The Town of Lincoln, MA - Library Trustees

Present: Jack Pugh, Jacquelin Apsler., Marshall Clemens, Diana Abrashkin, Peter Sugar, Al Kraft, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Susan Sugar, staff representative.

Finances are on track for this year. Discussion of building and grounds line item brought up Barbara’s report of a third fire in the boiler. The fire chief said it most likely was a “backfire”. Lieutenant Whelan from the Lincoln FD inspected the boiler. We discussed the probable need to call in the boiler manufacturer to inspect the boiler to discover what is causing these boiler fires (having had three, this is beyond a normal occurrence).

Capital planning has sent our requests for funds to Community Preservation, they want to hear about the replacement window project, get an update on the roofing work and the vault project. We still have about $69.000.00 left in the capital plan budget for ’05 to spend down. Thus far we have only spent about $15,000.00 on the roof project, with an outstanding bill for $60.000.00 most of which is for the roof slates.

There is a staff meeting coming on Tuesday Jan. 30. There are days when no one is scheduled to cover the reference desk, and staff has to be pulled from other tasks to cover. It would be nice if it were fully staffed which would require an additional 20 hours of staff time. It was suggested that Barbara ask Jeannie Bracken if she can change her day off to any day off to any day but Wednesday because that is such a busy day when more reference coverage would be useful.

The roofing contractor has decided to postpone the work until the weather breaks in the spring. It will take about 3 weeks to complete. In any event, the work should be finished by mid-May.

We got a draft requisition from the contractor for the slates. There is a concern about the security of the slates once we have paid for them. The contractor does not want to pay to insure them, but Peter feels that we should not pay unless there is insurance in place.

Discussion about interior design help. We have proposals from three firms; Gorman Richardson Architects, Leslie Saul and Associates, and Lerner, Ladds and Bartels. GRA seems to be the least expensive at about $2500.00, Lerner Ladd about $2-3,000.00, and Leslie Saul at about $5,000.00. Peter reported that he saw the work that Leslie Saul did for the Needham Library and it seems very good. (The board felt that we should stay with the originally authorized maximum fee of $2,500. The Building Committee will meet and make a recommendation.)

The elevator vent needs work, and is not up to current code. To correct the problems with the temperature in the elevator shaft and fix the venting will cost about $10,000.00.

Bringing the front doors into ADA compliance was also discussed. (Peter mentioned that currently it is possible to be locked into the Library if you are not familiar with all the exit routes.)

Earlier this month Crawley Cooper donated a copy of his ten-volume work, Timeline of World History. It contains extremely detailed listings of everything that happened in the world in the order they occurred! Patrons will find Mr. Cooper’s, Timeline of World History in the Reference Room.

The Capital Planning Committee approved the Library’s request for new carpets in the Children’s Room and the Staff Work Area. These carpets were installed in 1989 and are worn out. The carpet tore in places and formed ripples behind the Children’s Circulation desk and Reference Room desk. Staff repaired tears in the carpet with duct tape but could not remove the ripples in the carpets. Periodically the duct tape must be replaced because it becomes a trip hazard!

The Second Joint Budget Workshop was held on January 19. In attendance were Selectmen, the Finance Committee, governing boards, and Department Heads. Each department presented two budgets: a base budget and a preferred budget. The Library presented the same budgets that were presented on December 7, while the other departments decreased their budget requests. The Library’s preferred budget is $29,000 greater than its base budget. The $29,000 increase is divided as follows: 79% for staff, 17% for library expenses, and 4% for building expenses. At the end of this budget workshop, the Town’s override budget was $521,000.

The Library’s proposals for replacing the defective Gund windows and a fire suppression study were transferred from the Capital Planning Committee to the Community Preservation Committee. These projects qualify for historic preservation funding, which will save the Town 50% because the state provides matching funds for these projects.

Ellen Sisco’s Friday morning book group discussed, Washington Square, by Henry James and short stories by Runyon, O. Henry, I. Shaw, and Edith Wharton. After a December hiatus, the Mystery Mondays book group resumed in January. The theme for this season is mysteries written by foreign authors.

January is the time when oldest magazines are either given away to patrons or sent away for recycling to make room for the new magazines. This is difficult work because someone has to retrieve the oldest magazines from the unheated attic in the Preston Building. Ellen closely supervises this work so we do not lose any of the newer magazines.

A new season of children’s programs began during the last full week of January. Programs returning this winter are: Wonderful Ones, Terrific Twos, Preschool Program, Sing-Alongs with Ed Morgan, and a book discussion group for 3^rd & 4^th graders. For Lincoln’s Winter Carnival weekend, Sparky’s Puppets performed “Stories from Snowy Lands.” Stacy went to the Minuteman Library Network’s (MLN) children’s librarians meeting to discuss summer programs. They shared information about successful programs as well as unsuccessful programs. This information will be very useful when the Children’s librarian’s plan our summer programs!

Lisa Rothenberg, our Head of Technical Services, installed offline backup software that makes it possible for library staff to check out books on a PC when the (MLN) computers at Central Site are down. A file of check out and renewal transactions are created on the PCs’ hard drive. When MLN regains power, these files are uploaded to Central Site and the transactions are added to the circulation database. This happened on January 18 during a very windy rainstorm. This was the first time library staff captured circulation transactions with PCs instead of with paper and pencil during a power outage at Central Site.

Staff at the reference desk answered 263 documented reference questions in December. One person came to drop-in computer training on December 19 and received a private lesson from Jeanne. Computer training sessions are scheduled nearly every Monday evening at the library through June 5. On January 30, the Reference Room was packed full of patrons for Jeanne’s presentation: “I’ve Got Google! WHY do I need a library?

The Gund Building roof replacement project was put on hold until spring when the weather conditions are good for completing this project. Through December $14,318.78 was spent on this project.

Congratulations to the Adult and Children’s staffs for designing schedule of spring programs. The schedule includes both successful programs from prior seasons and some exciting new programs. Stacy Howard created the beautiful brochure that was sent to every household in Lincoln. Take a look; there’s a lot going on at your library!