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Min - Library Board - 2006 - 08/08 - Special CalledALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY SPECIAL CALLED MEETING AUGUST 8, 2006 Present Jo Long, Board Chair Board members: Julia Elms Donna Drews Various Donald Wing Mary Jane Hamilton Susan McDaniel City Staff: Barbara Buehler, Library Director Guests: Karen Lancaster— Friends of the Library Janie Garretson — Allen Citizen Call to Order and Announce a Ouorum is Present With a quorum of the Board members present, the Special Called Meeting of the Allen Public Library was called to order by Board Chair, Jo Long, at 7:28 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 in the Board Room of the Allen Public Library, 300 North Allen Drive, Allen, Texas. Reeular Agenda 1. Citizen's Comments. There were no Citizen Comments. 2. Approve Minutes of the July 18, 2006, Special Called Meeting. The Board approved the minutes of the August 8, 2006, Special Called Meeting with the corrected spelling of Bob Rothe `s name under 96, Update on Foundation Investigation, and the word "said" in the 5"paragraph under Items of Interest. Also correct Donna Various to read Donna Drews Various. 3. Review Monthly Statistics and Suggestion Forms. The board reviewed the Statistics Report. Library Director, Barbara Buehler pointed out that the Statistics were down on Internet use due to continuing computer problems. Board member, Julia Elina asked, "Is there a fix for this?" Barbara Buehler responded that the IT Department has installed two ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 8, 2006 PAGE new computers to test them. They are checking to see if it is the computer that is bad or if it is the software. Once that is determined they will order 10 more new computers if it is determined that the equipment is bad. Board member, Susan McDaniel made a comment about the differences in new titles added and wanted to know about the variations on the monthly Statistics Reports. Library Director, Barbara Buehler commented that we are close to the end of the fiscal year and have spent most of our budgeted money at this time The librarians add more books to our collection by going through the book donations we receive. Suggestion forms were read and they contained complaints about the computers being down, having to wait too long for a computer, and the book drop being user unfriendly and too high Barbara said our book drops are ADA compliant. There were suggestions to add more books by authors Karen Kingsbury and Francine Rivers who write Christian Fiction. Mary Jane suggested that when paperback books come in by various authors of this type through donations they will put them aside for the library to consider adding to the collection. Another suggestion was to add Hi Fi to our library. Barbara Buehler told the board that the IT Department had considered adding it this year. The City hired a consulting group to come in and evaluate all of our computer needs. They suggested putting Wireless Internet on hold for 2 years due to all of our computer problems. We are still receiving complaints from the handicapped about having to walk so far and we received a suggestion about putting up an emergency diagram of the library in case of a disaster. It was also suggested that we have more chairs for patrons to sit in while waiting on a computer and to furnish old magazines and newspaper to look at while they wait. 4. Computer Training Room — Victoria Swadley. Adult Services Manager, Victoria Swadley reported on the Computer Training Room. The Reference Staff did an in-house survey on the library website to see what classes patrons would like taught in the Computer Training Room. Some of them were Microsoft Word, Excel, Photo Editing, and Searching the Internet. Some of our Allen seniors volunteered to teach some beginning level classes on Microsoft Word, Excel, and Photo Editing. These were the most requested classes. The Allen seniors have taught some beginning classes for the Senior Center. These were well received and attended. The library wanted to expand off of these by offering intermediate classes to the general public who may be returning to work and have computer knowledge and want to increase those skills. The seniors who very well trained and highly capable instructors volunteered to conduct the intermediate computer classes. The classes to be taught are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Photo Editing. The first two classes with be Microsoft Word and Photo Editing. Microsoft Excel will begin the second semester which will start the week of November 301h and the second round of Word and Photo Editing will start also. There are 12 computers in the computer lab so we can have 12 students in each class. Debra Preston will be creating Byers to promote the classes and more information and registration forms will be upstairs at the Reference Desk There will be a cost associated with the classes. Each class will cost $120 and will last six weeks. We will have 3 senior instructors and they will be paid. Barbara commented that these instructors are retired TI people and are very experienced. These classes will be promoted on our website and also with a brochure that we are creating. ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 8, 2006 PAGE 3 1 5. Report on Meet the Teacher/Library Card Signups. Library Director, Barbara Buehler reported on the Meet the Teacher/Library Card Signups. Barbara gave a copy of the Board member Jo long asked if this was the same program we did a few years ago and Barbara responded yes it is. We did it on the West side a couple of years ago. We did not do it last year because of everything being so new. Marita Richards, our children's manager sent out the message to all the elementary schools and was quite surprised at the amount of participation. All the elementary schools signed up and we had a hard time coming up with enough staff and volunteers to handle all of the schools. Some of the Friends of the Library helped out with the program. One hundred and eighty- eight cards were signed up and one hundred and forty-three were children's. Marita received good response from the Principals and emailed all of them the library card results. The elementary schools had their orientation all on the same night except Norton. Donna Drews Various asked Barbara if Norton was the only one that had a Kindergarten orientation and Barbara replied yes. Donald Wing asked if we also went to Lovejoy Elementary and Barbara said no because we did not have enough staff. 6. Library Survey Status. Library Director, Barbara Buehler reported on the Library Survey status. We did not have good results from the survey We feel like part of it was because it went out in the All Allen and was not easy to find and you have to tear it out of the brochure. When the surveys went out in the 1990', we had an insert and that worked much better. We only received a 138 back which is not enough to make it a legitimate survey. We feel like it was lost with all the USA Celebration advertisement and people just did not see it. 7. Items of Interest. City Council Budget Retreat: The budget retreat is August 186, 10 and 20' at Tanglewood. Peter asked Barbara to give a presentation this year on all of the library accomplishments for the year and to give a report on all of the new programs coming up in the new year. A couple of those programs are the Homework Help Center, which students can go online to Tutoncom from home and have live tutors online to help them. The Friends of the Library are sponsoring the downloadable audio books program This allows patrons to download audio books from home and they can renew them one time. It is good also that they will not ever receive a library fine using this program. We are still working on certain things such as there are only certain players that can be used to down the audio books to. These presentations are done so the City Council can see what is new and ask questions about the programs. Peter will usually have a staff meeting the following Monday after the budget retreat and discuss any questions the City Council may have or any adjustments. The City has to have a public hearing on the tax rate for the new year and then the City Council will have their September meeting to approve the budget for the new fiscal year. Upcoming Northeast Texas Library Systems Meeting: The next NETLS meeting will be in Canton and Ruth and Barbara are planning on attending. The meeting is going to be October 5, 2006. Upcoming Friends Events: The volunteer appreciation dinner is coming up on August 23, 2006. September 1 I' the Friends are putting on a program in the civic auditorium. This will be the September project. This program is to honor the 9/11 people who died and also will be something patriotic. It will be a concert put on by the Allen Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra's Brass Ensemble and the Allen Symphony Chorus, The Allen Fire Department and Police Department's Honor Guards will open the ALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 8, 2006 PAGE 4 program with the presentation of the American and Texas flags. The program is free but donations will be encouraged to help a program called "Public Safety Recovery Fund" which is a foundation that has been set up to help provide financial benefits to Allen, Texas, police, firefighters and paramedics who are injured in the line of duty. The library is registered on the September Project website. The Friends Chocolate Orgy will be on October 25" They are planning on having it at the Senior Center, because the library just does not have enough space. The Friends are looking for a new first vice-president/Community Relations and a person to do the Friends Newsletter. Also they are looking for someone to chair the chocolate orgy with Tracey Hanft in hopes of them taking over this position next year. September Board Meeting: The board decided to go ahead with the regular meeting on September 5a which is the day after Labor Day. They will attend the Young Writer's Reception in the Civic Auditorium. It is a reception which the young writers will read a paragraph out of the book they wrote. Parents and grandparents usually attend and or very proud of their young writer. Refreshments will also be served. The board discussed the next step in setting up the library foundation. Barbara said the next step would be to meet with the Friend's board to see if they were willing to change their bylaws. 8. Calendar. • Star Trek Movies — These will be ending August 10 and they will end the last one with a costume contest • Creature Features — This is a new film series that will start on Tuesday, August 22"° and will run every Tuesday through October 31st @ 7 PM in the civic auditorium. • December 8, 2006 — The City Boards Dinner. The Board adjourned its regular meeting at 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 These minutes read and approved this 3 R day of October, 2006. APPROVED: ATTEST: V Jo Long,, CItperson / Julia Elioa, Secretary