HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 05.13.2025 MINUTES
CITY OF LAUREL
05/13/2025 06:07 PM
Laurel Public Library
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
X Katie Fjelstad X Arthur Vogele—via Zoom
X Kate Manley—Board Chair X Paige Farmer
X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary X Mary Nelson
X Clair Killebrew— Foundation Liaison—via Zoom
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. Minutes for March and April 2025 were presented for approval. Arthur motioned that
the minutes for March 2025 be approved as presented and April minutes corrected,
then approved. Paige seconded the motion. Motion approved.
b. Correspondence—There was not any correspondence to share with the board
members. Arthur had received a letter from the City asking if he was going to serve
another term on the board.
c. Circulation Report—(compared to the same time period as last year) Traffic: down 8.5%;
circulation: all items circulated totaled 5,367 (including 578 eBooks), book circulation
was up 10.5%, media circulation was up 7.5%, eBook checkouts for this month was
11.9% of total book circulation, we circulated 1,185 i8tems to partners and 318 items
from other libraries; computers: internet use was up 43.5% children's use was down
28.6%, wi-fi use was up 13%; patron cards: city patrons make up 61.3% of our registered
users, county is 29.2%, and state/out of county has 9.5% of our registered patrons.
There were 83 tech assists in April.
3. Old Business
a. The final amount raised at the book sale was $3,157.42. These funds will be added to
the Foundation account to help purchase more books and shelving units.
b. Kate, Arthur, and Nancy attended the South-Central Federation Meeting on Saturday,
April 12th in Big Timber. Kriss Goss was the speaker for the afternoon training. He
presented "Library& Open Meeting Laws" for directors and trustees. Kris is a lawyer
and a librarian, so he comes to us with knowledge that covers both areas for us. There is
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a MSL YouTube video available for this training if anyone wants a refresher. The Plan of
Service was discussed and approved for FY26. Crazy Peak Boutique presented luncheon
for the meeting.
c. There were no videos presented for training this month. We will review some of the
previous videos if needed and start using training videos in the fall. If there are any
questions about the videos, please ask for more information.
d. No update on the foundation funding currently. We do have enough funds to order a
shelving unit for the non-fiction section. The amount in the account is currently just over
$9,000.
4. New Business
a. A letter was presented to the City Council from Peggy Miller concerning the use of the
community room. Mrs. Miller is concerned that the room is not available for community
members to use but is being used for storage instead (library staff were sorting
numerous boxes of donated books after our fall book sale). Board members agreed that
this just points out the need for more space in the library. Nothing can be done about it
right now, but we will keep looking for a solution to our space problem.
b. Nancy presented a copy of the final proposed library budget for FY 25/26. Other than
the expected 3% pay increase for library staff, most of the line items either stayed the
same or decreased slightly. There were adjustments in line items that show cost
increases such as the Montana Shared Catalog and Montana Library2Go memberships.
We will find out our final budget once the mill values are determined in August.
c. A safety report was presented to the Board concerning a shelf that fell in the non-fiction
section of the library. Chris was shelving books and moved on to fit another in its proper
place and the shelf fell out completely. There were no injuries from the books falling but
again, it presents the need for more room and newer shelving in the library.
d. Book Buzz will be our summer reading program again this year.The school librarians
have given us 4 dates that they will present activities for the kids. Library staff will
create activities for the last 2 Wednesdays in July. Nancy has applied for, and received, a
"Keep Kids Reading" grant from Town Pump to use for costs associated with the reading
program. We will also have an intern joining us this summer to help with anything that
we need at the library for 14 hours per week. Anyone that wants to help with the
programming,they are welcome to join us.
e. Nancy sent links for the Internet Use and Library Use Rules library policies to board
members to review and suggest edits for adoption. Members will review the policies
further and suggest final edits next month.
5. Other Items
a. Board concerns—None.
b. Other Items:the library will be closed for the Memorial Day weekend: Saturday, May
24tn—Monday, May 26tn
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6. Announcements
a. The next regular meeting is June 10th, 2025, at 6:00 pm in the library community room.
A Zoom link will be added to the next agenda.
Meeting adjourned at 7:32 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.
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