Minutes Library Update 3 24 05
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March .24, .2005
. 67% ofthe fiscal year has lapsed, and expenditures are at 64% of the budget; the projection
is that the Library Dept. will come in right on the targeted budget. Revenue income, at this
time, is ahead of projections.
. Bids were open for the exterior maintenance to the facility. The low bidder was Fred
Jackson Tuckpointing. Work is scheduled to begin very soon and will be complete, weather
permitting, by June 1. (The contract allows up until June 30th for completion) The work
will often be messy and every effort will be made to work around patrons and staff coming
in and out of the librarY. Work directly at the Main Entrance will be scheduled for Thursday
mornmgs.
. Sharon Daly has been hired as the new Library Aide in the Children's Activity scheduled to
begin work on April 11.
. Two policies were updated: Internet policy and Circulation. Internet changes reflect current
practice which has evolved as we have become more familiar with our automated time-
management software. The Circulation policy was been revised after a review of "new
patron" status cards. New Patron status reflects a relatively new policy. It came about when
new cards were issued to people and they borrowed large numbers of material and didn't
return them. With "new patron" status we limited the number of items to 10 that they could
check out in a 90-day period. After 90 days if their account was in good standing they could
become a "regular" patron and have the same privileges as most patrons. We reviewed
"new patron" status and saw that since this policy was initiated we have nearly $15,000 in
outstanding materials by new patrons. Several of the abuses came from family members
whereby each family member took the 10 limit and didn't return the materials. The Board
approved the limit for new patrons to be 3 items.
. Circulation of all library materials was up 10 percent for the month of February, Internet use
was up 23 percent, and for the first time we see an increase of 6 percent in our number of
visits. Number of visits, however are down 23 percent year to date. Much of the growth in
circulation of materials can be attributed to Dubuque residents. Although there has been
modest growth in print materials circulated, the significant circulations are in the non-print
media.
. Volunteer hours contributed are up 17 percent in February and remain 3 percent higher year
to date.
. Meeting room use is up 21 percent over February oflast year and 10 percent year to date.
Weare working toward getting meeting room software installed for more efficient
management ofthe hundreds of meetings taking place each year.
. The building interior renovation plan was discussed at length. The Board identified four
actions which must be addressed: 1.) Are the existing conceptual plans what are
needed/wanted, and if not, what should be done to change them? 2.) What will the
component of west-side service look like? 3.) Which funding options are available? 4.)
Get back together with our fund-raising consultant, Braren, Mulder, German to make it
happen. The Board set the date of April 21 to be a work session and begin with question
#1.
From the Reference Desk
GZl Children's Services worked with a nine-year old boy recently, who was interested in
visiting Japan in the next 3-5 years to learn more about his favorite program, DragonballZ.
Apparently there is a new spin-off in this anime series that will be in Japanese language and will
only be aired in Japan, so he also wants to go there so he can view it. He asked for materials to
help him learn Japanese, then books about what it is like to live in Japan. He returned to the
librarian to find out what his American money was going to be worth there. An exchange rate
calculator was located online much to the young patron's surprise. He said he'd never had good
luck with online searches and that is why he relies on the library. He then told the librarian he
hopes to save $500 by the time he visits Japan and he wanted to know how many yen that would
be - 52,610 yen. He left very satisfied and quite absorbed in his planning and dreaming.
GZl Teen volunteer Matt Zmudka loves to talk about the library. So much that he wrote a
speech about volunteering at the library. He won locally, then at sub-state and is slated to go to
the state level.
Library Board of Trustees
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Michael Shubatt, Board President ..
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Susan Henricks, Director
Alan Avery, Vice President
Mary L. Strom, Board Secretary
J.L. Felderman
Sue Lindsay
Kristen L. Smith
Tom Tully
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