September 25, 2001 Minutes

Board of Trustees
Fargo Public Library
Minutes of September 25, 2001

Board Chair Virginia Dambach called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM

Present: Board members Virginia Dambach, Betty Kerns, Ryn Pitts, Jean Rayl, Prakash Mathew
LSSI Vice President Lynn Wheeler
Library Director Charles Pace
Staff members: Edie Discher, Sandy Boutain, Friends Liaison Bob Mason

Order of Agenda
Virginia Dambach made the motion to approve the order of agenda. Prakash Mathew seconded the motion; the motion carried.

Minutes
There were no additions or corrections of the minutes. Virginia Dambach made the motion to accept the minutes of the meeting of September 25, 2001. Prakash Mathew seconded the motion; motion carried.

Staff Reports
There were no staff reports at this time due to a full schedule of management reports.

LSSI Management
Charles Pace highlighted items from the LSSI management report.

A very successful informational program given by the Emporia University, 23 people attended that presentation. Pam Drayson, director of NDSU Library, was very hopeful that we will be having a MLS program starting some time next year. The location will be in Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo. They would need to have 12–15 individuals located at the sites, 30–45 individuals to have a cohort in order to have a MLS program.

FPL staff attended the Community Services Day held at West Acres Mall on September 15, we had 45 new Library Card sign-ups, many more wanted to sign up but unfortunately they were located out side the Fargo area.

The first of the Jazz concert series kicked off on September 22, 113 attended. The Jazz concert has drawn a lot of interest from the community.

Edie Discher and Maxine Hilburn are both doing well as can be expected following cancer surgery and are now in the radiation/chemotherapy phase of treatment. We wish them both a speedy recovery.

Rhonda Roesler has left the library to pursue a new career in the Twin Cities; her replacement is Sandy Boutain. We would also like to welcome Sue Dockter who has been hired as a part-time assistant in the technical service department. Sue is also a registered nurse.

Charles Pace will be out of the office the rest of the week in order to attend the NDLA conference in Williston with Greg Gilstrap one of our reference librarians.

Statistical Reports
Over all the percentage increase in circulation was somewhat smaller than in previous months, but we still had a healthy increase over previous years totals. Print circulation on the adult side was up a healthy 5% and adult non-print was up 2%. Once again we have seen a big increase in DVD and CD circulation; Youth services has done a tremendous job with a 16% increase in youth print and non-print was up an amazing 344%. There was a small decline in large print circulation, but with some planned marketing changes an increase is expected in the next several months. Also the budget has been approved for our new storefront branch library for $300,000.

Friends of the Fargo Public Library Report
Bob Mason stated the sorting spree started on September 9. Bev Quamme and additional employees sorted close to 2000 books from the old stock in the library. A book sale has been scheduled during the Holiday Bazaar at the Civic Center November 30 and December 1. The friends have lost several board members and are looking for new candidates for the board.

Continuing Business

A. 2002 Final Budget Approval
On September 17, the City Commission gave final approval to our budget for the next fiscal year, which included final approval for the storefront branch library.

B. Formation of RFP Committee
On September 13, Charles Pace discussed the formation of the RFP committee, which has been approved by the board. Charles Pace, Beth Postema, Jean Rayl, Pat Zavoral and Betty Kerns will make up the committee. The committee will write the RFP and publish it in the newspaper and various realtors will have 30 days in which to respond. At that time the committee will report back to the board with recommendations and the board will have an opportunity to review the competing proposals and make a final decision as how to proceed.

New Business

A. Presentation of the board orientation packet will be moved to next month.

Long Range Planning
The board received the results of the survey conducted in May. Lynn Wheeler highlighted statistics relating to patron use of the library and patron satisfaction with the library. She gave the board a general overview of statistical results of the survey. The board reviewed their service response choices and maintained the five following service responses:

  • Current Topics and Titles
  • General Information
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Information Literacy
  • Basic Literacy

These service responses corresponded with the needs identified in the patron survey.

Citizens Forum
A member of the Alcoholic Anonymous group that uses the FPL meeting room on Wednesday evenings was concerned about the increase rate of the room. Lynn Wheeler stated that new meeting room fees are compatible with meeting rooms in the area. For the time being AA will continue to use the meeting room on Wednesday evening.

Next Meeting
The next meeting will be on October 23, 4:00 PM in the meeting room.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Sandy Boutain