Library Board of Trustees

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 2:05 pm, 10/19/21 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Location: Amesbury Public Library, Amesbury Room Wednesday, July 14, 2021 7:00 PM Members present: Anne Campbell (AC), Bethany Sullivan (BS), Delia Rinaldi (DR), Gail Browne (GB), Nicole Harry (NH) Members Not in Attendance: Brenda Rich (BR), Laurie Cameron (LC), Michelle Lamott (ML), Sarah Downs (SD) APL Director: Erin Matlin I. Call to order at 7:01 p.m. by Bethany II. Secretary’s Minutes: A. (June 2021 meeting) – Gail asked for clarification that she said insurance might cover the removal of the tree. Gail makes a motion to accept the minutes from June with corrections as noted. Delia seconds. Unanimous. III. Budget Report (June 2021): A. These are not the final numbers for FY21. Won’t have final numbers until the next meeting. Numbers looking good even though spending was conservative at the beginning of the year. IV. Communications (July 2021): Gail got a thank you card for retirement gift from trustees. V. Director’s Report: A. Julia Christ is new 18-hour circulation assistant. Meghan starts full time on Monday. Claire has a new title as head of youth services, managing both children’s and teen. One vacant position to get filled (full-time youth services) and then will be fully staffed. Looking at continuing to not charge late fees. Erin gathering data on how other libraries handle it. Also exploring having masks not be a requirement for people who are fully vaccinated (like other city buildings) unless you’re in the children’s room. Will see how department heads feel and then look at how to communicate the change. VI. Committee Reports: A. Preservation committee: Met Tuesday July 6. All capital projects are on hold, pending the wall repair project. Re-allocating funding for that project was approved at the last city council meeting. Discussed funding a Historic  Preservation Evaluation of the library building. Still working on getting clarity on what types of maintenance projects the Library can fund and what DPW should do (monetary threshold, type of project, etc.). Will keep prioritizing project list. City will coordinate removal of dead ash tree, and the Library will fund the care and maintenance of the birch tree. B. Director review committee: Committee is Sarah, Brenda, and Bethany. Bethany emailed the feedback form to the full board and welcomes feedback from any other trustees as well. Meeting will likely be scheduled sometime in September. VII. Unfinished Business: A. Vacant positions update: See notes above. VIII. New Business: A. ARIS (Opened July 1): Just got all of our documents from MVLC. Will determine how much state aide we get. Erin will start working on this next week. Due in August. B. New Fiscal Year – FY22: New fiscal year started July 1. Will be meeting with teams tomorrow to give them the amounts they have for buying books and materials. C. Cataloging Class, Request: Dorothy brought an online class to Erin’s attention that she would like to take, which will cost $292.50. Would need to come out of state aide because there isn’t a training budget this year. Erin will be reviewing the class to see if it is worthwhile. IX. Other: A. Erin will be out a few weeks for surgery. Will let Trustees know about the timing. B. Nomination papers – If you have pulled papers, Bethany wanted to remind everyone to turn their papers in before the deadline. X. Adjourn: Anne makes a motion to adjourn at 7:42 p.m. Nicole seconds. Unanimous.