HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 08.13.20241
MINUTES
CITY OF LAUREL
08/13/2024 06:06 PM
Laurel Public Library
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
X Katie Fjelstad X Arthur Vogele – 6:28
X Kate Manley – Board Chair X Paige Farmer
X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary X Mary Nelson
X Clair Killebrew – Foundation Liaison
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 – None
2. General Items
a. The minutes for July 2024 were presented for approval. Mary motioned the minutes be
approved as presented, Katie seconded the motion. Motion passed.
b. Correspondence – None
c. Circulation Report – (compared to the same time period as last year) Traffic: up 3.1%;
circulation: all items circulated totaled 5,131 (including 623 eBooks), book circulation
was up 12.9%, media circulation was up 1.1%, eBook checkouts for this month was
13.3% of total book circulation, we circulated 833 items to partners and 229 items from
other libraries; computers: internet use was down 37.5%, children’s use was down
76.7%, wi-fi use up 14.6%; patron cards: city patrons make up 64.7% of our registered
users, county is 26.2% and state/out of county has 8.9% of our registered users.. There
were 62 tech assists in July.
3. New Business
a. The Public Library Standards have been completed for this year and shared with board
members. We meet all required minimum protocols so we are eligible to receive the per
capita funds through the state library.
b. The Fall Retreat is being held in Chico Hot Springs on Sunday & Monday, Oct 6th – 7th.
Anyone that want to attend needs to let Nancy know so she can get them registered
and rooms reserved for everyone. Kate stated that she would like to attend and Paige
was interested but couldn’t go this year.
c. Library staff would like to close the library for the full Labor Day weekend. The
community room is getting overloaded with donations from patrons. Mike and Eli would
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like to have the building closed so it will be easier to clean up and move excess boxes to
the shed until the next book sale. They are planning on clearing on Friday and finishing
up whatever needs to done on Saturday.
4. Old Business
a. Our new board member, Paige Farmer, was welcomed by all board members. We are
very excited to have Paige on our library board and look forward to her input and ideas
to help us move the library forward.
b. Just a quick notice that over the next few weeks, Mike, Eli, and Chris will be taking some
vacation and personal time off during August. Most of the library staff have an
abundance of vacation and personal time available that will need to be used before ne xt
March and June. Arthur proposed the idea that we reduce public hours during the week
to help with time off. This will be considered but doesn’t seem likely at this time.
c. The full general fund budget has been given to the council for review. This will be
discussed next week at the council workshop. The board requested that Nancy attend
the council workshop and meeting just in case there are any questions concerning the
library.
d. The soffit and fascia are on the agenda just for updates. We aren’t able to move forward
with this until after the budget passes.
e. Our summer reading program/Book Buzz was very successful again this year. We had
478 children and 266 adults attend the 8 programs this year. Compared to 357 children
and 213 adults attending in 2023. We are surprised at the higher numbers considering
that we didn’t have the lunch program going at the same time like in summers past. If
we hadn’t had Michelle working on her practicum, we wouldn’t have had enough
people working to keep our library open full time.
f. Board elections were held. Kate will remain as Board Chair, Mary as Vice-chair, and
Arthur as the Federation Representative.
5. Other Items
a. Upcoming Items: There is a Trustee training being held in Columbus on Friday, August
30th a.m. It is being held at Down Home on the Yellowstone, a new book store in
Columbus. There is no charge for this training and anyone is welcome to attend.
b. The next Federation meeting is Saturday, September 28th in Roundup.
6. Announcements
a. The next regular meeting is September 10, 2024 at 6:00 pm in the library community
room. A Zoom link will be added to the next agenda.
Meeting adjourned at 7:10 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
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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.
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