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2025-03-26 LB MeetingCITY OF SOUTHLAKE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Location: Southlake Training Center 307 Parkwood Dr. Southlake, Texas Time: 6:30 p.m. Agenda: 1. Call to Order 2. Consent A. Approval of the Library Board minutes from the February 26, 2025, meeting 3. Discussion A. Introducing the LiDA App B. FY2026 Budget Discussion 4. Librarian's Report 5. Library Foundation of Southlake Update 6. New Business 7. Public Forum (This is the public's opportunity to address the Board about non -agenda items. During this proceeding, the Board will not discuss, consider or take action on any item presented. We respectfully ask that anyone stepping forward to speak during Public Forum to please limit remarks to three minutes or less.) 8. Adjournment A quorum of the City Council or any board, commission, or commitee may be present at this meeting. CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the above agenda was posted on the official bulletin boards at Town Hall, 1400 Main Street, S�Q,I.,ithfYKg!1,Texas, on Friday, March 21, 2025, by &00 p.m. p rsuant to Chapter 51 af`` h&�exILVtVnment Code. Cn Amy ey, R C City cretary If you plan to attend this ubliNne•*.* A Od have a disability that requires special needs lease Y p P �tfni A Y q P � P advise the City Secretary 48 hours in advance at 817.748.8016. Reasonable accommodations will be made to assist you. r .CITY OF SOUTHLAKE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING: March 26, 2025 LOCATION: 307 Parkwood, Southlake, Texas Southlake Training Center TIME: 6:30 p.m. SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD PRESENT: Lori Burr, Will Doby, Cicely Nelson, Lauren Green, Janet Theaker, and David Treichler. SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Cynthia Pfledderer, Deputy Director of Library Services. OTHERS PRESENT: None. 1. CALL TO ORDER Will Doby called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. 2. CONSENT A. APPROVE MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING HELD February 26, 2025 APPROVED Motion: Burr Second: Theaker Ayes: Doby, Treichler, Nelson, Green Nays: None Abstain: None Vote: 6-0 Motion Carried. 3. DISCUSSION City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the March 26, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 2 of 6 A. Introducing the LiDA App City Librarian Pfledderer presented to the Board the new LiDA app which is the full Southlake Library in your pocket. It was presented by Aspen as a free addition with the catalog package but has been great tool and addition to library services. In the app, you can see everything that the library owns, including eBooks/eAudiobooks, database articles, and more, all in one place. Customers can check out e-materials directly from the app using their card number and pin, and it will show everything that is checked out on the account. The app also gives the customer an e-version of their library card, so if they lose the physical card, they can still easily checkout at the library using their phone. The app is also directly linked to the library calendar through LibCal, and customers are able to save events they're interested into their calendar, as well register for upcoming classes. You can also get to the library's databases through the app. An additional feature is a kids catalog version that only shows children's materials and resources. B. FY2026 Budget Discussion City Librarian Pfledderer presented to the Board the proposed plan for the FY2026 budget as planning is already underway in the city regarding the upcoming fiscal year. She provided background to the Board to better understand the proposal. In 2019, there was a trend of no new revenue rate for property taxes, and City Council decided to adopt to have static tax trends for property holders. There have been no new rate increases since 2019, but the costs have gone up for every part of industry. Southlake is also an aging city that needs infrastructure updating. And the cost of health insurance for city employees has gone up significantly. In years past, the city would end a fiscal year with $6-8 million in unspent funds to set aside to pay cash for future projects. Last year, the CFO's office estimated that if the trend of no new revenue rates continues, the city will be exceeding revenue by 2029 for operational costs at current business levels. Sales tax revenue is not expected to grow, with only a 0.07% increase for sales tax for the year so far. The library is funded specifically out of the city's general fund which is made up of combination of property taxes and sales taxes, and with Tarrant County now assessing property taxes every other year, there will be no new evaluations for 2026. The city must prioritize what are necessities, and what are projects must be for another time. There will be no new requests for the library in FY 2026. Further, the library may start charging a $5 materials fees for some adult programming, but does not anticipate doing this for children's programs. Library administration is also looking in to City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the March 26, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 3 of 6 reevaluating the parameters of accreditation guidelines with the state to look into the possibility of charging for certain programs in order to become more revenue generating to recover costs. The Board asked why the library is not charging for children's programming, but because the programming provided is literacy focused, traditional state accreditation does not allow for that. Additionally, the librarian's do not feel that library customers will be willing to pay for children's programs. The programming focus has traditionally been more in line with community engagement where you may learn if you like a new hobby or topic, and can possibly pick up a new skill, but the programs are not intended to allow someone to become a subject expert at the skill being presented. The Board asked if Cynthia sees any signs that the city might be looking away from building a new library due to budget concerns. She stated that she has not seen any movement either direction on that topic. The city is careful not to make statements regarding a new library until any official decisions have been made. 4. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT City Librarian Pfledderer presented to the Board the statistics for the month of February with an advisement that the numbers are not trending well for the year, and we'll likely see a decline for the year, the likes of which have not been seen in over fifteen years. Print circulation is down 16% for the month, the majority percentage stemming from children's materials, which puts circulation down 6% for the year. This could be the result of a 9% cut to the materials budget for this year, which represents a 9% reduction in new materials. Library cards are down 11 %. The non-resident fee was increased to $40 from $25 for the first time since the library opened, which may have cut down on non-resident users. It does mean there's more resources available to Southlake residents, but on the flip side also fewer people coming to Southlake Town Square to spend money, which could have a negative impact on sales tax revenue. Library traffic and study room usage is trending up, so there's more people in the library, but fewer people checking out and attending programs. The Board asked if they've seen any improvement since moving the children's materials back to their original spots after an earlier move. Pfledderer said until the March numbers are in, they won't know definitively. The overall circulation issue is too widespread in the children's department for decrease to have only been that move. Digital circulation is thriving. It is likely that the move to Aspen will drive this further. Digital is up 10% for the year and 14% for the month. Total circulation for the library is only down 3% because of the success of digital circulation. Digital City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the March 26, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 4 of 6 traffic is up 37% for the year, but that is mainly due to EBSCO. CloudLibrary is also having a good year with a 4% increase for the year. Libby continues to grow and is at an 82% increase for the year so far. Newsstand is a good thing to have but is not excelling as we would hope. Pfledderer pointed out that it is hard to read magazines digitally. The Board asked after accessing newspapers online, which used to occur through NewsBank, but due to consistent poor usage, it was dropped as a subscription. She did let the Board know that it is still possible to get the Dallas Morning News through EBSCO up to the current issue. Computer usage is down 7% for the year, but study rooms continue to be extremely popular. The Board asked about charging for the study rooms. Pfledderer indicated that we can charge, but have traditionally not done so, as we do not want to reduce the use of them. When discussions of a new library take place, design spaces with rentals in mind will be considered. Programs are down for the year. Story times are down, which is believed to be partially due to the price increase for the non-resident fee. The librarian's feel that many library families are visitors and non-residents. The Board then asked for a breakdown of resident vs. non-resident library accounts, which she did not have with her, but said stands at about 80% resident card users. Volunteer hours are steady at 1 % increase, and ILL has increased 26% for the year. Board asked about the statistics on the notary services provided by the library. Because those numbers do not need to be reported as part of the annual accreditation report, they are not included in the monthly stats. They also asked if the library could begin charging for notary services. This would need to be a city - wide undertaking, as several other departments also provide notary services. 5. LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF SOUTHLAKE UPDATE Board member Burr shared with the Board updates on its involvement with Library Giving Day and thanked each member for displaying yard signs at their homes for the event. There have been eight donations so far. She also shared that the giving day link will be live all year for people to continue to donate to the library. The Foundation will also undertake handing out finals care packages for local high school students at the library and are looking in to hosting after-hours study sessions at the library for them. 6. NEW BUSINESS City Librarian Pfledderer summarized for the Board the topics that were discussed at this meeting to revisit for the next scheduled meeting. This included looking at the non-resident stats vs resident card holders to see current trends City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the March 26, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 5 of 6 there. She will reach out to the City's Finance Department to come and give clarity about how city budgets work and how money is allocated. The Board also requested more information on City demographics, especially in relation to Carroll ISD. Lori Burr offered to get that information, as she has grandchildren in that district. As that information is public record, she found some demographics that show that CISD has gone down 365 students in two years, with the biggest decline in K-1st grades. Pfledderer noted that the library will use that information to reevaluate how it gears children's and youth programming for the future. Will Doby requested statistics on the notary services the library provides and if could be offered at a cost in order to be revenue generating for the City. Pfledderer did let him know that if the library charges for that service, the rest of the City notary's would also need to start charging. David Treichler brought up the possibility of having volunteers lead and teach language learning and technology classes in the library. Pfledderer explained of the difficulty of finding passionate and dedicated volunteers willing, and able, to dedicate a set amount of time and energy to providing those kinds of programs on a regularly scheduled basis. She also explained that universities receive dozens of requests from local libraries, schools, and institutions, all asking for student assistance and teaching, and so obtaining student teachers and library school interns is difficult, and often at a cost to the library or school. Treichler shared with the Board that the feedback he's received from local school parents/caregivers is that they would like access to language learning and immersion for young children. Pfledderer let the Board know that if they know of anyone that is willing and interested to volunteer to do this, that she would be happy to speak to them. He offered to ask around if local multi -language speaking parents would be willing to volunteer their time for this endeavor. PUBLIC FORUM The public forum was opened at 7:40 p.m., and being no public present, it was closed at 7:40 p.m. 8. ADJOURNMENT The next meeting is scheduled for April 23rd, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. at the Parkwood Training Center. The meeting was adjourned at 7:43 p.m. Motion: Doby Second: Burr Ayes: Nelson, Green, Treichler, Theaker Nays: None City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the March 26, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 6 of 6 Abstain: None Vote: 6-0 /� I��/ Will Doby, Chair Cy hia Pfled erer, City Librarian ties' S-wvl, City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork