Session 06-11, a Regular Meeting of the Library Advisory Board was called to order on November 7, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. by Chair Lord at the Homer City Hall Conference Room located at 491 E. Pioneer Avenue, Homer, Alaska.

 

PRESENT:                                             BOARDMEMBERS:  WAGNER, MARTIN, SEAMAN, KEFFER, LORD, And BURSCH

 

ABSENT:                                               HAWFIELD (excused)

 

                                STUDENT:                                            LETTIS

 

                                STAFF:                                                  LIBRARY DIRECTOR HILL

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

 

                A.            Minutes of the October 3, 2006 meeting

 

The Regular Meeting minutes of October 3, 2006 were amended and approved by consensus of the Board.

 

There were several typographical and grammatical amendments to the minutes:  On page 3, first paragraph:

Second sentence, change both occurrences of “their” to “its.”  Corrected sentence will read, “Each of the libraries is in its separate building and remains true to its mission….”

Third sentence, conjunction before “Juneau” is confusing – change “and” to “but.”  Corrected sentence will read, “…and in Juneau, the books stay in one community.”

On page 3, third paragraph:

Third sentence, Ms. Lord said she was confused by the reference to a donor from England; the donor was not from England, and the words “in England” should be deleted.

Fourth sentence, Ms. Lord wished to add the words “creative writing” before “collection” because otherwise people might think she was speaking of the college’s library collection.

Last page, strike 8:05 etc., which was leftover from the 10/2005 minutes template.

 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

 

SEAMAN/KEFFER MOVED TO ACCEPT THE AGENDA AS WRITTEN.

 

VOTE:  YES.  NON OBJECTION.  UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

 

Motion carried.

 

LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

 

Chair Lord asked Library Director Hill if she had anything to add to her written report.  Ms. Hill replied that she had omitted the library director’s training she had just attended in Girdwood.  The workshop was excellent as usual.  This year’s training focused on marketing and messages.  Libraries are changing so quickly after staying the same for decades and people are asking why libraries are needed when there is the Internet.  Of course, libraries and the Internet aren’t the same thing at all, but librarians are lagging behind in getting the word out that libraries are being used more than ever.  It was great to see the library directors from around the state and hear about the work they’re doing in their communities.  The directors were all thrilled about the new Homer library.  Out of 18 Alaska communities represented, probably one-third of them are trying to get a library expansion or new building project going and they’re at various degrees of success at this point and very interested in our vote.  Ms. Hill showed digital photos of grand opening at the training.

 

Chair Lord congratulated HPL on the Big Read grant and asked Ms. Hill to tell the group about the orientation that will take place in Seattle the following week.  The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts sponsored grant in partnership with the Institute of Museums and Library Services and Arts Midwest.  Next week, Carol Swartz (college), Karen Wessel (Flex School), and Hill are going to Seattle for the Northwest orientation of the Big Read which will last a day and a half.  The Anchorage public library also received a Big Read grant, and people from Anchorage would be in attendance as well as grant recipients from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, and California.  The goal of the grant is to get people to start reading literature again.  Ms. Lord asked what the role of the libraries would be and what the role of the LAB and FHL would be.  Ms. Hill replied that she saw FHL involved in the areas of financial support and advertising.  Claudia Haines was responsible for finding the people who have been selected to facilitate book discussions for both adults and adolescents.  The library’s role will be to procure multiple copies of the book, which is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and to hold the book discussion groups at the new library.  The programs will lead up to Amy Tan’s keynote speech at the Writers’ Conference in June.  The role of LAB members is to be familiar with the mission of the Big Read and to talk about it when they can.  Ms. Hill will know more next week when she returns to Homer with orientation materials.  Ms. Lord asked about the Big Read schedule and Ms. Hill replied the events will be held in April and May, leading up to the conference in early June.

 

Ms. Lord stated that she found the subtext of Library Director Hill’s report was about how busy all library staff were and how much there is to do and things that are being put off because there wasn’t enough staff.  Ms. Hill acknowledged that was the case and the report had been difficult for her to write because she always wanted to cast it in a positive light.  This particular report had helped Ms. Hill organize her thoughts on the areas in which they are falling behind.  One volunteer is coming in four hours a day to help with the processing backlog, but she will be leaving town for several weeks and will begin looking for a paying job when she returns to Homer.  The wonderful thing about volunteers is that they have big chunks of time which they donate to helping the library, but then they also need to move on; it’s not like having paid staff.  HPL is getting a lot of great volunteers right now, and the library staff is still training and working with many more volunteers than they ever worked with at the old library.

 

A.            Statistical Report for October 2006

 

Ms. Hill passed out the statistics for October 2006.  She pointed out that circulation was up by over 1,800 from October 2005.  ILL borrowing stayed the same but outgoing ILLs have almost doubled.  Attendance is almost double: October 2006 averaged 471 people/day vs. 239 people/day in October 2005.  Story Hour is about the same but class visits are much higher.  Class visits are school field trips to the library and focus on how to use the public library.  Ms. Hill stressed the difference in school libraries and public libraries because they have very different missions.  Many schools in the Kenai Peninsula have not been able to keep their school librarians.  Many local students don’t know the Dewey Decimal system or how to perform basic research.  Ms. Hill asked Student Member Lettis if she felt she had all the basic tools she needed to write papers.  Ms. Lettis replied that the high school students were so busy they just used the Internet and their papers were not in depth so as to need book research.  Ms. Lettis further stated that she would probably not know how to use a research book very well, and she could probably figure it out very easily, but she had not been required to use one before.  Ms. Hill said the problem she had with this trend was that college students were required to do in-depth research and use libraries.  There are classes that students can take as freshman to learn how to use their college libraries, but it’s much easier if students start when they’re young.  There are still school libraries in Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks, and they work with their public and university libraries in each of those communities.  In many areas of the Lower 48, school librarians are required to have both an MLS and a teaching certificate.  Students from Alaska will have to keep up with students from these communities when they go to college.  The HPL collection development policy states that the public library collection will support the school curriculum but not be a substitute for school library collections.  Many of the class visits have been fun, especially the little kids.  Library Technician Ellis has created excellent handouts for various class levels.

 

Internet use is up by almost 750 people, but it hasn’t been a problem because there are 3 times more computers and less waiting.  Now that there is more room, library staff have found they are spending more time helping people use electronic resources such as the Databases for Alaskans which is very rewarding.

 

Library programs have increased by quite a bit.  Programs include those managed by both FHL and HPL.  Story Hour and Senior Outreach are HPL in-house programs, and programs such as the storyteller/folksinger and NARA genealogy workshop were sponsored by FHL.

 

New library cards have increased noticeably since moving into the new library.

 

The high number of volunteer hours during the month of September was due to the move from the old library to the new one.  October statistics are not yet complete and don’t include book sale volunteers.

 

Library staff is still falling behind when it comes to adding new materials.  There are a number of materials in the back room that haven’t been processed.  Ms. Hill has 30 new books on her desk but hasn’t been able to do anything with them yet.  Ms. Seaman wondered if that was the sort of thing a volunteer could do, and Hill replied that it wasn’t, and those are the type of areas where they’re falling behind.  Library staff can teach volunteers how to process, but there needs to be a staff member present because of the number of questions and exceptions that come up.  Selection, ordering, cataloging, etc. is something that trained and experienced staff need to do.  Shelving and shelf-reading, are very much volunteer jobs and are needed more than ever now that the collection is being used more.

 

Although the library has deposited more money to the City, they’re spending more staff time to process overdues as well.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Currently there are no committees.

 

COMMUNICATION/VISITORS

 

Frank Vondersaar had no comments to make.

 

Boardmember Bursch arrived late at 6:35 pm from another meeting that ran late.

 

Ken Castner stated that when the new library was designed there was a site plan and a parking plan.  One of the reasons that the location along Hazel was attractive was that it had been built with boulevard parking spaces that run up and down the road.  There was a very specific desire to handle RV parking on Hazel and not jam them into the regular parking lot.  This plan was approved by the Planning Commission but then ran into a City ordinance that blanket states there is not onsite parking on any street in Homer.  During construction, the ordinance was ignored.  Mr. Castner thought this problem had been fixed on Hazel, but he noticed there was a sign that said “No Parking.”  He thinks that a) parking on Hazel was dependent upon in order to achieve the parking plan, and b) it’s perfectly reasonable to park there – there are no safety issue, and c) if hours were stated so there would be no parking before or after library hours for activities such as snow removal or other safety considerations, he would see that as being reasonable, but to have a blanket closure is not.  There is a pedestrian footbridge that goes from the street to the front door.  He hopes the LAB will make an inquiry as to why this is being done and if they plan to preclude parking there, then how does the City meet its own parking requirements because those on-street spaces were those, he believes, that were counted in the parking plan.  Mr. Castner thanked the LAB.

 

Ms. Lord stated that this was not something that could be acted upon at this meeting, and asked the LAB members if they would consider having it on the agenda for next month.  The LAB members agreed it should be added to the next agenda.

 

Mr. Bursch asked Mr. Castner if he knew why the City had the no parking rule.  Mr. Castner said he didn’t know but he thought it would be really easy to amend the ordinance except where the on-street parking was allowed and the street was marked.

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

 

                A.            Operating Budget

 

Ms. Lord recalled that the library budget included one new full-time Library Technician I, and the student positions had been removed.  Ms. Hill stated that was correct at this time.  Ms. Lord asked for the dates of the budget hearing schedule.  Ms. Lord stated that the LAB needed to be advocates for the library budget and they could discuss the needs of the library one-on-one with Council members.  A LAB member should speak at the first public hearing as well.

 

 

                B.            Planning for the Future

 

Ms. Lord wanted to be clear about the list that the LAB had created several months back on this topic.  That list was just off the top of their heads of what they might want to talk about.  Her goal was to be more proactive and think ahead to use different meetings throughout the year to work on different items.  Ms. Martin expressed her appreciation for how Mr. Castner came in with a potential problem before it became one.  Ms. Hill wondered if Chair Lord wanted the LAB to give more thought to the subject and come up with a comprehensive list and Ms. Lord said she just wanted the LAB to understand that the list wasn’t a real list of anything but ideas.  The one they’ve done a little work on is the one on the relationship with the college.

 

 

                C.            New Library – Comments, Responses, Issues, and Challenges

 

Hill read suggestions from the public:

 

Ms. Hill said they had ordered and received clocks, but they just hadn’t had time to put them up.

Ms. Lord asked if these were legitimate issues and Ms. Hill replied that they were to a degree.  They weren’t going to put all the computers in study rooms for either kids or adults, because it isn’t a good idea to have computer users unsupervised.  The kids are learning how to use the library and things have calmed down.  Library staff were planning on working with teachers at the high school and middle school about library etiquette for students.  There are times when a group of kids congregates around the computers, but library staff is educating students about privacy issues surrounding public internet use.  People could be looking up sensitive medical or legal materials, and trying to introduce the concept of privacy for each other was important.  Mr. Bursch said he saw the concern and he thought it was real, but he personally felt a soft hand and gentle guidance  was the way to go.  He appreciated the avenue the library staff was taking with the kids.  Ms. Hill said they wanted the kids to come to the library after school and they didn’t want the library to be a place of rules and regulations and shushing, etc. and if she has to choose between keeping the kids there after school and shooing them out, she’d rather the kids be there and learn how to use the library.  She said it would take a little time for the situation to improve.

Ms. Hill said there was a yellow box on the screen with a counter that counts down, but if the patron isn’t paying attention the work would disappear.  At old library they had a big warning sign to be mindful of the time and to send things 5 minutes ahead of time.  She’ll talk to the systems administrator to see if changes could be made to the software.

Ms. Hill explained that right now there is no way for outside storage devices to be used because there was a concern about viruses infiltrating the City’s system.  A lot of libraries have this same concern.  We have a beginning of a solution and that is to save a document and send it to yourself by email.

Ms. Lord asked Ms. Hill if this would get smoothed out, and Ms. Hill answered that wi-fi at the public library was still a work in progress.

Ms. Hill explained that this was true that the original time limits were set when they had fewer computers at the old library.  She was open to changing the time limits and wanted to run this by the LAB to hear their comments.  Ms. Wagner thought, and Ms. Hill agreed, that the shorter time limit would come in handy again in the summer.  Mr. Bursch wondered if patrons could have their 30 minutes and then sign up again.  Ms. Hill replied not at this time, but the new software would allow patrons to sign up for a computer using the reservation software should enable patrons to have more time.  Ms. Hill had thought about if they should start off with an hour, or stay with 30 minutes.  The LAB supported keeping the time limit at 30 minutes with the opportunity to extend time if no one was waiting.  Ms. Hill had heard from other libraries that are using the system that patrons thought it was fair and also saved staff time.

 

Those were all the comments from the public having to do with the new building.

 

Ms. Wagner had received a question from a member of the public wondering why the lights in our energy efficient building were left on at night.  Ms. Hill also had that topic on her list.  The lights are complicated and are on time and light sensors.  At this time, outside lights are either on or off.  The maintenance crew has to take a 60 hour class to learn how to use the library.  There are many adjustments to make and the maintenance crew is working on them.  For example, today, we learned how to turn on the heated walkway.  If lights are on in the middle of the night, it’s probably because the janitors are cleaning the building.  Maintenance is working toward having a better understanding of the lights at the library.

 

Ms. Lord asked Ms. Hill if she had a sense of what the fuel use was at the new library.  Ms. Hill replied it was going exactly as budgeted so far.

 

Ms. Lord asked if more than one person had expressed a desire for Sunday hours, and would one more staff person enable the library to be opened on Sunday?  Right now, Ms. Hill is trying to figure out how to divide up what they need to do with only one more person.  Ms. Lord said she heard a lot from people that they wanted longer hours and Sunday hours.  Other LAB members and Ms. Hill had also heard the same.  Ms. Lord wondered if this could be a goal in the future and Ms. Hill answered that it might be a goal in a year, but right now she couldn’t think about it with everything else and to please let us catch up.  Ms. Hill explained the library is required by state statute to be open a certain number of hours, including some evening and weekend hours.  The library has had the same hours for years. Ms. Wagner asked what the morning hours were like and Ms. Hill replied that there was often a line to get in, and then it was steady but calm until noon, and then it got busier for the rest of the day.  She added that Saturdays are much busier at the new library and she might need to add more staff on that day.  The library used to be just a place to pick up books or videos for the weekend, but now people are staying in the library on Saturdays and using it because it’s a lovely place to be.  Ms. Keffer wondered if it would be possible to design a survey for the public’s wish for hours and Ms. Hill pointed out that a survey was on the idea list for planning for the future and she thought it would be helpful to do a survey for many reasons.

 

Ms. Lord asked now that there was a lot of room for periodicals, she wanted to give a couple of subscriptions.  Ms. Hill answered that periodicals were subject to the collection development policy and she needed to keep the collection balanced to present all views.  Ms. Hill will need to evaluate the proposed titles and get back to her.

 

Mr. Bursch said he’d been asked if the library could add sheet music to the collection, and also music CDs.  Ms. Hill replied that she knew that larger libraries had sheet music, and at the Fairbanks Public Library, they had a grand piano as well as a practice piano for the public.

 

Ms. Lord asked Ms. Lettis for input from the high school and wondered if students were using the library more.  Ms. Lettis replied she thought the students were using it more, but she couldn’t say how much.  Ms. Wagner said every time she went in there she saw high school students that she knew.

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

A.                  Amendment of the Bylaws, Re: Resolution 06-132 Amend Regular Agenda Format

 

The City Council asked boards and commissions to amend their bylaws so there would be consistency among the boards and commissions.  They have requested to have meetings follow a certain format.  Ms. Lord wrote up a suggested amendment for Article 4, Section 5 to repeal existing langauge and replace it with the following:

The order of business for regular meetings shall include but not be limited to the following items which shall be covered in the sequence shown as far as circumstances permit.  Agenda shall be posted for public information in the library and city hall.

 

Then there is a list of now 15 things where the old list had 12.  New additions are reconsideration and public comments.

 

MARTIN/WAGNER: ADOPT NEW LANGUAGE AND REPLACE OLD AGENDA LIST.

 

VOTE: NON OBJECTION:  UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

 

Motion carried.

 

 

                B.            2007 Meeting Schedule

 

Every year the LAB adopts the proposed meeting schedule for the year.

 

WAGNER/SEAMAN: ADOPT THE MEETING SCHEDULE FOR 2007.

 

VOTE: NON OBJECTION:  UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

 

Motion carried.

 

 

COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

 

Mr. Vondersaar said the earlier discussion reminded him of a couple of incidents at the library.  A group of young male morons, for lack of a better term, were on the little frozen ponds and were trying to slam big rocks through the ice.  He was concerned that they were either going to kill themselves or somebody else.  He was also concerned they were messing up the rock distribution.  Ms. Hill informed Mr. Vondersaar and the LAB that she did call the Police about the incident in question.  Ms. Martin had also seen a lot of rocks on Beluga Lake and wondered if it was the same group of kids.

 

 

COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD

 

Ms. Wagner: chin up to Ms. Hill.  You may want coffee in the library after all.  Ms. Hill thanked her.

 

Ms. Seaman appreciated how welcoming Ms. Hill was to the students and willing to work with them in a positive way.

 

Ms. Lettis will get back to Hill about volunteering at the library.

 

Ms. Hill stated that although she was not a voting member of the board, she did have a comment.  The Spelling Bee is this Saturday and the library is in need of another team member and a sponsor.  Ms. Martin of Lakeshore Glass offered to sponsor the team, and Boardmember Seaman volunteered to be a team member.

 

Ms. Keffer thought the LAB should form a spelling bee team and spell for their supper.

 

Ms. Martin said that now Lakeshore Glass was a proud sponsor of the library team.  She appreciated there was a future to the library board because she thought she came in at the very end.

 

Ms. Lord informed the LAB that she thought the reading lounge needed some art so she checked with the library policy and worked with the Pratt and borrowed three pieces of art to put in the lounge.  There is one large painting by Karla Freeman, three smaller ones by Kathy Smith over fireplace, and Ken Castner donated three nice brass hooks at Leo Vait’s suggestion, and then there is a watercolor of the Harrington Cabin.  The art will be there for about six months.  The museum was really happy to participate.  Ms. Hill added her appreciation that the Pratt was willing to hang it and it’s really beautiful.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

WAGNER/BURSCH – MOVED TO ADJOURN AT 8:05.

 

VOTE:  YES.  NON OBJECTION.  UNANIMOUS CONSENT.

 

Motion carried.

 

There being no further business to come before the Board the meeting was adjourned at 8:05 p.m.  The next Regular Meeting is scheduled for December 5, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Cowles Council Chambers located at 491 E. Pioneer Avenue, Homer, Alaska.

 

INFORMATIONAL MATERIAL

 

               

 

 

____________________________________

HELEN HILL, LIBRARY DIRECTOR

 

 

 

Approved: _________________________