Library Board

MORGANTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY Approved December 7, 2023 Minutes of the Regular Meeting November 2, 2023 Present: Absent: Also Present: Others Present: Sue Carpenter Sarah Palfrey Linda Durfee Kelly Funkhouser Meredith Hartery James Spears, V Amy Loomis Alexandria Svolos Call to order The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Morgantown Public Library convened on November 2, 2023. The meeting convened at 9:05 am, Sue Carpenter, President presiding, Kelly Funkhouser, secretary. Approval of the Minutes • Regular Meeting October 5, 2023 - The minutes were approved as presented. Meredith Hartery moved. The motion passed unanimously. PUBLIC FORUM – None CORRESPONDENCE AND COMMUNICATIONS - None REPORTS • President – None • Director – See Director’s Report – Additional information: o WVDeli is having conversations with the other two West Virginia consortiums and is exploring combining the three groups into one statewide network. o The Aull Center internet service was upgraded to accommodate the new staff and the new phone system. o All of the new phone systems are in place. Service will start coming online next week. We will be able to transfer calls between all locations. If a library is closed unexpectedly, those calls can be forwarded to another location. o Startup awards have been finalized. o Reading Dragons project - Pokémon style reading incentive program for K-8 - will launch in January. Participants will collect family of dragon’s cards. The pilot program is January to April and is slated to expand in September into schools. Goal 100 kids to register and 50 to actively participate. It is a collaborative project with multiple libraries designing cards and sharing. o The Morgantown Public Library System will be closed on November 30 for an in-service day. It will include training for Reading Dragons and other programs. It will be later in the day to include evening staff. • Treasurer – o Financial Statements – The financial statements were reviewed. Linda Durfee moved that the financial statements be filed for audit. The motion passed. ○ Approval of Checks – Amy Loomis moved to approve checks as presented. The motion passed. Board Minutes – November 2, 2023 – Page 2 REPORTS OF COMMITTEES A. Investment Committee – None B. Facilities Committee – The ramp at Clinton District Public Library was completed and needed additional shoring up. The Cheat Area Public Library’s ramp is scheduled to be replaced. Elevator replacement to be started November 20. Pump upgrades are being explored for sanitation/sewage system. UNFINISHED BUSINESS o Unattended children - Linda Durfee moved that we accept the policy with the hyphen change as mentioned earlier. The motion passed. NEW BUSINESS - • Budget Adjustment – Alexandria Svolos moved that we use $1,006.10 from fund balance to cover the change orders for the Clinton ramp. The motion passed. • 2024 Levy Election – The timeline was discussed. The library will need to go to the Monongalia County Commission in January to request being put on the levy schedule. Linda Durfee moved that we pursue a levy at the current level. The motion passed. Sarah Palfrey will share the timeline with the board. • Strategic Plan – The current document was discussed. Linda Durfee moved that we accept this plan, but if any of us have any comments that we pass them on to Sarah Palfrey within the next 10 days and that Sarah makes any adjustments that make it more public friendly. Motion passed. BOARD & DIRECTOR COMMENTS – • Sue Carpenter congratulated Sarah Palfrey on her Merit Award. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Property - Linda Durfee moved that the Board of Trustees enter into Executive Session at 10:11am. The Board reconvened at 10:25am. ADJOURNMENT – Meredith Hartery moved to adjourn. The motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 10:26am. NEXT MEETING –December 7, 2023 9am NOVEMBER 2023 BOARD MEETING DIRECTOR'S REPORT Sarah Palfrey NOVEMBER 2023 BOARD MEETING OCTOBER 2023 HIGHLIGHTS Octob e r s a w l o t s of updates to o ur website www.mympls.org. We n o w h a v e a t eam o f t h r e e ( Kaylar, James, an d Sarah P.) that are working toge t h e r o n webs i t e i m p r o v e ments! The com bined power has made problem s o l v i n g f a s t e r and t a c k l i n g i m provements less daunting. A cha t w i d g e t i s now live on the site. It is operated by trained MP L p u b l i c servi c e s s t a f f . W ebsite visitors can use the chat box for quick ans w e r s o n l i b rar y p o l i c y , h ours, or help navigating the website and digital r e s o u r c e s . An up g r a d e t o t he new materials carousels was made in October . T h e n e w carou s e l s p u l l t i tles directly from the Wowbrary newsletter so th e r e i s a l m o s t no di r e c t s t a f f t ime involved. We have added an additional caro u s e l t o highl i g h t n e w D VD titles and hav e the ability to add in additiona l c u s t o m i z a b l e ones t o s u p p o r t programs like re ading challenges, summer read i n g p r o g r a m , o r t o hi g h l i g h t t h e m atic collections.  NOVEMBER 2023 BOARD MEETING OCTOBER 2023 ADMINISTRATION Octob e r i s h o m e to lots of quart erly The a n n u a l f a l l c onference of the meet i n g s . T h e A ffiliate quarterly West V i r g i n i a L i b rary Association meet i n g w a s m oved to November. was h e l d i n H u n tington. Sarah P ., The West V i r g i n i a L i b rary Network Jame s S . , R y n e F., Abby C., Bonn ie Ex. B o a r d m e t . The only action t aken D., K e l l y S . , a n d Jessika L. attended. was t o a l l o w l o cal libraries to se t Confe r e n c e r e p o rts include posi tive t he l e n g t h o f t i m e before a card exper i e n c e s a n d having attende d a expir e s w i t h i n a 1 to 3 year window. varie t y o f s e s s i o ns. First time New a n d r e n e w ed MPLS cards will atten d e e s J e s s i ka and Abby wer e now b e g o o d f o r 3 years. We bel ieve also f i r s t t i m e p resenters! They t hat e x t e n d i n g the borrowing pe riod expan d e d t h e i r presentation fro m will h e l p r e t a i n less frequent users our s t a f f d a y a bout Engaging who f e e l t h a t t heir card is inacti ve Displ a y s . T h e y did a wonderful j ob more t h a n i t ’ s a c tive. and t h e p r e s e n t ation was well recei v e d . Sarah w a s a w a r d ed a The WV- De l i ( d igi t a l r e s o u r c es) Merit A w a r d f o r her work with th e conso r t i u m a l s o met in October. The l egis l a t i v e c o m mittee. Award group v o t e d t o do away with the Resol u t i o n f o l l ows the Branch comi c s s u b s c r i p tion through Repor t s . Overd r i v e . T h e collection use wa s The A u l l C e n t e r i n ter n e t s e r v i c e was very l o w a c r o s s all participating upgra d e d t o a c c ommodate the l i b rar i e s . O v e r d r ive informed us that addit i o n a l s t a f f now working in the t hey w i l l b e d i s c ontinuing Universal build i n g . Class . O u r c u r r ent subscription expir e s i n F e b r uary, we will not be Strat e g i c P l a n - A d r a f t h a s b e en able t o r e n e w a t that point. The re submi t t e d t o t h e Board for revie w. was c o n s i d e r a b l e discussion abo ut budge t s a n d w h a t the future of PERSO N N E L - n one! digit a l b o r r o w i ng could hold. I r eally appre c i a t e t h e collaborative nat ure Facil i t y U p d a t e s - of th e g r o u p a n d willingness to w ork Clint o n r a m p c o mpleted t owar d s s o l u t i o ns that fit each Cheat r a m p s c h e duled for 11/6 l i b rar y ’ s c i r c u m s tances. MPL e l e v a t o r s c heduled for 11/2 0!  NOVEMBER 2023 BOARD MEETING Digital Highlight NEW OFFERINGS The Library Section of the Arts, Culture, and History (formerly the West Virginia Library Commission) has added a number of new offerings to their collection of digital assets. The databases and collections are available to anyone in the state through the wvinfodepot.org portal. MPLS patrons will see the return of tutor.com! We subscribe to the live tutoring service for two years during the pandemic, but discontinued the service due to the high cost and declining use. We also recently decided to discontinue offering Tumblebooks, a collection of animated picture books, children’s audiobooks and games. Since the state contract had already been signed, Tumblebooks allowed our subscription to continue at no cost until the state’s goes live on Nov.1, 2023. New to us will be NatGEO Kids and Miss Humblebee’s Academy. Miss Humblebee’s is an online preschool curriculum and Gale Presents: National Geographic Kids collection includes all magazine issues from 2009 to the present, as well as books, videos including Amazing Animals, images, and colorful photos. High- quality informational texts, fun features, and weird and wacky facts are available for primary, upper elementary, and middle school English Language Arts, social studies, and science classrooms. The Library Section will be offering training webinars through November. Morgantown Public Library System September Visits 2023 10,835 14,635 ITEMS BORROWED 48 PROGRAM ATTENDANCE PROGRAMS 720 COMPUTER SESSIONS NEW CARDS 901 258 16,839 ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION DIGITAL 773 WITHDRAWN BORROWS Arnettsville Public Library Branch Report September 2023 Fall is finally here and we are looking forward to feeling a chill in the air and seeing more patrons at the library. We kicked the month off with our monthly Senior Lunch & Learn on Wednesday, September 6th with a Buckwheat Cake & Sausage lunch. Three of our attendees volunteered to make the buckwheat cakes for us and they were delicious. There were about a dozen folks in attendance who enjoyed the meal and discussed their favorite school memories. For our monthly Craft Night, we made Appliqued Button Art in a cardinal shape on a mini canvas. They turned out really nice. We had six folks in attendance. We have a great group for our monthly craft nights and they are willing to try new crafts. Six folks attended our monthly movie night where we showed “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” We all enjoyed the movie. The library was open a few hours on Sunday, September 24 from 1:00 p.m. till 3:00 p.m. for an Open House event at the Arnettsville Community Center. Families from the community were invited to attend this event and learn more about all of the different things happening at the center. The library gave our a free book to every child who visited the library plus the “Cat In The Hat” was on hand for pictures and handed out bookmarks. We are so thankful at the Arnettsville Public Library for a volunteer ( Miss Melody) who helps us organize and straighten up our used book sale area. She keeps it looking neat and tidy (as best she can) whenever she visits. Goals: -Begin weeding for the year -Begin visiting Mylan Park Pre-K classrooms for the school year -Prepare for upcoming Trunk or Treat events to participate in -Box up books for Better World Books CAPL Manager’s Report September 2023 September was a major reorganization month at Cheat! We spent a lot of time rethinking where certain items are displayed, how we display things, and where some of our items would be best suited. We worked hard on making everything look better, making displays, and making sure we were using our space to the best of our ability. In addition to all of the revitalization work, we planned new events, created a scarecrow for the Botanic Garden Scarecrow Spectacular, and got our computers back up and running! Over the summer, we had first moved new YA and adult graphic novels to the right side of our new section, in an attempt to give them increased visibility. After a couple of months, we decided that wasn’t working, and we actually needed more room for our regular new adult fiction and non-fiction. To move those to their own area with room to grow, we had to first move some other things. We relocated the remaining children’s audiobooks to the shelf space overtop of our chapter book section, which better correlates with audio versions of those books. We also decided to move our new children’s chapter books to be integrated with the rest of the chapter books, since our dedicated display space for them wasn’t getting much traction. However, we opened up that space to be used as better display space, which we’ve started using for a Percy Jackson display (picture below). When we decided to move those different items and sections, we also began to think about how each section should have a distinct “feel” to it, whether that be through signage, decoration, or different display techniques for items. We started by using a few new signs and decorations on the new section (picture below) but we would like to keep adding things to different sections to make them feel like their own special areas! For the month of October, we have a lot going on, but we’re also already looking forward to November! One of the events that I’m excited about is the Stress Free Book Club, which Abby planned! Adult readers will be encouraged to come in for some quiet reading time and snacks, and then towards the end of the evening, they can discuss what they’ve read! I think some of our adult patrons who may not be as social will enjoy the quiet time and having the option to talk to other readers if they so choose! I’m also excited about the Artist Collective, where adult patrons will be encouraged to bring in their creative projects to work on and talk with other artists! Both of these events that Abby created will be a great step forward for our adult programming! Finally, during the last week of September, our scarecrow went up at the botanic garden! Jessika and Abby worked really hard on creating our “Down the Rabbit Hole with a Good Book” scarecrow, inspired by Alice in Wonderland! For the entire month of October, our scarecrow will be in the garden, and it has already been seen and promoted on the local news! Thanks to Jessika and Abby for working so hard on the idea and making sure it all came together! General Administration - Weekly events are going strong as always! Michelle continues to do excellent work on story time and setting up for toddler playgroup. Michelle’s work in making sure these  weekly programs are so good is invaluable to our library, and I thank her for how much work she puts in to making our library one of the best places to be on Wednesday and Friday mornings! - Abby, Jessika, and I will be traveling to Huntington for the WVLA conference in October! We are very excited! Abby and Jessika will be presenting an updated version of their “Creating Engaging Programming” talk that they did for staff training. I’m so excited to see our library and the library system presented on stage for this talk! Goals 1. Complete decorating for the Halloween season and upcoming party! 2. Continue to move things around to find the most engaging spots possible for displays and sections. 3. Work on weeding non-fiction and looking for things to add to our children’s non-fiction section. Clay-Battelle Public Library Monthly Report September 2023 Sam started hosting storytime again on Tuesday’s and it has been very successful. We have a homeschool group in attendance along with several other pre-k children. I (Kelly) was very excited to be asked to attend a WV Game Changer Meeting at CBHS. I have joined the committee and will continue to attend these meetings. They are going to be a great resource for our community to help empower our youth to stop the opioid crisis! I look forward to my continued involvement with this great group. Facilities Update ● Waiting for Select Security to come to library to fix an issue with security cameras. I’m unable to view from my cell phone. (Darrin scheduled appointment, and they didn’t show up) ● Ordered smoke detectors Planning and Organizing ● 1st Christmas Tree Lighting in Blacksville (November 26th) ● Tamera Self Book Signing (October 27th 2-6pm) ● Storytime Halloween Party  CBPL Continued page 2 Education ● Ingram Foundations: Navigate Ingram (Kelly Completed) Goals ● Winter event planning ● Continue to grow my partnership with community involvement All of the following goals we are continuing to complete. ● Weeding young adult and children fiction sections. ● Boxing books for Better World Books CDPL Monthly Report September 2023 Manager’s Report ● Dial A Story, Angela did the recordings in September, for October ○ Gustova, The Shy Ghost ○ West Virginia Halloween ○ The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything ● Pre-School Storytime ○ We had a great turn out 3 Staff, 6 Adults and 5 children. The children decorated scarecrow hats, had Oreo’s and Juice! ○ We had 6 hats left over and shared with Clay Battelle! ○ ● Library Lattes and Laughs ○ We read Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney, and the book was very much enjoyed by all. Angela led the conversation and it was a lively conversation about the characters we liked and didn’t. We had a new participant. We even delved into a discussion about Ghosts, Witches and Witchcraft! We enjoyed cookies from Apple Annie’s, always a big hit! ● Janet filmed a short video for WIC about the importance of play. Emily and Kaylar provided an excellent script and much encouragement! I was very honored to be included in this project. General Administration ● New to our Collections ○ Adult Fiction 28 ○ Adult Non-Fiction 1 ○ YA 1 ○ Graphic Novels 5 ○ Childrens 7 ○ Children Non-Fiction 2  ○ ER 1 ○ E7 ○ Boardbooks 1 ○ VOX Books 12 ○ DVDs 7 Planning, Organizing, Processes, and Evaluation ● Caleb and Angela continue to delete adult fiction, we had 292 adult fiction deletes! ● Janet started putting the cork boards on the wall! Personnel: Community and Professional Development (3 CEs required yearly for all staff working more than 20 hours a week) ● Janet attended a 2-hour online course “Managing Difficult Conversations with Colleagues and Staff” with the other branch manager, Sarah P. and James. ○ I was very surprised to learn the percentage of people who have had trauma in their life and understanding that trauma can lead to better ways of communicating. ○ A tool I really liked, FBI ■ Feelings - I felt this ■ Behavior - from this behavior ■ Impact - this is what happened because of ■ STOP TALKING, let the other person respond ● Discuss “expectations” with Caleb and Angela to create a better flow of communication ● Caleb continues to get weekly compliments from our patrons Top Three Goals for September: 1. Create a system to complete monthly tasks, such as putting monthly social media posts up for PreSchool Storytime and Library Lattes and Laughs 2. Create a plan for ongoing displays on our cork board and empty shelving 3. Per my monthly meeting with Sarah, when adding to our space make sure what we are adding is intentional - not just hodge podge. An example, put like shelves together. Morgantown Public Library Monthly Report September 2023 Overview Overall, September was slower in Public Services when compared to the recent summer months. Slightly fewer patrons visited the library this month and we spent much of the month resetting and catching up after the Summer Reading Program and the general frenzy of the summer. Staff were able to make progress on several projects and continue to see success in both programming and general work with patrons. Also this month, MPL has been able to host a couple of community-sponsored displays. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution displayed an informational presentation on Constitution Week from September 17th to the 23rd. Additionally, MPL is participating in the Country Roads Quilt Guild’s silent quilt action. The Quilt Guild has crafted and displayed about 20 mini quilts at locations throughout downtown including at MPL. These quilts will be a feature of Main Street Morgantown’s October Arts Walk and will be auctioned off. All proceeds from the auction will be given to Main Street Morgantown. Staffing Changes This month, we were able to fill the vacant library assistant position that was vacated in late August. Interlibrary Loan Coordinator Crystal L. participated in the interview process with me and there were several good candidates who applied for the position. After interviewing, Crystal, and I decided to offer and hire our newest library assistant Kelly W. Kelly started in mid-September and so far has settled into the position well. We’re happy to have Kelly on our team and hope that we will be able to take a break from interviewing and hiring this fall. Also this month, a new intern from WVU’s Purpose2Action program has started working with Public Services. The new intern, Cheyenne, will be working with Public Services on a number of projects for the remainder of the fall semester. Already Cheyenne has contributed to a shifting project in the large print collection and helped us make considerable progress. Staff Contributions This month Youth Services Specialist Jenean S. applied for grant funding to purchase equipment and supplies for a mobile makerspace dubbed the “Curiosity Cart!”. This funding if awarded would be provided through the Your Community Foundation of North Central West Virginia (YCF) to promote STEM activities and opportunities for girls in Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor counties. The Curiosity Cart would allow Jenean the ability to plan and present makerspace programming in lieu of a dedicated makerspace location in the building. This programming would target tween and teen girls specifically but more generally would be available to all tween and teen patrons interested in STEM activities. Programming We saw a good level of successful adult programming in September. Evening Supervisor Shelby D. hosted a well-attended craft night where she and her participants made needlepoint bookmarks. She reported that her attendees expressed enthusiasm for future adult programming. Specifically, there was interest in more craft nights and some interest in presenting adult versions of other library programs such as STEM and Lego nights. Library Assistant Libby P.’s adult nonfiction book club increased in attendance compared to the meeting in August. Libby noted that there were two repeat attendees and one new participant who expressed strong interest in the October meeting. I am excited to see both of our recurring adult programs garnering interest from the community and I am confident that both Shelby and Libby will be able to grow their respective programming. I would like to expand the adult programming at MPL in the future to meet patron interests. Teen and tween programming this month was “hit and miss” according to Youth Services Specialist Jenean S. There were a couple of events outside of the library’s control that contributed to lower attendance. Tween STEM was rescheduled this month due to plumbing issues in the building and the tween Break A Record program unfortunately was the same evening as the MHS Homecoming Parade. Despite this, Jenean reported that the patrons who attended the programs had a lot of fun and that she is starting to develop a group of “regular” participants in her programs. New and Ongoing Projects We were able to make progress on several projects this month. All Public Services staff participated in practical training for the live chat virtual reference service. This part of the project involved staff responders practicing answering questions and requests from “patrons” who were played by other staff members. Currently, there are 4 staff designated as responders because this project is more of a pilot project but the response from both responders and staff playing our “patrons” was positive. The responders appear to have developed a good understanding of how to provide virtual reference and have reported to me that they are ready to present this publicly. The next steps are to work with Marketing & Communications Coordinator Kaylar M. to add this to the MPLS website. Youth Services Specialist Jenean S. began the collection evaluation project in the Young Adult collection this month. As the project has taken shape, it has become a dual-goal project. First, this project should provide Jenean with a better understanding of the characteristics of the YA collection and help inform her purchasing and weeding decisions. Additionally, I hope that this project will help develop a process to evaluate other library collections. Jenean and I are collaborating on this project and currently, she is working on organizing and analyzing data about the collection. Other collection management projects continue to make progress in several other areas. Children’s Library Ruth D., ILL Coordinator Crystal L., and Evening Supervisor Shelby D. all continue to work on their respective weeding projects. Shelby has reported that she is working through the tail end of the adult mystery collection and will finish this month.  Progress has also been made on a long-running project to update and revise the Public Services Handbook. So far the biggest effort has been to transfer this document from its previous format as an MS Word document to Google Docs so that is a dynamic and live document. With that step completed, ILL Coordinator Crystal L. and Evening Supervisor Shelby D. assisted me in reviewing and updating the handbook’s content. I owe a big thank you to both Shelby and Crystal for their work on the handbook so far. As of September, we have completed the initial revisions. The next steps are to finish formatting so that we can produce a draft of the handbook that branch supervisors can review and provide their input. Goals Continuing Goals ● Implement Live Chat virtual reference service - in progress ○ The internal practice has gone smoothly and we are preparing to present this service publicly. ○ The next step is to add the chat widget to the website. ■ I think it would be best to quietly add this to the site at first and then potentially announce the service if we feel like it is something sustainable and beneficial. ● Continue weeding in adult fiction to produce more free space and move the paperback collection. - in progress ○ Weeding in the Adult Mysteries will be completed in October. ○ Planning will begin to prepare for shifting and moving the paperback collection. ● Coordinate with Ruth Godfrey to reorganize the children’s area into a more distinct and open area within the library. - in progress ○ Ruth continues weeding in the Easy Books to create new space and identify any items that should be reordered. ○ This goal is still dependent on our ability to create space by moving our paperback collection from its current location. ○ Discussions have begun to consider painting in the children’s area once we are able to move and reorganize the area’s shelving.