AUTHOR'S NIGHT A SUCCESS

Author Kate Genovese discussed her craft and her works at the WPLM Tuesday evening. Kate read from three of her books - "Two Weeks Since My Last Confession," "Thirty Years in September: A Nurse's Memoir" and "Loving Joe Gallucci: Love and Life with Hepatitis C" - and touched on themes of family, addiction,... illness and loss. The talk was quite well received and we were pleased to have her here.

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February 23, 2010

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LIBRARY CERTIFICATION:
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners recently voted to extend certification to the Winthrop Public Library & Museum for 2010. This is very good news for us and for our patrons. State Certification allows us to continue to borrow items our patrons want from other libraries' collections, affords our cardholders the privilege of using other libraries' services and makes us eligible for grant money through the State Aid to Public Libraries program.

Despite our defunding during this past spring by the town government, we still (barely) managed to retain our certification for another year. We are grateful to those of you who donated money to help us stay open during that critical period and for your support during the May 2009 override vote. However, because our open hours/days and materials purchasing, of necessity, dropped to minimally-acceptable levels during that period, we will only receive about 25% of last year's State Aid to Public Libraries award of $24,221,61.

FINES INCREASE:
The Winthrop Public Library & Museum charges a set schedule of fines for overdue and/or lost items. Typically, we will charge for any item overdue on a daily basis (counting only those days on which we are actually open) until the item is returned or replaced. Our computer systems are configured so that the overdue fee for any item will not exceed the cost of that item. Thus, all overdue fines are capped at the replacement cost for that item. Our objective in charging overdue fines is to encourage patrons to return items on the day they are due, thus ensuring that the items are available for other patrons wishing to borrow them.

On December 9, 2009, the Board of Library Trustees voted to increase the daily levy for overdue adult books from 10 ¢ per day to 15 ¢ per day. The board also voted to increase the daily levy on overdue children's books from 5 cents per day to 10 cents per day. In addition, the board voted to increase the cost for overdue museum passes from $5.00 per day to $6.00 per day. These changes will go into effect on January 1st, 2010. Our current fines and fees can be found at http://www.noblenet.org/winthrop/library_use.html

While we regret having to raise fines, particularly in these challenging economic times, this marks our first increase in over a decade. This new schedule of fines and fees keeps our charges near the average for Massachusetts communities of similar size to Winthrop and with other public libraries in the North of Boston Library Exchange system.

--Alan Thibeault,12/15/2009