ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:00 p.m. Thursday, February 18, 2010
Gegan Room
(If Board Members cannot attend, please notify the Library Office)
CALL TO ORDER:
PUBLIC COMMENT:
AUTHORIZATION OF BILLS:
- List of bills for December 2009.
- List of bills for February 2010.
CONSENT BUSINESS (Motion to approve all unless separate consideration requested):
3. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting December 17, 2009.
4. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting January 21, 2010.
5. Minutes. Minutes of Policies & Personnel meeting February 5, 2010.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR’S REPORT:
6. Statistics.
7. Happy Birthday Baby!
8. Annual Report.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
- Staff In-Services & Planning.
- Staff Appreciation.
- Updates to Chapters 1-3 of Library Policies.
- Fees and Fines.
- Textbooks at the Library.
- Trustee Essentials #14.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
15. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
· Library Board Meeting – March 18 at 4:00 pm
· Fox Cities Book Festival – April 12-18
· Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Annual Meeting – April 28-30
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 – February 2010
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for December 2009.
2. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for February 2010.
In the early part of each year, we have two sets of bills. Any items ordered in 2009 are billed to 2009. This usually takes us a few months to catch all of the stragglers.
CONSENSUS ACTION ITEMS:
3. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting December 17, 2009.
I checked with Mark Arend at the Winnefox Library System and there is no problem with approving changes to closed meeting minutes in an open meeting. So there is no need to reconvene in closed session to make the changes.
4. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting January 21, 2010.
5. Minutes. Accept the Minutes of Policies & Personnel meeting February 5, 2010.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
6. Statistics. January shows a small increase over our 2009 statistics. Adult materials increased by 3.8%, while children’s materials decreased by 1.7%. This resulted in a 1.3% increase overall. We saw large increases in music CDs, DVDs, and children’s CD-Books. Our largest increases came from digital resources which are our Playaways.
7. Happy Birthday Baby! A new program we started about a year ago in the Children’s Department is a club for new babies born in the community. We offer a free gift bag to parents and then a board book on their first birthday. We now have 49 babies in the club, and eight have received their first birthday card and board book. You will see a bookmark in your packets that explains this program in more detail.
8. Annual Report. I am preparing the state annual report which will need to be approved by the Board at the March Board meeting. I am waiting for final numbers for our 2009 budget. Those same numbers will be used to calculate the amount of our roll-over funds from 2009. I hope to discuss designating plans for those funds at the March meeting as well.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
9. Staff In-Services & Planning. The Policies & Personnel Committee recommended that the director make sure to synchronize future library staff in-services with the MJSD calendar to avoid scheduling them on days the schools are closed.
10. Staff Appreciation. The Policies & Personnel Committee recommended at their recent meeting that the Board offer the library staff treats during four days of National Library Week, April 12-15. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve the committee recommendation for showing staff appreciation during National Library Week.
11. Updates to Chapters 1-3 of the Library Policies. In your packets, you received copies of the recommended changes to the library policies. There were areas where clarification was needed, some where the policy needed to be updated, and others where statements that were not policy were removed. Any larger policy changes are broken out for discussion below and separate action. They do not appear in the revised copies you received. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve updates to Chapters 1-3 of the Library Policies.
12. Fees and Fines. At the Policies & Personnel Committee, concerns about the levels of our fees and fines were raised. The committee requested that the topic of raising fines be discussed by the entire Board. I am polling libraries in the area to get a sense of fee and fine levels regionally. I have one library to hear from, but so far our fine levels are close to those of the other libraries if not the same.
While I understand the need to bring in revenue with our fines, I also know that many of our patrons are living on the edge right now, having lost their jobs. Raising fines at this time concerns me because of the hit we would take in public relations and the message we are sending to the people we serve. I would recommend keeping fines and fees at the existing level at least until the economy improves.
13. Textbooks at the Library. At the Policies & Personnel Committee, it was discussed that the existing library policy prohibiting the collection of textbooks be reversed. The committee requested that the topic be discussed by the entire Board. I included this in the request for information I sent to local library directors. I am waiting for one more response, but so far no library collects text books.
After discussing the issue with my staff, we don’t receive requests from public school students for textbooks at all. We do have more requests from adult learners who are taking college classes and we have had one recent request for an Appleton Public Schools mathematics book. In addition to lack of requests for the materials, the prices for textbooks are very high and would have a large impact on our library budget whenever the schools changed textbooks. I would ask for the policy to remain as it has been.
14. Trustee Essentials #14. Rick Carlson will lead us through Trustee Essential #14 on open meetings law. I will need a volunteer to lead the group on Trustee Essential #15 which is on the public records law.
