1994-05-16 Board of Library Trustees Minutes

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Board of Library Trustees Minutes of Meeting - May 16, 1994 Conference Room - Reading Public Library - 6:00 p.m. ent: Mrs. Elia Marnik, chair; Mr. William Diamond; Ms. Cherrie Dubois; Mme. Robert Fields; Dr. Christine Redford; Mrs. Maria Silvaggi. Also present: Camille Anthony, Everett Blodgett, Tom Stohlman. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. The Board welcomed Selectman Camille Anthony, liaison to the Library., Minutes: Mr. Diamond moved that the minutes of April 25 be corrected to read "hardy" and "hardier." Mr. Diamond moved that the minutes be accepted as amended. The motion passed. Financial report: The budget is in fine shape. The staff received their retroactive pay last Friday. A list of the trust funds, with any nonexpendable principal noted, was distributed. Many of the funds are for books only. It was suggested that a plaque be installed for the online catalog equipment purchased from the Noyes trust. Ms. Hanley mentioned the difficulty in establishing criteria for plaques: some donors make one-time contributions and others make generous ongoing donations. Mrs. Silvaggi asked if there was any long-term policy for spending the trust funds. Mrs. Marnik replied that the Board has been very conservative, and there is no set policy. Mr. Diamond added that the Board has been careful not to overspend and to spend the funds on long-lasting, quality items.' The Director said that a few thousand dollars are spent on reference books every year. A large capital expenditure (about $20,000) was made from the Noyes fund for catalog equipment two years ago. f tistical report: Circulation is up about 15,000 over last year, and may ik 300,000 for the year. The Library will be open on Saturday and S,.aday of Memorial Day weekend. Director's report: The new computer system will be running soon. Ms. Hanley distributed the implementation schedule. On May 23, the entire database will be copied and closed. The tapes will be sent to the software vendor, Geac, for reindexing, which will take about two weeks. During that time, the check-out desk will be using the off-line circulation system. Because NOBLE is moving to a new site, the catalog will continue to run at the old site through June 3. Library serviceshould be fairly seamless to the patron. The telecommunications system will be dismantled between June 3 and June 7.' This is the best time of year fo.r.Reading for extensive downtime. The Reading Library will come back:.:up.on June 7, with new software, a new telecommunications system, and new hardware at the Central Site. Staff have been training for weeks on, the new software. Plans for advertising include: a flyer in-house, press releases, a cable announcement, signs by the catalog terminals. Baskets of candy will be around to keep patrons happy. Publicity will stress the positive. Liaison reports: Work on the Friends' house tour has included write-ups on each house by Ms. Dubois and an article in the Chronicle by Mrs. Silvaggi. The Friends' annual meeting is June 7. They will be donating $3000 for video`* and $3000 for both summer reading clubs. Unfinished business: The Library did receive extra money at Town Meeting tar Children's Room hours. The 4.5 percent raise is built into the FY95 I -,fet. The Town's capital plan includes $21,500 for NOBLE connections. terminals are needed for staff use and for the online magazine index 1