2005-07-27
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
I SOUTHAKE PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
2 Southlake Public Library
3 1400 Main Street, Suite 130
4 Southlake, Texas 76092
5
6 July 27, 2005
7
8 MINUTES
9
10 Library Board Members Present - C. D. Peebles, Chair; Peggy Firestone, Vice Chair; Liz
11 Jackson; Jean Anne Hamm.
12
13 Library Board Members Absent - Penny Pannell; Charlene Wiersum; Lori Burr.
14
15 Staff Members Present -Kerry McGeath, Library Administrator, Jesse Ephraim, Nancy
16 Roper
17
18 Agenda Item No. 1, Call to Order - Chair, C.D. Peebles, called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.
19 The next meeting is scheduled for Wed. Aug. 17, 2005 at 7pm.
20
21 Agenda Item No. 2, Librarians report - Mr. Ephraim will start coming to all the meetings as the
22 Librarian in Charge when Mr. McGeath is not in the office. Mrs. Roper will begin attending to
23 perform the administrative assistant duties. This will give staff a broader understanding of what
24 is accomplished at the meetings and have more staff available to assist Board members.
25
26 In June, our circulation statistics exceeded 20,000 items and we had over 10,000 visitors.
27
28 CONSENT AGENDA:
29
30 Agenda Item No. 3, Approval of the Minutes from the June 29, 2004 Library Board Meeting
31
32 Minutes were approved at this time with the following modification to lines 23 and 24:
33 Ms. Hamm stated that the Board typically meets about 10 times per year because of holidays and
34 extenuating circumstances.
35
36 REGULAR AGENDA:
37
38 Agenda Item No. 4, Public Forum -
39 Chair Peebles opened the public forum at 7:15 p.m. As there were no requests to speak,
40 Chair Peebles closed the public forum at 7:16 p.m.
41
42 Agenda Item No. 5A, Consider - Recommendation on Library Budget: Mr. Peebles noticed that
43 the salary information for staff was missing from the document. Mr. McGeath stated that
44 Human Resources had not made that information available yet. The information will be loaded
45 into the final document before the first reading by the City Council. The Board and Library Staff
46 have no control over that part of the budget. It is determined by the City of Southlake. The only
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - July 27. 2005 Page I of 4
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1 time the Library would negotiate salary information is when there is a request for a new position
2 or a request for a position upgrade. In this budget there is a supplemental request for funds to
3 upgrade the position of the Library Clerk II to Administrative Secretary.
4
5 A discussion followed delineating the 40+ databases available from the TexShare Databases, a
6 service to which we subscribe available from the State Library. We get this group of databases
7 at a fantastic discount because of the contract with the State Library. Besides the databases,
8 NetLibrary also is available, which provides over 27,000 e-books for check out. Although they
9 can be printed out, it is very difficult and time consuming. It is rigged that way on purpose.
10
11 We have purchased from NetLibrary the ability to download audio books which can be put on an
12 MP3 player or on the computer. There 600 books in the collection that can be checked out for a
13 three week period with one renewal. After the loan is finished, they disappear from the player.
14 Many borrowers can check out the same audio book at the same time.
15
16 The 905 account was renamed Library Materials from Library Books after Mr. McGeath pointed
17 out to Finance that the Library purchases many other items besides books. Mr. Peebles would
18 like to see the Materials budget increased for next year. In addition to the Materials Budget, we
19 also get about $6,000/year in grant money. One of the issues for us, when the Materials Budget
20 is increased, is the additional taxation on our ability to process the materials that are bought.
21 Electronic books don't generate that problem. Mr. Peebles feels that this community would love
22 the ability to have access to electronic books. He would like additional funds for electronic
23 resources. Mr. McGeath explained that the money that was taken out of our budget for computer
24 maintenance and put into the Technical Service budget was not actually "lost". We are getting
25 the benefit of the computer maintenance without having to pay for it out of our budget. In the
26 future, we will not have to be responsible for cost increases in maintenance fees coming out of
27 our budget. It will become Technical Services bailiwick. Technical Services does this for every
28 other city department, so this is not an unusual move. This will not harm our future ability to get
29 money for materials and other needs because of a budget increase in computer maintenance fees.
30 Mr. McGeath's philosophy with the budget is to prove to the City Manager's Office that we are
31 able to handle the budget that has been given to us and that we can do a good job with it. We
32 have presented a very conservative budget request to the City, so that we can show that we can
33 do what we need to do and hold the budget firm. Then when we say we need something, the
34 City will understand and not take our request lightly. We have also requested an additional
35 $58,000 to improve our computer system, which would actually be paid out of the Technical
36 Services budget.
37
38 The budget process was changed this year with each department given an amount of money
39 which can be allocated in any way the department wants. Any additional requests are made as
40 special request to the base budget. The additional requests for the Library for this year are to
41 upgrade the Library Clerk II position to an Administrative Secretary and to get additional funds
42 to upgrade our computer system. We also requested that funds which were donations or monies
43 that were taken in over the years as item replacement costs and which had been held for several
44 years in a "savings account", will be released to be used as additional funding for the Library.
45 We justified the additional computer upgrade money by noting that we will be saving $5,000 per
46 year for the next 5 years in computer maintenance costs. We will also gain valuable staff time
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - July 2 7. 2005 Page 2 of 4
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES * *
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1 because several staff will no longer have to spend time correcting programming, trying to obtain
2 information that is not available through the system, but should be, calling Dynix, and including
3 Technical Services staff in all of the fixes.
4
5 Last year the focus was to get 2 additional halftime staff. We have tried to keep our requests
6 narrow so that the City Manager's Office will see that we are being good stewards of the
7 resources. This has been a theme throughout the various City Departments this year in light of
8 the recent fiscal management problems the City has experienced.
9
10 Mr. Peebles recapped the changes in the budget. Mr. McGeath added that we spent $22,000 of
11 the $28,000 allocated for computer maintenance. The other $6,000 was reallocated throughout
12 the rest of the FY 05-06 budget. The additional amount was placed in Special Projects and
13 Library Services.
14
15 Mr. Peebles that was concerned that the total amount of the budget for next year compared to this
16 past year's budget would look very negatively lopsided with the transfer of the computer
17 maintenance money to Technical Services. He would like to add $7-8,000 dollars into the
18 materials budget. The total budget would still be less than last year's, but not adversely so. The
19 question arose as to whether or not we could continue to give quality service with the
20 phenomenal rise in circulation and traffic. The question was whether or not the budget would
21 adequately meet the infrastructure needs of an organization with explosive growth. Mr.
22 McGeath explained that because we have had a solid budget for the last two years, we have
23 developed a solid collection. Mr. Ephraim has been assessing the non-fiction targeting a specific
24 area with each order. We have had a 28% increase in the non-fiction, which tells us that we
25 filling the holes.
26
27 Mr. Peebles moved to accept the budget with the following exception: the Materials Budget
28 would be increased by $6-10,000 dollars in whole thousands, with the total budget not to exceed
29 last year's total budget. Mrs. Firestone seconded and the Board voted unanimously aye.
30
31 Agenda Item No. 5B, Consider - Approval of Library Mission and Service Goals - This will be
32 moved to August meeting.
33
34 Agenda Item No. 5C, Consider - Recommendation to City Council on Library Hours - The
35 Board agreed that the Library should open 10 am on Wednesday and Fridays. They felt that
36 Saturday hours should be 12N-6pm and Sunday hours should be 12N-4pm. Mr. Peebles made a
37 motion to change the hours and Mrs. Firestone seconded. All were in favor.
38
39 Agenda Item No. 5D, Consider - Recommendation to the City Council on Borrower Privileges
40 and Responsibilities - This will be moved to the August meeting.
41
42 Agenda Item No. 6A, Discussion - Schedule for Policy and Planning Review - A schedule will
43 be set for an annual review of policies and procedures as they relate to the budget. The policy
44 format will be changed to a formal policy format so that the policies can easily be referenced and
45 changes easily made when necessary. The policies will also be matched the Mission statement.
46
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - July 2 7. 2005 Page 3 of 4
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1
2 Agenda Item No. 6B, Discussion - Friends of the Southlake update.
3 There is no update at this time.
4
5 Aizenda Item No. 6C, Discussion - North Texas Regional Library System update.
6 There is no update at this time.
7
8
9 Aizenda Item No. 7, Other Items -
10 No other items on the agenda.
11
12 Agenda Item No. 8, Adjourn - Mr. Peebles adjourned the meeting at 8:50pm..
13
14 ATTEST:
15
16
17 C. eebles
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - July 2 7. 2005 Page 4 of 4