Well Bill, I wasn't going to bring up this bizarre story, but since you did, I'll tell you what I know.

The safe does NOT belong to the town. You are right about that. One day last week, the town clerk came to the library with a municipal maint. guy who had a hand truck with him. The library was closed because it was a Monday. The acting director was there. They haul the safe over to town hall where a member of the Historical Commission goes after she gets out of work and opens it for them to remove a book (I'll get to that later).  Now, we pay this mm guy for this work, but there was no need to remove it from the library. The acting director and clerk could have waited for the member of the HC to come to the library and open it OR the acting director could have looked in her desk where the combination is kept OR the acting director could have asked one of the library employees who has the combination to open it. Great management decisions all around. A waste of time for the mm guy and the safe is about the size of a large college dorm refrigerator. Not light weight either!! Let's hope he didn't strain his back for this unnecessary weight lifting event!!

So, what was in the safe? Some time ago the clerk sent a box of documents etc. from town hall to be archived (the library had a grant for an archivist). Tossed in the box, quite a jumbled mess, was a book wrapped in butcher brown wrap. The library staff opened it and found a very old book of Wareham BEFORE the town was even incorporated. So, the library people contacted the Town Administrator (Hartman if I remember correctly) to let him know what they found and the state historical was contacted and so forth. Research was done on the book and who should be responsible for it. In fact, the town clerk (the one who probably tossed it into the box) is supposed to have custody of it. After much discussion, it was decided that the library would buy a safe, and the book would be kept in the safe, available to the clerk, historical commission people etc.

No big mystery and there are plenty of people who know all about this book and this story. The crazy part is how it was handled. Haul it to town hall, wait for the person to open it (when the combo was available if anyone bothered to ask), then haul the empty safe back over. Oh my head. The craziness just keeps on coming.

Marcia probably thought she had found the infamous ledger. Instead of writing grants and trying to improve the lives of the seniors in town like a good little COA director, she’s spending her time digging through old boxes at the library and searching the library computer to find something that is out of place.  She is asking everyone and talking to all the papers begging for volunteer at the library. The volunteers have to be interviewed and approved by her and she wonders why she isn’t getting any volunteers.

So Marcia can now add safe cracker to her resume

WantToSeeChange wrote:

Nora,

So we are talking about a book that was written PRIOR to 1739??  Is the town clerk currently in possession of this book?   It would seem to me that this should be stored in a climate controlled area or at the very least in a fire/water proof safe as in which (I am assuming) the library had it stored.

Yes, that is correct--very old book that was evaluated by either Christies or Southeby's when it was discovered by the library staff. (I can't remember which but I'm sure someone at the library or historical commission would know. They said the only real value was to the town and did not assign a huge monetary value).  I can only assume the clerk has it now since she was present during the transport of said safe to town hall.

It really should be in a climate controlled unit. Something tells me that is the reason the BoS, on day 57 of the 60 day waiting period for the library settlement to be completely dismissed, through their lawyer, told the library parties that if we ponied up another $25,000 (in addition to the $50,000 required by the settlement) for a climate control unit, they'd let the 60 days run out. We declined, the 60 days ran out, and the case has been completely dismissed from the courts.  Is this story just plain crazy or what? Only in Wareham.

For the 15+ years or so I have volunteered at the library we always had volunteers. Each year, the trustees and Friends would have a little appreciation party for them.  There are still several of those volunteers working at the library. But volunteers come and go as in any organization.

When we had the budget cut and had the contentious town meeting, several people stood up and said run the library with volunteers. Then the staff got severely cut along with the budget. Maybe 10 people signed up to volunteer. It took almost 6 months for the ITA to CORI these people as required even when the acting director made multiple phone calls and sent emails. When they were finally coried, several were not interested any longer or could not commit the time, but a handful were. The part time children's librarian who was let go came in and volunteered to train the volunteers. So, yes, the library has several volunteers.

But even one of the most vocal at town meeting about running the library on volunteers who did volunteer only showed up about half the time she was scheduled. She didn't even bother to call. This is a problem with volunteers. Since they are not paid, they don't have to work if something comes along. So, to depend fully on volunteers never works. The few volunteers we do have at the library are hard workers and well-appreciated by the staff. But the staff understands that volunteers have other lives and sometimes, they have to do the work of a volunteer who can't make it in. So right now, all the volunteers deal with the really great staff and have good relations with the employees. Marcia G is rarely in the library, so I don't think there is much contact with the current volunteers at all.

I believe that since they aren't filling Lynda Byrne's position and the library only has 2 full time and 4 part time employees, they think if they can get enough volunteers, that's how they will run the library. 

Librarians are professionally trained and a good library needs of full staff of trained library personnel. Volunteers who don't understand best library management practices usually do the type of work that an untrained person can do such as shelving books, tidying up, research assignments etc. They are very valuable and do important tasks, but cannot replace trained professionals.

Keep your friends close...your enemies closer, Quahog.
You can provide a service and at the same time observe what is going on.
You could be a MOLE!!
The nice thing is...no one knows who Quahog is...do they?
Go for it.
Report in.