Every year for one week during the month of November, public libraries across Ontario are required to “measure and record” the activities within their library. There are specific statistics to be recorded and sent to the Ontario Ministry of Culture to be compiled in the Annual Survey of Public Libraries. These numbers are meant to reflect a typical week and are used also by municipalities to report “library measures” for the Municipal Performance Measures program. We count the number of items circulated, the number of visits to the library, both walk-in and electronic, the number of materials used in the library, and the number of reference inquiries to name but a few. Beginning Sunday, November 15, through Sunday November 22, library users may notice staff counting! Several weeks back, volunteer opportunities for “counters” were mentioned for this week and there are still some hours available. Please call any branch library for remaining available time slots, if interested.

This past week was the finale for most of the fall story time programs for children. The winter sessions will begin again the first week of January, but registration is already open for them, at all locations. Holiday programming sessions are scheduled for the week of November 23-27. Next Saturday, November 21, there will 2 sessions of Saturday Crafts for ages 6 and older, at 10:30am and 2pm in the LaMarsh Room - Check the website, www.nflibrary.ca for more information, or call the Library.

You may have noticed something new on our Webpage recently. We have added a “Library Value Calculator”. This has been adapted from the Massachusetts Library Association, as a tool for quantifying the benefit of your library usage. It is a clever way to illustrate, how much value, library users can derive from their local libraries. Click on the green button and see for yourself. It is considerably cheaper to borrow an item than buy or rent it, and access is free to all residents. Some of our numbers are arbitrary; we don’t really have a true market cost value for our story time and early literacy programs. Moreover, how do you measure priceless?

Great news and in time for Christmas shopping, we are pleased to offer our new, very own Niagara Falls Public Library Book Bags for sale. The bags are available at all libraries for $2.00 including tax. This is a fundraiser for the library.