Rebuilding a Broken Library System – Everett Public Schools, MA

The Perfect Storm

It was the perfect storm in Everett, Massachusetts, in the year of 2019. Just five miles from Boston, Everett Public Schools serves more than 7,200 students in 10 school buildings. Like many school districts, the school is overcrowded, and the libraries operated simultaneously as classrooms to fill the need for additional space. Follett Destiny® Library Manager was in use for the high school and five elementary schools. The district chose to self-host the product, keeping all data on their own server. Mary Puleo, District Library Coordinator, was focused mainly on the high school library collection.

That year, the technology director left the district for another position. At the same time, six librarian positions in the Grades K-8 schools were eliminated. As time went on, the libraries fell into deplorable condition. The materials hadn’t been weeded in years, and with so much activity in and out of the rooms, there was little accountability for the materials in inventory.

The perfect storm finally culminated in a server crash. All data was lost and could not be retrieved. There was no way to know what was in the collection, leaving the Everett library system in complete disarray. A new technology team was hired with a lead to support Follett hosting, but they could not restore the collection.

Puleo, a librarian for 23 years, described the libraries as, “the worst I have ever seen. I honestly thought it was too far gone to clean up.” The libraries were closed, only to be used as additional teaching space and storage.

Reopening the Libraries

Then, in March of 2020, a new superintendent came to the district with a goal in mind – in fact, a mandate: reopen the libraries and hire full time librarians for each elementary school. Puleo knew that to attract full-time librarians to join the district to work at these sites, she would need to get the libraries back into functioning condition. Additionally, a strategic plan was needed to be filed with the State Board of Library Commissioners. This required information on the current condition of the collection and the establishment of goals.

Phased Approach for Affordability

Budget challenges and finding the time and space to complete the project were just some of the obstacles Puleo faced. The principals wanted the project completed during school vacations to minimize the disruption of the schools’ operations. Puleo suggested using ESSER funds to accomplish the project, and the administration luckily agreed.

Follett Software Inventory Services team was then hired, and a phased approach was confirmed: the projects would be completed during winter break and spring break of 2022. This afforded the district the opportunity to spread the cost of the project out and minimize the impact to the school day. Two sites were completed in February 2022, and three more in April of the same year. Special permission was granted by the superintendent for the Follett team to come in on weekends and holidays, including Presidents’ Day and Patriots’ Day, to ease the disruption in school activities. This required additional hours for custodial staff to be on hand during project hours.

Students were very excited in the elementary level to see the library being reorganized. I thought it was an insurmountable project, but Follett guided us through the process.

Mary Puleo, District Library Coordinator, Everett Public Schools

The Follett team came in to evaluate the situation and determined a plan. During these projects, 26,341 items were weeded from the collection and 29,509 books were cataloged manually. They were each scanned into Destiny Library Manager to restore the library collection back into inventory.

Once Puleo was able to see the collection, she developed a strategic plan to determine future needs based on the age of the collection, the diversity of the collection, and more. Armed with the collection analysis, she prepared for an equity or accreditation audit.

Today, by migrating Destiny Library Manager to the cloud, and the assistance of the Follett Inventory Services Team, Everett Public Schools now maintains and builds on their inventory with confidence that their data is safe and secure. This successful partnership set a foundation for their entire library system, ensuring their students will continue to have access to the books they need to support a bright future! Learn more about how Inventory Services can benefit you or your district here.