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HomeMy WebLinkAbout031814 Port Townsend Library Advisory Board Business Meeting Draft Minutes Date: March 18, 2014 Time: 3:00-4:47 Location: City Hall Scribe: Lisa Crosby Members Present: Ian Keith, Jennifer Cohn Ann Healy-Raymond, Ellen Frick, Lisa Crosby Members Absent/Excused: Larry Fisher Staff Present: Bev Shelton, Interim Library Director; Ken Clow, Public Works Director Guests: Jim Todd 1) Introductions/Welcome to guests 2) Communications The February 18th regular business meeting was cancelled due to lack of enough members to constitute a quorum. 3) Approval of Minutes Minutes from the January 28, 2014 special LAB meeting approved as written. 4) Library Staff Report—Bev Bev distributed copies of the December 2013 and February 2014 Library statistical reports. The Author program of the Community Read Program will take place on March 27th at the Port Townsend High School auditorium and March 28th at the Quimper Grange. Anne Healy-Raymond and Jean Tarascio updated the City Council at the last City Council meeting on the Library and public school collaboration (includes PT High School, Blue Heron Middle School and Grant Elementary School). The Paul Allen Foundation is very pleased with their progress and considers it a model to be replicated elsewhere. The Children's Librarian position is being advertised and applications taken until the 25th of April. There will be a period between Jean's retirement and the hiring of a new Children's Librarian when this position will be vacant. Washington Humanities is offering the "Prime Time"program which provides story reading and dinner once per week as a way to encourage parents to read to their children. There are currently 22 families involved and the program is growing. The program meets at Grant Street and staff not only reads, but also is involved in food preparation. The Library Staff needed additional time to meet and has achieved this by closing 1 hour early on Fridays and meeting from 8-10 AM. The mystery, science fiction and western collections have now been interfiled in the fiction collection. This is standard practice at other libraries. Jennifer would like to be able to track circulation numbers for the last 10 years so as to provide graphic trends. Ian asked about the weeding number of 8,400. Bev said that this might be the number of books that have been weeded from the collection recently. Bev informed the Board that there will be no-off site storage of books. This was a decision that was made at two recent meetings between City and Library Staff (Ken, David, Keith and Bev) on March 6th and 13th. The City cannot guarantee any book storage at Mountain View because things (such as the roof) are so uncertain there. There are also proposed changes in the way the City does its accounting which could result in a larger amount of Library funds going to the City. Currently the City takes a flat 10% from all departments. But the proposed Cost Recovery Policy will take a variable percent from each department depending on actual costs. This change in accounting would likely result in more Library money going toward City overhead. The decision was made to forgo the costs of renting a heated storage space and instead move the majority of books back on site. Lisa and Jennifer raised concern about the lack of inclusion of the LAB in this discussion/decision to move away from the LAB's February recommendations to the City Council (which included off-site storage because the Library Staff insisted that this was very important). While members of the LAB took no particular issue with the newly adopted move back plan which involves tall stacks and more books on site, there is concern that there seems to be a lack of communication between the City and the Board. Jennifer asked how the LAB could stay more in the loop. Bev asked what purpose this would serve at this point since the move back needs to happen quickly. It might be best for the LAB to take a step back at since the staff is in hunker down mode and just needs to get the Library moved back in. Jennifer said that her understanding was that the LAB was supposed to stay involved during the move back. Jennifer asked why it won't work to store books at Mountain View. Ian said that we could still move books off-site in the future if this made sense. Lisa asked Bev if the intent was to move the full collection back on-site at this point. Bev said it was. Jennifer expressed concern that now is not the time to do significant weeding of books since this is an important task that should be accomplished once we have a new Library Director. Bev said that the weeding was being done carefully by way of the CREW Method Bev handed out copies of the most recent floor plan. There will be some stacks on the second floor, and Ken spoke in terms of a steel beam allowing this book weight to be supported. Jennifer noted that the stacks will reduce the flexibility of the space and prevent occasional larger events. Ian did not think there had been a goal of accommodating large events on the second floor. There is $32,000 in the Library budget to cover moving costs and shelving placement. The City will also provide funding for carpet and painting. The Library Foundation will likely pay for furniture. There is a$25,000 grant that will pay for furniture in the circulation area. Bev said the moving-back budget is a moving target. There was further discussion about the LAB'S role at this point. Ian said that we will have lots of opportunity to provide input once the Library has moved back. Ellen suggested that we meet twice per month as a way to stay more informed. Most members were fine with this. Lisa said she would give it some thought since she was questioning how much sense it made to put time into the advisory board at this point. Ian is now working on-site getting things ready for the move. People are grateful since this is saving the City money. 5) Last Council Meeting Report—Jennifer On February 3`d, the Council accepted the Board's resolutions and passed them on to the City Manager. The Council voted to allow an additional $8000 toward architect fees as needed. Bev reported that the Honeywell payback at Mountain View will allow for a heat pump system at the Library. 6) Friends Report The book sale raised $2600 and $600 in renewed membership fees. 7) Public Comments Jim Todd commented that the contractual obligations to the YMCA could factor into the timing of the Library move. 8) Business Keith is acting as the project manager for the move back at this point. Ellen did not provide a move-back timeline since she said it's really in the contractor's hands at this point. 9) Agenda Items for next meeting Examine the priorities for the Library and how the LAB might assist. Update on the move. It would be good to hear from Keith. 11) Next Meeting: A Library special meeting will be scheduled for sometime in early April. Next Business meeting will be April 15th at 3:00