LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD MAY 6, 2026 APPROVED MEETING MINUTES.PDF

Minutes of the LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD hybrid meeting recorded at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 
6, 2026, held in a hybrid format in-person at Tempe Public Library, and via Microsoft Teams.  
 
(MEMBERS) Present: 
Wendy Rosen (Chair)  
Jesse Shank (Vice-Chair)  
Jessica Brown  
Katie Boligitz  
Martha Carter  
Dianne Haws  
Sonia Sen  
 
(MEMBERS) Absent: 
City Staff Present: 
Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director – Library 
Nicole Swanson, Librarian – Adult Services 
Erin Fillmore, Senior Management Assistant – Community Services Admin 
 
General Public Present: 
None 
Agenda Item 1 - Call to Order: 
Wendy Rosen, Library Advisory Board (Board) Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. 
  
Agenda Item 2 - Call to the Audience: 
No public comments from the audience to report. 
 
Agenda Item 3 - Approval of the April 1, 2026, Board Meeting Minutes: APPROVED 
Wendy Rosen, Board Chair, asked the Board members to review the unapproved meeting minutes 
document dated April 1, 2026.  
o 
No edits noted or requested. 
 
MOTION:   
Jesse Shank (Vice Chair) moved to approve the April 1, 2026 Board meeting minutes as 
presented. 
SECOND:   
Katie Boligitz seconded. 
DECISION:  
Motion approved, 6-0.  
Minutes 
LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD
Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Library Advisory Board 
May 6, 2026 
 
Ayes:  
Wendy Rosen (Chair), Jesse Shank (Vice Chair), Katie Boligitz, Jessica Brown, Dianne 
Haws, and Sonia Sen 
Nays:   
None 
Absent: 
None  
Abstained:  
Martha Carter  
Agenda Item 4 – Staff Report: Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director – Library  
o 
Nicole Swanson, Librarian – Adult Services, presented on Adult Programming, including puzzles: 
 
N. Swanson discussed prior and upcoming adult programming. 
 
Puzzles increased in popularity in 2020 and continue to be popular today.  
 
The Library holds a puzzle swap on the last Sunday of the month from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. where 
Library users can trade puzzles. 
 
The Library recently started a puzzle lending library located behind the Answers Desk where 
Library users can borrow puzzles without checking out and puzzles can either be returned or 
kept.  
 
The Jigsaw Puzzle Tournament started in Tempe in 2018 and in 2025, an Inter-City Puzzle 
Tournament began that included Tempe, Chandler, and Mesa, with Scottsdale being added 
to the 2026 Inter-City Puzzle Tournament. 
 
Additional puzzle programs for adults include Puzzle Mosaic where cut puzzle pieces create 
pieces of art and a Puzzle table located next to the Tech Desk with a weekly rotation of 
puzzles. 
 
Upcoming adult programs include Dinosaur Iris Folding, Below the Power Grid and Into the 
Past: How Unexpected Fossil Discoveries Occur All Around Us, Trinket Dish, Cross-Stitch 
and Chill, Paleo Puzzle Tournament, and Getting Started with Family History Research. See 
the Library’s program calendar for details. 
 
o 
Jessica Jupitus, Deputy Community Services Director – Library, gave the following report specific to 
Tempe Public Library (Library) operations: 
 
 
397 adults were engaged in 23 programs during April 2026; programs included: 
 
 
Book Clubs 
o 
Footnotes Walking Club 
o 
Mystery Club 
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Friends of Dorothy 
o 
Love and Fate 
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Coffee, Tea, and Books 
o 
Let’s Get Graphic 
o 
Weird Books for Weird People 
 
Writing Programs  
o 
Writers’ Connection 
o 
Reflections on Hope 
o 
Romance Writing Essentials (WiR) 
o 
The Art of the Book Launch (WiR) 
o 
39 WiR consultations 
 
Improv Club 
 
Library Stitch Club 
 
With A Twist: Industrial and Ikebana 
 
Haunted Arizona: True Ghost Stories 
 
Board Game Café 
 
Sourdough for Beginners

Library Advisory Board 
May 6, 2026 
 
 
Rainwater Harvesting with Sustainability 
 
Puzzle Swap 
 
Motherhood Anthology Project: Bookmaking with little somethings press 
 
Uke Therapy 
 
Climate Future Film Festival 
 
 
Tiny Art Show Gallery is open! The Library has the annual display of community art in miniature 
located near the Answers desk and it is worth taking some time to peruse. This is a community 
favorite and a great way to kick off the month before Summer Reading.  
 
The Library had a really diverse slate of adult programs in April including the newest Librarian’s 
sourdough program success, with supplies for 36 people and over 40 attending!  
 
In May, we’re adding Cook The Books, a new celebration of cookbooks and recipes where we 
invite folks to try recipes with a prompt – the first being Quick and Easy Meals – and share their 
recipe, experiences, and any photos. No sampling though!  
 
o 
J. Jupitus reported the following information specific to operations of the Library’s Youth and Teen 
Services areas: 
 
 
1,588 participants were engaged in 44 youth programs during April 2026, J. Jupitus highlighted 
the following programs: 
 
 
Storytimes:  
o 
Baby Lapsit – frogs, vehicles, Earth Day, and pets 
o 
Family Evening 
o 
Preschool  
o 
Toddler – focus on math skills 
o 
Cuentos Contigo – The Very Hungry Caterpillar and butterfly life cycles 
o 
Pet Storytime (no pets allowed) with make your own paper plate pets 
 
Mini STEAMers – honeybees and pollination, pipetting “nectar” to the “hive” 
 
Budding Builders – building places they like to go and many did the library! 
 
LEGO Learning Lab  
 
Paws2Read with Finn and Roxy 
 
Sunday Funday  
 
Happily Ever Crafter – Arnie The Doughnut and paper plate doughnuts 
 
Pokemon Hour 
 
 
Teen:  
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Maker Lab 
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Crochet Corner 
o 
Level Up LEGO 
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Teen Art Gallery – Rosie Lee Tompkins’ quilting and her impact on the art world 
o 
Super Gaming Tournaments 
o 
ASU Biomedical Engineering presentation 
 
Outreach: 
o 
Kyrene Resource Fair 
o 
Kyrene de los Niños STEAM Night 
o 
Rainbow Robotics at Corona de Sol 
o 
CARE7 LGBTQ+ Resource Fair 
o 
Fees Spring Festival 
o 
Class visits at Fees, WARD, and AVID classrooms at ASPIRE Academy at Connolly 
 
 
The Library had 7 teen volunteers for the month providing 22 hours of service.

Library Advisory Board 
May 6, 2026 
 
 
106 Youth Activity Kits and 66 teen STEAM kits circulated as well as 228 scavenger 
hunters. 
 
On Saturday, April 25, 2026, the Library had a group of teens spend the entire day in the teen 
center working on fiber arts projects. 
 
Recruitment for 2026 Summer Reading volunteers is currently underway for both the Totally 
Tempe Tuesdays and the Teen Thursdays in addition to general sign-up support.  
 
May is the Library’s accelerated outreach month where staff tries to visit every school in 
Tempe to promote Summer Reading participation so the youth team and our part-time 
Librarians will be spending a lot of time out in the community! 
 
o 
J. Jupitus reported the following information specific to the Library’s Infrastructure: 
 
 
Physical circulation of materials for April 2026: 
 
Physical circulation of materials in April 2026 totaled 35,179 uses; 
 
 
Virtual/eResource circulation for April 2026:  
 
eResource circulation in April 2026 totaled 48,229 uses; 
 
 
Views (use of database resources without downloading content) for April 2026: 
 
Views in April 2026 are unavailable; 
 
 
Library staff added 1,313 new users and renewed 1,620 cards in April 2026.  
 
 
Public access computers saw 3,365 total sessions in April 2026. 
 
 
Gate Count: unavailable 
 
 
The Library had 251 App downloads (160 Apple; 91 Android) in April 2026. 
 
 
Some pieces of data were inaccessible in advance of this report, but the numbers will be 
corrected in the June report.  
 
The Library is doing a deep dive into accounts records and cleaning them up to ensure data is 
accurate. This has been a consuming but worthwhile project to ensure Library users have 
complete information in their card accounts to ensure they get information about their materials or 
account updates. 
 
It’s SUMMER READING TIME! Sign-ups are now available at 
http://www.tempepubliclibrary.org/summerreading though logging points start June 1, 2026.  
 
Summer Reading runs June 1, 2026 through July 20, 2026 and the Library has activities and 
prizes for all ages.  
 
Staff are working on a special challenge for our Friends of the Tempe Public Library (Friends) 
volunteers to ensure they are participating in the program since they provide some of the 
initial sign-up prizes. The Library is looking for more collaborative opportunities with Friends. 
 
Be sure to follow the Tempe Public Library on Instagram and Facebook and promote 
Summer Reading participation to your networks.  
 
Beyond the Shelves will occur on Sunday, May 17, 2026 between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.  
 
Tours run every 15 minutes with different guides to take people behind the closed doors to 
see how the Library works, including program highlights from both the youth team and the 
adult team.  
 
This is the first time the Library is trying something like this so here’s hoping for a successful 
event! This will also be a chance to chat with folks about Summer Reading to increase adult 
participation. We hope to have at least 5,000 Summer Reading participants this year!  
 
A few Friends updates:

Library Advisory Board 
May 6, 2026 
 
 
Staff is working on an agreement with the Friends for the use of the café and bookstore and 
hopes to get it before Council soon. 
 
Friends are moving their board meetings to the second Wednesday of the month. 
 
Friends are reducing the Café hours. 
 
Friends held a volunteer appreciation event  
 
o 
J. Jupitus informed the Board that the vote taken at the April 1, 2026 meeting on Agenda Item 6 
regarding updating the Borrower Privileges policy by removing both automated calls and text from the 
notifications section was taken in error and is therefore, according to state law, null and void and will 
have no effect. The item was not properly agendized and was informational in nature and did not 
need a vote.   
 
Agenda Item 5 – Member Announcements/Future Agenda Items 
o 
A Board member encouraged fellow members to sign up for NetGalley.  
 
Agenda Item 6 – Adjournments 
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Motion made by Jesse Shank (Vice Chair) to adjourn the meeting. 
Second by Sonia Sen. 
Meeting Adjourned at 6:43 p.m. 
 
The next meeting of the Library Advisory Board is scheduled to occur at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 
June 3, 2026; 
 
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  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
06/12/2026 
Approval Signature: Library Advisory Chair