Regional Services in the Short Term

The following message was posted to the WMRLS email discussion list on June 28, 2010:

Dear Western MA Library Community:

On July 1, 2010, WMRLS will cease to operate as a Regional Library System as it joins with the other regions in forming the new Massachusetts Library System (MLS). Please be aware that, for FY11, our headquarters in Whately is still available for you to visit for many of the services you have been accustomed to using. We expect MLS will use the building to provide continuing education workshops, meetings and computer lab trainings. Delivery will continue for FY11 as you’ve always known it, performed by the same wonderful drivers and trucks you are familiar with. Advisory services will also continue, but at reduced levels. Access to the Springfield Republican online, as well as the statewide Gale and ProQuest databases, will continue. Interlibrary loan for items not available through C/W MARS will be handled through the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy. Training sessions have been offered to introduce member libraries to new procedures.

The Whately building, for now, will be very sparsely staffed and the doors will be locked for security purposes. We ask you to call ahead to schedule a visit if you want to access some of the other services available at the Whately facility, such as:

• Materials remaining from the WMRLS collection are available for you to select for your own needs through July 9.
• The “Got Books” container is still located in the parking lot for you to recycle library materials you would like to discard.
• The self-service CD / DVD disc cleaner is here for you to use to repair and refresh items needing attention.

For now, the toll free phone number remains (800) 282-7755. The extensions to use are 117 for Mary King (mking@wmrls.org), 130 for Shirley MacLean (smaclean@wmrls.org), and 105 for Wes Hamilton (wes@wmrls.org). Contact information will likely change in the future. MLS will keep you informed.

From all of us at WMRLS, we wish you all the best. It has been deeply gratifying to have served Western MA libraries for almost 50 years. Please get involved with the Massachusetts Library System (www.masslibsystem.org) and make sure it is aware of your needs for support and services.

Sincerely,
John Ramsay
Regional Administrator

SURVEY FROM THE FRIENDS OF WMRLS

The Western Mass. Regional Library System will cease to exist as of June 30, 2010.

The Executive Board of the Friends of WMRLS has been talking about how the Friends might continue in its role of advocacy. We won’t be able to advocate for WMRLS anymore, but we believe our libraries in the 4 counties of Western Mass. will need a voice. Before we put lots of energy into reorganizing and refocusing, we’d like to get some sense from library staff and library users in Western Mass. as to how much support we could count on. To that end, we have created a brief survey.

Western Massachusetts Library Advocacy Survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZZBHJKZ

Please take a couple of minutes to respond to the survey so that we can know how to proceed. Your thoughts are valuable to us. Thank you.

Questions can be emailed to Lynn Coakley at Lcoakley@stcc.edu