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WILLIAM T. COZBY PUBLIC LIBRARY
LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES
August 13, 2009
The William T. Cozby Public Library Board met in regular session on Thursday, August 13,
2009 in the library board room at the William T. Cozby Public Library.
1. CALL TO ORDER:
The meeting was called to order by Chair, Jennifer Johnson at 7:05
p.m. Other board members present were Meme Collins-Tabuena, Marcia Raines, Nancy Tao,
Thomas Dwyer, Eric Ratcliff, Wendy Dunn, Nancy Maurer, and Stephen Smith. Youth Advisor
Diane Feldman was also present. Staff in attendance were Library Director, Kathleen Edwards,
Assistant Library Director, Vicki Chiavetta-Reinert, Librarian Betsy Merrill, Librarian Jennifer
Perryman and Sr. Administrative Technician, Ramona Woods.
2.APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE MAY 14, 2009 BOARD MEETING:
Eric
Ratcliff moved to approve the minutes and Stephen Smith seconded the motion. All were in
favor and the minutes were approved.
3. CITIZENS APPEARANCES:
None
4.SUMMER READING CLUB PROGRAM
– Elizabeth Merrill gave an update on the
Summer Reading Club. 2,074 reading logs were distributed by 89 Volunteens who worked
868.5 hours. In addition to distributing reading logs and prizes, Volunteens assisted in “crowd
control”, worked with young children on craft projects, set-up and cleaned-up for programs,
sorted and shelved children’s materials and performed many other tasks needed to support the
reading program. Elizabeth gave highlights of the summer’s activities. An article in the Coppell
Gazette featuring a SRC program was circulated.
5.FESTIVAL OF NATIONS:
Jennifer Perryman gave an overview and answered
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questions regarding the upcoming 2 Annual Festival of Nations celebration. The celebration
will take place Saturday, September 12, 2009 and will be moving from the library to the Plaza.
The Festival will run from 11:00am to 2:00pm. The Festival will be preceded by an Oath of
Allegiance ceremony for children becoming United States citizens at 10:00am. The Mayor will
give opening remarks.
6.LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT
:
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Workload Indicators/Summer Reading Club.
The library circulated 64,114 items in
June and 64,990 in July, a 6% increase over 2008. Even with the reduced summer
reading club schedule, 3,632 library users attended SRC programs. The library could not
host a successful summer program without the Volunteens. The library had a 13.2%
increase in use of the Internet with the major growth coming in WiFi usage. In June and
July, the library had 1,366 WiFi sessions. There was an interesting article in the Sunday,
August 2, 2009 Dallas Morning News in the Business Section which discussed “digital
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nomads”. These are workers who work anywhere and they do not always want to stay
home. We wonder if we have not picked up some of these nomads.
?
Holds
: Based on the sheer number of high demand items that are requested each month,
staff have surveyed other libraries and will be reducing the Holds’ shelves wait time form
7 days to 4 days. Publicity to let users know of the change will be on the Community
Wall, in Coppell Clips and in the Holds’ Shelves area. Letters will be sent to frequent
Holds’ users. The few paper Holds’ notification users will be encouraged to move to
electronic or telemessaging notification. Discussion ensued which clarified the
difference between a “request” and a “hold”. A request is just that – the users “request”
an item – the library encourages requests as they let staff know what they want. A “hold”
means that the request has been fulfilled and is now an item on the Holds’ Shelves.
Twitter:
Vicki announced that the library has begun a Twitter site and that we have 17
followers so far. The site is used to post announcements about programs, services and
materials. The library also subscribed to a new product called Chilifresh that is linked
into the library catalog and allows patrons to submit comments and reviews about titles
they have read. The comments are monitored by staff before posting. Vicki has been
working on a project called 23 Things to investigate further social networking tools that
might benefit the library. We are looking into creating a blog once the city has developed
a policy regarding these tools. Discussion ensued as to the importance of social networks
to Gen X and the need for the library to establish a presence on FaceBook and other
social networks.
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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.
7.Budget Status and 5 Year Plan Input:
Staff are working on the Five Year Plan which
is due by the end of October. The new board comes in the second week of October which does
not allow for informed discussion. Five Year Plan targets will be very conservative. The
FY2010 Budget will be approved on September 8, 2009 and is a flat budget. We will know at
the next board meeting if the Library’s exceptional item for an architectural review of the facility
and/or other space options has been approved. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
conversion project continues to be moved out and was not included in the FY2010 budget.
Without an expansion, it will be very difficult to fully implement RFID.
The Director asked the Board members for their input on what their priorities would be should
future cuts become necessary. Discussion ensued. The Board asked for clarification of the
breakout of budget dollars. City-wide approximately 65% of the budget is personnel. The
library has $200,000 for materials and the remainder of the funds go to various operating and
maintenance accounts such as gas, electric, supplies, other services (databases), training, etc.
Consensus was, if necessary cut one day’s service, possibly Friday since it is typically the
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slowest day. There was objection to the possibility of decreasing the materials budget as that is a
core service. This item will be added to next month’s agenda for further discussion.
Input for Board Chair report to Council:
The Board report to Council is scheduled for
August 25, 2009. Discussion ensued as to what to highlight in the Chair’s report. It was agreed
that the focus would be on the success of Summer Reading Club and the importance of the
Volunteens’ contributions to the program and to their own leadership development. The
continued rise in WiFi not related to the school year should also be included as well as other key
workload indicators. An update will be included on the Festival of Nations.
8.Board Term Changes
: The City Council is shifting the process to start board terms with
the calendar year, not the fiscal year. Those interviewing for board terms effective October 1,
2009, will be told that their initial term will be extended and will end December 31, 2011 for 2-
year terms and December 31, 2010 for 1-year terms. Current Board members whose terms
expire September 30, 2010, will have their term extended until December 31, 2010.
9. 501 C3 Foundation
: Will continue with next steps which are to have current
Foundation Board members Kathy Edwards and Melissa Hall vote to expand the number of
members from three to seven and vote to adopt new revised bylaws. Discussion of new board
members was in the May 14, 2009 Library Board minutes. Once these changes are made, an IRS
Form-1023 (Application for Recognition of Exemption) will need to be filed and receipt
acknowledged before tax exempt donations can be received.
10.ADJOURNMENT:
Jennifer Johnson, Chair adjourned meeting at 8:25
Jennifer Johnson, Chair
Ramona Woods, Sr. Administrative Technician
Approved as written.
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MEMORANDUM
TO:
Library Advisory Board
FROM:
Kathleen P. Metz Edwards, Library Director
DATE:
August 7, 2009
SUBJECT:
August Director’s Report for Library Advisory Board
Workload Indicators/Summer Reading Club.
For the first time ever, July surpassed June as
the library’s busiest month. We circulated 64,990 items in July! The library was a hopping
place. Even with the reduced summer reading club schedule, 2,217 library users attended
programs. In June and July, the summer reading program was supported by 868.5 Volunteen
hours. This program continues to be a success. We could not have a summer reading program
without these student volunteers. The library had a 4.6% increase in use of the Internet with the
major growth coming in WiFi usage. In June and July, the library had 1,366 WiFi sessions.
There was an interesting article in the Sunday, August 2, 2009 Dallas Morning News in the
Business Section which discussed “digital nomads”. These are workers who work anywhere and
they do not always want to stay home. They seek WiFi connectivity. We wonder if we have not
picked up some of these nomads.
Festival of Nations:
Perhaps you have seen publicity for this year’s program which will be held
on the Town Center Plaza on Saturday, September 12, 2009. Librarian Jennifer Perryman will
be at the meeting to brief you on the plans.
Holds
: Based on the sheer number of high demand items that are requested each month, we
have surveyed other libraries and will be reducing the Holds’ shelves wait time from 7 days to 4
days. We are developing publicity for the Community Wall, Clips and the Holds’ Shelves area
to let Holds’ users know of the change. We are encouraging the few paper notification Holds
users’ to move to email or telemessaging for their notifications. We can no longer meet demand
for high use items by having them sit on the Holds’ shelves for up to a week. Most libraries have
gone to 3 days – we have decided on 4 to meet our users’ needs. The publicity will also include
instructions on how to “suspend” Holds if a user is out of town.
We had a verbal complaint re: the Holds’ process which was addressed. For those of you who
are frequent Holds’ users, you understand that Holds can be placed anytime. In this case, a user
pulled a high demand item off the shelf and kept the item with her for several hours while she
was in the library before checking it out. In the meantime, a child was looking for the book. It
was missing from the shelf. Staff placed a Hold which would be our process. When the user
went to check it out, she was blocked. Her comment to me was she has priority since she was in
the building. Holds are placed via the catalog. The computer has no idea if you are in the
building or out of state! The user understood the process but was still angry.
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Budget Status and 5 Year Plan Input:
The Five Year Plan is due by the end of October. The
new board comes in the second week of October which does not allow for informed discussion.
It is early in the process. We have not received the Five Year Plan targets but it is safe to assume
with the economy that targets will be very conservative. The FY2010 Budget will be approved
on September 8, 2009. We will know at the next board meeting if the Library’s exceptional item
for an architectural review of the facility and/or other space options has been approved. We
continue to move out the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) conversion project and did not
include it in the FY2010 budget. Without an expansion, it will be very difficult to fully
implement RFID. The library process 60,000+ Holds per year. Space is needed to allow for the
robotic sorting of the Holds. Without sorting, staff would have to cull through piles of books to
locate Holds. Most libraries do not have the volume as they disallow Holds on new items, items
already checked-in or when the library is open. This is one of the library’s most popular eBranch
services. Reducing Holds is not an option.
Input for Board Chair report to Council:
The Board report to Council is scheduled for
August 25, 2009. Please be prepared to discuss items that might be appropriate for the report.
Board Term Changes
: The City Council is shifting the process to start board terms with the
calendar year, not the current fiscal year. Those interviewing for board terms effective October
1, 2009, will be told that their initial term will be extended and will end December 31, 2011 for
2-year terms and December 31, 2010 for 1-year terms. Current Board members whose terms
expire September 30, 2010, will have their term extended until December 31, 2010. This will be
further explained in the letters you will receive inviting you to the Council reception.
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.
7-9-09 – Please let visitors to your library from other areas use the computer as a guest. Many
libraries require you to register at the desk, show your driver’s license and give you a pass for
one hour or so. That would be a neighborly thing to do. Valerie P. Vicki Chiavetta’s response:
Thank you for taking the time to submit a comment re: guest computer passes. Please allow me to explain
what services non-residents may use at the library.
We offer a fifteen minute express Internet computer for non-residents. We also offer Infostation computers
that have access to the TexShare databases and Microsoft Office products. In addition, you may use any of
the materials we own, in the library.
We issue free library cards to residents of cities in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin counties who offer
reciprocal library services to Coppell residents. Residents of non-reciprocal communities may purchase a
library card for $40 annually if they would like to check out materials or use the Internet computers for
longer lengths of time.
For more information on getting a library card, please visit our website at www.ci.coppell.tx.us. Click on
Public Library, Hours and Use, Getting a library card. If you have further questions, please contact me at
972.304.3660 or vchiavetta@ci.coppell.tx.us.
Again, thank you for your input.
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6-26-09: Non-resident Fee complaint received by the City Manager’s Office. This was sent in
June, response sent in July after the City Manager returned from vacation.
Your email to Mr. Clay Phillips, City Manager, re: non residency library fees was forwarded to me for
response.
The library offers courtesy cards to residents of cities which offer the same to Coppell residents. In the best
of worlds, other cities would offer the same privileges but that is not the case. If you live in Irving,
Carrollton, Farmers Branch or several other nearby cities you would receive the complimentary card. None
of the cities in Denton County offer reciprocal and comparable services to Coppell residents. Coppell
residents or non-residents who own real estate property in Coppell receive free library cards.
The Coppell Independent School District now has a union catalog that allows all district employees to
access any resource in the district. The district has approximately 200,000 items – about double what we
have at the Cozby library. These items directly support the curriculum. All teachers should have a
“Destiny” icon on their desktop. “Destiny” allows you to select items from your library or to select items
from any other district library. You may want to check with your librarian if you need to access items that
are not in the library or if you are unfamiliar with “Destiny.” If you find that the district does not have the
materials you need to support the curriculum, I would suggest that you discuss with your librarian as she
can assist you.
One option you may wish to consider is the TexShare card program. This program allows any resident of
the State to borrow from the Cozby library. You would receive your TexShare card from your home
library. You would then present the card at the Cozby Library which would be used to check-out one item
at a time. Many of our non-resident borrowers choose to purchase a library card as they may check out
more than one item. The $40.00 is less than the cost of 2 books and is a “bargain.” Coppell residents pay
about $40.00 each in their municipal taxes towards the support of the library. The Cozby library also offers
access to the TexShare databases to anyone who walks into the library. You do not need a library card to
access these databases. Any one at the Information Desk would be happy to help you. The Cozby library
offers an express station for any adult to come in use the Internet for 15 minutes without a card. You also
do not need a library card to use the facility to visit with your students.
If you are interested in or have a question on the TexShare card program, please contact Ms. Jane Darling
at 972 304 7048. Jane can also clarify if you are entitled to a courtesy card based on your city of residence.
Regards,
Kathleen P. Metz Edwards
Director, Wm. T. Cozby Public Library
See you on August 13, 2009.
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