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Update_Library Board of Trustees 9 27 12Carnegie -Stout Public Library Library Board of Trustees Update From the Meeting of September 27 2012 Present: Paula Connors, President; Mike Willis, Vice President; Frederick Miller, Secretary; Trustees, John Anderson - Bricker, David Hammer, and Jenny Weiss Absent: Diann Guns The Board met Thursday, September 27. Below is a summary of their meeting: • August marked 17 percent of the fiscal year passing with 15 percent of the budget expended. Revenue collected was at 15 percent of estimates. • The number of checkouts was down 3 percent in August, but use remained high. Internet use was up 10 percent and the checkout of downloadable material was up 100 percent compared to the same time last year. • The painting of the mezzanine was completed and reopened to the public on September 18. The contractor will replace a glass panel that was broken and will clean the globes of the lights. • Fred Jackson Tuckpointing repaired some cracked and lifting stone on the west side of the building. • The director has met with a teacher in the marketing department at Loras College about a marketing campaign the library would like to launch. The instructor believed the Marketing Club might find the project of interest, and if not, the idea will be a candidate for a class project. • Collection of the community survey was completed on Wednesday, September 27. At this point enough surveys had been received to be able to generalize the results to the Dubuque population with a confidence level of plus or minus 5 percent. A full summary should be available by the next board meeting. • The Fiscal Year 2014 budget request was reviewed and approved for presentation to the City Manager and Budget Director. • The Board discussed the reciprocal borrowing program known as Open Access that the library (and over 600 libraries statewide) participates in which allows individuals to borrow materials directly from libraries other than their own. For the past 12 years Carnegie -Stout has provided about half of all the County Library systems check outs to rural residents, yet receives no funding from the County for this service. Work toward a solution was moving in a positive direction in 2008 -2009, but the County Library did not pursue additional conversations when the director left the system. Last fiscal year Carnegie -Stout checked out 100, 351 items to Dubuque County Library cardholders. The Dubuque County Library checked out 86,500 items in total to all borrowers in the same fiscal year. Representatives from the C -SPL board and the director attended a Dubuque County Library Board of Trustees meeting to discuss the issue, ask for $10,000 to help cover the cost of this service and request the formation of a task force. The purpose of the task force was to discuss ideas on how to provide library service to all Dubuque County residents in an equitable way that results in a win for all stakeholders. The County Board declined the request for $10,000 and the invitation to participate in a task force. The service to Dubuque County Library cardholders costs Carnegie -Stout well over $60,000 annually. The C -SPL Board of Trustees voted to restrict some aspects of service such as requesting an item be placed on hold and asking that a particular title be purchased. Eliminating the ability to place holds will decrease the waiting time for Dubuque residents on a reserve list and will result in some costs savings. C -SPL buys a duplicate copy of a book for each five holds. Fewer copies of a title will need to be purchased as a result. The cost of the program remains very high and the need to work out a long -term solution remains. The C- SPL Board of Trustees voted to invite the County Library Board to discuss the issue again and also voted to discuss the issue with the County Board of Supervisors, which is the funding authority for the Dubuque County Library. Library Board of Trustees Tewie(00, Paula Connors, Board President Mike Willis, Vice President Frederick Miller, Board Secretary John Anderson - Bricker Diann Guns David Hammer Jenny Weiss r'L�Ellk! ' L tee Susan Henricks, Director Carnegie -Stout Public Library Library Board of Trustees Update From the Meeting of October 25, 2012 Present: Mike Willis, Vice President; Frederick Miller, Secretary; Trustees, John Anderson - Bricker, Diann Guns, and Jenny Weiss Excused: Paula Connors, David Hammer The Board met Thursday, October 25. Below is a summary of their meeting: • September marked the end of the first quarter of FY 13 with expenditures at 23% and revenue collected at 22% of projections. • September saw an increase in business after a lull, with a 2% increase in the number of checkouts and 12% increase in the number of visits. E- book use for the first quarter was up 151 % over the same time last year. • The State Library Commission met at the Library while they were in town to attend the ILA conference. The director of the Dubuque County Library and I were invited to discuss the topic of lending patterns and Open Access in our County with Commission members. The director of the County Library concluded her talk with a request that the Commission advocate for additional funds for Open Access. My talk concluded with a request to review the Open Access Agreement and allow an exemption to the loaning library if it provides more than 25% of another library's total circulation. This would give the C -SPL board discretion to make changes to the Open Access program locally to better manage our resources. Presently, the Agreement has the reverse provision — that if our total circulation exceeds 25% in Open Access transactions we can restrict as the Board determines will best serve our needs. According to the most recent data, Dubuque County Library provided only 36% of circulations for county residents last fiscal year, and while most circulations to DBQ County residents were generated from Carnegie -Stout we did not reach 25% of total circulations going to Open Access. • Paula Connors, Diann Guns, and Susan Henricks met with the County Board of Supervisors on Monday, October 22 with the goal of providing information to raise their awareness of the issue and ask for one of them to join a task force that C -SPL would like to form to evaluate the best way to provide library service in the county in an equitable manner. The County Board of Supervisors will decide after they meet with the Dubuque County Library Board of Trustees. • The Community Survey was completed. Responses from the web surveys have not been reviewed and summarized yet. This will take place at the next board meeting. Of note from the mail survey: A large majority of respondents, whether they have used the library recently or not, believe the library is either very important or essential to the quality of life in our community. For those who had recent contact with the library 93.5% agreed with this statement. A strong majority (83.7 %) of those who have not had recent contact with the library agreed with this statement. Similarly, respondents reported a high level of satisfaction with the library, with 83.6% stating their overall satisfaction level is either very good, or excellent. • During our CIP budget hearing, the City Manager requested that we ask Lange Signs once again to cover the cost of the exterior signage changes that the City Council approved. Lange has previously said no to this request, but did agree to the cost of repainting the signs. A board member will call Lange Signs to request the rework take place at no cost to the City. Library Board of Trustees Paula Connors, Board President Mike Willis, Vice President Frederick Miller, Board Secretary John Anderson - Bricker Diann Guns David Hammer Jenny Weiss Susan Henricks, Director