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2025-09-24 LB MeetingSOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, September 24, 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 August 27, 2025, meeting 3. Discussion A. Public Library Benchmark Comparisons 4. /LEUDULDQ¶V5HSRUW 5. Library Foundation of Southlake Update 6. New Business 7. Public Forum 7KLV LV WKH SXEOLF¶V RSSRUWXQLW\ WR DGGUHVV WKH 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, Southlake, Texas, on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, by 6:00 p.m. pursuant to Chapter 51 of the Texas Government Code. Amy Shelley, TRMC City Secretary If you plan to attend this public meeting and have a disability that requires special needs, please advise the City Secretary 48 hours in advance at 817.748.8016. Reasonable accommodations will be made to assist you. CITY OF ISOUTHLAKE SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING: September 24, 2025 LOCATION: 307 Parkwood, Southlake, Texas Southlake Training Center TIME: 6:30 p.m. SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD PRESENT: Will Doby, Cicely Nelson, Lauren Green, Janet Theaker, and Lori Burr. SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD ABSENT: David Treichler. STAFF PRESENT: Cynthia Pfledderer, Deputy Director of Library Services. OTHERS PRESENT: None. 9. CALL TO ORDER Will Doby called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m. 2. CONSENT A. APPROVE MINUTES FROM THE REGULAR SOUTHLAKE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING HELD August 27, 2025 APPROVED, with spelling corrections to Lauren Green's name. Motion: Doby Second: Green Ayes: Burr, Theaker, and Nelson Nays: None Abstain: None Vote: 5-0 Motion Carried City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the September 24, 2026, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 2 of 5 3. DISCUSSION A. Public Library Benchmark Comparisons City Librarian Pfledderer shared with the Board the FY2024 Statistics that recently became available from Texas State Library, to show comparisons to benchmark city libraries. The information gathered was given to the City Manager's Office to share comparative data with benchmark city libraries. There are eighteen benchmark cities in North Texas that the Southlake uses to compare operating statistics. Average cost per capita for the benchmark libraries, minus Southlake, is $39. Southlake Library was $42 but is slightly below that this year due to budget cuts. The highest per capita library was $60, and those with a higher cost per capita are Arlington, Bedford, Colleyville, Grapevine, Farmers Branch, and Plano. The average number of years since last renovation, which does not include regular maintenance like carpet and paint, is 11 years for the comparable libraries. For Southlake it has been 24 years. The average number of physical items is under 150,000 items, and Southlake had 41,600 when it was reported in the spring. Will Doby asked if we could get information for physical items per capita for our benchmarks, to which Pfledderer said she would get that. The annual average for library visits, is 371,747, which includes the largest systems. Southlake had about 120,000 for FY24 and is trending flat for this year. Number of visits per capita for the other libraries is three, but for Southlake it is four. Average turn rate per item is four, but Southlake it is eight. The total circulation per capita average is nine, and Southlake's is fourteen. The average number of physical transactions per staff member is 19,157, but at Southlake it is 32,352 per staff member. The average total programs offered annually for the other libraries is 940; Southlake offers 533. Number of program attendees average 36,477, which includes those big systems and their branches. Southlake averages 41,441 attendees. Average programs offered per staff person is 30; at Southlake. that number is 50. Number of program attendance per staff person 1,132; in Southlake it is 3,855, The staff member to citizen ratio average is one staff person to 3,024 citizens. In Southlake, the library has one staff member per 2,896, which is a smaller ratio from staff person to citizen. Average number of volunteer hours for the other libraries is 3,448. In Southlake it is 4,565 hours per staff member. This represents individuals that library staff are training and managing. The average number of volunteers per staff member for benchmark is 104. For Southlake it is 425. The board asked specifically for physical materials per capita. Southlake is below average, which stands at two, where Southlake is at one. The Board asked what City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the September 24, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 3 of 5 these metrics mean and why these specifically were chosen. Pfledderer explained that these metrics show the value that the community gets out of the library and their tax dollars. Historically, Southlake library does not compare itself to libraries of similar population size, as the Southlake numbers drastically out - trend those community libraries. Pfledderer instead compares Southlake's performance numbers with communities of around 100,000 population size. Lori Burr asked to whom Cynthia reports this information. She does not report it to anyone but does provide the information to the City Manager's office as needed and it is largely used for internal measures to track the performance and value of the library against the norm. A look at square footage for the library showed Southlake is below average for square footage per capita compared to benchmark libraries. 4. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT City Librarian Pfledderer presented to the Board the statistics for the month of August. The library is seeing reduced circulation and program attendance for younger audiences. Print circulation is down 1 % for August, and 4% for the year. Digital circulation is down 6% for August, but up 6% for year. Total circulation is down 2% for August, and down 2% for the year. Regular digital usage saw a lot of cuts this year in databases offered, which led to a decline of 38%. Library cards issued are down 15% for the month, and 7% for the year. A total of 65% of that decline is from the non-resident card holders. The library is now requiring library cards to register for adult workshops. Library traffic is down 12% for month, but flat for the year. Digital traffic is up 13%. CloudLibrary is down 5%, but up 3% for the year. Libby is up 37% for the year, but flat for month. Newsstand down 36%. There was a change on the website which took away the direct link for NewsStand, which they felt would affect the numbers, but was a necessary change due to the amount of apps offered by the library. Note: Will Doby left the meeting early at 7:07pm. Cicely asked whether Cynthia was referring to the apps listed on the Aspen Lida app. Pfledderer responded no; this was in reference to the website. She did note that she will check to see if NewsStand can be linked in the Aspen Lida app. Computer usage is down 14% for the month, and 3% for year. Study room usage is down 15%, but up 5% for the year. Adult programming is down 56% for the month, but up 5% for year. Youth programming is down 81 % for month and down 16% for the year. Story times were flat for the month, and down 16% for the year, but the library is seeing a rebound as kids return to school. Cicely asked if the City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork Minutes of the September 24, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 4 of 5 drop was because fewer programs were being offered, or if less people were attending. Cynthia responded that the same amount of programs being are being offered, but fewer people coming. Library leadership continues to look at the aging up of the children in the community. Programs for older children need to be a higher value, but a lower attendance capacity. The library is creating a young teen collection to address the increase in demand for upper middle grade readers. More kids are ready for higher reader comprehension, but not quite ready for some of the themes in YA (young adult fiction). Overall programs are down 14% for the year. Volunteer hours are down 2%, with an increase in volunteer no-shows, which are those that sign up, but do not call to say they are unable to come, and do not show up. Interlibrary loans are up 44% for the month, and up 18% for the year. The end of year stats will be discussed at the next regular meeting in October. 5. LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF SOUTHLAKE UPDATE Board member Lori Burr shared with the Board that the Foundation is putting the plans together for Book Blizzard Bingo, which was a big hit in the library the previous year. It will be from November 22"a to January 6th. They're thinking of adding adult bingo to the mix this year but not assigning specific books to it. Still in the process of trying to plan a kick-off event for the bingo. 6. NEW BUSINESS Pfledderer asked if they had any new business that they wished to discuss. Lori asked about the two vacancies noted in the library. One is from a part-time staff person that left to go back to school. A former library staff member that had recently retired from CISD filled that position, but not long after that, received a full-time offer from another library. The other vacancy is from another part time staff member that was a retired Midlothian ISD librarian, that also received a full- time offer of employment from another library and left to accept that. Cynthia let them know that the positions had been posted and would be closing that day. One position is for a 12-hour position, the other is for a 20-hour position. 7. PUBLIC FORUM The public forum was opened at 7:20 p.m., and being no public present, it was closed at 7:20 p.m. 8. ADJOURNMENT City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence + Teamwork Minutes of the September 24, 2025, Southlake Library Board Meeting Page 5 of 5 The next meeting is scheduled for October 22, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. at the Parkwood Training Center. The meeting was adjourned at 7:23 p.m. Will Dqb , j haif Cynthia Pfledderer, City Librarian City of Southlake Values: Integrity ♦ Innovation ♦ Accountability ♦ Commitment to Excellence ♦ Teamwork