The Town of Lincoln, MA - Library Trustees

Present:~ Jacquelin Apsler, Chair, Marshall Clemens, Al Kraft, Susan Taylor, Peter Sugar, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Jeannie Bracken, Staff; Susan Brooks, Town Clerk (at beginning of meeting); also Patty Levy and Sara Brown of Friends of the Lincoln Library (FOLL)

· Vault/Archives: Susan Brooks presented us with her draft of the Memorandum of Understanding defining the proposed methodology of how the Town Clerk and the Library would cooperate and work together on the Town Archives. It is proposed to form a Town Archives Council, jointly appointed by the Town Clerk and the Library, which would essentially be the governing body to make policy decisions affecting the Archives. The Council would also set budgetary policies with respect to the Vault Fund. The MOU will be studied and will be reviewed with the hope of reaching a conclusion before Town Meeting. Thus there is some sense of urgency – at the same time it was agreed not to make this governing document too explicit

o The Friends are very enthusiastic about their efforts on behalf of the Library. They are planning a House Tour for the fall called Transitions and Transformation. They have established a Literary Awards program for the kids with a view of encouraging young people to come to the Library. They conduct other fund-raising events. They would also like to partner with the Library for the 125^th anniversary event next year – 5 August 2009

o The Friends financial help to the Library is very important. If we take the Library budget and remove the salaries, books and maintenance items, appx. 20% of the remainder is paid for by the Friends. We talked briefly about how the Library should ask money from the Friends for specific objectives – there needs to be coordination in this effort. Also, the effort should be institutionalized, so that it would not be dependent on particular individuals.

o Particular mention should be made of Amalie Kass, who has made a pledge to document conservation, and Mary Newman, who, in addition to a large contribution also agreed to help the Library in identifying potential donors. There has also been a cooperative effort with the Schools who are assisting the Library with the purchase of computers – this latter bridge building is very important and should be encouraged

o We discussed the need to have a proper inventory of what we have currently in the vault - including what the Town intends to place there in order that we have a true understanding of available space – this is critical to know should anyone donate further archives and mementos to be kept in the vault

· Staff concerns: Jeannie presented the fabric of choice of the staff for the reupholstering of the chairs and the recently donated couch in the Reading Room. We need to establish the yardage required for each item – it is possible that we may be able to obtain a discount when purchasing the fabric. The matter will be taken up by the Building Committee. Money for the upholstery will come out of the Maintenance Budget

· CPC: Jacqui went to see John Koenig, head of the CPC, accompanied by Peter. We explained the overrun caused by the bids on the Fire Protection (first phase). John was sympathetic, especially as on two previous projects we came in under budget and returned sizable funds to the CPC. He requested that as soon as possible we provide him with a comparative analysis (aided by our estimator) of RDK’s estimate and what our current estimate shows. He will then discuss this with the rest of his committee to see what they may be willing to provide the Library to enable us to move forward

o Roof leak due to the formation of an ice dam during the recent heavy snow storm: we have received a report from our architect and will be discussing the next steps – the actual remedial work will have to wait until spring

· Master Plan: Peter and Jacqui reported on recent progress. A Public Forum has been set for 9 February in the morning at the Brooks Auditorium, starting at 8:00+ and finishing at 12:45 PM, to discuss the basis of the Master Plan and the various issues we are intending to address.

· DeCordova: Jacqui has spoken with Melissa Meyer, the recent past president. Our representative on the Board is Jan Nyquist, whose term expires in 2009. We will have to begin thinking of a replacement for her and it is proposed to invite Jan to one of our future meetings and let her explain the job description and the expectations of the DeCordova Board from their members.

The second joint budget workshop was held on January 15. The Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School, Lincoln Schools, Town and Library presented their preferred budgets to the Finance Committee and Selectmen. No decision was made at the meeting to ask the Town for an override. Instead, some money in the Town’s free cash account may be freed up to fund at least some if not all of our preferred budgets.

The Friends met on January 8 to continue planning efforts for several events. They also announced that the staff who had applied for staff grants received them. Amy and Jane will attend the Massachusetts Library Association Conference in May. Stacy attended a program on January 8, “Best Books for Book Talks, Book Walks & Read Alouds.” The Friends have decided to have a January book sale this year and skip the August book sale. Elizabeth Cherniack announced that the “green” speaker is Judith van Ham, who is the organizer of the sustainable South shore. She will give an interesting talk on April 6 from 2-4 pm. The Friends also thank the Library Bookie (Jeanne Bracken) for her article in the Lincoln Review thanking people who volunteer at the library.

The Friday Morning Book Group discussed Persuasion, by Jane Austen on January 11. The Photo Share Group met on January 2. They got the year off to a great start by sharing photos and talking about new digital cameras. During January Sue Howland displayed her paintings in the gallery. On January 9 “Chester and Lester” was the theme of Norm Nichol’s program for the Classic Jazz Group. The Write Stuff met on December 19 and January 9. Jeanne had a display of mystery books in the lobby that work recipes into their plots. People attending the Mystery Tea on February 3 from 1-3 pm are encouraged to select recipes from these books and bring the baked goods to the party.

Mary Jo Maichack came to the library on December 22. She told heartwarming stories and led sing-a-longs. According to Jane, the children had a lot of fun. Stacy made the new brochure for the Winter/Spring brochure of library programs with help and input from the other public services staff. Children’s programs will begin the week of January 21. Amy and Jane gave a storytimes at Magic Garden. Stacy gave a storytime at LEAP. Ed Morgan played his guitar and sang songs with toddlers on January 4. There was a Dungeons and Dragons campaign on January 5. Dana’s winter vacation crafts program was a big success!

Reference staff answered least 250 questions in December (only slightly under last year’s 273. Two people came for computer training. Jeanne purchased a subscription to the Morningstar database for the library. The 2007 tax forms have arrived! Many people still fill out the paper forms and they count on getting their forms at the library. Jeanne attended a Reference Committee meeting at Minuteman Library Network’s headquarters.

In addition to being the Chair of the Minuteman Library Network’s Bibliographic Committee, Lisa Rothenberg is Lincoln’s representative to the Key Users Committee. This committee meets monthly to discuss technology issues as they pertain to software provided by Minuteman and hardware used to run this software. Lisa is our liaison to the technology staff at Minuteman.

The new web site will be launched on January 22! Stacy has spent a lot of time adding content to this fresh, new web site! 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.)

The Archives Working Group met on December 17 and continued drafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the new working relationship between the Town Clerk’s Office and the Library. This MOU makes the relationship clear and institutionalizes the relationship so it will continue into the future. Susan Brooks, Town Clerk, will attend the January 22 Trustees meeting to discuss this MOU.

On January 15 I attended a diversity seminar sponsored by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association (MIIA). The seminar was not just about ethnicity. Instead, this seminar showed us that we can all have stereotypes about different things. The seminar leader was a lawyer who told us how to resist stereotyping and how to respond to prejudiced comments. By attending this seminar, the Town saves some money on its insurance bill.

Amalie Kass met with me and Susan Taylor on January 9 to discuss the archives project. There is much more to be done than renovate the vault. We explained that our next step is preservation because some of the materials in the vault are in bad condition. Amalie Kass is very familiar with this topic because she is Chair of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Susan and I showed her some of the materials in the vault and she offered to donate funds to our preservation project. We are very excited that Amalie Kass is making it possible to begin our preservation project!

The window installation is nearly completed. All of the windows have been installed and painted. We are waiting for window handles to install on some of the windows. There is some exterior painting left to do so this work will have to be completed during warmer weather.

D. G. Jones International, Inc. was hired to prepared a cost estimate for the fire suppression project because all of the bids received were higher than the amount of money appropriated for this project. The cost estimate we received from DGI for phase one was higher than all of the bids we received. Furthermore, the cost estimate for the entire project was approximately twice as much as the cost estimate we received from RDK Engineers.

An ice dam formed on the roof after two big snow storms on December 13 and 16. During the weekend of December 22-23, water began leaking into the staff work room and the story room turret. The ice dam was cleared on January 7.

Thanks to Stacy Harris who has persevered to get the new web site ready for the Internet! She has worked very well with the staff to get comments on her work and make it the best site the library has ever had.