Tag: construction

MBLC Service Update – March 13, 2025

MBLC Service Update 
March 13, 2025 

☝️ NEED TO KNOW 

Is the State Aid to Public Libraries Program affected by federal funding? 

State Aid Grant Awards that public libraries receive through the State Aid to Public Libraries are fully funded by the annual state budget line 7000-9501.  Not federal funding.  However, all staff who work in the State Aid Unit are funded in part through federal funding. — Cate Merlin, Head of State Programs 

🆕 NEW BLOG SERIES! Fortifying Your Library with Al Hayden

Welcome to our new blog series designed to help you fortify your library to protect you, your staff, and your patrons. A library is at its strongest when there are clear, unambiguous expectations for everyone to follow and one of the best ways to implement these expectations is through policy. To read more about library policy that creates stability for your staff and patrons, visit the MBLC Blog.    

🕙 MBLC Monthly Board Meeting on April 3 (Hybrid) 

Contact: Rachel Masse

The regular monthly board meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is scheduled for 10AM on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams. This is a hybrid meeting. 

😎 Apply for a Summer Library Visit with Blades by March 24 

Contact: Rachel Masse, Celeste Bruno, June Thammasnong 

The Boston Bruins mascot, Blades, loves visiting libraries throughout the entire Commonwealth to help promote the importance of summer reading! No library is too small or far for Blades.  *If your library is interested in a summer visit with Blades, please submit an application by March 24.* Selected libraries will be notified by mid-April.  Final decisions on all visits are determined by the Boston Bruins staff. 

Blades library visits are 1 hour with all event materials provided by the MBLC and Bruins.  A typical visit includes a hockey themed story (read by librarian or local VIP), hockey trivia, activity stations (coloring, beading, button making), photos with Blades, and outdoor games (such as Jenga and Connect 4). 

📰 eBook Funding Increases but Access Constrained 

Contact: Jaccavrie McNeely 

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) recently awarded $1 million in grants to Automated Networks for purchase of eContent for the Library eBook and Audiobook program (LEA). LEA gives Massachusetts residents access to eBooks, audiobooks, and more from 389 participating libraries. For more information on increased eBook funding, visit the MBLC website. 

📰 347 Libraries Certified to Receive Local Aid 

Contact: Cate Merlin, Jen Inglis 

Libraries certified in the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ (MBLC) State Aid to Public Libraries Program receive local aid funding to directly support public library services. For FY2025, 347 municipalities and their libraries are certified in the program and will share $20 million.  For more on FY2025 State Aid, visit the MBLC website. 

️📰 Explore Grants Awarded to 18 Libraries 

Contact: Lyndsay Forbes 

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is pleased to announce 18 libraries will receive a combined $93,000 as the FY2025 recipients of Explore Grants. The MBLC uses federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding to provide Explore Grants that improve library services, collections, and programs.  For more on how federal funding makes a local impact with the Explore Grants, visit the MBLC website. 

📜 Community Voices: Curating Oral Histories and Audiovisual Collections (Recording now available online) 

Contact: Jess Colati 

Watch the recording online with password: Dh+0&2%D  

Whether your recordings are audio, video, “on tape,” or born digital, curating oral histories and other media introduces new and different questions around collecting, management, preservation, and use. What equipment do you need to capture or digitize? How do you calculate storage? Should you work with a vendor? Do you need permission to make people’s stories and historical recordings available in your library and online? View the recording online, and/or contact Preservation Specialist Jess Colati with any questions or to schedule a 1-on-1 appointment. 

🤝 Library Advisory Office Hours (Online) 

Contact: Al Hayden 

Monday, March 24 at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link 

Monday, April 14th at 9AM – 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!  

🗨️ Preservation Office Hours (Online) 

Contact: Jess Colati 

Tuesday, March 25 at 10AM – More Information & Zoom Link 

Tuesday, April 8 11 at 10AM – More Information & Zoom Link 

Open to all interested in ensuring safe and stable storage and improving collection management for your library or organization’s preservation projects.  Connect with the MBLC’s Preservation Specialist, Jess Colati and colleagues around the Commonwealth that work to advance the protection of cultural collections during monthly office hours.  Sessions and chats are not recorded or saved. 

💬 State Aid Office Hours (Online)  

Contact: Cate Merlin  

Wednesday, March 26th at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link  

Wednesday, April 16th at 9AM – More Information & Zoom Link  

Join Cate Merlin, Head of State Programs, and your fellow Library Directors, Trustees, and others seeking advice and answers as we embark upon the FY2026 budget season. Make sure your next budget, materials spending, and hours open fully meet State Aid requirements, and share ideas for budget strategies with others- registration is not required, and session and chats will not be recorded or saved.    

📈 Census Bureau Data 101: Resources and Services (Online) 

Contact: Al Hayden 

Tuesday, March 18 at 2PM – More Information & Zoom Link 

In this workshop you will learn about U.S. Census Bureau’s surveys and data resources available to help you understand, access, and use Census Bureau data, which can be helpful to libraries for community research and outreach, program planning, and resource allocation.  We will take a tour of the Census Bureau’s website and highlight areas that may be most useful to library staff and patrons and provide a demonstration on how to quickly pull up your community’s data profile. 

👭 Building Friendships Between People with and without Disabilities: A Train-the-Trainer Workshop (Online) 

Contact: Ally Dowds 

Wednesday, March 19 at 1PM – Registration & Zoom Link 

The ARC of Massachusetts will facilitate a 2-hour train-the-trainer workshop model to equip library staff with the skills and strategies needed to foster friendships between people with and without disabilities. This interactive presentation will provide practical tools to help integrate inclusive practices into your organization.  Registration is required. 

🖥️ B&T Connect Training (Online)  

Contact: Cate Merlin 

Thursday, March 20th at 10am – More Information & Zoom Link   

Thursday, March 27th at 2pm – More Information & Zoom Link 

The State Aid team is excited to introduce Baker & Taylor Connect to the Library community! B&T Connect is the data analysis and visualization counterpoint to B&T Collect. This training will walk you through the basics of creating and viewing data and charts using years of your library data (and data from all MA libraries), so you can better advocate for your libraries and communities. 

🌍 Breaking Bad Conversations about Climate Change with John E. Fernandez (Online)  

Contact: Andrea Bono-Bunker, Heather Backman 

Tuesday, March 25 at 1-2:30PM – Register here to attend! 

Please join us to learn how to better communicate about challenges facing our climate with Professor John E. Fernandez, a practicing architect, a full professor in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Director of MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. Professor Fernandez will leverage his experience engaging across diverse sectors of American society – the public sector, private sector, communities, and civil society generally – to offer ways in which to engage in non-confrontational, nonpartisan, and, most importantly, positive conversations about climate change. The aim of the talk will be to discuss cases in which conversations are likely to be derailed by current misunderstandings and explicitly confusing information and offer pathways toward, if not agreement, then purposeful enhancement of understanding and empathy. Professor Fernandez will also offer several information and communication assets developed over the past few years by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative.   

This webinar was planned by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners,  the Massachusetts Library System, and the Vermont Department of Libraries.   

🌈Special Populations Deep Dive: Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth (Online) 

Contact: Ally Dowds 

Wednesday, April 2 at 2PM – Registration & Zoom Link 

Join us for a conversation and Q&A with the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth to learn more about its Annual Recommendations for state agencies (including the MBLC!), the Safe School Initiative, and opportunities for trainings and technical assistance to schools across the state. The Commission advises others in state government on effective policies, programs, and resources for LGBTQ youth and will help connect you to resources and latest news to help libraries support youth in their communities.

👕18th Annual Bruins PJ Drive 

Contact: Rachel Masse, Celeste Bruno, June Thammasnong 

It’s not too late to join the Boston Bruins, DCF/Wonderfund and Cradles to Crayons to collect pajamas for kids in need until March 15. Together, we hope to collect 10,000 pairs of new PJs! 

For more details on how your library can participate, visit the MBLC Website for the Bruins PJ Drive Toolkit. 

💙 Participate in the Empowered by Libraries Campaign! 

Contact: June Thammasnong, Celeste Bruno 

🧰 Campaign Toolkit  

This year, the MBLC is encouraging libraries in Massachusetts to invite their patrons to share their story of how the library has helped them at LoveMassLibraries.com.  As part of the FY2026 Legislative Agenda‘s theme of Empowered by Libraries, their stories will demonstrate the importance and impact of our Commonwealth’s libraries to state representatives and legislators during the legislative budget season and beyond.  Learn more about how your library can participate with the Empowered by Libraries Toolkit. 

📅 Registration is open! Library Summit on Social Cohesion: April 11, 2025 from 10AM to 3:30PM at Devens Common Center 

Contact: Jack Martin (MLS) 

Registration & More Information 

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) and Simmons University School of Library and Information Science, we are excited to announce the Library Summit on Social Cohesion!  This in-person event will provide a nourishing day for library staff to strengthen relationships within our profession and to support our important role fostering social connection in our communities.  The theme of the summit is: Together We Thrive: Libraries as Catalysts for Social Cohesion. Registration is required. 

Building Intention in Canaan

By Andrea Bono-Bunker, Library Building Specialist

A holistic approach to sustainability considers both the environment and those who inhabit it. In construction, so much of our focus is on emissions, embodied carbon, and the breakdown of waste, but what about the human toll of building? As institutions with values that foster freedom, democracy, and self-fulfillment, do we have a responsibility to ensure that the materials and products used in our projects are sourced and manufactured in ways that also uphold those values? And how does a commitment to those values translate to the spaces we create for library staff and the public? 

The Building Literacy: Public Library Construction podcast has two new episodes that explore the issues above with a case study of the New Canaan Library in New Canaan, CT. In episode one, President and CEO, Lisa Oldham, and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Coordinator, Miki Porta join us to discuss their dedication to an all-electric future, their pilot project with local nonprofit Grace Farms on their Design for Freedom initiative, and fundraising best practices for a project where 75% of the funding came from private donors. In episode two, we delve into how intention in the design and construction process led to welcoming, well-used spaces and their decisions’ impacts on the library’s service model as it relates to the community they serve. We will hear about everything from unexpected connections to a learning framework meant to enhance each part of the library experience for all ages.

Episode 1: Holistic Sustainability in the New Canaan Library Project

Episode 2: Curating Services in Intentional Spaces at New Canaan Library

The New Canaan Library recently was featured in American Libraries’ 2023 Library Design Showcase under the Climate-Conscious category. To learn more about the project and its history, visit the library’s website.

While typically Massachusetts- focused, the Building Literacy: Public Library Construction podcast covers topics and material of interest to any stakeholder in a public library construction project. No matter where you are in your journey to a new or improved library, check out other episodes on this podcast and Library Space: A Planning Resource for Librarians.

Construction Program Update and Proposed Changes

by Lauren Stara, Library Building Specialist

This is a very busy time for me and Andrea Bono-Bunker, the two Library Building Specialists for the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP). The MBLC offered seven new provisional grants in July, and we are working with those communities on the process to secure local funding and start the contract process. In addition, we are working with three projects in the design process, three projects currently under construction, and eight projects that are completed but still working on final reporting and/or LEED certification.

With so many projects in their final stages and our waiting list down to only seven projects, we are planning for our next round of grants. We have been working hard on some changes to our program, which are intended to reduce the very long waiting list we had in the current round, and with the goal of making our grants more predictable and regular.

How the program will be different

  • There will no longer be separate application processes for planning & design and construction. Instead, a town or city will apply once, and we will take them through a planning & design phase and a construction phase. We estimate that this will eliminate about 2 years from the timeline of our projects, reducing escalation and eliminating the need for redesign caused by changes in library services.
  • The financial outlay for municipalities will be much less prior to receiving funding from the MPLCP. No design work will be done before receiving a grant.
  • Municipal officials must participate in the application process.
  • Applications will be evaluated based on three major factors:
    • Community need, with an emphasis on equity and inclusion
    • The current library building’s ability to meet the needs of the community.
    • The capacity of the municipality and the library to undertake a major capital project, including financial capacity and staffing capacity.
  • Applications will be reviewed by independent reviewers based on three tiers or categories – Large Library (30,000+ sf), Medium Library (15,000-29,999 sf), or Small Library (6,000-14,999 sf). A Library Building Program is required for application, and the square footage is determined by that document.
  • A concurrent grant round will be conducted for Small Population Libraries (in towns under 2,500 municipal census population). This new project type is informed by our Small Library Pilot Project, now underway in Shutesbury. Early planning documents, such as the creation of the library building program and conditions assessment, will be part of the planning and design phase.
  • The grant round will be competitive; only as many projects as can be funded within our projected annual cap for a limited number of years will be awarded or placed on a very short waiting list. Applicants not accepted are welcome to apply in subsequent grant rounds.

How the program will be the same

  • The MPLCP’s goal is to improve library services through improvements to library facilities
  • The Library Building Program, developed with extensive community engagement, is the basis for all design decisions and determines the size of the building.
  • Grants are calculated based on eligible costs and a funding formula, with smaller projects receiving a higher percentage of eligible costs.
  • Applications are reviewed by independent review teams; Designs for grantee libraries are also reviewed by independent review teams prior to securing local funding for construction; reviewers are chosen for specific types of expertise and objectivity.
  • Library Building Specialists are available to help at any time in the process.

We are tentatively planning to announce the grant round in the first quarter of 2023, with an application due date about a year later.

Where we are now

The first step in making these changes official is to amend our regulations. We are holding regulatory hearings in early November. For more information and a copy of the revised regulation, please see our regulations page (https://mblc.state.ma.us/programs-and-support/construction/background.php), or contact Lauren at lauren.stara@mass.gov or Andrea at andrea.bunker@mass.gov.

After 18-month wait, Erving Public Library holds open house

After a year-and-a-half long delay, Erving finally celebrated the opening of its new public library with an open house Sunday. The open house invited the public to join key workers who helped bring the library to fruition for music, refreshments, a raffle and speeches.

Read more from the Greenfield Recorder

Building Literacy: Public Library Construction Podcast

COVID-19 has caused all of us to shift operations and services to meet the needs of those we serve, and, for the MBLC’s Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program, that means moving our in-person workshops and site visits to the digital realm. As such, we, the Construction Team, would like to introduce you to our new endeavor: the “Building Literacy: Public Library Construction” podcast, in which we will explore all topics relevant to the entire construction process.

The first two episodes replace our Sustainability Summit, a summit geared toward anyone seeking to incorporate sustainability into a major building upgrade or a partial or whole building project. In episode one, “Sustainability and Building Performance: An Interview with Building Evolution Corporation”, we talk with Building Evolution Corporation’s (BEC) Wesley Stanhope, BEC’s Founder and CEO, and Ken Neuhauser, BEC’s President, about practical steps you can take to plan for and implement partial and whole-building projects that achieve energy goals while not compromising on other aspects of building performance.

In episode two, “Designing for Sustainability: An Interview with Finegold Alexander Architects”, we discuss how architects approach the integration of sustainable measures within the design process to reduce energy load and usage and how it impacts project budgets in an interview with Finegold Alexander Architects’ Ellen Anselone, Rebecca Berry, Josephine Penta, and Beth Pearcy. We encourage anyone with even a thought of undertaking any building project of any scale to listen to these episodes, as sustainability goals must be identified early and remain a priority throughout the process.

The podcast is  also a response to substantial feedback we received about  our program. It was clear that stakeholders in public library construction projects are seeking as much in-depth information and as many mentorship opportunities as possible throughout the process. An interview-based podcast seemed like a logical mechanism in which to deliver these resources, as listeners can access the episodes as the topics arise in their own building project trajectory.

In future episodes, we hope to cover everything from advocacy and fundraising to what to expect a year after your new and improved public library opens. If you have questions stemming from an existing episode, specific topic suggestions for other episodes, or if you have participated in our program and would like to be interviewed for a mentorship and lessons learned episode, please contact Library Building Specialist Andrea Bunker at andrea.bunker@state.ma.us

In this podcast, companies and firms are and will be featured, sharing their expertise and knowledge with library building project stakeholders in an effort to create a better, more informed experience. In no way does the featuring of these companies or firms on this podcast constitute an endorsement or a promotion of those companies or firms by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. These interviews are meant to serve as an educational resource only.

A Must Read for Library Construction

By MBLC Library Building Specialist Lauren Stara

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is packed with so much good information that you want to share it with everyone. In this case, that means everyone who is planning a library construction project.

The Practical Handbook of Library Architecture: Creating Building Spaces that Work by Fred Schlipf and John A Moorman (ALA, 2018) is the book.

To be honest, it’s a little intimidating at nearly 1,000 pages, but don’t let that stop you. The authors are librarians who have decades of experience with library design and construction from the librarian’s point of view, and they’ve put it all down in black and white with humor and style. Chapter Two is entitled “More than Two Hundred Snappy Rules for Good and Evil in Library Architecture” – need I say more?

Topics run the gamut from the 10,000 foot view (overviews of the design and construction processes) to the granular (the wording for the plaque that goes in the lobby), and everything in between. There’s even a chapter called “Evaluating Library Buildings by Walking Around” that’s great for assessing an existing facility. You can see from the photo that I started flagging important passages, but after a few chapters I had to stop because I was running out of flags.

This is a book that former MBLC Construction Specialist Patience Jackson could have written, for those of you who know her. It’s the book I wish I had written, with a few minor exceptions – the information is unrelentingly practical, and I admit that my training as an architect rears its head at times. One example: the section on page 103 where the authors rail against what they call “designer staircases.” I do love a dramatic stairway.

You can download the Table of Contents and the “Two Hundred Snappy Rules” in PDF for free from the ALA Editions website. This is not an inexpensive book, but we are in the process of ordering two more copies to circulate for our professional collection. Contact Lauren Stara if you have any questions.

Keen Eye for Detail Sets Shrewsbury Apart

Shrewsbury’s revamped library held its grand opening on September 21. This renovation and expansion project made room for more computers, a new community meeting space, group meeting areas, and a courtyard adjoining the children’s room.

The new space configuration and furniture setup pays homage to the design details and charm of the historic 1903 building while also accommodating the needs of present-day patrons. Self-checkout machines, plentiful power outlets, and many options for seating – whether visitors want to read for hours, charge their devices, study, or just relax in front of the window for a moment – allow for customizable, user-centered experiences in the library.