Brownsville Public Library System Advisory Board

Brownsville Public Library System Advisory Board October 9, 2023 Minutes Hybrid Present Absent Guests George E. Olivo Alisha Hernandez Josephine Balboa Jose A. Gonzalez Nora I Garza Cynthia Lizardi-Burlette Lisa Rodriguez Lazaro Castro Bertha Peña Brenda Treviño Katie Hernandez Chris Pineda Sarined Garcia Courtney Taylor Kayla Treviño 1) Call Meeting to Order –Meeting called to order by Mr. George E. Olivo at 5:40pm. 2) Discussion and Action of Approval of Minutes –Mrs. Nora I Garza motioned for approval. Mr. Chris Pineda seconded. All voted aye, and the minutes approved. 3) Citizen Comment – No Comments 4) Library Report a) Adult Services: Mr. Jose Gonzalez presented on adult services. Ms. Moran from the Oncology Center from Brownsville volunteered her time to speak to patrons as well as Ms. Cazares and her team from the Brownsville Community Health Center, for Breast Cancer Awareness Talk. Mr. Gonzalez spoke to Mr. Betancourt from the Bob Clark Cameron County Center and suggested he donate books to the little library inside Bob Clark that he was unaware of. Mr. Gonzalez visited 7 little libraries donating about 263 books. Ms. Nora I. Garza asked if the books for little libraries are donated or weeded out. Mr. Gonzalez responded that they are both, including books from the Central location. Mr. Chris Pineda asked which little libraries are used the most, Mr. Gonzalez responded that McNair, Portway, Prax Orive, and Lopez are always used the most because they usually need replenishing. Mr. Pineda asked if there is one in the city secretary, Mr. Gonzalez mentioned that one is located outside and fits about 10-15 books. Mr. Pineda suggested placing one inside the municipal courthouse while parents wait with their children or the DMV. Mr. Gonzalez spoke about the computer classes and the new subject they are teaching and was fortunate to have 5-6 employees from Public Works attend. Computer class attendance is between 13-18 at Southmost and Central. He mentions each program gets about 30 patrons. Mr. Gonzalez mentioned the events occurring, Breast Cancer Awareness Talk, Book Talk with Coffee, and will be hosting Mic Night but Halloween theme. He then spoke about the Texas A&M expanded nutrition program hosted by Ms. Dorado to teach and show awareness of healthy eating which will continue for 2-3 weeks. Mr. Pineda asked if she was local. Mr. Gonzalez mentioned she is from a local A&M branch in the Rio Grande Valley. Ms. Peña commented that she loves the idea of the book exchange and asked if Mr. Gonzalez visits the hotels that house homeless kids or lives with their aunts who don’t have access to the library. Mr. Gonzalez mentioned that he has a partnership with the migrant department and has been speaking about attending their Christmas event or a program in May to build a bigger relationship. Mr. Pineda suggested he take books to the bus stations, Jose proceeded to mention that he would be visiting the bus during the week. Mr. Olivo mentioned there will be an event with Rotary in mid- November for homeless children and will distribute new coats and new shoes, suggested that Jose team up with them to attend the event, and are expecting about 450 people. Ms. Bertha Peña offered her help to Mr. Olivo with the program. b) Youth Services: Ms. Kayla Treviño began presenting on revamping Teen Space at Southmost. Ms. Treviño mentioned the gaming station in teens is very popular. It was a bit outdated, so wanted to upgrade it with something cooler for teens. Shelves were added to display the new books for young adults. Ms. Treviño mentioned there was a name change for Storytime to Stories & Snacks to increase numbers, especially at Southmost. Numbers went up from having no kids to 15 kids. Ms. Treviño mentions the Toddler Playdate continues to be successful. She is hoping to bring in new toys in the future due to the increasing number of attendees. Ms. Kayla Treviño mentioned, for the month of September Kid’s Night involved children working on wood kits that were donated by Home Depot. Ms. Treviño proceeded to speak about programming for October. Children can create their own eclipse box to enjoy the eclipse safely. She mentions in celebration for Halloween the library will be hosting Spooky STEM Night. Ms. Treviño spoke about the solar eclipse program on Saturday that will be managed by the Assistant Branch Manager, Melinda Clayton. Ms. Clayton has been working with STARS and will have a lot of activities and mentions the observatory is going to be up and running. Ms. Treviño spoke about the library’s second annual Trunk or Treat. The event will take place at Southmost and has about 22 organizations who have volunteered to hand out candy to the kids. Ms. Sarined Garcia will be hosting a Teen Cosplay contest during the event and will also be showing a movie on an inflatable screen and handing out popcorn. Mr. Olivo mentioned attendance last year was outrageous. Ms. Kayla Treviño mentioned the library will be ready, they will be buying around 70 bags of candy. Mr. Olivo asked if the event is occurring in one place, Ms. Kayla Treviño confirmed it will only be at Southmost. Ms. Garza asked if the Eclipse activities are starting at 10AM. She confirmed that it will have rotating activities, indoors and outdoors from 10AM-2PM, and will hand out eclipse glasses. Mr. Pineda asked how many eclipse glasses will be available, Ms. Brenda Treviño responded with about 2,000 and the Visitors center will also be donating. c) Teen Services: Sarined Garcia began presenting on the Teen Advisory Club. They spoke to teens about the services the library offers and created pearler beads. They partnered with Makerspace to use the sublimation machine and customize a pencil case. Teen services hosted Teen Anime Club Pokémon where they created reusable stickers. Teen Services hosted a College Fair at Southmost with a couple universities in attendance. Mr. Pineda asked if it was a partnership with BISD, Sarined responded, no it was solely the libraries. Mr. Olivo asked how many agencies attended, Sarined mentioned that they had a total of 14. Texas A&M Corpus Christi, local companies, FASFA, a person from Austin to speak about resume assistance. Next year, they will plan to possibly have one in the evening to get a higher turnout and host the event annually. Presented events coming soon, like Japanese Candy Tasting, Book Tasting for Teens, Teen Movie Night, Teen Cosplay Contest during Trunk or Treat, and regular Reference 4 Teens program. d) MakerSpace Services: Lazaro Castro presented on Makerspace. They received a total of 49 people for the Exploration Theatre at Main and 10 people for Southmost. Teen Night Sublimation collaboration had 34 people in attendance at Main and Southmost had 16 people. For the VR& Mario Maker event Main had 44 people and 7 people at Southmost. Attendance for the Space Lander Challenge, Main had 51 people and 18 at Southmost. Exploration theatre coming up on Oct.13th, VR/Mario Maker on Oct. 20th and Pumpkin launchers for Halloween on Oct. 23rd. Mr. Castro spoke about the Space Lander Mission, children created some type of landing device to keep a cup on top. e) Outreach: Courtney Taylor presented on outreach. Started off with Semana De Derecho Laborales at the consulate, reaching 30 people and promoting job related databases. Ms. Lisa and Ms. Angie were able to be commemorated by the consulate. The second event was with Mr. Olivo and the Rotary Club giving a presentation, reaching 32 people. Attended Southmost Elementary Parents meeting, seeing a total of 26 people. Staff attended Zoo-Brownsville Appreciation Day, seeing a total of 282 people. Regular events happening was B-Metro, seeing a total of 47 people and Mexican Consulate seeing 18 people. Staff attended Cyclobia, with OD&HR department with face painting and Zumba, seeing a total of 132 people. Visited Brownsville Farmer’s Market with an attendance of 51, many asked about the Glow Forge Examples. Most of the events were with schools and going to open houses, seeing a total of 505 people. The largest in-reach event was Mitte on the Move, being able to see 375 people at the library table. The event overall had over 1,000 people in attendance. Outreach fiscal year had over 100 events and saw over 14,000 people. Ms. Taylor presented photos at the Mitte on the Move event, with rock climbing, train, carinal rides and a lot of organizations in attendance. Ms. Brenda Trevino commented they want to come back next year and have proposed January. f) Building Updates: Ms. Brenda Treviño presented building renovations. Outdoor seating has been brought up in the past and Main does not have any. Three different benches have been added to the Main Branch and people have begun to use them while they wait for the library to open. Ms. Trevino mentions the plan is to add a few more throughout the year and add some at Southmost location. The third bench is located at the South Entrance, facing the park. g) Friends of the Library Report: Ms. Brenda Treviño mentioned Bobby could not attend but mentioned that the Friends of the Library for Main Branch are the now the same hours as the library, they have gotten quite a bit of help and patrons continue to shop in the bookstore. Ms. Bertha Pena asked if there is a way to promote Friends of the Library, maybe through newspaper or social media. Ms. Brenda Treviño mentioned that the library does post on social media especially for Southmost and will need to research on how to promote in the newspaper. 5) Adjournment – Motion to adjourn by Mr. Olivo and seconded by Mr. Pineda. The meeting adjourned at 6:22 pm.