The evening of 2026-11-02 was a meeting of the Mendon Public Library Board of Trustees.
A letter from an 8th grader (presumably from HFL) was shared. The student was suggesting the Library be open on Sunday. While no commitment was made tonight, the idea of being open Sunday afternoon clearly had some appeal. As ever, there are practical details to such a change. Which is why reviewing the task was handed to the Long Range Planning committee.
There was a good chunk of discussion around the Library’s ~$400k budget. What they asked the Town for, what they think they will be getting, and so on. Overall, from where I was observing it seemed about the same as most years. Which is to say: They have a plan, that should hopefully work. Now it’s the waiting portion while the Town Board finalizes things on their end.
Sustainability came up again, and the obstacles preventing as much progress as is desired. While the diligence can be commended, I’m going to repeat what I said almost exactly one year ago on this topic: “sustainability is at best a distraction”.
The Business Trick or Treat event on Halloween had good turn out. The graph was impressive. That day, when the Library was only open for a few hours, was easily twice the traffic of the busiest full day. I’m not surprised, who doesn’t like playing dress up while roaming the countryside in search of yumminess. If you missed it, maybe you can make it next year.
In 2027, this group’s meeting pattern will likely change. Primary reason was too many collisions with other local meetings, which they wanted to attend. I’ve certainly noticed that. While they haven’t nailed the new dates down, from what I heard I suspect they will end up on a first Wednesday pattern.
And now that it’s been fixed, they tried to work out how to deal with the data gathered by a faulty door counting sensor. Some interesting methods to estimate and compensate were discussed. But I’m of the opinion the data is the data. Faulty inaccurate data is still the data. Manipulating it only raises into question ALL of the data, risking the credibility of the source. Which is why I was glad to hear it said that an * would be needed. I think that’s the way to handle this. Stick in an asterisk (and one for Halloween, if for a different reason). Then explain the story behind the data. All while the data itself remains uncorrupted, even if not as accurate as would be ideal. And in the process preserving the credibility of the source.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 02, 2026 meeting of the Mendon Public Library Board of Trustees.
Link to agenda on Library website until they update it, losing the past. Unless you create a direct link to one of the files. That should survive, for a while at least.