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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-03-16 MinutesFayetteville Public Library Board of Trustees Minutes of Regular Meeting March 16, 1998 4 p.m. Board members present: Michael Thomas, Mark Burdette, Steve Singleton, Maurice Roberts, and Matt Lawrence. Library personnel present: Louise Schaper, Lolly Maxey, Lynaire Hartsell, Steven Thomas, Mary Loots, Susie Walker, Mary Saxon. Others: Karen Duree, Ozarks Regional Library System and interested citizen Susan Sissom. Call to order. Thomas called the meeting to order at 4:03 p.m. in the meeting room of FPL. 11. Executive session. Thomas reviewed an executive session of the Board on March 5 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. to discuss personnel issues. Present were Burdette, Thomas, Roberts, Singleton, and Schaper. Burdette moved to go into executive session at 9:30 a.m. and Singleton seconded. All voted aye. At 11:30 Burdette moved to go into regular session and Singleton seconded. All voted aye. From 11:30 to 12 noon topics discussed were extended hours and the community room proposal to the City Council. No action was taken. The meeting was adjourned at noon. III. Approval of minutes. Burdette moved, Lawrence seconded to approve the 2/5 minutes. All voted aye. IV. Library reports: A. Director's report. Thomas asked about the logo and Louise stated that a new firm has not been contacted. Thomas suggested contacting Blackwood Martin for pro bono work. Karen Duree, Director, ORL, added ORL's contribution to putting new circulation policies into place. B. Dr. and Mrs. Harry C. Otwell Memorial Fund. Roberts suggested we let fund grow until it reaches $1 million. Burdette gave a hypothetical expectation of growth with an annual 12% return, the Library taking out 5%; we would have a net of 7% growth. Over ten years the $500,000 fund would grow to $1 million with $350,000 for the library to use. The intent, Burdette said, is to keep the fund growing and be able to use funds for special library projects. Thomas said that representatives of the Bank of Fayetteville will attend the next Board of Trustees meeting. C. Statistics: Schaper identified new items being included, e.g. genealogy breakout, media coverage, community room usage. She suggested we consider counting the number of unique individuals served in addition to aggregate numbers to get a sense of the level of outreach into the community. D. Circulation report. Steve Singleton brought up the issue of the paper sheets customers receive when they check out materials. He asked if we could accommodate those who do not like the paper by providing a stamped card or other procedure that would result in each item being individual marked with the due date. Lolly Maxey said that customers of the Children's Library like the paper because they put it on the refrigerators etc. and they can easily check to see when something is due. Discussion centered on whether this change to paper is one that needs time for the customer to adjust or whether the library should run two processes. Some libraries at the time the change was made gave customers magnets to hang up the check out receipt on their refrigerators. Singleton suggested we take testimonials and do a flyer to help people realize how they can use the check out receipt to their advantage. E. Reference and Genealogy report. A question was asked if we can provide Infotrack statistics; Steven Thomas said yes. Statewide trials for a number of fee-based electronic information resources are taking place; FPL is participating. Schaper stated concern that we will have to renew our InfoTrack subscription next month but won't know if or when the State Library will be making the online version available to libraries in the State. Duree said she will try and get a timeline from the State Library. The Gates Library Foundation was brought up and that Arkansas has received a state grant of $2 million. Fayetteville does not quality for a library grant because it exceeds income level requirements. Duree said the smaller libraries in the counties may benefit from the. Gates grant and we may benefit indirectly with training or other service. Board members asked questions about State and Federal grants and how FPL would know about them and go about applying for them Duree said ORL is the funnel and that she passes on notices if appropriate. ORL passed on construction grant information for Springdale. They have applied for a $150,000 grant. Duree said there is a grant office at the State Library. Schaper requested ORL to keep the library directors informed of grant possibilities as they develop. F. Children's library report. Turnout for the focus groups was small but vital. IV. Extended hours and customer survey. Schaper went over results compiled by volunteer, Dr. Molly Jensen. Although the survey indicates there is no interest in having the Children's Library open at night, Schaper and Maxey question this given the text comments and usage indicate an interest. Schaper said they would like to open Children's to the extended hours, collect statistics, and evaluate by the end of 1998. Roberts moved and Burdette seconded a motion to accept the extended hours proposal presented by Schaper and the management team. All voted aye. After the vote, staff present expressed concern about not having set schedules and the ability of some staff to change to a new schedule. Schaper and Hartsell said that schedules will be set months in advance. Visitor and former employee Susan Sissom expressed concern about having staff work Sunday hours. New hours for the main and children's library will be 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon. -Thur. and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fri. -Sat. starting in April. Genealogy will be open 9:30 to 5 Mon. -Sat. Sundays from 1-4 will be added in September if all the details can be worked out. V. Budget proposal. This was reviewed. No vote was taken. It was noted that the Board vote to put the book endowment interest into the operating budget for books was not reflected in the proposed budget. VI. Policy change proposals: A. Organizational chart. Agreed to make City Council a dotted line to the Board. How to show Ozarks Regional Library System will be tabled until after interlocal agreements are signed. B. Vacation. Changes to allow new employees to accrue and use vacation time in the first year were tabled. Trustees thought this should be allowed after the three-month probationary period. Lawrence said if an employee left during the first year we would need to pay them for accrued vacation time. C. Retirement. Changes were presented to reflect the new pension plan and changes made over the last few years but not reflected in the policy. Lawrence noted legal wording that would reflect that the policy is tied to the current plan and can change. The item was tabled pending a rework of the policy to reflect Lawrence's suggestions. D. Holidays. Recommendations to be open President's Day and remain closed after Thanksgiving were presented. Maury Roberts suggested we add Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. This item was tabled for more staff input. VII. Long Range Planning. Schaper, Hartsell, Thomas, and Maxey shared what they learned from the Public Library Association conference they attended in Kansas City. They thanked Board members for the opportunity. Schaper encouraged more funding for training, education and professional development. The following key points came from the conference: Maxey: The need to partner with the school system, the availability of literacy grants, and how to develop volunteer -based outreach programs to reach children who cannot come to the library. Thomas: Learned how to right -size a collection, develop a technology plan, and manage a genealogy collection. Also, he learned that 80% of the cost of owning a computer comes after the purchase. Hartsell: She focused on staff development and found learned the best way to empower staff is to have a clear set of values and invest in staff development and training. She also learned about the necessity of identifying the needs of niche population groups, e.g. aging baby boomers. Schaper: She focused on sessions dealing with the design of library building, technology planning, long range planning and marketing. She said the rule of thumb in the library world is 1 square foot per capita. She said that another rule of thumb is 60% of the budget should be personnel costs and 20% materials. She found a number of other libraries that are separate organizations from their city governments. She described the visit to the 85,000 square foot Johnson County Library outside Kansas City. The building was an empty big box store on a strip highway that was recreated into an architecturally significant civic building offering the services of the library of the 21st century. She described the 100s of workstations providing access to the Internet and a host of specialized consumer, medical, business information; the bank of reference librarians doing nothing but responding to telephone queries; an entire room of computers for word-processing etc.; another room with foreign and educational videos and audio books; a magnificent children's library of books, videos, software, audio books; a young adult library; the $2 million materials budget; and a self -check out station. This library managed the GIS (geographic information system) for the area and provides custom maps from the area and the United States. Plans for the Board meeting with the ORL consultants on March 20 from 9-10:30 a.m. were reviewed. Plans for the open focus group were reviewed. Schaper said we would be meeting on April 17"' and 18th to begin our own long-range plan. At the PLA conference she learned that planning should begin with a solid long-range plan including mission, vision, service responses. Out of this comes a technology plan. Both the long-range plan and the technology plan form the basis on which a library building program is developed. The library building program is developed with a library consultant who specializes is building design. It is best if the library building consultant works with the chosen architect to avoid rework. The status of the community room proposal was shared. Schaper voiced concern about this project given what she learned at PLA. She also expressed a desire to have City Council members, Board members and FPL staff members visit Rogers PL and the Johnson County PL. VIII. Parking: Roberts suggested we charge for parking spaces on the West Side of the building for county employees. Schaper said she has recently asked staff to park on the west side. All expressed concern about county employees taking FPL spaces. No decision was reached. IX. The meeting was adjourned at 7 p.m.