March 20, 2007 Minutes
Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Minutes of March 20, 2007
Present: Prakash Mathew, Suzanne Morrison, Herb Snyder, Richard Zeck, Helen Levitt, Gale Chapman, Leo Wilking
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Liaison: Carol Sawicki
Staff: Monique Andresen, Tom Fortin, Eve Haaland, Beth Postema, Lori West
Others Present: City Commissioner Linda Coates, City of Fargo Director of Human Resources Dana Sue Busch
Order of Agenda
The order of the agenda was approved with no corrections or additions.
Minutes
Herb Snyder moved to approve the minutes of February 20, 2007. Leo Wilking seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Staff Report
Eve Haaland reported there are many changes in staffing as reflected in the Director’s Report. Lori West and Cheryl Lackman attended an Aleph conference March 5-6 in Brooklyn Park, MN. Pam Strait attended an PLA spring symposium March 1-3 in San Jose, CA. The Fargo Public Library will host children’s author Nancy Carlson at Rheault Farm April 18.
Director’s Report
The roof at Northport is scheduled to be replaced this summer. Many stores in the complex are experiencing similar scenarios as the library with several leaks. Many children’s tours have taken place at Roberts St. The RFID process is continuing at Southpointe. Several part time positions are now available due to staff leaving for full time employment. The Library Associate I positions help fill hours at the three public service locations. Recruiting and hiring continue.
Statistical Reports
Usage statistics are hard to compare to last year. Lower renewal rates are reported due to the extended checkout periods from December 1 to March 1. Interlibrary loan is now requesting more from other libraries. In the past the library was a net lender. The library is not lending materials for interlibrary loan while much of the collection is in storage. Expenditures are below budget to date. The disruption from the move has delayed ordering materials. Several orders are now pending. Phone service is higher than budgeted due to the installation and set up of the Roberts Street location.
Friends of the Fargo Public Library Report
Carol Sawicki reported the Friends met last week. They have $22,839 in the treasury. $10,000 was pledged to the capital campaign. 113 households are members. There were 240 household memberships at the end of 2006. With no large book sales planned this year, the number of memberships may not be as high as last year. Meeting at Northport works well for the organization, but another facility will be needed for the annual meeting in June. A draft of the new brochure was presented.
Continuing Business
A. Building Projects Reports
Beth Postema presented pictures of the main building after the asbestos removal project and of the Dr. James Carlson Library construction progress. Asbestos removal was complete March 15. The scheduled date of construction completion for the Carlson Library is now October 31. Masonry work will start next week.
Jack Poling and Jeff Mandyck from MS&R will be in Fargo Thursday to meet with staff. The building committee and city commission rejected the earlier bids and set the construction budget at $9.6 million. All options are still open for the granite on the old building. Options depend on how complicated it would be to remove and store the large pieces.
$800,000 of the sales tax funds set aside for operations and maintenance was added to the construction budget. This set aside was a cushion to ease the budget for expanded operational costs. The set aside was used for Northport operational costs. The city commission had unanimous agreement to shift the $800,000 to construction costs. Some of the elements of the building will result in reduced operational costs with energy conscious design and use of RFID technology. Although the bid process is now extended, the construction phase will be shorter due to the less complex structure. The added construction costs of building later would be offset in part by the added interest accrued over that time.
B. Library Director job description
Herb Snyder, Suzanne Morrison, and Helen Levitt presented a revised draft of the director job description based on increasing complexities of the job and librarianship in general. Dana Sue Busch will compare the draft with the old essential functions of the job and suggest wording to fit with the language of the city. Most promotions or reclassifications are either market driven or responsibilities increase at least 25%. A final draft and proposal is needed for the position evaluation committee to review in April. The library specific salary survey and salary suggestion should be part of the proposal.
Leo Wilking moved to give Herb Snyder and committee the authority to finalize the job description and present the proposal to the position evaluation committee after reviewing input from board members. Richard Zeck seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Further discussion took place regarding the search process and search committee. It was suggested to have initial screening interviews at the American Library Association annual conference in June in Washington DC. The recruiting timeline will be established at the next board meeting.
C. Opening Day Collection for Dr James Carlson Library
The library postponed issuing the request for proposals for the opening day collection at the request of Prakash Mathew. The collection for Carlson Library will not be negatively impacted due to changes in the collection from the time of the building program in 2005. Shelving capacity was increased from the original program to 60-65,000 volumes. Old formats of VHS videos and books on cassette have been replaced with DVDs and books on CD. These formats are smaller and shelving can handle a larger capacity. More items were shifted to the branches to make them available instead of being stored in the warehouse. Working with the operational budget for collections of $185,000, the south side collection will increase approximately 30%. Without the added $165,000 from the sales tax set aside fund, the shelves will be approximately 70% full with room for growth. The $185,000 already in the general operating fund will make it possible for technical services to catalog and process the opening day collection internally.
Helen Levitt moved to rescind the previous motion to move forward with the requests for proposal. Herb Snyder seconded the motion; the motion carried.
New Business
A. Introduction of new services
E-audiobooks are now available on the online resources page of the web site. 1,600 titles can be downloaded to a home computer and uploaded to an MP3 player. After three weeks it disappears from the home computer.
Topic Totes for Tots are a new format to our collection. They are kits containing ten picture books based on one subject along with activity sheets, jokes, craft ideas, etc. This format utilizes duplicate copies of picture books from the bookmobile collection that was transferred to Northport. This saves time for the reader in providing a grab and go early literacy themed source for parents, care givers, and teachers. Cindy Wray, Nancy Giere, Jackie Lang, Edie Discher, and Lori West worked to make this happen with funding from the Friends for the handled totes.
B. Legislative Issues
This will be discussed at the next board meeting.
C. City of Fargo Efficiency in Government Survey results
The survey asked people to rank questions from one being very positive to five being very negative. The city scored in the range of 1.6 to 1.8. Comments pertaining to the library referred to mainly three subjects. Parking is being addressed in the new library projects. Hours have been expanded at Southpointe since the completion of this survey. The third is collection, which is an ongoing process to meet the needs of patrons in several formats.
Public Comment
There was no public comment at this time.
Next Board Meeting
The next board meeting is scheduled Tuesday, April 17, 2007, at 4:00 p.m. in the City Commission room. The meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Monique Andresen