HomeMy WebLinkAbout1988-10-10 MinutesBoard of Trustees Meeting
Fayetteville Public Library
October 10, 1988
Present: Board Members Dorothy Bowen, Bobbye Hay, Chatles Kirchen,
Foster Park, C4ro1 Phillips; Library Director Linda
Harrison; Ozarks Regional Library Director Karen Duree
President Bobbye Hay called the meeting to order at 4.:00 p.m. The minutes
for the regular September 12 meeting and for the special executive
session on September 26 were approved as circulated. It was decided to
keep minutes for executive sessions in a separate file, not available
for general public reading.
Library Director Harrison noted, in reference to the circulated
Statistical Report and Financial Report, that circulation for September
was down a bit from 1987 but that registrations are up. Many books were
checked out in September 1987 in anticipation of the October closing for
asbestos removal.
Ms. Harrison noted the good attendance (53 total) at the September
genealogy workshop. She further announced that Fayetteville was one of
the ten libraries in the state to get a video grant as part of a one. -year
demonstration project, financed with federal money. Titles will be chosen,
then processed, but none will be available, probably, until early in
1989. A $45b0 grant for equipment, part of the award, has been used to
procure a VCR and a tape rewinder.
Several recent indidents have resulted in contac-s with the Fayetteville
police: a theft from the Childrents Department petty cash of about $3=0;
a large plate glass window broken by vandals after working hours; and one
report of outside doors left open after a Thursday night meeting (but with
no losses noticed). The latter episode of open doors Is the result of
maintenance company neglect. A ming letter will be sent by the Library
Director; without improvement in their service the present calendar year
contract could possibly be awarded elsewhere.
The Library Director called attention to a problem that has emerged of
pictures from adult magazines being placed at random inside Library books
on the shelves. Although there are some suspicions about the source of the
pictures, there is no firm proof. The Board agreed that no easy solution
is likely.
Under unfinished business the Board turned to the requests for reconsideration
of several paperback novels available for general circulation, requests
submitted in late August and for which personal appeals were made at the
regular September 12 Board meeting. After considerable discussion of the
various issues involved, Foster Park moved, with a second by Charles Kirchen,
that to establish its general principles of handling Library materials the
Board endorse and affirm its support of three statements formulated by the
American Library Association in recent years: (1) the Library Bill of
Rights, (2) the Intellectual Freedom Statement in support of that Bill of
Rights, and (3) The Freedom to Read, a statement jointly supported by the
page 2
Meeting of October 10, 1988
Association of American Publishers. The motion was unanimously approved.
A motion was then offered by Dorothy Bowen, seconded by Foster Park, that
the three requests for reconsideration of library material be denied,
based on our support of the Library Bill of Rights and related documents
and further based on the absence of any legally -established obscenity in
the materials in question. The motion was passed with four in favor, one
abstention.
President Hay reported on the continued efforts to purchase the Medark
Building for library expansion. City Manager Pennington, in a telephone
call to President Hay, affirmed that $$500,000 (included in the Library's
1989 budget request) has been included in the City of Fayetteville
proposal for capital improvements to be voted on in the November 8
election. Dr. Mashburn has indicated a particular willingness to work with
the Board and the City in completing the purchase as soon as money becomes
available. President Hay assured Dr. Mashburn --an assurance ratified by
the present Board --that the two doctors renting the Medark Building now
will have at least 90 days notice for vacating before Library remodeling
begins.
President Hay will be attending the Arkansas Library Association meeting
in Little Rock, especially the November 1 trustees meeting.
It was further noted that McDonalds has established a project for en-
couraging children t000btain library cards.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p,m.
Respectfully submitted,
Foster Park, Secretary
