MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE LINCOLN PUBLIC LIBRARY
April 28, 2009 Reference Room
Present: Jacquelin Apsler, Chair; Diana Abrashkin, Marshall Clemens, Al Kraft, Peter Sugar, Susan Taylor, Trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Deb Leopold, Staff
Minutes of March 24, 2009, were approved as amended.
There were no Staff Concerns.
Discussion Items:
1. CORI checks. All staff and volunteers, including Trustees will be CORI/SORI checked. Myles has checked with the Police, the Recreation Director, and other nearby libraries. The primary concern is any previous record of abuse or destruction of property. A previous offense may not automatically remove a potential candidate from consideration. We agreed to table the final vote until we had a chance to read the full text of the policy. Myles will present the final version for approval at our next meeting in May.
2. De Cordova liaison: Peter Sugar is the only applicant. Several others mentioned their interest and outgoing liaison Jan Nyquist recommended someone; but none of those actually ended up applying. In Executive Session, we decided unanimously to name Sugar to the position. He was charged to make a full report at least once per year, with intermittent reports as needed. Sugar will write up his “charge,” and Apsler will notify Dennis Kois, the Museum Director.
3. Trustee Handbook: Taylor submitted an outline of items to be covered, and will do a draft amplifying a few of the items for our next meeting.
4. Library Director’s Performance: Kraft and Clemens will do the performance review, with reference to the MLBLT handbook. Clemens noted he could find no record of a review since 2005, which seems improbable. At least two reviews have been completed since 2005. Abrashkin suggested keeping a personnel file at the Chair’s house, and recalls it used to be a practice for the Library Director to state his/her Goals for the year, and in the following year to evaluate the degree of achievement of those goals. Myles will submit her goals to Kraft and Clemens to be included in the review process. They asked the Trustees to come prepared at the next meeting to discuss the Director’s performance review.
5. Bench: The Friends wish to memorialize the long years of service of Heddie Kent, and suggested a granite bench near the magnolia tree at the Library entrance. Abrashkin asked to be included in the decision on the location of the bench, and mentioned that there is a granite bench for sale at Rocky’s Ace hardware store (next to Crosby’s Market) in Concord for $200. Taylor said we should decide if we want it and/or what we do want. Leopold mentioned a bronze statue of a child reading a book at the Belmont Library. Apsler suggested patience: we should look over our grounds, as well as inviting comments from our Children’s librarians. Apsler suggested a collaborative effort to reach a consensus among the
Friends, Abrashkin, representatives of the building committee, and staff.
6. Vault Appreciation Dinner: This would be for the people who contributed in the
second round of fundraising, i.e., not necessarily those who were solicited by Emily Althausen, unless they followed up in the round initiated by Taylor and Abrashkin.
It will be challenging finding a date: Taylor may be moving in September, the Friends have an event on October 18, the State of the Town meeting may be on October 17.
We could shoot for the third week in September, but must avoid Rosh Hashonah on September 19. Maybe September 24? Plan for major cocktail fare instead of a sit-down dinner?
We need the plaques honoring the major donors installed by then.
Kraft suggested making our new Board Room table out of the hard pine support beam from the former Historical Room, which he saved. This was approved.
Reports and Updates:
1. Highlights of the Librarian’s Report were the success of the Career Roundtable, led by Friends co-chair Patty Levy and the idea that we might use Constant Contact to send out an online Library newsletter to townspeople. (See attached Librarian’s Report.)
2. Building Committee: The carpeting contractor’s fee has been released with a major deduction for the damage done by his workers to the terrazzo floor in the entrance lobby, after consulting with Town Counsel. Vault change orders seem to be within reason so far.
We are continuing to consider a solution for the ice dam problem on the roof above the Story Room. Placing electric heating wires on the roof is probably the only possibility – though it will not be fool-proof. Myles will get some pricing for us to consider.
We need to have a total Library cleaning after the construction of the new Vault area is complete. One estimate is for $2000. Taylor suggested we allot up to $3K from our CPA vault funds for the cleaning.
We also discussed the need to re-carpet the Basement DVD areas
3. Finance Report: One confusing item was that the A G Edwards fund was “depleted,” when it simply was all spent. We need to ask Kathy what funds are actually available for us to spend.
4. Technology Committee: We discussed Constant Contact (which costs $300/yr.) and I-Contact, and the idea that FOLL could try it as a pilot. It may require some extra staff time. Lisa and Jane would like to control it and share space with the Friends.
Chuck Miller has $30K for a strategic Town IT plan. Taylor kindly drafted a letter to the Selects reminding them that the Library must be included – not forgotten as has happened before at times – in the IT plan.
5. Kitchen renovation: Sugar is preparing sketches for remodeling the cabinet work, etc., in the staff kitchen area, as discussed with Apsler and also the FOLL. Apsler met with the staff earlier today to review the basic kitchen plan presented by Sugar and Apsler. Sugar will incorporate those updates into the drawings where possible.
6. Catalpa tree: no progress.
7. Parking: no change.
Announcements:
1. Ellen Sisco sends kudos to Myles for her graciously overseeing the March 27 concert and then being up-and alert-for the Town Meeting the next day.
2. Kraft says that he is constantly being called by Lexington Alarm, and asks to be put on the bottom of the list for a while. Both he and Sugar have answered various false alarms.
3. The Master Plan has been delayed and the Town-wide meeting scheduled for June has been postponed until the Fall.
Adjournment. The next meeting will be on May 26.
Respectfully submitted,
Diana Abrashkin
LIBRARIAN'S REPORT
May 26, 2009
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Friends of the Lincoln Public Library
The Friends met on May 12. Their total assets are $42,416.88. At the May 2 children’s book sale $170 of books were sold at $0.10 a piece. The July book sale will be a half price sale to move out a lot of books. Professor David Donald donated 1,700 books to the book sale. They will be moved from Harvard University to Pod B at the Lincoln Public Schools. Malcolm Ferguson has 1,000 books that he would like to donate to the book sale. Elizabeth Cherniack and representatives of the book sale committee will go to his house to get some of these books. Travis Roy will speak at the Lincoln Public Schools on September 22, 2009. A large crowd is expected. Sara Brown presented the slate of board members for a vote. Rayna Caplan, Deb French, Henry Haroian, and Jack Pugh are leaving
the board. Belinda Gingrich and Alan Hein are joining the board. There was a unanimous vote for the new board.
The Friends’ annual appreciation luncheon took place immediately following the board meeting. As usual, the food was excellent and the guests had a good time. Sara Brown and Patty Levy gave speeches thanking Rayna, Deb, Henry, and Jack for their service and welcoming Belinda and Alan.
Adult Department
Ellen led the Friday morning book group on May 1 when they discussed Everything is Illuminated by J. Safran Foer and on May 15 when they discussed Invention of Curried Sausage by Uwe Timm. On May 22 they met again to review the books read during the past year with a friendly game of Jeopardy. Ellen prepared a game board of answers from all of the books that they read during the past year. The contestants gave Ellen the matching questions during the game. It was a fun way to review the books! The Write Stuff met on May 13. “Historic places” was the theme for the beginning of the month’s book display in the lobby. Now the theme of the book display is “Lisa’s Picks.” Lisa Bracken is our resident movie buff and her picks include
many horror movies. Jeanne led the Mystery Mondays book group on May 18 when they discussed Bitter Feast by S. J. Rozan. Classic Jazz met on May 13 with Ed Williams presenting, “Great Stuff.” The Photoshare Group met on May 6. Joe Schatz displayed his photographs in the main gallery. Isabelle Higgins, a 12-year-old student at the Carroll School displayed her drawings in the Stay-Put-Gallery.
Children's Department
The book discussion group for 3rd graders has ended but the 4th graders met on April 30 when they discussed Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach. The storytimes finish up this month for the spring season. Jane attended a statewide teen summit on April 28th in Leominster. Teen issues such as: games in the library, funding, and reading programs were discussed. The staff is planning the summer reading programs. This year’s theme is, “Starship Adventure @ Your Library.” We can look forward to some spacey programs this summer!
Reference Department
Reference staff answered 351 questions in April compared to last year’s 298. Jeanne also cleared some of the piles from the carts in the reference area. With tax season over, the tax forms were cleared away from the windowsill. Jeanne set up a display of colorful, interesting new reference books on the windowsill. All of the reference department book and database money has been spent. On April 28 Jeanne represented the library at the MLN Standards Group. Jeanne proctored an exam on May 8. While Jeanne was on vacation in the Washington, DC area for a mystery lovers conference, she got lots of new book ideas for the library and went on a guided tour of the Library of Congress.
Technical Services
Newly bound books returned from the bindery on May 20. Nadine and Jennifer prepared them for their return to the book shelves. Lisa Rothenberg created a MySpace page for the library. Now the library has a presence on the two most popular social networking sites.
Town Archives
Marie is developing series for the Grayson collection as well as working with Town Clerk, Susan Brooks, and department heads at Town Offices to organize materials in the vault at Town Offices. Jeanne is working on a spreadsheet of all of the photographs from Lincoln’s 250th anniversary as a town. Margie Hilton, our volunteer extraordinaire, is organizing the photographs from the Gund addition and writing a finding aid for these photographs.
Technology Committee
The Technology Committee met on May 14. We discussed ways of getting information out to people interested in the library. Jane Flanders, Susan Taylor and I talked about the presentation we attended about the Constant Contact online newsletter. Diane Gieseke, who built the PTA’s web site, joined us at the meeting. She shared her experiences with the iContact online newsletter. We all agreed that it would be a good idea to start using Constant Contact. To fund this initiative we agreed to ask the Friends for first year “seed” money. Chuck Miller updated us on the status of expanding the library’s wireless network. He told us that the electrical room needs some more equipment but it will be difficult to fit this equipment into the room.
Massachusetts Library Association Conference
On May 6 I attended the MLA Conference at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. In the morning I went to a presentation by Maureen Sullivan, “Becoming a Resonant Leader,” which was based on the book, Resonant Leadership, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. They explain that resonant leaders are in tune with those around them. Leaders who can create resonance are people who either intuitively understand or have worked hard to develop emotional intelligence. Boyatzis and McKee are co-authors with Daniel Goleman of the book, Primal Leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Resonant leadership extends the emotional intelligence concept to leaders. Organizations can have many leaders, which is good if they work in tune with each other.
During the afternoon I went to the presentation, “Generation 4.0.” The presenter, Margaret Lourie of NELINET, spoke about four generations in the work place: 75 million traditionalists (born between 1925 and 1942), 80 million baby boomers (born between 1943 and 1960), 70 million generation X (born between 1961 and 1981), and 40 million generation Y (born between 1982 and 2002). Each of these generations has characteristics that distinguish itself from other generations. For example, the traditionalists prefer hierarchical work structures and rules. They worked their way up the ladder and paid their dues. Baby boomers want to get satisfaction out of work. They distrust authority and prefer building consensus. Generation Xs
are skeptical and are highly adaptable to changing organizations. They focus on results and want work to include fun. Generation Ys want to make a difference, work well on teams, and are comfortable with speed and change. She cited research by Randstad and directed us to www.generationsatwork.com for more information.
I also saw products and services on display in the exhibit hall.
IT Strategic Planning Committee
The IT Strategic Planning Committee had its kick off meeting on May 22. The goal of this committee is to develop a five-year strategic plan for town wide technology, with the help of a consultant, by the beginning of October. This is an ambitious plan that will take a significant amount of time over the summer to complete. The first task for this committee is to select a consultant. Six consultants responded to the RFP and they will be interviewed on June 4th and 5th.
Building Repairs
1. Carpets – Children’s Room and Staff Work Room
Peter Sugar signed the release form that Capital Carpet’s insurance company, Acadia Insurance, asked the library to sign and this release closes out the project. (The library withheld $12,896.47 from Capital Carpet because of the scratches its workers put into the lobby floor.)
2. Vault Renovation Project
Ceiling tiles were installed in the vault and Lincoln Historical Room. Shelving was installed in the vault. Materials were returned from storage at National Library Relocations. The new carpet arrived on May 21 and installation began on May 22.
3. Gund Roof – Ice Dam
There is a long history of leaks in the story room and staff room as a result of ice dams at a complicated intersection of angled roof sections and the north facing parapet. The peeling paint in the Story Room Turret and stained ceiling tiles in the Staff Work Room are results of leaks caused by the ice dams.
The Building Committee met on March 31 and decided to wait until we received pricing for the option of installing wires at this intersection of angled roof sections that would prevent further ice dams. I expect to have received all of the price quotes for this work by the end of the month.
4. Library-wide Cleaning
After the vault renovation project is completed, it will be time for a library-wide cleaning.
Kudos
Nadine Rebovich gets kudos this month. She helped Lincoln resident, Robert H. Phelps, obtain research materials through interlibrary loans. He included her in the acknowledgements to his book, God and the editor: my search for meaning at the New York Times, which was published by Syracuse University Press. Jeanne Bracken and I were listed in the acknowledgements of Katherine Hall Page’s forthcoming mystery, Body in the Sleigh, which will be published in October.
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