ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 16, 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 October 2008.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting September 18, 2008.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR'S REPORT:
3. Community Foundation.
4. Statistics.
5. HAPLR.
6. Children's Services Changes.
7. Marketing the Library.
8. Food for Fines.
9. Sculpture Installation.
10. Staff Evaluations.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
11. Self-Check Machines.
12. Investment Committee.
13. Trustee Essentials #3.
14. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
• Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference - November 4-7
• WLA Banquet - November 6th at 7:00 pm
• Library Board Meeting - November 20, 2008 at 4:30 pm.
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 2008
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for October 2008.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting September 18, 2008. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
3. Community Foundation. Representatives from the Community Foundation will be joining us to talk about our Endowment investments with them.
4. Statistics. ASTOUNDING! In a year of amazing statistics, September was an amazing month. With an overall increase of 37.1%, it is clear why we need to look at self-check machines to help with overload at our circulation desk. So much of our collection is circulation very well. Books, periodicals, CDs, and DVDs are all up by over 20%. Children's books is leading the way with a 56.5% increase. Well done, everyone! A huge thanks to our staff for their accelerated pace, ability to move faster but not lose their poise, and their creativity and dedication that continues to draw more and more people to our library.
5. HAPLR. Hennen's American Public Library Ratings have been released for 2008. This set of ratings is based on federal data from 2005. The ratings are based on a variety of factors including expenditures per capita, percent of budget going towards materials, material expenditures per capita, and FTE staff per 1,000 population. If you are interested, you can visit the HAPLR website at www.haplr-index.com for more information on the process and measurements used. Stephen Proces, director at Neenah Public Library, always graphs the figures for libraries in the Fox Valley. You have a sheet in your packet with his graph. As you can see, Menasha rates the highest in the Fox Valley!
6. Children's Services Changes. After 23 years at the Menasha Public Library, Marge Loch-Wouters is moving on to the LaCrosse Public Library. I cannot express how instrumental Marge has been in forging great partnerships throughout the community, creatively serving families with such varying needs, providing inspired programming, and leading the way in adopting new technologies. She will be sorely missed here. Marge will be here at work until the end of October. On Saturday, November 1st, there is a get-together in the children's room to wish her well.
Marge's long-time assistant, Kathy Beson, will be our interim Children's Department Head after Marge Loch-Wouters leaves the staff. Her willingness to take on the duties will help us bridge into future decisions in the department's staff.
7. Marketing the Library. At the recent Finance Committee meeting, it was mentioned that the Board would benefit from better understanding our PR process. Department Heads Marge Loch-Wouters and Joe Bongers have prepared information on how their departments promote library programming. We all understand that everything we do in the library is promotional: our customer service, the quality of information we offer, our collection, everything. This process is specifically for our programs and events.
8. Food for Fines. The library will once again be joining Neenah Public Library in offering Food for Fines. Patrons can pay off their library fines by donating non-perishable food items. $1.00 worth of food pays of $2.00 worth of fines. We don't accept food payment for anything other than fines, so no one can pay for lost materials this way or wipe away their referral fees for the collection agency we use. All food items are then donated to the Neenah-Menasha Chapter of the American Red Cross.
9. Sculpture Installation. The library was approached by an art student, Drew Schmidt, from UW-Green Bay who grew up in Menasha. His senior sculpting project is to do a public art installation. I met with him and he will be doing a temporary installation of his sculpture along our property on Racine Street, specifically the small path that extends toward the building near our sign. The sculpture is a hand holding a book that is entitled Knowledge. The sculpture will be installed for a month outside and the library has the option to purchase the sculpture, but no obligation to do so. He hopes to have the sculpture in place by the end of the month.
10. Staff Evaluations. We will be doing staff evaluations throughout the library during the months of October and November. We use a narrative style for evaluations rather than a form. The Personnel Committee will also be working on my evaluation, to be completed with Board approval by December.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
11. Self-Check Machines. In your packet you will find information on the three self-check vendors who met with us. As you can see, the price for two self-checks ranged from $20,000 to $40,000. We recommend that we purchase the self-checks from LAT for close to $20,000. I believe that even if their price was not the lowest, they have the best solution for our multiple barcode placement issues. Additionally, we can purchase the self-checks at this price without tapping the Endowment. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve purchase of two self-checks from LAT.
12. Investment Committee. Though the Investment Committee did not meet, there was information flowing to them throughout the month. After hearing from the Community Foundation earlier in the meeting, there may be some action the Board would like to take or some direction the Board would give the Investment Committee.
13. Trustee Essentials #3. Sue Werley has agreed to lead the discussion of Trustee Essential #3. We will need a volunteer to lead the October discussion of Essential #4 which is about effective board meetings.
