Item 4DLibrary Board Report
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
The Southlake Library Board respectfully submits this written report in an effort to maintain
communication flow between the Board and City Council.
The Southlake Library Board held their August meeting on August 25, 2004. Below is a
summary of the issues addressed at the meeting.
Librarian's Report: Library Administrator Kerry McGeath reviewed with the Board the
activity of the past Month (July) and indicated the following: Summer Reading Club
membership ended at 1057, which was about a 90% increase over last years 563 members.
The number of checkouts was the 2nd highest month we have ever had at 16,761, a 62%
increase over last year. Checkouts are up 40% over last year, year to date. Volunteer hours
for the month were 499 hours and they are a combination of Teen Court (about 60 %), NCL
volunteers (mother /daughter), Adult volunteers and Teen volunteers fulfilling volunteer hour
requirements for school. Volunteers are an invaluable asset and are necessary for us to
operate efficiently — they handled 90% of our reshelving efforts, and allowed us to return
materials to the shelves within hours of their return, which in turn helped our check out
increase. Story time attendance took off in July and continued into August. We had 756
attendees for the July performances, a 36% increase over last year. Traffic was up 36%
(8,490 vs. 6238), and traffic for the year is up 38 %. Mr. McGeath indicated that the excellent
increase in use (and therefore relevance) was the result of two important changes that have
occurred over the last year: changing the philosophy to a Customer 1 st or Customer Centric
Philosophy, and a change in the mix of materials purchased, with an emphasis on materials
people want to use, from an excellent selection of DVDs to all the bestselling books when
they come out. We have a focus on the youth of the community, but we had done so at the
detriment of the adult citizens — the balance we have set appears to be successful per the
numbers we are seeing. The marketing plan and programming enhancements will not be
released for another couple of months, so our success this far is attributable to the changes
we made in philosophy and merchandise. Mr. McGeath indicated the importance of PAR
(Plan, Act and Review) and the need to make specific changes and then measure the related
performance, - then moving to the next phase (in our case marketing) by planning,
implementing, reviewing the progress, and then adjusting as necessary.
August Library Board meeting discussed the following topics: The meeting began by
presenting our Orientation to the Library and City for Library Board members. The
orientation consisted of a Powerpoint presentation and discussion period. The Librarian's
report followed. The Board then reviewed the Library Ten Year Strategic Plan (developed in
2001) with Mr. McGeath, in which it was indicated that the Library is right on target with the
goals that were set, followed by discussion. Mr. McGeath had recently spoken to Starbucks
about making Starbucks coffee available in the Library for our customers. Pricing has been
made available for Starbucks coffee and we have been given the OK to make it available.
The next meeting we will make coffee service a consider item. The discussion was related to
how the service should be paid for — initial pricing was very reasonable ($50.00 a month or
so), but per usual practice staff will negotiate the best price (the first price is never the final
price). Thought was given to having FOSL donate money to cover the cost, getting a sponsor
from the local business community, or a charitable contribution from Citizens. Per the
Library Board Report
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
The Vouthlake Library Board respectfully submits this written report in an effort to maintain
communication flow between the Board and City Council.
agreement with Starbucks we can not charge for the drinks, but we can request donations for
the service.
The meeting ended with a presentation by Nancy Roper on how items are purchased, and
then processed to be made available to our customers. It is a much more complicated process
then many would imagine — Mr. McGeath indicated that Nancy Roper's contributions in
keeping us on track and getting materials out in our customer's hands right away is a result of
a very strong Midwestern work ethic (Mr. McGeath and Mrs. Roper are both from Indiana,
and of Scottish ancestry) and a commitment to the citizens of this community, shared by Mr.
McGeath.
If you should have any questions please contact Kerry McGeath, Library Administrator at
817.481.8378.