday, March 17: 6:30 p.m. Lecture – Short Skirts, Oh My! History of Women’s Rights
Historian, writer, performer, and storyteller Anne Barrett, will trace the exciting social and historical milestones in the fight for women’s rights.

Monday, March 23: 6:30 p.m. Author Event – From Freedom to Flight: Changing Women’s Roles During King Philip’s War in New England
Author Christine Duffy Zerillo will read from her new historical fiction novel entitled Still Here, comparing and contrasting the roles of two powerful women during colonial times in New England. Hear excerpts describing the daily lives of a minister’s wife, Mary White Rowlandson, and a native woman sachem, Weetamoo during King Philip’s War. A book signing will take place after this program.

All programs are free. All are welcome. For more information, phone Karen Silverthorn at 978-368-8928 ext. 4 or go to www.thayermemoriallibrary.org or the library’s Facebook page. Thayer Memorial Library, 717 Main Street, Lancaster 01523