Winooski Memorial Library Committee

9/7/2023 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Prudence Doherty, Jessica Wignall, Collette Khajehali, Colleen Moore, and Lauren Read City Staff Present: Nate Eddy, Ray Coffey Guests Present: None Call to Order by: Jessica Meeting Start Time: 6:35 PM Minutes Recorded by: Collette II. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Decision: Yes Motion by: Jessica Second: Colleen III. Public Comment None IV. Committee Member Updates No updates. V. Library Updates Wrapped up summer reading program. 10 week challenge – 91 kids signed up. Had 70 kids come out for end of year celebration. 5–11-year-olds – majority. 24 kids completed 5 or more weeks of that program. Kirsten did a great job. Transitioning to school year programming – weekly play groups and story time. Thrive on Tuesday with Kirsten. STEAM on Friday. Pokémon as well. Saturday – story walk installed for Winooski Pride Celebration. ESL twice a week. Our Lady of Providence. Had new members that joined the writing group and book group. July and August – busiest we have been since reopening 2400 people came through. 3700 print and e-resource circulations, 75 programs held with 966 people attending. Staffing and hours continue to be a challenge. Library staff going on leave; Mary Hussmann will sub 12 hrs/week which still leaves a gap of 3 hours of Clerk staffing. Community Services staff have stepped in to fill in those gaps. Those community staff are helpful, but they are not trained with the library so it’s not an ideal solution even if it is temporary. Community Services staff have worked 46 to-date hours since the reduction in staff and changes in staff availability (this fiscal year - reduced library hours by 2 hours per week).  Staffing and hours continue to be a challenge. Library staff going on leave; Mary Hussmann will sub 12 hrs/week which still leaves a gap of 3 hours of Clerk staffing. Community Services staff have stepped in to fill in those gaps. Those community staff are helpful, but they are not trained with the library so it’s not an ideal solution even if it is temporary. Community Services staff have worked 46 to-date hours since the reduction in staff and changes in staff availability (this fiscal year - reduced library hours by 2 hours per week). Still in process of migrating to new catalog system. On VERSO, moving to KOHA. Sent all records to ByWater, who is managing the migration and putting our records into a catalog which will be live by November 6 th . Will provide a savings of ~$200 a year, but the system is more user friendly and modern. Will put us in VOKAL – which is a consortium of libraries in the area. Received an application for youth committee member. She is in 9 th grade and is very interested in the library. Lots of volunteering experience which she provided. Discussed next step in the process. An interview would be good practice for her with a limited number of committee members being apart of the interview. Nate will circle back with next steps. Building Update – City Council meeting on Oct 2 nd will include a discussion on an agreement concerning moving forward with the building with CHT. We have a tentative timeline now. Late 2024 (tentative) as start date for construction. That could be ambitious because of funding and designing requirements. Grant Update – VT Department of Libraries remains waiting for ARPA grant funding to support library construction costs. Perhaps late fall 2023. VI. Fiscal Year 2024 Goal Setting Discussion about some potential goals: l Nate shared some goals that are all related to growth of the library. l Increasing staffing and hours of the library – getting those lost hours back. Committee can be proactive in advocating for the increase of staffing and hours l To increase equity - this is the programming that we want to provide to our community. This is why we need more staffing and increased library hours. l Increased community outreach and library advocacy with the community - more community outreach – at farmer’s market starting in the spring or at the Winooski High School BBQ. Goal from now until June 30 th : attend 3 community events to promote the library. l Increase community attendance and use of library resources. l Visioning out a new space and service model for the new library – committee to provide feedback on what areas to feature, have listening sessions, field trips, consider hiring a consultant (if within budget), solicit data points that inform the goals of the new library layout, facilitate community design/listening sessions. Three tentative goals for FY24 include: 1.) Community advocacy efforts by the Library Committee via outreach and events; 2.) Visioning space and service models of a new Library building via public design sessions and Committee feedback; 3.) Continued growth of Library services and use VII. Fiscal Year 2025 Budgeting We need to get back the staff hours we lost this fiscal year. VIII. Other Business None IX. Adjourn Motion to Adjourn: Jessica, Second by Collette  None IX. Adjourn Motion to Adjourn: Jessica, Second by Collette