The Richards Memorial Library is located at 118 North Washington St. For more information, visit www.rmlonline.org or call 508-699-0122.
Message from the Director
We hope to open the library to the public again on Monday, June 22. We are very excited to be able to serve our customers again. That being said, the library, like the rest of the world, will be a different place and will look different.
- Partitions will be in place between the staff and the public at service desks and between the computers of the public LAN.
- Everyone, staff and customers, will be expected to wear masks.
- We will also ask all patrons to fill out contact tracing information when they enter the building.
- There will be no computers or toys in the Children’s Room and children must be accompanied by an adult.
- There will be no tutoring.
- The Program Room will be unavailable.
- The library will monitor the number of people in the building at any given time in order to facilitate accepted social distancing.
All of these changes are consistent with best practices to keep everyone safe. We look forward to seeing you again.
Placing holds for Fornt-Porch Pick-up
Until the library reopens, Front Porch Pick-up will continue Monday through Friday with one addition: Patrons can now place holds on North Attleborough items only via the online SAILS catalog, and the library will process them. Staff then will call patrons to let them know their holds are ready, and arrange a day for those to be placed on the cart for Front Porch Pick-up.
Patrons can still call in from 10 a.m. to 12 p,m., Monday through Friday, to order books and have them placed on the front porch from 12-1 p.m.
Pajama Drive wrap-up
Many thanks to the generous patrons for helping the library reach its goal of 130 pajamas donated to the Boston Bruins/Cradles to Crayons Pajama Drive for 2020. Congratulations to Janine Cavanaugh, who won the raffle for the flowerpot full of gift cards.
Young Adult and Children’s programs
The library will be operating a little differently, but it will be open. Check the Library’s website for updates on programming and Summer Reading.
Story times will remain virtual for the next couple of months.
While there will be no on-site programming this summer, the staff do hope to have Ed the Wizard with a Harry Potter magic tricks program available online.
Summer Reading, Imagine Your Story will also be available online. To limit material contact there will be raffles for gift cards as prizes.
New safety guidelines
- All patrons under 10 years old must be accompanied by an adult (at least 18 years old.)
- All the puzzles, puppets, stuffed toys and blocks are on extended vacations and unavailable.
- The public computers in the Children’s Room have been removed.
- To encourage social distancing, much of the seating has been removed also.
- There will be pre-selected book grab bags for patrons who wish to limit their browsing time.
- Should the room ever become too busy, patrons will be asked to make their selections and move on to give those waiting a turn.
There are some incredible young people in town, bright, generous and accomplished. Aakash Sunkari generously shared his love of math and science and offered STEM programs for grade school students here at the library. Recently he and his friend and colleague, Jackson Magas, entered their research project in which they developed a “scramjet,” a very high speed jet engine. They took first place in the state and were awarded a finalist spot at the International Science and Engineering Fair.
Adult Programs
It will be a while before there can be programs downstairs in the program room. However, staff is working on finding an alternative place for a return on July 13 of Greg Maichack. This summer’s program is The Miracle Flowers, a Georgia O’Keeffe inspired hands-on pastel workshop for adults with all materials included.
The time is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., place to be determined. The number of people will be limited to 15 people right now so there can be 2 people per table. There will be a waiting list in case a space with more tables can be found. Email mholmes@sailsinc.org to put your name on the list.
What’s new in electronic resources
Some people have been asking about learning languages while they are homebound. Massachusetts residents can get a Boston Public Library eCard and take advantage of their Mango languages offering.
