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Minutes 08 20 09 LAB1 Library Advisory Board August 20, 2009 Members Present: Rick Andrews, Kemp Burdett, Mary Hatcher (Chair), Eleanore Lipscomb-Warren, Conrad Luhmann (Secretary), Evelyn Smith, Staff Members: Harry Tuchmayer Asst. County Mgr.: Chris Coudriet Friends of the Lib: Anne Langan Absent Members: Bettie Harrison, Tami Hinshaw, Marilyn McConnell, Frank Oddo, Jacqueline O’Grady, Gwen Rohler, Paul Walker Meeting began at 2:05 PM The meeting was called to order by the presiding officer, Mary Hatcher. Public Comment & Agenda review: No public comments this month. The August Agenda was approved. MEMBERS Mary Hatcher welcomed new board member Evelyn Smith. Mrs. Smith is a Wilmington native and is very excited to bring forth her ideas to the board. Other new members who will be at the September meeting are Carroll Jones and Ellen O’Malley. Bettie Harrison’s membership has also been renewed to the board. Ann Langan joined the meeting as the newly appointed Friends of the Library President. She has relieved Rita Lewis as actin?g President so that she can focus her attention to the Booksale. Mary thanked exiting Board members Frank Oddo, Eleanore Lipscomb-Warren & Tammi Hinshaw for all their time and effort on the board. She also welcomed them to attend any future meetings. MINUTES The May 2009 Library Advisory Board Minutes were approved. CORRESPONDENCE Mr. Tuchmayer reported that the Library did receive numerous complaints from patrons regarding the reduced hours at the Carolina Beach branch. We are looking at this issue to see if we can increase coverage/hours. All complainants have been contacted by Harry. Not all comments were negative; the Library did receive several thank you notes as well. All cards and letters were presented to the board for review. 2 New Library hours have been confusing to the public. Although we have made all attempts possible to get the word out, this is a learning curve. FRIENDS REPORT Anne Langan, President of the Friends of the Library, submitted the following report: August 2009 Friends of the Library Summary August 20, 2009 At the June Board meeting, three new members were elected to the Board to fill vacancies. These appointments will end with the annual FOL meeting in November. The new members are Larry Ankrom, Ruth Brown, and Anne Langan. In August, the Acting President, Rita Lewis, stepped down so as to fully concentrate on her position as Book Sale Chairman. Anne Langan was elected by the board to replace Rita until the November FOL general meeting. Anne previously served on the FOL board in 2005-2006. The membership of the FOL currently, as of August 14th, stands at 566. For the first time, two summer one-day (on Saturdays) mass market paperback book sales were held in the lobby of the NE Branch. The June sale netted $825, and the July sale netted $1014. These events were well attended and we were able to sell a large number of the popular paperbacks at $.50 a book. Fall sale preparations are going well. Dates: Sept. 25 through Oct 1, 2009. The publicity materials have been printed, and are being distributed now. Rita and Tom Lewis are hard at work and they continually refine the efforts at every sale in order to achieve higher sales and serve the public more effectively. The Annual meeting will be on November 6th, at 7 pm at the NE Branch, and the speaker will be Celia Rivenbark. NEW BUSINESS APPOINT NOMINATING COMMITTEE FOR THE SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS Mary Hatcher nominated Marilyn McConnell and Paul Walker. She will contact them directly. SEPTEMBER MEETING DATE CHANGE Mary Hatcher requested that the Board change the date due to a conflict in her schedule. The new date will be Thursday, September 10th at 2PM. This change will only be for this upcoming meeting and will not affect future meetings. FAREWELL TO BOARD MEMBERS Frank Oddo, Eleanore Lipscomb-Warren & Tami Hinshaw are coming off of the board. Mary had already addressed this in her welcoming statements. 3 PLANNING COMMISSIONS JOURNAL REVIEW Mary Hatcher presented the board with a copy of the Planning Commissions Journal Review. The review covers how Libraries are the Heart of Our Community. She asked the board to review the document and come prepared to discuss it at the September meeting. QUIET ZONE Mary Hatcher stated that Libraries have become a gathering place outside of the realm of normal library activities. As a result, it has become very noisy and disruptive to patrons studying and reading. She recommended that the library create Quiet Zones where not cell phones or loud talking is allowed. We want everyone to feel welcome in our libraries, but we need to assist those who need a quiet environment. Harry Tuchmayer stated that although we do try to remind patrons to be respectful of others, we do encounter those who are not willing to respond accordingly. In these instances, our hands as tied as to what we can do. We do not want to have to call in law enforcement to remove someone on a cell phone. He He did agree that Quiet Zones are an excellent suggestions and that he will work on putting a plan in place to create these areas in the Main Library. CLEANING Mary Hatcher noted that the carpeting at the Main Branch was dirty and in need of cleaning. Harry Tuchmayer explained that he has already arranged to have Property Management come in to replace many of the worn carpet tiles. We do have regular custodians at the branch who do a wonderful job of cleaning the library and that large cleaning jobs/projects are handled on a regular basis. He also noted that volume is very high at this branch. Another area of discussion was the sidewalk from the parking deck to the Main libraries side entrance. Mary stated that the sidewalk has black globs on it. Harry will request that the Parks department power wash that area. Mary recommended that a smoking receptacle be placed a the entrance of the Main Library. OLD BUSINESS NEW ILS UPDATE Harry Tuchmayer reported that the Library is in the process of installing the new new ILS system. ILS (Integrated Library System) catalogs books, performs check in/out, and manages library data in one software package versus multiple applications. The Library turned off our catalog for new acquisitions yesterday. The data was sent to the new company for conversion. For the next 5 weeks, the Library will be unable to enter new books into the catalog. We are still buying and processing new material. Once we receive the new program we will be able to enter the prepared material into the live system. The week of September 21st is the target for software installation. By that Friday we expect to be running entirely on the new system. 4 Tammy Baggett, Asst. Director, will be requesting volunteers to be Ambassadors to assist library patrons on how to use the new software. Tuchmayer stated that the library “team” who has been involved in this conversion has been wonderful. They continue to meet every Tuesday at 3:30 for webinars with TLC, the company handling the conversion. LSTA EZ COMPUTER GRANT The LSTA EZ grant is a Library Services and Tech Grant funded by federal money for public computers. This grant will allow the library to expand services at the Carolina Beach and Myrtle Grove branch. We expect the new equipment to be in place by the end of September. We are looking into rearranging furniture at the Myrtle Grove branch to expand computer services at this location. LSTA PLANNING GRANT Federal money from the State will allow the Library to update our 5-year plan. We will be looking for Board volunteers to assist the library with the Plan. Mark Livingston is our consultant on this project. The goal is to determine the community’s needs and set long range goals to meet those needs. DIRECTORS REPORT Harry Tuchmayer reported on the following items: On July 1st, Library hours were reduced due to budget cuts. Despite the reduced hours, the Library has seen an increase in foot traffic vs. July of last year. Staff has had no down time and computer labs have been full with many patrons applying for jobs online. County IT & Library are looking at a self-checkout package called Envisionware. This new system would be more cost effective than our current Pharos program. MARK YOUR CALENDER Labor Day: All Libraries will be closed on Friday, Sept 4th – Monday, Sept. 7th. The 4th will be a mandated county furlough day. Date Change: The next LAB meeting date has been moved up one week to Thursday, September 10th. Reminder: Be sure to read the Planning Commissioners Journal Review “Libraries at the Heart of Our Communities”. The board will be covering this information at the September meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m. The next meeting will be held held on Thursday, September 10th at 2:00 PM at the Main Branch.