Lincoln Public Library Trustees Meeting
June 15, 2004
Present: Jack Pugh, Chairman, Jenifer Burckett-Picker, Peter Sugar, Marshall Clemens, Diana Abrashkin, Al Kraft, Trustees: Barbara Myles, Library Director; Lisa Rothenberg, Staff.
Minutes of May 18. 2004, approved as corrected.
Announcements:
The Trustees would like to thank the Friends of the Library for approving the Library’s funding request of $12,536.00.
Financial Report:
As of the end of May 92% of the budget has been spent. The library has until the end of June to spend the remaining 8% of the budget.
Librarian’s Report:
The Library received a brand new server from the Town, which is facilitating file sharing, ensuring backups, and automating virus pattern file updates. Eventually this server will be our gateway to the Town’s new Munis financial system.
Staff Concerns:
Staff has drafted a letter wholeheartedly supporting Barbara Myles and her leadership.
The inadequate amount of parking is still a concern along with cars at times going the wrong way up Library Lane.
The signs about SUV parking are causing some difficulty with some patrons. The Library did not request the placement of the signs.
The Trustees voted unanimously to change the signage to compact cars only across from the handicapped spaces.
The workload is increasing on staff. According to the Metrowest Massachusetts Regional Library System, book deliveries among member libraries have increased by approximately 43% since last year. The increase for Lincoln Public Library alone is 46% since last year. During the week of April 7, 2003, Lincoln Public Library shipped out 649 items. Almost one year later during the week of March 29, 2004, LPL shipped out 945 items. Library staff must also process items shipped in from other libraries. Part of the problem is that staff is processing requests for books made on line that are not picked up. The books are returned to the owning library unused. Library staff processes the items whether they are picked up or not. Marshall wondered if there is something we can do about
workload issues by looking forward and trying to predict problems before they occur.
Report of Building Committee:
The Trustees passed unanimously the recommendations of the Building Committee to award the contract for Architectural/Engineering consulting services to Gorman Richardson as our first choice, Peterson Associates as second choice, and David King as third choice. We are going to try to negotiate the cost for these services at $16,000.00 to $20,000.00.
Town Wide Review System:
Jenifer and Al will review on their own, and the rest of the Trustees can review the documents over the next week or so.
Jenifer and Al will meet with Barbara Myles to complete her performance review for her first year as Library Director.
The Trustees voted to approve a step increase for Barbara Myles.
Barbara reports that all staff has a performance review each year.
Other Business:
Diana asked about the England music collection. To date we have only received a small part of the collection. There has been a fire at the England house, so the condition of the rest of the collection is unclear at this time.
Diana did a sketch of the parking on Library Lane, and suggested that the parking on the Library side needs to be parallel because of lack of room if both sides have diagonal parking. Peter is going to pursue this issue with Ken Bassett.
Jenifer is working with the conservation office on tree identification and signage for a tree walk between the library and Pierce House. She will continue this project over the summer. Jenifer and Barbara will work on reimbursement for matching funds from the State’s Department of Conservation and Recreation..
The Library float for the 4th of July is not going to happen this year as most Trustees are away.
Respectfully submitted,
Al Kraft
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LIBRARIAN’S REPORT
June 15, 2004
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Library Lane
Only four comments were written in the Library Lane Comment Book between May 13 and June 6. Two comments were positive and one was negative. The negative comment simply stated, “Let’s go back.” The fourth comment reported the license plate number of a car that drove up Library Lane the wrong way from Trapelo Road. For the entire period since the parking arrangement was changed from parallel to diagonal, the comments are 46% positive and 54% negative.
Four of the five street lights are working properly on Library Lane. The street light closest to Bedford Road is not working, however. The electrical cable was cut, perhaps by a snow plow, and needs to be repaired.
Friends of the Library
At the Friends of the Library’s June meeting they approved the library’s funding request for $12,536. The Friends will continue to fund the Adult and Children’s programs, museum passes, and printing the library brochures. We also requested new funding for mailing the library brochures and a machine to repair scratched CDs and DVDs. The Friends voted to discontinue funding the coffee in the Stay Put Coffee Spot and will consider grants to staff for continuing education that will benefit both the staff and the library.
Adult Department
Dilla Tingley had a wonderful art exhibit displaying her quilting skills on the theme of Van Gogh. Her reception was also a success. At the end of her exhibit she donated a quilt of the Gund building to the library and it is now displayed at the circulation desk.
Classic Jazz met twice in May. Their regular meeting was well attended, and the “finale” of live jazz at the Stone Church was a real rouser. There were about 110-125 people there to enjoy the New Orleans music of The Riverboat Stompers.
The Friday Book Group also had a busy month. They met to discuss the last book in the “Science and Literature” year, The Master Builder by Ibsen. Ellen led a group of thirteen book group members on a field trip to see Proof by Auburn at the Vokes Theatre in Wayland. The book group had read and discussed Proof this year. The group had a great time at the play, and the following day they met to discuss what they wanted to read during the next season. Their decision was to read “Books (somewhat) about Books” which allows a great deal of flexibility (for example, libraries and book sellers as well as books).
The program on local forests was another hit, although a bit controversial according to some; the speaker was good and as part of the grant that we have gotten from the Department of Conservation, this program is the first in a series.
Children’s Department
Ed Morgan was at the library on May 7 to lead a preschool sing along. The school year season of storytimes and book groups ended. The Children’s Department staff worked together to plan programs for the summer.
Jane went to Lincoln Country Day for a special storytime. Stacy attended two book review committee meetings.
Technical Services Department
As of June 1, we have spent $90,534.32 on library materials, which is 14% of the library budget. We need to spend an additional $6,180.28 by June 30 to reach 15% of the FY04 budget of $644,764 to meet the state’s library certification requirement.
When the new Innovative Interfaces, Inc. (III) library system was installed last July, the limit on the number of requests that a patron could make changed from three per day to 30 outstanding requests at one time. We have observed a sharp increase in the amount of materials we are shipping out to other libraries and the amount of materials we are receiving from other libraries. Other libraries have reported similar increases. According to the Metrowest Massachusetts Regional Library System, deliveries for FY 2004 have increased by approximately 43% during the past year!
Reference Department
Reference desk staff answered 357 documented reference questions, which is 16% higher than last year. Jeanne has weeded some of the reference collection to make room for the new materials she has purchased.
Jeanne led the June 10 Lincoln Archives Committee (LAC) meeting. The forms that she made with Nasrin Rohani and Bill Carroll to track vault activities, and the policies that the LAC agreed upon earlier this year have worked well in practice. Beginning this fall volunteers from the Lincoln Historical Society will help patrons on the first Saturday of each month to use vault materials.
Jeanne attended a disaster planning workshop given by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). As a result of this meeting, Jeanne is a strong believer that the library needs a disaster plan. We need to know what to do when a disaster strikes so we can recover from it as soon as possible and save as much of our collection as possible. The MBLC and NEDCC have made an online planning tool that we can use to create a disaster plan for the library.
Building Repairs
Five firms bid on the RFQ the library advertised last month for designer services. The Building Committee met on June 2 to discuss these bids and decide which firms should be invited for an interview. On June 10 the Building Committee interviewed three firms: David L. King Architects, Gorman Richardson, and Peterson Associates. The Building Committee will rank these firms and make its recommendation to the full Board of Trustees at the monthly Trustees meeting on June 15. The successful bidder will design the specifications for the building repairs that were approved at the Annual Town Meeting.
The library’s HVAC contractor repaired the damper in the HVAC unit in the sub-basement. This damper opens and closes to bring fresh air into the building. During the winter a motor broke and caused the damper to get stuck in the open position, which allowed lots of freezing air into the building. A piece of wood had been jammed into the unit to keep the damper closed until the unit could be repaired.
The walls in the Children’s Room, which were stained by dark liquids leaking from the chimney, were cleaned and painted.
New shelving was installed in the DeNormandie Room. These new shelves were paid for with a bequest from Astrid Donaldson and money donated in memory of Mary Irwin. Books on tape and CD are stored in the DeNormandie Room and they are in high demand, especially with commuters. The new shelving was sorely needed because there was not enough room on the existing shelves for the books on tape the library already owns. Furthermore, the Friends of the Library recently donated $5,000 for new books on CD.
Two new coat racks were installed in the Children’s Room. One coat rack is near the second floor elevator. The other is above the bench opposite the Children’s departmental office and can be removed in warmer weather when the children are not wearing coats.
The Friends of the Lincoln Library donated the new shelf behind the circulation desk. It is already full of books requested by our patrons!
New Server
Chuck Miller, the Town’s IT Director, arranged for the installation of a new computer server at the library and he paid for it with funds from his IT budget. This new server will facilitate file sharing as well as provide automated file back ups and updates to virus definition files. The Town also gave us a network switch, which will increase the bandwidth of our local area network (LAN) inside the library. Chuck also directed the technician, who installed the network, to make it possible for Ellen, Kathy, and me to access the computer where the Town’s new financial system is located. We will test this connection in the near future with the goal of obtaining financial reports on demand.
Kudos
Kathy Rushby has done a masterful job making sure that the department heads are aware of how much money they need to spend by the end of June. She also found the carpenter, who built the new shelving in the DeNormandie Room, Children’s Room and circulation area, and worked with him to get the shelves installed in a timely manner. Kathy works very well with the building contractors and makes sure the work is done correctly.
Lisa Rothenberg also deserves praise this month because she was elected chair of Minuteman’s Acquisitions Committee. In addition to serving as the library’s representative to the Acquisitions Committee, Lisa is the library’s representative to Minuteman’s Key User Committee, which focuses on technology.
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