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Home My WebLink About2010-12-13 Board of Library Trustees MinutesV RrC Minutes of the Board of Library Trustees Mee_g Monday, December 13,2010' Attending: David Hutchinson, Chair; Vicki Yablonsky; Cherrie D4 s; Karyn Storti; Jeff Doucette; Ruth Urell Library, Director; Dorota Socha, Assistant Director. Meeting called to order 7:05pm Minutes approved unanimously (Doucette/Dubois) Financial Report ■ Around 38% of the library budget has been spent as of November 2010. ■ State Aid - first round of State Aid for FY 2011 has been received by the library. Around $11,000 has been transferred to library funds. There is about a 33% cut in State Aid from the previous year amount of $33,000. ■ About $3,000 has been raised through private donations for funding magazine and periodical subscriptions. Statistical Report (R. Urell) ■ Five circulation statistical reports were evaluated. They were: - Comparison of Oct 2009-Nov 2010 Circulation for M & Tue, W 9am-10am - Comparison of Oct 2009-Nov 2010 Circulation for M-W 9am-10am and 5-9pm - Comparison of Oct 2009-Nov 2010 Circulation for M-Th 5pm-9pm - Comparison of Oct 2009-Nov 2010 Circulation for M & F 9am-5pm - Comparison of Oct 2009-Nov 2010 Circulation for F & Sa 9am-5pm Trustee Liaison's Reports Foundation (R. Urell) ■ Karen Burke from the Foundation would like to give a Foundation bookmark to library patrons. Approval granted by all Trustees. ■ The Foundation is considering a possible gift to the library in the near future. No date announced. ■ Trustee J. Doucette suggested that the library should invest in purchasing several e-book readers to be available to check out. Friends (C. Dubois) ■ The Friends' fundraising program "Balsam & Bling" was a very successful one with 81 participants. ■ House Tour Committee meeting will be in January 2011. ■ The Friends' ongoing book sale at the library continues to be successful. Municipal Building Committee (V.Yablonsky) ■ The Municipal Building Committee finalized its first draft two weeks ago. The Committee compiled information about various municipal building projects that need to be addressed. A list of qualification criteria was established by the Committee and then projects were ranked according to their importance. Three major municipal projects stand out from the evaluation process. ■ The Municipal Building Committee will be presenting their findings to the Board of Selectmen on January 18, 2011. Budget FY12 (R. Urell) Note: All of the three budget scenarios that are mentioned below include employees' step increases. Budget A scenario: ■ Level Services consist of- - $986,361 spending on salaries - $83,817 library expenses - $188,000 library materials which is 15% of the library budget that is in compliance with state aid standards Budget B scenario: ■ Deduction of 1.75% will impact: - Closing 13 Saturdays from June - August - Eliminating four page positions - Reducing by 20% one support position and reducing others by small percentages - Reducing technology expenses by $1,000 - Reducing supply budget by $1,000 - Reducing library material budget by $19,000 ■ Budget B is not in compliance with the state aid standards. It is below 15% on books and $43,483 short of the Municipal Appropriation Requirements. ■ If a library applies for a MAR waiver, a waiver may be given if all the town departments have similar budget cuts for FYI 2. There is no waiver if library budget cuts are disproportionate with other departments. ■ Over 100 libraries applied for waivers in FY 2011 ■ There will be no construction grant for RPL if the library is not certified either through compliance with State Aid standards or through a successful waiver application. Budget C scenario: ■ Deduction of 6.4% from the current FY 1 Ibudget will impact: Closing 13 Saturdays from June - August - Closing the library for one day either Fridays or Mondays year round. Eliminating two part time staff 16h/wk Eliminating support position 8h/wk Reducing professional staffing 4h/wk 2 - Reducing public technology budget from $8,500 to 0 - Reducing library material budget by $30,000 Budget Discussion (all Trustees): ■ Sundays are an important service and should be kept if possible. ■ Trustees feel that Budget C is not a viable option and are concerned that the proportion of budget cuts among different municipal departments is uneven. ■ Trustees will draft a letter to Peter Hechenbleikner and Bob LeLacheur in reference to FY2012 budget. ■ R. Urell was asked to enter Budget scenario A & B into Munis. ■ Possible Board of Selectmen budget meetings for January 2011 are: 11, 18, and 25. State budget update: MBLC was told by Governor to reduce all state library funding by about 8%. Lines in the MBLC include all of the library network and regional services, state aid, and state cooperatives. Building Program ■ Architects and Urell met with two representatives from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. There is a lot of complexity in planning for the addition to the current building because of the state building codes, reinforcements, standards, and regulations that have to be met and allow for growth and change for the next few decades, e.g. floor loading, wall reinforcements, full accessibility, structural requirements. MBLC has specific formulae for allowable numbers of seats, square footage allowances, staff workstations, computers, etc. Currently working on establishing a best solution for outside traffic to accommodate safe car, delivery, drop off items, and pedestrian traffic outside of the library and provide easy outside access to the building for daily interlibrary delivery. There is an idea to revert to plans for two adult public service desks - separate for Circulation and Information, changed from the original proposal of one service desk. ■ Geo testing, windows, and site surveying were conducted at the library property last week; there are no results to report at this time. ■ Peter Hechenbleikner would like Town department staff Design Review Team to review the current architectural drawings. ■ Application for the grant is due January 27, 2011. ■ On January 4, 2011 there will be a presentation to the Board of Selectmen. Director's Report (R.Urell) ■ Administrative Assistant Susan Coyle resigned on Nov. 23, 2010. A second candidate from the first series of interviews was interviewed and offered the Administrative Assistant position. ■ A patron asked if he can advertise holding office hours at library. Trustees agreed that an individual's office hours cannot be posted as held at the library. Another patron will be asked to remove similar information from business website. 3 Ruth volunteered to do the Legislative Breakfast next year to be hosted at the Reading Public Library in one of the February Fridays. No exact time and day has been provided at this point. Three programming grants that the library applied for recently were not successful: - The Louisa May Alcott /National Endowment for the Humanities grant. [According to the letter received, because a great number of Massachusetts libraries applied, many Massachusetts entities did not receive funding as the NEH distributed the funds to many other states] - The BigRead: Emily Dickinson/National Endowment for the Arts grant. [There was only sufficient funding for 26 Big Read grants to be awarded throughout the country.] - Young Adult Author Grant for David Greenberg/ Reading Cultural Council grant [Cultural Council noted that this project, which is a collaboration between RPL and two middle schools, has been done for several years and the Cultural Council purpose is not to repeat support for the same project.] Trustee Items: ■ D. Hutchinson suggested that Trustees should think about recruiting a committee that will focus only on the building planning public awareness aspect. All planning and contiguous plans on who to recruit and how to execute the plan should be established by the early spring of 2011. Extensive outreach will have to be done in the summer of 2011 to meet the state deadlines. Adjourn The motion to adjourn was made 9:05pm (Storti/Yablonsky) Respectfully submitted, 60, Dorota ASocha, Assistant Director, Reading Public Library 4