LINCOLN LIBRARY TRUSTEES MEETING
September 30th, 2003
Present: Emily Althausen, Diana Abrashkin, Al Kraft, Jack Pugh, Jenifer Burckett-Picker, Marshall Clemens, trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Stacy Howard, staff; Jan Nyquist, DeCordova liaison.
The Lincoln Library Trustees welcomed new member Marshall Clemens to the board.
Minutes of July 17th accepted.
Announcements:
There is a class for new trustees at the Eighth Annual Joint Conference of Library Commissioners on November 1st, 2003.
Lincoln library will post an historical document from the vault each month on the town web page to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the town next year.
Open house at the Library on October 19th, 2-4PM. This will be an opportunity to have patrons greet and meet Barbara Myles, some trustees should attend.
The trustees greatly appreciate the way the staff handled all the transitions and changes over this past summer.
Next trustees meeting dates, October 21st, November 18th, December 16th, January 20th.
Report from Jan Nyquist:
Income grew for DeCordova during the past year. Corporate lending programs have been quite successful. Expenses in line with projections. The museum is in good financial shape. A plan to raise 10 million dollars has begun. This money will be used to house collections on site, update the sculpture park, and increase the operating endowment. There will now be one fee to enter both the sculpture park and the museum.
Sheet music cataloging system:
The music from Dr. England’s collection will need to be stored, and a cataloging system developed to both provide security for this valuable collection, and allow access by our patrons. The trustees examined a folder system, which can organize and protect the music.
Minutes, improving the process:
In the future, the minutes will be distributed among the trustees within one week of the meeting, and will circulate for a week for comments and corrections. At the start of week three, Jack Pugh will post the minutes to the town web page as a draft. Barbara Myles will send Jack the librarian’s report, which he will attach to the minutes as an addendum. The agenda will be posted on the library web site prior to trustees meetings
Vault update:
Mr. Carroll is giving a talk about the vault project on Wednesday, November 12th at the library beginning at 10AM. Mr. Graf will give another Wednesday talk on October 8th about the clock project.
The Lincoln Archive Committee met on July 15, and August 28. The next meeting is on October 23. The focus is the text of regulations for use of vault materials. Issues include; staff policy, patron policy, and user policy for owners of materials stored in the vault. The committee is trying to bring our policy in line with policies that exist in other libraries. A system for reproducing materials is needed. The group is also working on a brochure that will be ready in late October to help to raise $25,000.00 still needed for the vault endowment fund.
Library Lane report:
The test period for diagonal parking has begun. We are recording comments about the test. So far 26 comments, 10 positive and 16 negative. Barbara reports that people either love it or hate the change.
Jenifer suggests that employees park on Old Lexington Road.
The Historic District Commission is looking at options for lights. For the 5 fixtures they have selected, the cost is approximately $11,000.00 not including installation. There was discussion about the design process for the changes to the Lane and lighting design. Several trustees expressed their frustration about working with the design committee.
Al Kraft suggested that temporary lighting be installed until the permanent lights are in. He will talk to an electrician about a price. The trustees are not happy about the light spacing and would like to modify the current plan. Interested trustees will meet Thursday, October 2nd at the Library.
Other business:
The trustees voted to give Mr. Graf a clock maintenance contract for one year at $250.00. He will make several visits during the year to adjust and service the clock mechanism.
We will discuss reprinting the fundraising brochure and fundraising issues at our next meeting.
Respectfully submitted:
Al Kraft
LIBRARIAN’S REPORT
September 30, 2003
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
New Assistant Children’s Librarian
Stacy Howard was appointed the library’s new Assistant Children’s Librarian and she began work on August 26. Over 30 people applied for this position and we had several highly qualified candidates to choose from. Stacy was our choice because of her job experience, her knowledge of the Innovative Interfaces, Inc. computer system, and the excellent impression she made on us during her interviews. Stacy is already representing the library at regional meetings, updating web pages, and working with Ellen Sisco, Jane Flanders and Amy Gavalis to prepare the town-wide mailing of the fall program schedule for printing.
Library Lane
Construction began on August 8. First, the lower end of the lane was widened to 27 feet and the type of curbing was changed from vertical to sloped to eliminate the problem of car tires deflating when drivers drove their cars into the curbing while parking. Next, two tree stumps were removed at the top of Library Lane and the sidewalk that curved around them was also removed. A new, straight sidewalk was installed in place of the old sidewalk and will allow the twenty-fifth car to park on Library Lane when the transition is made to diagonal parking.
Police Chief Kevin Mooney agreed to add Library Lane to the town’s routine parking enforcement patrol. This will allow the library staff to focus on customer service without having to confront our patrons about parking problems.
Summer Reading Program
Over 100 children joined this summer’s reading program whose them was, “Read! Think! Create!” The Children’s staff presented some of the programs and selected performers for other programs. Amy and Jane scheduled a good variety of programs including story times, Drumlin Farm visits, a world famous origami artist, and a dance program.
Building Alarm Upgraded
The building alarm was upgraded to monitor the building’s temperature and the sump pump. If the building temperature falls below 45 degrees or if the sump pump either fails or cannot keep up with the amount of water entering the building, the alarm will be activated. If no one is in the building when the alarm is set off, Lexington Alarm Systems will call one of the Trustees. Before the library changed alarm companies, none of the equipment in the sub-basement was monitored for system failure.
NStar Repaired the Library’s Electricity Supply Cables
Lt. Russes of the Lincoln Fire Department notified Emily Althausen and me that the cables that provide the library’s electricity were in danger of being shorted out. The cables at pole 79 on Bedford Street had slipped down and the metal conduit was digging into the cables’ insulation. Eventually, the weight of the cables would cause the conduit to cut through the insulation. Once this happened, the library would lose all of its electricity. NStar sent two work crews and four trucks to the library on September 15 and repaired the cables.
ARIS Statistics
Several staff members worked together to complete the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioner’s Annual Reporting and Information Survey of library statistics. Filing these statistics is required in order for the library to receive state aid.
Fiscal Year 2003 Statistics
Our circulation has increased and we loaned more material to other libraries than we borrowed from other libraries. The number of programs we offered last year and attendance at these programs was down from FY2002. (The reduced staff in the Children’s Department and Ellen Sisco taking on additional duties after Jerry Cirillo resigned his position as Library Director likely explains this decrease.) Our people counter statistics were 66,758 people for FY 2003, which is an increase from 63,075 for FY 2002. The library’s web site was launched in the fall of 2002. For FY 2003 we had 6833 web site visitors and 41,531 hits. In other words, the average visitor looked at six pages when visiting our web site.
Fiscal Year 2004 Statistics
The new III library system generates slightly different statistics from the old DRA system. The July and August 2003 monthly statistics were generated from the III system and show these changes. You will notice that we now have material type information for young adult circulation statistics. Some of the material types now have different names. For example, DRA used the phrase “book on tape” for audio books on tape cassettes, while III uses the phrase “word cass” for these same materials.
Also notice that there are new statistics on the second page for resource sharing, reference questions, the people counter, and Internet access to library resources. These additional statistics reflect the value of our staff and materials. They also give some insight about how our patrons value our building and technological resources. If the patrons have a good experience when they visit the library by receiving great customer service, getting the materials they want, and enjoy their surroundings in a well-maintained building, we will see increases in our statistics for circulation and the people counter. If our collection is better than other libraries’ then we will continue to be a net lending library. As we add more content to our web site and keep it updated with current information, our web site statistics
will increase.
State of the Town Meeting
At the preliminary meeting for the November 1 State of the Town meeting, the Finance Committee informed us that the continuing decline in revenue, due to the economic down turn, will reduce the amount of state aid the town expects to receive for FY 2005. The Finance Committee expects there will be a shortfall again this year between the cost of providing town residents with level services and the amount of money the town has available to spend on these services. No decision has yet been made about whether to reduce services or to ask the town for an override for FY 2005.
Kudos
The library staff deserves kudos for their extra efforts to provide a high level of customer service during the first months of the new III library system and Library Lane construction. I am very impressed and inspired by their dedication to the library and its patrons.
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