Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-03-2014-BLT-APPROVED MINUTES 1 CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH Board of Library Trustees Meeting Minutes February 3, 2014 – 5:00 p.m. _________________________________________________________________________________ A notice pursuant to the Board of Library Trustees By-Laws, Article VIII, §2 was posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. The agenda for the Regular Meeting was posted on Thursday, January 30, 2014, at 10:19 a.m. on the City Hall Electronic Bulletin Board located in the entrance of the City Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive; at 11:45 a.m. on the City's website, and at 1:55 p.m.in the Meeting Agenda Binder located in the entrance of the City Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive. CONVENED AT 5:00 p.m. 1) CALL MEETING TO ORDER – Chair Johnson-Tucker called the meeting to order. 2) ROLL CALL – Roll call by Administrative Assistant Elaine McMillion. Trustees Present: Jill Johnson-Tucker, chairing the meeting Jerry King Robyn Grant John Prichard Trustees Absent: Eleanor Palk Staff Present: Tim Hetherton, Acting Library Services Director Melissa Kelly, Support Services Coordinator Debbie Walker, Youth Services & Branch Coordinator Natalie Basmaciyan, Reference Supervisor Rebecca Lightfoot, Reference Librarian Elaine McMillion, Administrative Assistant 3) PUBLIC COMMENTS Mr. Mosher noted that it is very awkward, unproductive and perhaps even improper to have the comments at the beginning before the public has heard the reports. Chair Johnson-Tucker stated that at this meeting comments would be taken from the public after the annual budget update report has been given. Mr. Mosher pointed out that the OverDrive eBook service states that, “Digital books are not available for download from participating Library computers. Downloads are only available to your personal PC, laptop, or PDA.” He noted that he had verified that the public can read the OverDrive books despite the warning, without using their own device. They are able to do this by choosing the OverDrive READ format. He also noted that logging onto Internet Explorer on that public computer opened the Yahoo commercial service. If an individual accesses the internet this way they may be totally unaware of what the Library offers through the Library website. Library Services Director Tim Hetherton noted that he would look into this further. Chair Johnson-Tucker suggested that when highly technical items are on the agenda that the staff member involved be present at the meetings to address any questions or concerns that may arise. Chair Johnson-Tucker thanked Mr. Mosher for his comments. 4) APPROVAL OF MINUTES – 2 January 6, 2014 Meeting Minutes: Page 3, Item B.2. second sentence change Maintain to Monitor, and change sock to stock company. Page 3, Item B.2. third sentence, change Reference USA to ReferenceUSA. Page 4, Item C.1. first sentence, place a period after budget season. Start next sentence with He. Motion made by Trustee Grant and seconded by Trustee King and carried (4 - 1) to approve the minutes of Monday, January 6, 2014 as amended. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk January 14, 2014 Special Meeting Minutes: Page 2, Item 5. last paragraph, add Trustees in front of Vice-Chair King. Motion made by Trustee Prichard and seconded by Trustee King and carried (4 - 1) to approve the minutes of Tuesday, January 14, 2014 as amended. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk 5) CURRENT BUSINESS A. CONSENT CALENDAR 1. Customer Comments – Monthly review of evaluations of library services through suggestions and requests received from customers. 2. Library Activities – Monthly update of library events, services and statistics. 3. Expenditure Status Report – Monthly expenditure status of the Library’s operating expenses, services, salaries and benefits by department. 4. Board of Library Trustees Monitoring List – List of agenda items and dates for monthly review of projects by the Board of Library Trustees. Motion made by Trustee Grant and seconded by Trustee Prichard and carried (4 - 1) to approve the Consent Calendar Items as presented. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk B. ITEMS FOR REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION 1. Downloadable Services Update 3 Reference Librarian Rebecca Lightfoot introduced herself and presented an overview of the Library’s downloadable services and usage statistics. She displayed one of the Library’s iPads that may be checked out by customers to access these services. The Library has Axis360 and OverDrive which are the two eBook downloadable services and Zinio, which is the Library’s downloadable eMagazine service. The Library launched Axis 360 in November 2012 and since then it has grown three-fold with check outs increasing from a little over 100 per month to over 300 per month. The OverDrive service has much more content with last month’s NBPL check-outs reaching over 5,000. The OverDrive service is shared with Central Library and a consortium of eighteen other libraries. The growth of the downloadable services has much to do with the eBook classes that are offered through the Library. These classes assist customers on a one-on-one basis to help them learn more about this service and how to use their device to access the Library’s eCollections. The classes are becoming more popular with individuals purchasing devices and wanting to learn how to use them to download these applications. Registration is required so that the classes remain small enough to help give individual attention to the attendees. Customers may sign up in person, by phone or through the Library’s website. The Zinio service provides over 100 magazine titles and last month reached over 3,100 check-outs. There is now the ability to check-out back issues with this service and features to enlarge the print. The Gale Virtual Reference Library has been growing as well with over 214 sessions last month. This database provides a wealth of information. There is also a text-to-speech function which works on desktop computers. Trustee Grant suggested that there should be an option when searching a title on the Library’s website that notes an eBook title if available in eBook format. Axis 360 provides this service; however, at this time due to additional costs to add it to OverDrive, the consortium has opted out of using this feature. Some of the titles, not all, have been entered into the system this way as the Library had some interns working at the Library awhile back that were able to manually input some of the titles into the database. The Board Trustees thanked Rebecca for her presentation and at 5:18pm she left the meeting. 2. Annual Budget Update Support Services Coordinator Melissa Kelly distributed a list of the 2014 adopted, amended and expended year to date salaries and benefits, operating expenses, and capital outlay expenses with breakdowns and descriptions for each area within each of these categories. Prior to this meeting Melissa reviewed the budget with Trustees Robyn Grant and John Prichard. Tim Hetherton and Melissa Kelly met with the Public Works director last week to discuss potential facility needs. The proposed base budget for fiscal year 2014/2015 was also noted. Some of the items discussed were the importance of an increase to the training budget, repaving the parking lot at the Central Library, security camera replacement, and details on the decrease in salaries and benefits. A supplemental request of $8,087 to increase the City’s contribution to move the Literacy Coordinator position from .4 to .5 was discussed. The totals listed in this report do not include the Library support groups’ donations, as these donations cannot be accounted for until received. Residents Jim Mosher and Carl Cassidy asked for more detail in the areas of this report which included salaries and benefits, employee and employer contributions, and materials. Employees are paying more toward their own retirement than in the past, and new employees are hired in at a different tier with a lower rate of pay and benefits to replace top tiered employees. This helps decrease the salaries and benefits budget. Discussion continued. The Board asked staff to bring a list of the larger budget request items such as new carpet for the Friends Meeting Room for review to a future meeting sometime prior to November when the completed budget is due at City Hall. 4 Motion made by Trustee Grant and seconded by Trustee Prichard and carried (4 - 1) to approve the budget as presented, and approval of the $8,087.00 requested for the Literacy Coordinator position as presented. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk 3. Board of Library Trustees By-Laws – Following are the Board of Library Trustees By-Laws as presented. Section 1. The regular meetings shall be held on the first third Monday of each month commencing at 5:00 p.m. at the Central Library or at a specified branch library, unless noticed otherwise. In the event the first third Monday of the month is a holiday observed by the City, such regular meeting shall be held on the next business day commencing at 5:00 p.m. at the Central Library unless noticed otherwise. Special meetings may also be held subject to compliance with the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. Section 4. Study sessions, if necessary, may shall be held on the first Monday of each month if necessary at the Central Library, prior to the regularly scheduled board meeting, for the purpose of discussing administrative reports, hearing staff presentations, gathering information, reviewing, discussing and debating matters of interest to the Library. No official action shall be taken at a study session. Study sessions shall be held subject to compliance with the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. Motion made by Trustee Prichard and seconded by Trustee Grant and carried (4 - 1) to change the Board of Library Trustees meeting date from the first Monday of every month to the third Monday of every month, to begin on Monday, May 19, 2014, as amended. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk 4. Library Gift and Donor Policy Revisions Trustee Robyn Grant began the discussion by giving the background on why the revisions were requested. Support Services Coordinator Melissa Kelly and Trustee Robyn Grant reviewed the current policy prior to this meeting, and revised the wording as presented in the handout for this meeting. After review and discussion the Board decided not to change the policy as all donations are accepted and the Board is informed accordingly. Motion made by Trustee Prichard and seconded by Trustee Grant and carried (4 - 1) to leave the policy as is with no revisions. AYES: Johnson-Tucker, King, Grant, Prichard NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Palk C. MONTHLY REPORTS 5 1. Library Services Director Report Library Services Director Hetherton reported that the Spark of Love Toy Drive sponsored by the Newport Beach Fire Department was a success. The Central Library had full drop off boxes at both entrances which showed the generosity of this community. The City displayed trash cans on the second floor to help residents choose which option to select from the new City services. The City has implemented a staff reporting software called Novus for City Council staff reports and Boards and Commission agendas and reports. The City has also adopted a new Employee Performance evaluation software program which staff supervisors have reported as being much easier to use than the old system. The Library offers Lynda.com, which is an online learning resource. This database offers many useful classes and tutorials. Library and Recreation department staff met to discuss ways in which to market the Media Lab and partner with them in offering on-line courses. Courses will be offered through the Spring Navigator beginning in April 2014. The Library concierge service at the Oasis Senior Center began on January 21. The service is modeled after the Newport Coast Community Center where customers place requests for materials with staff or online and select OASIS as their pick-up location. Customers may then return their materials to OASIS or the Central Library or at any of the Library branches There was discussion on the possibility of expanding this service to the west side near the West Newport Community Center. The Newport Coast Community Center book drop will have to be doubled as it fills up quickly on the weekends. A promotional opportunity has been opened to fill the full time Library Assistant position vacated by Mara Cota, who accepted a position with the San Mateo County Library as a Community Outreach Librarian. Mara ran the Young Adult Advisory Council (YAAC) and hosted our “Look at the Library” program on NBTV, and she will be greatly missed. Full-time Children’s Librarian Mona Kobersy was asked to take Mara’s place on YAAC. Mona recently held her first meeting with YAAC members. The Board asked Youth Services and Branch Coordinator Debbie Walker to schedule Mona to come and report on the YAAC program to the Board at one of their future meetings. 2. Friends of the Library Liaison Report – Trustee King noted that the book sale was held on Friday, February 7 for Friends members only and on Saturday February 8, 2014 for the public. 3. Library Foundation Liaison Report – Trustee Grant noted that the last meeting was held last Monday, in the Central Library new staff conference room next to the Media Lab. A Zinio download presentation was made, and an update on the donor wall was presented. The Foundation has provided $53,000 for the purchase of 200 new Friends Meeting Room chairs and nine chair trollies. The chair selected for display at this meeting was disputed as not being comfortable. The existing chairs being used in the Friends Meeting Room were previously used at OASIS and present a tripping hazard. When stacked the chair pad retains an indentation mark from the chair stacked above it. Trustee Grant noted that the Foundation has had 500 books printed that highlight the last sixteen DSLS Witte lectures to be used in fundraising efforts. 4. DSLS Liaison Report – Trustee Prichard reported that the DSLS Committee met on January 16 and the scheduled lectures are on target. The 500 books were planned as a one-time printing with future periodic updates. Sponsorships are going well and the Kenneth Turan lecture ticket sales and attendance were also noted. They reported on their retreat which was held in December and which covered new members, a new podium, reserved seating, increasing partnerships, budget and retaining more local speakers. 6) BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES ANNOUNCEMENTS OR MATTERS WHICH MEMBERS WOULD LIKE PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION, ACTION OR REPORT (NON-DISCUSSION ITEM) 6 The next meeting will be held on Monday, March 3, 2014 at the Balboa Branch Library. Chair Johnson-Tucker asked the Trustees to arrive early and do a walk through prior to the meeting, and asked that Branch Librarian Andrea Jason be at the meeting to give a branch report. 7) PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS Mr. Mosher commented on potential identity theft presented by the check-out system. The current system allows a user to manually enter a library card number when they do not have their card. An individual who may not be the valid card holder may then check out items under another’s name. If a customer has a book delivered to one of the concierge service locations they could do the same, and having staff members validate identification at check-out would help. He also suggested that the Board may want to have a meeting where the public could be invited to engage with the new director to share ideas on what they would like to see the library doing. 8) ADJOURNMENT – 6:41 p.m. Submitted by: Jill Johnson-Tucker Chair Approval of Minutes