Author: June Thammasnong

How do Branches and Bookmobiles Fare During a Recession?

In the past few blog posts I’ve largely focused on libraries as a whole: all departments, all locations, funding distributed throughout a library, staffing in all parts of a library’s location. While they are not especially common in Massachusetts, library branches and/or bookmobiles (hereafter referred to as outlets) can play a large role in ensuring community access to library services. So, let’s take a dive into how an economic downturn might affect the services offered outside of a main or central library and see how they compare to some of my previous posts’ discoveries.  

Library Outlets

Library outlets hold a special place in my heart. My first library job was running a neighborhood branch of a fairly large library. I saw firsthand how people mostly visited on foot or bikes (as opposed to driving or public transit), how heavily it was visited by families and people who have been in the area for generations, how personalized the services could be because it was a smaller space with a high proportion of regulars. It was a true definition of a community gathering space where neighbors would catch up after bumping into each other at the circulation desk and kids would meet after school to do homework together. Not every library branch or bookmobile will look precisely like this and that’s the point. The branch that I ran was the type of space I just described because of the makeup of its neighborhood.

That’s the beauty of library outlets; they take on the distinctive characteristics of the area that surrounds them and the people that visit them. They are a unique opportunity for a library to provide services to people who may not otherwise have access to library services. They serve a smaller group than a main or central library and have fewer staff and funds as a result. But outlets know how to use their limited resources to tailor their collections and services to the portion of the community they serve. I give this background because not every community has bookmobiles or branches. Some communities are so small that their main library takes on the qualities of a branch library. Some larger communities are centrally located with accessible public transit and/or parking. And some communities may benefit from expanding services to an outlet but are unable to afford the undertaking. According to ARIS (from FY24, our most recent data for now), there are 98 library outlets in MA across 38 municipalities. So only about 11% of municipalities in the Commonwealth have bookmobiles and/or branches with many of those cities and towns having multiple locations within their borders.  

With such a small number of MA libraries having outlets at all, why look at their data? Even in the well-established and much-loved community branch I worked at, the moment budget difficulties were on the horizon, someone inevitably floated the idea of closing down a branch to save costs. These ideas never went anywhere beyond that, largely because the community members of the branch were vocal about their support. However, in the event of another recession, if budget shortfalls are severe enough, outlets may find the idea of their closure taken a bit more seriously. So, let’s take a look at the potential value outlets offer their communities.  

Outlet Circulation and Visitors

Let’s start with circulation and visitors since those were the first metrics I discussed and those used in the original study that inspired this series of data-dives.* The average number of circulations pre-recession in library outlets compared to the average number of Great Recession circulations uncovered a 27.4% increase in circulations. Looking at the pre-recession vs Great Recession visitor numbers, there was a 52.3% increase in foot traffic into the outlets. Let’s compare that to the numbers for libraries overall. Recall that:  

  • Pre- to Great Recession circulation in libraries increased by 12.5% 
  • Pre- to Great Recession visitors in libraries increased by 32.4% 

This means that for library outlets, the circulation in the outlet location more than doubled compared to libraries as a whole, and the increase in outlet visitors was higher by about 20% compared to libraries overall during the Great Recession.  

If we extrapolate these percentages, assuming they will apply in the event of another economic downturn, library outlets are looking at an additional 12,584 circulations per year, which works out to 242 more circulations every week. Put another way, outlets could circulate more than 34 extra items per day which could total 58,447 circulations annually. For visitors, outlets could be looking at an additional 18,401 people each year, which adds an extra 351 people every week. So, foot traffic could increase in outlets by more than 50 people every day. Practically speaking, outlets are not open as many days as a central, main or single library is which means that these numbers, on any given day are likely to be higher, adding an additional strain on resources that are designed to be somewhat smaller than their larger counterparts.  

Outlet Open Hours

Now let’s take a look at how outlets compare to main or central libraries in terms of how often they are open.  On average, outlets are open about 63% of the hours that a central or main library are open. This is pretty consisted regardless of the time frame. This consistency is helpful and makes me more comfortable in comparing the outlets’ individual data with the overall library data as it limits the variability involved at least somewhat.  Let’s examine, then, how much the average outlet’s hours changed between on their own between time periods:  

  • Pre-recession = Average outlet open 1,632 hours annually (about 31 hours weekly) 
  • Great Recession = Average outlet open 1,517 hours annually (about 29 hours weekly) 

This difference of about 2 hours each week is similar to the libraries overall; however, when you’re dealing with smaller numbers, the percentage of hours affected goes up. Library outlets had 7.1% fewer open hours during the Great Recession than they did pre-recession. Put another way, the community members relying on their local branch or bookmobile for library services had 7.1% fewer opportunities to do so. This is in comparison to the 2.7% reduction in libraries overall between those two time periods.  

If we look to a potential future that may include a recession, a 7.1% decrease in open hours would bring outlets down to 1,508 hours each year (compared to the 1623 hours they have been open on average during the past 3 FY). Once again, this works out to about 2 fewer hours each week, but as we saw in the numbers above, these  compressed hours, already lower than what their more robust counterparts offer, could be trying to accommodate 242 more items circulated and 352 additional people through their doors during those shorter time spans.  

Reference Transactions

The last reliable metric we have for outlet data going back far enough are the reference transactions they averaged across time periods. Again, because an outlet serves a smaller portion of the community than its main library or the library system as a whole, the number of reference transactions are going to be smaller than what I discussed in the previous blog post. I would operate under the assumption, however, that these statistics are also widely underreported. Here are the numbers:  

  • Pre-recession = Average outlet fielded 5,301 patron questions 
  • Great Recession = Average outlet fielded 8,016 patron questions 

This means that during the great recession, reference transactions increased by 51.2%. This is a pretty large jump in the number of questions that patrons asked, especially considering that reference transactions in libraries overall went up by 14%.  

There is a large uptick in the number of reference transactions in the last 3 years. Outlets have seen an average of 18,985 patron questions every year. That is a 137% increase in patron questions from the average number of questions during the Great Recession. ** The recent past has seen an average of 18,085 patron questions each year. Extrapolating percentages above into a possible future in which an economic downturn occurs, outlets could be looking at an increase of 9,264 patron questions each year, or an extra 178 questions per week. This means that staff could be fielding an additional 25 questions every day.  

I think it would be reasonable to argue that when people rely more on libraries overall during an economic downturn, they rely even more on the community outlets that provide those personalized services.

The Bigger Picture

The fact that the percentages for outlets were considerably higher than for libraries overall can seem startling but put in context it makes a certain amount of sense. While library branches are smaller in staff, funding, building size, often just about every library parameter we can measure, their proportional impact is considerable. This is likely a function of the nature of outlets; they are tailored to their communities. While library systems need to keep the broadest range of patrons in mind, outlets need to use the smaller amount of resources they are allocated to focus  on what their community needs the most and spend those resources (whether it is staff time, funding, space, etc.) accordingly. They also have a smaller population of people to interact with, which means they can make more personalized recommendations and tailor their questions more specifically because they know who they are working with. That impact could potentially be greater in the event there is a recession in the future. Remember, library outlets by their nature operate with fewer hours and smaller staff sizes than main or central libraries. We are looking at a potential increase in all the patron metrics while simultaneously seeing a decrease in operations metrics. If your municipality has an outlet, consider how your experience may differ with more visitors, a busier public services desk and fewer opportunities to have that experience in the first place.  

I think it would be reasonable to argue that when people rely more on libraries overall during an economic downturn, they rely even more on the community outlets that provide those personalized services. Given this data, it’s reasonable to wonder, if library outlets are offering a higher return on investment than library systems, which already have an astounding ROI. If your library has an outlet, it would be worth mentioning these statistics to your advocates and those making financial decisions. In the event of an economic downturn, if someone wonders whether the municipality can afford to have more than 1 library location, the counter argument may be that the community the outlet serves cannot afford its loss, especially given the potential increase in usage.  

*Same parameters for years apply: Pre-recession = FY2006-08; Great Recession = FY2009-11. However, for some reason, the outlet data for FY2009 was not available on the MBLC’s statistics website. Given the patterns from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 data in other categories, I believe using the 2010 and 2011 is a reasonable approximation for the Great Recession averages. The 3 years that I am using to determine the most recent numbers for extrapolation are FY2022, FY2023 and FY2024.  

** There could be a number of reasons for this including, better and more rigorous ways to reliably report patron’s questions on the ARIS, more patrons asking questions at their local branches, increased trust in the outlets, etc. I don’t have enough data to say for certain what the cause of this increase is, but considering the average of the past three years had each year consistently higher than the Great Recession, I would still consider this data to be accurate and not an anomaly.  

~ Al Hayden, MBLC Library Advisory Specialist

Norwood Library and Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries Relaunch Access to Justice Initiative

Maureen Amyot, Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners speaking at press conference at Norwood's Morrill Memorial Library (Photo Courtesy Town of Norwood)
Maureen Amyot, Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, reminded the audience how much libraries have changed over the years. (Photo Courtesy Town of Norwood)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Town of Norwood
Tony Mazzucco,
General Manager
566 Washington St.
Norwood, MA 02062

Media Contact: Rory Schuler
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: rory@jgpr.net

NORWOOD — Your local library has changed dramatically since the days ofmandatory silence and dusty stacks.


“Public libraries today … are no longer book warehouses where people get shushed for speaking above a whisper,” said Maureen Amyot, Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). “Those days are long gone. Today’s libraries connect people with essential services, information and importantly, with each other.”


Amyot joined state and local court and library officials in Norwood on Wednesday, Oct. 1, to announce the relaunch of the Massachusetts Access to Justice initiative.


“This project touches on all three of those things in a place where everyone iswelcome,” said Amyot. “By bringing legal services into the public library, the partnersare providing a local, easy-to-access, familiar, welcoming place for residents toaccess the services they need.”


The MBLC is a state agency created in 1890 to promote and support equitable library services across the Commonwealth.

A Daunting Experience


“The idea of physically entering a courthouse for any reason can feel really intimidating,” Amyot told the packed reading room inside the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood. “Transportation issues, work hours, lack of stable internet at home, can also be barriers for those looking to access legal services. The Access to Justice project helps people overcome all those hurdles and get the hope they need right in their own communities or nearby.”


The Massachusetts Trial Court Law Library’s Public Library Initiative provides Morrill Memorial Library visitors with access to computer terminals and the internet to search for court resources, such as interpreter services, legal aid and case information. And now, multiple court branches can be accessed at specially designated Bay State libraries.


“The Morrill Memorial Library continues to redefine what libraries are and the rolethey play in civic life, and we’re happy that we are taking this relaunch step,” saidTown of Norwood General Manager Tony Mazzucco, who added that this next stepwill illustrate what local “libraries can do for our communities and ourCommonwealth.”


Norwood’s public library is one of 15 participating libraries in six counties —Barnstable, Essex, Hampshire, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk — across Massachusetts.


“We were the first public library in the Commonwealth to launch Access to Justice,” said Clayton Cheever, Morrill Memorial Library Director. “We know what an essential role this library has played in Norwood for over 100 years.”


The Morrill Memorial Library also provides fast Wi-Fi with stable connections for video communications. Visitors can contact the virtual court help desk, use library computers and printers to access and print court forms, and reserve designated, private library spaces for virtual court hearings.


“When people access our justice system, we know that can be a challenging time in anybody’s life,” Cheever said. “We want to help make that interaction as positive as possible. There’s a lot of stress that can be involved when you go into courthouses, when you have other interactions with the justice system. But, ideally … when we see all the smiling little faces from all the youngest users of the library, to the seniors who have been using it their entire lives, people really feel comfortable here in the library. “That’s what we want, for people to feel as comfortable as possible when they need to work with the justice system.”

The Under-Represented


Robert DeFabrizio, Esq., Senior Manager of Law Libraries, Court Services and Law Libraries Department, Massachusetts Trial Court, Office of Court Management, explained that the “initiative grew out of a well-documented and acknowledged need for access to the courts and legal information.”


“The statistics on unrepresented parties in civil courts included nearly 9 out of 10 defendants in Housing Court … while the majority of cases in Probate and Family Court involve at least one unrepresented party,” said DeFabrizio. “Needless to say, unrepresented parties are at a disadvantage while navigating the court system and fully advocating for their legal rights.


“Although the 15 Trial Court law libraries exist to provide free legal information to everyone who lives and works in the state, as the numbers … show, the challenge is daunting.”


But local libraries are trusted institutions — a sort of social safety net.


“Many people visit their public library, asking for help on a wide range of help on a wide range of issues, including legal information,” DeFabrizio said. “Thus, the idea
of partnering with our public library colleagues was seen as a way to bridge the access to justice gap.”


In closing, DeFabrizio shared a quote from the Honorable Ralph D. Gants, who was the 37th Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court and an ardent access to justice supporter: “Until we create a world in which all who need counsel in civil cases have access to counsel, we must do all we can to make the court system more understandable and accessible for the many litigants who must represent themselves.”

“Words that are so appropriate for this day and age, and in terms of this program itself,” said DeFabrizio.

Services Available


When the initiative was first launched in 2022, only one court offered virtual services. Now, all the different branches of courts in Massachusetts offer virtual services. While not all court business can be resolved remotely, many services can be utilized, including court virtual registries, the Court Service Centers, and the Trial Court Law Libraries Zoom with a Law Librarian.


“As Register of the Probate and Family Court for Norfolk County, I am dedicated to the success of the Access to Justice project between the Norwood Memorial Library and the Probate and Family Court,” said Colleen Brierley, the Register of the Probate and Family Court for Norfolk County. “We are committed to ensuring equal access to the Probate Court for all members of the public, and we are prepared for the relaunch and expansion of this invaluable program. The Registry is ready to assist through the Virtual Registry and in person at the library. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this great step forward in continuing our Access to Justice initiative.”

Norwood’s public library was chosen because it’s centrally located for many of the towns in Norfolk County and is easily accessible by public bus routes.

“And I hope other Massachusetts libraries look to what’s being done here in Norwood as a model, and reach out to Clayton Cheever or to the Trial Court, to find
out how they can launch it in their own communities,” Amyot said. “How wonderful would this be, if it was an option at every single library in the Commonwealth?”


The Morrill Memorial Library is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. Visit the library’s website for more information.


Those with questions about the offered resources or who would like to make an appointment to get extra help can contact the library at 781-769-0200.

Access to Justice through the library:


The Morrill Memorial Library is proud to partner with the Massachusetts Trial Court System to offer virtual court access through the Access to Justice program. Visit the
Access to Justice website. Free interpreter services are available through the
Office of Language Access.

Reserve a library space to attend court remotely:


Quiet, private spaces are available at the Morrill Memorial Library to attend court remotely using a laptop provided by the library. To reserve a study room for the Access to Justice program, call the library at 781-769-0200 x2 or x7. Please try to reserve your room in advance and let us know if you have to cancel so we can make the room available to someone else.

Click here for a Public Library Initiative list of partner libraries.

How Were Library Open Hours, Children’s Services, and Patron Questions Impacted by a Recession?

In the last few blog entries I’ve done some extrapolations about what library services could look like if we head into an economic downturn. There are a few more metrics I’d like to explore as I think they can paint a broader picture of not only what libraries may face in the future, but also highlight what libraries are currently doing. It’s never a bad idea to have current information at hand for your library advocates.  

What story do library open hours tell us?

Pre-recession, * MA libraries were open an average of 2,536 hours every year, which works out to libraries being open 49 hours each week. During the Great Recession libraries were open an average of 2,467 hours every year, or 47 hours each week. This is a 2.7% reduction in open hours or 2 hours less each week that the library was available for services. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a very large difference, especially considering that the differences among other metrics were considerably larger. So, what does this mean in terms of the bigger picture?  

Let’s look at those stats in terms of usage. If circulations went up by 12.5% and attendance went up by 32.4% but hours were reduced by 2.7%, that means there were 2 fewer hours for the library staff to accommodate the additional 518 visitors per week and 315 more items they were circulating every week.** Remember that staffing during the Great Recession went down by 2.3%. Having the library open for fewer hours, even if it’s 2 fewer hours each week, is still more of a burden that library staff will have to bear in terms of helping more people in a shorter amount of time. Again, these percentages are not high, but even small numbers trending downward can be impactful in terms of how libraries can accommodate the services their patrons rely on and the potential uptick in patrons needing those services. 

The average of open hours for the most current 3 years we have data for is 2581 hours per year or 50 open hours each week. If we extrapolate the 2.7% reduction in hours experienced in the past recession, that brings the average open hours per week down, once again, by 2 hours per library. I’ve already estimated the increase in circulation would add 441 items and 455 visitors per week, in addition to the circulation and foot traffic that libraries are already receiving. If staffing also goes down 2.3% as it did during the last recession, then we are once again looking at potentially fewer people available during fewer hours to offer services to an increasing number of people who may need an increasing number of items. Are libraries prepared for that? Based on the funding numbers I looked at in my last post, and considering the rising costs of popular items like ebooks, maybe not.  

What about the children?

Let’s take a look at children’s services in MA libraries and the effect the Great Recession had on them. We have few statistics that go back to 2006, but there are 2 interesting metrics we can track back that far: children’s circulations and summer reading participation. Let’s start with the circulation statistics for just juvenile items.*** 

  • Pre-Recession, libraries averaged 50,575 children’s circulations  
  • Great Recession, libraries averaged 57,268 children’s circulations 
  • Currently, libraries average 58,682 children’s circulations 

During the great recession, children’s items circulated on average, about 13.2% more than they did pre-recession. That’s a slightly higher percentage than all library items (including children’s) circulating as a whole. This works out to an extra 134 items every week circulating through children’s departments during the recession.  

Current circulations for children’s items average 168 items per day. Add an additional 13.2% of circulation items on this adds another 22 totaling 190 children’s items circulated each day. Framing that in the weekly terms I used above, circulation desks will experience an uptick of an additional 155 items every week in children’s items alone.

Summer reading statistics were probably the most personally surprising of the statistics I looked at.   

  • Pre-recession MA libraries averaged 319 summer reading participants 
  • Great Recession stats averaged 433 summer reading participants 

The average number of children participating in summer reading increased by 114 participants, an increase of 35.6%. As someone who ran a children’s department for several years, I can tell you, summer is chaos for children’s departments in libraries. A 35.6% increase of summer reading participation is simultaneously the stuff librarian dreams are made of and also an exceptionally daunting amount of work. “Summer reading” is not just encouraging students to fill out a book list. It is school visits, coordinating prizes, booklist creation to complement that year’s theme, reminding caregivers and kiddos that the summer reading list is optional, and they can read whatever they want. The labor involved in coordinating programming is an additional level of complexity and none of the work I just mentioned starts at the end of the school year. Many librarians start working out the details of summer reading in January/February. And all of this work involves consumables, staff time, program presenters, prizes and more; in other words, money and resources.  

Today, there are considerably fewer summer reading participants than even pre-recession levels. There could be any number of reasons for this; the pandemic comes to mind as a big one, but I’m sure there are other factors at play.**** But even with the low summer reading participation numbers (MA libraries averaged 154 participants over the past 3 years), adding 35.6% to those numbers is still has an additional 55 kids participating in summer reading and the costs, work, and time that go into prepping a summer reading program may need to be scaled up accordingly.  

Got Questions?

Having worked in various positions in libraries I can tell you unequivocally that reference transactions are chronically underreported. That observation makes what I found looking at reference transaction patterns even more intriguing. 

What is a reference transaction? In layman’s terms, it’s any interaction that library staff have with patrons that involves the staff member answering a patron’s question of substance. It does NOT include: 

  •  “Where is the bathroom?”   
  • “Can I get a library card?”  
  • “Can you print this?”  

It DOES include:  

  • “Which bus line should I take to get to x?” 
  • “Can you recommend a good book?”  
  • “Can you tell me more about this program?” 
  • “How do I to this task on the computer?”  

For the purposes of this post, I’ll use reference transactions and patron questions interchangeably.  

The breadth of reference transactions is vast, and the nature of library work is often so hectic that it’s incredibly easy to forget how many people you’ve interacted with in a span of time. So, when considering these numbers, keep in mind that they are probably much smaller than any particular library’s reality. 

Here’s the breakdown we’re looking at: 

  • Pre-recession – MA libraries averaged 13,802 reference transactions 
  • Great Recession – MA libraries averaged 15,735 reference transactions 

This was an increase of 14%, a higher percent than the increase in circulated items. Put another way, each library average almost 2,000 additional patron questions over the course of each year. This makes a certain amount of sense. In an economic downturn, everyone is faced with more uncertainty, there are fewer jobs, fewer resources, and people are often looking to a trusted source to find information to stretch the resources they have. Considering that libraries are among the most trusted public institutions in the country, and considering that libraries are uniquely positioned to:  

  • help someone create a resume 
  • turn a hobby into a new passion project/career 
  • connect people with resources to help them during tough times 
  • offer distractions from said tough times 
  • provide resources that help struggling patrons stretch a dollar further 

and so much more, it seems logical that the number of patrons asking question in a library would increase.  

Libraries are either not fielding or not recording as many reference transactions in recent years (most likely a combination of both); the average number of reference transactions that have been reported in the last 3 years is 8,934. If we increase that number by 14%, library staff will still be fielding 1251 more questions over the course of a given year. Also keep in mind that while some questions patrons ask can be answered fairly quickly, others can become a bit of a project, including possible follow-ups with the inquiring patron. It would be a mistake to think that a patron question is a matter of taking up a library worker’s time for a minute or two, every time. Again, if we’re looking at potentially fewer open hours, the time patrons can come into the library will be condensed. If we’re looking at fewer staff working, that means the number of people patrons can come to with their questions will also be condensed. All of this equals a busier public services desk, which can potentially lead to more underreporting of statistics because library staff don’t have the time or the bandwidth to to log their reference interactions.  

What might the future hold?

With the statistics I described above, combined with what I’ve explored in the past few posts, a potential picture of MA libraries during an economic downturn is emerging. It is one of a library that is open fewer hours, has fewer staff members, and is likely not funded enough to keep up with rising costs, but is still expected to accommodate an influx of patron visits, patron questions, patron participation, and circulated items.  

None of these tasks come without work that is largely invisible to the general public, and usually stays invisible for good reason. Libraries employ professionals, experts who are highly skilled to get to know their communities, offer exceptional customer service, and tailor their services to their community’s needs. They are trained to make the public-facing work look effortless because that is part of being a professional. This is behind-the-scenes work that isn’t meant for public notice, but it doesn’t lesson the fact that an extraordinary amount of work is being put in to ensure that communities have the services that are most relevant to their members. In order to keep doing that work to the best of their ability, libraries and library workers, need the support that will help keep those services running smoothly. Without that support (support measured in more than just money), the quality of service that patrons are used to will likely suffer and, in some cases, some of the services that patrons are used to will be unsustainable, leading to their elimination. 

How do we avoid, or at least minimize this potential outcome? Talk to your library advocates and let them know what stands to be lost and gained by keeping their library well supported in any season, but especially in the event of a recession. If the data I’ve explored so far demonstrates anything, it’s that people tend to rely more on libraries in tougher economic times and library staff do their best to provide services to their communities, regardless of the circumstances.  

*I will be using the same time frame definitions as my previous posts have used, modelling the Mabe study that inspired the research for these posts:  

  • Pre-recession = FY2006, 2007, 2008 
  • Great Recession = FY2009, 2010, 2011 
  • Current = FY2022, 2023, 2024 (FY24 is the most recent data I have to work from so far) 

** These numbers were based on the daily totals found in this post <insert link when available> multiplied by 7, so: 

  • 45 extra circs per day x 7 days = 315 increased items circulated weekly 
  • 74 extra visitors per day x 7 days = 518 increased foot traffic weekly 

*** I’m using the term juvenile here to refer to children only, not teens. Every library in MA is going to have their own age range they use to make these determinations, but infants to 5th grade (put another way: birth through elementary school) are common limiters. There are separate statistics for teen usage, but they do not go back far enough for me to analyze.  

**** Unfortunately, I don’t have the data to delve into that side-quest (yet….) 

~ Al Hayden, MBLC Library Advisory Specialist

September 2025 Libraries in the News

📰 Library News from Across the Commonwealth and the Nation*

Have a news story you’d like to share? Please email the link to June Thammasnong, thank you!

PDF Libraries in the News -September 2025Download

🗞️ Local News

📄Andrea Bono-Bunker Winner of Prestigious Governor’s Award – MBLC Press Release (10/1/2025)

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is pleased to announce that Andrea Bono-Bunker, Library Building Consultant in the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP), is the winner of the prestigious Manuel Carballo Governor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.

Link to full MBLC Press Release about the Governor’s Award

📄Reading the Revolution MA250 Booklists: Our Ongoing Journey to a Free and Equal Nation – MBLC Press Release (10/1/2025)

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is delighted to announce the launch of Careers in Libraries, a new collection of video stories featuring diverse library staff from across the Commonwealth. These brief videos highlight the different career possibilities in libraries, the passionate people working in libraries, and the many ways libraries serve as vital community spaces. The videos can be viewed online at: libraries.state.ma.us/careers-in-libraries

Link to full MBLC Press Release about Reading the Revolution

📄Careers in Libraries: Massachusetts Library Staff Share their Stories – MBLC Press Release (9/29/2025)

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is delighted to announce the launch of Careers in Libraries, a new collection of video stories featuring diverse library staff from across the Commonwealth. These brief videos highlight the different career possibilities in libraries, the passionate people working in libraries, and the many ways libraries serve as vital community spaces. The videos can be viewed online at: libraries.state.ma.us/careers-in-libraries.

Link to full MBLC Press Release about Careers in Libraries

📄Big Turnout for Gloucester’s New Library – MBLC Press Release (9/12/2025)

Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) members Joyce Linehan and Jessica Vilas Novas joined Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, State Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante, and local and state officials to congratulate the Gloucester community on the opening of the new Sawyer Free Library.  The MBLC supported the project with a grant for over $9 million from its Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program. 

Link to full MBLC Press Release about the new Sawyer Free Library

More articles on Gloucester’s new library:

📄I’m a Librarian, Therapist, Personal Assistant and First Responder.  Moments Like This Make It All Worth It – Katie Walsh, Slate (9/15/2025)
It’s one of the most controversial jobs in the country, but I’m so glad it’s mine.

It was a quiet evening at the library, which isn’t always a given. I work at a busy city library in the Boston area, located directly across from a high school, so we spend a lot of time helping people print and scan documents, apply for jobs, and look for housing, and in between all that, we try valiantly to get the teens to please, please stop vaping.

Link to full article from Slate

📄Banner survey: School library access varies across Massachusetts – Peter C. Roby, The Bay State Banner (9/29/2025)

As the Massachusetts School Library Association marked its 50th anniversary in March, the Bay State Banner conducted a survey to assess the state of school libraries. The survey covered 302 of Massachusetts’ 319 public school districts, 52 of 73 charter districts and 221 private schools.

Link to full article at The Bay State Banner

📄Norwood MA library will offer virtual access to Massachusetts court services – Beth McDermott, Wicked Local (9/29/2025)

The Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood is relaunching a program that provides public access to state court services.  The Massachusetts Trial Court Law Library’s so-called Public Library Initiative offers visitors access to computer terminals and the internet to search for court resources, such as interpreter services, legal aid and case information,

Link to full article at Wicked Local

📄Springfield library fundraising campaign reaches goal – Ryan Feyre, The Reminder (9/30/2025)

SPRINGFIELD — An eight-year fundraising initiative reached its official conclusion on Sept. 16 when the Springfield Library Foundation presented the final $137,500 of the East Forest Park Library’s Promised Realized Campaign.

Link to full article at The Reminder

📄Around Amherst: Jones Library Capital Campaign delivers another $2 million – Scott Merzbach, Amherst Bulletin (9/16/2025)

AMHERST — A $2.06 million payment recently delivered to Town Hall by the co-chairs of the Jones Library Capital Campaign maintains a commitment to transfer money toward the building’s $46.1 million expansion and renovation project on a regular basis.

Link to full article at Amherst Bulletin

📄Fitchburg library announces community giving campaign – Danielle Ray, Sentinel & Enterprise (9/17/2025)

FITCHBURG — The library recently launched a community giving campaign.

According to a press release the Fitchburg Public Library, currently in the midst of a $40 million renovation and expansion project, is inviting members of the community to write their names into the history of this transformative effort. The Legacy of Learning community giving program will provide donors at all levels with the opportunity to be enshrined in the expanded facility when it opens its doors in 2026.

Link to full article at Sentinel & Enterprise

📝The History of the MBLC: Henry Stedman Nourse – Jessica Branco Colati, MBLC Blog (9/22/2025)

The Honorable Henry Stedman Nourse (April 9, 1831 – November 14, 1903), of South Lancaster, Lancaster, served as a founding commissioner of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts from 1890 until his death in November 1903, soon after his appointment to a third term on the Commission. 

Link to full post on the MBLC Blog

📝Do Funding and Staffing Change with Increased Usage? – Al Hayden, MBLC Blog (9/25/2025)

In this edition, we will examine what’s happened in the past for library funding from municipalities and staffing and try to answer to question “Do funding and staffing change with increased usage?”

Link to full post on the MBLC Blog

📝The History of the MBLC: Anna Eliot Ticknor – Jessica Branco Colati, MBLC Blog (9/5/2025)

Anna Eliot Ticknor (June 1, 1823–October 5, 1896),of Boston, served as a founding commissioner of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts from 1890 until her death in 1896. Ticknor was considered a “Boston Brahmin”, growing up in a prominent, well-traveled, highly educated, and literary-minded family. She was an author and early proponent of distance learning, especially for women to continue their education while carrying out their wifely and motherly duties at home. She also gave voice to the role libraries could play in educating the public.

Link to full post on the MBLC Blog

🗞️ National News

📄 The Normalization of Book Banning– Banned in the USA (2024-2025) PEN America Report (10/1/2025)
The book bans that have accumulated in the past four years are unprecedented and undeniable. This report looks back at the 2024-2025 school year – the fourth school year in the contemporary campaign to ban books – and illustrates the continued attacks on books, stories, identities, and histories.   

Link to the full report from PEN America

📄 ALA disappointed by FCC takebacks, lack of due process in decision to end library hotspots, school bus Wi-Fi – American Library Association Press Release (9/30/2025)
Washington, D.C.– The American Library Association (ALA) and partners in the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, expressed disappointment with today’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote to end E-Rate support for library and school hotspot lending programs and school bus Wi-Fi.

Link to full press release from ALA

Related:

📄 Appeals court, weighing Trump’s Library of Congress takeover, reinstates copyright chief– Josh Gerstein, Politico (9/10/2025)
A federal appeals court ruled the nation’s top copyright official can continue serving in her post following President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her.

A divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Shira Perlmutter is entitled to continue to serve as the register of copyrights at the Library of Congress, despite the White House’s claim that Trump fired her from the post in May.

Link to full news article from Politico

📄Rebuilding a Historic Jewish Library, Book by Book– Catherine Hickey, The New York Times (9/8/2025)
The Nazis seized tens of thousands of books from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest, but the works are making their way back, including one being returned in New York this week.

Link to full article from The New York Times

📄 Library groups praise enactment of Freedom to Read Act – Coastal Point (9/30/2025)
The Delaware Library Association and Friends of Delaware Libraries this week praised the enactment of House Bill 119, the Freedom to Read Act of 2025.

Link to full article from Coastal Point

📄 Arthur Sze is appointed U.S. poet laureate as Library of Congress faces challenges – Hillel Italie, Los Angeles Times (9/15/2025)
At a time when its leadership is in question and its mission challenged, the Library of Congress has named a new U.S. poet laureate, the much-honored author and translator Arthur Sze.The library announced Monday that the 74-year-old Sze had been appointed to a one-year term, starting this fall.

Link to full article from Los Angeles Times

📄 American Libraries recognizes 15 libraries in the 2025 Library Design Showcase – American Library Association Press Release (9/2/2025)
CHICAGO – Fifteen new and renovated libraries feature in American Libraries’ 2025 Library Design Showcase. The 37th annual showcase highlights innovative constructions and remodels across the US and Canada that address patrons’ evolving needs. This year’s selections were completed between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025.

Link to full press release from American Library Association

📄 It’s ‘Absolutely Vital’ I Pursue My MLIS Now | Opinion – Erica Sikma, School Library Journal (9/23/2025)
When I tell people that I’m working on my Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS), the responses range from, “Wow, that’s great” to “You won’t have a job.” So why did I, an Oregon Trail Millennial, decide to spend what little money I have to go back to school in this current climate? Let me back up a little.

Link to full article from School Library Journal

📄 Why Teens Love to Hang Out at the Library – Ki Sung, KQED (9/23/2025)
Public libraries have made significant transformations over the past decade to better serve community needs in the wake of technological and social change. Now, as public school funding faces an uncertain future, how will libraries step in? We’ll talk to some library kids who go to teen-only spaces after school and hear about how librarians are working hard to meet their needs.

Link to full article and podcast from KQED

📄 Road to Recovery – Cass Balzer, American Libraries (9/15/2025)
Preparing for a ransomware attack and building a support network can improve library response.  On a morning in October 2023, an accountant at Orion Township (Mich.) Public Library (OTPL) saw something in her accounting software that alarmed her: file names written in Cyrillic.

Link to full article from American Libraries

📄 Broadway Comes to the Library, and the Library Goes to Broadway – Sahar Kazmi, Library of Congress Blogs (9/29/2025)
In a page among the Library’s Jonathan Larson Papers, the visionary composer and playwright mused: “… if I want to try to cultivate a new audience for musicals I must write shows with a score that MTV ears will accept.” Larson’s collection is not the largest in the Library’s Music Division, but among the roughly 15,000 items included within it are scripts, personal writings, programs, correspondence, recordings, lyric sheets and even floppy disks that provide an intimate look into the mind of a generational artist.

Link to full press release from Library of Congress Blogs

📺New York Public Library announces major exhibition for America’s 250th anniversary – ABC News (9/13/2025)

Brent Reidy from the New York Public Library joins ABC News Live to discuss its rich history and announce a new major library exhibition to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.

Link to full video from ABC News

*Links provided to external (non-MBLC) news stories are done so as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the MBLC. MBLC bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.

Get to Know the Founding Commissioners: Samuel Swett Green

Samuel Swett Green, MBLC Commissioner from 1890-1909

Samuel Swett Green (of Worcester, 1837-1918) was a pioneering American librarian. He is considered to be the “Father of Library Reference” for his emphasis on personal assistance in libraries. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, he come the second librarian of Worcester Free Public Library in 1867, where he shaped practices that would influence libraries nationwide.

  1.  How did Samuel Swett Green champion libraries in Massachusetts?

Samuel Swett Green, often called the “father of library reference,” championed the growth and accessibility of libraries during his tenure as a library commissioner in Massachusetts. He advocated for the establishment of free public libraries across the Commonwealth, emphasizing their role in education, civic engagement, and equal access to knowledge for all.

  1. How did Samuel Swett Green’s work challenge the cultural, social, or political norms of the late 1800s and early 1900s?

Samuel Swett Green’s work challenged the cultural and social norms of the late 1800s and early 1900s by promoting free public libraries as democratic institutions open to all, regardless of class or background. At a time when access to knowledge was often limited to the privileged, his advocacy for equal access to information pushed against entrenched social hierarchies and expanded opportunities for civic participation.

  1. What personal experiences shaped Green’s tenure as a library Commissioner?

Born in Worcester in 1837, Samuel Swett Green was shaped by his Harvard education and career at the Worcester Free Public Library, where he pioneered active librarian assistance. Living in an era of rapid industrial change, he believed libraries should promote education and civic participation, which guided his work as Massachusetts library commissioner in expanding free public libraries across the state.

  1. How does Green’s impact still resonate in today’s libraries, and what can we learn from his legacy? 

Green’s impact still resonates in today’s libraries through his vision of librarians as active guides who connect people with knowledge, and during his time at Worcester Public Library he pioneered library reference service with school children and factory workers.  Because of Green’s commitment to public service, the Worcester Public Library:

  • Was the first public library in the U.S. to open on Sundays (1872),
  • Established a lending collection of artwork,
  • Instituted interlibrary loans, and
  • Advocated the use of the telephone in libraries as early as 1880.

From his legacy, we learn the enduring importance of accessibility, personal service, and community engagement as core values in library work.

  1. An MBLC Favorite Quote by Commissioner Green:

‘There are few pleasures comparable to that of associating continually with curious and vigorous young minds, and of aiding them to realize their ideals.”

From an 1876 essay by Green titled Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers.

  1.  Interesting facts about Samuel Swett Green:
  • Green was a founding library commissioner in Massachusetts as well as one of the founders of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Massachusetts Library Club which is now known as the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA).
  • Green wrote two books: Library Aids and Libraries and Schools.

Do Funding and Staffing Change with Increased Usage? 

In this edition, I’m going to use the frameworks I looked at from the Public Library Quarterly article from the last couple of posts to examine what’s happened in the past for library funding from municipalities and staffing and operate under the assumption that the statistical significance of this data holds as well.* So let’s dive in and see what the data discover! 

Funding – Past & Present 

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of going to the municipal pie as both an advocacy tool and for information on where libraries fit in for funding within their municipality. So it’s natural that when I was looking for what municipalities spent on their library pre-and during the Great Recession (using the same 3-year definitions from the Public Library Quarterly study that I used as the basis for my previous 2 posts), I went right to the source. Here’s what I found:  

  • Pre-recession (FY2006-08), municipalities spent an average of $612,850 on their libraries year-to-year 
  • Great Recession (FY2009-11), municipalities spent an average of $639,638 on their libraries year-to-year 
  • Municipal funding to libraries increased an average of 4.37% from pre- to Great Recession 

More recently, over the last 3 years (FY2022, 2023, 2024) municipalities have spent an average of $920,418. The average from those last 3 years looks pretty promising. Libraries have gotten more money from their cities and towns! If we extrapolate with the pre- to Great Recession percentage increase, library funding might average about $960,650 each year for the next three years.  

While objectively, an increase in funding of almost 44% over the course of 13 years looks positive from almost any angle, and assuming even a modest increase in funding during an economic downturn feels a bit like a win, this is only part of the picture. My favorite feature of the Municipal Pie is that it shows you what percentage of the municipal general fund a library receives. So let’s take a look at those numbers:  

  • Pre-recession, municipalities spent an average of 1.30% of their general fund on libraries each year 
  • In the Great Recession, municipalities spent an average of 1.28% of their general fund on libraries each year.  
  • So, the proportion of the total money that municipalities had available that was spent on libraries pre- to Great Recession actually decreased by 1.03%  

The average percentage of available municipal funds that cities and towns spent on their libraries year-to-year over the past 3 years is 1.24%. So, while the dollar amount over the past 2 decades has increased to libraries somewhat each year, how much libraries were represented in the general fund went down. Another way to interpret this could be that while libraries received more dollars from their municipality, it was likely because the municipality’s general fund went up and the money was there to spend. But when decisions were being made about how much of that increased funding should go to libraries, the money going to libraries was not as much as it initially appears.  

Staffing – Past & Present

It looks like the findings for library funds is a mixed bag. Let’s take a look at what kind of staffing libraries had for these same year brackets. Fortunately, ARIS has been keeps statistics on library staffing since at least 2006, so there is no gap in the data we can mine as we uncover the following info: 

Pre-Recession, libraries had on average from year-to-year: 

  • 11.7 full time equivalent (FTE) employees 
  • 6.9 actual full time employees 
  • 10.1 part time employees 
  • A total of 17.0 full and part time employees 

Great Recession, libraries had on average from year-to-year: 

  • 11.2 FTE employees 
  • 7.2 actual full time employees 
  • 9.8 part time employees 
  • A total of 16.6 full and part time employees 

This works out to be a decrease in staffing of 2.35%. On the surface, these numbers make a certain amount of sense. It was a recession. Unemployment was up. Inflation was probably up as well, which means that even the modest increase in funding that libraries received probably was only enough (maybe) to cover an increase in costs. It seems almost encouraging that the average number of employees didn’t go down by a full position. But, like the funding discussed above, these numbers in isolation don’t tell the whole story.  

Remember in a previous post how I broke down library usage in Massachusetts from pre-recession to the Great Recession? Here’s a refresh of those numbers:  

  • Circulation increased 12.5% during the Great Recession as compared to pre-recession numbers 
  • Attendance increased 32.4% during the Great Recession as compared to pre-recession numbers 

If we take the numbers from ARIS that I quoted in that previous post, libraries in MA, on average, had 74 more people per day and circulated 45 more items per day during the recession than they had before the recession. Libraries did all of this while operating with slightly fewer staff than they did prior to the recession. To put this another way, during the Great Recession, libraries were put on a trajectory of “doing more with less,” with foot traffic and circulation increasing without a comparable increase in staff to support those changes. **  

What about now?

What might this look like for libraries today? The current numbers we have for FY2022-24 are:  

  • 12.3 FTE employees 
  • 8.1 actual full time employees 
  • 9.4 part time employees 
  • A total of 17.3 full and part time employees 

One of the first things I notice about this is that libraries are only just reaching pre-recession levels of staffing over the past couple of years, after almost 2 decades. Let’s recap what I calculated in my last post:  

  • Libraries are seeing, on average, 198 people per day 
  • Libraries are circulating, on average, 504 items per day 

In the face of an economic downturn, libraries could see an average of 567 items being circulated daily and 263 people each day, using the same percentages calculated for pre- and Great Recession usage. Will libraries have the staff and funding to support those increases? Past data indicates that in the event we have a future economic downturn, libraries will be expected to “do more with less” once again. Mabe’s study also noted that library usage increased regardless of whether they received proportional budgetary support, so this appears to be a nationwide trend.  

Libraries have been receiving smaller percentages of the potential municipal pie over the course of nearly 2 decades. Even in the event that libraries funding increases in dollar amount, based on evidence in the past, there is no guarantee that this will be enough to cover increase in expenses or staffing needs. Many costs are increasing nationwide and in Massachusetts , libraries are increasingly expanding their options in response to their communities’ needs. From libraries of things, more reliance on high-speed internet connections, adding social services and going fine free, libraries are adding services and removing barriers that can inhibit usage. Given these patterns, this is another opportunity to share information with your library advocates. You can encourage and help your advocates to put together a narrative that explains the realities of library work to present to municipal officials before budget negotiations begin. Libraries should have a seat at the table when funding is being determined and the sooner information is dispersed, the chances for a more favorable outcome increase.  

* As a reminder this is a thought experiment to help provide a framework for potential projections by extrapolating numbers from the past. This does not mean that this is what WILL happen, but I would like to offer libraries to a basis that can be scalable to use for advocacy purposes in the event the need arises.  

** The elephant in the room here when it comes to recent staffing numbers is obviously the 2020 global pandemic. Many libraries were forced to lay off workers, many of whom were part-time and/or not union represented. And even when libraries opened up again, many were not back to their full, pre-pandemic operating hours which means the incentive to hire back workers wasn’t particularly strong. And when libraries were operating more fully and getting back to pre-pandemic hours, bringing back part time staff wasn’t as appealing to many as being able to merge a couple of part time positions into a single full-time position that offered benefits and often a higher wage.  

~ Al Hayden, MBLC Library Advisory Specialist

Service Update – September 24, 2025

PDF MBLC Service Update – September 2025Download

🕙 MBLC Monthly Board Meeting on October 9th (Hybrid)
Contact: Rachel Masse

The regular monthly board meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is scheduled for 10AM on Thursday, October 9th, 2025, at the Nevins Library in Methuen.

✨Nominate a Library Champion for the MBLC Commissioner Awards by October 1!

Contact: Celeste Bruno, Rachel Masse, June Thammasnong

This year, the MBLC is celebrating 135 years by honoring the individuals whose work has carried forward the legacy of our founding Commissioners with the Commissioner Awards. We invite you to nominate a librarian, public official, and/or state legislator who has made outstanding contributions to libraries and residents in the Commonwealth. Please submit your nominations by October 1st at tinyurl.com/2025-comm-awards

📰 Big Turnout for Gloucester’s New Library

Contact: Celeste Bruno

Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) members Joyce Linehan and Jessica Vilas Novas joined Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, State Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante, and local and state officials to congratulate the Gloucester community on the opening of the new Sawyer Free Library. To read more about Gloucester’s new library, visit the MBLC website.

🤝So You Want to Be a Library Trustee? (Online)

Contact: Al Hayden

Wednesday, September 24 at 7PM – More Information & Registration

Do you want to do more to advocate on behalf of your local public library? Are you considering running to be a Library Trustee? Join Rob Favini, Head of  Library Advisory & Development/Government Liaison and Al Hayden, Library Advisory Specialist from the MBLC as they provide information about what your library does for your community, the role of a Library Trustee, what responsibilities you’ll encounter should you become a successful candidate, and what supports and resources the MBLC offers to the library community and its advocates. This program is a basic primer designed for people who are considering becoming a Library Trustee in their community, though new Trustees may find valuable information and are welcome to attend as well. This session will be recorded and slides will be shared with all who register, regardless of whether or not they are able to attend live. To encourage frank questions and open discourse, the Q&A session will NOT be recorded.  

📝-NEW BLOG POST- The History of the MBLC: Henry Nourse Stedman

Contact: Jessica Branco Colati

We’re delighted to announce the launch of a new blog series, The History of the MBLC, by MBLC Preservation Specialist Jessica Branco Colati. This recurring series will highlight and explore key figures and events that have shaped the MBLC since 1890. The first group of posts will focus on our founding Commissioners in recognition of the agency’s 135th Anniversary. The latest post profiles Henry Nourse Stedman, one of the founding Commissioners who was also a Civil War veteran, state legislator, author and historian.   To learn more about Commissioner Nourse, visit the MBLC Blog.

🗓️Financial Report Closes on Friday, October 3rd

Contact: Cate Merlin, Jen Inglis

State Aid season continues! The FY26 Financial Report survey will close on Friday, October 3rd. Waiver applications are due on Friday, November 7th. Sign up for the State Aid Listserv for updates and information. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the State Aid team if you have any questions or concerns. More information and dates can be found at at the MBLC website. 

💬 State Aid + Financial Report Weekly Drop In Hours (Online)

Contact: Cate Merlin

Tuesday, September 30th at 3pm – Zoom Link

Wednesday, October 1st at 9am – Zoom Link

Thursday, October 2nd at 3pm – Zoom Link

Drop in to ask last minute Financial Report, State Aid, and Waiver questions. Make sure your budget, materials spending, and hours open fully meet State Aid requirements. Registration is not required, and session and chats will not be recorded or saved.

💻 E-Rate: Form 470

Contact: Jaccavrie McNeely, Kate Butler

Wednesday, October 1 at 10AM – Registration & More Information

In this second of our series of funding year 26 (FY27 – July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027) E-Rate webinars, Aleck Johnson from EdTech Strategies will cover:

  • Basics of the Form 470
  • Step by step walkthrough of filing the form 470

Later trainings will include bid evaluation and vendor selection, Form 471, the application review process, Form 486, and invoicing. Feel free to suggest additional topics if you have questions!

💻 Web Accessibility Office Hours

Contact: Jaccavrie McNeely, Kate Butler

Friday, October 3 at 11AM – More Information & Zoom Link

Wednesday, October 15 at 3PM – More Information &  Zoom Link

Need help making your web content accessible?  MBLC staff are here to help!  Join our office hours every first Friday at 11AM or third Wednesday at 3PM.  View all upcoming Web Accessibility programming under the Internet, Technology, and Access category on our calendar.

🤝Library Advisory Office Hours (Online)

Contact: Al Hayden

Monday, October 27 at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link

Open to all Directors, Trustees, Library Friends, and Foundation Members. They are designed to be an open-ended, safe space for questions and interaction among participants. Sessions will NOT be recorded, and chats will NOT be saved. Registration is not required; stop by anytime during the hour!

📅 Social Services in Libraries Roundtable (Online)

Contact: Ally Dowds

Wednesday, October 15 at 11AM – Registration & More Information

Explore how libraries can enhance community support through social services. Connect with librarians, social workers, and social service providers to share insights, success stories, and practical tips.

Event Highlights:

  • Discussions on integrating social services in libraries.
  • Real-life examples and best practices.
  • Networking opportunities with professionals, community organizations and community members.

October’s topic for discussion: How are you or your library working toward creating a culture of safety?

📅 Save the Date! Demystifying Mental Health: A Community Forum

Contact: Ally Dowds

Saturday, October 18 11AM to 4PM – Registration & More Information

Join the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Office of Behavioral Health Promotion and Prevention, and William James College for the Demystifying Mental Health Community Forum. A time for real talk about inclusive, culturally rooted approaches to mental well-being for everyone. The forum is free of charge and takes place at Union United Methodist Church in Boston. Visit the MA Dept. of Mental Health website for more information and to register to attend.

🤝Annual MLTA Trustee Conference

Contact: Al Hayden

Saturday, November 1, 10AM to 1PM – Registration & More Information

The Massachusetts Library Trustee Association (MLTA) will hold their annual conference this year on Saturday, November 1 at the Shrewsbury Public Library, 609 Main St., Shrewsbury, MA 01545. Please register in advance as space is limited and lunch will be provided.

The MLTA conference is a great opportunity for trustees across the state to interact with each other, learn new approaches to advocate for their library, have conversations about challenges you’re facing, and trade stories about successes. 

🕙 MBLC Monthly Board Meeting on November 6 (Hybrid)
Contact:Rachel Masse

The regular monthly board meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is scheduled for 10AM on Thursday, November 6, 2025, at the State House.

Henry Stedman Nourse

By MBLC Preservation Specialist Jessica Branco Colati

Image of Henry Steadman Nourse
Henry Steadman Nourse, MBLC Commissioner 1890-1903

The Honorable Henry Stedman Nourse (April 9, 1831 – November 14, 1903), of South Lancaster, Lancaster, served as a founding commissioner of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts from 1890 until his death in November 1903, soon after his appointment to a third term on the Commission. 

Nourse was a Harvard-educated civil engineer, educator, and historian who served in the Civil War and as a Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts State Legislature. In addition to being a founding Library Commissioner, he served on many state, regional, and local commissions, committees, and boards, including the Lancaster School Committee and the Thayer Memorial Library’s Board of Trustees, of which he sat on for more than forty years

Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1831, Nourse’s ancestors included Mayflower pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden, as well as Rebecca Towne Nurse, a victim of the 1692 Salem witch hunts. After graduating from Harvard in 1853, he joined the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy as professor of ancient languages. Nourse soon returned to Harvard, completing a Master’s degree in 1856. He then worked for a time at Whitwell and Henck, an engineering company in charge of filling in Boston’s Back Bay.

At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Nourse volunteered with the 55th Illinois Infantry. He acted as adjutant to the commander (as Alexander Hamilton did for Gen. Washington during the American Revolution), then rose to the rank of Captain of the regiment’s Company H. He also served as commissary of musters for the 17th army corps during several Federal campaigns. The 55th Illinois Infantry fought in more than two dozen battles and sieges during the Civil War, including the Battle of Shiloh where Nourse was slightly wounded, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Third Battle of Chattanooga, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. In March 1865, a month before Lee’s formal surrender at Appomattox, Nourse mustered out. 

Ever the historian, Nourse was one of the authors of The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865, published in 1887. Some years later, Nourse also participated in a Memorial Day ceremony recognizing Lancaster’s remaining Civil War veterans. 

Lancaster, MA remaining Civil War veterans

Nourse did not immediately return north to Lancaster after the war. He settled in Pennsylvania for nearly a decade, working as the construction engineer and superintendent of the Bessemer Pennsylvania Steel Works in Steelton, near Harrisburg. He married widow Mary Baldwin Whitney Thurston, also originally from Massachusetts, in 1872. The Nourses relocated back to Lancaster in 1875, following a year-long trip to Europe that they may have embarked on as an extended honeymoon.

After returning to Massachusetts, Nourse resumed his public service endeavors within and beyond Lancaster. He served as a state representative in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1883, and then as a state senator in 1885-86. Several Massachusetts library-related acts were passed during Nourse’s terms in office, including ones supporting municipal library incorporation, the purchase of books for a prison library, support for the State Library, and protections for library holdings and property. Nourse was also appointed as a trustee of the Worcester Insane Hospital and to the Massachusetts Board of Charity in addition to his positions in Lancaster’s local government. 

Nourse was appointed by Governor Brackett to serve as one of the first Library Commissioners in 1890. By all accounts, Nourse was a dedicated member of every body he served, including the Commission. He never missed a meeting during his thirteen years of service, despite living the farthest away from Boston. This dedication led to the poignant note in the Commission’s meeting minutes following his passing that his chair was empty “for the first time.”

A prolific historian, Nourse authored or edited several works, including a number focused on the history of Lancaster and its people. He compiled a bibliography and collected historic and contemporary pamphlets, notices, maps, drawings, invitations, programs, and other ephemera representative of daily life in the community, pasting each onto the pages of multiple volumes of “Lancastriana.” 

Nourse extensively annotated and extra-illustrated a copy of The History of the Town of Lancaster by inserting maps, drawings, and clippings into the text block in a process known as grangerizing.
Nourse extensively annotated and extra-illustrated a copy of The History of the Town of Lancaster by inserting maps, drawings, and clippings into the text block in a process known as grangerizing.

Nourse also extensively annotated and extra-illustrated a copy of The History of the Town of Lancaster by inserting maps, drawings, and clippings into the text block in a process known as grangerizing. In its expanded, three-volume form, with an additional volume of related items, Nourse’s version of the work is “the authoritative basis a student of Lancaster history requires to piece together a clear and lucid historical narrative.”

For 1899’s 9th Annual Report of the Free Public Library Commission, Nourse compiled a comprehensive history of the public library or libraries – or the lack of a public library – in each Massachusetts municipality. Anticipating strong interest in Nourse’s work, the Commission authorized an additional 2,000 printings of that year’s report. The encyclopedic resource is still referenced by MBLC staff when asked to share information about the origin of and early funding models for a particular community’s library.

Recognizing his passion for collecting and preserving local historical works and archival records, Nourse was elected to the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in October 1883, joining fellow founding Commissioner Samuel Swett Green (Commissioner Caleb Benjamin Tillinghast would later be elected to AAS in 1907). He was later chosen to serve as AAS’s inaugural biographer. Nourse was also elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1889.

Nourse died suddenly on November 14, 1903, while at home reading and correcting proof sheets for an upcoming publication. He had very recently presented a paper on the topic of power looms at AAS and had attended the Commission’s October meeting in Boston a few weeks earlier. Joining the many tributes made by the numerous groups Nourse was connected to, the Commission drafted its own resolutions in response to Nourse’s passing at its November 1903 meeting held just a few days later. In addition to lauding his many acts of service to the Union, the Commonwealth, and Lancaster, Commissioner Tillinghast emphasized Nourse’s dedication to libraries and archives, stating, “He has the highest ideal of the public library as the fountain of popular intelligence and the treasure house of local history.”

Author’s Note: Several volumes held by the Thayer Memorial Library’s Special Collections were authored by, annotated, collected, and/or donated by Henry Stedman Nourse. He literally left his mark on the library’s collection development. We are incredibly grateful for the assistance of Victoria Hatchel, Special Collections Librarian, in combing Thayer Memorial Library’s reference files, archival holdings, and special collections stacks in support of compiling this blog post.

In 2018, the Thayer Memorial Library was awarded $30,000 in federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered by the MBLC to conserve and digitize the four volumes, allowing for them to be viewable and searchable online.

Get to Know the Founding Commissioners: Henry Stedman Nourse

Image of Henry Steadman Nourse
Henry Stedman Nourse, MBLC Commissioner from 1890-1903

Henry Stedman Nourse (of Lancaster, 1831-1903) was a Civil War veteran who was part of General Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864. He was a professor of ancient languages at Phillips Exeter Academy and a state legislator for the town of Lancaster. He was not only an avid historian of Lancaster’s local history but was also a member of many of the Commonwealth’s historical societies. Mr. Nourse took this passion to his work with libraries, which he saw as a “treasure house of local history.”

1. How did Commissioner Nourse champion libraries in Massachusetts?

Nourse was instrumental in establishing public libraries in towns across the Commonwealth as a library commissioner. His tireless advocacy for free public libraries emphasized their importance in education and community engagement. Nourse’s efforts ensured rural areas gained access to library resources, significantly contributing to the Massachusetts’ robust public library system.

2. How did Henry Stedman Nourse’s work challenge the cultural, social and/or political norms of the late 1890s and early 1900s?

Henry Stedman Nourse challenged the prevailing cultural norms of the late 1800s and early 1900s by working to promote the democratization of knowledge. He advocated for public libraries to provide free access to books and learning for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background or geography. This was a shift from elitist norms of the time, as he supported literacy and education as universal rights, laying the groundwork for intellectual freedom.

Image of Henry Stedman Nourse in civil war uniform

3. What personal experiences shaped Nourse’s tenure as a Commissioner?

After serving in the Civil War, Nourse returned to Lancaster to find that the town had established an institution that functioned both as a public library and a memorial for Civil War veterans, which inspired him to contribute significantly to the community.  He served on the Lancaster School Committee and Library Board (now the Board of Trustees), in addition to becoming one of the founding Commissioners of the MBLC.

4. How does Nourse’s impact still resonate in today’s libraries, and what can we learn from his legacy?

Henry Stedman Nourse’s work as a library commissioner in Massachusetts still resonates today through his focus on accessibility and community engagement. Nourse even donated his sizable collection of historical artifacts to the Town Museum to ensure access for generations to come that you can visit today at Thayer Memorial Library.  As a pioneer for public libraries, Nourse’s vision established libraries as inclusive community hubs. His legacy emphasizes the importance of equal access to information, ensuring libraries remain vital pillars in our communities. 

5. An MBLC Favorite Quote about Commissioner Nourse:

“The services performed by Mr. Nourse as a public-spirited citizen, for the benefit of his town and his state, can hardly be estimated at their full value…for he sounded no trumpet before him. In both branches of the state legislature, on the library commission, as trustee of the Worcester Insane Hospital, as member of the state board of charity, on the school committee and the library board of Lancaster — in all these relations, and many more, his courtesy, candor and good sense, his disinterestedness, his unshrinking readiness to do his full share of whatever was to be done, are gratefully remembered and spoken of by all who were associated with him.” (Samuel S. Green, 1904)

6. Fascinating Fact about Henry Stedman Nourse:

Nourse is a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, one of the women hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692.

Do you know a public official that reminds you of Nourse? The Henry Stedman Nourse Award honors a public official whose work has whose work has helped to create groundbreaking change for Massachusetts public libraries.

nominate a public official for the henry stedman nourse Award by october 1

What Might a Future Recession Look Like for MA Libraries? * 

In my last post, I walked you through my discovery of library usage (in terms of circulation and attendance) increasing during the Great Recession, with the Great Recession defined as the fiscal years 2009, 2010, 2011 using Michael Mabe’s 2023 study. So, what can we do with that information? Given that this is a blog series where I try to help libraries fortify themselves, I’d like to use that information to extrapolate what could happen if we encounter another recession in near future and what that might mean in terms of our needs and services.  

Let’s start with the basics of what we learned in my last post when I discovered that MA-specific data aligned reasonably well with the study I used as a model for my inquiry. To recap: Massachusetts libraries saw an average increase in circulation of 12.5% and an average increase in attendance of 32.4% during the Great Recession as compared to the 3 years before the recession. If those percentages were extrapolated to see a potential model for the future, what would that look like?*  

Circulation 

For the fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024, the total average circulation activity for MA libraries was 176,330 items. This includes books, periodicals, eBooks, other nonprint items such as Library of Things, basically anything that was transferred from the library (physically or digitally) to the hands of a patron. This also includes interlibrary loans (ILLs; items exchanged between libraries). If we apply the percentage increase in circulation that occurred in MA during the Great Recession**, the total average circulation over the next 3 years would be 198,437 items, or a potential increase of 22,107 items in a year.  

What does this look like in terms of library service?  

The average total circulation number of 176,330 works out to the library circulating about 483 items per day. This assumes that the library is open 365 days a year, which as libraries are municipal departments, is virtually impossible. So let’s factor in the 12 state holidays that libraries will observe, plus the day after Thanksgiving, and an extra 2 days for libraries to be closed*** for snow/weather conditions, building issues (no electricity, flooding, extreme heat, construction, etc.) or other situations out of most people’s control that may necessitate a library not opening to its patrons that day. When including days where a library will not be open to patrons, this increases the daily circulation for a given library right now to be 504 items per day.  

An increase of more than 22,000 items in a year works out to an extra 61 items each day.  If we include the library being closed for 15 days as I did above to calculate the current numbers, that number tics up to 63 items circulating per day. So, adding the potential increase in daily circulation, libraries may result in circulating 567 items every day they are open in the event of a significant economic downturn.  

Attendance 

The other major metric Mabe’s study examined to indicate library usage is how many people visited the library. The average attendance at any given MA library over the course of a year using FY2022, 2023, and 2024 data was 69,471**** This includes anyone who walked into the library for any reason including but not limited to: picking up a hold, asking a question, using public computers or Wi-Fi, sitting and reading a periodical, seeking shelter from the elements, attending a program, etc. If we use the percentage increase in attendance that libraries experienced during the Great Recession to project a possible increase in attendance for the future, that number goes up to 91,983 over the course of a year. This is a potential annual increase of 22,512 library visitors each year. 

What does this look like in terms of library service?  

The average total of 69,471 visitors per year that libraries have most recently welcomed, works out to 190 people each day. If we factor in library closures (the same 15 days I used for calculating circs above) that number becomes 198 people visiting a library each day.  

When you count the extra 22,512 people that an economic downturn may bring in, that is an extra 64 people per day coming into the library. Almost 92,000 people visiting over the course of a year works out to 252 people visiting the library every day. Again, factoring in time for libraries to be closed, that number increases to 263 people visiting the library over the course of a day, should we end up in a recession. 

Are we prepared for that?  

In order to answer this question, we need to look at several factors and each library is going to have to ask itself:  

  • Do we have enough staff to accommodate these potential increases?  
  • Will our building’s current condition accommodate the increase in foot traffic?  
  • Is our internet (public computers, Wi-Fi) equipped to handle increased usage?  
  • Do we receive ILL deliveries often enough if our circulation increases?  
  • What infrastructure do we have that might be scalable to accommodate potential increases like this?  

All of these questions will have at least one overarching question in common: Will we have the funding to help potentially more people? Every library in MA is different in terms of how well funded it is within its municipality but now may be a good time share this information with your closest library advocates (Trustees, Friends, Foundation members) to give them a framework of possibilities to work from.  

In my next post, I’ll start digging into metrics from MA that weren’t considered in Mabe’s study, but we have the data for and can give us further insight into this thought experiment. I will use the same basic logic and framework from Mabe’s study to see what our past may be able to tell us about our future when it comes to funding and staffing.  

* DISCLAIMER: This is a thought experiment to hopefully give libraries a framework from which to advocate for themselves using a foundation of past data. I am not a financial analyst, nor do I have any ability to predict the future. I do need to use the data available to me, however; which means I’m limited by what’s available from our library statistics. That data ends (for now) with FY2024 . Because of that, I can only really extrapolate what that might mean in terms of averages for FY2025, 2026 and 2027. This does NOT mean that there is any certainty about whether there will be an economic recession during those years. For more background on what prompted me going down this particular rabbit-hole, please see my previous post.  

** Because I only have the information from the previous recession, that is the number I’m using to extrapolate. If we encounter another recession, I fully recognize that the percentage may be different and that using the same number indicates that circumstances will be the same in the future, which is unlikely. But this can give libraries a baseline of something to work with to anticipate change and create a nimble plan of action to adjust based on what actually happens, should a recession occur.            

***Again, I’m working with averages here. Some libraries may not need to close for extenuating circumstances at all over the course of a year, some libraries may close more days.    

~ Al Hayden, MBLC Library Advisory Specialist