Santa Fe Public Library Board

LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING 1. CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to Order at 5:50 PM 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Member Mark Lupinetti Member Rose Cowan Member Tamina Painter Member William Karnoscak Member Aurora Hvidsten Member Meghan McGarrity Member Adele Oliveira Library Director Margaret Neill 3. Members Excused: 4. Others Attending: Therese Martinez, Project Administrator, Clerk Raquel Martinez, Collections Manager 5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA a. Tuesday, June 17, 2025. Mark Lupinetti requested removal of item 8a. (New Business) from the Agenda since Daniel Hernandez and Jack Kelly were unable to attend the meeting. Adele Oliveira made a motion to approve the Agenda as amended. William Karnoscak seconded the Motion. Unanimous approval. 6. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Minutes of the May 20, 2025, meeting of the Library Advisory Board. Discussion on the City Charter. William Karnoscak made a Motion to approve the Minutes. Meghan McGarrity seconded the Motion. Unanimous approval. 7. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 8. DIRECTOR'S REPORT a. Margaret Neill, Library Director mmneill@santafenm.gov, 505- 955-6788 LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 1 of 6  LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING Margaret Neill stated they had hired one (1) Library Technician at the Southside Branch Library. Her start date is on the 21st. They also hired a floating Librarian, it is a position that will just go wherever it's needed like filling in at the Reference Desk. It was an internal promotion. Discussion on temp. (temporary) positions. La Farge is now down one person because of the promotion and there are a few open/vacant positions. The budget has been pretty much spent out for this fiscal year. Southside had the Children's area overheat while the air conditioning units were being replaced. That was fixed. Program highlights include Outreach, the Summer Reading Kick-off Party, the state penitentiary programs, Wildfire Preparedness, author Column McCann's interview aired on PBS, the AAPI Filmmakers Screening which included film reviews and author talks. May statistics were up over April, but down overall. The end of the fiscal year statistics will be more telling. Discussion on circulation versus program attendance and gate count location accuracy. Printing installation was delayed because of lack of communication between vendors, the laptop program is also delayed. It is also the end of the fiscal year with various deadlines to meet. Discussion on the end of the fiscal year, budget, human resources, what can be sustained in the next fiscal year, and being mindful with spending. 9. PRESIDENT'S REPORT a. Mark Lupinetti, President of the Library Advisory Board, fmlupinetti@hotmail.com Mark Lupinetti discussed the Zoom Meeting with Representative Cates. She has twice introduced a bill in two consecutive legislative sessions on the Librarian Protection Act. It also protects libraries. She would like all the Board Member's emails to notify everyone when something is happening. Dis cussion on lobbying and sending a list to the representative. Mark started a spreadsheet on with names of legislators, as suggested by Representative Cates advocating on this topic. The purpose is tracking communication and follow ups with the legislators. Discussion on sending out mass emails, Word, instructions on the communication process (email blasts), people that require special attention (the sponsors of the bill, Speaker of the House-Xavier Martinez), compilation of anecdotes. Messages can be tailored to the special people. There were three concrete hesitations from the Speaker of the House for not bringing the bill forward: 1. Democrats bring trivial things to legislative purposes that could be better pursued in other areas. 2. There doesn’t appear to be that much of a threat to New Mexico libraries.3. It’s time-consuming and they can pursue other things of more importance. Rep. Cates suggested they compile anecdotes of threats to libraries or librarians, challenges to books, acts of vandalism, or positive stories of books being of great help to the individual (that they were perhaps afraid to purchase), compiled internally. Discussion of negative anecdotes, bad news examples, timing of the next legislative session and it being a 30-day session. LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 2 of 6  LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING 10. NEW BUSINESS a. Daniel Hernandez and Jack Kelly -Midtown discussion postponed. b. Discussion of the current process for appointing new Library Advisory Board Members. There are two members with terms expiring next month (July 2025)-Adele Oliveira and Mark Lupinetti. Mark Lupinetti was asked by Margaret Neill if he wanted to be reappointed. He replied “yes”. Adele Oliveira was asked the same thing. She asked if she could be reappointed. Discussion of how many terms she’d served. She replied “one”. She wanted to be reappointed also. The reappointment process will be started. c. Friends Of the Library Report - Tamina Painter. Tamina Painter asked for the current status of the Friends of the Library Agreement. Margaret Neill stated that currently the MOU/Agreement is with legal (the City attorney’s office). It was submitted to the Disposal Committee for their permission for the Friends to be able to receive books taken out of the collection and they included another set of documents that were added to the Agreement and that was sent back to legal. Legal is short staffed. She is not sure of the turnaround time on the review of the Agreement. Tamina Painter stated that the biggest concern was the workspace issue. Margaret Neill said at the Main Library, the Friends occupy 1,800 square feet and there was a request for more. She doesn’t think the library can allow more square footage. Tamina Painter stated the Friends may have to rent space (for storage or meeting space) and that would be dollars that would be depleted from library funding. Discussion on the clearing out of the SCRC space for a conference table and chairs, also shelves removed, requests to City Facilities Maintenance (through Adam Reilly) to remove old furnishings/cabinets, basement relocation of shelving, and the Building Assessment by Woven Architecture of Main (including the front storage space for the Friends to use as a Store). Tamina Painter said they sifted out books from the donated books and they were sent to Chicago for an auction for fundraising. They are more expensive books. It’s Potter & Potter in Chicago. The auction is in August. She let Joan (Marshall) know that she is probably not going to stay on the Friends Board. She is on two other boards and will stay on as a volunteer and on the Library Advisory Board. Discussion of bylaws for the Friends and recruitment in August. 11. OLD BUSINESS a. Representative Cates' Zoom Meeting Update. Covered in President's Report. b. Representative Szczepanski's Invite Update. William Karnoscak stated that Representative Szczepanski is his district LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 3 of 6  LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING representative and he attends her "Coffee with Reena" sessions. He feels this ties in with Representative Cates' concerns. One key factor he feels is educating. The IMLS executive order was a discussion point. He explained (at the coffee session) that this would hit rural libraries the worst. Discussion on what other programs will be impacted such as the State Library Book Mobile. Rep. Szczepanski's impact is limited since she is not on any of the committees reviewing the bill. She is however, in favor of the bill. He sent the President's Report to her. She responded to let her know they can communicate this thing to her constituents that this is the kind of thing needed to help bolster this (Bill). c. Review and Discussion on Vision and Values combined information. Therese Martinez explained that there were additional Values on the List because of additional suggestions from the Board members. Meghan McGarrity asked how many values should they have? Discussion on having 3-5 Values. "Access", "Intellectual Freedom", and "Equity" were the most popular suggestions. Continued discussion on the three values. Discussion that "access" and "equity" being very similar/related terms. Discussion of the Vision Statement and getting people to come to the library."Equitable access" discussed. Discussion of "empathy" with "trust" and "respect". Discussion of the term "community". The terms for "Access" (that will include "equity" and "safe environment"), "Intellectual Freedom" and "Community" (that will include "trust", "Respect", "empathy" and "nourishment"). Discussion of staff nonjudgmental training and patrons feeling comfortable. Discussion of "safe environment" being a buzz phrase/ loaded phrase/and government spaces being 'safe environment' locations. Discussion of next steps for the Values of: Access, Intellectual Freedom, and Community. Members are to send Therese Martinez bullet points/ succinct phrases/sentences/statements for each Value before the next meeting to be combined and sent out ahead of time, to finalize the wording at the next meeting. d. Discussion of Library Collection Development Policy and recommendations-guest, Library Collections Manager, Raquel Martinez. Raquel thanked the group for having her at the meeting, handed out an update on the collection development policy, stating she is currently working on updating the policy. The last update was in 2017 and the national climate surrounding libraries has shifted. The Policy is already in compliance with HB 27, but it is still important to reinforce the role of the Library in upholding intellectual freedom. The Mission statement will be updated as well. The role of the 21st century library will play into the statement. The selection criteria will be updated as well with transparency in mind. LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 4 of 6  LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING The section on requests for additions to the collection needs updating for clarification for patrons. The Collection Maintenance and Weeding section update has already been distributed to the Board with specific criteria for removal of materials and upholding the ALA Library Bill of Rights. In the Request for Reconsideration section she wants the process for review to be clear and rooted in policy and that includes the request form update also. She would like to add a question for recommendation of another book/resource that has an alternate perspective of the book/resource being challenged. Also, that when an item has been reviewed by the review committee, it cannot be challenged again. Discussion of the review committee being an ad hoc committee made up of the director, managers and selectors. Discussion of the review and approval process of the policy revision and who has authority of approval of the revisions. The first draft of the policy will go the Board for review. Further discussion of when the policies renew with scheduled review dates (not to exceed three (3) years) (version and dates included on documents) and the various policies the Library has. Discussion on webinar on book banning posing the question, "did you read the whole book"? Further discussion on book banning. e. Update on the Printer Contract (Library Printers replacement) and Operating Agreement with the Friends of the Library. Margaret Neill stated that the Library Systems Manager for the libraries had checked with the four vendors involved that they could all work together to get the work done. They all agreed until the time arrived for installation. Now they are involved in the process of getting all the vendors to communicate and coordinate to get the work done. Discussion on the systems involved and processes pending and the need to replace the existing system within budget parameters. Discussion on County MOU $25,000.00 budget allotment and the Board members communicating with County representation and add them to the spreadsheet for future communications outreach. Discussion of the cost of copies going up five (5) cents, and discontinuing color copies. (The Operating Agreement was covered during the Friends of the Library Report.) 12. NEXT MEETING: a. Tuesday, July 15, 2025, at the Main Library at 5:45 PM. 13. ADJOURN Tamina Painter made the Motion to adjourn. Rose Cowan seconded the Motion. Unanimous approval. Meeting was adjourned at 7:14 PM. LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 5 of 6  LIBRARY BOARD MINUTES June 17, 2025 5:45 PM IN-PERSON MEETING __________________________________ Flavian Mark Lupinetti ______________________________________ Flavian Mark Lupinetti (Dec 9, 2025 16:25:50 MST) Liaison/Clerk Chair LIBRARY BOARD MEETING June 17, 2025 Page 6 of 6