Winooski Memorial Library Committee

9/1/2022 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Prudence Doherty, Jessica Wignall, Colleen Moore, Nikki Khajehali City Staff Present: Nate Eddy Guests Present: None Call to Order by: Nate Eddy Meeting Start Time: 6:39 PM Minutes Recorded by: Jessica Wignall II. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes June Decision: Approved - Motion by: P. Doherty, Second: C. Moore July Decision: Approved - Motion by: N. Khajehali, Second: J. Wignall III. Public Comment None IV. Committee Member Updates l Butternut Station is partially open; there are 3 or 4 units completed and occupied. There is still a footprint from construction and the second entryway is still mostly blocked by construction workers during the day. There will be an open house next week. l The Landry Story Walk got good feedback from community members. V. Library Updates Programming l Youth programming continues to be going well, including STEAM programming, story times, play groups, LEGO club, and UVM Robotics (New!) for a Wiggle Bot program. The Robotics program was very popular. l The Landry story walk was put up and Kirsten has been hosting some pop up story times on Fridays at 11AM around the city. l Upcoming programs of note include the upcoming block party behind the Community Center, put on by the city. l The library will be doing another story walk in the rotary for the Winooski pride event in September. l The summer reading challenge wrapped up last week, including a celebration with about 60 children participating. There were 97 participants signed up for the summer challenge and overall it was very successful. l Adult programming is still ongoing, including the book club (approx. 17 members), the writing group, ESL, 1:1 tech assistance, free veggie giveaway on Wednesdays (50-100 people daily), l This past Thursday the library hosted a session around rental assistance and will host  about 60 children participating. There were 97 participants signed up for the summer challenge and overall it was very successful. l Adult programming is still ongoing, including the book club (approx. 17 members), the writing group, ESL, 1:1 tech assistance, free veggie giveaway on Wednesdays (50-100 people daily), l This past Thursday the library hosted a session around rental assistance and will host another session in September. One-time COVID funding around housing is drying up and the state is working to respond to that. l Nate has started visiting Our Lady of Providence monthly to bring books and talk with residents about books. P. Doherty asked about visiting other locations and N. Eddy agreed that would be valuable. l Winooski school starts next week. Nate anticipates continuing to meet with the school’s library commission. l The library has new library cards available and has switched from a four digit code to a 14 character barcode. September is library card sign up month, so Nate will do a post next week to announce the launch of the new cards. Patrons will start to be migrated to the new cards. l The week of Sept 18 is banned book week and Nate is hoping to continue book reviews on banned books. Monthly Stats l August stats were similar to those in July. Program activities were very popular. Palace App l The state is rolling out a new ebook/audiobook platform called Palace. The first cohort is complete and Winooski is in the second cohort and will be rolling it out soon. l It will be similar to Libby and other online resources. l It will be out in the next month or so. New Member l Approval of the new member, Lauren, is on the next city council meeting agenda. VI. Youth Committee Position Nate checked to see if any committee had had a youth member before. Based on current knowledge and historical memory, there has not been a youth member on any commission or committee before this. Nate checked with Ray on the potential charter changes and confirmed that the charter would have to be amended and then approved by City Council. Nate proposed starting to draft a position description to bring to the committee to review and make edits. The group agreed with this approach. P. Doherty suggested reviewing if other groups have done this and have descriptions available for us to review and use. Once the description is drafted, we will review for necessary charter changes to describe the position and change the capacity of the committee to 6 members. Limiting the position by age would be challenging, but we could potentially limit to grades 8 to 12 and allow any Winooski resident. VII. Safe, Healthy, Connected People Commission Planning  Limiting the position by age would be challenging, but we could potentially limit to grades 8 to 12 and allow any Winooski resident. VII. Safe, Healthy, Connected People Commission Planning The meeting will be virtual, Tues Sept 13, at 6:30 PM ET. Nate has prepared a slide deck for the meeting. He plans to review stats and programming of the fiscal year, and then a committee member could speak to the role of the committee in the library and what we have worked on this past year. Prue will share some historical context and information around our role. Colleen will touch on how and why she values her participation on the committee. Nikki will review our accomplishments and goals. Jess will be unable to participate. VIII. Other Business None IX. Adjourn Adjourned 7:28 PM