Library Board of Trustees

RECEIVED By Ellie at 10:08 am, 7/6/21 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Online Meeting – Public Participation p Wednesday, April 14, 2021 7:00 PM Members present: Anne Campbell (AC), Bethany Sullivan (BS), Brenda Rich (BR), Delia Rinaldi (DR), Gail Browne (GB), Laurie Cameron (LC), Michelle Lamott (ML), Sarah Downs (SD) Members Not in Attendance: Nicole Harry (NH) APL Director: Erin Matlin APL Assistant Director: Aimie Westphal I. Call to order at 7:01 p.m. by Laurie II. Switch request (Aimie): Requesting up $2,200 to have a network engineer come to the library to do an assessment on the equipment. The main issue driving this is a switch that got knocked out by a lightning storm last year. A refurbished one was sent, but there have been ongoing issues with it. The engineer will be able to assess what’s needed to fix it, likely a new switch and improvements to Wi-Fi. Erin recommends taking it out of State Aide. Gail asked if moving the library onto city’s network is still the plan. Aimie says Tim is working on stabilizing the city network and then will work on moving library over in the next year or so. Gail recommends having this come out of technology or building maintenance lines. Technology line only has $400 left due to purchases necessary for reopening. There is $5,300 left in repair and maintenance. Delia makes a motion to approve up $2,200 to have a network engineer come in and assess the technology infrastructure, and that will be taken out of the library repair and maintenance line. Brenda seconds. Unanimous. III. Secretary’s Minutes: A. (March 2021 meeting) – Gail pointed out typo fix in Unfinished Business section, fourth line from the bottom. Bethany motioned to accept the minutes with typo fixes. Delia seconded. Unanimous with Sarah abstaining. IV. Budget Report (April 2021): A. Will be going over on the heat line. Everything else is on track. Will stop ordering books mid-May. Any extra on the books line will go toward OverDrive. Gail asked it would be possible to spend on museum passes now that some places are reopening. When the head of public services starts, he will look into that. V. Communications (March 2021): None VI. Director’s Report: A. Katherine’s last day was Saturday. Updates in packets on people leaving/retiring, so the library is very short staffed. Emergency door downstairs doesn’t function properly. An engineer and architect and DPW came by to examine. DPW came and replaced hinges on door so it can be used in an emergency. Outstanding question is on the structure. Can’t move forward on the storage room build in case it makes that area more compromised. Hope to have an update soon. Indoor pickup is under way. Looking into browsing by appointment. Will be putting out the lucky day collection. Numbers have been low so crowding shouldn’t be a problem. Only quarantining 24 hours, which is making hold times shorter. VII. Committee Reports: A. Preservation committee: Continue to meet monthly with Meghan. Emergency door issue took priority. Waiting to see if city will cover those costs, but might also come from maintenance and repair line. Depends on how extensive the necessary repairs are. Window project went back out to bid. Two bids have come in, and the city is following up on references for the lowest bid. Exterior trim painting job and front stairs seem to be on hold. Continue to follow up on those. Storage room project construction is on hold. Engineer recommended that no one spend time in that area for safety. Cannot access vault, but can access the collection that is downstairs. Erin is concerned about coming up with a plan b if the building needs to be closed for maintenance reasons and recommends looking into that. Laurie asks about putting back together the task force focused on that, suggests the Preservation Committee discuss. B. Long-rang plan committee: Survey is live. Over 100 responses so far. VIII. Unfinished Business: A. Vacant Positions Update: Staffing is a challenge with new vacancies. Two are retirements. One is leaving to be a department head. Erin spoke with Mayor about what staffing looks like currently and opportunities to make changes. Will be meeting with Claire and Aimie and Meghan about staffing and potential changes to staffing chart. Some staff are doing extra hours. Erin and Aimie helping cover desks when needed. Reference librarian position has been posted. Hope to be able to post another position soon based on new staffing chart they are creating. B. Budget (FY22): Meeting with Mayor next Wednesday to discuss the library budget. Laurie and Bethany will be joining Erin for the meeting. IX. New Business: A. In person meetings – When? - Department head meetings with Mayor have been in person, and she is encouraging boards and committees to consider starting to meet in person. Laurie believes we’re still on the calendar to meet at City Hall unless they  need to us to meet somewhere else. May need to have it broadcast in some way. Erin will get details on that. Gail asks if that’s a requirement since this board has never been broadcast in the past. Gail recommends sending an email to get feedback from everyone who couldn’t attend today’s meeting. B. Prom Update: Erin got an email from a student on the prom committee. New date is May 21. There would be no in-person spectators. It would all be televised on community TV. Police would enforce no spectator rule. There would be time slots so students don’t all show up at once. It’s only the juniors. No one outside of the school is allowed to come. About 140 students in the class. No concerns as long as prom committee handles all the logistics and police are handling crowd control. Bethany makes a motion to change the date from May 14 to May 21 with closure from 3 to 5 p.m. Brenda seconds. Unanimous with Gail and Michelle abstaining. C. Switch Request (Aimie) - see above D. State Aide Update – Received both state aide payments even though we’re in waiver status. Total amount ended up being $28,316.41. X. Other: A. Katherine’s last day was Saturday. Laurie gave her a card and chocolates on behalf of the Trustees. For Margie and Sarah, Laurie asked if anyone would like to contribute so we can give them both prints of the library like we did for some previous retirements. Laurie will send an email with details. B. Traditionally, the library is open full days on Saturdays during the school year and half days during the summer. Erin is proposing opening full days on Saturdays all year round to make scheduling more consistent and easier. When Saturdays are half days, staff working Saturdays have to make up those four hours. Looked at other libraries in the area, 11 are open full days, 18 are closed completely on summer Saturdays. Would be a benefit to patrons. Could look into offering more programming on Saturdays with full hours. Could look at it as an experiment for a few years to see if it’s worth it and to have the stats to back it up. This would open up more time slots for browsing by appointment. Staffing wise, it’s the same money. Would need to close for an hour for lunch while library is still short staffed. It would be 9:30 to 5 and staff would be 9 to 5. Brenda makes a motion to increase summer hours on Saturdays to 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for patrons so Saturdays are full days. Bethany seconds. Unanimous. XI. Adjourn: Bethany makes a motion to adjourn at 8:21 p.m. Michelle seconds. Unanimous.