TRUSTEES OF THE LINCOLN PUBLIC LIBRARY
MEETING, OCTOBER 23, 2007, 7:30pm
Present:~ Jacquelin Apsler, Chair, Diana Abrashkin, Marshall Clemens, Al Kraft, Peter Sugar, Susan Taylor, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Kathy Brobeck, Staff Representative
I.~ Two sets of Meeting Minutes were approved, those of July 31 and September 13, 2007.
II.~ Staff Concerns:~
~~~~~~~~Once again the staff expresses concern that the carpeting has not been installed in the Children's Dept., Office area, or behind the Circulation Desk.~ Peter Sugar explained that our contractor is legally considered "foreign" and must designate a local installer.~ The contractor may not be able to find anyone to do it for the price he needs.~ Diana Abrashkin suggested calling some of our previous carpet suppliers for the names of their installers, which we can pass on to our current contractor.
~~~~~~~~Kudoi to Margie Hilton who volunteered and to our own Jeanne Bracken, for a fantastic display of precious Vault documents in the Historical Room exhibited at the Friends' Brunch.
III.~ FY09 Operating Budget, due November 19
~~~~~~~~The base increase for FY09 will probably be 3% (the FinCom was meeting concurrently with our meeting), and since the Town unions have settled for 2.5%, it looks good for us.~
~~~~~~~~Various improvements were put forward, such as adding Technology and Professional Development items, and separating out Archives; adding 2 1/2 hours for Jeanne Bracken;~ and adding a part-time (5 hours) archives/assistant reference librarian (this person must be a professional librarian who can eventually take Bracken's place when she retires in 1 1/2 years).~ Barbara Myles said the Town considers full-time to be 40 hours, and that there were mistakes in both Bracken's and the part-timer's salary.~ (Sugar said we should be sure to note that some archives time is used for the Town's documents, and also said that Gary Taylor, Selectman, will support us on archives hours.)~ A half-day Staff Development item has already been added.~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~Museum passes would be clickable on the Library website with the new software.~ Susan Taylor said that we'll get questions about this because museum passes have traditionally been a Friends thing, and suggested that on the Budget we should emphasize the technology part rather than the passes, by using the phrase "Interactive Web Software" in the budget request rather than "Museum Passes."~ (Note that Chuck Miller is putting in for wireless service all over the Library on his own budget, not ours.)~
~~~~~~~~Marshall Clemens pointed out other errors in the Library Building part of the budget.~ We have put in for higher electricity costs because we used so much in FY07.~ Buck Creel is trying to negotiate a better price for all Town buildings.
~~~~~~~~Sugar moved that we accept the concept behind the FY09 Budget with the new items mentioned and the double listing for archives, etc., and the revised figures can be added later and discussed via email.~ Seconded, and passed.
IV.~ Discussion Items:
~~~~~~~~A.~ Method for urgent communications:~ It was affirmed that telephone notice is necessary in addition to email, because Sugar sent an email about an imminent meeting to decide on paint colors, and Clemens missed it.~ Sugar will not call everybody, so a telephone tree will be used.~ The first person to be called will be Jacquelin Apsler (leaving a message if necessary).
~~~~~~~~B.~ Historical Room lighting:~ Current lighting is too bright for sensitive materials.~ Sugar suggested providing a UV-proof cabinet (which would be an additional budget item).~ In addition, Clemens agreed with Abrashkin that there should be at least 2 lighting programs for the room, one of which would be appropriate when delicate documents are brought out for study.
~~~~~~~~C.~ State of the Town (SOTT) report:~~ Myles and Susan Brooks will present the Vault power-point at the meeting and Sugar will be available to answer any questions.~ Taylor provided fire-suppression graphics.~ Sugar will get clarification on dry- pipe vs. wet-pipe.
~~~~~~~~D.~ Grants:~ The request to the Codman Foundation will go through Tim Higgins (who is in favor of our vault project and delighted with the prospect of clearing out his basement!). The Codman Foundation has $75K to give out every year.~ They have no deadline, but Higgins does have one.~ The Foundation already gave us $20K for the vault.~ Taylor said that Bill Carroll, the professional archivist, can supply us with a good item for funding.~ Sugar suggested the Archivist's Room because it is so visible, but Myles said to ask for $20K for the vault renovation itself.
~~~~~~~~Taylor asked if we could get a grant from the Massachusetts Historic Commission, but we have missed their deadline.~ We need to act now on whatever grants we go for!
V.~ Reports:
~~~~~~~~ A.~ Bravos are in order for the people who worked on the Donor Appreciation Dinner and the Friends' SOS brunch, both of which were huge successes!~ The donor dinner cost only $1463 (less than the $2K budgeted).
~~~~~~~~B.~ Patio benches:~ Norman Levey said he'd call Lucretia Giese to recommend not refinishing them at all.~ They are meant to weather!~ If they were to be refinished it would have to be re-done every year at a cost of $300 each time.
~~~~~~~~C.~ Fundraising Committee:~ Taylor and Abrashkin are working on letters to previous vault donors and redesigning the vault brochure.~ At some point, they'll also solicit those entities which have their materials in the vault but have never donated.~ Amalie Kass, who couldn't make the dinner, sent $300 to the Friends for the Brunch.
~~~~~~~~D.~ The September Financial Report was explained by Myles, since it was done by Veronica Phillips in the Accounting Dept. instead of by our own Kathy Rushby.~ (The Trustees' universal preference was for Rushby's formats and savvy.)~ Many items were incorrect especially various percentages.
~~~~~~~~E.~ Highlights of the Librarian's Report:~ Bracken taught 20 people at the COA how to use Google effectively.~ Clemens designed a logo for the Classic Jazz program.~ The Library website was redone by InfoSciTex, Stu Haber's firm, which donated his time.~ Myles wrote articles in the Lincoln Journal about the Vault and the Brunch.~ Myles leaves for vacation on Thursday.
~~~~~~~~ F.~~ Building Committee:~ The Fire Suppression project has gone out to bid.~ The windows have been installed, except for the arch-top, which hasn't arrived.~ There has been no change to the bluestone on the terrace (the mortar joints were not in accordance with the specs).~ As far as the round stones around the base of the turret are concerned, which Bob Bottino of Maintenance said would harm the snow-blower (or himself) if they were out of place and invisible under snow, no change will be made.~ Abrashkin had suggested replacing the stone with a planting bed for flowers or ground-cover, with the soil 6" lower than the wood siding; but it was decided to make a final decision after we see how this winter goes.
LIBRARIAN'S REPORT
October 23, 2007
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Adult Department
The Millennium library system has a new version of its public access catalog and the Minuteman Library Network staff will install it on November 1. The new version will look much like Amazon and will even allow users to rate the books!
The theme of this year’s Friday Morning Book Group is, “good things come in small packages.” In other words, they are reading short stories this year. The theme of this year’s Mystery Monday Group is “classic detective stories from the golden age.” On October 22 the group read and discussed The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868). Ruta Vasady-Kovacs displayed her wood sculptures in the gallery, Shing Hsieh displayed her jewelry in the glass case located in the lobby, and elementary students from the Waldorf School displayed their water color paintings in the Stay Put Coffee Spot. The October 10 meeting of the Classic Jazz group, “Forgotten Heroes of the Big Band Era,” was presented by Dave Whitney. They met at Bemis Hall
because the library had a water leak and it was not known when the library could reopen. The Write Stuff had a public reading on October 17. Members of the group read memoirs, fiction, and literary works-in-progress. Ellen had a display of Jack Kerouac books in the lobby for the fiftieth anniversary of his book, On the Road. She also made a display and bibliography for the Friends table at the “Invasive Plant Summit” which took place on September 29 at Bemis Hall.
Children's Department
Programs for children are underway including “Wonderful Ones!” “Terrific Twos,” “Preschool Program,” “Sing-Along” with Ed Morgan, and the book discussion groups for third through fifth graders. The storytimes are being held in the DeNormandie Room while the windows in the Children’s Room are being replaced. The staff did a lot of weeding last month. All of the music cassettes, half of the VHS videos, and half of the books on cassette were withdrawn. Only DVDs and CDs are purchased nowadays.
Reference Department
Reference staff answered at least 201 questions in September. This compares to 324 questions answered in September 2006. Jeanne was on vacation for three weeks, which probably had an affect on the statistics because reference questions answered by staff in the Staff Work Room are not documented. Jeanne gave made a presentation at the Council on Aging on October 22 about Google searching, which was well received. She and volunteer, Margie Hilton, made terrific exhibits in the Lincoln Historical Room and glass display case in the lobby for the Vault brunch. They put a lot of time and effort into this event. After the brunch was over, the items in the exhibits were returned to the vault.
New Sign to Promote Library Programs
The Friends of the Library purchased an outdoor sandwich board sign to promote their Vault Brunch. Now they have given this sign to the library so we can promote our events. Thank you, Friends! Marshall Clemens made an electronic version of the Classic Jazz group’s logo so we can make a sign to promote Classic Jazz nights!
NELA Conference
I attended the New England Library Association’s conference on October 16. Wichada Sukantarat, from the University of Vermont, made a presentation about the project she is working on to digitize Vermont Congressional papers, letters, and speeches. Her project is using XML with the MODS (Metadata Object Descriptions Schema) that was developed by the Library of Congress. This is a competing standard to OCLC’s Dublin Core. At this point libraries are using a variety of record formats for their digitization projects.
“Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0” was another program I attended where Jessamyn West from Randolph (VT) Technical Career Center described ways New England libraries are new technologies, and also some old technologies to reach and interact with patrons in new ways. Many libraries, for example, have blogs, staff Wikis, and sites on MySpace.com. They allow patrons to add content to the web site. For example, patrons can add comments to the blogs or ratings to the books in the library’s catalog. We are already experimenting with blogs at the library and will implement new technologies as we are able. She gave us a handout of URLs of libraries using 2.0 technology and information about Library 2.0 and Web 2.0.
I also went to the exhibit hall and looked at new products and spoke with vendors. The library is interested in purchasing web software that allows patrons to sign up for museum passes over the Internet. For example, and I was able to speak to one of the vendors at the exhibit hall. A salesman from this company will give a demonstration of his product to library staff in November.
Lincoln Journal
I wrote an article for the “Lincoln Journal” about the October 21st vault brunch. In this article I explained that a vault renovation is necessary because it is overcrowded and it is difficult to maintain the temperature and humidity level that the archives need. I stated that we need more staff time to catalog and organize the new materials because the backlog is growing. Finally, I wrote about the library and Town Clerk’s Office agreement to share space in the new vault and collaborate on projects.
Grants
Kathy Rushby completed the financial portion of the grant application for state aid to libraries and sent it to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Vault Donor Dinner
On September 27 I gave a short talk about the progress we have made organizing and cataloging archival material in the library’s vault as a result of their donations to the vault project. I thanked them for their donations and their support of our project.
Web Site Upgrade
InfoSciTex staff has made a web site for the library. They are ready to put up the new web site that they built and give Stacy and me a training class to learn how to update the web page templates they made for us. We thank Stu Haber for donating this new web site to the library! (Stu Haber is CEO of InfoSciTex and the library’s liaison to the Finance Committee.)
Building Repairs
1. Window Replacement Project.
The window installation is underway. All of the windows except the two round windows located in the Children’s Room and Reference Room have been installed. These windows should arrive at the library before the end of October. Priming and painting is underway.
2. Carpets
Continental Flooring was the lowest reasonable and responsible bidder for the carpet project. They are located in Arizona so they are considered a “foreign corporation” by Massachusetts General Laws. A foreign corporation must have a Foreign Corporation Certificate that was issued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State, Corporations Division and file their annual reports with this state office. Continental Flooring provided these documents but has not provided the payment bond or general liability insurance statement. We also need to know which local installer has been selected for this project (so we can get references on this company) before we sign the contract. No local installer had been selected.
3. Fire Suppression
The contract documents will be ready for contractors to pick up on October 26. The bids are due on November 27.
4. Terrace Repair Project
The repairs to the terrace that Peter requested were made and this project is completed.
5. Water Leak in the Basement
On October 9 a leak appeared in the basement ceiling near the room where music scores are shelved. Water did drip onto some books but there was not much damage. Bob Bottino took quick action and shut the water off at the water main to stop the leak. We moved the wet books and put a tarp over that section of books.
A plumber arrived the following day. It took 4.5 hours to locate the leak and only 15 minutes to repair it! The library was closed until 3PM on October 10, when the leak was repaired and staff were called in to work.
6. Cable TV
Two old cable TV connections that were not functioning were reactivated on October 19. We have not tested the connections yet.
Kudos
Kudos to Jeanne and Margie for making such beautiful exhibits for the Vault Brunch! Thanks to Kathy Rushby for working half a day with the plumber to find the source of the water leak.
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