ELISHA D. SMITH PUBLIC LIBRARY TRUSTEES
AGENDA
4:00 p.m. Thursday, November 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 November 2010.
MINUTES:
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting October 21, 2010.
INFORMATION ITEMS/DIRECTOR’S REPORT:
3. Statistics.
4. Resignation.
5. Presentations.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
6. Meeting Room Policy Changes.
7. 2011 Budget.
8. Trustee Essential #19.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
9. ADJOURN
UPCOMING MEETINGS & ACTIVITIES
(Including requests for business items for future meetings)
· Library Closed for Thanksgiving Day
· Library Board Meeting – December 16 at 4:00 pm
· Library Closed for Christmas Holiday: December 24-26
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 2010
1. Bills. REQUESTED ACTION: Approval of bills as presented for November 2010.
2. Minutes. Minutes of Board meeting October 21, 2010. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve minutes of meeting.
INFORMATION ITEMS:
3. Statistics. Our statistics in October saw quite a drop with a total decline of 9%. There are several contributing factors including our decreased materials budget in 2010, the beautiful fall weather, and a strong increase in 2009 statistics. 2% of the decrease can be attributed to the phasing out of audiocassettes and videos as well. Our door count only declined by 1%, so we saw almost the same number of patrons, and they did not check out as many items.
We are continuing our planning for changes to the library which we hope will make it more enticing to check out materials. Our Re-Visioning committee continues its work, and I hope to have a more concrete plan of action after our committee’s December meeting. I just found out that the school libraries are discussing a move to BISAC as well, so that would make that change all the more appealing for our community.
4. Resignation. One of our longest-running employees has announced her resignation from the library. Kathy Stumpf, who works in our Technical Services Department, has worked at the library for 40 years and will be resigning on November 26th. Please join me in offering her best wishes for the future.
Due to budget issues, I am not recommending that Kathy’s hours be replaced at this time. We will be working with WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services). They will offer us insight into the Technical Services workflow and any efficiency we can create. Otherwise, we will be filling duties with other staff members. The WiLS consulting service is offered for free to us because Winnefox Library System is a Tier One member of WiLS.
5. Presentations. I just finished presenting for the Eastern Shores Library System on Twitter and Facebook in a public library. I will be presenting for both the Fox Valley Library Council and the Winnefox Library System on the use of iPads in libraries and by librarians on November 30th and December 3rd. I also have plans to speak before the Menasha Rotary in January of 2011 about the library and its services.
DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:
6. Meeting Room Policy Changes. Kris Seefeldt attended a Legal Update program sponsored by OWLS, the library system to our north. She was the only attendee to bring her policy manual, so we got many concrete results from the program. The legal expert, Professor Tomas A. Lipinski, suggested the following small changes to strengthen our Meeting Room Policy.
· Remove “More frequent room uses may be permitted on a temporary, ad hoc basis” entirely from 4.4.g. This weakens our policy, opening us up to lawsuits.
· Create a line in the policy clarifying our currently unwritten policy of allowing unlimited use of meeting rooms by library staff, City, County or State government agencies.
Several other issues were mentioned as well, which will be discussed as the Policy and Personnel Committee works through those parts of our library policy. REQUESTED ACTION: Approve changes to Meeting Room Policy.
7. 2011 Budget. I regret to inform everyone that at the point of my writing this, we have no concrete details from the City about the City’s personnel approaches. They are trying to decide whether to move ahead with having employees pay a percentage of their retirement (which would be about 5% from every employee’s paycheck) or to do furloughs. Decreasing the suggested 2.5% increase was also suggested for the library staff by the city council. But all decisions pivot on how retirement funding will be handled. A 5% pull from everyone’s pockets is a large one that could be offset by that raise, to add both of them together would make it much harsher.
During our budget hearing, I was surprised to hear suggestions to cut library hours and to not fund us the full MOE amount. This has been quite the budget year, and at this point I am suggesting that the library board assign budget lines after the final budget approval is made by the City. That way we know our bottom line and the approach that the city will be using to meet its own budget.
8. Trustee Essentials #19. Jill Enos volunteered to lead us through Trustee Essential #19 on Library Director Certification. I will need a volunteer for Trustee Essential #20 on The Library Board and Building Accessibility.
