Board of Public Library Trustees

Draft of Minutes of Board of Trustees Meeting of February 15, 2018 Salem, Massachusetts February 15, 2018 A meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on this date at 4:15pm at the Library with Trustees Buckley, Merry, Schild, and Mayor Driscoll present and presiding. Trustees Salerno and Yale were absent. Miss Mansfield was present. Approval of minutes for meeting on January 18, 2018 – UNANIMOUS Betsy Ricciarelli presented three design options for redesigning the Children’s Room. The first option was limited to furniture replacement, the second option included additional upgrades, and the third option involved changing the layout of the Children’s Room which would require working with an architect to obtain estimates. Miss Ricciarelli presented a budget for the first two options, totaling $201,145 and $221,377. Discussion of breaking the project into a five year budgeted plan followed. Mayor Driscoll suggested asking library staff about the most concerning areas, and for their thoughts on the order things should be done. The possibility of replacing the rugs throughout the library and adding a new coat of paint to make the biggest impact was discussed. Miss Ricciarelli will come up with an estimate for designing the interior of the building with paint and rugs. Current Financial and Library Use reports were distributed. Salem’s circulation numbers were third highest circulation of NOBLE libraries in January, and second highest in e-books and e- audiobooks. Miss Mansfield reported that Miss Little had authorized the transfer of $3,966 from the John Bertram Fund for the ongoing city directory preservation and digitization project. Miss Little had also arranged for the spring planting meeting to be held the following week to discuss the beautification of the library grounds. The Trustees expressed their gratitude for Miss Little’s ongoing generosity. Miss Mansfield distributed the Library’s FY19 Budget. Miss Mansfield reported that salary increases had been included under personnel based upon a salary survey she had recently completed. Miss Mansfield noted that during 2017, the Library had 7 full time vacancies out of 14 full time professional librarian positions, and only one was due to retirement. Trustee Buckley noted that the requested increases were based upon the minimum average salaries from the survey, and further increases would be needed. VOTED: To approve the FY19 Budget as presented. MOVED: Trustee Schild SECONDED: Trustee Buckley - UNANIMOUS Miss Mansfield noted that the filming by the television show “Who Do You Think You Are?” fell through, and that the filming was done at the Peabody Institute Library in Danvers instead. Discussion of the Trustee vacancy followed. Further review of the applicants was necessary and would be discussed at the April meeting. Meeting adjourned at 5:17pm.