Library Board of Trustees

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 2:08 pm, 10/19/21 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Location: Amesbury Public Library, Amesbury Room Wednesday, September 8, 2021 7:00 PM Members present: Anne Campbell (AC), Bethany Sullivan (BS), Brenda Rich (BR), Delia Rinaldi (DR), Gail Browne (GB), Laurie Cameron (LC), Sarah Downs (SD) Members Not in Attendance: Nicole Harry (NH) APL Director: Erin Matlin I. Call to order at 7:01 p.m. by Laurie II. Secretary’s Minutes: A. (July 2021 meeting) – Bethany makes a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Delia seconds. Unanimous, with Sarah, Laurie, and Brenda abstaining. III. Budget Report (September 2021): A. FY21 and FY22 included in packet. FY21 should be final numbers. Did have some left over because it was such as unusual year. FY22 budget is on track so far. Consortium line is spent fully because Erin paid that bill already. IV. Communications (September 2021): There are two email addresses for the Trustees. Laurie is looking into getting that fixed. No communications other than that. V. Director’s Report: A. Youth Services position has been filled. New hire will start full time at the end of September. That leaves only the 18-hour reference/local history position open. Working on updating that job description. Still working on coordinating the wall repairs. Erin worked on POs for that with Shauna. DPW requested corrections to POs. Staff toilet had to be replaced. New lock put on flagpole in front of library, and staff is now on the list for communications for when flag should be lowered. Fire department offered to train staff on protocols for raising and lowering the flag and will manage it when library is closed. Erin signed up for a program for free hotspots from the state. Library received five, and they will be free for a year. These will replace the ones that the Friends of the Library are currently paying for. ARIS was submitted on 8/24, and Erin got confirmation that it was received. State aide due Oct. 1. Erin is working on that. Fax machine made $23.93 this month, which will go into the city’s general fund. VI. Committee Reports:  A. Preservation committee: Minutes from August meeting in packet. Front doors swollen, so Freddy came back. Hinges are still not in. Haven’t given him the final payment. Nothing has happened on the ash tree the DPW is supposed to take down. Trimming happened on the sycamore. All capital improvement money is going to wall repairs. Waiting on city on that. Press releases have gone out about basement being closed to patrons. Have been sending small projects to SeeClickFix to see what DPW will handle and what we should take care of. MBLC space planning consultants are coming to evaluate the library and talk with staff. Will put together bullet points for Long Range Plan. Next meeting is Sept. 21. B. Director review committee: Bethany compiling evaluations from committee members and other Trustees. Will set date for final comments and then schedule meeting. VII. Unfinished Business: A. Vacant positions update: See updates above. VIII. New Business: A. ARIS update: See updates above. B. Phones upgrade: Aimie Westphal and Tim McCue have been working on updates to Wi-Fi, etc. As part of upgrading IT infrastructure, which will cost roughly $46,000, need to upgrade phone systems, which will up monthly bill from Comcast. Looking into if that can be covered by COVID-related funds the city has available. Phone upgrade needs to wait until decision on that. C. Youth Services Tech Needs: With new full-time Youth Services staff member starting, had to buy new computer and equipment for her workstation because it is a new position. Total cost came to $1,864.78. It will come out of library repair and maintenance line because there is no technology line. IX. Other: A. Michelle resigned from the Trustees. We may need to appoint someone to fill her position. Laurie to speak to clerk to get clarification. B. Capital project happening evaluating city campus, but it’s not specific to the Library building. Gail wanted to see if Trustees have consensus for Preservation Committee to explore getting an outside evaluation of the library building to get a list of most important repairs needed, using state aide to pay for the evaluation. C. Erin has accepted another position. Sept. 24 will be her last day. X. Adjourn: Bethany makes a motion to adjourn at 8:05 p.m. Brenda seconds. Unanimous.