ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, 2008
Gegan Room
(If Board Members cannot attend, please notify the Library Office)
CALL TO ORDER:
PUBLIC COMMENT:
AUTHORIZATION OF BILLS:
1. List of bills for June 2008.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting May 15, 2008.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
3. Statistics.
4. Anniversary.
5. Donations.
6. New Board Members.
7. Endowment Report.
8. Sunday Hours.
9. Department Head Exemption Letters.
10. Picturing America.
11. CCBC Advisory Board.
12. Memorial Day Parade.
13. Trustee Workshops.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
14. 2009 Holiday Closings.
15. Board Nominating Committee.
16. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
• Library Board Meeting - July 17, 2008 at 4:30 pm.
• Trustee Training - June 18th and June 26th
• American Library Association Annual Conference - June 27-July 1
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 -- JUNE 2008
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for June 2008.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting May 15, 2008. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
3. Statistics. Once again, I am happy to announce that our circulation is up. Our adult circulation has increased by 18% over last year and our children's circulation has increased 30.5%. This makes our library totals a 23.6% increase over 2007. Wonderfully, we continue to see increases in book circulation of 10% for adults and 43.5% for children. Amazing stuff, only made more amazing by our staff who work to make it happen.
As you can see, our statistics for the website are up and working again. I apologize for the issues with them for the last few months, but it was a system-wide problem for anyone running the software we are using. Our statistics for website usage continue to be very high for a library our size. We are not counting hits, but instead count sessions on the site for a more accurate portrayal of real use.
4. Anniversary. Ruth German, our wonderful staff member who works in Technical Services and manages single-handedly to get all of the materials ordered and invoiced while still finding time to barcode as well as a myriad of other tasks, is celebrating her 35th anniversary here at the library on June 18th! A huge congratulations to Ruth and a thank you for all of her hard work and dedication to the library.
5. Donations. We received a donation of $200 from the Fox River Ice Hockey Officials Association for use of our meeting room. It will be placed in the meeting room fund of the Endowment.
6. New Board Members. The mayor has nominated two people to fill the vacancies on our Board. They are Liz Derouin and John Nebel. They will be joining us for our July 17th meeting.
7. Endowment Report. In your packet you will find the Endowment report for the first quarter of 2008. The only large purchase I can see on the horizon is purchasing a self-check machine for the circulation desk. I will be investigating pricing of the machines at ALA and will return with a recommendation later this summer. We have not done a self-check previously because our barcode placement was problematic and would not allow check out of other library materials on the same machine. Now the machines are smart enough to compensate for that. With our large increase in circulation, this is one solution that would not involve increasing staff.
8. Sunday Hours. Also included in your packet is a chart of the Sunday circulation we had in our first five months of 2008. We were open four hours each Sunday with circulation ranging between 292 on a Packer Sunday and 1,264 on a day with a popular children's performer. Our average Sunday circulation was 692 with an average hourly circulation of 173. This rivals any other day of the week for us and speaks to the need of the community for Sunday service hours.
9. Department Head Exemption Letters. The exemption letters have been sent to each of the department heads citing the Administrative Exemption. We have also informed the City of the change. Department Head exemptions go into effect on July 1st.
10. Picturing America. We have received a federal grant for a program called Picturing America where we will receive copies of famous works of art and will design programming to promote an understanding of the artwork. This program will begin this fall. It fits into our Long Range Plan goals and objectives wonderfully.
11. CCBC Advisory Board. I have been asked to serve on the Cooperative Children's Book Center Advisory Board for a three year term. The CCBC is one of the most prestigious children's book organizations in the United States, and I am honored to serve.
12. Memorial Day Parade. The Friends of the Library and several staff members participated in the Memorial Day Parade. Staff family members also participated, riding in the truck that Miron graciously allowed us to use. We plan to do this again next year and hopefully will be able to participate in other community events throughout the summer and fall.
13. Trustee Workshops. Kris sent you via email an announcement of the upcoming Library Board Trustee training being offered by Winnefox. I would encourage as many board members as possible to attend. It is a great opportunity to hear what other library boards are dealing with, learn the basics of being a trustee, and ask any questions you may have. In case you have lost the email, you can still register for the following workshop:
* Thursday, June 26 5:30 - 7:30 pm at Fond du Lac Public Library
Simply contact me or Kris to register. We will keep an eye on whether there is an issue with a board quorum being present at the meeting.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
14. 2009 Holiday Closings. In your packet you will have a chart of the proposed closings for 2009. The only one that may be confusing is Friday, July 3rd, which we will have as an assigned holiday closing per our library policy. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve 2009 holiday closings.
15. Board Nominating Committee. This is the month that the Board must form a nominating committee for board officers. We need a committee which will usually only meet one time to have a slate of nominees for officers by the July meeting. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Form Nominating Committee.
