HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 11.14.2023R
CITY OF LAUREL
Library Board
11/14/2023 06:06 PM
Laurel Public Library
Katie Fjelstad
X Kate Manley
X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary
X Clair Killebrew — Foundation Liaison
1. Public Input
X Arthur Vogele, Board Chair
X Lela Schlitz—via Zoom
Mary Nelson
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 — None
2. General Items
a. The minutes for October 2023 were presented for approval. Arthur motioned the
minutes be approved as presented, Lela seconded the motion. Motion passed.
b. Correspondence — the following were received this month: a $50 donation from Eileen
Burton; $500 donation to the Foundation from Evergreen Rebekah Lodge to be used for
shelves; a letter from the West Elementary principal thanking the library for donating
kids book to their 'book vending machine'; a letter from MMIA to Nancy stating that she
wasn't chosen to be a member of the board of directors, and the proof for our license
plate that will be available after January ill
c. Circulation Report — (compared to the same time period as last year) Traffic: up 5.96%;
circulation: all items circulated totaled 4,250 (including 720 eBooks), book circulation
was up 11.5%, media circulation was down 0.6%, eBook checkouts for this month was
18.3% of total book circulation, we circulated 959 items to partners and 285 items from
other libraries; computers: internet use was down 21.74%, children's use was up 85.7%,
wi-fi use down 84.4%; patron cards: city patrons make up 63.3% of registered users,
county is 27.9% and state/out of county has 8.7% of our registered patrons. There were
85 tech assists in October.
3. New Business
a. Because of the success of our latest book sale, and the latest donations to the
foundation, a shelving unit has been ordered for the fiction section. This is where the
tightest shelves are located in the library. The old shelves from this area will be
repurposed for the worst shelves in the non-fiction section.
b. The library will be closed on Thursday, November 23rd, 2023 for the Thanksgiving
holiday. We will be open regular hours on Saturday following the holiday.
c. Katie had talked with Nancy about the possibility that we move the board meetings to a
different time and/or day. She has taken a new position and her work hours changed.
She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to attend the meetings on a regular basis.
Since Katie is not available this evening, this item was tabled until next month.
d. Nancy has shared with the Board that is may be time for her to give up being the
Federation Coordinator since the rules may be changing drastically in the near future.
The State Library Commission has a meeting scheduled for December 6th in Columbus.
There may be changes coming that will affect how the federations are run. Nancy has
asked Kate if she would like any emails cc'd and forwarded to her so that she is kept in
the loop on how the Federation is run.
4. Old Business
a. The fundraiser -80s Prom —is being held at the Palace Bar & Lanes on Saturday,
December 30th, 2023. Nancy will not be attending the actual event but will help with the
setup & decorations on the day of the event. Tickets go on sale December 15t for $25
each. Flyers will be distributed the first week of December. Proceeds from the
fundraiser will go toward more book shelves.
b. The final book sale amount was $2,350.64. This was lower than the last couple of sales
but still higher than we were hoping to receive. Advertising for the sale will be done
completely online after this sale along with the posted flyers around town.
5. Other Items
a. Upcoming Items:
1. Lela questioned the completion of the roof and whether the soffit and fascia
should have been included in the bid on the roof. She was wondering if the
soffit and fascia were going to be redone in the near future. Nancy stated
that she was looking into getting a few bids on replacement for those items.
Once we have an idea of cost, we can move forward with replacement of
those items.
2. There will be another plethora of vacation & personal time hours that will
need to be used before the end of March or June 2024. Mike and Eli will be
taking mandatory time off on Friday when they are scheduled so they can
start to use the excess.
3. Our food pantry has morphed since we developed it. It has gone from just
ready -to -eat, snacking item to full -meal type of items. Patrons will bring in
items that they want to donate for out pantry. It was decided that any items
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that are close to their expiration dates should be discarded rather than
chance someone getting upset with us for letting them take an "old" item.
We appreciate the donations but are erring on the side of caution when it
comes to passing along food. Our patrons have expressed their gratitude for
the food items we have allowed them to take.
4. There will be a musical story time at the library on Friday, December 15tH
2023. The Billings Symphony will provide the music and story. They will bring
a string quartet and a narrator. While the music is playing, the narrator will
read the stories. Please pass along any of this information so we have a good
attendance.
6. Announcements
a. The next regular meeting is December 12, 2023 at 6:00 pm in the library community
room. A Zoom link will be added to the next agenda.
Meeting adjourned at 6:56 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
t
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.
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