LINCOLN LIBRARY TRUSTEES MEETING
April 22, 2008
7:30pm -- Reference Room
Present: Jacquelin Apsler, Chair, Peter Sugar, Susan Taylor, Diana Abrashkin, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director, Lisa Rothenberg, Staff
I. The Minutes of the Feb. 26, 2008, meeting were approved.
II. The Minutes of the March 25, 2008, meeting were approved as amended.
III. Discussion:
A. Memorial Day Parade, May 26th. Nancy Henderson will be on call to spruce up the Eagle area. There is a lot of work for the event that needs to be done by the Library the night before. Apsler will call Clemens to see if he will be available. Otherwise, Taylor will try to handle it with Abrashkin as back-up.
B. Public Safety. Myles will call Tim Higgins and Police Chief Kevin Mooney to coordinates the Library's role in public safety, pursuant to a rape in a New Bedford library. Information was presented at a Trustee Symposium in Boxford. On October 4, there will be a meeting in Weston with various police departments and libraries.
C. Hospitality Closet. Sugar showed his drawings for improvements there. Taylor reported that the Friends would be happy to invest in it. The drawings will be shown to Ellen Sisco. It was also discussed where new outlets might be located in the Tarbell and Young Adult Room. Both these projects can be included as alternates in the Vault Project bidding. None of the funds will come from the Archives project itself.
D. Energy Audit. This must be done by a specialized firm. Lincoln's Green Committee is interested in using the Library as a test case, because we are close to meeting the requirement. The Green Committee, headed by John Snell, with FOLL's Elizabeth Cherniack as a member, will apply for a grant.
E. Summer Meeting Schedule. Myles states that we don't need two July meetings. Next meetings are May 27, June 24, and July 22. July 1 was cancelled. Mark your calendars for July 3 to work on the Library's Float.
IV. Staff Concerns. According to Rothenberg, the staff are concerned about problems arising from the Vault project, e.g., losing space in the Friends Room and noise from the new HVAC equipment penetrating into the fiction stacks. There will be shelving in both the Friends and Study Rooms, which will alleviate any loss of storage space.
V. DeCordova Liaison. It was voted to formalize the appointment of Jan Nyquist as our liaison.
VI. Reports.
A. The status of projects overseen by the Building Committee was distributed as a memo with the meeting agenda.
Vault: Myles was concerned about storage of existing vault materials while the new vault is being built. John Koenig said vault funds will not be available until July 1, so we can't award the project but we can advertise it. Taylor reported that the CPC wants a separate plaque at the vault.
Fire Protection: We are offering it to bid with alternates: 1) extend fire protection to the administrative area; and 2) put a standpipe in the staircase area. Bids should range from a low of $50K.
Carpet: The name of the repair firm we found will be given to the existing contractor, Capitol Carpet. If they don't propose a firm of their choice or accept our choice, we will deduct the repair cost from their payment. The vinyl flooring in the Children's Room is damaged, too. We are negotiating with the Milliken company to replace the discolored carpet tiles.
Roof leaks: We must begin by checking the flashing next to the turret, where we had an ice dam. Funds from Building Maintenance budget can be used for the repairs.
Windows: It is warm enough now for painting. Myles will contact Max Ferro to pursue the contractor on the punchlist, along with and wrecked lawn caused by the dumpster.
Elevator: The contract will be awarded to the lowest bidder.
B. Financial Report. Oil and electricity are high. We must ask for a Reserve Fund transfer of $10K, since we have already spent over 100% of budget.
C. Librarian's Report. One highlight is that we must develop two crisis plans, one for a natural disaster with harm to books, and another for harm to persons. Collections are covered by Town insurance but there is no special insurance for vault materials. Myles will find out if other towns have riders on their insurance.
D. Archives Working Group. According to the MOU, the group meets quarterly. The first meeting was held on April 15, with Jeff Cramer and Terrie Wallace in attendance.
E. Technology Committee Report. Must coordinate with Vault project for the right wiring and access points. Taylor and Myles will put together a draft proposal for a 3-yr. techology plan, including Internet policies and staff training (FY '10, '11, and '12).
F. Fundraising Committee. It is important that all Trustees have donated their part of the $1000 we are giving to the Vault.
G. Master Planning Committee. It will publish the results of the Town Survey in June. They would like to have one more public meeting before or at the end of the summer, finalize all working papers in September, make a presentation at the State of the Town meeting in November, and finish by Town Meeting in March 2009.
VII. Announcements. The FOLL Appreciation Luncheon will be on May 6.
VIII. Adjournment of the meeting took place at 9:45pm.
LIBRARIAN'S REPORT
April 22, 2008
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Friends of the Lincoln Library
The Friends met on April 1. Amy and Jane requested funds for their summer programs and activities. They distributed a document showing the performers who are coming to the library this summer. The Friends voted to fund the summer programs and activities. My update was about our warrant articles passing at Town Meeting. Pam Caswell gave an update about the October house tour. She needs help with public relations and marketing as well as volunteers to man the houses on the tour. Barbara Low and Pam will work on a budget for the house tour. Proceeds from the March book sale ($900) went to the Lincoln Public Schools. May 3 is the children’s book sale. A task force was assigned to work on this. The Friends would like a link to their web page on the library’s home page. Elizabeth Cherniak
reminded us about Judeth Van Hamm’s talk at the library about living a low carbon diet on Sunday April 6.
Lincoln Historical Society Display
The Lincoln Historical Society put a new display in the Lincoln Historical Room, “Getting There.” This exhibit depicts three centuries of road development in Lincoln. It is interesting to see how the Lincoln developed over time.
Adult Department
The Friday Morning Book Group discussed Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson on April 4 and Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist on April 18. The Photo Share Group met on April 2. During April Pat Morrisroe displayed her paintings in the gallery. Roy Hughes displayed his photographs in the Stay Put Coffee Spot. The theme of Joe Brown’s April 9 Classic Jazz program was, “Chicagoans and Jazz.” The Write Stuff met on April 9 and 23. Attendance is growing, which could lead to breaking the group up into two Write Stuff groups. On April 16 Maureen Taylor, the famous “Photo Detective” presented an interactive lecture on “Identifying and Dating Family Photographs.” Her books are very popular with genealogical groups and history buffs alike. Ellen had a
display of “green” books for Judeth Van Hamm’s talk and a second book display of genealogy and how to identify old photographs for the Photo Detective program. Ellen is ordering new books and AV materials to spend down her accounts.
Children's Department
The Children’s Department is running all of its programs including Ed Morgan’s monthly guitar sing along for toddlers. Amy and Jane prepared for their May presentation at the Massachusetts Library Association’s Annual Conference about job sharing. The end of the fiscal year is approaching and the Children’s Department staff is ordering books and AV materials to spend all the money in their budget line items.
Reference Department
Reference staff answered least 454 questions in March compared to last year’s 327 questions. Jeanne attended the MLN’s Reference Committee meeting. They saw a demonstration of a new version of the Novelist database. According to Jeanne, this new database is much better than the old database. Tax season is over for the people who filed on time. Reference staff helped patrons find the tax forms they needed. Jeanne worked with the Lincoln Historical Society to display user copies of documents for a program on the Civil War at Bemis Hall. She also wrote a Bookie column in the Town Meeting edition of the “Lincoln Review.” Her article was about the library and the services it offers to the Town.
Technology Planning Group
On April 3 the Technology Planning Group met with Cathy Matthes, Joe Deardon, and James Suttie at the Lincoln Public Schools. We discussed their technology plan, which was written by a consultant. Cathy explained that technology is used in cases where value is added or increases the productivity of teachers. The school librarian, Alice Sajdera, teaches library classes. There are separate state and national standards for these classes that the people we met with did not know about. We did learn that the Macintosh computers the library will be receiving will have a one year warranty. After meeting with Cathy, Joe and James, we went to the library to meet with Alice. She agreed to share information she teaches in her classes. For example, how the teachers tell their students how to cite materials for their research. She will also give us the URL of the school’s library catalog.
Technical Services Department
Lisa is processing another big batch of travel books in time for summer vacations. She is also ordering the year end push of materials Ellen has selected.
Vault Project – Organizing and Processing Materials
The library received a large, exciting collection of Lincoln history materials from Rob Todd of the Lincoln Historical Society, from longtime resident Peg Grason. Jeanne is reviewing this collection and she has found important information about Lincoln in these papers. She is also working on the 250th Collection. Margie Hilton, a volunteer, is measuring books for phase boxes. Bill Carroll is processing newly donated additions to old collections.
Archives Working Group
The Archives Working Group (Jacquelin Apsler, Susan Brooks, Jeanne Bracken and I) met on April 3 and 11 to set the agenda of the April 15th meeting with the Town Archives Advisory Committee and work on the mission statement for the TAAC.
Deborah Wender of the Northeast Document Conservation Center performed surveys at the library’s vault and Town Offices’ vault and is writing a report of her findings and priorities for preservation. We look forward to receiving her report.
Town Archives Advisory Committee
The Town Archives Advisory Committee (TAAC) met on April 15 at the library. Jeff Cramer, archivist of the Thoreau Institute, and Terrie Wallace, archivist of the Minute Man National Historical Park, spoke about their collection policies. Jeff Cramer tries to collect anything about Thoreau. Terrie Wallace has a 20 page collection policy that limits what she collects. The TAAC members were insightful and offered good suggestions. They were enthusiastic about the collaboration with the library and the town to form one large archive.
Natural Disaster Plan
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is encouraging all libraries to have a disaster plan in place. The disasters that this plan covers are disasters to the library collections not disasters to people. The MBLC and the Northeast Document Conservation Center collaborated to create a set of online templates, “dPlan,” for institutions to fill in. With a plan in place the library can reduce the risk of disaster and minimize losses if a disaster does occur.
The templates are divided into several sections: institutional information, prevention, response and recovery, and supplies and services. I have completed 96% of the dPlan templates.
Crisis Plan
This crisis plan covers crises in which people’s safety is at risk. The Lincoln Police Department has written a first draft of the crisis plan. Ellen and I met with Police Officer David Regan on April 2 to discuss this plan. The police will revise the plan based on our suggestions.
Lincoln School Foundation Spelling Bee
On April 6 Amy and I were part of the judging team for the Lincoln School’s first annual spelling bee. We both were amazed at how well these children could spell!
Lincoln School “After School Library Program”
Cindy Sweetser was awarded a grant from the Lincoln School Foundation to open the school library on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-4:30 p.m. for 35 weeks during the school year. Currently, the school library is not open after school. The Recreation Department will administer the project (hiring and paying the staff position, marketing the program through the Recreation Department brochures, registering students and administering the behavior contract, contacting registered families by email in the event of unplanned closure or emergency, and coordination with the principals and school library on access security, and program implementation.). The school librarian will train the staff person. Mrs. Sweetser asked me to help her find a paraprofessional for this program. Ideally, she would like one of the
library’s staff to fill this position but this may not be possible.
Building Repairs
1. Window Replacement Project.
The window installation is nearly completed. There is some exterior painting left to do that will have to be completed during warmer weather.
2. Carpets – Children’s Room and Staff Work Room
The carpet installation was completed on March 25. A punch list was sent to Capital Carpet on April 7.
3. Fire Suppression Project
Residents at Town Meeting voted to fund the Community Preservation Committee’s request for $63,288 to fund phase one of the fire suppression project. The Building Committee met with Rand Refrigeri on April 7 to review the project and prepare for bid documents to go out in May.
4. Cole Benches
Steve Manning picked up the benches for refinishing on April 11.
5. Elevator Smoke Vent Upgrade Project
A contract was sent to Healthy Air Solutions on March 27 for their signatures. Colleen Wilkins, Lincoln’s Finance Director, has the contract now.
6. Vault Upgrade Project
Residents at Town Meeting voted to award the library $465,097 for the construction of an archival-caliber vault in the library.
7. Generator
On April 10 the generator was leaking oil while it was running. F.M. Generator Company determined that the fuel pump is broken. They have been unresponsive in scheduling a time to fix the generator so I hired Cummins N.E. to make the repair on April 25.
Kudos
Kudos to Lisa Rothenberg for keeping up with the increased end of year ordering, while somehow staying cheerful.
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