HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-11-19 Board of Library Trustees MinutesBoard of Library Trustees
Minutes of Meeting - November 19, 1990
Conference Room - Reading Public Library - 6:00 p.m..
Present: Dr. Christine Redford, chair; Mrs. Carol Beckwith; Mr. William
Diamond; Ms. Cherrie Dubois; Mr. Robert Fields; Mrs. Elia Marnik.
Dr. Redford called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m.
Minutes: Ms. Dubois moved that the minutes of October 15 and November 8 be
approved. The motion passed.
Director's report: Corinne Fisher attended a workshop on work
simplification. She may do a small workshop for the staff on prioritizing
tasks.
Communications: Diane Young expressed the professional staff's gratitude
to the Trustees for their efforts on the reclassification project.
Unfinished business: Ms. Flannery presented NOBLE's proposed budget for
FY92. The library's assessment has decreased from the previous fiscal
year. Mrs. Marnik moved that the NOBLE budget be approved. The motion
passed.
A list of service priorities developed by the staff was distributed.
The Board discussed suggestions for changes to reduce strain on resources.
The concensus of the Board was to approve of the following proposals, which
will be effective July 1, 1991:
1) Change the borrowing period to three weeks with one renewal allowed
(as opposed to the current two weeks with two renewals allowed). Many
other NOBLE libraries have a three-week borrowing period. This would
reduce phone renewals, but circulation statistics would decrease. The
seven-day borrowing period for new fiction and bestsellers would
remain.
2) Change to a one-month borrowing period for school deposits
(currently two months).
'3) Phase out notary service. All current reference librarians have
become notaries; this will not be required of future hires.
4) Have indexing of the Chronicle done by a volunteer.
5) Eliminate staff field trips to other libraries and agencies for
continuing education.
6) Don't sort and forward incoming, unsolicited mail not addressed to
a person. Throw it out.
7) Transfer the job of preparing the newspaper for microfilming to the
Chronicle office as of January 1.
8) Eliminate senior housing deposit collections, which receive minimal
use. Nursing home deposit collections and homebound delivery would
continue.
9) Eliminate files of Town Board minutes, which are rarely used and
are available at Town Hall.
10) Ask the Friends to oversee repair and maintenance of the Apple
computer, which is owned by them.
11) Reduce reporting of benefits (vacation, sick time, etc.) to staff
from twelve times a year to three times a year.
12) Reduce correspondence for acknowledging gifts. Send only one
letter, at the time the gift is ordered. Do not hold gift books for
the donor to view.
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The elimination of museum passes was discussed. Although the passes
~e donated, staff time is required to take reservations and track down
unreturned,,passes. The money donated might be better used for a purpose
more directly related to the library's mission. However, the passes are
extremely popular.
Ms. Flannery suggested making fines voluntary, by putting a receptacle
for fine money at the book return area, and preventing the computer from
calculating fines. Circulation staff would then have to assist only those
patrons checking out, not those returning materials. This would reduce
bottlenecks at the check-out desk caused by patrons who come up
"delinquent" for owing fines. Patrons would still be unable to check out
materials if they had one or more items overdue. Replacement costs for
lost books would continue to be collected. The Board approved this change,
on a six-month trial basis to discover how much income is lost, and whether
this reduction in income is problematic from the Town's point of view. .
The closing of the card catalog was recommended by the Director. The
Salem Public Library opened about six months ago with no card catalog and
about fifteen terminals. Their online catalog is liked by patrons of all
ages. They have a good list of subjects with Dewey numbers on hand, in the
rare event that all of the terminals are not functioning. Ms. Flannery
suggested adding five terminals this year using money from state aid.
Terminals cost about $400; ports for each terminal at Central Site cost
$1700. Mrs. Beckwith requested figures on the costs of staff time to
maintain the card catalog and subsequent savings of the online catalog.
Mrs. Flannery will report back to the Trustees on this matter.
The Director presented two proposed budgets for FY92 with the 3.2
rcent cut mandated by the Town Manager. The first, her recommended,
budget eliminates the position of Head of Technical Services and
incorporates it into the Assistant Director's job.
Ms. Flannery gave her reasons for choosing the Technical Services
position: the division has not taken any cuts in personnel in the past
fiscal year; the number of books being purchased is decreasing; closing the
catalog would reduce the staff time needed for catalog maintenance. She
opted to cut a higher-paid employee, rather than lay off a lower-paid
employee and have a higher-paid employee end up doing that work. The two
full-time employees in Technical Services are very capable and handle all
routine tasks. The head of the division sets standards and policies,
performs complicated cataloging, and watches NOBLE decisions for the best
interests of the library.
Because this would cut twenty hours of staff time, Ms. Flannery also
recommended closing the library at eight o'clock Monday through Thursday.
Staff did not support the Trustees' previously stated preference for a
10:30 to 8:30 opening, because it would eliminate another storyhour and
business generally slows down at 8:15 in the evening. Mrs. Marnik
suggested a compromise of closing for one day a week and maintaining the
nine o'clock closing on other days. Mrs. Beckwith suggested opening at one
o'clock on Monday. Mr. Diamond recommended that the library do head counts
at various times to determine use.
Mr. Fields moved that the Board approve, with extreme reluctance, the
reduction of one position and four hours per week from the library's hours.
motion passed. The hours to be cut will be determined at a later date.
The Director's second proposed budget was created based on the Board's
last budget discussion, which indicated that cuts from personnel were
undesirable. It would have necessitated a 43 percent cut in the book
budget from last fiscal year. Ms. Flannery noted that.it would be hard to
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lstify maintaining a full complement of staff when book purchases are
educed to such an extent. The book budget is level-funded in the budget
adopted by the Board.
The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Diane J. Young
Assistant Director
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