Library Trustees

Taunton Public Library Minutes for the June 15, 2021 Meeting Present: Edgar Gay III, William Hanna, Gloria Palmer Staff: Linda Coelho, Assistant Director and Daisy Delano, Director With no quorum, we could not hold a formal meeting. January 2020 minutes and financial reports will be reviewed at the September meeting. With this being the first meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic began, we thought it important to have a conversation about the past year and document minutes here. Library Director Daisy Delano was out on extended medical leave. Everything became new business and the old business no longer seemed to matter. The world changed and the library along with it. We all thought we would be closed for a 2 week quarantine, and get back to normal. The library closed at 5 pm on Monday, March 16, 2020, and reopened fully to the public on June 1, 2021. During the Covid pandemic the library staff helped out in many other city departments in various capacities. Along with providing operators for the Taunton Covid-19 hotline and Covid tracking desk staff at 15 Summer St and 141 Oak St, library staff has worked in the City Clerk’s office, Treasurer’s office, Building department office, and the Voter’s office. Though the library building had been closed to the public, library staff has been very busy adapting existing services and implementing new ones. Many services became virtual such as browsing the collection and programming. With Facebook technology, the library was able to hold story times, craft programs where a kit with supplies needed are picked up curbside, and live “ask a librarian” events. Halloween trick-or-treating and the Summer Reading Party were drive-thru events. Staff members were innovative and creative. The past year saw a very large increase in the usage of electronic resources of all kinds (ebooks, eaudio, hoopla, and overdrive). Covid changed how people live and it will continue to change the library as we adapt to provide services to our community as their needs change. We have put more resources into electronic collections and database/streaming services, added hot-spot lending, and are keeping curb-side services. During the time the physical building was closed to the public, the library circulated a little over one-third of what we normally circulate in physical books. Ebooks saw an increase of over 1,000 check-outs, electronic audio increased over 3,000, and the library mobile app saw an increase of over 6,000 uses. Hoopla and Freegal databases also saw significant increases. The library has waived all overdue fines throughout the pandemic until further notice to help alleviate any hardships patrons may be facing and to not provide any obstacle to using library resources and services especially at this difficult time.