The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About1994-06-13 MinutesMinutes Fayetteville Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting 6/13/94 at 4:00 p.m. Attending: Jeff Koenig, Carol Phillips, Anne Prichard, Michael Thomas - Trustees; Linda Harrison - Fayetteville Public Library Director; Karen Duree - Ozarks Regional Library Director; Mary Jo Godfrey, Lynaire Hartsell, June Jefferson, Mim Neralich - Staff; Steve Davis - Budget Coordinator for the City of Fayetteville Absent: Mark Burdette - Trustee President Koenig called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Minutes for 5/9/94 were corrected to read: p. 2, first line, replace "they are licensed" with "the elevator is licensed for use of", p. 4, first line of paragraph 5, replace "Bassett" with "Edens" and "sales" with "millage" and approved as corrected. (Thomas, Phillips) Correspondence included a memo from Phyllis Rice to recap what she had said at the 5/9/94 Board meeting and a memo from Koenig on the proposed parks millage which sparked a discussion about the possibilities of a parks, school and/or library millage vote this fall. The Board approved Harrison's Statistical Report for May 1994 and Financial Report of May 31, 1994. (Thomas, Phillips) Harrison reported that the "notice to proceed" with the replacement of the Annex roof was issued to Franklin Roofing last week. Jefferson gave her report on the In-house materials use survey and on the much needed additional Staff hours. Service demands and supply have steadily increased but Staff levels have not kept pace and in one recent year actually decreased. Circulation has risen more than 12% since 1988, in-house use more than 48%. For every item checked out, two items are used in the library. Building and program attendance, patron visitation and registrations have also steadily increased each year. Some part-time positions could be extended to full-time to fill in some gaps. Additional coverage and security is needed so that no department has only one Staff member at night. To accomplish these goals, $23,485.46 is needed for the rest of the year. A substitute pool could be used for illness coverage. The City has an accrual pool based on the amount of sick leave that might have to be taken in a year. The Library would need $43,370.27 for this accepted accounting practice. Another practice is to average the actual sick leave taken over several years. If these stop gap proceedures could be used this year and carried over to next year, there would be some relief for an exhausted Staff. Jefferson also reported that the overdue`library materials computer program would require $8,746: $3,406 to evaluate, review and select hardware and software and $5,341 to implement the equipment, orient and develop:. Staff skills. Implementation depends upon the level of strength. the Staff has as to how soon, how fast and whether or not the Staff can handle the added pressures. Experience has shown that some aspects of implementation are unpredictable. Koenig feltthe estimates might be on the conservative side and suggested tabling this issue until the total number of hours are available. Jefferson noted that this is the first time the Board has offered to pay for extra help. Phillips asked to be assured that all Staff are aware of the availability of these extra hours. The Board voted to delay any action until final figures are received from Jefferson after which a telephone vote will be taken. (Phillips, Thomas) Koenig wanted to postpone action on the request for additional Staff hours for a substitute pool or sick coverage until the Board has a chance to discuss some similar issues. Harrison presented the Capital Improvements Program budget requests for 1995-1999. Davis offered a response within 30 days followed by several public forums with City Council before final City .approval is given in September. Thomas noted that population has already gone ahead of estimates. Harrison requested that this year's Workshop Week be August 29 - September 2, 1994. This marks the end of summer, the Library's busiest period. Phillips wondered if this week would affect students during their first week back at school. Harrison felt that this was the best time to put the Library back in decent order after the heavy summer use and any major research projects are not assigned while the students are settling into school. There will be special Staff meetings and all Staff are at the Library for the five days doing whatever needs to be done. They also read the entire collection. The Board accepted this date and again offered the annual amnesty for overdue books to be returned with no fines charged. (Phillips, Prichard) Harrison reported on recent expenditures of the Expansion Fund. Coin -ops have been installed on the copy machines. Hartsell's arrangements for Winnebago's representative to give a demonstration to Staff who only work mornings 8:30 -noon were rescheduled when the representative arrived at 1 p.m. Davis suggested that Winnebago's references be asked for Winnebago's level of support. Harrison will meet soon with Godfrey to complete specifications for the Genealogy computer. Godfrey noted that CD-ROM prices have dropped from $300 to $50 in one year which will help their final purchases. Thomas reported that the Washington County Public Libraries Millage Campaign treasury is actually larger than is shown in their Minutes for 6/1/94. Springdale will equal Fayetteville's donations and are committed up to $4,000. Thomas distributed copies of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce list of Fayetteville Organizations where talks could be given for the increase in the library millage. Local librarians should be asked to accompany the speakers to increase the librarian's visibility with the public. Duree has met four times with Scott Huddleston, Financial Analyst for the City, to study the 1993 budget for ORL using a City cost program to determine allocations to various libraries. Duree will provide this study of costs and will emphasize that Washington County money will be spent on Washington County libraries. The study will also show what Fayetteville receives and what present ORL services would cost Fayetteville if they were not in this system. The samewill be shown for Springdale, Van Buren and any library in the system that has the option of having their own millage (a town of over 5,000). Duree is waiting for the consultant to give her the feasibility study that will help her construct a 3-5 year budget which includes the additional millage. monies. All local library Boardmembers will be invitedlto a joint meeting with the Washington County Library Board when Duree will make this presentation. Harrison. mentioned that Fayetteville's share will be spent first on salaries then on materials. Experience shows there will be a large jump in requests for materials to be moved from one library to another once computer access- to: these libraries is available. .Koenig stressed that any publicity for the millage demonstrate actual needs. Investment in a regional system is better than for each city to ask for its own millage increase. He urged Duree and Harrison to bring to the next Board meeting an executive summary of detailed figures of how the extra millage monies would be spent. Duree will provide an allocation of what ORL spends on each library and any 3-5 year budget will be subject to actual expenditures in that period. Ratios of expenditures could change and are not bound by past commitments to individual libraries. Thomas added that the County Millage meetings have recommended (and Duree agreed) that future budget meetings be held with the libraries represented. Springdale, in particular, wonders why more money isn't going to the cities. Duree repeated that ratios are not fixed and have no meaning in and of themselves. After the amounts for providing regional services are determined, then monies are sent to individual libraries for their operations. If automation is what we want with the increased millage, that also must be considered before allocations to the operations of individual libraries. Koenig felt that all library Boards were in a tight spot to justify that monies will be used for the best of the entire system and the individual cities. The July llth Board meeting will include Harrison's reports on Salvation Army patrons, Youth Bridge and that Kevin Crosson mentioned at a Public Works Staff meeting that there are plans todo something about the metal gates in the parking lot. The Board then went into executive session to discuss some personnel matters. (Thomas, Phillips) Koenig noted that the Board is allowed under the Freedom of Information Act to go into an executive closed session after voting on it in public. The Board adjourned at 6:00 p.m. Submitted by, eat_B;42 Anne Prichard, Secretary Follow-up reports will be given by: Harrison - Annex roof - Salvation Army patrons - Youth Bridge - metal gates Harrison and Duree - executive summaries with details justifying the library millage increase Hartsell - overdue software update Godfrey - specifications for Genealogy computer update