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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board Minutes 08.13.20191 MINUTES CITY OF LAUREL Library Board 08/13/2019 06:00 PM Laurel Library A Library Board meeting was held in the Laurel Public Library and called to order by Arthur Vogele at 6:05PM. COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: X Arthur Vogele, Chairman X Dixie Feller X Bill Hanson, Vice-Chairman X Clair Killebrew, Federation Rep. X Nancy Schmidt, Secretary X Samantha Barnhart – via phone X Emilie Eaton – via phone OTHERS PRESENT: Kathleen Gilluly – Laurel Outlook Editor 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 – Library Director Nancy Schmidt asked to speak to the Board in the capacity of director and not as secretary to ‘address the elephant in the room’. She expressed concern about the manner in which Councilwoman Eaton had been placed on the library board. Schmidt stated that she would abide by whatever final decision the rest of the members voted upon but wanted to express her thoughts about the process used to “remove” one member just to put someone else in their place. According to Opinion 57-3, created by Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, paragraph 11 states: “The power to determine the criteria for trustee removal lies with the library board of trustees. The board is specifically provided the authority to ‘adopt bylaws and rules for its own transaction of business and for the government of the library, not inconsistent with law.’ MCA 22-1-309(1). The government of the library generally includes removal of an appointed trustee.” Director Schmidt felt this was a violation of the Laurel Public Library Board of Trustee Bylaws Art.III, Sect 3. A: Removal of an Officer in which the bylaws state “any officers elected or appointed by the Board may be 2 removed by the Board whenever, in its judgement, the best interests of the Library would thus be served. Such removal of any officer will be effectuated by a unanimous vote of the other four (4) members of the Board.” Director Schmidt also went on the state that the bylaws also outline how a member should be placed on the Board of Trustees. Art.II Sec. 1.A states that “prospective Trustees will be invited to complete a written application, which shall be returned to the Library Director. The Board of Trustees shall study each application and make its recommendation to the Mayor of the City of Laurel”. She went on the state that this is the way trustees have been placed on the Board for the last 30 or 40 years. She stated that “she is not adverse to Ms. Eaton being on the Board but felt the rights of the library had been trampled upon and ground into the dust just to please one person that has taken exception to how the Director is running the library and asking questions about City Hall.” After speaking, Director Schmidt asked the Board members to vote on retaining Councilwoman Eaton as a Library Board Trustee. Bill Hanson motioned we keep Ms. Eaton as a Trustee; Dixie seconded the motion. All voted in favor of Councilwoman Eaton remaining on the Library Board. The Board also recommended that Clair Killebrew remain on the Board as Foundation liaison. 2. General Items a. The Library Board minutes for June and July 2019 were presented and read. Dixie Feller motioned the minutes be accepted as presented, Bill Hanson seconded the motion. Motion passed. b. Correspondence – Two donations were made to the library last month. The first donation came from Laurel Federated Women’s Club in the amount of $20. The second donation was made to the Laurel Public Library Foundation by Virginia Gomer in the amount of $100. Thank you notes will be sent out by the Library Director. c. Circulation Report – Traffic: up 3.1 %; circulation: all items circulated totaled 5,164 (including 572 eBooks), book circulation was up 12.8%, media circulation was up 74.7%, eBook checkouts for this month was 13.9% of total book circulation, we circulated 857 items to partners and 131 items from other libraries; computers: internet use was down 9.5%, children’s use was up 58.8 %, wi-fi use was up 113.8%; patron cards: city registrations made up 66.5% of library users, county patrons 35.4% and non-resident registered patrons 4.6%. There were 83 tech assists in July. 3 3. New Business a. Officer positions were voted upon for the next year: Dixie Feller was nominated as Board Chair by Bill and seconded by Arthur. Bill Hanson was nominated as Vice-Chair by Dixie Feller and seconded by Arthur Vogele. Arthur Vogele was nominated as Federation Representative by Dixie Feller and seconded by Bill Hanson. All motions passed by unanimous vote. b. In partnership with Ancestry.com and The Laurel Outlook all rolls of newspaper microfilm will be digitized. Kathleen Gilluly was present to emphasize the importance of our newspaper being available to everyone not just library patrons. Kathleen stated that Ancestry.com is paying for the shipping costs to/from the library and that after digitization the online images would be available free to the public. Searching can be done by single-word search. These will eventually be sent to Montana Memory Project to added to their archives. c. One last item needed to move the library forward under the new “process” are signatures from the Board allowing library staff to accumulate, and use, personal time. Library staff will be given a week of time (prorated for less than full-time) of personal time to supplement vacation time and sick leave. Board members gave their approval of this benefit by signing the form provided. This form was forwarded to Kelly for payroll configuration. d. The library switched from EnvisionWare computer and printing management software to Cybrarian Software. The change will allow for better management of time and printing for public computers. This software may be a bit more expensive in up-front costs but has a more user-friendly interface. Staff worked with Cybrarian for 30 days before making the final decision to switch from EnvisionWare. Cybrarian not only allows for multi-OS systems but allows for automatic reset of patron computers daily. EnvisionWare wouldn’t let the library upgrade computers individually over time. It was ALL of them upgrade to Windows 10 or we stayed at Windows 7 OS. Cybrarian also tracks wireless users which is great for our statistics. e. June and July invoices submitted for payment were presented for Board review. There were no questions about the invoices presented for payment. f. Library standards had been completed and ready to be submitted to Montana State Library in Helena. MSL sets the Standards for each library to meet the requirements to remain a certified library. g. The Network Advisory Council meets quarterly in Helena. We meet to determine how the Commission does its job. It also looks at how the Consultants do their jobs, how money is spent at the State level, and how much money each public library gets every year. 4. Old Business 4 a. The final budget has been completed using the value of $8,027.962 at 29 mills. There have been a couple items included in the budget this year (using the same amount of money as last) that have never been included in our line items. It took about 40 full hours to complete the computations for our budget. After budgeting the necessary items into our budget, the book line items has shrunk from $30,000 to $9,000 for this year. We now have ShoutBomb included in our book expenses to help with hold/overdue notifications. Monies from the Federation will increase a slight bit this year because two other libraries were non-compliant with Federation requirements. We are also getting our per capita monies back from the Coal Severance Tax fund. After the new mi ll values are determined we are hoping to see an increase in monies to offset some of our lost revenue. b. The Summer Reading Program ended on July 31 with the StarLab as our main event. We had about 50 children attend the event. There were about 90 registered participants. There are over 40 prizes ready to be drawn on Monday for our active participants. c. The Summer Lunch has already served more meals than last year total. July already served 800 meals to children and adults. Last year we served a total of 1,600 lunches. We’ve already exceeded that amount with just June and July. There will be final numbers next month. The library is eligible to host the lunch program for 3 more years. d. There was an error in the amount reported from the book sale. The final amou nt was $1,841.54 not $1,822.11 as previously reported. The bank came up with the final amount. This goes to the Foundation with idea that we would use to purchase t-shirts/polo shirts for library staff. 5. Other Items a. Upcoming Items: SCF Meeting – September 28, 2019 in Big Timber – Arthur and Nancy will attend. PLD/ASLD Retreat – October 13-14 in Chico – Dixie and Arthur are interested in attending the retreat. Federation Coordinator’s meeting – October 3rd in White Sulphur Springs – Commission is meeting at the new library in White Sulphur on October 4th. RIPL – Research Institute for Public Libraries – Billings Public Library NAC – November 14th in Helena Closing August 30th-September 2nd for Labor Day weekend. 6. Announcements 5 a. Next regular meeting is Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 6:00 pm in the Community Room of the Laurel Public Library. The Library Board adjourned at 7:13 pm. Motioned by Bill, seconded by Dixie, adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Nancy L Schmidt Nancy L Schmidt Secretary for the Board NOTE: This meeting is open to the public. This meeting is for information and discussion of listed agenda items.