HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board - Minutes - 04/09/1998LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES
Regular Meeting - April 9, 1998
6:00 p.m.
Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland Staff Liaison: Brenda Cams
Chairperson: Jack Steele
Phone: 225-0877 (h)
A regular meeting of the Library Board was held on Thursday, April 9, 1998 in the Ben Delatour
Room of the Fort Collins Public Library. The following Library Board members were present:
Bill Cook, Edward Jakubauskas, Jack Steele, and Jacqueline Wallace.
Library Board Members Absent:
City Staff Members Present:
Friends of the Library Liaison
Guest Speakers:
Anne Ostrye-Macdonald, M. Madeline Wawro
Mike Powers, Marty Heffernan, Brenda Cams,
Marjorie Teklits
Catherine Janonis
Melissa Katsimpalis, Laura Sandell,
ISIS Public Relations and Marketing
The meeting was called to order at 6:05 p.m. by the Chairperson, Jack Steele. The minutes of the
March 12, 1998 Regular Meeting were amended as follows: Page 4, C.: The first two sentences
of the Library Director's report should be replaced with: 1997 selected statistics show that there
was a 6.3% increase in materials checked out over 1996. Under "Materials Checked Out," the
36.6% decrease from 1997 to 1996 in the "Other" category represents a decrease in the number
of fast -add items (items which have incorrect barcodes). Even though customer records were
purged in the database, the number of registered borrowers in 1997 increased 7.1 % over 1996.
In addition, on page 6, the last line should read: the Board unanimously agreed to recommend
not to proceed with the project.
CORRESPONDENCE
A copy of Al Stone's resignation from the Library Board was distributed. Jack Steele said Al's
presence and contributions will be missed by the Board.
Brenda Cams shared the contents of a letter from the Friends of the Library who presented the
Library with a check in the amount of $12,850 for the Children's and Young Adult Summer
Reading Programs, children's videos for Harmony Library, and the Triangle Review on
microfilm for the Local History department. In addition, they raised $2,200 for Harmony
Library materials at their recent "Prose by the Pound" sale. Brenda said the Friends are doing a
magnificent job in helping the Library provide children's programming as well as adding
materials to the collections.
REPORTS
A. Public Relations Grant Status Report - Melissa Katsimpalis, Laura Sandell
Melissa Katsimpalis explained that the public relations grant was written to help the
Library develop a strong relationship with the business community of Fort Collins in the
hope of drawing on these relationships for different resources. Their public relations
firm, ISIS, was hired with funds received from the grant to create awareness of the
Library's business -related services within the business community and to develop a level
of business -community support that allows fund-raising to occur in the future. Strategies
developed to accomplish this goal include:
1) A monthly newsletter has been developed which informs the business community of
the Library's business -related services. The City's public relations coordinator is also
interested in partnering with the Library to showcase services some of the other City
departments have to offer to the business community;
2) Production of an attractive promotional brochure that can be used with general friends
of and potential donors to the Library;
3) Identifying opportunities for the Library Director to meet and form mutually
supportive relationships with key supporters, program partners and potential donors
of the Library.
4) Promoting the Library's efforts to consolidate its business resources in keeping with
its children's section, History section, etc. Key members of the business community
will be invited to attend the opening of a center for business resources near the
Reference department which is targeted for June 3rd. Jack Steele suggested that
comment forms be made available at this event to collect feedback from participants.
5) Enlisting the Library Management Team in promoting the Library's services to the
public in general and the business community in particular.
As part of the effort to reach out to the business community, the Library's Lead
Reference Librarian recently conducted a special class on how to use the Library's
resources for twelve students of the Small Business Development Center. The class was
very well received, and it is planned to offer similar events in the future.
ISIS will be providing the Library with a three year marketing plan and contents for
business newsletters for the remainder of this year.
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Updates to the Board's "Into the 2 1 " Century" document will be discussed at the May 14"
Library Board meeting.
B. Site Selection Status - Mike Powers
Copies of comments received at the April 2"d open house for the public to review
proposed sites for the City's five capital improvement projects were distributed to the
Board. Forty-nine comments for a new Main Library site were submitted; 43 people
favored a downtown location; 1 person favored a Lemay/Lincoln Avenue site; 3 people
preferred keeping the present site; 2 people had other suggestions.
Board members were pleased that an overwhelming majority of the comments were in
favor of a downtown site.
C. Other
Mike Powers mentioned to Board members that, even though the City is officially in a
two-year budget cycle, discussions of interim issues will begin in August for adoption in
October. He will share more information with the Board as it becomes available.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Marjorie Teklits
Library Secretary
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