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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board - Minutes - 08/14/1997Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland Acting Chairperson: Jacqueline Wallace Staff Liaison: Brenda Cams Phone: 223-1708 (h) A regular meeting of the Library Board was held on Thursday, August 14, 1997, in the Ben Delatour Room of the Fort Collins Public Library. The following Library Board members were present: Bill Cook, Joanne Monath, Anne Ostrye-Macdonald, Jack Steele, Jacqueline Wallace, and M. Madeleine Wawro. Library Board Member Absent: Jack Steele City Staff Members Present: Brenda Cams, Mike Powers, Pat Doughty, Leslie Patterson, Marjorie Teklits Friends of the Library Liaison: Jean Dietemann Guests: Teens and Technology Grant Peer Review Committee: Jane Ulrich, Southwest Regional Library Service System Sandra Jordet, Brush High School Library Leana Cox, Northwestern Community College The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by the Acting Chairperson, Jack Steele. The minutes of the July 10, 1997 Regular meeting stand as written. CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence to be read at this meeting. REPORTS/PRESENTATIONS A. Library Director - Brenda Cams The Library was closed at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 29a' due to the emergency situation caused by the flood. Charges waived for library materials damaged in the flood were approximately $6,271 for both the Main and Mini libraries. Customers were very pleased that they didn't have to pay for these items, and some said they would like to make a donation to the library when they are able. A supply of fliers and posters offering access to our collection and services was given to CSU to be distributed to faculty and students. In addition, the Fort Collins Public Library is accepting the return of Morgan Library material until it reopens. The library at Front Range Community College, which was scheduled to be closed the first three weeks of August, elected to remain open in order to accommodate CSU faculty and students. Brenda Cams was invited as guest speaker at a Lions Club luncheon on August 7. She encouraged the Club to support library programs and reported the current status with Building Community Choices and site selection for either a new main library or branch. Her presentation included a slide show of the Main, Mini and Harmony Library sites and the services which the library provides. There was nothing new to report on the site selection process as the recent meeting was postponed until a later date. The Library Management Team continues to review the consultant report concerning reorganization and is attempting to define objectives based on previous discussions. Staff input will be solicited as to ways to implement big picture changes. City Council has approved the First Readings appropriating unanticipated grant revenue in the General Fund for the Library's Archive Access Initiative Project, the Electronic Literacy Connection Project, and the Library Services and Facilities Public Relations Project. The teen volunteer program concluded with 212 hours of service logged by 23 teens. These volunteers also received training on the use of our Public Access Catalog and other online databases. The second young adult sleepover took place on July 25 s with 25 teens participating in this popular activity planned by the Young Adult Advisory Committee. Within the next two to three weeks the Children's department will be putting in place a stand-alone CD Rom for educational games and CD's. Two World Wide Web stations will be installed in the Children's area by early September. B. Update on Summer Reading Program - Pat Doughty Complete statistics are not yet available as the program runs through the end of August, however, thus far 4,885 children have signed up for the program and 3,378 prizes have been distributed. Numbers are slightly down from last year because of staffing and time limitations which did not make school visitations possible. Also, movie prizes were given out last year which apparently were favored over the ice cream prizes this year. Pat feels the library has reached a peak as to how many participants the program can handle with the present facility and said the opening of the Harmony Library will make a difference. Monday morning programs in Library Park were held for seven weeks, and attendance ranged from 100 to 600 at each show. Puppet shows were again very popular at the Main Library as well as four LINC sites. The Main Library had 27 and the Mini had 10 PALS (a volunteer program for children ages 10-13) as well as some adult volunteers who enjoy the one-to-one relation with kids. The number of LINC sites expanded from 3 last year to 9 this year. Each LINC summer program had between 20-40 attendees, and there was an increase of books checked out from the sites this summer over last. 2 OLD BUSINESS A. Planning and Status of Public Relations Grant - Brenda Cams The process has begun to select a firm which will design a conceptual three-year public relations campaign to target local businesses, professional organizations and potential corporate sponsors. A Library -Business Public Relations Committee will be formed to oversee the grant, and Jay Hardy from the Downtown Business Association has agreed to be on the Committee. The Library will participate as a sponsor in NewWestFest, the first of four special events to target the business, professional and corporate communities as part of the grant. Cards describing services the Library can provide to these groups will be distributed among businesses in the downtown area, and the Library will have a booth on Linden Street at which informational literature will be distributed. A board showing the layout of the new Harmony Library and photos from the recent topping out ceremony will be displayed. People who wish to sign up for new library cards will receive a coupon for a free Ben and Jerry's cone. In addition, the Library's logo will appear at the "people finder" tent and on volunteer t-shirts, and the Library is co -sponsoring the Irish Step Dancers entertainment. The Downtown Business Association will include information about the Library's grant and how it participated in this year's NewWestFest in their newsletter. B. Experiences with Library District - Brenda Cams It was decided that discussion of a library district be postponed to a later date. C. October Planning Retreat (October 16) - Jacqui Wallace Board members were reminded about the retreat on October 16 to discuss main themes for the coming year and thoughts on the work plan. Nancy Knepel has been asked to facilitate the meeting. Mike Powers said that the Board needs to develop a long range plan and have it adopted by City Council. NEW BUSINESS A. Strategy for 1998-99 Budget - Jacqui Wallace The Board felt that, in light of the recent flood and related expenses to the City, advocacy planning for the 1998-99 budget should be revisited at a later date. Anne Ostrye-Macdonald felt, however, felt that the Board should campaign for full staffing, money for materials, and programing for the new Harmony Library. Also, Brenda Cams mentioned she is meeting with the other Larimer County Librarians and Kathy Snell from the Larimer County Department of Human Resources on August 20'h to discuss the County's budget process as it relates to funding for library services. B. Report of Nominating Committee - Anne Ostrye-Macdonald Jack Steele was nominated to continue as Library Board Chair; nomination of a Vice Chair and voting will take place at the September meeting. C. Discuss Response on Council Policy Agenda - Jacqui Wallace Discussion of the formation of a library district was felt to be premature and should be eliminated 3 from the Board's draft memo in response to the City Manager's July 151' memo requesting information on the Board's support of Council's Policy Agenda. Library Board members were asked to review the draft response and to provide their comments so that a final memo can be submitted by the September 15'hdeadline. Mike Powers suggested the Board review the six major themes articulated by Gina Janette to the Board at the February 1997 meeting (copies were distributed.) D. Teens and Technology Grant Peer Review - Grant Peer Review Committee After evaluating progress on the grant, the Peer Review Committee reported on their findings. They were all impressed with what the program is trying to accomplish and said they met a lot of enthusiastic teens who are involved in it. They said it is a great program that should be shared with the library community. The Committee felt that the Project Manager and Young Adult Librarian, Leslie Patterson, should be offered more hours (she is currently a 30-hour/week employee and only able to spend 10 hours/week on teen programming). They also said that it takes a special personality to work with teenagers, and Leslie has an excellent rapport with the kids who obviously feel comfortable with her. Most of the teens currently in the program are in the upper socio- economic group and have parents who are library users. If the library budget allowed Leslie to increase her hours, she would have more time to work with school libraries which might enable her to reach teens from other socio-economic groups. They also felt that the Young Adult Librarian could also work with colleges who often find that new students are not trained in library usage. As part of the grant, teens are trained to assist library customers with computer use, and the Committee said the program has made a very good first step in letting teens contribute to the community by entrusting them to do customer training. The Committee also suggested finding out how the parents of the teens feel about the program and said they might be willing to lend support to some of the activities. Jacqui Wallace said that reaching teens is a high priority of the Board's, and that the Young Adult program has been helpful in filling in the gap between services offered to young children and adults. E. OTHER Board members Anne Ostrye-Macdonald and Al Stone joined Brenda Cams at the "Trustees Make THE Difference" workshop sponsored and funded by the regional library systems and the Colorado State Library on August 8-9. Al Stone reported that it was an excellent session and that they learned about the role of Board Members, the Tabor Amendment, setting priorities, leadership, management and task roles, the importance of setting goals and priorities as well as sessions on marketing and community awareness, the Internet and intellectual freedom. They recommended this training workshop to other Board members who were reminded that it will be repeated this fall (September 19 and 20 in Pueblo, September 22-23 in Lakewood and October 2-3 in Mesa Verde). Anne Ostrye-Macdonald also offered to share handouts received at the workshop with members who were not able to attend. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Marjorie Teklits