LINCOLN PUBLIC LIBRARY
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
REGULAR MEETING
MAY 26, 2009
Minutes of the Meeting
PRESENT: Diana Abrashkin, Jacquelin Apsler, Al Kraft, Peter Sugar, Susan Hands Taylor , trustees; Barbara Myles, Library Director; Lisa Rothenberg, Technical Services Librarian. Absent: Marshall Clemens.
Sugar chaired the meeting, as Apsler was delayed.
MINUTES APPROVED: Minutes of the April 28 meeting were approved after amendment. Myles will make corrections and post the minutes on the town website.
STAFF CONCERNS – Lisa Rothenberg
1. Jennifer Donaldson, a staff member and neighbor of the library, reports that the Air Conditioning unit is too noisy. Myles said the AC units on the north side of the building are the same age as those on the Trapelo Road side. All the AC units are nearing replacement age. Myles will have the units serviced to see if there is something wrong that can be fixed.
2. Staff is excited about new plans for renovating the kitchen.
ADOPTION OF A CORI POLICY:
Myles presented a proposed policy for handling Criminal Offense Records Information on current and prospective library staff and volunteers who might have unmonitored access to children.
Taylor recommended accepting the proposed policy now, but suggested looking into the possibility of adding provisions in the future to cover background checks on individuals who have not lived in Massachusetts very long, since the CORI only contains records of criminal history in this state.
The Board adopted the policy as presented by Myles.
DIRECTOR’S PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Sugar recommended tabling the discussion of Myles’ performance, since Clemens was out sick. The board discussed the need for an evaluation process that could be replicated each year and that would result in written evaluations. Kraft, who is leading the process with Clemens, said the current proposal is:
1. Myles will write up her goals for 2009-10;
2. Kraft and Clemens will lead a discussion of the Board on Myles’s 2010 goals and 2009 performance;
3. Kraft and Clemens will write an evaluation report, based on the discussion
Last year, Myles didn’t receive a written evaluation. She met with Apsler for a discussion of her performance and goals
LIBRARIAN’S REPORT
In addition to her written monthly report, Myles told the board of the death of David Donald, a prize-winning Lincoln author who recently donated a large collection of books to the Friends of the Lincoln Library booksale. Abrashkin, who chairs the Collections Committee, said she would speak with Asst. Library Director Ellen Sisco to be sure our Lincoln Authors collection contains all Donald’s books.
Rothenberg reported that she and children’s Librarian Jane Flanders plan to begin sending monthly newsletters via email to anyone who signs up. They propose to subscribe to Constant Contact, a web-based service for nonprofits that manages email lists and provides templates for email newsletters. Taylor praised Rothenberg and Flanders for their initiative and for taking on new responsibility.
Myles and Apsler have been appointed to the advisory committee for the town’s Technology Strategic Planning. Taylor suggested that the computer replacement schedule in the Library’s Five-Year Technology Plan might be pertinent to the strategic planning discussion. The current plan recommends replacement of 25 % of the computers each year. Taylor asked whether it might be better to establish a stabilization fund to set aside money each year but replace 100 % of the computers every four years. That way all the computers would be the same.
BUILDING COMMITTEE – Peter Sugar
1. Carpet for the vault arrived and has been installed. Unfortunately movers damaged the door jambs and door edges. There will be a back charge against the moving company.
2. The vault lost one rank – about 1/6 of the total – of shelving because of interference of existing brick piers.
3. Estimates are still coming in on the cost of installing electric wiring to help prevent ice dams on the turret. Wiring is no guarantee against ice dams, but may help. Kraft questioned whether ice can be removed from around wiring.
4. Cleaning the library and the collections after construction is estimated at about $3000.
5. Aside from the proposed fire suppression system, the next building project in the queue is to replace the carpet in the lower level.
FINANCE REPORT
The board is still not satisfied with the format of monthly financial reports. Myles said she would discuss the reports with bookkeeper Kathy Rushby. Apsler suggested that Rushby meet with the trustees’ budget committee (Apsler, Sugar, Taylor and Myles) to go over the board’s concerns.
Myles asked the trustees to discuss with the Town Administrator Tim Higgins how the library might have real-time access to the library’s accounts on Munic, the town’s financial software. Now, the reports are available only at the end of the month.
Myles pointed out a $4000 gift to the children’s department.
SECURITY ALARMS
Apsler asked Myles to look into the causes of a recent spate of false alarms. Some of the alarms are attributable to construction crews entering the building before the system is disarmed in the morning. Other false alarms seem to be random.
Myles will call Lexington Alarm Systems for a print out of alarm history. The Building and Grounds Committee will draft a procedure for arming and disarming the system when outside contractors are working in the library.
KITCHEN RENOVATION
Apsler reported that the plans for renovating the kitchen and staff lounge are “bombing along.” Sugar has drawn plans and elevations for the lower level room. All cabinets and the refrigerator will be replaced. A lunch counter and lounge chairs will replace the current table. The project is funded by the Friends of the Lincoln Library. They will use part of the space to store hospitality supplies.
VAULT APPRECIATION RECEPTION
Current plans are for Sept 24 from 6-8 pm. Taylor will contact caterers for bids on hearty hors d’oeuvres and wine.
Abrashkin will propose a design for the appreciation plaque honoring major donors to the vault project.
HEDDIE KENT MEMORIAL BENCH
The Friends wish to donate an outdoor bench in memory of former children’s librarian Heddie Kent. The Building Committee will propose a location.
The Library doesn’t have a policy concerning non-monetary gifts or memorials. Myles will draft a proposal for such a policy.
CATALPA TREE
Taylor has been in contact with a concerned community member who proposed to donate up to $1000 toward the care of the ailing tree. Taylor will get an estimate from an arborist and then propose a plan to involve the public in treating the tree.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
· July 4 Parade theme is “Cheers for Volunteers.” Taylor will arrange for a vehicle. Decorating will be Fri July 3 beginning at 9:30 AM at John & Carol Caswell’s house at 2 Beaver Pond Road and followed by a potluck picnic.
· If Clemens can be there, the Trustees will move the next meeting to Monday June 22 to avoid conflicting with a Master Planning meeting.
· Abrashkin reported an upcoming gift of a book collection to the library.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Hands Taylor
LIBRARIAN'S REPORT
June 22, 2009
TO: Trustees, Lincoln Public Library
FROM: Barbara Myles, Librarian
Friends of the Lincoln Public Library
The Friends met on June 2. Their total assets are $40,855.53. They discussed the kitchen project, which adds cabinets to the staff kitchen to store Friends’ china and their other kitchen items, as well as adds more cabinets for staff to store items. Peter Sugar gave a budget price of $25,000 for this work. Next, three price quotes will be obtained for this work. A decision was made to purchase a bench in memory of Heddie Kent and put it near the birch trees on the library’s lawn. The 4th of July parade is coming up quickly and decorations for the float will be made on July 3rd. My budget request for funding programs, museum passes, and equipment for the library passed with a few cut backs. The total amount approved was $26,066. Patty Levy’s Monday
night Career Round Table is a success and the Friends discussed and agreed to pay her to compensate her work on this project.
Staff Training
On June 10 twelve members of the staff had stress reduction training with Laura Malloy from the Benson-Henry Mind Body Institute, which is part of Massachusetts General Hospital. At the beginning of the training, we reported how stressed we felt on a scale from one to ten. Biodots were handed out to us and we stuck them on our hands. Biodots are liquid crystals that change color in response to changes in body temperature. We learned some of the biology of stress and were surprised to learn that on average, people are exposed to stress approximately 50 times per day! For the second part of the training we did some chair yoga and went on a guided imagery tour. At the end of the training we all reported decreases in our stress levels!
Adult Department
Ellen spent much of her time selecting books for purchase before the fiscal year budget deadline. The Write Stuff met on May 27 and June 10. The theme of the book display is “Tal’s Picks.” Tal Gerechter is one of our circulation assistants and he majored in film in college. Jeanne led the Mystery Mondays book group on June 22 when they discussed A Cold Day for Murder by D. Stabenow. Classic Jazz is on a summer hiatus. The Photoshare Group met on June 3. Al Levin displayed his photographs in the main gallery.
Children's Department
Deb Leopold made the summer brochure of library events and programs that were scheduled by Ellen, Amy, Jane, and Jeanne. This summer’s theme is, “Starship Adventure @ Your Library,” and the Children’s Department’s kickoff party is on Friday June 26!
Reference Department
Reference staff answered 289 questions, compared to last year’s 311. Jeanne is clearing some piles from the carts in the reference area but needs off-desk time to do this. I covered the reference desk for Jeanne while she worked on clearing out files in the Tarbell Room. On June 12 Jeanne went to a workshop, “Assessing Archival Materials,” where she learned guidelines for determining the value of archival materials. She also learned that some archival materials are priceless.
Technical Services
Lisa Rothenberg updated the web site with activities listed in the library’s summer brochure and posted book lists for each K-8 grade to the web site. She’s also keeping the library’s web site, Facebook and MySpace pages up to date with upcoming library events.
Town Archives
Now that the vault project is nearly finished, Jeanne, Marie, and Margie have spent some time working at the library as well as Town Offices. Materials stored at National Library Relocations were returned. Now we need to get the material that is stored at Town Offices and the Thoreau Institute back to the library. We will ask Susan Brooks and the DPW for help getting materials back from Town Offices.
Archives Working Group
The AWG met on May 27 and we finalized our edits for the collection development and deaccessioning policies. We discussed ways to celebrate the reopening of the vault.
IT Strategic Planning Committee
The IT Strategic Planning Committee interviewed consulting firms that responded to the RFP for a five-year town-wide IT strategic plan, on June 4th and 5th. eGov, a local firm located in Reading, was chosen by the committee to create the IT strategic plan by the end of September 2009.
Statewide Internet Network
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is working with the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (an organization created in August 2008 by the State’s Broadband Act) to create a statewide broadband Internet network. Currently, the library gets its Internet access through the Minuteman Library Network (MLN). The speed of our connection is approximately, 1.44 MB, which is about the same speed as what the average Comcast Internet customer receives at home. This connection is shared with 23 PCs, which means that the connection can be very slow at times. The situation is much worse in the Western part of the state where some libraries have no Internet access. The Internet providers do not want to invest a lot of money for the relatively few customers in the western part of the
state.
The state has some money to put toward this project plus MBI hopes to receive federal stimulus funding from the $7.2 billion designated for broadband improvements in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. There is also a chance to receive funding through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
If the state moves ahead with this plan successfully, in a few years the library would access the Internet through this new broadband network instead of through MLN. Right now this is all in the planning stage and it is unclear how the state will afford to maintain a statewide Internet network after the grant money is spent.
Building Repairs
1. Vault Renovation Project
The inspection to create the punch list for the project was performed on June 8th. The punch list was created on June 16 and K&S Builders is working through this list.
2. 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.
Earl Midgley is looking into this situation for us with the Town’s electrician, Bob Norton.
3. Library-wide Cleaning
After the vault renovation project is completed, it will be time for a library-wide cleaning.
4. Generator
The library lost electricity for a short period of time on June 5th. The generator is supposed to start whenever we lose electricity but it did not start this time. A repairman came to the library and reset the timer for starting the generator from eight minutes to 45 seconds.
5. Noisy Condenser
Technicians from Solar-Tech came to the library to lessen the noise coming from the roof top condensers. They isolated the condenser that makes the most noise but could not reduce the noise. An option they gave me was to purchase a new condenser and see if it was quieter. Another option is to build a sound dampening wall on the roof.
6. Gund Chimney Cleaning
The chimney is scheduled to be cleaned on June 26, weather permitting.
Kudos
I’m so impressed by the way that staff work together to get the operating budget spent down as near to zero as possible! Hooray for the staff!
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