At its Dec. 4 meeting, the Hubbardston Library Trustees heard a November report from Director Christine Barbera covering programs, circulation and online engagement and were told that the library needs a FY27 municipal appropriation of $91,927 to maintain state certification.

Barbera said the library recorded 1,472 Hubbardston-item circulations in November and 1,568 total circulations regardless of ownership; staff registered 24 new cards during the month. Programs included five story-time events with 67 adults and 90 children in attendance and two Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Volunteers contributed 23 hours across two volunteers.

On outreach and analytics, Barbera said Facebook viewers totaled 4,212 in November and page followers are 1,098; she noted unusual website traffic from China and Singapore that vendor CyberOptik identified as bot-driven and said the firm is developing a spam-detection fix.

Barbera told trustees the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners certified the library for FY26 and that the first FY26 payment should arrive in early December with a second payment in April 2026. She asked trustees to submit budget inputs by Jan. 5, 2026 and said she will propose a FY27 appropriation of $91,927, the minimum the MBLC requires to retain certification. "I'll be submitting a budget proposal of $91,927," she said, and explained the allocation includes utilities and supplies, materials and modest payroll increases to accommodate raises for two staff members.

Trustees discussed whether to increase staff hours for programming and asked Barbera to prepare job descriptions and, if helpful, budget scenarios that would add hours for Trisha's programming. Barbera also offered to omit outdated Facebook "page likes" figures from monthly reports if trustees prefer.

The trustees did not take a formal vote on the FY27 request at the meeting; Barbera said she will include the appropriation in the town budget submission due in early January.