October 18, 2005 Minutes
Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Minutes of October 18, 2005
Present: Betty Kerns, Prakash Mathew, Helen Levitt, Herb Snyder, Leo Wilking, Richard Zeck
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Liaison: Bob Mason
Staff: Maxine Hilburn
Director: Charles Pace
Others: City Commissioner Linda Coates
Absent: Suzanne Morrison
Order of Agenda
Helen Levitt moved to approve the order of the agenda. Herb Snyder seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Minutes
Helen Levitt moved to approve the minutes of September 20, 2005. Prakash Mathew seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Staff Report
Maxine Hilburn reported the October Jazz Concerts have had good attendance. Two authors are scheduled to be at the library in November. November 4 Carol Bursack will talk about Minding Your Elders and November 18 Ward Wilkins will talk about small town America in the World War II era. Beth Postema will be at the Ghost Ranch Leadership seminar October 24-28. The Staff Development team coordinated a workshop presented by Mary Bushing, who has presented internationally to library groups, September 20 and 21 regarding teams.
Directors Report
Charles Pace welcomed Richard Zeck to the Library Board of Directors. Helen Levitt and Herb Snyder attended the City Commission meeting October 10. The Commission approved a ten year lease agreement with Northport-Manchester Associates for 4,000 square feet of space in the Northport shopping center. The agreement gives the library right of first refusal on an adjacent 1,000 square feet currently leased by Dakota Clinic. Although the north site was not in the ballot language, the sales tax revenue will be used for the North branch if approved by the Attorney Generals opinion. The Commission approved building the library on the current library site pending an opinion from the Attorney Generals office regarding the terms new versus remodel and how the sales tax can be used. If the opinion is that the sales tax revenue may not be used for the Northport site, the Commission has already approved the lease and it would need to be funded another way. The design contract will be sent to the City Commission shortly. The south side lease and joint powers agreement are in the final negotiations with the Park Board. The design for both the north and south locations will begin immediately after the approval of the design contract.
The new shelving has been installed behind the information desk in the adult room. Greg Gilstrap was singled out in a letter received for his friendly and courteous service.
The North Dakota Library Association conference was held in Grand Forks September 21-23. Erin Smith presented a program on library services to tweens and Jake Fejedelem presented a program on young adult services. Lori West took part in a panel discussion on library science distance education programs. Beth Postema and Charles Pace took part in general sessions and executive board meetings. Others from Fargo Public Library who attended were Diane Briggs, Karen Kohoutek, Cheryl Lackman, and Cynthia Wray. Helen Levitt pointed out the appreciation of the reports sent regarding conferences to see how the experiences can apply to our library.
The Southpointe branch has had difficulty with groups of four to sixteen people aging from eight to fourteen years old refusing to abide by the rules of the library. The library has worked with the police department. A zero tolerance policy is an acceptable policy solution at this time and will continue to be monitored.
Statistical Reports
The new computer system Aleph is not report friendly. The number of patrons, number of items, additions, and withdrawals are all statistical information in question. Edie Discher is working with ODIN to get reliable data. The patron count trial and error exercise ended with a report that seems fairly accurate. The next step is to drop expired and inactive accounts from the patron count.
The library is under budget to date. Some line items have increased while others have decreased to compensate for the higher cost areas.
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Report
Bob Mason reported two requests were processed. $50 for Decals reading I love libraries and I vote was approved. $545 for materials promoting the ready to read program was also approved. The group discussed the request from Charles Pace regarding the fundraising feasibility study. It was decided the Friends group would rather spend money on the fundraising itself. The Friends have 220 memberships to date valued at $6,605. 5,000 questionnaires were sent out and 800 were received to date. They now need to be tabulated. The Barnes and Noble Book Fair fundraiser will be November 26. Pick up a bookmark at the circulation desk to have a portion of your book sales that day go to the Friends of the Fargo Public Library. The next book sale is in November before Thanksgiving.
Continuing Business
A. Review and approve recommendation to hire fundraising consultant
Betty Kerns, Prakash Mathew, and Charles Pace interviewed two of the candidates that submitted a proposal. One was a telephone interview, the other was face to face. Their recommendation is to approve the selection of Hodge Cramer and Associates as our fundraising consultant for the feasibility study and to authorize payment from the Fargo Moorhead Area Foundation Library Endowment Fund principal for this purpose in an amount not to exceed $26,500. This would be only for the feasibility study. The capital campaign would be separate. The feasibility study would include 35-40 interviews of substantial donor prospects to establish how much could be raised. The ten week process will result in a written report. This will establish a floor for the architects in the design phase. With no objection, the board accepted the recommendation.
B. Review and approve recommendation for RFID vendor
The technology team submitted a recommendation of Bibliotheca as the vendor for library RFID technology. Helen Levitt moved to approve the request for RFID technology from Bibliotheca be sent to the City Commission for approval. Leo Wilking seconded the motion; the motion carried.
C. Update on director performance review
Prakash Mathew distributed the critical skills and competencies review form for the board to review. Changes should be sent to Helen Levitt within one week. Helen Levitt will present the review forms to the staff at a future staff meeting for input in the process. The performance review will be complete by the next board meeting.
D. Update on recent Commission actions
See the Directors Report section.
Public Comment
Welcome to the Board Richard Zeck.
The Board thanks Diane Briggs for compiling the history of the Fargo Public Library.
Next Board Meeting
The next board meeting will be held Tuesday, November 15, 2005, at 4:00 p.m. in the City Commission Room.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Monique Andresen