Library Board of Trustees

The Woodstock Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Robert Laurie called the meeting to order at 7:31 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Laurie (President), Mary Beth Urbin (Secretary), Mary Ann Lenzen, Sarah Parisi, Susan Gullotto, Mary Sugden OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Christensen (Deputy City Manager), Nick Weber (Library Director), Tiara Thayer (Library Assistant II), Toni McLellan (Friends of the Library Ambassador) ABSENT: Christy Johanson (Vice President) APPROVAL OF MINUTES Discussion and Vote on approving the Regular Minutes from the May 2024 meeting as presented or corrected. Mary Sugden moved to approve the minutes of the May 2024 regular meeting as presented, Sarah Parisi seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS: Robert Laurie inquired about the status of the auxiliary parking lot repairs. Nick explained that it will require significant repairs due to the sink hole, and will contact Public Works for more information. COMMUNICATIONS: The Per Capita Grant was received by the library. LIBRARY EXPENDITURES Discussion and Vote on the May 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures Robert Laurie moved to approve the May 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Mary Beth Urbin seconded, and the motion carried via the following roll call. Robert Laurie Mary Beth Urbin Mary Ann Lenzen Sarah Parisi Aye Aye Aye Aye Susan Gullotto Mary Sugden Christy Johanson Vacant Aye Aye Absent Vacant 1 LIBRARIAN’S REPORT Nick Weber presented the librarian’s report, a copy of which is attached. Highlights include: • The month of May featured multiple successful and well-attended programs, such as the return of author Susan Friedland and Free Comic Book Day. • The City provided a proclamation for Pride month, which was only briefly interrupted by an individual who felt compelled to share their personally held anti-pride sentiments. There were also numerous people at the meeting that supported the proclamation and the City’s Pride efforts. • The library experienced an act of vandalism towards the Pride decorations on the trees in front of the building. • The library’s head of youth services unfortunately broke their ankle and has been home recovering. Despite her absence, the rest of the youth services department has been pulling together to ensure summer reading and programming continues to run as smoothly as possible, as has everyone on the staff. • The library’s Sunday hours are on hiatus for the summer. Sunday hours will resume after Labor Day on September 2nd. • This weekend, June 15th, the library will be hosting an author event with Refe and Susan Tuma. • Throughout July, the library will host the Illinois Art Education Association Student Show. NEW BUSINESS • Presentation/Discussion on new Friends of the Library Ambassador Program o Toni McLellan is a marketing copyrighter, local to Woodstock, and a member of the new Friends’ Ambassador Program. Toni shared the following preview and updates for the new program: ▪ The ambassador program is headed by a board consisting of the following members: Jessica Campbell, Kelly Jensen, Erin Stockoviach, Carrie Zamorano, and Toni McLellan. All of the board members are local to McHenry County, with most residing in Woodstock. ▪ Standards for this program include: public good, curiosity, and inclusivity. ▪ The goal of this program is to be an asset to library staff with the purpose of advocating for the library and promoting its various services and programs. The ambassador program also intends to partner with local businesses to help facilitate and strengthen community engagement. One idea would be for the business to offer a small discount when a patron shows their Woodstock Public Library card. ▪ In addition to promoting the library to the community at large, the ambassador program aims to build its own community among its members. This may look like hosting ambassadors’ book talks at the library, or exclusive programs. ▪ Currently, the ambassador board is working on developing an ambassador training process that includes how to recruit participants, such as students and bilingual individuals. o Robert offered his thanks to Toni, and the rest of the Friends, for their continued support of the library. o Paul suggested partnering with the Opera House and Parks and Rec Dept. for potential discount opportunities. o Robert suggested that the ambassadors provide a 2-minute elevator speech or script that the library board members, and others, could use to help promote this program. 2  o Before departing, Toni shared this statement of gratitude with the library board: “As a parent of queer children, thank you to the library for supporting families like mine.” • Discussion and vote on Board Officers for FY24/25 o Current Board Officers: President Vice President Secretary Robert Laurie Christy Johanson Mary Beth Urbin Treasurer Vacant o The board asked Nick to assist with reviewing the library board bylaws in order to better understand the expectations for the board treasurer. o Susan Gullotto moved to retain the officer positions as assigned, except for treasurer which will be assigned at the next regular board meeting, Mary Ann Lenzen seconded and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. • Discussion and vote on participating in Illinois’ Reciprocal Borrower Program o Nick explained that participation in the IRBP is one of the few stipulations for receiving the Per Capita Grant, and that the library board is required to vote on participating in the program to continue receiving the grant monies. o Mary Sugden moved to remain participants in the IRPB, Mary Beth Urbin seconded and the motion carried with unanimous ayes. • Discussion on pricing models for e-content vs traditional materials o Nick explained the frustrations of e-content pricing and how libraries are essentially forced to continue leasing materials at an unsustainable rate. While a physical book can be purchased once and remain in circulation for years, if not decades, a digital copy of the same book may only lease for a set amount of circulations or time before the library must re-lease it again. o A positive aspect of digital content is the amount of space saved within the library building. This is significant to the Woodstock Public Library because it is nearly at a point where for every book added to the shelves, another book needs to be withdrawn. o Illinois is one of a few states that was looking into legislation that would aim to close the affordability gap. There has been no recent progress with the proposed legislation, but Nick will keep the board informed on any updates. o Paul noted that the City may have the ability to network and help facilitate favorable legislation for public libraries. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Discussion and vote on approving Table Space Use Policy o A couple grammatical errors were noted, and Paul suggested that the library board let the city attorney review the policy. The board agreed to have the city attorney review the policy before moving forward with it. • Building Update o Bayton Outdoor Space and landscaping/replanting ▪ The library is putting an RFQ together to assist with the landscaping project, while also accounting for how it will impact the Bayton Outdoor Space. o Pneumatic System Replacement ▪ The current temperature control system is deteriorating and needs to be replaced. The process of replacing the control system will cause some minor inconveniences to staff and patrons. Replacing the system will take place in July and August, with the final switch over to the new control system in late September or early October of this year. 3  • Staffing Update o Of the 71 shelving applications received, 9 candidates were brought in for interviews, and 3 job offers were made and accepted. Nick noted that this pool of interviewees was difficult to choose from as each candidate was qualified and well liked. • Friends of the Woodstock Library Update o Updates involving the Ambassador Program were covered earlier in these minutes. o The plant sale was successful, despite some local competition. The Friends raised a little under $1,000. o The Culver’s fundraiser also received a fair amount of participation. o The big book sale and fall plant sale will be returning this September. ADJOURNMENT Mary Ann Lenzen moved that the meeting be adjourned at 8:54 p.m., Mary Beth Urbin seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. Respectfully submitted, Tiara Thayer 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 – June 2024 DIRECTOR’S REPORT June is the start of summer, and of summer reading, and it is always one of the busiest months of the year. The library continued to see strong daily use, up 6% over last June-- at or surpassing pre-COVID-19 levels. Tracking of summer reading is underway, and this June’s reading log time is surpassing last year’s by a fair margin. Staffing was tricky in June, with Kate, our Head of Youth Services, still significantly impacted by her broken ankle, several other staff members suffering from a variety of illnesses, and three new shelvers to train. We are excited about our new shelvers, all three of which seem excellent, but it will take a little while for them to get up to speed. Hopefully, Kate will be able to return to full-time at the library soon, and we’ll have better luck with illnesses in July and beyond. Our in-person and virtual events continue to be well attended, with lots of fun things happening in June and July as part of summer. Illinois Libraries Present has some top- notch visitors in the fall, including Neil Gaiman. We had an author visit by Susan Friedland, writer of Marguerite, Misty and Me, and the Friends of the Library held their annual Spring Plant Sale, raising nearly $1,000. The library again offered free steaming for graduation gowns using our Library of Things steamer, and over 40 gowns were steamed. Things are moving forward with the landscaping project, with a Request for Qualifications for a landscape design for the entire property being released in July and proposals due back to the library by mid-August. Grants are being pursued for the Bayton Outdoor Space project, and it is being included in the landscape design plans. The library is moving ahead with eliminating its old pneumatic control system for the HVAC units in the old building, replacing them with modern, digital controls, which can be monitored and changed remotely. CIRCULATION & PROGRAMMING June 2024 Circulation was down slightly in June compared to 2023, and in-person use of the building was also down from last year as well. We had 23,242 items, both physical and digital, checked-out, a 1% decrease from 23,474 in 2023. 11,215 people came to the library in June, down 10% from 12,396 in 2023. FINANCIALS Spending out of the new fiscal budget is underway, and we have already surpassed our budgeted donation total thanks to a generous $20,000 from one of our longtime supporters. The new budget includes raises for all staff, ranging from 3-5%, with most of the other budget lines holding steady, or getting small increases. MEETING/ORGANIZATION SUMMARIES City Meetings/City News The City Council meeting in late June was mostly routine, and the Council did not meet on the first Tuesday of July as it was too close to the Fourth of July holiday. The June meeting included a discussion of the City’s Artspace project, as well as several contract awards. The June meeting also included a bittersweet goodbye to Garrett Anderson, the City’s Economic Development Director, who is leaving Woodstock for Colorado. Community Outreach During the month, the library staff engaged in several outreach and community support activities, including storytime on the Square at the Tuesday Farmer’s Market. Planning is underway for Witches and Wizards of Woodstock 2024. CIRCULATION SERVICES June was a busy month for the Circulation Department. Continuing our Year of the Book programming, local author Charlie Donlea made a well-attended presentation about his new book, Long Time Gone, with Arlene Lynes present to sell books during an autograph session. Later in the month, authors Refe and Susan Tuma offered programs about their book, What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night; they are interested in partnering with us to launch their upcoming book in the series, What the Dinosaurs Did on Halloween. Kids and their families got to see behind the scenes of how the Tuma’s create their unique and humorous stories that launched the worldwide phenomenon of Dino-vember. Refe Tuma also gave a presentation for older kids about crafting stories using physics as a jumping off point to explain how heroes and villains interact. On June 20, we welcomed three new shelvers: Erica Birk, Ethan Ewart, and Teagan Harvey. We are looking forward to getting them trained quickly to help with all of the summer shelving. Katie Bradley attended the WILIUG (Wisconsin Illinois Innovative Users Group) Spring Conference in Racine, WI and was elected to their Steering Committee. We have agreed to be beta testers for two new services offered via PrairieCat. LX Starter is an Innovative product that creates enhanced notices and emails for communicating with patrons. We are also testing out repeat billing which sends additional bill notices to patrons with long overdue items at 30 days past the last bill. YOUTH SERVICES We’re officially halfway through the Summer Reading Challenges and programming. Participation this year is better than last year, and we have definitely been busy redeeming prizes at the children’s desk. We have 514 readers who have logged 5039 hours of reading. We average about 75 new readers each week, so we’re on track to surpass 2019 numbers (571 readers). While programs haven’t been well attended (except for storytimes), the kids and teens have been having a great time at our weekly programs as well as our special events like local authors Refe and Susan Tuma. Our next event for the summer is the special showing of Shrek The Musical Jr. at Woodstock North with the Woodstock Children’s Summer Theater on July 12th. We’ve already had several families redeem tickets as part of their summer reading challenges. Even though we’re not finished with Summer programming, we’re already looking ahead to fall programming including prepping for the annual Witches and Wizards of Woodstock event as well as the Lighting of the Square. Volunteers will be hard at work over the coming weeks prepping craft kits for both these events. TECHNICAL SERVICES Technical Services has been busy processing lots of beginning of the year orders and dealing with vendor issues. ADULT SERVICES Summer has been busy in Adult Services with programming and exam proctoring. Summer months are usually slow for adult programs, but in June we offered 19 programs with good attendance rates. Use of the library computers continues to slowly decrease, but Wi-Fi use has increased 28% over last year. Participation in the Adult Summer Reading Club is very strong with 129 participants and over 500 badges earned. Badges are earned by either completing 'reading challenges' or completing books. Progress is being made with the non-fiction shifting with the 900s nearly completed; our shelvers will soon be starting to shift the 800s and at the same time moving the adult non- fiction “books on CD” collection to the non-fiction shelves. We hope that this move will increase circulation of these books on CD. In June we started using the new LendingKey online software to circulate the two most popular items in the Library of Things – the outdoor movie kit and the metal detector. With LendingKey, patrons are able to reserve the equipment for a specific time period rather than having their hold being fulfilled in order of demand. Patrons and staff have been very receptive to this new way of requesting the equipment, so Kirk is in the process of moving the rest of the Library of Things’ items to LendingKey. Technology Assistance Appointments • 1-on-1 Appointments Requested: 9 • Resolutions: 8 • Cancellations: 1 • Most Common Consultation Subject: Computer Programming • Total # of Adult Programs: 19 o 18- in-person o 1- virtual • Total Programming Attendance: 207 o 57% year-over-year increase from June of 2023 • Top-Performing Programs by Attendance: o A Conversation with Temple Grandin- 29 o Charlie Donlea Author Event- 26 o MCDH Wellness Screening- 18 Misc. Stats • My book display celebrating Pride Month had three checkouts. Next month's theme is Build Your Business. • The library hosted outreach table events from two organizations: Senior Services Associates and Warp Corps. • Round 1 of my PrairieCat-themed word search was completed 43 times over the course of a month. Round 2 was placed out today. • MCDH had a record-breaking attendance at their wellness screening this month with 18 attendees. I believe the longer timeframe they recently requested has played a key role in securing more appointments. • Year of the Book programs continue their 5-month streak of being in the Top-3 performing programs by attendance. LIBRARY OUTREACH Lisa Rossi-Moser kicked off this year’s Storytime on the Square on June 4th and continued to fill in for Sloane, our Children’s Librarian, on the 11th and the 18th. McHenry County Community College representatives, Marla Garrison and Tressman Goode, met with Lisa and Katie on June 18th to continue their collaboration for the Escape Room at the library to be held in October 18th and 19th, 2024. Homebound update: • Homebound visits: 37 • Homebound Items delivered: 250 • Wonder Lake Book drop: 50 CALENDAR (https://woodstock.librarycalendar.com/) Upcoming Events & Dates of Import: • All of July: Illinois Art Education Association Student Show • Monday, July 15 and 22, 5:30-6:00 pm: Cuentos en Espanol/Spanish-Language Storytime • Tuesday, July 16 and 23, 10:15-11:00 am: Babies and Books Storytime • Tuesdays, 11:00 am-12:00 pm: Storytime at the Farmers Market • Tuesday, July 16 and 23, 3:00-4:00 pm: Teamwork Tuesdays • Wednesday, July 17 and 24, 10:15-11:00 am: Toddler Storytime • Wednesday, July 17 and 24, 3:00-4:00 pm: YA Wednesdays • Thursday, July 18 and 25, 3:00-4:00 pm: Rhythm and Tales • Friday, July 19 and 26, 10:15-11:00 am: Preschool Storytime • Saturday, July 20, 10:00 am-11:00 am: Medicare 101 • Friday, July 26, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm: Rescue Readers at HAHS • Saturday, July 27, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm: Visit to a Garden Railroad • Tuesday, July 30, 6:30 pm-7:30 pm: Navigating Elder Care with Humor and Grace • Wednesday, July 31, 1:30 pm- 3:30 pm: Senior Services Expo • Friday, August 2, 9:00 am-12:00 pm: Library closed for All Staff Meeting • Wednesday, August 7, 6:30-8:00pm: VIRTUAL: The Simpsons Trivia • Thursday, August 8, 9:30 am- 1:30 pm: McHenry County Department of Health Wellness Screening