Library Board of Trustees

The Woodstock Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Robert Laurie called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Laurie (President), Jim Hurley ((Treasurer) resigning), Mary Beth Urbin (Secretary), Teresa Flores (resigning), and Sarah Parisi. OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Christensen (Deputy City Manager), Nick Weber (Library Director), Tiara Thayer (Library Assistant II), and Mary Sugden (prospective new board member). ABSENT: Christy Johanson (Vice President), Susan Gullotto, Mary Ann Lenzen. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Discussion and Vote on approving the minutes from the October 2023 special meeting as presented or corrected. Mary Beth Urbin moved to approve the minutes of the October 2023 special meeting as presented, Robert Laurie seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. Discussion and Vote on approving the minutes from the February 2024 meeting as presented or corrected. Mary Beth Urbin moved to approve the minutes of the February 2024 regular meeting as presented, Teresa Flores seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS: None. COMMUNICATIONS: None. LIBRARY EXPENDITURES Discussion and Vote on the February 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures. Jim Hurley moved to approve the February 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Mary Beth Urbin seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. Discussion and Vote on the March 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures. Robert Laurie moved to approve the March 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Sarah Parisi seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. 1 LIBRARIAN’S REPORT Nick Weber presented the librarian’s report, a copy of which is attached. Highlights include: • March marks the second to last month of the library’s fiscal year. • The 18,000-piece community puzzle is complete and was consistently visited and worked on by many patrons. • Sloane Scheckel, the new children’s librarian, will be starting on April 16th. • The Library Lovers program continues to be a well-loved and well-attended program. This year, nearly twice as many people throughout McHenry County participated in visiting their local libraries. • The library hosted a Local Author Showcase, which featured thirteen authors with ties to either Woodstock or McHenry County. This program brought in an estimated 100 attendees and garnered extremely positive feedback from both patrons and authors. • Planning for the summer reading program is underway. This year’s theme is: Adventure Begins at Your Library. • Mini Links will be on Saturday, April 13th from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. • The D200 Spring Art Show begins on April 15th. NEW BUSINESS • Discussion and vote on approving the Rural District Contract: o Nick explained the changes to the contract that would allow the library to provide full service cards to all Woodstock residents, including residents within the rural district. The city residents and district residents will be differentiated through their account in Sierra and by different card colors, but both cards will receive the same services and limits. Robert Laurie moved to approve the Rural District Contract as presented, Teresa Flores seconded, and the motion passed via roll call: Nay Aye Aye Aye Jim Hurley Mary Beth Urbin Teresa Flores Robert Laurie Aye Absent Absent Absent Sarah Parisi Christy Johanson Susan Gullotto Mary Ann Lenzen • Review of Director’s Goals for FY23/24 o Nick’s review of his goals included the following highlights: ▪ PR/Outreach efforts have increased, with new contacts added throughout the D200 School District, MCC, and Aurora University. The library continues to foster relationships with various local organizations and establishments. ▪ While Creative Woodstock was not established within the Old Courthouse (OCH), the library has continued to support the arts throughout the community by establishing partnerships with local artists, Makity Make in the OCH, and the Woodstock Fine Arts Association. ▪ Plans to improve the seating and accessibility throughout the older adult area have been established. Additionally, newly acquired shelving units should be installed in FY24/25. ▪ Examples of Estate Planning/Naming Rights policies were collected and a framework for WPL has been drafted. ▪ Multiple components of the library’s policy manual were updated, including the library’s Disaster Plan and The Person-In-Charge (PIC) Manual was also developed and implemented. 2  ▪ Progress on the Bayton Outdoor Space has been slow but steady. The library is working with a new landscaping company that focuses on ecologically sustainable approaches to property maintenance. Representatives from the library’s staff, Rural District board, and the Friends organization formed a committee to assist with landscaping goals. A key interest of the committee is to incorporate native plants whenever possible. ▪ Portions of the Trustee Orientation Packet/Process have been completed, but the entire packet is still under construction. ▪ Implementation of the new Strategic Plan has been successful and steady. The committees listed in the plan have been formed and are meeting regularly. • Review of Director’s Goals for FY24/25 o Nick stated his intention is to build on the FY23/24 goals. Some priorities for FY24/25 are highlighted below: ▪ PR/Outreach efforts will continue and include an emphasis on bringing the library to the community and patrons. ▪ Create an Estate Planning/Naming Rights policy for the library. ▪ Develop fundraising plans for the Bayton Outdoor Space. ▪ Finish updating the library’s Policy Manual and establish a schedule for regular review of the Policy Manual. ▪ Continue construction of the Trustee Orientation Packet/Process. o Paul added that the fact that Nick is able to focus on these specific goals is indicative of the fine work Nick is doing as the library director. • Review and Discussion of Draft Person-In-Charge Manual EXECUTIVE SESSION – 8:00 p.m. Personnel Open Meetings Act (5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(1)) The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee to determine its validity. (Director Evaluation) Robert Laurie moved to enter into an Executive Session at 8:00 p.m. for Nick Weber’s evaluation, Jim Hurley seconded, and the motion passed via roll call: Aye Aye Aye Aye Jim Hurley Mary Beth Urbin Teresa Flores Robert Laurie Aye Absent Absent Absent Sarah Parisi Christy Johanson Susan Gullotto Mary Ann Lenzen Tiara Thayer was excused from the Executive Session. All other parties remained. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION – 8:26 p.m. Jim Hurley moved to return to open session at 8:26 p.m., Mary Beth Urbin second, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. UNFINISHED BUSINESS This section was omitted in the interest of time. • Statement of Economic Interest reminder • Building Update • Staffing Update 3  • Friends of the Woodstock Library Update • City Update ADJOURNMENT Robert Laurie moved that the meeting be adjourned at 8:27 p.m., Mary Beth Urbin seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. All meetings of the Library Board are open to the public. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they are fully accessible, and if any further accommodations are needed, please contact the Library Director 48 hours prior to the meeting. 4  Woodstock Public Library Administrative & Staff Reports – April 2024 DIRECTOR’S REPORT April is the wrap-up month for the fiscal year. We try to spend minimally during the month, and finish up as many things as possible before the end of the month. The library continued to see strong daily use, up 8% over last April. The new budget was formally approved, and the Friends annual Mini-Links event was again a major success. Training was a big part of March, as two staff members attended out-of-state conferences and brought back lots of information for the rest of us. Staffing was adequate in April, although the arrival and ongoing training of Sloane Scheckel, our new Children’s Librarian, is underway and already helping to ease the staffing crunch. We have begun the recruitment process for a new shelver, and are still weighing the best way to improve the overall cleanliness in the building. Our in-person and virtual events continue to be well attended. The 18,000-piece puzzle challenge wrapped up mid-month, and it was a bittersweet moment—a lot of people had really invested themselves in the puzzle. Austin, who coordinated the project, is already planning for how to do another puzzle this winter. The carpet upgrades and replacements are next on the building “to do” list, with a proposal due from Murphy Flooring soon. Additionally, the library is exploring replacing its generator, now nearly 25-years-old, with a larger unit that could power the entire building during a power outage. The current generator can only power essential systems, making it difficult to impossible to remain open during a power outage. Things are moving forward on the Bayton Space project, with some preliminary discussions with potential contractors, and the inclusion of the city’s Arts Commission with the hope of getting grant and fundraising advice and assistance. The city’s web page conversion is complete and we have been live on it for over a month. Most of the hiccups have been resolved, and overall it is looking good. In conjunction with the rest of the city, we are also now switched over to our new logo and are also working with the Friends to redo their logo in a style that matches. CIRCULATION & PROGRAMMING April 2024 Circulation was up in April compared to 2023, though the increase was again primarily driven by digital downloads. In-person use of the building was also up from last year. We had 21,474 items, both physical and digital, checked-out, an 8% increase from 19,796 in 2023. 12,739 people came to the library in April, up 8% from 11,777 in 2023. FINANCIALS Spending out of the new fiscal budget is complete, though a few bills are still outstanding. Salary costs were lower than anticipated because of several positions being vacant during recruiting, and our income trended slightly higher than budgeted because of larger donations than expected. Work on next year’s budget is complete, and the numbers look good, with room to add at least one LPT shelver in FY24-25. MEETING/ORGANIZATION SUMMARIES City Meetings/City News The City Council meetings in April and early May were mostly routine. The City Council did formally approve the new budget for fiscal year 2024-2025. They also acknowledged the retirement of long-time city employees, Dave Zinnen and Donna Limbaugh. Community Outreach During the month, the library staff engaged in several outreach and community support activities, including several visits to D200 schools. April saw the completion of the library’s 18,000-piece Community Puzzle Initiative, and the opening of the D200 Spring Art Show. The director spoke at the April Arts Commission meeting. CIRCULATION SERVICES In April, Carrie and Katie hosted two programs as part of their Year of the Book series. Casey Sherman, author of a Murder in Hollywood (about the murder of Woodstock resident Johnny Stompanato at the Hollywood home of his then girlfriend Lana Turner) joined us, courtesy of his publisher Sourcebooks of Naperville, on Zoom for a moderator-led discussion about his book. Our moderator was Arlene Lynes, owner of Read Between the Lynes bookstore. The second program was a drop-in Poetry Lab, celebrating National Poetry Month, led by two members of the Atrocious Poets. They had 5 stations, each highlighting a different type of poetry, with writing prompts and books containing that type of poetry set up for inspiration. We did not have a gallery artist because we had the District 200 Student Art Show which is extremely popular every spring. Both Library Boards voted to eliminate the two-tier library card. Staff began to implement this change on April 12 by notifying patrons as they came in with Basic Rural cards that they were eligible for free upgraded cards. Carrie also asked PrairieCat to batch change all of the coding on the basic cards to full-service, which was completed on April 15. The patron response has been overwhelmingly positive with some patrons getting teary-eyed, many exclaiming their excitement, many more taking advantage of their expanded privileges right away. We are very grateful to the Boards for making this decision. YOUTH SERVICES The youth services team finished off spring story times and other monthly programs, and are now gearing up for summer programs. Lisa will be keeping the toddler story time, while the new children’s library specialist, Sloane, will be taking over the Preschool story time and the baby story time. Sloane and Lisa will work together on the Farmers Market story time this summer. Sloane started on April 16th, and is already a great addition to the team. Kate picked up chicken eggs and put them in the incubator on April 22nd. They will start hatching May 13th. We’ll keep them until May 24th unless there is a reason for them to go to the farm early. Kate met with the other McHenry County Youth Services librarians to discuss the Library Lovers Expedition. We had over 3,000 people participate this year, and because of such great participation, Kate and Lindsey from the Fox Lake Library were hoping to expand the program and include Lake County libraries. However, some of the smaller libraries really felt the strain of having so many visitors and the group voted not to expand any further at this time. Instead, Lindsey will work with other Lake County libraries to create their own Library Lovers Expedition. We collected over 2,000 solar eclipse glasses over the last few weeks and will send them to Argentina and Chile for their eclipse in October. Kate boxed them up and will mail the package to the Illinois Space Grant Consortium at the University of Illinois. They will send them on to Astronomers Without Borders who will then send them to schools in Argentina and Chile. TECHNICAL SERVICES April means the end of the fiscal year so it’s time for a bunch of numbers, both for the month of April and also for the fiscal year: • In April we added 669 items and withdrew 377 items • Over the course of the past 12 months we removed 8,465 items while adding 7,647 to replace them Those numbers are actually much closer than anticipated; the Reference Staff was very busy this whole year weeding their sections of old, outdated, or unused materials. This helps keep the shelves useful and nicer-looking to the public. Ally has been able to get back to mending now that she has finished withdrawing items. Mary Ann, Valeria and Ally are keeping a lid on mending issues and keeping track of the material that is in the Mending pile. Valeria continues to keep up with replacing ugly book (and media) covers with prettier ones, as well as processing all the AV, backpacks, kits, and everything else non-book. Mary Ann continues to enjoy her more spacious work area. She is never without something to do, between updating the catalog to printing labels and re-labeling older items. Shawn is almost dug out of the end-of-fiscal year orders from the last six weeks or so. Now that the incoming pile has been decimated, he is working on returning things we don’t need and also conducting a census of the DVD donations we’ve accumulated over time. Bailey is keeping up with the new materials while also working with Lora on creating a workflow document for staff to know “what is going on/who does what” in Technical Services. The most exciting news is that we are gaining a ‘new-to-us’ part-time person in Tech: Lauren is hopping over from her work in the children’s department and we are looking forward to having her take on some of the tasks we do. I’m working on end-of-year evaluations and creating new FY documents for the upcoming months and just staying ahead of cataloging material that Only Woodstock Owns. I have added approximately 50 new records to OCLC for the world to use in the past few months. ADULT SERVICES The Adult Services department has seen a lot of changes in the past twelve months. The new reference desks were installed last September and have been extremely well received by both patrons and staff. Austin makes excellent use of the East Reference Desk, using it for his one-on-one technology appointments as regular reference business is conducted at the front, West Desk. Another major change was the needed reduction of the reference collection. The collection was weeded significantly to make room for our travel collection, which is now featured as a pull-out section. With the new space in the non-fiction shelves, Cheryl has started the process of shifting the entire non-fiction collection to ease the overcrowding. The Library of Things (LoT) has expanded into three cases and Kirk is working on switching to new software to allow popular items to be reserved. Once the new software has been thoroughly tested, we plan to expand the LoT to include instruments and more. With the new office space construction project completed, we’ve moved pantry storage and shifted the ILL station to allow the ILL staff a better space to work. In the New Book and Fiction areas, the Listening Station has been well received and patrons have been very complimentary on the expanded New Book shelving that resulted from the compact disc collection being moved. The Old Courthouse Digital Exhibit created by Austin and Kirk went live last fall, the week before the building reopened to the public. The digital exhibit has drawn new eyes to the entire digital archive and we’ve had an increase of inquiries about the resources listed. The library’s social media presence is gaining attention with over 4,300 Facebook and 1,200 Instagram followers. Matt has been working on building the library’s Instagram content since it is where a lot of the younger adults are active. The library’s new website went live with the City’s site in February and has been well received. At the same time the library switched to the new Vega PrairieCat catalog with a more lukewarm reception. The library’s reference staff continues to note improvements that can be made to the Vega site and are forwarding them to the PrairieCat staff. Lisa attended the Innovative Users Group [Vega is an Innovative product] conference in Detroit in March and Austin attended the PLA (Public Library Association) conference in April. Both brought back many interesting notes and suggestions for improvements. April Adult Programming Statistics: Technology Assistance Appointments • 1-on-1 Appointments Requested: 9 • Resolutions: 7 • Cancellations: 2 • Most Common Consultation Subject: Computer • Average Number of Days for Resolution: 15 Programming • Total # of Adult Programs: 19 o 18- in-person o 1- virtual • Total Programming Attendance: 166 o 191% year-over-year increase from April of 2023 • Top-Performing Programs by Attendance: o Women Spies in WW2 - 30 o One Hundred and Sixty Minutes: The Race to Save the RMS Titanic - 26 o Virtual Author Event with Casey Sherman - 16 Misc. Stats • Mini Links had an estimated attendance of 400 patrons. • Austin’s book display promoting environmental awareness had 3 checkouts. Next month's theme is about education in observance of National Teacher Appreciation Week. • The library hosted outreach table events from three organizations: The IL State Treasurer's Office, the Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association, and Warp Corps. LIBRARY OUTREACH Lisa Rossi-Moser collaborated with Daniel Boucek in April for the McHenry County Marine Toys for Tots Foster Care Initiative in May. A donation box was dropped off at the library for foster children. Lisa and Katie Bradley met with Keeley Krueger, Assistant Superintendent for Early Childhood and Elementary Education Woodstock Community Unit School District 200, to discuss teacher cards within her district. A follow-up meeting was made with Melinda Parrent, school librarian for District 200, in May to work out details. House of Children had their first Tuesday of the month story time. Mary Keisling from St. Mary’s brought in her kindergarten class for a library tour and story time with craft. Katie, Lisa, and Lauren met with Marla Garrison and Tressman Goode from McHenry County College to discuss upcoming plans for an escape room held at the WPL and at MCC’s library in October of this year. A new school collaboration is taking place with Menta Academy in Woodstock. They signed up for teacher cards and the Director of Curriculum, Colleen Fleisher, is meeting with Lisa in May. Homebound update: Bailey Rewoldt, our Homebound Librarian, reported the following: 31 visits 271 deliveries 115 books collected from the Wonder Lake book drop Adult Calming Arts and Crafts Programs: 1 Program in April Total Attendance 3 CALENDAR (https://woodstock.librarycalendar.com/) Upcoming Events & Dates of Import: • May 1 – May 24: Graduation Gown Steam Station • Saturday, May 11, 12:00-1:00 pm: Rescue Readers at HAHS • Saturday, May 11, 2:00-3:00 pm: Marguerite, Misty and Me with Susan Friedland • Sunday, May 12: Library Closed for Mother’s Day • Saturday, May 18, 9:00-5:00 pm: Friends Spring Plant Sale (usually sold out by noon) • Monday, May 20, 1:30-6:00 pm: Versiti Blood Drive • Friday, May 24: Friends fundraiser at Culver’s • Sundays, May 26-Sept. 1: Library closed on Sundays during summer • Saturday, June 1, 2:00-3:00 pm: Bright Star Touring Theatre • Tuesday, June 4, 11:00-11:30 am: Story Time at the Farmers’ Market • Sunday, June 9, 12:00-5:00 pm: Pop-up Library @ Pride Fest