CALL TO ORDER
The regular meeting of the Rochester Public Library Board of Trustees was called to order by President Dick Hall. Also attending were Jerry Balm, Ed Haskell, Betty Hutchins, Naomi Lipsky, Steve McMaster, Elisabeth Miller, Dave Nelson, and Jeanne Parker.
Members absent: Paul Barton
Staff present: Audrey Betcher, Library Director; Tom Dyer, Head of Communications; Kim Edson, Carrie Farrow, Circulation Services Manager; Jean Jahn, Head of Automation; Louise Moe, Head of Information Services; Rebecca Splittstoesser, Head of Technical Services; and Kathy Olson, Administrative Assistant.
Others present: Al Dollerschell and students from Mayo High School government class.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Ed Haskell moved, Jeanne Parker second to approve the meeting minutes from December 19, 2001. Motion approved.
APPROVAL OF BILLS
There were no unusual bills for the month other than many purchases which were designated as end of year purchases. We do not yet have a December expenditure report. The vouchers were processed on the new JDEdwards system and the 2001 budget is still on the old AS400; Finance Department staff have to manually transfer the information to the 2001 budget.
As we did last year, we will be requesting to encumber funds to the computer equipment replacement fund.
Ed Haskell moved, Jeanne Parker second to accept the January bills. Motion approved.
MONTHLY REPORT
As of the end of November, we are over 1 million in circulation.
Ed Haskell moved, Dave Nelson second to accept the November monthly report. Motion approved.
FOUNDATION REPORT
Planning continues for the February 9 fundraising event. Invitations will be mailed later in the week, with a deadline for registration of February 1.
The Foundation made a presentation to Mayo on Tuesday afternoon and it was well received by the Mayo representatives. We will await word on whether Mayo will make a donation to the Foundation.
The Development Committee continues to work on the case statement for a public fundraising effort.
SELCO
The oversight committee for the automation system selection has been established and will include three representatives from the SELCO board, 2 representatives from large libraries, one representative from a medium-sized library, 2 representatives from small libraries, and SELCO staff. Both Audrey and Dick are on the committee.
The current state budget situation is serious for SELCO. The Governor's proposal eliminates telecommunications access funding.
Ed Haskell moved, Dick Hall second that the Board's President write a letter to the SELCO Board President reaffirming that the SELCO automation system is essential to the operation of Rochester Public Library and that SELCO should not assume our agreement to major changes in that system without our involvement in and agreement to these changes in advance.
It is important for us to go on record that if the proposed system doesn't meet our needs we will be looking at other options.
Ed raised several concerns based on SELCO's past performance and also the fact that they keep losing key people::
Motion unanimously approved.
PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
The committee will meet later this month to go over a draft of the performance review of Audrey.
POLICY COMMITTEE
The committee reviewed the issue of extending renewal limits to two renewals. The consensus of the committee is that since this is not changing which items can be renewed, but only changing the number of times an item can be renewed, it did not warrant further review.
Jeanne Parker moved, Ed Haskell second to extend the renewal limit to two renewals. Motion approved.
PLANNING COMMITTEE
The committee has not met. They are expecting reports from the Technology and Facilities Study Groups within the next several weeks.
YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD
Elisabeth reported on the last meeting of the Youth Advisory Board. The Board meets on the second Monday of the month to talk about what youth programming should be planned at the library. For example: movie nights, jewelry making program, etc. Upcoming events include a caricature artist in March, movie night in April, and an animal program in May. The summer reading program will have a spy theme. And the writing contest will begin in July with prizes awarded in October.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Dick reviewed the committee assignments for the upcoming year:
Jerry: planning finance
Paul: finance
Dick: finance, SELCO
Ed: planning, chair, Foundation
Betty: policy, personnel, technology
Naomi: policy, chair; facilities
Steve: personnel, chair, planning, facilities
Dave: finance, chair; Foundation, technology
Jeanne: policy, personnel
Elisabeth: policy, student advisory board, facilities
BOOKDROP
The new hands free bookdrop has been installed as of last week. The biggest issue will be how to handle overflow on long weekends since the system will shut down once the bin is full. If the system shuts down due to overflow, an automated message will direct patrons to the walk up book return.
SELF SERVICE PCs
As part of the reorganization, staff have been working at making the wordprocessing PCs as self service as possible. A committee looked at what to do to ensure success including having manuals available, additional training for staff, signage, and ready answers to the most common questions/problems. Once these issues have been addressed, the PCs will be moved to the south wall, close to the young adult area. The printer will be closer to the Internet stations so both the PCs and Internet will have close access to the printer.
Dick requested that staff review the loan period for DVDs given the fact that very few are on the shelf at any given time.
STATISTICS
Dick has reviewed some of the statistical data available in the office.
Over the four year period starting in 1996 population has gone up 7.7%; book expenditures almost 18%, which is a compound growth rate of 4.21%. However on a per capita basis using constant value dollars we're actually down about 1/3% in four years. Total change in circulation down almost 4% on a per capita basis. Audrey stated that is not surprising given how much people can get electronically.
Annual in-house circulation is up 5% for the four year period, but down 2.5% on a per capita basis.
Total operating budget is up 24% over the four years; on a per capita constant value dollar basis up almost 8%. Materials on a per capita on a constant dollar value basis up 31% over a four year period.
Staff on a per capita basis has gone down slightly.
Holdings have gone up almost 13%, but on a per capita basis up about 5% over four years.
Over the coming year the Board needs to consider what statistics they want to receive.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Betty Hutchins,
Secretary
The next regular meeting of the Library Board will be Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in Meeting Room B on the second floor of the library.