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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLBMinutes_2013_08_13BROOKINGS PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES August 13, 2013 MINUTES The Board of Trustees of the Brookings Public Library met Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. in the Historical Room of the Brookings Public Library MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Gengler, Mac Harris, Janel Hoffelt and Gloria Thvedt OTHERS PRESENT: Elvita Landau, Alice Hayes and Cathy Enlow President Mac Harris called for approval of the meeting agenda. Janel Hoffelt moved to approve the agenda. Gloria Thvedt seconded. Motion carried. Mac Harris called for approval of the minutes from the July 9, 2013 meeting. Gloria Thvedt moved to approve the minutes. Janel Hoffelt seconded. Motion carried. Bills and Salaries: Elvita Landau noted that most of the charges related to Nita Gill’s attendance at the ALA conference are reflected in this month’s bills. Gloria Thvedt moved to approve the list of bills. Bill Gengler seconded. Motion carried. Financial Report: Elvita Landau noted that we are about where we should be with most expenditures. We will need to watch the General Supplies and Equipment Maintenance line items for the rest of the year. Fines Account: Summer Reading Program and Travel were the big amounts spent this month. Several staff members will be traveling to the SDLA conference in September, and their registration was paid in July. Regarding Maintenance, we will have high traffic areas of the carpets cleaned later this year. Gifts Account: The AV materials were purchased using Friends of the Library funds from last year and this year. Librarian’s Report: Elvita Landau noted that circulation and computer use are up. The Summer Reading Program had a registration of 1588, down slightly from last year. Attendance at SRP programs was up from last year. Zoo Man had almost 700 in attendance. Katherine Eberline used a new set-up for science class sign-up this summer and indicated that the new system worked better than in previous years. Library staff will receive training in September to assistant patrons with Affordable Care Act information. The Friends of the Library Book Sale is coming up in October. They will be adding one more day to the sale. They will set up on Tuesday. Wednesday evening will be for FOL members only. Then the sale will be open to the public on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Board discussed a patron request for auto-flush toilets and automatic faucets in the sinks. Elvita will check into pricing for a conversion and report back to the Board. Elvita received a patron’s complaint about the $1.00 a day late fee for VHS tapes. The Board will discuss the issue at a future meeting. The Board also discussed a patron’s comment on the Library Survey regarding the cost of out-of-county cards. Mac Harris mentioned a 4th grade reading club hosted by the library in Prescott, Arizona. The library buys particular books for the children to read and keep. The children discuss the book and then Skype the author. Policy Review Regarding Non-discrimination: The City of Brookings has requested additional language in the Mango Tree operating contract. The wording is to include that the business will not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation or gender identity”. This addition is now part of all City contracts. Janel Hoffelt moved to approve that addition of this line to the contract. Gloria Thvedt seconded. Motion carried. Elvita was also asked to incorporate the phrase in the Library’s non-discrimination policy. She recommended adding this to the mission statement area at the beginning of the Library’s policy manual. Gloria Thvedt moved to approve the addition. Bill Gengler seconded. Motion carried. Elvita reported that the City of Brookings also wanted the non-discrimination wording to appear on all of the Library Meeting Room Contract forms completed by groups who hold meetings at the Library. Elvita referred to ALA policy, and the idea that it is not the Library’s place to tell groups using the meeting rooms “what they can be about”. The Board agreed. Mac Harris suggested that since the meetings must be open to the public in order to be held here, that might eliminate the need for the specific wording in the contract. Elvita will discuss this further with the City. Survey Results: The Board discussed the results and comments from the Library Patron Survey. The survey was done during the Summer Reading Program, and that may have made a difference in the results. AV and print: Bill Gengler lamented the lack of good new stuff for families as he prefers the classics. The most popular methods of receiving information about the Library are the Library newsletter and word-of-mouth. The most desired method of receiving information is email. The biggest complaint was the need to fix our computer problems. There were several suggestions to improve the Library’s website. Comments indicate that some patrons are confused between our webpage and the SDLN site. The issue of Library hours may be influenced by a certain demographic and certain times of year. It is a financial issue to pay staff for additional hours open. Janel Hoffelt suggested looking into what other libraries do. Elvita noted that Watertown does open earlier. Only Brookings, Siouxland, and Rapid City stay open on Sundays during the summer. Elvita will look into how much it would cost to add an extra hour of being open a day. She had previously calculated that remaining open on Sundays in August would cost an additional $500.00 to $600.00 for part-time salaries for the month. We would need to add hours for our part-time staff. Bill Gengler asked if it would be possible to send out email courtesy notices earlier than on the due date of the item. Bill also noted the need to put the “My Library Card” tab on the opening page of our website. The Board discussed the demographics of the survey. Janel suggested that a future survey be done during the winter months to see if that made a difference. Elvita noted that 96% of those taking the survey were very satisfied with the Library’s performance. Strategic Planning: Elvita presented a list of names to the Board of potential members of the Strategic Planning Committee. She is aiming for twelve people, not including Library staff (Elvita Landau, Alice Hayes and Nita Gill). She tried for a mixture of younger people with kids and older people, as well as people from different walks of life. She anticipates two to three meetings during the evening in October and early November, with the final meeting after the report is written up. Larry Rogers will be the Board representative. She asked the Board members to feel free to recommend other names for her list, especially from the area of industry. Elvita reminded Board members that they are invited to the Mayor’s Volunteer Appreciation Reception on September 26 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at McCrory Gardens. The next Library Board meeting will be on Tuesday, September 10, at 5:30 p.m. Bill Gengler moved to go into executive session to conduct the Library Director’s annual review. Gloria Thvedt seconded. Motion carried. The meeting entered executive session at 7:20 p.m. Janell Hoffelt moved to exit executive session. Bill Gengler seconded. Motion carried. Bill Gengler moved to adjourn the meeting. Gloria Thvedt seconded. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Elvita Landau, Library Director