Winooski Memorial Library Committee

12/7/2023 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Jessica Wignall, Collette Khajehali, Taliah Bennett, Colleen Moore, and Lauren Read City Staff Present: Nate Eddy, Library Director Guests Present: None Call to Order by: Lauren Meeting Start Time: 6:35 PM Minutes Recorded by: Collette Handouts Provided: Yes II. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Decision: Approved Motion by: Jessica Second: Lauren III. Public Comment No members from the public were present. IV. Committee Member Updates This week, Jessica called in for a password reset. More to come on this topic from Nate. Lots of positive comments about the outreach events from late November and early December. Great combo having the library table set up at Autumn Records – good pairing! Taliah is on the Student Library Commission at Winooski High School; has $500 budget to choose books for the school. V. Library Updates Monthly stats l Programming – everything is the same. STEAM attracts a good crowd on the weekends. Hot Cocoa Story Time – very good, first one last Friday. Adult programming – Kirstin has started a LGTBQ+ themed book club – started this week. Intervale returned yesterday for free veggie distro; will continue until March 2024 on the first Wednesday of every month. l Last month’s stats were good – a little discrepancy due to a 4 day gap this month – but other than all is well. Prudence (Library Chair) approved the annual report that had to go to the State of Vermont. That was submitted this month. l Staffing – This past Monday at the Winooski City Council Meeting, Elaine presented to council members re: the budget. 4 different scenarios were presented : 1) 5.4% increase  every month. l Last month’s stats were good – a little discrepancy due to a 4 day gap this month – but other than all is well. Prudence (Library Chair) approved the annual report that had to go to the State of Vermont. That was submitted this month. l Staffing – This past Monday at the Winooski City Council Meeting, Elaine presented to council members re: the budget. 4 different scenarios were presented : 1) 5.4% increase to tax payers, 2) budget city council asked for municipal infrastructure, will result in an 8.7% increase, 3) budget that would increase city taxes by 13% plus law enforcement, fire dept, and library positions (plus others); 4) 9.8% increase including municipal infrastructure, moving fire position from full time to part time, law enforcement officer (16 th ) via grant, keeping library position, and other terms. A strong reaction to these options were shared and the Council asked that strong reasoning for all these additional positions be provided. Next Monday will be a Council meeting at 6pm, December 11 th ; critical meeting for the library committee to attend. Ray Coffey will be presenting and will provide rational regarding the library, its status, and future needs. Staffing – Kirstin is about to complete her Vermont Public Service of Library Certificate of Service – 150 course credit. Donna is coming back December 19 th from sick leave. Collection – we are now on Vermont Organization of Koha Automated Libraries (VOKAL) – Old passwords never made it over, so all the passwords needed to be reset for all accounts like Hoopla and Kanopy. Started re-barcoding our library materials… this is ongoing and a slow process. Nearly 9K items. Safe Healthy Connected People Commission Meeting – virtual only, 6:30pm on Tuesday December 12 th, 2023. There will be a presentation on the library. Committee reviewed the slide deck for this presentation (as a handout) and will help support this effort. Jessica will step in to speak for the committee, as needed. Chittenden County Library Meeting today – re: grants from the federal government (two). The state has filed paperwork to the Treasury Department to release the funding back to the state. Update was provided. 16.4M dollar grant – project must be minimum 100K and max 1M. WML will apply for funding to support the library build out in the near future. Funds would be received in CY 2025. VI. Review of Draft Intellectual Freedom Policy Prior to this draft, WML has never had this policy in place. This is the first introduction of this type of policy. Committee reviewed the draft and provided comments and edits. Will re-review at the next library committee meeting. VII. Library Mascot Discussion Committee discussed the topic and feedback from Winooski Communications Director Paul Sarne. For next meeting, committee members will provide some options for a possible mascot for the WML for consideration. VIII. Friends of the Winooski Library Seven individuals have volunteered for Friends of Winooski Memorial Library. Trivia night would be a great starting point for the FoWML. More to come on these developments. IX. Volunteers We don’t have a consistent volunteer core. We do not use volunteers to do staff work. Prudence asked to address this topic, so we will continue this discussion next committee meeting. X. Other Business IX. Volunteers We don’t have a consistent volunteer core. We do not use volunteers to do staff work. Prudence asked to address this topic, so we will continue this discussion next committee meeting. X. Other Business None XI. Adjourn Motion to Adjourn: Jessica, Second by: Collette