Lincoln Library Trustees’ Meeting Minutes
May 17th, 2005
Present: Jack Pugh, Jenifer Burckett-Picker, Marshall Clemens, Diana Abrashkin, Peter Sugar, Jacqueline Apsler, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director, Ellen Sisco, staff representative.
Minutes
Minutes were accepted as amended.
Announcements
Jacqueline Apsler was present for her first Trustees meeting , and tonight is Jenifer Burckett-Picker’s last meeting as a Trustee.
Financial Report
Reviewed financial report. Building expenses as of April statement, 99% of budget. Discussion about reserve fund transfer and the question about whether excess $ from roof repair expenses might be used for boiler repairs. We can not use excess funds in this manner was the consensus.
Librarians Report
Pre-bid meeting today for roof design work. 10 companies showed up. Bids will be in by June 1st.
Community reads project is done. Preston window project nearly done. Friends of the Library are willing to help fund repairs to the gallery, including painting and track lighting replacement.
Staff Concerns
The staff appreciated the letter sent by the personnel committee to the Town about the health insurance issues. Staff would like to pursue changing the policy relating to benefit fairness. The staff is considering unionizing to get a voice in the collective bargaining process
Building Committee Report
The RFP for the Gund roof project was reviewed. Ad placed in Central Register. The ad is for design services. $325,000 is the amount to be stated for the project. It is a quality based bid process. There was discussion about how to choose new carpeting. Would we have a design firm provide specifications only or should we have some interior design services?
The Trustees moved that we would fund a study to provide the Library with interior design consulting. Specifically help to choose carpeting, and the fee for these services not to exceed $2500. The Building Committee will draft a letter to GRA about this work.
Barbara received the as- built drawings from Gund.
Long Range Planning
Peter showed a drawing he produced for additional Library parking, which would provide 5 additional spaces on the Library side of Library Lane. Peter will check the parking requirements for parallel vs. diagonal parking. Once Peter does that, we can go to the planning board.
Capital Planning Committee
Deadline for capital plan for FY 07 is early September. We need to think about what our projects are. We should begin thinking about them now for a future meeting.
Old Business
Jack expressed the Trustees appreciation to the Friends of the Library for all they have done for the Library. Book sales produced $46,000 over 5 years, and dues $59,000.
These funds were used for:
Children’s programs, $20,000
Equipment expense, $14,000
Capital expense, $8,000
Museum membership, $9,000
Gifts to Library, $22,000
Library maintenance and repairs, $350
At times over the last 5 years, the Friends have had their account balance as high as $25,000.
Kathy Rushby has account balances for the trust funds.
Action Items
1. Building Committee to draft letter to GRA about interior design work
2. Peter to check on parking requirements
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LIBRARIAN’S REPORT
May 17, 2005
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Operating Budget FY 2005
Overall we have spent 81% of the operating budget as of April 30. In the building portion of the budget, however, we have spent 99% of our budget. Oil spending is 58% over budget due to high price increases from when we developed our budget during the fall of 2003. Unforeseen emergencies such as: a broken air conditioning condenser, boiler malfunctions, a structural engineering study of the Gund building’s roof, and sump pump failures have caused repair and maintenance spending to go over budget by 29%.
Through April 30, the library has received $5,885 in reserve fund transfers for the air conditioning condenser ($2,200), boiler malfunctions ($625), and the structural engineering study ($3,060).
Community Reads Project
Lincoln’s community reads project was called, “One Book, One Lincoln: Read Talk Share” and was spearheaded by Gwendolyn Atwood, a library patron. Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, had a great impact on her and made her want to raise awareness about problems in Haiti and improve conditions for Haitians. Gwendolyn worked with
Ellen for events at the library. Ms. Atwood helped organize events not only in Lincoln but also in Concord, Carlisle and Sudbury. Some of these events generated so much interest, that people had to be turned away. Outside of the community reads project, she also helped raise money for Partners in Health, Paul Farmer’s organization that was featured in Mountains Beyond Mountains.
The Friends of the Lincoln Library sponsored an event at Bemis Hall on May 1, which was a musical tribute to Tracy Kidder’s book. A dance troupe called Fantezi Kreyol (Creole Fantasy) performed Haitian dances. The setting of most of Kidder’s book is in Haiti and this event gave us a chance to experience a bit of Haitian culture.
The final event for the Community Reads project was a book discussion group at the library on May 16, which was led by Jeanne Bracken and two teachers from Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School, Karen Fritsche and Tom Danko.
Boiler Fires
The boiler repairs are eligible for insurance coverage but there is no special boiler insurance. There is only general insurance that has a $10,000 deductible. We were asking for $5,303 so our claim doesn’t qualify for insurance coverage. Our next step is to go back to Town Counsel with this information and ask Town Counsel to collect as much money as possible from the old HVAC serviceman.
Adult Department
The Friday Morning Book Group read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen. I joined the book group for their discussion of Anna Quindlen’s book. We agreed that books can have great impact and can create life-changing experiences. At one point in the discussion we each gave an example of a book we had read that had an impact on us. Of course, this is a group of avid readers so one would expect them to have examples of life changing books. Maybe that is one motivator for them to continue reading. Books are powerful, though, and one sees this in demonstrations against censorship, outrage over book burnings, and the politics of the Patriot Act. Books are more than just books. They have the power to change
lives.
The twenty-second season of Classic Jazz concluded with Ed Williams’ presentation of “Great Stuff.” For the record, this was the 267th Classic Jazz program!
Sareen Gerson and her daughter, Martha Lufkin, spoke about their experiences as former editor of the “Fence Viewer” and a current columnist for the “Lincoln Journal.” Their talk was titled, “Two Generations of Newspapering in Lincoln.” As editor of the town’s newspaper, Sareen knew what was going on throughout Lincoln. She reminisced with the audience about her days as editor of the newspaper and answered questions as she went along. After a while, the lecture was more of a conversation than a lecture. Martha shared her fond memories of growing up in a house that also served as headquarters for the newspaper. It was a very busy place! Martha has her own newspaper column and shared some of her classic columns with us.
Her house sitting adventure in France was hilarious, nothing like my house sitting experience in Lincoln during this past winter. We did share one thing in common, however. We both feared we would kill the house owners’ plants!
Children’s Department
Children’s programs wrapped up in May and the Children’s staff is working on summer programs. Approximately half of the money spent on children’s programs is spent during the summer when children are out of school. Amy and Jane are responsible for selecting the programs and hiring the performers. They need to have everything in place by the end of May in time to make a presentation to the Friends and request funding for the programs in early June.
Technical Services
Five of the newer PCs’ hard drives failed this spring: all three of the circulation PCs and two of the Internet PCs in the reference room. The parts covered under warranty and I installed them myself. Next, I rebuilt the software on the PCs. To accomplish this task, I installed all of the software from scratch on one circulation PC and one reference PC then used the “Ghost” program to make image copies these two PCs. Next, I used the image copies to rebuild the two other circulation PCs and three other reference room PCs. A side benefit of rebuilding the software on these PCs is that newer versions of some software are installed and any spy ware or viruses are eliminated.
Reference Department
Jeanne ordered some eclectic and interesting reference books such as: Massachusetts at a Glance: a User’s Guide to the Bay State, National Geographic’s Peoples of the World, Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture, Cars and Culture, The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America, and (what seems like an oxymoron to me) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Research Methods. Yes, Jeanne has a wonderful sense of humor!
Jeanne also attended a mystery book convention in Washington, D.C. called “Malice Domestic.” The cost of attending this conference was paid for by a staff development grant from the Friends of the Lincoln Library.
Friends of the Lincoln Library
The Friends gave the staff and volunteers an appreciation lunch on May 10. We are very grateful for the support the Friends give us throughout the year. They take an interest in what we do, use the library, give us their suggestions for improving the library, and help make the improvements happen. The staff give their thanks to the Friends for giving us a great lunch but more so for being part of making the library an important and successful community resource.
Building Repairs
1. Capital plan funded repairs to air handler unit and VAV units
a. The pneumatic control system, which is the brains of our HVAC system, was repaired was repaired by Taunton Controls. Next month, the Larry Leonhardt Company will balance the air and water systems to verify that the HVAC system runs as was specified by the engineers who designed the HVAC system.
2. Capital plan funded electrical repairs
a. The high priority repairs were completed. These repairs include: installing blank plates in the open spaces of an electrical panel, repairing or replacing all lighting fixtures that were not functioning properly. The most expensive lighting fixture to repair was the lighted stained glass in the ceiling of the Tarbell Room. We learned that the fluorescent light fixtures that were installed in the ceiling only work at normal room temperatures. Because the light fixtures are located in the unheated attic, the fluorescent lights would work on a sporadic basis. The fixtures were replaced with ones that work outdoors in below freezing
conditions.
3. Community Preservation Act funded Preston building window restoration project
a. The interior work on the wood windows is completed and the exterior painting is finished. The exterior wood above the rounded windows in the Farrar Room cannot be restored and will be replaced with mahogany. Work on the stained glass is completed.
4. Gallery Lighting
a. Every month a new artist displays his/her work in the gallery and adjusts the track lights to display his or her work optimally. Over time this is a lot of adjusting and two light fixtures were broken this month. The original style lights are no longer available but a different style, made by the same manufacturer (Zumtobel), are available. According to Brad Gonyer, who runs the galleries at DeCordova, each track lighting system is proprietary. The only types of light fixtures that will fit in the track are those made by the manufacturer of the track lighting system.
b. I was concerned about the light fixtures getting broken by the artists so I asked Mr. Gonyer and a woman at the Clark Gallery how they prevent their light fixtures from getting broken. Both of them told me that they do not allow the artists to adjust the lights. Only staff members can adjust the lights. When I asked them how they enforce this rule, they explained that their galleries have very high ceilings. The ceiling in the library’s gallery, in contrast, is low enough for the artists to reach the lights by using a step stool from the fiction stack area.
Going forward, our custodians will adjust the gallery lights for the artists but it will be impossible for staff to monitor the gallery at all times and prevent artists from adjusting the lights on their own. Perhaps we need to work on a new policy for the gallery to discourage artists from adjusting the lights on their own. Should a deposit be required, for example?
5. Community Preservation Act funded Gund roof replacement project
a. Our goal is to get the new slate roof on the Gund building before winter. Towards this end I worked with the building committee on a request for qualifications, placed an advertisement for designer services in the “Central Register” and Waltham’s newspaper, the “Daily News Tribune,” and held a pre-bidders’ conference on May 11, which was attended by eight architectural and engineering firms. The bid proposals are due on June 1.
Kudos
Congratulations to the staff for another successful year of programs for the community. These programs help draw people into the library and show them that it is a great place for them to enjoy and a great resource for them to take advantage of for life long learning and for fun. I am very impressed by the creativity of our staff!
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