1994-03-21 Board of Library Trustees Minutes

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P V Board of Library Trustees Minutes of Meeting - March 21, 1994 Conference Room - Reading Public Library - 6:00 p.m. Present: Mrs. Elia Marnik, chair; Mrs. Carol Beckwith; Mr. William Diamond; Ms. Cherrie Dubois; Mr. Robert Fields; Dr. Christine Redford. The meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m. Minutes: Ms. Beckwith moved that the minutes of February 28 be accepted. The motion passed. Report of the Children's Division: Corinne Fisher reported that activity is up. The LSCA Wee Care grant has come to an end. The staff made contact with all the licensed day-care providers in town, establishing a relationship between them and the Library. They made forty-one visits and created eleven kits for borrowing. The Macintosh computer was added last April. In ten months, 3000 kids have used it for over 1200 hours. Arnold Berger donated money for a second computer, which will be used for reference sources on CD-ROM. Ms. Fisher sees a need to add a third computer for older elementary kids, for uses other than reference. Helping children with the computer is time consuming. Because all staff, including pages, are called upon to give assistance, all staff must learn each piece of software. However, pages should not have to responsible for this and we need them to concentrate on their primary job, shelving books. Computer instruction should be a responsibility of the professional and raprofessional staff. Ms. Fisher introduced the idea of making Brenda lttergreen full-time; the additional 12.5 hours would cost $10,000. Attendance was low for the tenth anniversary children's programs. Since there have been no school age programs since 1990, kids aren't used to the idea, said Ms. Fisher. Program funding costs $1500 to $2000 it's the staff expense that's more difficult. Board members thanked the Children's Room staff for the events that they organized for the tenth anniversary celebration. Financial report: $76,000 has been spent to date on materials. To meet state standards, the Library needs to spend $80,000. . Statistical report: Circulation was down from last year, due to weather. On Saturday, March 12 between ten and one o'clock, 900 people entered the Library. Although sports sign-ups accounted for some of that traffic, Saturday's returns were still being checked in on Tuesday, and trucks of books to be reshelved went around the children's room like a train. Director's report: The NOBLE upgrade is coming in May. The staff has been participating in some good continuing education programs. Ms. Hanley distributed copies of a Chronicle article from 1896 describing the new Highland School. The Garden club wants to landscape around the portico, add plantings to the parking lot side, replace the clay pots, and buy benches for the landing. They will hire a landscape designer. Dr. Redford suggested some plantings pi: the side of the building customers first see when they drive in. `Liaison reports: The Treasurer's office should send trust fund reports regularly with other reports, at least quarterly. 1