Library showing signs of rebound

The library in Millis, which just a few months ago faced the prospect of serious budget cuts, is now a beehive of activity.

The library was able to ward off a reduction in hours when voters approved a $1.16 million Proposition 2 1/2 property tax override this spring. Now, a series of new programs and improvements is in the works.

Library director Linda B. Stetson said changes are already beginning to pay off. By the end of June, circulation was up 16 percent compared with the year before.

``We're the little library that could," Stetson said. ``We're a library that's about to take off into the 21st century."

The library avoided $49,000 in cuts, or 22 percent of its budget, when residents approved the override last spring by a 21-vote margin.

Officials said they would have cut staff and operating hours if the vote had failed.

Since then, Stetson, who moved from Atlanta to head the library in September 2005, has implemented a number of changes.

She said promoting the library is a big part of her job. And she is trying some new methods to entice residents to the library, such as offering Starbucks coffee to parents who bring their children to story hour, expanding the DVD collection by 50 percent, and allowing patrons to bring magazines home for the first time.

She has also sought outside help. The Friends of the Library recently raised money to pay for wireless Internet equipment, and Comcast agreed to waive its fees. A $17,000 federal grant will be spent on a niche for teens to finish their homework and hang out. The Millis Garden Club has planted flowers outside the building and added benches near the entrance.

``It's the little touches," Stetson said. ``Now we have people coming in saying, `Wow, the library never looked so good.' "

On a recent afternoon, Stetson clearly enjoyed bustling about the building, showing off new features and joking about the librarian ``action figure" she owns.

She wants to do everything she can to dispel the stereotype of libraries as warehouses for books run by prim and proper ladies who put their hair in buns, wear sensible shoes, and shush anyone not quietly reading.

Instead, she points out a man surfing the Internet on his laptop computer, the dozen or so children laughing along during story hour, and the mothers sipping coffee and chatting in leather chairs in the next room.

Cheri Mullally was one of the mothers who attended story hour, bringing her daughter Jacquelyn, 5.

``It's great for the kids," she said. ``They get to read stories and can do crafts."

``We're making a more concerted effort to reach out to the community and say we're more than just old books," Stetson said. ``I like to think of the library as the cultural center of a community, the cultural center of Millis."

Stetson has big dreams for the library, including the construction of a new building.

Millis has already won approval for a $2.3 million library construction grant from the state, Stetson said, but the town must raise $5 million more.

Part of the reason for all the activity, Stetson said, is to demonstrate to the Finance Committee and residents that the library is making the most of its existing resources, in hopes of boosting support for a new building.

Veteran library employee Joan Dikun believes the outreach efforts will pay off.

``Another few cups of coffee and we'll have a strong group" of supporters for the new building, she said.