June 18, 2000 Minutes

Fargo Public Library Board of Directors
Minutes of July 18, 2000

Vice-chair Dambach called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

Present: Virginia Dambach, Ryn Pitts, Jean Rayl, David Martin, Betty Kern, Dave Davis, Joan England, Friends Liaison Bev Quamme

Order of Agenda
Davis said that the board might want to add the revised inter-library loan policy as 6e and the capitol purchase plan request will fall under 6c.

Minutes
Martin corrected a misspelling of Bob Getz’s name in the Acting Director Report in the minutes of the May 16th meeting. With that correction, Martin moved to accept the minutes. Pitts seconded the motion; the motion carried.

Director and Interim Directors’ Reports
Davis thanked the board for bringing their board member manuals to the meeting and said that they will be returned after they are updated. Greg Gilstrap, who attended ALA, brought back a document that rates board of trustees’ manuals. Davis said that a copy of that document would be included with the updated manuals. Phil Turner, who is the dean of the University of North Texas, will visit the Fargo Public Library at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 20th to meet with staff who might want to pursue their Master’s degree. Davis said that there was three staff in Youth Services that have expressed interest in pursuing their education. Davis asked Maxine if she could say who the three employees were. Maxine said Eva Haaland, Cindy Wray, and Lori Wilkie were interested in furthering their education.

England said that there has been an increase in public Internet usage. The Youth Services and the Adult Services Summer reading programs are going well. Because of children’s requests for the Children’s room to have its own music collection, compact discs have been relabeled and moved to Youth Services. A rack has been ordered for the display. The children’s videos will be moved to Youth Services later this summer. England reported that the Fargo Public Library ordered six Harry Potter books and received another copy as a gift. There is still a waiting list for the books. The Fargo Public Library also has copies of the previous Harry Potter books and compact discs that are available. The June 19th flood caused postponing of a few Youth Services programs, but most of them have been rescheduled.

Martin commended Davis and the Fargo Public Library staff for helping the NDSU library in the recovery process from the flood. Martin questioned an organizational chart that was enclosed in the packet for the cancelled June board meeting. He pointed out that the chart shows the library director reporting to the city commission and not the board of trustees and questioned the status of the technical services coordinator position, which is on the organizational chart. Martin asked if the Literacy position will be included or wasn’t included because it is a temporary position. Davis said that the Literacy position is on the new chart and that the chart in the June packet was a draft.

Statistical Reports
Davis discussed the budget and noted that the Fargo Public Library has spent 46% of its budget. He said that there is approximately $39,000 that will be transferred over to buildings and grounds for the maintenance staff, who are supervised by buildings and grounds. Davis noted that part time staff wages were at 52% and were higher because of additional staff needed for Youth Services for the Summer Reading program. Davis also said that the other services account is higher because it includes program costs, which isn’t consistently the same every month. Davis said that 62% of the seminar and conference outstate budget has been used, but it finished for the year. This money was used to send staff to PLA and ALA. 65% of the postage budget has been spent because postage is purchased in chunks and can not be considered a consistent expense. Inter-library loan usage has increased, which increases the amount of money spent on postage. The materials budget appears to be under 50%, but Davis pointed out that there are items that are on order, which do not show on the budget report. The miscellaneous budget is at 82% because of the transfer of associated funds to buildings and grounds. The FPL has asked for funds in the budget request for purchasing supplies. Davis commented that the Fargo Public Library’s spending is where it should be.

Davis reviewed the circulation portion of the budget. Total circulation is up 1%, total print circulation is down 1% and the total non-print circulation is up 10%. Youth circulation is down 9%, but in speaking with Tom Jones of the Bismarck Public Library, Davis discovered that this is a trend. Adult circulation has a 0% change. Pitts asked if there was any part that troubled Davis and replied that registration was a concern. He said that the library is going to try to get a report from ODIN to identify patrons whose accounts were closed or hasn’t been active for a year. These patrons will be contacted to find out why they are no longer using the library.

The main library door count is down 9% for year to date. Davis said that reference questions are up 100% because the FPL is doing a better job of collecting and adding Reference questions that are answered around the building in Youth Services and Adult Circulation as well as the Reference desk. Davis congratulated staff for making this change in gathering the statistics. Martin asked about the Literacy statistics and Margo Askin replied that she is in the process of trying to gather Literacy statistics and that the board will see them in the next statistical report.

Friends of the Fargo Public Library report
Quamme reported that the Friends’ summer newsletter should have reached board members on July 11th, 2000. The Friends has 208 total memberships with 40 names on the active volunteer list. There are 431 households that will receive Friends information including the newsletter three times a year.

***The recorder cuts off at this point in the meeting.