Library Board Minutes 9.20.2221
Extracted text (via pymupdf)
7714 characters
Meeting Minutes Library Board Regular Meeting September 20, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Downtown Chandler Library Copper Conference Room 254 22 S. Delaware St., Chandler, AZ 85225 Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Board President Beth Brizel at 6:30p.m. Roll Call Commission Attendance Staff Attendance Board President Beth Brizel - Present Rachelle Kuzyk, Library Manager Board member Bob Lowry - Present Courtney Allen, Management Assistant Board member Michael McElhany - Present Board member Arman Sidhu - Present Board member Maria Munoz – Present Board member Karla Palafox – Present Board member Alexis Merritt - Present Scheduled and Unscheduled Public Appearances None Consent Agenda 1. May 17, 2022 Library Board Meeting Minutes Motion to approve the minutes was made by Board member Munoz, Board member Sidhu seconded. Motion passed 7-0. 2. Chandler Library Board 2023 Meeting Dates Motion to approve the 2023 Library Board meeting dates was made by Board member McElhany, Board member Lowry seconded. Motion passed 7-0. Page 2 of 4 Briefing 1. Library Manager’s Report – Rachelle Kuzyk The Library Manager’s Report was provided to the Library Board in advance of the meeting for Board members review. Board member Palafox commented that the new Basha Instructional Specialist Librarian Charles Pratt is amazing. Board member Palafox is a teacher at Basha High School. Charles has gone above and beyond working with the teachers and has helped the Spanish department. Board President Brizel commented on what a great idea the Basha puzzle swap is. Board member Lowry inquired on the ages of the new Beanstack reading program software. Rachelle responded stating it is all ages. The company markets the software from age 0-109. The program will track reading minutes, or patrons can log their reading manually. The first program, Hallowread, will be pushed out soon. The program can also be used for reading challenges between classrooms, schools, businesses, departments, etc. The platform includes all the collateral, posters, marketing, flyers, etc. Board member Lowry inquired if this is something the Friends of the Library can possibly sponsor moving forward. The Spot at Downtown Library is now a teen hangout space. The library has 53 Contigo programs running at various branches. The study rooms at all the branches have been upgraded and will now be called huddle rooms, which all now have connectivity. This upgrade adds touchscreen all-in-one computers equipped with high-definition webcams and new furniture. The statistics show an upswing in active cardholders and we expect to have higher circulation numbers due to the automatic renewals. Board member McElhany inquired on the tracking of returns since going fine free and having automatic renewals. His concern is if books will be off the shelf for a longer period than in the past when we did not have automatic renewals. This tracking will help to understand if the library needs to purchase more copies of materials. Rachelle responded stating she has requested that our catalog and collection administrative librarian track the average time to fill holds with auto renewals verses several years past when there were no auto renewals. Summer reading challenge had 8,500,000 minutes read, which was 1,000,000 more minutes than last summer with almost 30% more participation. Board member Brizel inquired on the upcoming AzLA conference Rachelle will be attending. She is wondering what it is and what she’ll be learning. Rachelle responded stating AzLA does statewide general conferences along with a leader’s summit for librarians statewide to share best practices, ideas, pitfalls, etc. Board member Munoz inquired if it is well attended. Board member Lowry stated the AzLA Leaders Early Literacy summit that was held in Chandler last year was well attended with approximately 100 people. Page 3 of 4 The Sunset patio is currently under construction. The transition from the patio to the parking lot and Sunset park has degraded over the years and there was no ADA compliance. The patio is completely poured out. There will be stairs and a wheelchair path leading down to the park, tables, shade sails, an interactive play panel fence, musical library garden, a 24-hour book vending and hold pick up machine on the patio, as well as a water bottle refill station. The contactor has until the end of November to complete the project before the library can add all of the above-mentioned amenities. Rachelle Kuzyk mentioned the possibility of the library purchasing a Bookmobile as a fifth branch. This is a long way out and there are many logistics that need to be discussed before moving forward, but the conversation has begun. 2. Board member Lowry provided an update on the Friends of the Library (FOL). Sunset library has had tremendous used book sales since their re-opening. Between the Downtown and Sunset library used book, DVD’s, CD’s, and album sales, the Friends have brought in $76,000 this year. In 2020 the Friends donated $35,000 compared to $87,000 in 2022. Donations have increased from $7,000 to $18,000. There was a $7,000 NXP grant. Discussion 1. Board member Lowry would like to know if there is any indication of how many overdue and/or presumed lost books and materials were returned in the initial period after the fines were removed? Rachelle responded stating there has been an approximate 20% increase in circulation due to auto renewals. Board member Munoz inquired if the library tracks the bilingual collection circulation and if it is increasing. Rachelle will make a note to ask the catalog and collection administrative librarian for those statistics and will get that information back to Maria. 2. Board member McElhany would like to follow up on the findings of the current state with regard to digital content and access. Board member McElhany also inquired if there is any way to know if there was a hold and the person never checked it out? Rachelle responded that she did some research and the ratio for digital content purchases is 4:1. If there are four holds on one copy, that triggers us to purchase another copy. Audiobooks have a 6:1 ratio. There are currently no issues with patrons abusing the holds or new automated renewal system that library staff are aware of. Do we know if we have a problem with people having multiple Chandler library accounts and abusing the holds system? Rachelle responded with her findings of the address verification system. The system is not perfect and is approximately three months behind current mail records. There is a small window of time where two people could have the same address in the Library Polaris software. Page 4 of 4 Members Comments / Announcements 1. Bob Lowry announced that Board member Munoz is now serving on the FOL board. There are still vacancies on the FOL board. Calendar 1. The next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 15, at 6:30 p.m., at the Basha Library Programming Room, 5990 S. Val Vista Dr. Chandler, AZ 85249. 2. The next Friends of the Library Board meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at 1:00 p.m., in the Copper Conference Room 254 at the Downtown Library, 22 S. Delaware St. Adjourn Motion to adjourn made by Board member McElhany, Board member Lowry seconded. Motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m. ______________________________ ______________________________ Courtney Allen, Board Liaison Beth Brizel, Chairman