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BM 2007 10-11 LB WILLIAM T. COZBY PUBLIC LIBRARY LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES October 11, 2007 The William T. Cozby Public Library Advisory Board met in regular session on Thursday, October 11,2007 in the administrative board room at the William T. Cozby Public Library. 1. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Secretary, Kathy Ross at 7:05 p.m. Other board members present were Meme Collins- Tabuena, Mahesh Guduru, Jennifer Johnson, Eric Ratliff, Thomas Trahan, Marcia Raines, Nancy Tao and Paul Chung. Staff in attendance were Library Director, Kathy Edwards, Assistant Library Director, Connie Moss and Administrative Technician, Janet Lance. 2. ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Meme Collins- Tabuena moved to elect Marcia Raines as Chairman of the Library Board, Mahesh Guduru seconded the motion. Carried. Meme Collins- Tabuena moved to elect Jenifer Johnson as Vice-Chairman, Tom Trahan seconded the motion. Carried. Meme Collins- Tabuena volunteered to fulfill the role of Secretary. Carried. The new officers are as follows: Chairman - Marcia Raines Vice-Chairman - Jennifer Johnson Secretary - Meme-Collins- Tabuena 3. ATTENDANCE EXPECTATIONS: Information was given by Kathy Edwards on the City's expectations for library board attendance. 4. OPEN MEETING ACT: New board members are required to complete the Open Meetings Act Training. The Open Meetings Act training can be completed any place where members have access to computer. The website is: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinopen/og_training.shtml. Copy of completion certificate to be given to Janet Lance as she will give to the City Secretary's Office where they will be kept on file. Kathy informed the board that only items on the agenda may be discussed at the meeting, and please let Janet know if they have an item they want placed on the agenda for discussion. Tom Trahan asked that for the November Agenda the following items be added: Library Anecdotes, Library Tour, 501 C-3 Foundation, and Coppe1l2030 update. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES DATED September 13, 2007: Mahesh Guduru moved to approve the minutes and Nancy Tao seconded the motion. All were in favor and the minutes were approved. 6. LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD MEETING DATES: Meme Collins- Tabuena moved that the library board meet the second Thursday at 7:00 p.m. every month except December 13, 2007, June 12 and July 10, 2008. Mahesh Guduru seconded the motion. Carried. 7. CITIZENS APPEARANCES: None 1 8. LOAN STAR LIBRARIES SYF 07/08: Staff are preparing a grant proposal for the Loan Star Libraries program. Coppell will receive $16,372 pending the proposal's approval. This year's funds will purchase additional furnishings for expanded Young Adult area, three display cube sets and a lobby display stand. Remaining funds will purchase books-on-CD/MP3, large print books and Young Adult books. Staff and Youth Advisors will work together to select art work for Y A area. 9. OCTOBER PROJECT: Effective October 1, 2007, the library initiated fee cards for residents of non-reciprocal and non-comparable cities. Connie Moss reported the process has gone smoothly and currently 37 patrons have paid the $40 non-residency fee. 10. LIBRARY DIRECTOR'S REPORT: . Budget & Five Year Plan Update and Input: Plans are now under way for the Five-Year Plan for FY 07/08. The budget will be based on increases of3% for library operations and 6% for staff. Plans for FY 08/09 include replacement of Horizon system and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). . Workload Indicators & Year End Statistics: In FY 06/07, the William T. Cozby Public Library circulated 562,727items in 292,622 visits, exceeding the half million mark for the second year. Circulation of library materials grew another 5% with a population increase of .38%. Book circulation increased 7% and youth circulation increased 10%. Circulation per capita is 14.3 which compares to a state-wide average of 4.76 per capita. Coppell enjoys one of the highest circulations per capita in the State. Circulation has increased 137% since FY 99/00 when the library added one staff member to support technology. . Comments/Suggestions: Suggestions relating to the acquisition of new books, movies and periodicals were given to Public Services staff for evaluation and follow- up. Staff personally contacts those who leave contact information for all suggestions. This month received comments on library catalog stations, Value Line Online, Music section, Flag Pole, more study space, required card to sign on for the Internet and school-aged student's behavior in the library. Discussion on suggestions: 09/26/07 - "Please create more study space". Unfortunately this was an anonymous suggestion. We receive at least one suggestion a month that would require additional library space. 09/27/07 - "Thanks for doing a great job". I would suggest a stricter enforcement for school- aged students & appropriate behavior in the library. Staff response to the suggestor: 2 Thank you for taking the time to complete a "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" at the library. We value citizens' input and incorporate their suggestions where possible. You expressed concern regarding the behavior of school-aged children at the library. Your suggestion was placed in the box shortly after the end of the Summer Reading Program which falls within our busiest 10 weeks of the year. Last year the Library hosted 276,365 citizen visits. The sheer number oflibrary users, particularly children during the summer reading program, and after school during the school year, generates noise. While we do not condone inappropriate behavior in the library, Coppell is a child- friendly community and what may be offensive to some of our citizens, is not to others. Having said that, if any library user, adult or child, is disrupting other users, staff will intervene. We will ask that the behavior be corrected. If the behavior is not correct, children 10 or over will be asked to leave. If a child is not at least 10, his or her parent or guardian will be immediately contacted to pick up that child. We also recognize that the library's barrel ceiling design amplifies and conducts sound, which is especially a challenge for our young users. There is no easy solution to that problem as we discovered during the Long Range Planning Process in 2003. As a part of that process, the city hired an acoustical firm to make recommendations, most of which were implemented but there is no simple way to totally stop noise conduction. Unfortunately, there is no acoustical separation between the young children's area and the rest of the library. The Young Adult section shares space with the Fiction area and the computers in the center of the library are for all users. The 2003 Long Range Plan recommended that the library be expanded to 40,000 to 50,000 square feet on a larger site with separate adult and children's areas. This recommendation was not funded. The City has recently initiated the Coppe1l2030 long- range planning process to look at future city facilities and services. We have clearly heard from our users that they want additional space where the library can accommodate separate service areas for adults and children. Should the City in the future decide to fund a larger library, we will definitely plan for separation between adults and children. In the meantime, we recommend that if you need a quiet space, the Quiet Reading Room provides users a quiet and pleasant area to read and study. If children disrupt Quiet Reading Room users, staff will ask them to leave the room. Thanks again for taking the time to complete the "Compliments and Suggestions Survey". 11. DISCUSSION OF FY 07/08 LIBRRY ADVISORY BOARD GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: Tom Trahan motioned that the library board table the discussion of goals until the November 8 board meeting, seconded by Eric Ratliff. Carried. The goals for 06/07 were: 1. Finalize formation of the 501 C-3 Foundation 2. Increase awareness of library services, E-branch and WIFI. 3. Explore recommendations to address the critical need for space in response to citizen suggestions/comments. 3 12. ADJOURNMENT: Mahesh Guduru moved and Eric Ratliff seconded to adjourn at 8:30 pm. Carried. Respectfully submitted, Janet Lance Administrative Technician Approved as written 11/08/07 C:/minutes/October II,DOC 4 MEMORANDUM TO: Library Advisory Board FROM: Kathleen P. Metz Edwards, Library Director DATE: October 4,2007 SUBJECT: October Director's Report for Library Advisory Board Welcome to the new library advisory board members and welcome back to the returning members. We will be meeting on Thursday October 11, 2007 at 7:00pm in the library board room which is in library administration. Since this is the first meeting of Fiscal Year 07/08, new officers are elected and the meeting schedule set. We will also briefly go over attendance and open meeting requirements as well as set the board's goals for the new fiscal year. New board members have 90 days to complete the Open Meetings Act training. Open Meetings Act training can be completed any place where you have access to the internet. The website is: http://www.oa2.state.tx.us/opinopen/o2 trainin2.shtml. At the end of the training please follow the instructions for the completion certificate and send a copy of the certificate to Janet Lance. Janet will send to the City Secretary's Office where they will be kept on file. Budget & Five-Year Plan Update and Input: Staff is working on the Five-Year Plan, which is due to the City on October 29,2007. The city uses a rolling five-year plan to identify major projects and routine operational costs. The budget is submitted in April for the following October. Any major items for the budget need to be identified in the Five Year Plan before they are considered in the budget. Most of the items requested in the plan are technology related and cover routine software maintenance, server upgrade and replacement and microcomputer replacement. These have been sent to Information Technology for review. Library Materials, i.e., books, magazine subscriptions and media are also requested as an exceptional item every year. Operationally, we have been told to plan our budget with a 3% increase for inflation. This does not include any new staff nor an increase for Library Materials, which by City definition are capital expenditures, not operational. The City ofCoppell has convened a year-long work group to look at future city services. The process is called Coppe1l2030 and will seek not only workgroup input but also input from subgroups, council, staff and citizens. The library is simply out of space and cannot meet service demand. As you see responses to suggestions and criticisms, you will understand how important this process is to library services. Depending on the Coppe1l2030 recommendations, the library will need to update its Long-Range Plan. 5 In the meanwhile, library staff is focusing on operational requests in the Five Year Planning Process. Items "attached" to the building are budgeted in the Facilities budget. Personnel, materials and furniture, fixtures and equipment are in the Library's budget. The following items were submitted to Facilities staff for inclusion in the Five Year Plan: . Replace lights in main portion of the library with energy efficient lighting. . Convert Energy Management System (EMS) to the same EMS used in other city buildings. . Replace toilets with self flushing toilets. . Remove sinks completely and go with handless sinks. . Install flag poles and lighting. Workload Indicators & Year-End Statistics. In FY 06/07, the William T. Cozby Public Library circulated 562,727 items in 292,622 visits, exceeding the half million mark for the second year. Circulation of library materials grew another 5% with a population increase of .38%. Book circulation increased 7% and youth circulation increased 10%. Circulation per capita is 14.3 which compares to a state-wide average of 4.76 per capita. Coppell enjoys one of the highest circulations per capita in the State. The total number of programs grew by 9% with a 3% decrease in attendance. We have had to limit attendance at large programs due to safety concerns - this is illustrative of the space shortage. Circulation has increased 137% since FY 99/00 when the library added one staff member to support technology. Self-service usage and re-engineering staffing have allowed for this increase without more staff. Loan Star Libraries SFY 07/08: Staff are preparing a grant proposal for the Loan Star Libraries program. Coppell will receive $16,372 pending the proposal's approval. Last year's grant funded teen-friendly furnishings in the Young Adult (Y A) area, periodical display shelving, paperback exchange shelving and a range of children's easy book shelving. This year's funds will purchase a loveseat for an expanded Y A area, three display cube sets (Y A, children's and adult), a lobby display stand to accommodate large posters for library programs, and books-on- CD/MP3, large print books and Y A books. Staff will work with Youth Advisors on selecting art work for the expanded Y A area. October Project: For the new board members, effective October 1,2007, the library initiated fee cards for residents of non-reciprocal and non-comparable cities. Staff have been working on this project for six months. It is very complex. The library is limiting its service area to four Metroplex counties i.e. Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton. Cards are free to Coppell residents. Cards are also free to residents of reciprocal and comparable cities which currently include: Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Hurst, Irving, Lake Worth, Piano, Richardson, and Roanoke. All other users in the four-county area may pay $40 per year for a library card. Staff are reminding those from other cities with concerns that they need to share their concerns THEIR elected officials. The city of Coppell seeks to participate in reciprocal services as reciprocal borrowing benefits all who equally participate. It is not the responsibility of Coppell's citizens to fund library services to residents of cities which chose not to fund their libraries or to grant borrowing privileges. My personal goal is to have 100% reciprocity but we cannot do that alone. 6 7 Comments and Suggestions: Suggestions relating to the acquisition of new books, movies and periodicals are given to Public Services staff for evaluation and follow-up. Appropriate items are ordered for the collection or interlibrary loan is offered for those not appropriate for the collection. Staff personally contact those who leave contact information for all suggestions. 09/09/07 - Put chairs backfor use at library catalog stations. It is very inconvenient to standfor entire time. Thanks. This is an anonymous suggestion which does not allow us to contact the suggestor. As a part of the "October Project" we converted 2 seated stations to standing to accommodate a 15 minute Email Express station for those users who just need to check email. We decided to make it a standing station so that they would not sign on for multiple sessions. The carrel is designed in such a manner that both stations were raised. Having said that, we still have 7 other seated catalogs throughout the building. We cannot hang signs from the barrel ceiling to identify the catalogs. Staff will alert standing users to the seated stations. 09/10/07 - I have enjoyed Leveraging Value Line Online in the past. I'd like for you to reconsider adding this service as it is more timely than waiting on paper updates. Thanks. Jerry Starkweather. Librarian Amy Pittman-Hassett's response: I am writing to you in regards to your recent comments about online access to Value Line. Thank you for taking the time to fill out a comment form. We always appreciate hearing from our citizens. The library's former online access to Value Line was a free service that came with our subscription to the paper version of Value Line. We were permitted to offer single user access to patrons within the library itself. Unfortunately, due to misuse of the online product, Value Line will no longer allow us to access the service. If you have any other questions, please contact me directly. 09/11/07 - We should have a music section of the library (Underoath, The Almost). Ryan Richards. Ellen Ko spoke with the suggestor. He is looking for the library to purchase downloadable music. Ms. Ko told him that staff would consider his request as we would any other collection development request. Currently we do not offer this as a service. 09/11/07 - Why doesn't our library have an American & Texas Flag poles? Cindy Rohrbough. I personally spoke to the suggestor. She was very receptive. I discussed with City staff who were here at the time the library was built and the consensus was that the tight site plan did not allow for flag placement. I told her we would place flagpoles and lighting in the Five Year Plan, however, I am hopeful that we will receive some direction from the Coppe1l2030 process that will fund a larger library site and facility. 09/18/07- Please create more study space! ! Unfortunately this was an anonymous suggestion. For those of you who have been on the board, we receive at least one suggestion a month that would require additional library space. 09/26/07 - I don't like that we need our library card to log on. If you forget it when you leave for school and you need the internet, but you have no card What if homework involves internet? Jazmine. Connie Moss' response to the suggestor: 8 Thank you for completing a William T. Cozby Public Library "Compliments and Suggestions Survey". In your comments you state you don't like the requirement to have a library card with you to use the Internet computers. You ask what to do if your homework involves use of the Internet. Yes, we do require that you have your library card with you to use the Internet. We do this for several reasons, one of the reasons is to protect you from others using your number. Another reason is that the process is supposed to be automatic and not involve staff. When you leave for school in the morning, pack your card! If you do come to the library without your card, we have excellent, authoritative information sources available for students on our InfoStation computers and at our Homework Center's InfoStation. These computers also have the Microsoft Office suite so you can do Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher documents. The computers link to CISD's portal so you should be able to reach your school website as well. Ask at the InfoDesk if you need help finding information. I note you have a large fine for materials returned late and you have items out now that are late. Even with your library card you will not be able to use an Internet computer until your late fees are cleared. I hope this explains why you need your card and how you can get your homework done when you do not bring your card to the library. When you leave for school in the morning, pack your card! 09/27/07- Thanks for doing a great job. I would suggest a stricter enforcement for school-aged students & appropriate behavior in the library. Jessica Bauchun. My response to the suggestor: Thank you for taking the time to complete a "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" at the library. We value citizens' input and incorporate their suggestions where possible. You expressed concern regarding the behavior of school-aged children at the library. Your suggestion was placed in the box shortly after the end of the Sununer Reading Program which falls within our busiest 10 weeks of the year. Last year the Library hosted 276,365 citizen visits. The sheer number of library users, particularly children during the sununer reading program, and after school during the school year, generates noise. While we do not condone inappropriate behavior in the library, Coppell is a child-friendly community and what may be offensive to some of our citizens, is not to others. Having said that, if any library user, adult or child, is disrupting other users, staff will intervene. We will ask that the behavior be corrected. If the behavior is not correct, children 10 or over will be asked to leave. If a child is not at least 10, his or her parent or guardian will be immediately contacted to pick up that child. We also recognize that the library's barrel ceiling design amplifies and conducts sound, which is especially a challenge for our young users. There is no easy solution to that problem as we discovered during the Long Range Planning Process in 2003. As a part of that process, the city hired an acoustical firm to make recommendations, most of which were implemented but there is no simple way to totally stop noise conduction. Unfortunately, there is no acoustical separation between the young children's area and the rest of the library. The Young Adult section shares space with the Fiction area and the computers in the center of the library are for all users. The 2003 Long Range Plan recommended that the library be expanded to 40,000 to 50,000 square feet on a larger site with separate adult and children's areas. This recommendation was not funded. The City has recently initiated the Coppell 2030 long-range planning process to look at future city facilities and services. We have clearly heard from our users that they want additional space where the library can accommodate separate service areas for adults and children. Should the City in the future decide to fund a larger library, we will definitely plan for separation between adults and children. In the meantime, we recommend that if you need a quiet space, the Quiet Reading Room provides users a quiet and pleasant area to read and study. If children disrupt Quiet Reading Room users, staff will ask them to leave the room. Thanks again for taking the time to complete the "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" . See you at 7:00 pm on October 11,2007. 9