HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 11.12.2024MINUTES
CITY OF LAUREL
11/12/2024 06:06 PM
Laurel Public Library
X Katie Fjelstad X Arthur Vogele
X Kate Manley— Board Chair X Paige Farmer
X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary Mary Nelson
Clair Killebrew— Foundation Liaison
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 October 2024 were presented for approval. Arthur motioned the
minutes be approved, Katie seconded the motion. Motion passed.
b. Correspondence — a letter was received from DA Davidson for the Foundation; the
foundation was listed as a beneficiary in Virgina Gomer's estate. The amount that will be
sent to the foundation will be determined after the first of the new year. Also, the
librarian from Wedsworth Community Library sent a card with her returned book kit
thanking the library for its efforts in providing book kits to other libraries but also
wanted to emphasize how much they appreciate everything we have done, especially
Eli.
c. Circulation Report— (compared to the same time period as last year) Traffic: up 20.6%;
circulation: all items circulated totaled 4,801(including 595 eBooks), book circulation
was up 12.4%, media circulation was down 20%, eBook checkouts for this month was
13.5% of total book circulation, we circulated 1,041 items to partners and 356 items
from other libraries; computers: internet use was up 5.7%, children's use was up 5.7%,
wi-fi use up 16.6%; patron cards: city patrons make up 62% of our registered users,
county is 29% and state/out of county has 8.9% of our registered users.. There were 57
tech assists in October.
3. Old Business
a. The final numbers for the book sale came to $2,852.60. This gives us enough funds to
think about ordering some new shelves. We made the bulk of our funding during the
first week but we still managed to sell quite a few books over the two weeks.
[>` The contract for the soffit and fascia has been signed b«Rob with Donahue Roofing.
Nancy will give them a call next week to see when they are available to complete the
c. The board was sent the Collection Development Policy to review. Since this is a long
pO(iq\ Nancy suggested that we take more time to review the policy and discuss how
vvewant to proceed with updating it. Do we want to remove some parts, update Others,
completely revamp the whole policy? This will b2discussed further atour next meeting.
4. New Business
a. Paige wanted to see if the library would like to participate in "Elf On The Shelf' activities
for December. She has some great ideas that vv8can use for the program. VVecan post
the elf activities on our Facebook page to see what kind of 'mischief' the elves could get
into atthe library. She suggested that vve end the program with a"pajama partv"vxith
the movie ELF and hot chocolate & cookies 0nFriday, December Z0m,5:OOto7:OOpm.
Arthur stated that he would see if he had another elf at home to use with the elf that
Paige has already. The activities will be3joint effort among staff and board members. |t
will go from December I11through December 2[th . More ideas will be shared
throughout the month.
b. Nancy had sent 8couple ofYDVTub2videos to board members tOview before our
regular meeting. The state library i5encouraging all board members tOparticipate in
continuing education units so they can receive their certification. Board members stated
that they found the videos very interesting. They asked about the Trustee Newsletter
and how to signup for it. Any questions they have can be asked and answered at future
meetings. Our goal is to complete 3 hours of continuing education training for all
members before the end ofthe fiscal year.
c. With the completion of the book sale, it has been suggested that we order some book
shelves for the fiction section of the library. During a day working out front, Nancy
realized that if we move some older shelves to different areas, we could expand some of
the space for fiction and videos. We are hoping to some day replace ALL of the old
shelves in the library with new and improved versions. Board members felt that this
would be an excellent area to make improvements right away.
S. Other Items
a. Upcoming Items:
Just a reminder: the library to be closed for the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend. Itwill beo
good time for staff to take some vacation days.
6. Announcements
a. The next regular meeting is December loth, 2024 at 6:00 pm in the library community
room. A Zoom link will be added to the next agenda.
2
Meeting adjourned at 6:55 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
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.