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BM 2008 10-09 LB WILLIAM T. COZBY PUBLIC LIBRARY LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES October 9, 2008 The William T. Cozby Public Library Advisory Board met in regular session on Thursday, October 9, 2008 in the administrative board room at the William T. Cozby Public Library. CALL TO ORDER: 1. The meeting was called to order by Marcia Raines at 7:04 p.m. Other board members present were Jennifer Johnson, Meme Collins-Tabuena, Nancy Tao, Eric Ratliff, Thomas Dwyer, Wendy Dunn, Stephen Smith, Nancy Maurer, Diane Feldman and Geetika Rao. Staff in attendance were Library Director, Kathy Edwards and Temporary Administrative Technician, Kimberly Giltner. ELECTION OF OFFICERS: 2. Meme Collins-Tabuena moved to elect Jennifer Johnson as Chairman of the Library Board, Eric Ratliff seconded the motion. Carried. Nancy Tao moved to elect Meme Collins-Tabuena as Vice Chairman, Eric Ratliff seconded the motion. Carried. Eric Ratliff moved to elect Wendy Dunn as Secretary. Nancy Tao seconded the motion. Carried. The new officers are as follows: Chairman- Jennifer Johnson Vice-Chairman- Meme Collins-Tabuena Secretary- Wendy Dunn ATTENDANCE EXPECTATIONS: 3. Kathy Edwards briefed the Board on the City Council’s expectations for Library Board attendance. BOARDS & COMMISSIONS HANDBOOK/OPEN MEETING ACT: 4. 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 the Internet. The website is: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinopen/og_training.shtml. Copy of completion certificate is to be given to Kathy Edwards who will forward to the City Secretary’s Office. Kathy reminded the board that only items on the agenda may be discussed at the meeting. Please let her know if they have an item they wished placed on an upcoming agenda. Kathy clarified that five members are required to make a quorum. Youth Advisors cannot be included in the quorum. Alternate members can be used to make a quorum if five regular board members are not available. APPROVAL OF MINUTES DATED September 11, 2008: 5. Marcia Raines moved to approve the minutes and Eric Ratliff seconded the motion. All were in favor and the minutes were approved. LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD MEETING DATES: 6.Kathy stated that the Board does not traditionally meet in December, June or July. Discussion ensued. Eric Ratliff moved that the Library Board meet the second Thursday at 7:00 p.m. every month except December 11, 2008, June 11 and July 9, 2009. Thomas Dwyer seconded the motion. Carried. CITIZENS APPEARANCES: 7. None. LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT: 8. ? FY2007/2008 : This fiscal year included several major changes that greatly impacted library services. Changes included: Implementation of Reciprocal and Comparable borrowing restrictions; Opening of a free-standing Valley Ranch Branch of the Irving Public Library; First full year of the shifted school calendar; And the City-wide Internet Service Provider failure in May. Staff continue to evaluate how to best support students with the extended summer. While the summer break is longer, funding for staffing and other resources has not increased. ? Workload Indicators & Year-End Statistics: In FY 07/08, the Library circulated 562,172 items, a decrease of less than 1/10% from the previous fiscal year in spite of the 10% reduction in the patron base. In May circulation and programming were negatively impacted with the ISP failure. Still, circulation per capita is 14.2 which compares to a state-wide average of 4.75 per capita. Coppell enjoys one of the highest circulations per capita in the State of Texas. ? Input to the Five Year Plan/Coppell 2030: The consolidated Coppell 2030 input was distributed to the Board. Meme discussed the 2030 process. Council will determine priorities and funding. Comments/Suggestions: 9.Discussed vending machine comment, bike comment and new software comment. The comment prompted a request for an agenda item for November’s meeting regarding the library’s support for all Coppell Students. An agenda item will also be added to the January 2009 meeting for staff to present an E-Branch briefing. Discussion of FY 08/09 Library Board Goals and Objectives: 10. Board members were briefed on last year’s goals and objectives. After discussion, Marcia Raines made a motion to table discussion of Goals and Objectives to the next meeting. Wendy Dunn seconded motion. Carried. Adjournment: 11. Jennifer Johnson adjourned the board meeting at 8:15p.m. _______________________________________________ Jennifer Johnson, Library Board Chair _______________________________________________ Kathleen P. Metz Edwards, Library Director Approved as written. MEMORANDUM TO: Library Board FROM: Kathleen P. Metz Edwards, Library Director DATE: October 3, 2008 SUBJECT: October Director’s Report for Library Advisory Board Welcome to the new library board members and welcome back to those returning. We will be meeting on Thursday October 9, 2008 at 7:00pm in the library board room which is in library administration. Since this is the first meeting of Fiscal Year 08/09, new officers are elected, the meeting schedule set and attendance and open meeting requirements reviewed. The Board will set its goals for the new fiscal year. The 2008 Boards and Commissions Handbook will be distributed for those who missed the October 2, 2008 Orientation. 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.oag.state.tx.us/opinopen/og_training.shtml. At the end of the training please follow the instructions for the completion certificate and send a copy of the certificate to me. I will forward them to the City Secretary’s Office where they will be kept on file. FY2007/2008: This fiscal year included several major changes that greatly impacted library services. The Board has discussed this year. Changes include: Implementation of Reciprocal and Comparable borrowing restrictions . Prior to October 2007, the library issued library cards to all Texas residents. The library now issues cards to Coppell residents and residents of cities that offer Coppell residents free library cards and comparable services. All others pay $40 per card. In October 2007, the patron database was purged. Throughout the year, those remaining had to re-verify address. An estimated 9-10% of the library’s circulation was to those who were no longer qualified for a free card. Opening of a free-standing Valley Ranch Branch of the Irving Public Library . Coppell grants free cards to Irving residents. The Valley Ranch Branch had been a small store-front. The new facility is almost as large as the Coppell Library. First full year of the shifted school calendar : June has traditionally been the busiest month of the year. This year, school ran through the first week of June, cutting into formerly “prime” library time. Staff are still adjusting to the new calendar and determining how to best support students. Summer is now longer but Summer Reading Program is the same length due to limited staff and financial resources. City-wide Internet Service Provider failure : Electronic services were completely down for the first half of May and partially restored for the last half of May. The problem was resolved by changing Internet Service Providers. We were sill cleaning up some IP address issues into June. The Summer Reading Club kick-off program occurred on the day that Town Center lost all power with the strong storm that blew through the Metroplex. With power off most of the day, we simply did not have the traditional crowd with the first program. Workload Indicators & Year-End Statistics. In FY 07/08, the Library circulated 562,172 items, a decrease of less than 1/10 of a percent of FY2007. We considered that circulation might have dropped 10% with the implementation of non-residency fees. All in all, we are thrilled that it remained about the same. That tells you that our users more than made up for the decreased patron card base. In May and June we took large hits in circulation and programming with the ISP problem. 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. Circulation per capita is 14.2 which compares to a state-wide average of 4.75 per capita. Coppell enjoys one of the highest circulations per capita in the State. We have had to limit attendance at large programs due to safety concerns – this is illustrative of the space shortage. A comment on staffing for those who are new on the board. The Assistant Director left to accept the NETLS Coordinator position in May. The library’s Senior Administrative Technician retired unexpectedly at the end of August. We are interviewing for replacements. We have also been short another staff member due to a medical condition. Lastly, we left a page position open in March in anticipation of Streamline Sales Tax legislation. We are now operating the library with 17.5 full time equivalent staff which is barely sufficient to cover the 70 hours a week that we are staffed, including the 63 hours (7 days) per week that we are opened. We have suspended the Volunteer/Student Community Service program and are not adding any new projects but will go forward with the Festival of Nations on October 25, 2008 at 1:00 to 3:00pm. To date, we have 13 “contracts”, some with multiple volunteers. Input to the Five Year Plan/Coppell 2030: As was discussed last month, we will not receive the Five Year Plan targets until Council meets for the October 4, 2008 retreat to discuss the Coppell 2030 Process. For new board members, Streamlined Sales Tax legislation is still a TM possibility in the spring. The 3M Self Check machines were installed October 2, 2008 and are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) compatible. We are including a request for the remainder of the RFID conversion project in the plan. FY 07/08 Library Board Goals & Objectives: Finalize formation of the 501 C-3 Foundation and provide Board support of the two library board members who are serving on the Steering Committee for the Coppell 2030 Process, focusing on library services and the critical need for space. 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 9.16.08 – I lost a brand new bicycle at the library. I would like to suggest the library moves the bicycle rack close to the entrance. Ky Liu. My response to Mr. Liu Thank you for taking the time to complete a "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" at the library. I am sorry to hear that your new bicycle was missing. I suggest that you make a Police Report to document the loss if you have not already done so. While I understand your immediate response is that the bicycle rack should be moved closer to the library entrance for visibility, its location in the congested area in front of the library would be a safety hazard, especially for our young users who would be entering traffic in a vey busy area. Also, staff do not patrol the parking lot, nor would we be able to watch bicycles even if the rack were at the front door as the Library hosted 292,622 citizen visits last year. Our suggestion to our bicycle riders is that they focus on prevention by securing their bicycles using tamper proof locks to the bicycle rack. Thank you again for taking the time to complete the suggestion form. 9.17.08 – This is the best organized/efficiently run library I have seen. It should serve as a role model for others in the metro-plex. Great job everyone! (Hopefully the city council will approve the next tax increase to give everyone in Coppell a raise.) Many thanks to the Library at Coppell!! My response to browncpa630@ (email): Thank you for taking the time to complete a "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" at the library. I appreciate your positive comments on the library's organization and effectiveness and the staff's excellent work. Staff certainly aim to please. As to your comments about funding, the City Council is very supportive of the library as are the citizens. But it is always nice to hear a kind word. 9.20.08 – When you perform a “basic” search on the library’s catalog I would like to be able to limit the search to items that are checked in. So to the “limited by” box, add “checked in” as an option. Thanks! Susan Molis. Ms. Ellen Ko, librarian supervisor, called Ms. Molis and told her that the SirsiDynix Horizon system we have does not offer limiting by a circulation status. Ms. Ko said she would send in an enhancement request to the SirsiDynix Users’ Group for vote by its members. The library does not support special programming changes as they are expensive and have to be repeated each time an update is made. We agreed it would be a nice feature. 9.25.08 – I understand that there cannot be visual basic learning. High school requires them to have this in order to [do] homework! Could you please make it possible for these students to do their homework? Thanks Betty Lyde. Ms. Ellen Ko’s response to Ms. Lyde: Thank you for your comments. Our public computers in the library have standard software packages supported by the City's Information Services department. The software does not include programming languages. The library cannot provide software for specialized tasks in a public environment. The Coppell ISD does have extended hours at the middle and high school computer labs Monday through Thursday to support the students of Coppell. I suggest you check with your child's school on the hours which vary by campus. We have books available on Visual Basic that may enhance your students learning and use of Visual Basic. 9.25.08 - We love this library! It’s the most complete library, very up to date. The staff is always friendly and willing to help, especially Amy. She knows you need help before you ask! Kis87@(email). My response: Thank you for taking the time to complete a "Compliments and Suggestions Survey" at the library. I appreciate your positive comments on the library being up to date. I especially appreciate your comment that the staff is always friendly and willing to help. We work really hard at trying to provide consistent service to our citizens. I will pass on your positive comments to Amy Pittman-Hassett's supervisor. Amy is indeed an asset to the library. 9.29.08 - I’d like to suggest that you get vending machines 4 food so we don’t f______’ starve. Anonymous: No response to anonymous suggestions. See you on October 9, 2008.