ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:30 p.m. Thursday, November 15, 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 November 2007.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting October 18, 2007.
3. Minutes. Minutes of Long Range Planning Committee meeting October 15, 2007 - for record only, not approval.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
4. Statistics.
5. Library Budget.
6. Long Range Planning Meeting.
7. Library Legislation Day.
8. Boys & Girls Brigade Christmas Giving Program.
9. Recent Speeches.
10. Letters about Literature.
11. WLA Secretary.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
12. City ID Badges
13. New Library Copier.
Adjourn into closed executive session pursuant to WI Statute 19.85(1)(c) for the purpose of considering promotion, compensation or performance evaluation of employees.
14. Director Evaluation.
15. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
• Library Board Meeting - December 20, 2007 at 4:30 pm.
• Library Legislation Day - January 22, 2008
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 - NOVEMBER 2007
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for November 2007.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting October 18, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
3. Minutes. Minutes of the Long Range Planning Committee meeting October 15, 2007. REQUESTED ACTION: Accept Report.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
4. Statistics. Our circulation has gone up 8% over last year for the month of October. This is very good news, and I hope reflects the results of our new programming efforts for children, teens and adults. As you can see, attendance at our adult programs has reached new heights and children's programs have been very well attended as well. We had over 200 people attend programs for adults in October which is more than double any previous month. For children, we had nearly 1000 people attend programs! I send a huge thanks to all of our staff who do programming for their renewed efforts to bring new faces into the library and entertain and educate new and seasoned library users.
5. Library Budget. I meet with the Common Council on Thursday, November 8th. The city budget is not finalized until November 19th. We do have good news from Winnebago County, where the library budget request was passed with no changes. This was in a confusing year with Act 420 and reimbursement of library uses across county lines for the first time. We will have to wait and see if the city budget funds Sunday hours.
6. Long Range Planning Meeting. The Long Range Planning Committee has completed its focus groups during the months of October and November. We are now working with the results from the groups to decide where our attention and efforts are best focused on in the years to come. The committee will be selecting several service roles for the library to focus on in the next five years. Then goals and objectives will be written. I hope to have the plan complete by the early to mid part of 2008.
7. Library Legislation Day. I encourage all of you to attend Library Legislation Day on Tuesday, January 22nd in Madison. It is a day where we meet with our state legislators and build support for library funding and legislation that helps libraries across the state. We first are fully briefed on the issues at a morning meeting, and then will head over to the meetings with documents in hand. I am happy to put together a carpool for everyone to travel together, saving gas. You should have a registration form in your packet. If you return that to Kris, the library will cover your fees.
8. Boys and Girls Brigade Christmas Giving Program. The library staff is collecting money from the public for those families registered for the Brigade's Christmas program who are not adopted by anyone. The money will be spent to purchase books for the children in those families.
9. Recent Speeches. I spoke at WLA on Library 2.0 and got great feedback from the audience in their evaluations. It was standing-room only and the group was positive, laughed at my jokes, and obviously enjoyed themselves. I also did a blogging presentation for Winnefox on using blogs in public libraries. This group was more subdued, but I hope I convinced some of them to start blogs for their libraries. Time will tell!
10. Letters about Literature. I have been asked to serve as a judge for Letters about Literature, a Wisconsin Center for the Book program where students in elementary school through high school write letters about literature. I will be helping judge the high school category which will have been narrowed down to 30 letters at the state level.
11. WLA Secretary. I did win the WLA Secretary position and will be spending two days in early December at meetings to learn about my new duties. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work for libraries at a state level.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
12. City ID Badges. As discussed at a previous meeting, the City is going to be requiring employees to wear ID badges while at work. They will also be requiring volunteers, temporary workers and vendors to wear generic badges as well. The Library Board decided to move ahead with using the existing name and department badges rather than switching to photo IDs. Now, the City will be using only first names on their badges along with a photo, so it was requested that this issue be returned to the Library Board for further consideration. I will have copies of both the new City policy and acknowledgement of receipt of ID form so the Library Board can consider them. REQUESTED ACTION: Review previous board decision and consider Photo ID policy.
13. New Library Copier. The library needs to replace the two aging copiers on the first floor of the library. I propose we replace the two copiers with a single one by the Reference Desk. I have looked at several copier models and bids and am recommending we purchase the Kyocera KM-2050. It prints 20 pages per minute, has two 300 sheet paper drawers, network printing, document feeder, duplexer, and a stand for $2252.75. We will also have to have a coin-op connected at $850. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve purchase of new copier for public use at Reference Desk.
14. 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.
