HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-05-19 Board of Library Trustees MinutesBoard of Library Trustees
Minutes of Meeting May 19, 1997
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Present: Ms. Cherrie Dubois, chair; Mr. Stephen Conner; Mr. Robert Fields; Dr. Christine
Redford; Mrs. Maria Silvaggi.
Absent: Mr. William Diamond.
Also present: Rob Maier and Elia Marnik of the Board of Library Commissioners; George
Theophanis; Mary Bastiani.
Ms. Dubois called the meeting to order at 7:05.
Minutes: The minutes of April 7 were accepted.
Financial report: The personnel budget is tight; up to $800 may have to come from Incentive.
The Town decided last month to implement the 52.2 week fiscal year.
Statistical report: Circulation continues to go up. Reference questions rose dramatically in
March for both children's and adults'.
Public hearing on the bylaws: Mr. Theophanis made two recommendations:'in Article II,
Section 2, make explicit that each member has one vote, rather than each board; in Article IX,
change the wording to avoid the danger of having amendments passed by less than a majority of
the board. The hearing was closed at 7:20.
Mrs. Silvaggi moved that the following words be added to Article II, Section 3, end of first
sentence: "each member of each board having one vote." The motion passed.
Mrs. Silvaggi moved that Article IX be amended to read "by a majority of the members of the
entire Board." Discussion against the amendment said that this qualification may delay
amendments; discussion for the amendment said that bylaws should never be under that kind of
time pressure. The motion passed.
Presentation of representatives of the Board of Library Commissioners: Mrs. Marnik told
the Board that Commissioners have been visiting many libraries across the state. The Board has
requested $160M for library construction funds from the state, and trustees are urged to contact
their legislators in support of this bill. Mrs. Marnik commended the Board of Trustees for being
forward-looking in its pursuit of endowment funding.
Mr. Maier explained the application process for construction funds. In response to a question
about support for technology, he said that, for the last fifteen years, of the three million dollars
appropriated from the federal government, about one million has gone to support technology,
especially networks. Mr. Maier expects that in the future, these funds will support network
telecommunications charges one hundred percent. The new Telecommunications Act provides for
a fifty percent discount for schools and libraries.
A virtual catalog program will enable users at home or in the library to search once and retrieve
holdings from any library in Massachusetts. This will be useful for research on unique topics,
° rather than for commonly-owned materials like bestsellers.
Year Two of the implementation of the Strategic Plan has been funded completely in both the
House and Senate budgets. Both have also given words of support to Year Three. This part of the
Plan brings in other types of libraries, such as private academic libraries. The benefits of the Plan
are a significant infusion of funds and an umbrella for multitype cooperation.
One of the objectives of the Strategic Plan is to license commercial databases to be accessed by
local libraries via the Internet. One example already in place is Searchbank, an index of journal
articles of which about forty percent are full-text.
The Plan has allowed the Eastern Massachusetts Region to become four regions. The NOBLE
and MVLC consortia will constitute the Northeast Region. That covers fifty-five communities,
welcoming membership from school, academic, and special (corporate, legal, etc.) libraries. The
other regions will be South of Boston and MetroWest. Boston along with Chelsea and Malden
will constitute its own region. The Boston Public Library will be playing a reduced regional role
and an expanded statewide role, e.g., as a clearinghouse for journal articles. The Central and
Western regions will cover the same service area as they do now, but also be multitype.
The new regions are in the final stages of developing their Plans of Service--how core services
will be provided and what additional services will be offered, such as electronic resources. Each
region will be governed by a council of its members and an executive board.
Director's report: Donald Cripps will attend the June 17 meeting of the Foundation, at 7 p.m. It
is imperative that trustees be present.
Liaison reports: Mr. Fields spoke with Ted McIntire about the HVAC bid. The project was bid a
second time and the Town is going through an appeals process now concerning the low bid.
When the contract is awarded, the Director will sit down with the contractor and determine dates
for the workflow. Mr. Conner is looking for structure to exercise his liaison responsibility to the
staff. He will meet with the Director on this. Dr. Redford remarked that the Friends' House Tour
was wonderful.
Liaison assignments and goals will be kept permanently in each trustees folder.
Friends' report: The sixth annual House Tour was the most successful yet, taking in about
$4400. Success was due to good publicity and word of mouth. Wednesday is the final coffee hour
of the year and June 11 is the annual meeting. Mrs. Bastiani announced that, since Maria Blewitt
will have been elected President by the trustees' next meeting, she was extending her thanks for
the past year to the Board.
Unfinished business: The budget passed at Town Meeting. Not all of the salary increases were
included in the budget. The Selectmen are scheduled to consider the compensation plan in June.
The remaining increases will be taken up at fall Town Meeting, and the Library budget reimbursed
then. The Library will be open Saturdays year-round (10 a.m. to 5:30 p:m.). A new position of
Interlibrary Loan Technician was funded at 10.5 hours per week. The capital budget includes
computers and the planned nonprint area for the basement.
The committee on step increases is still meeting. Ms. Hanley will keep the Board posted on its
progress.
New business: 1) No action was taken on the Internet policy. One of the ALA policies that it
cites, "Access to Electronic Information Services and Networks," will be included in the packet
for the next meeting.
2) The meeting dates were accepted as proposed. An additional meeting was scheduled for
August 4.
3) Media One has given the Library two free high-speed Internet connections. The connections
provide the same service that the other Library computers provide, but faster. The computers
were bought with capital funds, as planned. A reception and demonstration will be held on
Thursday evening.
4) There was discussion about closing on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day. The point was
made that school is still in session. The Board asked to be informed of the circulation and traffic
count for the Memorial Day weekend. Mr. Conner moved to amend the holiday policy as
indicated on the handout [July 4 weekend closings]. The motion passed.
5) Mrs. Silvaggi and Ms. Hanley presented the content of a workshop they attended on "Building
a Better Board Team." Mrs. Silvaggi had gone into the program feeling good about the Board's
performance, and had come out thinking "there's room for improvement." She now has a
heightened awareness of how much work serving on this board requires. Mrs. Silvaggi noted the
importance of being able to be true to yourself at meetings and yet publicly presenting the Board's
view.
Ms. Hanley said that meetings could be improved by acknowledging that the meeting is not for
information gathering, but for decision making. She recommended that, since meeting time is
valuable, written liaison reports be sent out with the packet, rather than be delivered orally. The
workshop leader emphasized the necessity of coming to each meeting prepared--reading the
packet and studying the packet.
Ms. Hanley talked about opportunities for trustee development, and suggested that the Library
pay for trustees' attendance at workshops. The Board also has a responsibility to develop people
who will be trustees later on. ,
The workshop leader talked about term limits, e.g., three terms of three years. This is not legal for
elected boards. Mrs. Silvaggi recalled that this point came up during the Charter Commission's
work: there is a need for varying and new perspectives all the time.
The responsibility of the Board is to "trust, but verify." The Board should trust the Director to do
her job, but it is ultimately accountable.
For the next meeting, trustees should bring the filled-out "Evaluating Library Board
Maturity" form. Mr. Conner recommended that the "Twelve-month board agenda" be discussed
at the August meeting.
Officers will be elected at the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
,T) 6~a
Diane J. Young
Assistant Director