HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 01.10.20231
MINUTES
CITY OF LAUREL
Library Board
01/10/2023 06:00 PM
Laurel Public Library
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
X Katie Fjelstad X Arthur Vogele, Board Chair
X Kate Manley - online X Lela Schlitz
X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary X Mary Nelson
X Clair Killebrew – Foundation Liaison - online
OTHERS PRESENT: None
1. Public Input
Citizens may address the committee regarding any item of city business not on the agenda. The duration for an
individual speaking under Public Comment is limited to three minutes. While all comments are welcome, the
committee will not take action on any item not on the agenda.
a. Addressing the Board – The Board extended a warm welcome to Mary Nelson as our new member.
2. General Items
a. Lela motioned that the minutes for December 2022 be adopted as presented. Kate seconded
the motion, passed.
b. The library received $100 in donations from Ray Wells, $50 from Gail Brice and the Foundation
was given $200 through yourcause.com.
c. Circulation Report – (compared to the same time period as last year) Traffic: up 0.001%; circulation:
all items circulated totaled 3,684 (including 510 eBooks), book circulation was up 10.6%, media
circulation was down 2.3%, eBook checkouts for this month was 14.9% of total book circulation,
we circulated 947 items to partners and 193 items from other libraries; computers: internet use
was down 8.2%, children’s use was down 75%, wi-fi use up 54.3%; patron cards: city patrons
make up 63.9% of registered users, county 27.4% and out of county users make up 3.3%. There
were 40 tech assists in December.
3. New Business
a. Board members were reminded of when their current terms end and if they are eligible for a
second term. Katie is completing a term left open when Dixie passed that ends June 30, 2023.
She is now eligible to fill a first 5-year term if she chooses to continue being a member of the
Library Board. The rest of the board terms are completed as follows: Lela – 2024, Arthur – 2025,
Kate – 2026, Mary – 2027.
b. Nancy stated that it is time to start thinking about the upcoming budget. She will start
preparing the FY24 budget with preliminary numbers. Final figures won’t be available until the
City and Union meet to determine pay increases (if any) for the next year. The library should
also think about increasing the number of hours that part -time employees get each week for
2
better staff coverage.
4. Old Business
a. Staff evaluations have been completed and submitted to the Mayor’s office for review and to
be filed in their personnel files.
b. Our new shelves are in place and look wonderful. The communication from MCE on delivery
was a bit hectic but we received them and the guys eventually got them in place in the
children’s section. Patrons are very impressed with the new shelves. The library hopes to
purchase more shelves in the future which is dependent upon funding or donations received for
new shelves.
c. The Board has been working on updating library policies as per MSL requirements. We worked
on the working of the Collection Management Policy and agreed that some sections should be
deleted entirely while others are just reworded. The final copy will be completed for the next
meeting. In February, we have agreed to work on the Computer Usage Policy and Internet
Usage Policy.
d. Library Board members are planning on moving forward with the mill levy campaign. Nancy will
ask to meet with the Mayor, City Attorney, and Kelly to determine our next steps for pursuing
the mill levy. Once this is determined the board should be able to present a resolution to the
City Council asking that a mill levy be put on the ballot in November 2 023. We would prefer to
do this in June but we can’t put it on a school ballot.
5. Other Items
a. Upcoming Items:
There are four staff members that have too many hours accumulated in their ‘bank’.
Chris, Mike, Fred and Nancy are at a ‘use it or lose it’ stage. They will be scheduled off
some time between mid-January and the end of March to use up as much of their extra
hours as possible.
6. Announcements
a. The next regular meeting is February 21, 2023 at 6:00 pm in the library community room.
Motion to adjourn made by Kate, seconded by Mary. Meeting adjourned at 7:31 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy L Schmidt
Nancy L Schmidt
Library Director
Secretary for the Board
NOTE: This meeting is open to the public. This meeting is for information and discussion of listed agenda
items.