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 September 19, 2018 1. CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTIONS OF GUESTS Board Chairman Brad Gemand called the meeting to order at 7:00p.m. The following Board members attended the meeting: Brad Gemand Chet DeLong Chrystie Swiney Kathleen Tysse Stephanie Oppenheimer Jeff Peterson Youth Representative Tika Wallace Excused absence: Don Camp Council Liaison, Ross Litkenhous was not in attendance. Others present for the meeting included: Mr. Mark Manetti from BKV Group, Mr. Rob and Ms. Kim Cullin from Kimberly Bolan and Associates, Library Project Manager Kim Callahan, Planning Commission Liaison Rob Puentes, and Library Director Jenny Carroll and her assistant Ms. Claudia Gutierrez were also present. 2. RECEIPT OF PETITIONS a. CATCH Appointee The CATCH appointee representative position is still vacant. The Director will resend the Board the information about CATCH. The Board will decide at October's meeting who will be the appointee. b. Affordable Living Policy The Director sent the Board information about the Affordable Living Policy to be discussed in October's Board meeting. Mr. Gemand commented that the Board considered this sort of item normally outside of its purview. However, he stated that it could be discussed. c. Library Code of Conduct A patron submitted a request to the Director regarding item number eight in the code of conduct, which states: No person may bring guns, knives, or any weapons into the library except as permitted by law. The patron felt that the statement was misleading and somehow indicated that guns were not permitted in the library at all. The Director consulted the City Attorney Carol McCoskrie and 1 adjusted the wording in the code of conduct. In addition, the Director stated that there will be an addition to the code of conduct regarding leaving packages and other items unattended in the library. The policy will be brought for first reading at the October Board meeting. 3. APPROVAL OF THE AUGUST 15, 2018 MEETING MINUTES Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board unanimously approved the August 15, 2018 Meeting Minutes as amended. 4. LIBRARY FOUNDATION REPORT No report 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT No report 6. STUDENT LIAISON REPORT Ms. Wallace informed the Board that a student in charge of George Mason High School newspaper, The Lasso, approached her to tell her that they were doing interviews about the student reps on the different City Boards and also wanted to do an in-depth report on the library's renovation. Mr. Gemand added that a Lasso student interviewed both the library Director and himself. The student will be sending a link to both Mr. Gemand and the library Director when the interview is published. The Director asked Ms. Wallace to make an inquiry on when to expect the publication ofboth interviews and to let the Board and herself know. 7. DRAFT RESPONSE LETTER TO VPIS Since Mr. Peterson is still on the VPIS Board, he did not give any comments about the content oftheletter. Upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Library Board approved sending the letter to the VPIS Board. Mr. Peterson recused himself from the approval. 8. SCHEMATIC DESIGN PRESENTATION The Director introduced the library consultants and architect for the library project: Mr. Rob and Ms. Kim Cullin from Kimberly Bolan and Associates and Mr. Mark Manetti from BKV Group. The Director discussed the schematic design process. This is the first iteration of the design and then the architect/consultants will take the comments from the Board and staffto rework the design to present again in October. After the schematic design is completed, the Construction Manager At Risk (CMAR) will work on the cost estimate and all will be presented to the Board in November. Ms. Callahan informed the Board that in December, the schematic design and the cost estimate will be presented to the community. City Council will also receive updates. The architect and project manager will present the schematic design to the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals to get variances on the setbacks. They will attend the Architectural Advisory Board work session as part of the site plan process to get any feedback from them. The information will be sent to all Boards and Commissions during site plan. 2  There was a concern about community engagement and bringing the information in the middle of the holiday season. Ms. Callahan expressed that they cannot afford delays in the project. The community will be provided multiple sessions in early December (after Thanksgiving and before the winter holidays) to provide their feedback. The Director added that she has been continuing to talk with patrons and answering questions about the library project. She attended the info-night meeting at Thomas Jefferson Elementary and she received positive feedback about the Board's recommendation for the library project. People seems to be on board with the library plan. She has also been informally talking to people at the Falls Church Farmers Market, in the library, and at other businesses in the city. Before presenting the initial schematic design, Ms. Callahan stated that the layouts would show placement of furniture and reminded the Board that furniture and fixtures have yet to be determined. Mr. Manetti reviewed current progress to date including the Board's recommendation (comer entrance and children's services on the lower level). The library staff was presented the design on two occasions (including earlier in the day before the Board meeting) and given the opportunity to provide comments of which some have been visually integrated into the design. Mr. Manetti said that there are many deficiencies with the existing library regarding accessibility and compliance identified in the master plan report. However, these issues were not explored in depth on the impact to the building. As background, Mr. Manetti informed the Board that the DOJ (Department of Justice) has a specific task force that focuses on state and local compliance with federal anti-discrimination legislation. For that reason, when the library project is finished, it needs to be fully compliant with ADA requirements. When the library was renovated in 1991 the ADA legislation was signed into law but the library was already built. He mentioned that the current aisles are deficient due to the distance between shelves, the turnaround at the end of the shelves, and dead ends. The master plan (2013/2014) did not have shelving layouts that showed an ADA compliant space in the current space to demonstrate the impact of bringing the building up to compliance. To make the current space ADA compliant there would have to be a 25%- 30 % reduction in shelving which would result in eliminating 1 out of 3 shelves. The library's collection is too large for the current space considering ADA compliance; there is an unreasonable expectation of collection size based on a deficient library. Bringing the building into compliance informs on determining collection size and capacity. Rob and Kim Cullin, library consultants, presented the upper and lower floor layouts. Ms. Cullin started the discussion stating that when they design a floor plan layout in a library project, their first goal is to look at the collection and the shelving layout to be ADA compliant. For the MRSPL project on the upper floor, they will be reusing some of the current shelves and some of the shelves will need to be replaced due to their size including the nonfiction shelves. They also consider the turnaround space (60 in) and aisle width space (42 in) between each stack in order to be compliant, so that even if books extend beyond the width of the shelf it is still in compliance. On the upper level in the front, the popular library remains the same capacity and includes a shared service point for reference and circulation. This will be a change from the current service model of separate circulation and reference service desks. The restrooms will be relocated from where they are currently shown in the layout to give more privacy and the circulation staff area more space. The circulation area will be provided with adequate space for handling books that should include a more efficient and faster workflow that reduces the excessive handling before they get on the shelf. There will also be two book drops into the Circulation Office and self-checkouts (most likely closer or as a part of the service desk). Desktop computers will be reduced and there will be flexible options for 3 people with computers. The layouts showed seating areas near the windows to take advantage of the natural light, which patrons expressed as a desire to have. There is also a quiet reading room, which was popular with the community. A medium sized meeting room that can potentially be divided has been included in the layout. The Local History Room has been moved to the upper level to make it more accessible and prominent. The Local History Room layouts are still in process and the architects will include today's staff comments; the information will be included in the next revision. The Director mentioned that discussions have started with the Adult Services supervisor regarding instituting regular hours for the LHR in order to make more use of it. The architects will maintain the facade from the current windows as a walk through the new area in the new expansion. Mr. DeLong asked if the Board needed to revisit the issue of collection size. Mr. Peterson commented that in past discussions about the collection size, it had been stated that the only way to hold the current library collection size was if there was a high circulation. He asked the library consultants to not apply a standard formula that doesn't apply to MRSPL, but to look at MRSPL's circulation rate. Ms. Cullin affirmed that they did look at MRSPL's data and completed a full collection analysis to see what collections were circulating and which were not. The analysis showed that the collections that circulated for adults were the new adult books (non-fiction and fiction) and the DVDs. There are many books from the fiction and non-fiction collections sitting and not circulating. The Youth Services collections on a whole have excellent circulation and they are the highest circulating items. There could be a variety of factors for why books do not circulate including being tightly packed together and not having space to merchandise. Mr. and Ms. Cullin explained to the Board that while doing the collection analysis they compared the current library collection with other same size libraries in Virginia and MRSPL's was significantly larger even with the renovation/expansion. They considered the number of holdings per square foot, per capita, and per cardholder. The library currently holds 10 items per capita vs an average of less than five in other comparable Virginia libraries. Mr. Cullin added that most people think that: "The more books the more circulation". In the library consultant's experience, they have learned that the correlation is actually in the reverse, both locally and nationally: "The tighter collection the higher the circulation". With a tighter collection, you can be merchandising more, spending money effectively, and purchasing the items that people want to check out. The goal is to get MRSPL's collection down to around 110,000 items, which is still larger than the average of other libraries this size in Virginia, a per capita item of 8 (twice as many as the comparable libraries). The Director cited an example in the children's collection: the Easy Reader collection has been extensively weeded and well-curated. Only 35% of the collection is on the shelf and has the highest turnover rate of over 13 (average number oftimes an item goes out in a year). There is enough space on the shelf to merchandise the books and people can look for what they want easily. This collection has one of the higher circulations in the library. The Director stated that she has seen the correlation between a well-weeded and curated collection and higher circulation rates play out in the library. Mr. Peterson expressed his concern about having a bigger library with a smaller collection. Mr. Manetti said that is why it is important to note that currently the library is laid out in a way that does not meet the code and needs to be renovated to reflect Universal design and compliance with ADA requirements. The Director said that the library's goal is to get books into the hands of patrons and have the collection be utilized and active. Mr. Cullin stated that the collection capacity that they have in the plan is as large or larger than legally what should be in the building as is. Currently we should only have about 80,000-90,000 physical items in the collection for the building size. Mr. Peterson asked the consultants to share with the Board the analysis of the collection. The Director will send it to 4  ---- --------------------- the Board. The consultants continued with the presentation of the lower level. Mr. Cullin mentioned that a key goal was to make sure that the space was sufficiently sized in part due to the high circulation of the collection (40% ofthe library's circulation is from the children's collection). The layout in the lower level shows zoned spaces for new materials, early literacy, older school age children, and teens. The early literacy area would have flip-through picture book shelving and seating options near the window area that would include tiered seating. Throughout the area lower shelving would be used to keep space more open. The zone for teens includes an active/social area and their collection located outside of the teen space, which is in line with best practices and the consultant's experience with teens. The teen area could have interactive elements such as games and outlets to plug in devices. Two smaller meeting rooms or group study spaces are located next to the teen area. This level also includes a large program/meeting room with two doors. Two doors allows for the possibility of entering the room through one door and after a program or story time the door on the opposite side could be open, leading patrons toward the children's collection. There will be a service point and the consultants have talked with staff about different locations to maximize site lines. There will be a few computers and many outlets to plug in devices. The lower level will have two family restrooms. The Youth Services office will be located in the space that currently houses the local history room. Mr. DeLong and Mr. Peterson raised their concern about making sure that the community understands that there will not be a large amount of new staff space. Since in the 1992 renovation, new staff space was built and it was criticized that this was not what was promised to the community. The Board has promised with this expansion that the space will be used for public space, not for staff in the current renovation/expansion. Mr. Manetti responded that they could tabulate the amount ofstaffvs. public space and make it part of the next presentation to the Board. The Director mentioned that the library anticipates providing more services to the public and workspace for staff is needed and necessary to accomplish that goal. Currently the space for staff does not have enough workspace for computers, materials, and planning and in the case of Adult Services the staff is located in two different parts of the building. Mr. Cullin added that as a percentage of the total building, staff space will be a smaller percentage of the final design of the building. All of the space in the addition will be public space. Ms. Oppenheimer asked about the current stairwell in the center of the building. The consultants reported that the stairwell will be closed in and the tiles will remain in place. Mr. Manetti added that there will be windows on the lower level with a southern light exposure which will enhance the furnishing elements and could be a highlight for this level. They will get as many windows as they can on that level. A portion of the current exterior wall (which would then be an interior wall) will be removed to allow light to enter the space. The emergency door will be located next to the sprinkler room door in addition to the existing emergency exit from the back hallway. We are already asking for a variance on the set back facing Virginia Avenue, so it makes better sense to locate the emergency exit door on the alley side. This also allows exit onto the alley instead of a street. There was a question about having a double door vestibule in the new emergency exit. Mr. Manetti said that the size of the door is calculated by occupancy and that an oversized single door for strollers would probably be sufficient. Double doors would make the vestibule larger and it takes space from the library. He also added that the electrical room, the sprinkler room, the staff entrance door, and the emergency stairs are not in compliance and have many deficiencies. He will work with the Fire Marshal to see what can be done to get them into code compliance. Ms. Oppenheimer asked if the comer entrance will give light to the building through the 5 stairwell. Mr. Manetti explained that the communicating stair will bring a view and ambient, north facing light. There will be a connection on two ends of the lower level to daylight. A communicating stair is one that is not enclosed. Mr. Manetti mentioned that they are still deciding which type of elevator to be used - hydraulic or an electric traction elevator; this depends on the cost and maintenance that the City is willing to take. The advantage to the electric traction elevator is that it would take away the need for a mechanical room on the lower level. That space could then be captured for use as the family room toilets. The size of the elevator will be stroller friendly. The old elevator would possibly be staff use only. Mr. Peterson asked about using the space under the portico. Mr. Manetti replied that the space under the portico would have risk of water leakage due to the portico being exposed to the outside. There was a discussion of how the current exterior wall would be treated in the expansion. Mr. Manetti stated that the idea would be to use the window openings on the upper level as pass throughs into the expansion and maintain the look of the natural brick. This is also a cost savings measure. Board members indicated that they liked this idea. Mr. Manetti also stated that on the lower level is where we would want to make the investment of making a larger opening to let the natural light m. Mr. Manetti then presented to the Board a slide showing the amount of additional shelving units that would be needed in the upper level in order to maintain the current library collection. The Director pointed out that this means no meeting room, no computer or popular library and very little seating space. Ms. Tysse commented that having all the collection data, the librarians will know what books to discard and that it would not be an arbitrary decision. The Director said that once they start the weeding list, they will work on discarding materials through several different lenses. One is book condition - if the book is damaged, dirty, ripped, or moldy it will be discarded. Then they will start looking at usage statistics for each sub-collection i.e. how often a book is checked out. For example, currently the young adult collection has a defined physical space that is small and it is necessary to weed every six months. Therefore, staff look at materials that have not circulated in six months. The Director added that a library-wide weeding plan will be implemented and will be developed once they get into the new building. And more than likely it will be a regular task that occurs on a weekly to biweekly basis. The Director expects the shelves to be at 75% full (current best practices). Currently the collection is between 85%-93% on the shelf with some collections even higher. There are some parts of the collection that might stay at the same capacity and some would need to be significantly weeded. For example, the recommended DVD collection size would remain the same for the permanent location, but will be weeded when moving into the temporary location. The Director stated that all of the collections need to be weeded, even those that are circulating well. The Director said that the collection is a living organism and needs to be well cared for and maintained to be healthy. This will be a healthy process for the collection. She believes that every book has its moment, she expressed that the books that she holds near and dear to her heart as a child might not be the same books for today's children. Every generation will have their own important books, which may include books that last from generation to generation. Mr. Peterson expressed that he would appreciate seeing the work on the collection analysis to see how feasible it is to reduce the collection to 110,000. He wants to understand what we would be losing and gaining for the collection. He also mentioned that a generous meeting and program space is nice to have but how will it be used? The Director said that she expects to increase the programming in adult services since the attendance has been increasing in current programming. As an example, the Senior Book club is very well attended (21 people at the last meeting and the conference room was packed). There have been requests from the public for meeting space as well which would be a new service offering. Mr. Gernand noted that the master plan consultants said that the City will be gaining 6 about 5,000 more people in population before plateauing at 19,000 and will need to consider that more users will be using the library. Ms. Tysse asked if eBooks could be purchased to compensate or are ebooks too expensive. The Director and Mr. Gemand said that eBooks are very expensive. The Director said that she believes that the library will still be spending the same amount of money on physical books. It was mentioned that interlibrary loans will also be useful when a title is not available at the library .The Director said that when there is a book recommendation or request from patrons the selectors buy them due to the healthy book budget. She also mentioned that when the library opens the shelves should be full. What would be expected is that circulation and attendance would increase. The circulation rate may increase such that the on-shelf collection is lower than 75%, so it may make sense to increase the number of items. The consultants presented the final slide showing the layout for the lower level if the collection was maintained. The lower level collection would be denser with higher shelving units. Mr. Cullin informed the Board that they had looked at the turnover rate and circulation percentage across the collection including using the Dewey level range for non-fiction. The consultants are recommending that the biggest weed come from the adult non-fiction range. Not counting the new books, the average adult non-fiction book circulation is .91. This means that a book, on average, has been checked out less than once a year. According to the data, about 20% of the non- fiction titles represent 80% of the <;irculation. That means that there are probably 5,000-10,000 books that have not circulated in 2-3 years. The Director stated that moving the adult items to the upper level along with having a well-curated, browseable collection that is merchandised should increase circulation. There were Board members that expressed agreement. Mr. Cullin stated that there are two alternatives to not decreasing the collection size- you don't do the building project or try to squeeze it all in. Mr. Cullin stated that not doing the building project does not make the library immune from the DOJ suing for compliance. Ms. Cullin emphasized that the current library has a heavy stack design using 7 shelves per stack and that would have to be maintained in the new layout. The consultants stated that they cannot implement best practices of reducing shelf height on the upper level and will have to use the top and bottom shelf of each stack to keep the collection at 110,00 items. A Board member asked what best practice is and Ms. Cullin stated that best practice is a shelf height no higher than 66 inches and only using 4-5 shelves. Ms. Oppenheimer commented that the lower shelving would really let the light in from the windows on the upper level. The consultants expressed that they did not go into the layout intending to reduce the collection. However, as they laid out the shelving and tried to create a balance with the other program elements they discovered that they couldn't fit all of the shelves into the building. Even reducing the collection to 110,000 items means that MRSPL has more items per capita, per card holder, and per square foot than comparable libraries in Virginia. The Director asked what would happen to the collection if the decision was to go with best practices. Ms. Cullin stated that the collection would then be under 100,000 physical items. There was a question about reducing the shelving just by the windows and the consultants stated that this was the adult fiction collection. The adult fiction collection has double the turnover rate that the adult non-fiction section has and the consultants are recommending a 20% reduction in fiction as opposed to a 35% reduction in non-fiction. In the past a collection would have twice the non-fiction titles than fiction, but the consultants have found that collections are leaning more towards an even balance between adult fiction and non-fiction. Ms. Swiney expressed that she is willing to go to best practices to have more window and 7 programing space. Her perspective is that the libraries of the future are more than just checking out books; they are places to play with your children, go to a lecture, attend book clubs etc. She is willing to have a debate with the Board on lowering book shelves and reducing the collection since there is data that shows that it does not circulate. The consultants and architect stated that this may be difficult since they are intending to reuse shelving in the adult fiction shelving and were not planning to purchase new shelving for the entire adult collection. Mr. Manetti suggested that we start with the higher bookshelves and keep in mind best practices for the future. Mr. DeLong felt that having the lower shelving was not appropriate for the MRSPL adult collection and there was not an ADA requirement for lower shelving. Mr. Manetti did raise the issue of reach range for ADA compliance. The Board requested the data that the consultants referenced and the Director stated that it would be provided. Mr. Peterson inquired about the public computer access. Ms. Cullin reported that the number of computers were reduced and located closer to the service desk. She stated that lending laptops were discussed with staff as an option for the future. Mr. Gernand commented that in previous meetings the Board expressed their concerns about what patrons were viewing on the public computers. He asked if there are any issues in other libraries when patrons check out laptops. Ms. Cullin said that there are filters on the computers and it is not easy to control what people are looking at. This is not a new risk since people are bringing their own devices to the libraries. The Director emphasized that they need to be mindful about lending laptops to patrons due to budget concerns and the implications for IT staff. Mr. Peterson commented that lower income patrons need computers and it is important to have them. The Director mentioned that she looked at the computer's usage report and it has been lower in recent years. This was the reason the number of computers would be reduced in the building. 9. LIBRARY REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS The Director informed the Board that Falls Church Public Schools have offered the large trailer located next to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School as a temporary location for the library during construction. The library and schools have started the conversation about this possibility including creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU will cover items like parking, safety and security, and hours of operation. A slight adjustment to library operating hours to a 9:30am opening time has been proposed to accommodate pick-up/drop-off at the school. Once the MOU is ready, it will be presented to the Library Board and the School Board as well. An agreement should be reached within the next several months. The Director asked the Board to reschedule the Board meeting from November 21 to November 14. The Board agreed. 10. BUSINESS NOT ON THE AGENDA None 11. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 9:01 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 8  Approved: ~ ~ 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. 9  MARY RILEY STYLES PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES SPECIAL MEETING September, 19 2018 SIGN-IN SHEET NAME - ADDRESS EMAIL IL)b f..u.lLI'A t..BA- 1 ~,ke vc.-~~~L h~ ~~fA- ~~llc . Y\ uA \.... I( - ~'MP I ( f1ark f1~ffi EkV ltrltru1.Jl6fl/ IJI 8kYqoe~r£.c.J. rn J<«n Cnllahan rcc_ f ,- Yu f\-b s teJ e rNo./ 1Jnb fc ru b .(,)v 1\ I tj Page 1