2025_11_05_LAB_APPROVED_MINUTES.PDF
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Minutes of the LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD hybrid meeting recorded at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, held in a hybrid format in-person at Tempe Public Library, and via Microsoft Teams. (MEMBERS) Present: Shari Laster (Chair) Jesse Shank (Vice-Chair) Katie Boligitz Jessica Brown Marie Brown Wendy Rosen (MEMBERS) Absent: Sonia Sen City Staff Present: Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director ± Library Erin Fillmore, Senior Management Assistant ± Community Services Admin General Public Present: Tom Snyder RN, BSN, MBA, CLSSBB, FACHE, RYT Agenda Item 1 - Call to Order: Shari Laster, Library Advisory Board (Board) Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Agenda Item 2 - Call to the Audience: Tom Snyder thanked and commended the Board and Library staff for what they do daily to support the Tempe Library and encourage resident engagement and reading. Mr. Snyder discussed two concerns: the percentage of Tempe residents that have a Library card and the trend of book banning. o Mr. Snyder noted that Tempe¶s percentage of Library card holders, based on the most recent census data, is lower than American Library Association¶s (ALA) survey results, highlighting an opportunity for improvement. He asked how the Library¶s strategic plan addresses increasing Library card holders. o Mr. Snyder expressed concern about the rise in book bans nationwide and affirmed his support for ALA¶s stance against censorship and book banning. He asked if there are indications of any upcoming book ban requests. The Board is unable to discuss items not listed on the agenda but noted this topic could be added to a future agenda. Agenda Item 3 - Approval of the October 1, 2025 Board Meeting Minutes: APPROVED Shari Laster, Board Chair, asked the Board members to review the unapproved meeting minutes document dated October 1, 2025. Minutes LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Library Advisory Board November 5, 2025 o Spelling error was noted for Board Member Katie Boligitz¶s last name. MOTION: Wendy Rosen moved to approve the October 1, 2025 Board meeting minutes as amended with updated spelling of Board Member Katie Boligitz¶s last name. SECOND: Jesse Shank seconded. DECISION: Motion approved, 6-0. Ayes: Shari Laster (Chair), Jesse Shank (Vice Chair), Katie Boligitz, Jessica Brown, Marie Brown, and Wendy Rosen Nays: None Absent: Sonia Sen Abstained: None Agenda Item 4 - Staff Report: Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director ± Library o Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director ± Library, gave the following report specific to Tempe Public Library (Library) operations: 472 adults were engaged in 37 programs during October 2025; programs included: Book Clubs o Mystery Club o Friends of Dorothy o Great Books o Coffee, Tea, and Books o Footnotes Walking Club o Let¶s Get Graphic o Weird Books for Weird People o Love and Fate o Bite Size Book Club Writing Programs o Writers¶ Connection o Neighbors, Neighborhoods, and Neighborliness o The Great Big World of Publishing ± Writer in Residence o Are You Ready With Your Elevator Speech? ± Writer in Residence One Tempe One Book Programs o Incantations by Mayan Women with Phoenix Art Museum o Teatime with Taliesin Fellowship o Monarch Butterflies in Arizona o From Page to Stage o Disruption, Mischief, and Blunder: Trickster Tales o Tales From The Morgue o Blending Tea Alchemy and Storytelling o Dixxon Flannel Co Story o Stories of Second Chances: Organ Donation o Kikahamalie Ka¶iwalani Hula o Swords and Sorcery o Stories of Our Ancestors o Storytelling in Shakespeare o The Tell-tale Heart o Tell a Story In a Zine o Film Screening: ³A Trip to the Moon´ and silent movie storytelling o OTOB weekly book club Library Advisory Board November 5, 2025 Improv Club Library Stitch Club Growing Pollinator Plants From Seeds (with Sustainability) Reel Deal Film Society HOA Water Resources (with Water Conservation) Board Game Café Film Screening: The Bookshop One Tempe One Book hosted quite a few programs with diverse presenters, from blending your own tea to the impact of organ donation to native trickster tales and more. The Library hosted 31 programs under the One Tempe One Book umbrella and 311 attendees across all programs. People seemed to enjoy the book and share their stories with one another though book club attendance on Sundays was low. One woman shared that this book helped her see that as a Mexican American, her story mattered. Another person mentioned that he is starting to share family stories with his kids because of what he read. Library partners ran out of books before the end of the month, which is always a success, and most of the swag was taken as well. Another successful year! The Board asked when the Library decides the book topic and J. Jupitus responded around this time of year and next year¶s subject will be kindness. J. Jupitus said the Library does not yet have a book picked out and is open to suggestions. The Board asked if the Library has considered partnering with Human Library Project for One Tempe One Book programs and J. Jupitus responded that it is an interesting idea, but it is difficult to keep people safe not knowing what the conversation will lead to and it is also challenging to get people to attend this programming. The Library added a new book club ± Bite Size, reading and discussing short stories. This brings book clubs up to nine with six of them being staff run. The Library had a presence at this year¶s Tardeada held on Sunday, November 2, 2025. Prizes were handed out, and library card signups were encouraged. December 6, 2025 is the Library¶s first ever car and motorcycle show, taking place in the north parking lot. Quite a few clubs signed up and are looking forward to sharing information like free access to Chilton and Mitchell¶s car repair databases with a Library card. o J. Jupitus reported the following information specific to operations of the Library¶s Youth and Teen Services areas: 2,498 participants were engaged in 57 youth programs during October 2025, J. Jupitus highlighted the following programs: Storytimes: o Baby Lapsit o Family Evening o Preschool o Toddler o Cuentos Contigo o Sports with author Viva Kreis of She Did That?! Baby Bonding Mini STEAMers ± one about stars and one about pumpkins Budding Builders LEGO Learning Lab Paws2Read with Finn and Roxy Library Advisory Board November 5, 2025 Sunday Funday Pokemon Hour Raising a Reader with Southwest Human Development Autumn Adventures: included ³Engineering Fairytales´ or designing a house that could withstand the breath of a wolf (fan) Spooktacular Week of Fun: included Trick or Treating with a PD/Fire Trunk or Treat and making bat crafts and homemade slime Teen: o Maker Lab o Crochet Corner o Autumn Adventures: zine-making, loteria, postcard collage art, storytelling prompts, book trivia, and shrinky dinks o Life Skills o Pickle Autopsy o Queer Trivia: Art and History o One Tempe One Book The Story of Monarch Butterflies Zine Making The Story of Tarot The Library had 17 teen volunteers for the month providing 93 hours of service. 145 Youth Activity Kits and 97 teen STEAM kits circulated as well as 409 scavenger hunters. The Library is heading into the cool off period of the year. The Library will not have storytimes during the last two weeks of December 2025 based on the patterns of use over the last five years. The Library will continue to have passive programs for the families who head into the Library. The Library¶s Halloween Trick or Treat was well attended, as it is every year, and there were plenty of charming costumes. The Friends of the Tempe Public Library (Friends) also participated, handing out little treats in the café and bookstore as children left the storytime and dance party downstairs. Physical circulation of materials for October 2025: Physical circulation of materials in October 2025 totaled 40,524 uses; Virtual/eResource circulation for October 2025: eResource circulation in October 2025 totaled 45,142 uses; Library staff added 1,362 new users and renewed 1,769 cards in October 2025. Public access computers saw 3,806 total sessions in October 2025. Gate Count: 43,542 The Library had 254 App downloads (164 Apple; 90 Android) in October 2025. The Library is currently at 82,123 library card holders, which is a higher number at a given time. One of the most popular databases with over 33,000 views each month is Novelist. This subscription gives people reading recommendations based on what they are already interested in, either by author, title, genre, or even topics like ³fast-paced´ or ³character- driven´. Library Advisory Board November 5, 2025 In addition to chatting with staff, this gives people a chance to discover new titles and links directly from the catalog to offer readalikes if an item is already checked out. The Library is working on a marketing campaign to place information about Novelist on Orbit buses to entice potential new Library users. The Board asked if the Library has ways to determine trends for Library card holders and foot traffic for programs and J. Jupitus replied that data is looked at for both Library card holders and foot traffic but since there are different programs at the same time, it can be challenging to determine which program increased foot traffic relates to. o The Library is hopeful using QR codes will be an additional tool, along with tracking the number of Library card holders, gate counts, program registrations, and outreach to help determine the program outcomes and track data to make informed decisions. With current tracking methods, the Library has not seen a huge change in trends. o Meet Up is currently the best marketing tool with up to 1,300 people using it. The Board asked how to get more Library card holders and what a reasonable target is for Tempe. This item was requested as a future agenda item. The Board asked if the Library has partnered with school librarians and J. Jupitus responded that Library staff works with school librarians yearly, including using Peachjar, the school district¶s digital flyer system, to promote programming. o J. Jupitus updated the Board on the following topics: As mentioned at the previous Board meeting, the Library¶s main book distributor, Baker and Taylor, unfortunately declared bankruptcy and the Library is currently without a regular vendor. The Request for Proposal (RFP) process for new book distribution vendors began and the City entered a temporary cooperative contract with the City of Phoenix that will be in use until the RFP process is complete. Staff is still ordering bestsellers and highly requested items through smaller vendors to ensure the Library has physical items but the focus is on continuing to grow the digital collection. Fortunately, this happened during the slow publishing months and the Library is working hard to maintain a high level of service for the public during this disruption. The Board asked if other public libraries will be impacted by Baker and Taylor¶s bankruptcy and J. Jupitus responded that others may see some impact, but other libraries had multiple vendor contracts to use and since Baker and Taylor was Tempe¶s only main book distributor, Tempe will be impacted the most. The Board requested a budget presentation to better understand the Library¶s budget process for programming. Current allocated funds for programming are outlined below. Library Program Supplies - $8,000. This funding is used to buy items for staff provided programming like book bedazzling or Mini STEAMers. Contracted Services - $20,000. This funding covers both paid presenters and regular services like Zoom for one virtual book club. Friends donation - $20,000 each year. This funding is split between major initiatives: o FanCon receives roughly $5,000 which buys swag like branded light sabers. o Summer Reading receives $10,000 which is used mainly to purchase prizes for all age levels. o One Tempe One Book receives $5,000 mostly for swag and giveaways. The Library aims to spend no more than $2 per person on programming to ensure reasonable fiscal stewardship for the community. Most of the Library¶s programming is staff- led with very few paid presenters. The Writer in Residence programming has traditionally been grant funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grants. If IMLS funding ends, Friends have offered to help with this program. Overall, approximately $35,000 each year is allocated for programming supplies, presenters, and giveaways from the Library¶s roughly $2.7 million dollar budget. Library Advisory Board November 5, 2025 To see the full City budget and where high-level dollar assignments go, check out Tempe¶s Budget: https://www.tempe.gov/budget. Agenda Item 5 ± Discuss Goals of Inviting Guests to Provide Updates o Shari Laster, Board Chair, introduced this item to the Board by recapping the new structure of inviting guests to provide updates at the six open Library Advisory Board meetings and opened the discussion to the Board regarding goals for inviting guests. S. Laster (Chair) noted invited guest updates should align with the Board¶s purpose and duties, as well as assist and advance the Library¶s strategic goals. The Board will identify community-focused City departments to discuss best practices for engaging the community as a way to broaden the reach of the Library. The Board suggested partnering with other advisory boards for mutually beneficial connections advancing both parties¶ goals. The Board discussed community outreach and partnering with other City departments on finding ways to grow Library card users. One idea was to explore partnering with Neighborhood Services to use a list from NAC or GAIN to create a reading challenge and encourage Library card signups. The Board discussed bringing in expert voices not currently represented on the Board as well as exploring those working in philanthropic and charitable giving for opportunities. The Board mentioned connecting and partnering with businesses to determine possible mutually beneficial collaborations. Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director ± Library, said the implementation of the Library¶s Strategic Plan could be used to identify gaps and guide the Board with which guests to invite to help achieve the goals. Agenda Item 6 ± Member Announcements/Future Agenda Items o The Board requested statistics on Library card holders in Tempe compared to similar cities in addition to providing the Board with a reasonable target for Library card holders and a discussion on how the Board can help increase Library card holders. o The Board requested information on how residents value the Library during the budget process and the Community Budget Survey. o The Board requested that the December staff report contain information on the process to request a book be removed. Agenda Item 7 - Adjournments o Motion made by Jesse Shank to adjourn the meeting. Second by Wendy Rosen. Meeting Adjourned at 7:02 p.m. The next meeting of the Library Advisory Board is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2025; o This public meeting will be held in a hybrid format in-person and virtually via Microsoft Teams. Prepared by: Erin Fillmore; Reviewed by: Jessica Jupitus 12/04/2025 Approval Signature: Library Advisory Board Chair