Library Board of Trustees

MEETING MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MARY RILEY STYLES PUBLIC LIBRARY Held in the Mary Riley Styles Public Library 120 N. Virginia Avenue Falls Church, VA 22046 November 16, 2016 1. CALL TO ORDER Board Chairman Brad Gernand called the meeting to order at 7:00p.m. The following Board members attended the meeting: Brad Gernand Chet DeLong Ed Rose Stephanie Oppenheimer Terry Zawacki Jeff Peterson Eema Ahmed (Youth representative) Excused Absence: Don Camp Councilwoman Ms. Karen Oliver, Falls Church resident Ms. Marty Meserve, Library Director Ms. Mary McMahon, and her assistant, Ms. Claudia Gutierrez, were also present. 2. RECEIPT OF PETITIONS Ms. Marty Meserve informed the Board that she is part of a group that wants to create a memorial for Ms. Beverly Rausch. Ms. Meserve explained that the group would like a place a memorial bench and plaque with her name on it at the library, and it would be similar to the one that is already at the front of the library. Ms. Meserve also mentioned that the Rausch Family is having a celebration of life party in Beverly Rausch's honor next weekend, and she wanted to inform the family about the memorial. This group also wants the memorial publicized throughout the community so that anyone who wants to contribute to it can. They are trying to find a mechanism to collect the memorial money. Ms. Meserve asked if it could be possible to do it through the Foundation. Mr. Ed Rose, who is a member of the MRSPL Foundation Board, said that it will be complicated to do it through the Foundation at this time because they are getting ready for the annual fundraising, and they do not want to make it confusing for people if they have two different concurrent fundraisers. He also explained that it will be difficult because the Foundation is in the middle of changing its name and tax exempt structure. He said that he would need to talk to the rest of the Foundation members, which would not be soon. The Library Director suggested that the donations could be made through the library in a memorial fund and can be separated from regular patron donations. Mr. Chet Delong commented that it is not usual for the Foundation to handle funds for individuals' memorials. The Foundation charter is to support the library, therefore, he thinks it would be better if this was handled through the library. Ms. Meserve was comfortable with this solution. The Director said that the library also will send a thank you letter to each donor, and the donations will be tax deductible for the donors. Mr. Gernand informed the Board that Ms. Beverly Rausch was a former librarian at the MRSPL and recently deceased. She worked for more than 20 years in the Local History room and was also Circulation Supervisor for several years. She led the senior book discussion group for years and was also very active in the Falls Church community and local organizations such as the League of Women Voters. The Director said that the bench and plaque will be located near the current one, and when the renovation occurs, both benches can be relocated to a new spot. Ms. Meserve also said that if they raise 1 -------- more money than is needed for the memorial bench and plaque, the excess will be used to contribute in the name of Ms. Beverly Rausch for the renovation and expansion of the library. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the installation of the bench and a plaque in memory of Ms. Beverly Rausch and also to accept donations from public through the library for that purpose. 3. APPROVAL OF THE SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 MEETING MINUTES Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the September 21, 2016 meeting minutes. 4. ARTS AND CULTURAL DISTRICT TASK FORCE (CATCH) REPORT Mr. Rose informed the Board that he wanted to step down from his liaison position to the Cultural Task Force (CATCH) since he will be serving on another committee in addition to the Library Board of Trustees. He said that he does not think that the library needs a liaison to CATCH. Mr. Gernand said that Mr. Rose can step down, and the Board will consider appointing someone else on the Board to take his place at a later date if an appointment is necessary. Mr. DeLong said that perhaps CATCH should appoint somebody to attend the Library Board meetings instead. 5. LIBRARY FOUNDATION REPORT Mr. Rose informed the Board that the Foundation is very pleased with the election results for the referendum. The Foundation spent around $6,000 for postcards and letters to patrons to support the referendum. They also placed an advertisement in the Falls Church News Press. He also informed the Board that the Foundation will sponsor, as they did last year, a tree at the Tree Fest, a decorated holiday tree auction that raises funds for local non-profit organizations. It will be held at the Falls Church Hilton Garden Inn Hotel on Sunday, December 4th. Ms. Cathy Breen, who works in the library's Youth Services department, has offered to help the Foundation decorate the tree as she did last year. The year's theme will be Winnie the Pooh. Mr. Rose also informed the Board that they have a permanent endowment which is around $370,000, and this will let the Foundation donate to the library a fairly large amount every year without touching the principal. He said that the Foundation is in the process of changing its name to the Mary Riley Styles Public Library Foundation Inc. for legal reasons. He also informed the Board that they have received two stock donations. The Foundation will send their annual solicitation letter by the end ofNovember or early December for people to make donations. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board approved a resolution thanking the Library Foundation for the successful leadership in the referendum process and for its continued support of the library. 6. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT Ms. Oliver informed the Board that Cindy Mester is beginning work on the FY18-22 CIP, and she said to be sure and follow the process so that the library project is not moved further out in the CIP even though the referendum passed. She was asked by a Board member when it would be a good time for the Board to push Council to vote for the funding of the bond issue. She said that the Library Director should work with Ms. Mester on the CIP process so by July 2017 (FY18) the engineering and design process can start. The bond sale would then take place in early FY2018. Mr. Gernand mentioned to the Board that Mr. Peterson had written a draft letter from the Board to Council regarding the allocation of the funds for the library project. In the letter, the Board states that they do not want to wait until next year to start all the work on this project. It was suggested that the Board send the letter to Council by the end ofNovember and also to attend December Iih Council meeting and make a public statement about not pushing back the CIP for the library. There was a discussion about the 2 content of the letter and about the inconvenience for library patrons of having two different locations, especially for the population size of the City. It was also noted that staffing both places would be costly. The Director mentioned that there is another architectural firm that the Board needs to have a presentation from-Studio27. This is the firm that is currently working on the design for City Hall. Once the Board has heard their presentation, it can decide between Studio27 and BKV Group, who recently did a presentation for them. Both firms are already vetted by the City. However, if the Board decides not to choose either of them, an RFP will need to be written to solicit interest from other architectural firms with a background in library design and construction. Once a firm is chosen, the engineering and design process can get started. The Director informed the Board that she has received the CIP instructions and will start working on it. It is due November 301h. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the LibraryBoard unanimously adopted the letter to Council with minor changes and authorized the Director to send it by December 1st. There will be a public meeting of the Economic Development Committee on Thursday, December 81h, and some Board members might attend it. 7. STUDENT LIAISON REPORT Ms. Eema Ahmed informed the Board that she has been talking with some of her classmates at GMHS, and they said they would like the library to be more focused on teen programs, not only on children's, and also improve the Young Adult (YA) section with newer books. Mr. Rose suggested asking them what specific programs and subjects they would be interested in. The Director also suggested that Ms. Ahmed talk with the library's youth advisory group about what she has heard from teens. 8. DRAFT LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR 2017 The Library Director reviewed the draft library legislative agenda for 2017 with the Board. She informed them that the Virginia Library Association dropped one of the items in last year's legislative agenda which was supporting the Library of Virginia's needs. The Director also informed the Board that since the Governor cut the budget, 26 people from state agencies lost their jobs, and 18 of them were from the State Library. For this reason, the Library has had to close the public reading room on Sundays and Mondays due to the reduced staffing. The library's draft legislative agenda for 2017 includes support for the additional $2.5M in State Aid to Libraries, which would be used for early literacy for kids and the Board's previous request for legislation that would ban guns being allowed in public libraries. Several jurisdictions, including Falls Church, feel strongly about this issue, however, it has never been supported by the Legislature. In addition, the Board asked the Director to reinstate their support for the Library of Virginia and its needs as part of the Board's official legislative requests. Mr. Peterson asked if after the Board approved this agenda whether it will need to be communicated to the legislators. The Director explained that the City develops its own legislative agenda, and the library's is folded into the entire City's legislative agenda and lobbying efforts. Mr. Peterson said that the patrons are encouraged to write to their legislators, but it would be also good to have a letter from the Board signed by Mr. Gernand stating that the Board has adopted this legislative agenda, and that the Board is communicating it to them. Mr. Gernand asked Mr. Peterson if he was comfortable with the Director composing the letter, and he agreed. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the 3 Library Legislative Agenda for 2017 with the addition of the support for the Library of Virginia being added to it. 9. LOCAL HISTORY ROOM MISSION, SCOPE AND DONATION POLICY-FIRST READING The Director informed the Board that this policy is new and a little different from the donation policy for the rest of the library. The library wants to make it clear that the donations will become the property of the library, and the library determines their disposition. She also informed the Board that the scope of the policy is important because of the limited space the library has. In the past, the local history room concerned itself with anything on Virginia, but now the scope has been reduced to only information on the City of Falls Church unless there is an adjacent community that has a special historical interaction that affects the City. The Director stated that the library does not take any museum type artifacts as donations and does not make appraisals of donated items for the donor. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the Local History Room Mission, Scope and Donation Policy on its first reading as amended with minor changes. 10. DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT FOR FY2016 The Director informed the Board why many of the statistics were down for FY20 16. The library was closed more days last year due to weather than it has been in the past, and these closures adversely affected many of the statistics. She mentioned that the ESL program group has been very well attended, popular, and has students from many different countries attending. She also informed the Board that there was a heavy weed of inactive borrowers from the database. The website visits were dramatically up because the previous year the City changed website vendors and because the library was in the middle oftransitioning, they could not count the website visitors properly and as a result did not have a full year's data. That was not the case in 2016, and so there was a seemingly dramatic increase in website visits. The overdue and reminder email notices went down because more patrons are returning items on time. The programming went down because the library stopped going to the Easter Seals site as an outreach program. It was a weekly visit with four stories a day. The people using it are not City residents, and the library's outreach programs are dedicated to schools and other groups in the City. Now staff is going to the Jessie Thackeray preschool and other local schools on a more regular basis and also the daycare preschool at the community center. In questions answered, one department did not record the statistics properly, which caused a significant apparent drop in numbers. Mr. Peterson suggested separating out the Foundation's gifts from regular memorials and donations in the financial section to recognize the important role that the Foundation has with the library. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the Draft Annual Report for FY2016 with minor changes. 11. MOVING FORWARD AFTER THE BOND REFERENDUM The Director explained to the Board that the next step in the renovation/expansion process is to meet in December with Studio27 in order to hear their library architectural and design qualifications for the project. She said that it could be either at the regular December meeting or a special meeting on a different date. She will contact them tomorrow to set up an appointment for the presentation to the Board. Ms. Zawacki suggested that this presentation should be more focused on what MRSPL could get according to its needs. The Board agreed to reschedule their regular meeting one week earlier in December and meet with Studio 27 then because December 21st is too close to the holidays. 4  Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously agreed to reschedule their regular meeting from December 21st to December 14th at 7:00p.m. 12. LIBRARY REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Director informed the Board that she has begun getting resumes for the Technical Services Supervisor position. Interviewing will start after Thanksgiving. • She also informed the Board of Ms. Sarah Miller's resignation. She has been working 20 hours a week as a temporary Library Assistant II (LAII) in the Local History room. She has accepted a full time position as a metadata librarian for NIST. The LAII position has been advertised. • The Director informed the Board that rooftop unit 2 of the HV AC system was installed today. This was the unit that recently had a failed compressor which could not be fixed. The installation should be completed tomorrow. • The annual Bibliostat report is due next Friday and will be filed on time. This report is required by the State to receive State Aid. • Ms. Sue Tarakemeh's retirement potluck party will be on Wednesday December 14th at 11:30 a.m. Her last day working at the library will be January 3rd. The Director invited the Board to attend the celebration. Volunteers, City Manager Wyatt Shields and Human Resources Director Dianne Lowther will attend and give Sue a plaque recognizing her years of service to the library and the City. • A children's program was held at the library's parking lot as part of the community helpers theme that the library has been doing. Several of the City's snow plows were displayed, and Public Works staff showed the kids how the equipment works. It was a lot of fun for all the kids who participated. • The Director reminded the Board that the library will be closed on Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th due to the Thanksgiving holiday and will reopen for its regular hours on Saturday, November 26th. 13. BUSINESS NOT ON THE AGENDA Mr. DeLong asked the Director how the IT services are working for the library lately. She informed the Board that they come over to do the morning reports, and they look at the systems and make sure that they are working properly. The tickets that the library submits are prioritized with the rest of their daily workload. There are still problems with the integrated library system (ILS), which controls the library catalog, the circulation system, cataloging, and much more. The management team has been having weekly phone calls with their sales representative, but no resolution of the problems has occurred during the past month. There are still some needed adjustments to the new procedure for bill payment and renewals that IT now handles for anything related to automation. She said that overall things are better. Mr. Peterson asked the Director about the decision regarding the size of the collection when the renovation/expansion for the library proceeds, and whether the McMillan consultant's recommendation to shrink the collection will be followed. The Director said that even though the digital presence in books and audios is increasing, that format will not eliminate the need for space of actual books, magazines, DVDs etc. at this time. She explained that it is not easy to decide exactly how many items will be kept. Much of that will be determined by the design and layout of the library once it is decided upon. Mr. DeLong commented that when he is doing his volunteer work he still finds books from the 1980s that are still circulating, but he agrees that a heavy weed needs to be done. The Director said that weeding is done all year long by selectors, but she agrees that the entire collection will be assessed once we have a better idea of design of the collection space, the linear feet of shelving available, and 5 - ------------ also how much of the collection can (and should) be bought in another format (i.e. digitized). 14. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 8:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Ms. Mary W. McMahon Library Director Approved: ~~./ Mr. Bradley E. Gemand, Chairman Copies: Board of Trustees, City Manager, Library Reference Desk, Staff Bulletin Board, City Clerk, Library Web Page The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5032, TTY 711. 6  MARY RILEY STYLES PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING November 16, 2016 SIGN-IN SHEET NAME ADDRESS EMAIL I [\Jlq·f1v1 ~v'e J :to~ i)UVI{ J ?t mtt~l fm/.fd~y;t(l v w- Page 1 -~---  DRAFf Letter to City Council; 11.16.16 Dear Mayor Tarter and Members of Council: The Board of Trustees of the Mary Riley Styles Public Library looks forward to working with you to promptly implement the project to upgrade and expand the Library recently approved by Falls Church City voters at referendum. We are heartened by the strong support that voters gave to the Library improvement and expansion project in approving the referendum. Through the months of public discussion of the referendum, the Board and the City explained that funds requested would be used for a project to upgrade the existing facility and provide an addition of approximately 6,000 square feet (see project description in Library Master Plan, City Capital Improvements Program (CIP), and City website and "fact sheet" on the referendum). Our joint goal should be the prompt implementation of this project. In discussions leading to the referendum, the Board was told that the wording of the referendum needed to give the City flexibility to use bond funds at another location in the unlikely event that the proposed project could not proceed as planned (i.e.; to avoid the situation that arose with respect to Mt. Daniel school bonding). Since then, it has been suggested that the City might use the newly approved funds to move the Library to another location or to divide Library services at different locations. We are strongly opposed to relocating the Library, or dividing the services of the Library, for several reasons. • The amount of capital funding available is specifically designed to support the project to improve and expand the existing facility. Initial estimates of the costs of relocating the Library were substantially more than the amount now available. • Relocation of the Library would run counter to the strong view of Falls Church citizens, and the Board of Trustees, that the Library should stay where it is (see page 10, Mary Riley Styles Public Library Master Plan, September 2013). • The long process that would proceed a decision to relocate the Library, or divide Library services at different locations, would add additional years to the initiation of the proposed project or some alternative project. This delay could have significant negative consequences, including diminishing the purchasing power of the funds available and deferring badly needed upgrades to Library systems (e.g.; elevator, HVAC, and bathrooms) and addition of much needed new space. - - - - ---- -------  • The existing building is on land given to the City for use only as a Library and relocation of the Library could put future public use of the site into question. • In the event that relocation of the Library to a future commercial development were considered, difficult questions concerning ownership of the facility would need to be addressed, including financial implications of paying rent for a long- term public institution or the challenges of operating a City-owned facility within a private development. • Division of Library services among multiple locations could dilute the funds needed to upgrade and expand the existing facility and add managerial complexity and increase annual operating costs. The City CIP allocates funding to initiate engineering and design for the Library renovation and expansion project in FY 2018 (i.e.; starting July 2017). The Library Board of Trustees recognizes that substantial work is needed in order to begin this next phase of the project. We look forward to working with City staff and the Council to promptly advance this urgent investment in the existing Mary Riley Styles Library building. Again, thank you for your support of the Library improvement project. Sincerely, Bradley Gernand, Chair Mary Riley Styles Public Library Board of Trustees cc: City Manager Library Director Library Board of Trustees Planning Commission