The Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library needs an up-to-date, easier-to-use website and to make its lower-level entrance more accessible to people with disabilities. Both concerns were the feature of the Library Board of Trustees’ meeting Monday.
The January 22 Special Town Meeting will be asking voters to spend $3,000 from Capital Improvement Funds to install an accessible walkway to the lower-level, side-door entrance. Library Director Kristen Cardoso told the board Monday that Facilities Manager Andrew Daniel considers the walkway an accessibility issue because otherwise, the door leads to a sharp drop from the floor inside to the ground outside. She said Daniel had to convince the Select Board against dropping the expense from the Jan. 22 meeting warrant.
The trustees indicated they were fully behind the project. Trustees Chairperson Kelley Medeiros said it’s a project that has needed to be done ever since the basement was renovated to host programming and a new entrance built. “It’s a project that’s we’ve waited to be done a long time,” she said.
Cardoso also reported that she recently asked the company that donated the library’s original website to the town at no cost, how much it would cost to redesign the site so that the library staff can rewrite its components on its own. She said she was told the cost would range between $5,000 and 6,750 to redesign the site. The cost would be $8,000 for a totally new website.
That led the trustees to consider other options. Medeiros asked what about a donated effort from a local school or college? She noted the board has received no response after reaching out to Old Colony Regional Vocational High School. But what about Old Rochester Regional or any of the local colleges, she wondered aloud.
“It could be a special project for a student,” trustee Michael King said.
But we’d also love to simply get a volunteer, Medeiros added.
The trustees decided to share the responsibility for each member to email a local school or college with a plea for volunteer help. (Medeiros also asked The Wanderer reporter attending the meeting to spread the word that the library needs volunteer help creating a new website. Consider it done.)
In other business, Cardoso noted in her report to the board the flattering results of the recent Master Plan Update public survey. The survey revealed that 40% of respondents were “satisfied” with town library services and 35 percent were “very satisfied.”
The Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library Board of Trustees will meet next on Thursday, February 8, at 6:30 pm at the Plumb Library, 17 Constitution Way.
Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library Board of Trustees
By Michael J. DeCicco