Session 06-10, a
Regular Meeting of
the
PRESENT:
BOARDMEMBERS: WAGNER, MARTIN,
SEAMAN, KEFFER, LORD
ABSENT:
BURSCH,
HAWFIELD (both excused)
STUDENT:
LETTIS
STAFF:
LIBRARY
DIRECTOR HILL
APPROVAL
OF THE MINUTES
A.
Minutes of the
The Regular Meeting
minutes of
There were two
amendments to the
minutes: In the motion at the bottom of
page 6, “Marnier” should be changed to “Mariner” Park; On page 5, in
the
section that discussed language for the LAB bylaws amendment, Chair
Lord
suggested that the proposed language should be a new section 6, and
there
should be a period rather than a comma after the word “person,” and
therefore
the following word, “Exceptions” should begin with a capital “e.”
APPROVAL OF THE
AGENDA
MARTIN/KEFFER –
MOVED TO HEAR
UNFINISHED BUSINESS ITEM C. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE, ITEM B. AMEND
VOTE:
YES. NON OBJECTION.
UNANIMOUS CONSENT.
Motion carried.
MARTIN/KEFFER –
MOVED TO APPROVE THE
AGENDA AS CORRECTED.
VOTE:
YES. NON OBJECTION.
UNANIMOUS CONSENT.
Motion carried.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
C.
Planning for the Future
Boardmember Martin
had expressed an
interest at the last meeting in pursuing the relationship with the
college. Ms. Martin met with Chris
Thorsrud and Carol Swartz of the college and brought handouts for the
LAB entitled,
“An informal conference with Chris Thorsrud (KPC Librarian) and
“KPC students have
always used the
Homer Public
HPL is not a member
of the Joint
College library
expansion plans are in
the next phase of expansion. A need for
classrooms took precedent over the library in the latest phase,
specifically an
art room and a science lab. KPC hopes to
turn the council chamber into a library after the purchase of city hall
is
completed. The separate entrance and the
ability to close off the room from the rest of the building makes this
room a
good choice.
The college has a
$45,000 library
budget annually. This includes a
librarian’s salary as well as acquisition funds.
1. Joint
2. Allow college
students to check out
books using their college library card.
3. Waive
interlibrary loan fee for
students.
4. Consult on
acquisitions (for
example, the college needs large format art books but has no room to
shelve
them. This would be an area where input
from college director and art teachers could be beneficial.) Also avoid duplication of community projects
and events – for example, promote the literacy program at the college
instead
of designing a new one.”
Chair Lord thanked
Boardmember
Martin. The LAB responded with the
following questions and discussion.
Library Director
Hill explained why
HPL isn’t a member of the college’s library catalog.
Boardmember Martin understood from her
meeting with the college that this catalog included many public
libraries. Ms. Hill responded that the
catalog included
a few public libraries. No public
libraries on the
Boardmember Keffer
stated she couldn’t
comprehend why it would be a problem for a student to access a separate
database to search for a book as computer savvy as students are – it’s
only a
couple of clicks of a mouse. Ms. Martin
replied that the thought from the college was that one click was better
than
two.
Ms. Lord asked Ms.
Hill to explain how
Loussac Library cardholders have UAA library privileges.
Ms. Hill replied that UAA, APU, the Museum,
Boardmember Wagner
asked Ms. Hill
about the question of allowing college students to check out books
using their
college ID card. Hill replied she would
be happy to look into it. She knew that
right now HPL is pretty strict that cardholders have a local address
and proper
identification. She will ask her
colleagues at other public libraries if any of them do this and how
well it
works.
Ms. Hill commented
on consulting with
the college library on acquisitions. She
would be happy to work with the college on this. Ms.
Lord stated she has used the college
library many times and is very familiar with their collection. It’s more than reference books, for example,
they have many creative writing books donated by someone in
Boardmember Seaman
asked Ms. Hill what
she knew about the college’s collection development policy. Ms. Hill has not looked at their policy, but
her understanding was that the college purchased materials as suggested
by
professors and instructors prior to the beginning of each semester. Hill explained that HPL’s collection
development policy was to provide a collection of good, current general
materials
for the public. Items such as art books
would follow both policies.
Ms. Lord said that
it looked to her
like the city is already doing a lot to support the college. In order to have a system that benefits the
public, it’s not clear to her how the college can act.
Ms. Martin responded that she thought we were
all behind the times. It would be
helpful to have a combined committee of public and college library
members to
talk about this.
Ms. Wagner agreed
that HPL was in
flux, and the college, based on current construction, is also in flux. It seemed to her as though a committee to
work with Ms. Thorsrud with approval by Ms. Swartz would be a gentle
way to
make a difference.
Ms. Lord reminded
the LAB that we have
asked the College Advisory Board to meet with them and they’ve never
responded. The local group that is the
advisory board to
the college. The LAB could continue to
ask them. The other thing is to
formalize the existing relationship in a document such as an MOU. There have been other ways of
cooperation. For example, when the
library assistant at the college was ill, Ms. Hill released one member
of her
staff to fill in until a new library assistant was hired.
Ms. Hill added that this staff member had
good insight now about how the college library works.
Ms. Martin thought he should be on the
committee.
Ms. Lord informed
the LAB that Ms.
Swartz had said that she is concerned when other people in town do
literary
events because that’s what the college does.
Ms. Martin asked if Ms. Swartz had meant literacy instead of
literary. Ms. Lord said literary. The LAB agreed that sponsoring readings is
something that libraries do. Ms. Keffer
added that it’s the same kind of thing that happens in the art
community – a
perception of territory. Ms. Hill
explained to the LAB that the college had filled the need for both
literacy and
literary programs in Homer during a time when the public library had
not been
in a position to run those programs, which are commonly run by public
libraries. It seemed to her that there
was plenty of interest and all interested groups could share in
presenting
literary programs. Ms. Keffer agreed
that both were legitimate provinces of a public library, and she would
not
respond positively to the idea that literacy and literary programs are
off
limits for everybody in town except for the college.
Ms. Martin said the comment had been couched
in the language of over saturating the public with literary events. Ms. Wagner thought that maybe that was one
thing the college could do. For example,
if Pam Houston is coming to town and the college could get approval for
credits
and grant money for the program, and it could be held at the library
instead of
one of the classrooms and both the college and the library could be
co-sponsors. The LAB agreed it would be
best for all to have more cooperative efforts.
Ms. Martin
reiterated that what she
discovered is that there really hasn’t been much communication between
the two
groups. Ms. Keffer offered that Ms.
Swartz had attended LAB meetings in the past.
The LAB has also prepared lists of written questions for her,
she has
asked questions of the LAB, so it isn’t as if there has been no
communication
between the two groups. However, most of
that was focused on the consortium library and this idea of smaller
scale cooperations
hadn’t been discussed. Also, a study
from an outside expert has not been undertaken.
Ms. Lord thought it was unfortunate that these sorts of issues
got
eclipsed by the consortium library idea.
Ms. Lord asked the
LAB what the next
step should be. Ms. Hill said she’d
really like to get through the next few weeks to see if things at the
new
library settle down before the staff gets into a new project. Ms. Lord thought they had a good baseline and
now they know about some of the options, and all the LAB members seemed
to be
very positive about greater cooperation, understanding, and goodwill
between
the two institutions.
Boardmember Martin,
who had informed
the LAB at the beginning of the meeting that she would need to be
excused
early, left at
B.
Amending the Bylaws
Boardmember Wagner
asked to see the
original language from the Council as she had not been present at the
previous
meeting.
Chair Lord read:
“The City Council directs
its advisory bodies to amend their bylaws accordingly: the meeting
chairperson
shall note for the audiences benefit that there is a three minute time
limit
each time there is a place in the agenda for public comment/testimony
or
audience comments. Any individual
wishing to address the city council or any of its advisory bodies shall
adhere
to a three minute time limit it is the responsibility of the chair to
announce
under public comments public testimony on public hearing items and
audience
comments that there is a three minute time limit. Time
limits may be adjusted by the two
minutes up or down with a concurrence of the body in special
circumstances only
such as agenda content and public attendance.”
Chair Lord
explained to Ms. Wagner
that the LAB complied with the sense of what the Council had asked for
but with
simpler language. Ms. Lord asked the LAB
if there was a wish for discussion on this item before they made a
motion. There was no discussion.
KEFFER/SEAMAN:
KEFFER MOVED THAT THE
LAB ACCEPT THE AMENDMENT AS WRITTEN WITH THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE AT
THE
BEGINNING OF THE MEETING (please note Amendments to the Minutes) WHICH
WOULD BE
A NEW SECTION 6 UNDER ARTICLE 4, MEETINGS, IN THE LAB BYLAWS, AND THERE
WOULD
BE A PERIOD AFTER PERSON FOLLOWED BY A CAPITAL E FOR THE FOLLOWING WORD.
VOTE: NON
OBJECTION: UNANIMOUS CONSENT
Motion carried.
A.
Library Operating Budget
Chair Lord stated
to the LAB that the
proposed library budget was on the last page of the LAB packet. Library Director Hill explained that this
document was currently the Manager’s proposed budget.
She had had a meeting with the City Manager
and the Finance Director and this document was in the proposed budget
at the
this time. Ms. Hill stated that by now
the City Manager has met with all of the City directors and has some
hard
decisions to make, so the library’s proposed budget could still change
before
it is introduced to the Council.
Ms. Hill explained
that the budget
included proposed additional personnel and additional funding needed to
cover
operating costs of the new building such as fuel, electricity, water,
sewer,
snow plowing, etc. She has not asked for
any additional funding for supplies, books, etc. because for this year,
they
need to concentrate on getting to know how to operate in the new
building and
what the usage will be like, and she didn’t want to make any big
changes to the
budget. The actual personnel budget, if
approved, would be 25 percent higher than last year, and the same was
true for
the operations budget. When asked by the
LAB if there was support from the City Manager for the library’s
proposed
budget, Ms. Hill replied that both the City Manager and Finance
Director told
her that a 25 percent increase was reasonable for a building that was
five
times bigger.
Chair Lord asked
Ms. Hill for the
schedule of budget hearings because the LAB will want to support this
budget.
LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S
REPORT
The
The conversation
moved to the
library’s wireless service. Ms. Hill
explained that patrons are responsible for configuring their own
laptops. New patrons are surprised that
there is a
time limit because the library can only support a certain amount a
bandwidth
and Ms. Hill wanted to monitor the need and make it available to as
many people
in the public as equitably as possible.
People are using laptops in nooks, at the reading bar, and on
study
tables, and are using their laptops and the library’s print resources
in an
integrated fashion which is how research is done these days.
A.
Statistical Report for September
2005
Ms. Hill passed out
the statistics for
September and asked the LAB to bear in mind that the library was only
open for
half the month: September 18th through the 30th. As
far as attendance was concerned, she
explained that the numbers were higher than they had been for the full
month of
August 2006 and September 2005. She
explained that increased attendance was one of the really big
differences
they’d noticed from the old library and the new one.
The public is enjoying using the space. Ms.
Hill hadn’t noticed significantly more
use on the computers, but she did notice that people were checking out
more library
books – 5,107 checkouts for half the month of September 2006. Ms. Hill stated that she didn’t recall a
month where they had checked out 10,000 items so they could be looking
at much
higher circulation than at the old library.
Boardmember Seaman
pointed out the
large number of new library cards issued for the month of September. Hill agreed that this was another huge
increase at the new library. Although
they have the same number of books and the same books in the new
library, the
books are easier to browse and the public wants to check them out. It’s as though the collection has been given
a new life.
Chair Lord
commented that the
statistics tracked their predictions that library use would probably
double at
the new library and it was nice to see the numbers.
Hill mentioned that the first day the library
opened the usage was triple that of the old library.
Ms. Lord went back
to the bandwidth
limitation and asked if it was a money thing.
Hill explained that she will be monitoring bandwidth use
carefully over
time to see what level they will need in the new library.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Currently there are
no committees.
COMMUNICATION/VISITORS
He also wanted to
point out that if
the 3-minute rule had been in effect at the last meeting, Mr. Stark
would have
only gotten through 10 percent of his presentation.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
These items were
moved to follow
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA.
A.
B.
Amend
C.
Planning for the
Future
NEW BUSINESS
A.
New
Chair Lord wanted
Ms. Hill to explain
in detail how things are going at the new library and what issues have
come up
that the LAB should know about. Ms. Hill
said they have been so busy that all of their attention has been
directed
toward helping people at the circulation desk.
They haven’t been able to break away from serving the public to
do
things like make signs, (hours posted) etc.
The library staff is really happy to see smiles on people’s
faces as
they come in. Ms. Hill checked out books
to a woman today who started to cry because the new library was so easy
to use;
Ms. Hill explained to the woman that she wasn’t the first person to
have that
reaction – a number of people have had teary, but happy, reactions when
they
visiting the new library for the first time.
Many people want to volunteer and there is finally room at the
new
library for volunteers. Ms. Hill wrote a
number of volunteer job descriptions which the Friends of the Library
(FHL) has
made into a booklet complete with a volunteer application.
The FHL can’t print the booklets fast enough
and are trying to keep up with the demand.
The library has gone from one volunteer for two hours once a
week, to
one or two volunteers each day for two or more hours each.
Book processing is something that requires
training, and we simply haven’t had a chance to break away from the
desk to
train people how to process. Evening
volunteers
are helpful because they can help people sign on to computers and also
walk
around the perimeter regularly to check on patron behavior. Ms. Hill stated that managing the volunteers
is time consuming, but the library has a number of terrific new
volunteers.
Ms. Lord reminded
Ms. Hill that she
had said that if there was more staff, there should be a volunteer
coordinator,
and the director can’t take this on with everything else she does. Ms. Hill agreed she saw a need for a
volunteer coordinator, as well as a need for a youth services librarian. For example, each time the staff goes into
the children’s room, they get asked questions, and she knows people
aren’t
getting the help they need. The other
big need is the area of a technical librarian – it’s a whole field now. Thank goodness for Library Tech Pete Coots
and City Systems Administrator Steve Bambakidis, because they stayed
until
As far as programs
and services are
concerned, the library is offering the same ones that were available at
the old
library, and FHL is making new programs possible. This
afternoon, they had a folk singer/story
teller at the library and counted 90 people in the children’s room. You would have never known it – it didn’t
look crowded, everyone had a seat, they were singing and dancing and it
didn’t
bother anyone in the main library. As
for last week’s evening writer’s program, Ms. Hill spent most of the
evening
greeting visitors and letting them know the library was closed. She felt the need for a couple of volunteers
just to monitor the library and keep an eye on the entire space.
The bulletin boards
are on order, but
have not arrived yet. They will be
located in the entryway.
Meeting rooms and
study rooms are
something Ms. Hill particularly wanted to talk about.
The group study rooms probably average at
least one in use throughout the day.
After school, all rooms are continuously in use and for a really
good
reason – the kids are really studying.
Ms. Hill wrote general guidelines and rules which are posted in
each
room. Rules are:
She wanted to make
sure these
beautiful rooms stay nice for a long period of time, and it’s also a
way to
teach young people how to treat a public space and that it’s a
privilege to use
it.
Ms. Hill also wrote
a meeting room
reservation form quickly because there was an immediate demand for the
room. She used a combination of meeting
room policies from the
Some examples are:
These points are
important to keep in mind
because she has had people who wanted to use the space as a private
room.
Ms. Hill brought up
another situation
of tutors in group study rooms. She
thought this was a “gray area.” Some
tutors are paid and some are not and it’s a tough call because the
library’s
rooms are to be used for group study and public meetings.
Boardmember Wagner said there was a need to
have an educational place to meet with a tutor, whether or not the
tutoring
service was free or hired. But something
like a class, seems as though it needs to be open to all and if you’ve
paid for
the class, you can’t join the meeting.
Community mental health professionals are paid to help
individuals with
learning disabilities and of course we want that in the library. Ms. Keffer mentioned that what we don’t want
is someone who is setting up their business in a study room of the
public
library. Maybe this situation could be
addressed by limiting number or frequency of reservations.
Let’s see if there’s really a
problem with tutors, first. Besides, the
nooks and study tables could be
used by tutors if there were no study rooms available.
Ms. Hill thought
these issues would
continue to come up each month for at least the first year as these
services
were new to all. She felt fortunate to
belong to a good group of public library directors she could consult
who have
had these services in place for years.
Hill summarized by
saying that every
space was being used in the way in which it was designed to be used. The building can accommodate the multi-uses
very well. However, it’s so much new use
all at once, and they just can’t address it all at once.
She hopes that everybody bears with them
while they get things sorted out. It’s
great to have people want to use the public library.
COMMENTS FROM THE
PUBLIC
Frank Vondersaar
offered to help make
signs for the library if his volunteer services were needed.
COMMENTS FROM THE
BOARD
Boardmember Wagner
said she was so
happy to see that the library was being used just like the schematics
showed
during the design phase. It’s
grand. Lots of young people.
Boardmember Seaman
said ditto, it’s
great, awesome.
Boardmember Keffer
stated she agrees,
it’s great to see people in the lounge, at the reading bar, and in the
study
rooms. People were where they were
supposed to be. She had two
questions: 1) Eileen Wythe was very
concerned about materials that had been stored in the basement of the
old
library. Ms. Hill replied she was
puzzled because there was no basement in the old library.
She was aware that some archival materials
had been given to the library years earlier, before her time in Homer,
but she
has not been able to locate them. She
wondered if the old, old library had had a basement, or if the archival
materials could have been donated to the
Chair Lord said
it’s clear that the
building was well designed. The spaces
are all so functional. She’s excited to
be at the stage where they have new challenges that they’re able to
deal with.
Student Member
Lettis wondered where
she should turn in her library volunteer form.
Ms. Hill told her she would take it.
Library Director
Hill stated that she
observed that the new library is an intuitive space to use and very
well
designed by the architects.
Chair Lord
apologized for spacing out
one more thing. The College Advisory
Board met last week and passed a motion related to the public library. Ms. Lord picked up the motion from Carol
Swartz today and wanted to let the LAB know what the CAB had adopted. The CAB, in their motion, asked Ms. Swartz
that “the conversation be continued between the city and the campus to
determine the best method of meeting the college library needs to
include the
examination of a campus based library consolidated library with the
city or
enhanced cooperation between the two libraries as well as any options
that
might enhance learning.”
The LAB agreed that
this fit in
perfectly with the types of cooperation they had discussed.
ADJOURNMENT
Wagner/seaman 8:05.
BURSCH/SEAMAN –
MOVED TO ADJOURN.
VOTE:
YES. NON OBJECTION.
UNANIMOUS CONSENT.
Motion carried.
There being no
further business to
come before the Board the meeting was adjourned at
INFORMATIONAL
MATERIAL
________________________________
HELEN HILL, LIBRARY
DIRECTOR
Approved:
______________________