1999-01-11 Board of Library Trustees Minutes

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Board of Library Trustees Minutes of Meeting - January 11, 1999 a s - Present: Ms. Maria Silvaggi, chair; Mr. Stephen Conner; Ms. Cherrie Dubois; Ms. Donna InDelicato; Dr. Christine Redford. Absent: Mr. Richard Ogden. Also present: Peter Brown, Corinne Fisher. Ms. Silvaggi called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Minutes: The minutes of December 14 were accepted. Director's evaluation: The evaluation was approved as written up by Mrs. Silvaggi. Financial report: State aid appears in the report, and was used for some of this month's bills. Statistical report: Mrs. Silvaggi would like to see five- and ten-year comparisons for the materials budget and usage. They will be prepared for the next meeting. December was a record month for circulation-the second time the Library lent over 20,000 items in a December. Although circulation is down, it seems to be on the upswing for the year. Report from the Chairman: Mrs. Silvaggi complimented the Friends newsletter. Mr. Brown reported that the Friends have probably already achieved their goal of $8,000, with about 225 donor units (families or individuals). A significant number of people joining want to get involved personally. At the Selectmen's meeting for budget review, the Director identified a theme that it would be well for the Board to adopt: to meet a minimum standard, we should not be using our discretionary funds. A reporter for the Advocate called Ms. Hanley for an article on the state aid requirements for materials expenditures. She emphasized the Library's need to support the curriculum frameworks. The budget included requests for funding for three new programs: added librarian hours, materials, and overlap time for the new head of circulation when Mrs. Alworth retires. The Town Manager tends to like to offer increments of the new programs to the Library, but Mrs. Silvaggi doesn't want these three to be funded in increments. Director's report: An article in American Libraries rated public libraries, and offers an objective way to look at what libraries do. Lexington, MA was ranked number eleven in the 10,000-99,999 population category. Reading is in the ninety-eighth percentile. Ms. Hanley will get the number for the libraries that we use for salary comparisons. A survey of Internet connectivity shows that 71.9% of all libraries with Internet connections don't use filters. The Director also passed around a report of interlibrary loans received from outside of NOBLE during the month of December. Ninety-seven requests were processed, ranging from