Minutes Maplewood Memorial Library Board of Trustees Meeting September 19, 2012

Transcription

1 Minutes Maplewood Memorial Library Board of Trustees Meeting September 19, 2012 The joint meeting between the Maplewood Memorial Library and South Orange Public Library Boards of Trustees was called to order by President Hilaire at 7:36 p.m. Present were: Guest speaker Cindy Czesak, Director of Paterson Free Public Library, Monique Bostic, Carol Buchanan, Mayor Vic DeLuca, Doug Duncan, Katherine Hilaire, David Huemer, Kate McCaffrey, and Terry Woolard of the Maplewood Memorial Library Board of Trustees, Elissa Malespina, Melissa Kopecky, Karen Hartshorn-Hilton, Hildy Karp, Lia Laird, and Ray Woodberry of the South Orange Public Library Board of Trustees. Also present: Sarah Lester, Director of Maplewood Memorial Library, Melissa Kopecky, Director of South Orange Public Library, Laura Nial of the Friends of the Library, Barbara Laub of the library staff, and patron Susan Joseph. Each attendee introduced themself and gave a brief description of their background. The floor was then turned over to guest speaker, Cindy Czesak. Ms. Czesak talked about how libraries are pursuing collaboration much more actively as a way to maximize resources. Libraries were thought of as a building and what was within its walls. Collaboration did not exist. People of a different generation did not expect an immediate answer. In the mid 1980s, technology changed that. Collections and programs are built based on community needs. Reciprocal borrowing evolved from this need. Libraries have to make reciprocal borrowing possible without diminishing the support and service to their primary residents. From this, a computer consortium evolved. The Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS) started in the late 1980s. It has expanded to some libraries in Hudson and Essex Counties. Their catalog allows the user to see every item held by each of the 73 libraries in BCCLS. In addition to being a computer consortium, they have committees, Friends lunches, Trustee training, and Director training. The PALS Plus (Passaic Library System) consortium was formed to allow more autonomy among its members. There are 18 libraries in the PALS Plus consortium consisting of all the libraries in Passaic County with the exception of Hawthorne plus Cedar Grove, Caldwell and Fairview. Melissa Kopecky explained that participation and policy making in ReBL (Reciprocal Borrowing and Lending) is completely voluntary. It is managed by the Essex County Library Directors, but not every Essex County library participates. It was created in the spirit of allowing people to borrow from another library and has worked beautifully for Maplewood and South Orange. It started with that same sense that BCCLS or Pals Plus started which is to make this simpler for people. There is no state library card in New Jersey. In the meantime, we are doing our best to answer the needs of our community Open Borrowing is a reciprocal borrowing program for library patrons to borrow in-person from more than 150 public libraries in northern New Jersey. The participating libraries of Open Borrowing are BCCLS, LMxAC (Libraries of Middlesex Automation Consortium), M.A.I.N. (Morris Automated Information Network), PALS Plus, and SWELL (Sussex Warren Electronic Lending Libraries). The libraries that are on the county borders get compensated for loaning a lot. In the late 1980s the State library set up six Regional Library Cooperatives. These cooperatives were supposed to give us another level of service. Reference contracts were given out so librarians within the cooperative could be called upon for research help. There was interlibrary loan and reference and delivery. The delivery system gets materials back where they belong. The six cooperatives became four and then one. The remaining cooperative is called LibraryLinkNJ. It provides technology training such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Printerest for librarians and staff. The training is slanted to help libraries connect with their patrons. JerseyCat is the statewide interlibrary loan system making it possible to request a book from another county. It is supported by all New Jersey libraries. The State Association (NJLA) represents all New Jersey libraries. Pat Tumulty is the registered lobbyist. She is the person who puts forward the library issues that are determined by NJLA. Ms. Csezak was elected to represent New Jersey on the American Library Association (ALA) council. ALA is the largest library organization with about 60,000 members. 150 people get to decide the policies and the direction of the organization. She is

2 2 P a g e currently trying to move forward the resolution about the fact that publishers are discriminating against libraries regarding ebook sales. Libraries have become a critical piece of the life of the community as a trusted and neutral location that people can come to whether they re having meetings or learning something. Libraries are now teaching people how to use technology or offering knitting classes or lecture series. People like to come together. It s a sense of community. They are looking to libraries because we are a public space that is accepted and open. We have to maximize that. There are libraries that are forming maker spaces. They are teaching children engineering or science experiments. As we pursue the community based learning direction, people are going to come into us. Maybe they are not looking for a stack of books as they did at one point, but they are learning something. That s a valuable goal for us. In 1884 a law was written by an assemblyman from Paterson creating public libraries. To form a public library, people vote on a referendum. When they vote for that, there is a minimum funding requirement of 1/3 mil. The 1/3 mil is based on the town s assessed real estate value. When real estate values of the community go up, library funding goes up. When real estate values go down, library funding goes down. The average rate per capita is $50. NJLA is going to try to get full state aid funding based on population. It is important to develop core collections to reflect the diversity of the community, reach out to the community, and attend community meetings. There is a database called Library PressDisplay which offers current newspapers from any country. NJLA is trying to move forward legislation to create district libraries. If district libraries are adopted, libraries become their own taxing district. When you create a district library, it could be one library for two towns or it could be multiple towns that set up a library district and decide what their funding has to be. This has been very successful in other states. The legislation is not sponsored yet. Shared automation is a big savings. The full PALS Plus budget is approximately $500,000 which is shared among 18 libraries. That includes technical support, a network engineer, and a cataloging coordinator. In a consortium, reciprocal borrowing funding is minor. It s easy when you have a shared system. Libraries can develop pockets of collections and support each other. A lot of libraries have self checkout stations which require more capital investment but then there is more attrition. The staff is free to help patrons. There are savings in sharing. Ms. Czesak concluded stating that Board members are critical. The role of the Board is to bring information from the community to the Director. She then thanked the Trustees for inviting her. There was a discussion about how Maplewood and South Orange already share many services. The Directors stay in touch and gather information from each other and talk about ideas that will serve both communities. The South Orange Board felt this is a worthwhile discussion and suggested this joint meeting to talk about shared services. Mayor DeLuca stated that the only savings would be if we closed buildings and consolidated staff. The cost of running libraries will not be driven down unless we think of another way of doing it. Ms. Kopecky agreed and stated that services can improve by cooperating, by doing something together or taking turns doing something. Anytime there is a joint conversation about what the two libraries do, the message is doubled. Ms. Lester added that we try to do differently with less and we look at the economic benefits of what we currently have, where our libraries are located and what that does to the people in those communities. Hilton Branch has served a segment of the population that can walk to the library. If we close buildings, are people going to have the same benefit, the same advantage that they have now? Will our children get the same benefits after school when they come here and learn and keep up with their homework? The libraries make our town valuable. People moving to Maplewood, are coming from places like Brooklyn. They are used to walking to their library and that is what they want to do. The Mayor asked if there is thought to ever having that conversation. If there was any change in the level of library service, it would change people s lives. If we have to reduce police by 2 or 3, that

3 3 P a g e would change people s lives too. It is a question of how we are change people s lives because we ve been told by Trenton that it s not going to be that way anymore. People are fed up with taxes. The Mayor likes the idea of the district tax because people will vote for it. He doesn t know how much longer we re going to keep our finger in the dike here. We can t balance it anymore. I don t know what it s going to be like in three years. Ms. Lester said that we can have this discussion. We are seriously looking into joining a consortium in Maplewood. That is the direction for us to be sustainable. We are moving forward. Ms. Hilaire remarked that we need to consider that going forward; we need to think outside of the box. It s important for us to acknowledge the things that we are already doing, but it is more important to think about how we are going to survive going forward. It may come to sharing hours, curtailing hours and things we don t want to consider. We have to start looking at the whole landscape in very radical ways. We don t want Trenton to lower the boom and then we re paralyzed. We want to be proactive and say how about if we try this. We should meet more often to discuss these things. Mr. Duncan added that there are two parts of every equation. One is cost the other is revenue. I think we should think of this as a learning center, not a library. Sometimes learning comes from nonprofits, sometimes it comes from profit organizations. We ought to be thinking about how we can make money using the resources that we have, the unused resources. If we close our minds, we can t stave away from costs. Ms. Malespina commented that some of the out of the box thinking shouldn t just come from the Boards. The Directors are professionals who know what they are doing. The Board should not tell them what to do. The first step is to have them meet more, collaborate more and hear what they have to say before we tell them to cut hours, services, books, or resources. They are professionals who do this for a living. We are lay people who love the library but we should let them talk. There was a brief discussion about the involvement and importance of the Friends. Ms. Hilaire then invited the South Orange Library Board to continue their business meeting in another meeting space. The September meeting of the Board of Trustees of Maplewood Memorial Library was called to order by President Hilaire at 8:54 p.m. She read: Pursuant to Section 3, Chapter 231, Public Law 1975 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the Main Library Bulletin Board, and the office of the Municipal Clerk mailing the annual notice of this meeting to the Star Ledger and the News Record. 1. Roll Call Present were: Ms. Bostic, Ms. Buchanan, Mayor DeLuca, Mr. Duncan, Ms. Hilaire, Mr. Huemer, Dr. McCaffrey, and Mr. Woolard. Ms. Puglisi was absent. Also present: Ms. Lester, Director, Laura Nial of the Friends of the Library, Barbara Laub of the library staff, and patron Susan Joseph. 2. Minutes Mr. Huemer moved the minutes of the July 18, 2012 meeting, Mr. Duncan seconded and the motion carried. 3. Public Comment There was none. 4. Report of the Library Director Ms. Lester s July/August Director s Report was placed on file. She added that the bathroom renovation and ramp construction is complete. The Garden Club will be planting in the planter at the

4 4 P a g e lower part of the ramp. A group of Seton Hall volunteers are going to help weed the front area. At Mayor DeLuca s suggestion, Ms. Lester will give him a request to fund the Library s front garden from the Open Space Trust Fund. The Summer Reading Program was very successful. The whole staff deserves a lot of credit, but Jane Folger goes above and beyond. The Hilton Branch s Marvelous Mondays drop-in craft programs were packed. Jenny Burkholder is moving toward more of that kind of programming because it was very popular. In July we had almost 24,000 people visit the library and 35,000 people visit the website. A special thanks to the Friends for the new ipads that just came in. The kids have already seen Irene Langlois using them and they are waiting to get their hands on them. As stated in Barbara Laub s Adult Department report, there are changes being made to our circulation procedures. ing courtesy notices to our patrons has started. ing hold notices will start tomorrow. Overall this has been very successful thanks to Barbara s hard work. A patron came in to thank Amanda Eigen for her help using Job Accelerator, which we get through the state library. This resulted in her getting a job. That s an immediate impact that someone from the library has had on someone s life. Mr. Duncan remarked that getting a testimony from someone is very powerful. Ms. Hilaire praised Irene Langlois for the fabulous job she did on the appearance of the Teen Zone. Mr. Duncan congratulated Sarah on executing the plan to encourage teens to come in and use the library. Ms. Lester added that the afterschool problem is under control because of Irene Langlois, the inviting Teen area, and stressed that having a security guard in place is critical to the equation. 5. Treasurer s Report The July and August Treasurer s reports were placed on file subject to audit. Mr. Duncan moved to accept the July and August Treasurer s Reports, subject to audit, Mayor DeLuca seconded and the motion carried. 6. Claims Mr. Huemer presented the claims to September 19, They totaled $15, Mr. Duncan moved that the claims be paid, Ms. Buchanan seconded and the motion carried.. 7. For Information A. Construction Update This was covered in the Director s Report. 8. For Discussion A. Open Space Trust Fund Grant and New Jersey Historical Commission Grant Digital Archive of Maplewood Ms. Lester did submit the grant for $30,000 to digitize 100 years of local newspapers making them searchable from our website. 9. For Action A. Salary Increase for 2012 Non-Contractual Staff This item was moved to the end of the agenda. B. Strategic Plan Community Forum November 27th or December 4th

5 5 P a g e A community forum for our Strategic Plan is planned for either the last week of November or the first week of December. Peter Bromberg who facilitated our staff development day is not available. Jane Fisher was asked to do so. Her proposal is $125 per hour for two hours from 7 p.m. 9 p.m. and an additional $50 per hour if we want her to synthesize the information afterwards. Ms. Lester requested to use the Stokes Fund interest to pay the facilitator s fee. Mr. Huemer moved to use the Stokes Fund interest to pay for the Strategic Plan Community Forum facilitator, Mayor DeLuca seconded and the motion carried. 10. New Business There was none. 11. Public Comment/Open Discussion Mr. Huemer spoke to Wayne Sullivan about the sculpture he donated. Mr. Sullivan agreed to take a look at it to see if he can restore or replace it. Mrs. Lester suggested the Trustees look at the front of the building with the new ramp and decide if the sculpture works behind the railing. Ms. Lester would prefer to not put it back, but it was given to the Board and the Board accepted it. Ms. Buchanan does want to keep it. It s a symbol of recycling. Mayor DeLuca suggested it be moved to Hilton. Laura Nial mentioned that the Friends will start collecting books on September 29 and will continue collecting until November 10. The Friends Book Sale will be held on November 17 and 18. Mayor DeLuca stated the gazebo alongside the Hilton Branch should be up by November B. Salary Increase for 2012 for Non-contractual Staff Mr. Huemer moved to go into closed session to discuss a personnel matter, Mr. Duncan seconded and the motion carried. Mrs. Goldfine left the room. After some time she was called back, at which point Mr. Huemer moved to reopen the meeting, Mayor DeLuca seconded and the motion carried. Ms. Hilaire then reported that the Board approved granting Mrs. Goldfine a 1.95% increase and a one-time $1, salary adjustment to reflect her title of Administrative Assistant in accordance with NJLA guidelines retroactive to January 1, Adjournment There being no further business, Mr. Duncan moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:20 p.m., Mr. Huemer seconded and the motion carried.. Respectfully submitted, Katherine McCaffrey Secretary