Scottsbluff Public Library
Board
Regular Meeting – 2:00 p.m.
March 11, 2008
Minutes
The meeting was called to order by President Teresa Clark at 2:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Scottsbluff Public Library, 1809 3rd Ave., Scottsbluff, NE.
A notice of the meeting had been published on March 7, 2008, in the Star Herald, a newspaper published and of general circulation in the city. The notice stated the date, hour and place of the meeting, that the meeting would be open to the public. Anyone with a disability desiring reasonable accommodation to attend the council meeting should contact the Library Director’s office. An agenda of the meeting, kept continuously current, was available for public inspection at the office of the Library Director. The Library Board could modify the agenda at the meeting if it is determined that an emergency so required. A similar notice, together with a copy of the agenda, also had been delivered to each Library Board member.
Present were Teresa Clark, Kristin Wiebe, Sue Waite, Carol Holyoke, Library Director Bev Russell, Library Foundation Board President John Massey, and Librarian Jana Kehn, who took notes.
Teresa announced that a copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act was posted by the meeting room doors.
Agenda item 9d, discussion of current campaign status and strategy for remainder of capital campaign, was moved to follow agenda item 7.
There were none.
Sue moved the approval of the minutes from the February 25, 2008 meeting. Kristin seconded.
Clark – Yes
Waite – Yes
Wiebe – Yes
Holyoke – yes
The minutes were approved.
There were none.
Bev read an email she had received from Rita Brown, stating her desire to resign from the Library Board at this time. The Library Board accepted her resignation with regret.
A lengthy discussion was held regarding the status and strategy for the remainder of the library’s capital campaign. Kristin mentioned that she had done some investigating of possible partnerships in the community to facilitate a library building project. The possibility of a school-city partnership has been suggested at various times in the community. Kristin visited privately with a couple of school board members about this. Kristin told the school board members that this was information gathering only, at this point and nothing we would ever want as an agenda item.
Teresa volunteered to contact the Superintendent of Schools about this idea.
Sue said she had done research on joint school/public libraries. She is worried about several factors with this idea: 1. Community trust in our project to this point, 2. the security of school children, 3. Senior citizen’s use of a joint facility, and 4. Losing creativity in a joint facility.
Carol mentioned that most of these projects are in communities under 5,000 population and don’t seem to be successful in larger communities.
John said that the final project will by necessity be different than the concept design shown a public meetings.
Teresa said that we do not need to panic about the success of our fundraising. Other funds will be raised over the next few months.
Kristin said we should probably see what grant funds are raised before a final recommendation to City Council.
Sue mentioned that the library is thriving now, and we don’t want to do anything to hurt that.
In response to a question, John referred to a bonding measure that WNCC and ESU 13 are using to expand the Harms Center. Up to $5 million can be bonded without a vote of the public if two separate political entities agree in an inter-local agreement on a project.
Bev said that architect Ed Vidlak will be in Scottsbluff on March 20th to visit with any library board members, who might be available, about designing a smarter and greener building. We need to see what suggestions he has about how to get more for our money, regarding the design of the building.
Sue said that we could possibly build the basic building and do small fundraisers for furnishing, etc.
Bev suggested we look at a one phase project for about $3.5 million. Ed is looking into this and may bring some information with him.
Teresa proposed that two library board members meet with two City Council members next week to discuss the project and how to proceed.
Kristin believes we need to have Ed’s figures before we meet with Council members.
Bev emphasized that the Board needs to speak with one voice and must come to a consensus. The Board does not seem interested in exploring a partnership with the School District at this time. The visit with Ed Vidlak should clear up issues regarding cost and the meeting with Council members would provide a clearer sense of where Council stands, regarding the library building project.
Discussion then turned to the YMCA project. John mentioned that the final project was not close to what it was originally projected to be. The plan was changed.
Sue said the Y differs from the library in that the library is open to everyone and the Library Board has a responsibility to its constituents to stick with the basic plan that we have been promoting.
John said that public perception is a reflection of the Library Board’s leadership.
Teresa said the Library Board had already spent hundreds of hours on public perception and planning. We should not risk the goodwill we have built over this period of time with a major change in plans.
Other Board members agreed that the first step should be to discuss the design, and how to best economize with Ed Vidlak, and then meet with Council members to discuss options.
Bev emphasized that the purpose for any change in design or plan, especially a school-city partnership, should always be to improve library service. It should not be to find an easy way to get a building. She said it is important to build public backing for any drastic change. The community should be involved, and discussion should be open to the public. Also, it is not the job of the Library Board to approach the school district with a partnership idea. The City Council and the School Board are the governing bodies. The Library Board should give their best advice to the City Council. The important thing is to have a vision, a goal and not be distracted from it. "Keep your eye on the prize." The Board should decide what that goal is and recommend it to the City Council at the appropriate time. Ed Vidlak will be here March 20th around 4:00 p.m. Bev will call Board members when he gets to the library.
Library staff is still learning all the facets of the new automation system. Bev has recommended to staff that they learn the essentials of the cataloging and circulation systems first since these are the most important factors to the operation of the library. Learning the reports will come as time allows. It may be some months before we are able to access the statistical reports, but we are working on this. There are tons of things to learn and only so much time in the day. Additionally, because we had to shut down any cataloging for a month during the switch, the library has accumulated a backlog of materials needing cataloging, which further delays getting to reports. Hopefully, in the next few months we will be reporting library statistics as in the past.
The library was extremely busy with programs and events during February as the activity report shows. Tax aide kept the meeting room busy all month, and the children’s fundraising campaign kept our staff extremely busy. Story time attendance for February was 371.
The conversion to the ONELibrary system seems to be progressing well. There are still kinks to be worked out but considering the magnitude to the change Bev reported that she was pleased with how staff has adapted. Bev will be attending a meeting of ONELibrary Consortium library directors on Friday via video conference.
Twenty-five libraries have joined the OVERDRIVE consortium to purchase downloadable audio books. We went live with OVERDRIVE this week but are not planning a publicity push on this until next week. We feel we need a week to learn the technology before we encourage patrons to use it.