Staff Development Day
Our annual Staff Development Day is Friday September 25th. In the past few years we have visited places within our service area including the City of Saratoga and the Town of Greenfield. This year we plan to focus on the Town of Wilton. Special guests include Toni Sturm,Town Supervisor, Ross MacNeil, Recreation Director @ Gavin Park and Craig Hayner, Saratoga County Clerk. Narcan training, department gatherings and a presentation on the Youth Department’s Decodable Book Collection. In the afternoon, staff will have the opportunity to visit the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, Grants Cottage, or stick around the Mall and watch a movie or walk around and check out what spaces are available and are currently leased.
Space Use Study
We have had 2 more months worth of data since we last met, bringing us up to 7 months. The last month we will collect is January 2027.
Mellon Grant : Operationalizing Community Resilience
Operationalizing Community Resilience will pilot a training program that will build 40 library-led initiatives to mitigate or adapt to climate hazards and stronger relationships between libraries and local community-based organizations through partnership development
Over the summer I have been working with 10 rural and small libraries from Iowa serving populations of 25,000 or less. The library staff are working through a training plan designed by Rebbekah Smith Aldrich in consultation with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative staff, myself, Matthew Bollerman and Lisa Kropp. We are currently in the working group phase of the training which includes designated time to work on projects each month. I have been working along side the Iowan participants to produce a Pocket Response Plan™ (PReP™); a concise document for recording essential information in case of a disaster or other emergency. We have this information available on our staff website as well as on white boards in the maintenance work space, this will consolidate the information. I am also in the early stages of finding out what the library would need in order to become an official cooling and heating center for our residents.
Reviewing our disaster plan has been a long term goal of mine since I joined the library and this is a good first step that can be completed by the end of the year.
Respectfully submitted by Jennifer Ferriss, Assistant Director