Library Board of Trustees

Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - January 2022 Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Location: Amesbury Public Library, Amesbury Room Wednesday, January 12, 2022 RECEIVED By City Clerk at 4:33 pm, 3/10/22 7:00 PM Board of Trustees (BOT) Members present: Anne Campbell (AC), Audrey Proctor (AP), Bethany Sullivan (BS), Brenda Rich (BR), Delia Rinaldi (DR), Gail Browne (GB), Laurie Cameron (LC), Pam Gilday (PG) Members Not in Attendance: Interim APL Director: Aimie Westphal I. Call to order at 7:00 PM by Laurie as chair. Introductions and welcome new Trustees Audrey and Pam (4 year terms). There is still one open Trustees seat (2 year term), details discussed later in meeting. II. Elections for new term, starting tonight:  Bethany nominates Anne for chair. Pam seconds. Unanimous.  Anne nominates Laurie for vice chair. Brenda seconds. Unanimous.  Laurie nominates Pam for secretary. Bethany seconds. Unanimous.  Committees: o Finance – Pam, Bethany, Anne. Bethany as chair. o Preservation – Laurie, Gail, Delia, Pam. Gail as chair. o Long-range Plan – Brenda, Delia, Audrey, Bethany. Delia as chair. o Director Review – Anne, Brenda, Laurie. Anne as chair. III. Secretary’s minutes: (December 8, 2021 meeting) – Gail makes motion to accept the minutes as presented. Laurie seconds. Unanimous with Audrey and Pam abstaining. IV Budget report:  Aimie presents January Monthly Budget Report (in packet). Salary and buyback line items reflect recent turnover and resignations/retirements. OT line item higher because of illnesses and vacations. Periodicals line item overspent because Aimie has reorganized various subscriptions into a simplified single subscription, which will save money and time starting in FY23 (July).  Aimie reports that regarding the “other funding” rows in the Monthly Budget Report, she has begun identifying and documenting the various rules that apply to each of the fund types – 3 of which are trusts – and will share that info with the Trustees. V. Communications: 1  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - January 2022 There was no email received this month in the BOT’s email account - librarytrustees@amesburyma.gov. VI. Director’s report: Aimie discussed the content of her Interim Library Director’s Report to Trustees dated January 12, 2022 and monthly stats for Trustees (in packet). Received updated COVID guidelines from City. A. Staffing: Hired PT Library position. 2 new pages from AHS. COA volunteer to do adult shelving. All the open staff positions are now filled. B. Facilities: - Back wall: no update since last meting. - Painting: all bathrooms, Director and AD offices, new teen lounge, side walls in non- fiction stacks. - Inspections: City’s plumber and electrical inspectors to do a walkthrough. - Flooring: DPW-coordinated contractor (Dylan Cox) measuring and assessing floors throughout and will generate a quote. - Emergency lighting: At directive of City’s Inspectional Services, DPW is assessing where emergency lighting is needed in building. - New teen lounge: Contractor has done 3 custom jobs in the space – building a bulletin board, adding baseboards, framing out wall space for free art space/drawing on. - Cleaning company: City has hired new cleaning company Rafael Cleaners of Salem MA. They started Monday January 12 and clean M-F after Library closes for the day. C. Closings/Delays: Closed Jan 1 for New Year’s Day and Jan 17 for MLK Day. D1. Program highlights: See Youth Services report by Clare Dombrowski (in packet) including: - Sarah Chapman facilitated felt ornament making kits (adults and families). - Wooden disk painting kits (teens). - Sock snow people kits and paper bag gingerbread kits (Make and Takes). - Rebecca facilitated outdoor in-person UnSilent Night town musical walkthrough event. - Two bonus weeks of Storytime Takeout and Takeaway Read (1st-4th grade age group). D2. Public services highlights: See report by Lucas Berrini (in packet) including: - Holiday themed displays for youth content. Cookbooks and so on – very popular. - Busy month for [patron requests, checkouts, and returns. - Some new procedures at circulation and reference including cash handling workflow and interlibrary loan (ILL) modifications to simplify tracking of overdue and out-of- network items. 2  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - January 2022 E. Technology: Still experiencing network problems. City IT aware. 3 public computers cannot connect to internet anymore (outdated). Aimie has requested that some of the City’s ARPA funds be allocated to fund Library networking improvements. After networking is improved, the phone system can be upgraded to VoIP. F. General library news: - All programs remain virtual for foreseeable feature. - New city logo is on library web page now (http://amesburylibrary.org). - Aimie had first meeting with the Long Range Plan (LRP) consultant. VII. Committee reports: A. Preservation committee – Minutes from December 13 meeting are in packet. Next meeting scheduled for January 25. B. Finance committee – no report. C. Long Range Planning committee – no report but committee is gearing up to be busy this year. This committee will be part of a larger Library Advisory Board that will be formed by the end of January. Three dates have been set so far. Projected Advisory Board completion date of September 2022. The LRP consultant that Aimie mentioned earlier in the meeting will be involved with this Advisory Board. D. Director review committee – no report. VIII. Vote for new teen lounge: Aimie requests spending approval of $15,989 to purchase furniture and decorating for the new teen lounge upstairs. Bethany motions to approve up to $16,000. Laurie seconds. Unanimous. Note: Aimie reminded that as Interim Director she can spend up to $1000 without BOT approval. IX. Other: A. New Trustees should go to the Massachusetts Libraries Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) web site and self-subscribe to their mailing lists. The site is https://mblc.state.ma.us/. B. New Trustees should take the new Trustee training – see content at https://guides.mblc.state.ma.us/trustees. C. Question: What is the status on the APL Director search. Answer: The Mayor has recommendations and has not yet announced her decision. D. Over the last 6 weeks the APL has seen more homeless people coming in. E. The City Council on January 3 declared the 2-year term Board of Trustees position vacant. Applications are being accepted for the position now. Deadline is February 4. See 3  Amesbury Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - January 2022 https://www.amesburyma.gov/home/news/city-council-announces-board-vacancies. Submitted applications will be made available to the Trustees for review and there will be a joint Trustees/City Council meeting on (likely) February 8 to vote to elect the new member. Adjourn: 8:17 PM 4