2005-06-29
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1 SOUTHAKE PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
2 Southlake Public Library
3 1400 Main Street, Suite 130
4 Southlake, Texas 76092
5
6 June 29, 2005
7
8 MINUTES
9
10 Library Board Members Present - C. D. Peebles, C hair; Penny Pannell; Lori Burr; Jean
11 Anne Hamm.
12
13 Library Board Members Absent - Peggy Firestone, vice chair; Liz Jackson, Charlene
14 Wiersum
15
16 Staff Members Present -Kerry McGeath, Library Administrator
17
18 Agenda Item No. 1, Call to Order - Chair, C.D. Peebles, called the meeting to order at 7:12 p.m.
19
20 Agenda Item No. 2, Librarians report - June has been a busy month as it historically has been
21 busy for us over the last few years. For the first time ever, we have circulated over 20,000 items
22 in a month and our traffic has been over 1,000 in a single month. Our programs have become so
23 well attended that we have had to move them to the third floor training rooms. Our clients no
24 longer fit in the library. We are looking at different locations throughout the city for next year's
25 programs. We would like a variety of venues including using the outdoors. This includes both
26 the MasterWorks and the Summer Reading Club events. We don't want to turn people away
27 because of space limitations. We have had over 1,000 join the Summer Reading Club. This year
28 we have had a number of sponsors who have given us very generous prizes including a bike from
29 McDonald's and a $1,000 savings bond from the Hibernia Bank.
30
31 The stats that are finished through May indicate that over a 2 year period, circulation has
32 increased 99%. Library cards issued has increased dramatically over our stats for 2 years ago.
33 Cards expire every 3 years. It has been 3 3/4 years since we opened, so there are quite a few
34 cards that have expired. It is a fairly simple action to renew and we use the same card. Although
35 there have been a fair number of borrower with expired cards taken out of the data base, the total
36 number of cards remains the same because of so many new citizens and non-residents getting
37 cards.
38
39 CONSENT AGENDA:
40
41 Agenda Item No. 3, Approval of the Minutes from the May, 2005 Library Board Meeting
42
43 There was no meeting last month.
44
45 REGULAR AGENDA:
46
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - June 29, 2005 Page I of I
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1 Agenda Item No. 4, Public Forum -
2 Chair Peebles opened the public forum at 7:22 p.m. As there were no requests to speak,
3 Chair Peebles closed the public forum at 7:23 p.m.
4
5 Agenda Item No. 5, Consider - No items to consider.
6
7 Agenda Item No. 6A, Discussion - Changing Focus for Library Board Meetings.
8 We would like to review the mission statement, policies and goals. Mr. McGeath will
9 break the policies into groups, prioritize the policies, and address 1-2 at each meeting. After a
10 group of 3-4 is done, then that group will be taken to the Council. It will become the central
11 focus of upcoming meetings rather than the stats. Since the management style has changed, we
12 need the policies to adequately address the changes that have been engendered. The Board's
13 participation is an important part of lending credence to these policy changes.
14 Mr. Peebles suggested that the alternate month's meetings be broken up into planning,
15 policies, statistics, and /or objective indicators of where our growth has been. He feels that it
16 will take several meetings to review and agree on a policy. Some of the policies will not need
17 alteration. Mr. McGeath said that the first policies to be reviewed will be the ones that most
18 need to be changed. Ms. Hamm would like to have the focus remain somewhat as is with some
19 emphasis on review of policies. The group came to a consensus of reviewing policies every 2
20 years on a rotating schedule.
21 Mr. Peebles also suggested reviewing planning including the following subjects: facility,
22 programming, collection development and purchasing, marketing, staffing and budgeting, hours
23 of operation, and grant proposals. Ms. Hamm suggested that the Board would only actually meet
24 about 10 times per year. Mr. McGeath said that more than one topic could be covered at one
25 meeting.
26 Ms. Hamm wanted to know if policy would be put in outline form and already drafted out
27 with revisions emphasized and why staff believes the changes need to be made. Then the Board
28 would receive the proposed changes well ahead of the meeting to read through them. At the
29 meeting the Board would discuss various issues and then vote, as has been done in the past. Mr.
30 McGeath concurred. He would like to get several policies reviewed at once so they could be
31 presented to the Council. While waiting on the Council approval, other issues could be
32 addressed.
33 Mr. McGeath suggested that he and Mr. Peebles meet to determine a schedule to be
34 presented to the Board.
35
36 Agenda Item No. 6B, Discussion - Review of proposed budget for 2005/06.
37 The Board discussed the overtime request, the regular earnings and the position upgrade
38 request. T he c opier 1 ease w ill b e f olded i nto T echnical S ervices b udget, w hich h andle in any
39 more copiers and can get a better lease rate with a better machine for the Library. The computer
40 maintenance cost is also to be folded into the Technical Services, so that we don't have to
41 construct future budgets based on significant increases in computer maintenance costs. We have
42 also requested $58,000 for the Polaris system to replace Horizon. Using Polaris will save us
43 about $25,000 over 5 years. This doesn't account for the time Jesse has to spend every week
44 keeping Horizon running properly. He works about 10-11 hours/week times his wage, which
45 amounts to $8-9,000. Polaris is Windows based and HTML friendly. Our Technical Services
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - June 29, 2005 Page 2 of 2
* *OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD
1 department would be able to work with Polaris, we would only have 1 server to replace and there
2 would be only the one time fee to load the information from Horizon to Polaris.
3 The Finance Department changed the way the budget was to be developed this year.
4 They gave the library a fixed amount of money with latitude to move it between line items.
5 Anything that was not in the amount given to the Library was to be a supplemental request,
6 which will be seriously scrutinized by Finance and the City Manager's office. Mr. McGeath said
7 his approach in requesting additional items in the budget is to take baby steps. The City
8 Manager has told him that she appreciates the conservative approach he has taken to the fiscal
9 operation. He tries to ask for only 1 or 2 things per year.
10 The Special Projects account (a City yearly budgeted account) containing $5,000 is to be
11 used for the MasterWorks programming. We have a donation account that has been building
12 over the last few years to about $9,000. We have asked for $3,000 to cover additional
13 programming and $2,000 to cover the coffee service. We are not currently asking for a materials
14 increase as we are at capacity for processing. We have several yearly grants that are used for
15 additional needed materials. Facilities maintenance costs come out of the City's budget, not the
16 Library's budget. The $8,000 saved from computer maintenance this year was used for other
17 computer related software and hardware purchases.
18
19 Agenda Item No. 6C, Discussion - Friends of the Southlake Library Update.
20 There is no update at this time.
21
22 Agenda Item No. 6D, Discussion - North Texas Regional Library System Update.
23 There is no update at this time.
24
25 Agenda Item No. 7, Other Items -
26 No other items on the agenda.
27
28 Agenda Item No. 8, Adjourn - Mr. Peebles adjourned the meeting at 8:15.
29
30 AT-T
31.
32
33 C.D. eebles
Southlake Library Board Meeting Minutes - June 29, 2005 Page 3 of 3
f