Librarian looking to expand collection, activities in new building
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Librarian Mary Murtland is settling into her new job and the new space for the Ashby Free Public Library.

Murtland is starting a variety of new programs at the library as well as trying to increase the types of material in the library's collection. The long-range goal is to have significant DVD, magazine and books on CD collections to complement the book collection.

"A lot of things I'm doing are firsts [for the library]," she said.

One of those firsts is to buy DVDs for patrons. Murtland said she is trying to gain a wide-range of recent movies for both children and adults. The new movies during February include "Cars," "Superman Returns," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "The DaVinci Code" "The Sentinel" and "The Break-Up."

Murtland said the library has also subscribed to a number of magazines for the first time.

"The new issue stays and anything else can circulate for one week," she said.

Murtland is also working to accomplish the Board of Trustees' goal of getting the library to be a full online member of the Central-Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing (CWMARS) network.

This will allow patrons to request books online as well as to renew books and view accounts over the Internet. The CWMARS agreement requires that 80 percent of a library's collection be entered into the computerized database before the library's patrons can participate.

Murtland said there is between 40 and 50 percent of the Ashby collection in the database.

Increasing the materials isn't the only goal Murtland and the trustees are acting on.

The library will also be hosting a number of new events. A series of weekly children's storytimes are already in progress.

Murtland is also about to start two book groups at the library. One will be for young adults about age 12 and up and the second will be an adult group.

Signs announcing registration for the groups will be posted this month and an organization meeting will be held by the end of the month.

"I'm only going to provide the group some the input [on the books]," she said. "I don't think it is my job to choose the books. I think in a reading group it is everybody's job."

Murtland said one of the things she has noticed over her first few months in Ashby is how many people are willing to donate their used books to the library.

"We are bombarded with people dropping things off," she said.

The response is so great she is hoping that people can help sort out some of the books before they get to the library. Non-fiction books shouldn't be any more than 10 years old, no periodicals will be accepted.

The only other consideration she wants residents to think about before donating a book is, "Would you pick it up and buy it?".

Murtland wants to get many of the books back that people never returned to the library.

"There are a lot of books out there that are Ashby books," she said. "We're trying to encourage people to bring stuff back."

The library doesn't have fines so people won't be charged a late fee for returns. She hopes the returned books will help fill in the library's collection without the need to buy duplicate books.