June 19, 2007 Minutes
Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Board members present: Prakash Mathew, Gale Chapman, Helen Levitt, Suzanne Morrison, Herb Snyder
Absent: Leo Wilking, Richard Zeck
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Liaison: Carol Sawicki
Staff present: Monique Andresen, Ben Daeuber, Tom Fortin, Eve Haaland, Beth Postema
Others Present: City Commissioner Linda Coates
Order of Agenda
There were no additions or corrections to the order of agenda.
Minutes
Herb Snyder moved to approve the minutes of May 10, 2007. Helen Levitt seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Staff Report
The summer reading program has registered 749 children ranging in age from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. 28 books have been given out as prizes already. Patrons are responding well to the parks venue for the programs. Story teller Judith Simonson is here this week.
An extra staff computer has been installed at Southpointe to help with checking in of materials. One additional patron computer has been installed for catalog searching. Staff members are receiving many inquiries about e-audiobooks.
Karen Kohoutek and Lynn Bendickson presented Interlibrary Loan training and Ben Daeuber presented web/networking training to the staff at two separate staff development workshops.
Tom Fortin facilitated business research training for SCORE in May.
Edie Discher, Tom Fortin, and Beth Postema will attend the ALA conference in Washington D.C. at the end of the week.
Director’s Report
Sheetrock is being installed at the Carlson library. Pictures have been updated on the web site. A furnishings meeting will take place Wednesday afternoon. Bid opening for the main library project is Wednesday morning. The fire department is doing training sessions in the old main library structure.
A dehumidifier was installed in the back work area at the downtown location where the large print collection is housed. A new copier/printer will be installed at Southpointe shortly. The lease of the previous machine ends this month.
Roofs started leaking with the heavy rains. Inquiries are being made as to when the roof replacement project will take place at Northport.
Statistical Reports
With the reduced space and collection, usage is down less than 10%. Door count is down 7%. This may be a signal that there is pent up demand for library service. Southpointe increased attendance greatly from last month while the downtown location may have leveled off. An article in the Forum June 3 highlighted the attendance at the temporary downtown location.
The materials budget will start being spent at a faster rate as more orders are placed for the Carlson opening day collection. The part time wages line is higher than anticipated due to filling gaps from vacancies. The excess in the full time wages is due in large part to the director vacancy and makes up for the overage in part time wages to date.
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Report
The annual meeting of the Friends was held this month. It was the last meeting for Carol Sawicki as a board member and president. Barb Hoppe was elected the new president. Bob Olson, Kathy Gilstrap, and Connie Santwire are new to the board. The annual meeting also saw changes to the bylaws and updates on the construction project and director search.
$22,709 is in the treasury. A funding request was approved for additional copies of the Friends book talk books.
The Friends will sell Lucinda pins with a reading theme as a fundraiser in front of the downtown library during the street fair.
Continuing Business
A. Library Director Search
The position evaluation committee approved the director position at the E81 level with salary range of $68,820-$95,096. The committee met three times since the last board meeting. The brochure will be complete this week in time for Beth Postema and Tom Fortin to take some to the ALA conference. An ad will be placed in American Libraries, a publication of ALA. Ads will also appear online at several regional library associations. Print ads will appear in the Forum and Star Tribune. Ads will start in July and run through August with a September 1 close date.
New Business
A. FY2008 Budget Request
The proposed budget was distributed in the board packets with narrative regarding changes. Staff requested include: Reference/Teen Services Librarian I for Carlson, Circulation Library Associate II for Carlson, Cataloging Library Associate II, a ½ time Reference Library Associate III for Carlson, and $17,500 lump sum for part time temporary staff.
The only capital request is for a gate at Northport to block off the library entrance from the rest of the mall. This will allow the book drop currently located at Hornbacher’s to be moved in front of the library.
The budget meeting with the City Finance Committee is set for 11:00 am, July 9.
Helen Levitt moved to approve the proposed budget to present to the City Finance Committee. Herb Snyder seconded the motion; the motion carried.
B. Electronic Communication Policy
The proposed electronic communication policy was distributed at the meeting. Currently the library has a web blog that does not allow comments. This will be the policy that will control posting comments to the library blog. All comments will be reviewed before posting to the site. Posting will be anonymous, but an attempt will be made if enough information is provided to inform patrons of not posting comments.
Heather Mitzel, City of Fargo Communications Manager, drafted the policy which was reviewed by the city attorney. The policy is similar to that used by the Forum for online posting.
Suzanne Morrison moved to accept the policy as written. Herb Snyder seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Public Comment
Carol Sawicki stated she will continue as the Friends liaison to the board until another representative is selected.
The board thanked Carol Sawicki for her years with the Friends of the Fargo Public Library.
Beth Postema stated Russ Hodge of Hodge Cramer was in Fargo last week. Fundraising is over half way to the goal of $3 million. The public phase is now being planned to coincide with the main project.
After inquiry by Helen Levitt, Beth Postema stated the volunteer program will restart once the Carlson library opens. A volunteer policy will go before the board in August or September.
Next Board Meeting
The next board meeting is scheduled Tuesday, July 10, 2007, at 3:00 p.m. in the City Commission room. The annual meeting will take place immediately after the regular meeting, ending with a tour of the Carlson Library. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Monique Andresen