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2008 2-21Library Advisory Board February 21, 2008 Members Present: Kemp Burdette, Mary Hatcher, Tami Hinshaw, Jacqueline O’Grady, Gwen Rohler, Elizabeth Stanfield-Maddox, Paul Walker Friends of the Library: John Danylyk Staff Members: David Paynter, Harry Tuchmayer Asst. County Mgr.: Chris Coudriet Absent Members: Elizabeth Bryan, Eleanore Lipscomb-Warren, Conrad Luhmann, Frank Oddo Meeting began at 2:30 PM PUBLIC COMMENT: None MINUTES: January 2008 Library Advisory Board Minutes Approved. CORRESPONDENCE: • A letter from Jesus Macedo thanked the Library for its article in Scuttlebutt on and how he used the library to learn English and to start a landscaping business. • Two employees from the North Carolina Room have been interviewed recently by two separate magazines. Joe Sheppard was featured in Bootleg Magazine and Beverly Tetterton in Wilma Magazine. • The Library received a letter from the State Library stating that NHCPL would receive an additional $24,000 in State Aid funds for a total of $212,005. • A letter w?as received from Leslie Stanfield, County Information Technology Director about possible changes in staffing of the IT department. One option is to pull all IT staff out of the various county departments and to centralize them. The departments affected will be discussing this further before a decision is finalized. The Board strongly recommends that IT staff remain on site at the main library. The IT staff was removed from the Library in past years and the results were not positive. • All locations have comment cards available for public feedback. We received approx. 1-3 comments per weeks at each location. Once the comments are reviewed, Harry Tuchmayer provides the Library staff with a brief synopsis of the 1 comments. Follow up calls and letters are sent if the patron provides us with their phone and address. DIRECTORS REPORT • The Library’s courier was involved in an accident on 2/18/08. Although he was not injured, the courier’s van was totaled. The 2000 Chevy van was valued at $3,500. Harry noted that the county’s vehicle management dept. was contacted immediately after the accident and within 24 hours they had already come up with alternative vehicles to keep our courier staff running. The Library is looking at several options in vehicles, one being “green” hybrid vehicles. All options will be reviewed for space, loading accessibility and safety. • Clearly the most significant news for the Library since our last board meeting has been the projected revenue shortfall. This has had an impact on the library’s operating budget which has been reduced by $150,000. We are fortunate to be able to delay certain projects in the contracted service and computer accounts, the effect of which will be transparent to our users. Unfortunately, the cuts in the book budget will result in far fewer titles being ordered for the balance of this year. The County Manager’s office determined that the parking lot project at Northeast should continue. The library’s major concern and that of all county departments, is how this will affect next year’s budget. The Budget Office asked that we provide two scenarios for the 2009 budget. One that shows no increase in operation and one that shows a 10% reduction in the total budget. The budget with a 10% reduction would have significant impact on library services since it would reduce the materials budget by over 25%. Excluding gift and grant funds, this amount is what we were expending for materials in fiscal 1996. • Turning to more positive developments, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at the Main Library is doing well. They estimate they will prepare 700 tax returns this year. The Main Library and Northeast Regional will both be early voting sites for the November election. The Main Library will also serve as an early voting site for the May primary. Library programs continue to be well received and they are now readily available on the library’s home page. • The major program since the last meeting was the performance of the Coastal Cohorts on behalf of the Library Foundation. Approximately 250 individuals attended the event which was well received by the public. • The Library hopes to move its booking software over to the new calendaring system in March. We are currently working out some bugs in the invoicing part of the software. • The two LSTA grants have been approved by the County Commissioners. If awarded and matching funds are budgeted, the EZ grant would replace 32 older public access PCs and the Technology grant would replace our integrated library system. Both projects would occur during fiscal year 2009. 2 • May 21, 2008 is the definitive date for Library Day in Raleigh and I hope we can have a good turnout of Friends and Board members to support North Carolina’s public libraries. Please place the date on your calendar. In March, Mary Hatcher and I will be attending the Trustee conference in Brunswick County. In late February, Tami Hinshaw and I will be attending the Advocacy Workshop. Both events are sponsored by the State Library. If you have not visited NC LIVE for awhile, there has been a significant addition to the collection. Over 200 Public Broadcasting Service videos have been added to the resources. These include a number of Ken Burns’ documentaries. A complete list is available at <http://media.nclive.org/browse_videos.phtml>. FRIENDS REPORT The Friends of the Library Board of Directors met on February 12 and was treated to a demonstration by Dorothy Hodder of the Library’s new and much improved website, including “Next Reads.” Other highlights from the Board Meeting: • Advocacy Committee Chair Tami Tami Hinshaw reported the addition of four people to the list of those willing to advocate for the relocation of the Myrtle Grove Branch, and is planning to have “something” in the advocacy area to tie into the upcoming celebration (in May) of Myrtle Grove’s 15th anniversary. Regarding advocacy, Board Member Dennis Fuller kicked off a lively discussion about a “perceived need to change the direction” of the Friends into a louder voice to advocate budgetary and other issues for the Library. This will be an agenda item for the March FOL Board Meeting. • Book Sale Committee Chair Dennis Fuller reported that preparations for the Spring Book Sale (April 4-10) are in full swing, and that a date has been set for the Fall Book Sale (October 3-9). • Membership Committee Chair Janet Alexander reported that the Friends had 523 members (this includes 95 Lifetime members) so far in 2008. She also recommended that we revise our “Membership Renewal Letter” to meet members’ needs vis-à-vis the IRS regarding “charitable donations.” • Friends Vice-President Carolyn Jackson reported on her research on possible speakers/entertainment for the Friends’ Annual Meeting of the General Membership, which is scheduled for November. This kicked off a lively discussion on what we should strive to achieve at these annual meetings in the way of, inter alia, attracting new members, budgeting for food, criteria for selection of speakers/entertainment, and possible fund-raising. This will be another agenda item for the March FOL Board Meeting. The FOL Board will meet again on Tuesday, March 11, at the Main Library at 2PM. 3 OLD BUSINESS Technology Report The board reviewed briefly the report from Rob McGee with RMG Consultants. Some points of interest included RMG’s recommendations on public access computers, training, and catalog authority control. This item will be placed under old business at the next meeting to allow Board members to comment on the report. Myrtle Grove We are looking at two other locations for the Myrtle Grove library relocation. One site would be in the Home Depot shopping center. The other is a piece of property on Piner Road that may have a future tie-in into College Rd. David Paynter will follow up with David Lyle to see if he has a site plan for that area. Library Foundation Event 236 tickets were sold for the Coastal Cohorts and according to Mary Hatcher we raised $8,327.53 from the event. Mary compared this event with the two other events in terms of attendance and money raised. Plans are already underway for next year’s event. The Library Foundation is getting ready to set up a separate Book Endowment fund from the money raised. This fund will be used to supplement the needs of the library. NEW BUSINESS 2008 Budget Cuts We have a difficult budget this year most cuts except for the reduction in new purchases will be transparent to the user. $65,000 was cut from the book account. However, $64,000 was allocated to supplement the budget from the Friends of the Library. Contract Services account was cut by $30,000. This will affect preprocessing library materials. $40,000 was cut from computer supplies. This money would have been applied towards new equipment at Myrtle Grove and our AV department. $5,000 was cut from Training. In response to a question by a board member about what should be done regarding these cuts, the Library Director said board members should be talking to the commissioners about their need to support the Library’s FY 2009 in which these cuts have been restored. 2009 Budget The Library has asked for two Library Associate positions to be restored which were cut in FY 2002. Their loss has had a significant impact on our ability to serve library users. An additional library assistant position and more part time hours for Myrtle Grove and the North Carolina Room were also requested. Budget officials asked that the library provide an alternate 2009 budget which would be funded at 90% of the original 2007/08 level. As mentioned earlier this would have a significant impact on library services. 4 5 Nominating Committee Paul Walker and Elizabeth Stanfield-Maddox were selected to head up the Nominating Committee. They will prepare a report for the next meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.