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Min - Library Board - 2007 - 01/02 - RegularALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 2, 2007 Present: Jo Long, Board Chair Board members: Julia Elina Donna Drews Various Mary Jane Hamilton Ruth Pringle Donald Wing City Staff: Barbara Buehler, Library Director 1 Guests: None Call to Order and Announce a Quorum is Present With a quorum of the Board members present, the Regular Meeting of the Allen Public Library was called to order by Board Chair, Jo Long, at 7:32 p.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 in the Board Room of the Allen Public Library, 300 North Allen Drive, Allen, Texas. Reeular Aeenda 1. Citizen's Comments. There were no Citizen Comments. 2. Approve Minutes of the November 7, 2006, Regular Meeting. Motion: Upon A motion made by Board Member, Mary Jane Hamilton, and a second by Board Member, Donald Wing, the Board voted (6) for and none (0) opposed to approve the October 3, 2006 Library Board minutes with one change adding Jo Long to the Endowment Fund/Foundation meeting ���ryryry that was held at the library 3. Review Monthly Statistics and Suggestion Forms. The Library Board reviewed the Monthly Statistics and read all of the Suggestion Forms ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 2, 2007 PAGE Library Director, Barbara Buehler reported that we had a good tum out on the Holiday films that were shown in the Civic Auditorium. Some of the suggestions were more computers and wants a table under the bookdrop. Upcoming Northeast Texas Library Systems Geographic Meeting. The next two meeting dates coming up will in Van Alstyne or Carrollton. Board member, Ruth Pringle asked if they knew what a Geographic Meeting was? Ruth replied that it is your chance to talk to the Regional Director about the budget or whatever. It is a chance for communication between the local library and the region. They usually have 4 meetings yearly but have cut it back to three for the year. There was one in September and the next one will be February in Jefferson and then one more at the end of the year. Barbara and Donald Wing will attend the meeting in Van Alstyne. Status of Endowment/Foundation. Barbara reported that we finally received the draft from the Attorney We all met and made a few changes. Ruth said the only changes made were adding the Friends of the Library in a couple of places because he would call it Endowment Fund and there were a couple of sentences that needed changing. We also discussed the number members we are going to have on the Board. The Attorney started out with nine but may not start out with that many Also discussed what type of people would be good candidates. We want to make sure that no group would be in conflict with us that would be on the Advisory Board. Wilma will take the draft to the next Friend's meeting in January to get it approved. One of the first steps would be to get the Board started. Ruth mentioned one of the programs the Friends are going to have that would be of interest to everyone is a Birthday Party for the Library's 40" Anniversary in October and thought that would be a good time for the kickoff of the Endowment Fund to the public and to make it an ownership thing with the idea not trying to make a lot of money. This hasn't been set yet but has been discussed. 6. Items of Interest. Board Member, Ruth Pringle reported on the Sunset Review that she attended with Debra in Austin. It was and interesting process. For your information the Board that is involved in this really does take citizen's comments to heart including the emails that are emailed in. Ruth said she felt sorry for Peggy Rudd as she lost her audience before she got it. They really took the emails to heart they were not interested in listening to Peggy because the emails were negative and not much positive. Jo Long asked what the Sunset Review was? Ruth said that every seven years each state agency will send a review. I think it is six Representatives and six Senators on the board. Ruth reported on what went on at the Sunset Review. The Head of the Commission introduced the group When Peggy Rudd got up to speak six members of the board got up and walked out of the room. The one Representative that spoke asked a lot of pointed questions as were the Chairman's questions. Some of the questions were why don't you have communication with the region? Why has the region's money been cut 45% in the last two years. Ruth reported that it did not go over very well. After the Sunset Review, Ruth said before they got home they had increased the region's budget. Barbara mentioned the Library Archives and Ruth said she thought the Archive stuff would go through but wasn't sure about the library stuff and didn't know whether the databases would go through or not. Ruth said they had changed it. Most of the peoples objections were getting the databases and expecting the regions to help with them after having cut their budget. ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 2, 2007 PAGE 3 There is still a problem with giving the libraries the Lone Star money as they can't seem to come up with a formula. They appointed a committee back in February to come up with a formula and still do not have one. Both small and large libraries want to get some of the Lone Star money. In the past they have based the amount a library received on their budget Some of the smaller libraries will really be hurt if they do not receive the Lone Star money Ruth said she not going to go to Legislative Day if someone else wants to go. You can put your name down in the place of hers. You don't get to see the Senator or the Representative and Ruth doesn't think it is worth her time. Library Director, Barbara Buehler said she wanted to mention something that would be brought up at the Legislative session again. It is pertaining to the City and not the library. They want to put a cap on property taxes, tax appraisal and how much the city can increase taxes. This would hurt cities like Allen and Frisco that is really growing Barbara gave out reports on the downloadable audio books to show the board how well it is growing. It shows what type of titles are being downloaded. The people sign up at the library and go home to download them They are downloading all types and can keep them for three weeks and renew them one timejust like a library book. The Marketing Committee at the library is doing a program in the month of February to promote our library. The idea was taken from the 65 reasons to love your library. We are going to give out mood pencils, candy and stickers and promote ways to love your library. The library has signed up with a company called Library Elf. It is a third party who does this. We have on our Website how to sign up for this You put in your library barcode number and your pin number which is usually the last 4 digits of your telephone number and choose what you want it to notify you about such as holds, or before your items are overdue etc. It can email you, send a message through your cell phone etc. It is called Library Elf and we think our patrons will really like this. We will be promoting this during "Love You Library Month" Jo said the board would be glad to help volunteer if we have a need for them. Barbara said we also ordered some software from the American Library Association that lets you print posters using digital pictures you can print your picture on the poster. We could take a picture of one of you saying how much you love your library A report on the Tutor.Com was given to the board to show how well it is doing. This is where students can go to our website and login and get a live specialist to help them with their homework or subjects they are having problems with. It is target for age groups 4" grade through the 12th grade. It is available 7 days a week, 7 hours a day. The specialist limits the sessions to about 20 minutes each. The specialist guides the student but does not do the work for them. The library pays a flat fee per year based on population of the city Barbara also gave the board a report on the Texshare State Databases and their value to the library It was proposed that they put this out in all the schools and the legislature did approve it. The report showed all the databases that were available. I ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 2, 2007 7. Calendar: • NETLS Meeting in Van Alstyne — January 12, 2007 • Regular Board Meeting — February 6, 2007 PAGE Motion: Upon A motion made by Board Member, Mary Jane Hamilton, and a second by Board Member, Donald Wing, the Board voted (6) for and none (0) opposed to adjourn the library board meeting at 8:40 PM These minutes read and approved this 6n° day of February, 2007. APPROVED: ATTEST: J4ong, Chair rson I Julia Elina, Secretary