Minutes of Lake Elmo Library Board October 24, 2012 Meeting Room Lake Elmo Public Library Present: Board members: Judy Gibson, Mike Pearson (left part way through), Steve DeLapp, Rosemary Meier Alternates: Paul Ryberg, Marjorie Williams Visitors: Mayor Dean Johnston, Friends President Karen Johnston, (both left part way through) Renee Murray, Ann Bucheck Staff: City administrator Dean Zuleger (left part way through) 1. Call to order. President DeLapp called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. 2. Approve agenda. Williams added an item to the agenda equipment. DeLapp said to add it under 7. DeLapp also suggested adding an item for emptying the parks building. Bucheck asked if there was a place for public input. DeLapp said it could be on 2b. Motion: DeLapp said all in favor of accepting the agenda as amended say aye. Motion passed unanimously. a. DeLapp said the City Administrator should take the floor. Zuleger said he was attending a HOA meeting and will need to leave early. He said he has been talking to board members and is suggesting that the library board take some time to have a retreat, now that the library is open and running, and there is a staff vacancy situation. The reason is first, to have the board understand their roles and functions and also to understand how they have worked as a team. The board should be aware of some statutory things. Second, to work on a business plan or plan of action and goals. While affiliation is important, the real goals should be a credible library. He said Williams had a handbook from Wisconsin that might be helpful with hiring a librarian; also, to spend some time as a board understanding some fiduciary responsibilities. The third part is to create one, two and three year action plans, including those seven items of chief import for affiliation with MELSA. He said the way the library started has been energy based and now there needs to be more structure, so it can be sustained. Operations, policy and outreach might be subcommittees. Under operations are facility and finance. Policy governance means the board tells the librarian what it wants that person to do. He said he also wants to find a couple of librarians that could be consultants for the retreat. The board agreed to meet Friday, Nov. 16 from 6 to 9 pm and Saturday, Nov. 17 from 8 to noon. Zuleger suggested using Wildwood Lodge to be more comfortable, and that would probably be available for the cost of the food. Zuleger said that at the end of that session there should be a clear understanding of policy governance, what the board should be looking for in an employee and how the structure would augment that employee. Zuleger said he would prepare a report following the
workshop that will have deliverables and measurables. 3. Friends of Library Report. Karen Johnston said she had to leave early and wanted to give a brief update before she left. She said that someone from Family Means is interested in having some sort of library services in Cimarron, so that is something the Friends will be talking about and also some plans to be moving the books that need to be relocated. She said if there are places needed for book storage, the LERAC building might work. Gibson asked Pearson if that building is going to be rented, and he replied that it was not. 4. Public Input: Bucheck described some library activities and publicity that is being done near their cabin in Wisconsin. She suggested the slate of authors, and others that come to the library there might also be available to come here. Bucheck wondered if the Lake Elmo Library would be interested. Gibson explained that in the past the Friends did the author programs once a month in the Rosalie Wahl branch. Bucheck also suggested gathering emails from patrons who might like to be informed of upcoming programs. Motion: Ryberg moved to set up a clipboard at the front desk to collect email addresses from patrons who wish to be informed of library programming. Meier seconded. Passed unanimously. Bucheck agreed to set up the clipboard and to explore programming events. Murray said that she appreciated that DeLapp sent out a task list and periodic reports and the status of the project of building maintenance. She said she would like to see everyone heading up an aspect of the library to give status reports. She said she has looked at the software system and there are design and function problems, and that she just found out that there is another group that has been hired to do the support, but there are no status reports. Ryberg said, filing status reports is a function that takes time, and what we have been doing for the last 6 months is that we have been dancing as fast as we can. We do not have a formal tracking system. Murray said a formal tracking system saves you time. Setting priorities helps, and status reports. Ryberg asked Murray if she is volunteering to be the IT coordinator. Murray said she would. She said for the volunteers who interface with the public, it is a high priority. She said she worked at 3M and the status updates worked well as DeLapp s has. She said she would be willing to start a trouble log. She said she has this experience as a systems analyst. Williams said there has been exclusion and that at the beginning the Koha people suggested there be at least two people. Ryberg pointed out that he, as well as Sarah Linder, has access to the system and suggested that Murray and he sit down together, and work together on the system. Motion: Williams moved to add Renee Murray to the technical team to have access to the Equinox system. Ryberg seconded and said he had no problem with that. Passed unanimously. Gibson said that one problem was about 40 or 50 emails sitting in the library Gmail system from Koha/Equinox saying an over due notice was not sent to whoever. There was an expectation that Moris would have been handling these types of things, but it was not done. Murray also suggested setting a policy and criteria for establishing a special collection. Williams said
the board is responsible for setting the policies and urged the board to pay attention to not using email. DeLapp said the board already has a policy on donations. Murray said she would look into developing a policy on special collections. Williams said she would work with Murray. 5. Opening Ceremony debrief. DeLapp said he was stunned at how wonderful the program was and there was lots of good feedback. 6. Financial Report. Motion: Williams moved to pay reimbursements for Linder, Gibson, Ryberg, and Meier for library supplies and equipment. Gibson second. Passed unanimously. Motion: Williams moved to pay $23.35 to Washington County Department of Public Health for disposal of fluorescent bulbs. Ryberg seconded. Passed Unanimously. Motion: Gibson moved to reimburse Linder for $335.72 for a printer and additional cabling and a usb port. DeLapp seconded. Passed unanimously. Motion: Williams moved to approve up to $500 for book handling and office supplies. Gibson seconded. Passed unanimously. Gibson handed out a YTD accounting from the city financial officer Cathy Bendel. She said the expense categories do not make much sense, since this budget was set up about a year ago when there was a plan to rent a building and buy books. She said Bendel would prepare the 2013 categories to better reflect the budget submitted. She said the bottom line that YTD expenses for the library are $76,746.79. She said the building loan repayment of 50% is 118,560.20 and the ending cash position YTD for Oct. 1 is $69,253.91. Williams said Mayor Johnston has suggested that we ask the city to extend the repayment to give us more cash to work with. She said she has no opinion on the matter. DeLapp said that could be put on the agenda for the workshop. Gibson suggested we wait until after the workshop to talk about that issue. Williams and DeLapp agreed. Gibson said Bendel is so helpful and said she would come and do a tutorial for the board. Discussion about not having a treasurer. Consensus to wait until after the workshop and after the board changes take place. 7. Equipment. Williams suggested that two additional scanners be purchased. Motion: Ryberg moved to purchase two more scanners. Williams seconded. Passed unanimously. Murray offered to purchase the scanners on her Amazon Prime account that has free shipping and then be reimbursed. 8. Book cataloging discussion. Gibson explained the handout that calculates the capacity of the present shelving in the library. The total existing capacity is 5,360 books that includes adult fiction, non-fiction, teen and children s. The next sheet was prepared by Linder and is an accounting of how many books in the various categories are now cataloged. There are 4,860, leaving 500 books as room to grow.
Discussion on dealing with the large number of books that will not be used in the library. Murray explained her research into the organization that will sell, recycle and recirculate books. Discussion on book donations and the policy that says once a book is donated it belongs to the Friends and no books or items are accepted that have qualifications placed on them. 9. Policy review. a. Gibson said the Fire Chief signed off on the Emergency Preparedness policy for the building. b. Gibson said she and Linder were discussing the problem with fines and they proposed a fine amnesty until the first of the year. Starting January 1 st fines will begin to accrue. Motion: Williams moved to approve amnesty on fines up to Jan. 1 st, 2013. Meier seconded. Passed unanimously. c. Gibson proposed that since we are operating without a library director that any changes to procedures or policies should come back to the board. Consensus agreed. If volunteers have a better idea of how to do something, that it should be written up and put in the board mailbox on the director s desk. Williams suggested that all the volunteers should read the manual. d. Williams talked about the methods for counting and proposed doing actual counting and proposed little hand counters to count visits and computer use. She said she talked to Nancy Walton, the state librarian who suggested doing actual numbers and to start counting Jan. 1, 2013. The report is due April 1, 2014. Discussion on grants. Williams suggested starting to count for practice. Williams agreed to set up a form, and set up the task. Motion: Ryberg moved to authorize Murray to purchase two clickers for counting. Gibson seconded. Passed unanimously. e. Motion: Williams moved to approve remaining policies. Gibson seconded. Passed unanimously. Gibson thanked the board and said she will print up the complete updated by-law and policy manual. 10. Ryberg report on the building inspection for the furnace. He said Al Bever looked at the heating system and recommended keeping a spare water pump in the utility room. DeLapp said he will buy it and keep it there. 11. By-laws discussion. Ryberg said his plans have changed and he will not have to miss board meetings as he thought. He will be gone from Nov. 3 to Nov. 23. Gibson suggested tabling the by-laws discussion until after the workshop.
12. Adjournment. President DeLapp adjourned the meeting at 8:03 p.m.