Roswell Public Library Board of Trustees

ROSWELL PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING 4:00 p.m. January 24, 2013 Bondurant Room MEMBERS PRESENT: Marna Hunt, Magil Duran, Judy Armstrong, and Ed David MEMBERS ABSENT: Elizabeth Shamas, Linda Madrid, and Patti Bristol OTHERS PRESENT: Barbara Patterson, City Attorney; Stacye Hunter, Assistant City Manager; Savino Sanchez, City Council Library Liaison; Betty Long, Library Director; and Kay Carrasco, Recording Secretary CALL TO ORDER: Marna Hunt, President, called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Members present noted. A quorum was present. NEW MEMBER: Mr. Edward David, newly appointed member of the Board, was welcomed by the members. Introductions were made. MINUTES: Ms. Hunt asked if there were any corrections/additions to the minutes of the October 25, 2012 meeting. There were none. Mr. Duran moved to approve the minutes as presented, seconded by Dr. Armstrong, and the motion passed. DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Director Betty Long presented her written report; in addition to her written report, Ms. Long addressed other matters: • Bond B passed in the November elections! For the first time in many years and attempts, it passed in Chaves County as well as statewide. The spending period for the 2010 bonds has not ended yet, so it will be some time before these funds are made available to us. • Mid-year budget adjustments and requests were due in mid-January and we originally filed “no changes.” Then Vantage Engineering completed their survey and estimate on building repairs, which necessitated us amending our first request to reflect the $10,000 additional needed. Then we found out that the problems we’d been having with our HVAC system were beyond the scope of our service agreement with Johnson Controls, and the next needed repair is to flush the entire system to remove mud from the pipes—another $10,000, so  another amendment to the mid-year budget. Speculation is that the cause of the mud in the pipes was a water main break about a year and a half ago that allowed a rush of dirt to contaminate the incoming water; that settled into the pipes, some of which are totally blocked. At this point, the repairs on the heating system will have to go out on bid due to the level of expense, which will take some time. In the meantime, the system is functioning adequately, if barely so; we are having to supplement some areas with electric heaters at times. • The January author talk by Stefan Kiesbye was exceptional, almost more performance art than just a talk: the author read from his work, accompanied by two musicians—very interesting. However, not very well attended, unfortunately. • The Explora Science Center is looking for 4 or 5 smaller libraries to participate in science projects for young people. If they receive the grants they are currently working on, they will concentrate first on Bernalillo County and the major Albuquerque libraries, and then expand to more rural areas in 2013-2014. • The Summer Reading program theme this year is “Dig It.” • We have begun to work with 3M on ebooks. This is simply to have another source for ebooks, and not have all our “eggs in one basket.” Some publishers, Penguin, for example, do not release titles to libraries through Overdrive, but do through 3M. The industry as a whole is still in some turmoil as they decide on policies for ebook distribution. The ebooks we add to our collection are selected by a committee. Useage of ebooks is increasing gradually; in November we exceeded 1,000 checkouts for the first time. The e-reader classes are being offered again and are well attended, if not at the very high pace of last year, the first time we offered them. OTHER BUSINESS: Mr. Duran handed out flyers for a program on February 6th at the Civic Center, to assist area veterans with their VA benefits. ADJOURN- MENT: The meeting was adjourned by Ms. Hunt at 4:38pm. NEXT MEETING: February 28, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Bondurant Room. Marna Hunt, President Kay Carrasco, Recording Secretary