January 23, 2001 Minutes
Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Minutes of January 23, 2001
Board Chair Virginia Dambach called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm
Present: Virginia Dambach, Ryn Pitts, Betty Kerns, Jean Rayl, Prakash Mathew, Lynn Wheeler, Friends liaison Bev Quamme
Order of Agenda
No additions or corrections were made to the agenda.
Minutes
There were no additions or corrections made to the December 12, 2000 minutes. Kerns made the motion to approve the minutes. Rayl seconded the motion; the motion carried.
LSSI Management Report
Wheeler informed the board that she had spent a great deal of her time meeting with FPL staff since her arrival on January 2, 2001. She asked the staff to complete a survey and then met with each individual to discuss their responses. Wheeler made a composite of the responses and addressed the staff as a whole on the morning of January 19, 2000. From the responses of the survey, Wheeler and the staff developed seven self-directed work teams that will work on various projects. The facilities team will focus on improving the present building. The safety team will work on issues concerning an emergency procedure manual, disruptive customer management, and providing a safer work environment. The operations team will work on improving communications between different departments, developing consistent policies and procedures, meeting room policy, and improving with the telephone system and voice tree. The programming team will coordinate library events, create a calendar of activities for the community, and bring in speakers and programs of interest to the community. The public relations team will develop outdoor and indoor signage for the library, press releases, and stories informing the community about library news and activities. The technology team will take inventory of the hardware and suggest equipment that the library needs and develop a knowledge base by visiting companies to observe how technology is implemented in other places of business. The training team will identify staff training needs and determine who on the staff can help train their peers in computer programs and develop training lists for cross training.
Janet Deane has joined the staff and will split her twenty hours a week between Adult Circulation and Reference. Justin Hayek is a new volunteer who will assist with technology support.
LSSI staff member Fran Ware visited the FPL. Ware was appointed Chair of the Coretta Scott King Award committee of the American Library Association and Wheeler asked Ware to speak to the board about the Coretta Scott King Award committee later in the meeting.
Pitts asked if the teams had a timeline to follow. Wheeler explained that the self-directed teams are scheduled to have their first meetings in February and will be charged to formulate their annual work plan that will run until the end of December of 2001. The annual work plan will be shared with the board after they are developed. Mathew asked if the staff chose which team they wanted to be on. The staff selected which team they’d be on and Wheeler made sure that the representation of different staff levels and departments was equal.
Statistical Reports
The final budget report showed a balance of $4,526 and 96% of the materials budget was spent out. Print Circulation was down 1%, but non-print circulation was up 9%. Youth Services programming showed an increase of 53%.
Friends of the Fargo Library Report
Quamme reported that the 2001 membership drive started in December 2000. The Friends have a total of $3282 in 2001 membership monies. Bob Mason led the search for a used piano, which was purchased for $900. Mason is paying for moving and tuning the piano. The next Friends meeting is February 13th at 7:00pm. The Friends gather on the second Tuesday of the months they don’t have meetings to sort the used book donations. BookTalk is facilitated by Carol Berntson and meets from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the second Friday of each month. Berntson reports that the meetings are small, but still considers them a success. Friends board member Steve Stark is working on an author event that the Friends will sponsor during National Library week, which is the first week in April. Dambach thanked the Friends for piano donation.
Continuing Business
City/Library Letter of Understanding:
A corrected copy of the letter of understanding between the City of Fargo and the Fargo Public library was provided in the January packet for the board’s perusal. Pitts questioned if there was a date on the letter of understanding. Wheeler found a date on the cover letter of the document, but not on the letter itself. Wheeler recommended inserting the date of the meeting when the letter was approved in the first sentence. The date in the first sentence of the letter of understanding will read “This agreement, made and entered into this 12th day of December, 2000.”
Library parking plan:
Wheeler asked Beth Postema to participate in the conversation concerning the parking plan. Postema informed the board that the 1995 May agenda had an item called the Civic Parking Lot, but no plan was enclosed with the minutes from that meeting. Pat Zavoral indicated that the parking plan was a part of a larger project that would not be considered at this time. Wheeler said that the library could do a better job of signage to inform patrons of available parking and suggested a discussion with Rick Lane of the Traffic Management department to possibly change the entry to and exit from the library. Wheeler asked Rayl if the City of Fargo was discussing the possibility of 3rd Street becoming a one way, which would allow more parking. Rayl said that the City of Fargo is no longer discussing that option. Rayl suggested forming a parking committee made up of the FPL staff and board members that can come up with options of alleviating parking problems.
Wheeler said that there may not be much flexibility with the 3rd Street parking lot due to events that are held at the Civic Center and the City of Fargo employees that park in the lot.
New Business
Review of current Long Range Plan
Postema and Maxine Hilburn highlighted areas of the FPL long-range plan and were available for questions from the board. Postema said the library has achieved and in some cases exceeded goals in collection development, technology, and programming. Hilburn stated that providing library service from birth to sixth grade has changed programming and collection resources in Youth Services. Youth Services purchased more nonfiction and has a new reference section. Children’s books on compact disc are replacing cassettes because they are more durable and Hilburn said that more money is spent on videos than ever before. Pitts asked if three catalogued items per capita is a library standard. Postema and Wheeler agreed that electronic media is impacting the standard because of the shift to electronic media.
Discussion of new planning process
Dambach and Wheeler said that discussion of the new planning process was covered in the review of the current long-range plan. The library will bring in a consultant to meet with the board to discuss planning options and trends.
Discussion of Board survey
The board decided to wait for a compilation of its responses to Wheeler’s survey and will discuss it at the February meeting.
Discussion of the Orientation Program
Wheeler suggested that the library could offer new board members an opportunity to become familiar with the library environment and meet the staff by spending a day at the FPL. Board members could get a library card, make suggestions, and ask any questions that they may have. Wheeler suggested setting up a board orientation program and offering it to current members to test. Pitts said that she supported the idea and Kerns volunteered to be the first board member to take part in the orientation.
ALA Midwinter Report
Wheeler is involved in the PLA National Program committee, which takes place in Phoenix in 2002. Wheeler encouraged staff and board members to consider attending PLA. Fran Ware presented the board with information about her recent appointment to the Coretta Scott King Award committee of the American Library Association and an overview of the ALA awards process.
Approval of Annual Holiday Closings
Rayl made the motion to approve the proposed holiday schedule with a contingency that whatever day Veteran’s Day is celebrated is the same day that the FPL is closed. Kerns seconded the motion; the motion carried.
Wheeler spoke to the board about the Karl Bodmer collection in the community meeting room. She suggested an annual calendar and/or stationary made of the artwork, which correlates with the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition. There was discussion of displaying the work so the public has better access to it.
Next Meeting
The next Board meeting will be on February 20, 2000 at 3:30pm in the Fargo Public Library meeting room.
The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
Respectively submitted,
Rhonda Roesler