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2021-01-27 - LIBRARY MINUTES 1 ' CITY OF SOUTH LAKE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING: January 27, 2021 LOCATION: 1400 Main Street, Southlake, Texas Southlake Town Hall — virtual meeting TIME: 6:30 p.m. SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD PRESENT: Rebecca Petty, Janet Theaker, Lori Burr, Katherine Bennett SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD ABSENT: William Doby, Tracy Eaton, Beth Darr STAFF PRESENT: Cynthia Pfledderer, Deputy Director of Library Services; Jerod Potts, Policy & Strategic Initiative Principal Planner OTHERS PRESENT: None 1. CALL TO ORDER — Chair Lori Burr at 6:39 p.m. 2. CONSENT A. APPROVE MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING HELD DECEMBER 9, 2020 APPROVED A motion was made to approve the minutes from the December 9, 2020 Southlake Library Board meeting. Motion: Theaker Second: Bennett Ayes: Bennett, Burr, Theaker, Petty Nays: None Abstain: None Vote: 4-0 Motion Carried. City of Southlake Values: Integrity♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the January 27, 2021 South lake Library Board Meeting Page 2 of 4 3. REPORTS A. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT Cynthia Pfledderer reported the Library is still feeling the effects of Covid-19. Print circulation is down 12%, Digital Library is up 82%, Movies are down 31%, Flipster is up 63%, Programs are down 13%, Traffic is down 48%. Travel collection is down 80%. No one is travelling so that is expected. Preschool books down 8% and Board Books down 52% can be attributed to no in person story time traffic. The Library will be sending out a survey to Library Patrons to query in-person program interest. Adult collection is doing well and Romance, Suspense and True Crime are the most popular genres in circulation. Overall circulation is only down 2%. Computer and Meeting Room usage is down. Adult Programs are up 166% for the quarter. Lots of kits went out in December through the Holiday season and have been very popular at getting people to come in. Caroling and Mrs. Claus were two in-person programs that were offered. Library volunteer hours are up 16%. Interlibrary loans are down for the year, notaries are down 59%. Toll tag service will no longer be offered at the Library. Chair Burr asked if library computers were trending down prior to Covid-19 and if they will be phased out. Pfledderer stated she is considering having laptops available for use in Library because it will be a better use of space. 4. DISCUSSION A. BRAINFUSE UPDATE Brainfuse is now offering live chess tutoring as part of a new enhancement feature under "Expert Help". This service has been promoted thru email and social media. Brainfuse performance had 172 users and 92% were adult learners. There were 13 Homework Help users (tutoring 67%, writing lab 33%). The average session was 14 minutes and the subjects most requested were Math Grades 5 & 6, Reading Grade 3, Writing Grade 3, Pre-Algebra and Algebra I. Schools were sent information for the Dragon eBlast and each Principal was reached as well. Petty suggested that Chess Club might be of particular interest for schools in light of popularity of "Queen's Gambit". B. NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAMS Carillon Caroling program had attendance of 90 residents and was a nice evening. The sound system was not working because electrical extension cords. Covid-19 was an unfortunate issue because the performers gave us last minute that they were not allowed to be driven or drive in costume. The Theaker house was used for changing, but the experience was not ideal because we do not want to make people be at risk of Covid-19. Moving forward, the Library will have to carefully move forward with in-person programming in neighborhoods while minimizing Covid-19 risk. Theaker shared that it City of Southlake Values: Integrity♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability♦ Commitment to Excellence • Teamwork Minutes of the January 27, 2021 Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 3 of 4 was a beautiful night and residents were excited about the evening overall and it was well received by the community. C. LIBRARY SYSTEM ISSUES Behind Library scenes, the Library has been having system issues with the Polaris Library System and the City Network Firewall. Outside Polaris, but working in conjunction with Polaris, we have NoveList, CloudLibrary and Syndetics. The City Network Firewall has been creating service issues with these services, in particular with CloudLibrary. This has been making the CloudLibrary very difficult for users, especially on Saturdays. IT is working to determine the issue and solve the problem. This is an ongoing issue complicated by turnover in IT as a department. This has been an ongoing issues for 3-4 years. The Library is considering moving Polaris out of City servers having the Polaris host that service for us. The cost would be over $10,000 a year, but it would provide more consistent service. The new Deputy Director of IT is working diligently to provide a solution, but we are looking for a long term solution. D. SPECIAL PROJECTS Other activities behind the scenes are the Making Better Best team that is leading a mentoring program. They are looking to develop a Leadership Academy as well. A Customer Service Matrix Team is another project Cynthia is working on in conjunction with the City Managers Office to improve Customer Service across the City. Employee Appreciation Week will be held by the City Feb. 15-19, but the Library will be celebrating it the full month. For Staff, Emotional Intelligence Training was held in small pod groups. Other training opportunities are Gallup Strengthfinders, Emerging Leaders Roundtable, and Supervising the Southlake Way. Upcoming events: Black History Month: in-Library display installed by Tanny Jenkins, SOS with Tanny scheduled to be filmed. Black Men in White Coats Film Screening Feb. 11-13. Valentine's Day: "Find the Valentine" in-Library, Kits- Valentine Fortune Cookie Craft Lunar New Year: Online Storytime AARP Tax Aide Exhibition on Screen (Streaming Events) Art Class & Kits City of Southlake Values: Integrity♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the January 27, 2021 Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 4 of 4 E. 2022 BUDGET REQUESTS Beginning February marks beginning of budget requests for 2022 year. The Library has requested new carpet to be installed in the Library, furniture cleaning and restoration. The hope is that we might get new carpet by end of 2021. The furniture is approximately 8 years old. We want to make what we have last since a new library is on the horizon. Personnel requests are planned and there is a need for Library Manager and a Digital Program Coordinator. Program and Training budget requests will also be made. Chair Burr asked if Councilman Huffman is Library friendly and Cynthia responded that his family is pro-Library and are active Library users. Bennett asked if the Library currently works with homeschooling families at providing resources. Cynthia pointed out that the ILL program is a resource homeschooling families use. 5. NEW BUSINESS Chair Burr asked if anyone had any new business. Petty asked if the Library has ever had a program to donate a book in someone's name. Cynthia replied that the Library has done that in the past. That program is ongoing, a customer only needs to reach out to us and the Library will assist. 6. PUBLIC FORUM Chair Burr opened public forum at 7:35 pm to ask anyone wishing to speak to come forward. There being no public present, the forum was closed at 7:36 pm 7. ADJOURNMENT The next meeting will be scheduled February 24, 2021. The meeting was adjourned. Motion: Rebecca Petty Second: Katherine Bennett Ayes: Bennett, Petty, Theaker, Burr Nays: None Abstain: None Vote: Motion Carried. Attest: Pori° c37/r/iel-e. 4pr 4 , Lori :urr, Chair Cynthia Pfle.derer, City Librarian City of Southlake Values: Integrity♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork