ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 18, 2007
Gegan Room
(If Board Members cannot attend, please notify the Library Office)
CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL:
PUBLIC COMMENT:
AUTHORIZATION OF BILLS:
1. Lists of bills for October 2007.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting September 20, 2007.
3. Minutes. Minutes of Long Range Planning Committee meeting September 19, 2007 - for record only, not approval.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
4. Statistics.
5. Gift.
6. Book Sale.
7. Target Grant.
8. Digitization Grant.
9. Library Sign.
10. Staff Evaluations.
11. Long Range Planning Meeting.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
12. Budget.
13. Director Evaluation.
14. Conference Costs.
15. Sunday Hours and Extended Friday Hours.
16. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
• Library Board Meeting - November 15, 2007 at 4:30 pm.
• Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference - October 16-19
Menasha aldermen may attend meetings of this body. A quorum of the Common Council, Board of Public Works, Administration Committee, or Personnel Committee may attend this meeting. No official action of any of those bodies will be taken.
ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY
DIRECTOR'S REPORT - OCTOBER 2007
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for October 2007.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting September 20, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
3. Minutes. Minutes of the Long Range Planning Committee meeting September 19, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Accept Report.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
4. Statistics. This month shows a decrease in circulation in both adult and children's, totaling a 4.5% drop. We are doing many new programs for all ages that we hope will help the circulation go back up. I do believe that this is the settling after an amazing increase in circulation last year. But that doesn't mean we won' t keep working at getting more items into people's hands.
5. Gift. Prospera Credit Union has donated $75.00 to the Friends of the Library.
6. Book Sale. In our September book sale, we took in $2035. This was more than we earned in June and quite a bit less than in February. We are looking at returning to two book sales a year rather than three.
7. Target Grant. Months ago the Children's Department applied for a Target Grant. In late September, we found out that we had received a grant of $1,000 in support for our upcoming 1000 Books Before Kindergarten endeavor. We are also working with the Rotary and the public schools for support and funding. Please see the information sheet on the program.
8. Digitization Grant. This year we had an LSTA grant to help us digitize our collection of historical photographs as well as some historical texts. The project is now up and running. You can visit the Menasha Local History Collection at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.MenashaLocHist. Huge thanks to Pattie Stanislawski for taking on this project and shepherding it to fruition.
9. Investment Committee Meeting. I will be contacting the members of this committee to set up a time for us to meet in September/October.
10. Library Sign. You may have seen our new library sign on Racine Street. I am pleased to say that it looks even better than it did on paper. We are working on getting the lighting to be on from dusk to dawn.
11. Staff Evaluations. We will be doing staff evaluations in October and November in order to have them completed by the December Board Meeting. While the evaluations are not shared with the Board in detail, they are necessary for the library to move people up in their salary steps and receive their salary increases.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
12. Budget. This was held over from the September meeting in the hope that more board members would be present to approve it. The 2008 budget that I have drafted meets the mayor's recommended figure. We have received an increase in funding from both the City and the County, which will allow us to restore Sunday hours, take care of some equipment issues, and increase the materials budget. There has been one change since the September meeting and that is the rate of salary/wage increase which was going to be 3.25% and is now 2%. I will be meeting with the Common Council in November about our budget. The exact day and time has not been set. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve draft budget.
13. Director Evaluation. Last month the board charged the Personnel Committee with evaluating the Director. REQUESTED ACTION: Report on progress of Personnel Committee with possible motion to approve evaluation.
14. Conference Costs. I would like the Library Board to consider reimbursing for my attendance and participation in ALA and PLA. Both are national level library organizations. I am now a member of two PLA Committees (Small and Medium Sized Public Libraries and Technology in Public Libraries). Any reimbursement for my attending conferences could be postponed until the end of the budget year so that my travel expenses do not hinder other staff from attending conferences. Library department heads would also receive the same consideration for funding, so any remaining funds in the travel and training sections of the budget at the end of the year would be divided among us.
Also, we need to encourage staff to be a part of WLA. Right now the library pays for half of any staff members dues to WLA. I propose that for any staff member willing to serve on a committee at the state level, we pay their full WLA dues.
Additionally, I would request that any time spent at a conference be considered work time. Right now only missed work days are considered work time, so conferences held on Saturday and Sunday are done on personal time, which seems wrong to me.
REQUESTED ACTION: Approve the reimbursement of attending national conferences within budget restrictions. Approve the payment of 100% of WLA dues for staff serving on WLA Committees. Approve the use of work time to attend weekend conferences.
15. Sunday Hours and Extended Friday Hours. Part of the 2008 budget is the reinstatement of Sunday hours at the library. From the day of my interview and throughout my first few months here, everyone I met told me how important it was to restore Sunday hours at the library. Because it is a change in policy the Board needs to vote to implement Sunday hours in 2008. I would also like the Board to consider extending our Friday hours from 8:30-5 to 8:30-6. This additional hour will not add much cost to the budget but will serve our community better. We can cover this additional hour with no increase in staff. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve Sunday hours and extended Friday hours for 2008.
