Andover at Reading

Me & My Shadow
Gerry Deyermond
Andover at Reading Library
2/10/2010

Bookdrop-I love how they have the book drop set up. Patrons enter library and book drop is directly on the right. It’s a large slot with 2 bins at bottom- one side for media other for books. The bins are situated in a little room with a computer and scanner. There are 2 circulation people assigned to desk. They take turns checking in the book drop items. Michelle, the head of circulation, said it deters patrons from dropping their materials off on the desk and then miss being checked in.


Museum passes: they have about what we have for passes. However the coupon passes are separated and kept in divided containers (they actually had 2 of those heavy card holders) with passes divided up by month in them. I had asked if there was any problem with the passes getting misplaced or lost and she said no. They also have the ICA pass and it has worked out just fine, not a popular pass. She seemed to think they were closed on Mondays so if 30 passes are available for a month we would have every day covered. Michelle said it wasn’t all that popular either.


Magazines are processed like ours. They don’t use EBSCO and do not have the date labels like we do. If the library address label is missing then they have a stamp like what we use for newspapers to stamp the library name and address. When new magazines are processed they are not CKI like we do. They set them to display. If a new magazine is brought to circulation a note will pop up and say it is a display magazine which will tell the circ person that it is new and cannot be CKO. They use Millennium. I am not sure if that can be done with our Horizon system. When our books are set as display they can be CKO and I don’t believe a message pops up.

They use Baker & Taylor’s covering service too, however they get the labels. Jamie said she usually has to change some depending on how they catalog.

They also have 2 vending machines, one for soda/juice/water and the other snacks. Seems to work out well. They have a tall table with stools right next to the machines; however patrons can take their snacks anywhere.

They arranged a room for tutors and magazine reading. (Reading seems to have lots of nooks and crannies to be able to set up these little specialized areas) they turned a closet into a business room, complete with computer, typewriter and desk. The room has to be booked to use it.