Library Board of Trustees

The Woodstock Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Robert Laurie called the meeting to order at 7:34 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Laurie (President), Christy Johanson (Vice President), Mary Ann Lenzen, Sarah Parisi, Susan Gullotto, and Mary Sugden. OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Christensen (Deputy City Manager), Nick Weber (Library Director), and Tiara Thayer (Library Assistant II). ABSENT: Mary Beth Urbin (Secretary), Gabi Ordóñez, and Gayle Hoch. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Discussion and Vote on approving the Regular Minutes from the July 2024 meeting as presented or corrected. Robert noted that Gabi’s name was misspelled under Public Comment on Non- Agenda Items, and Susan noted a minor spelling error on page 3. Mary Sugden moved to accept the minutes of the July 2024 regular meeting as amended, Mary Ann Lenzen seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS: None. COMMUNICATIONS: None. LIBRARY EXPENDITURES Discussion and Vote on the July 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures. Mary Ann Lenzen moved to approve the July 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Christy Johanson seconded, and the motion carried with unanimous ayes. LIBRARIAN’S REPORT Nick Weber presented the librarian’s report, a copy of which is attached. Highlights include: • Summer reading concluded at the end of July. • The library has been experiencing some frustrations with PrairieCat over the last couple of months due to some policies and procedures that seem to favor smaller libraries, at times to the detriment of other libraries such as WPL. Nick stated he will continue to monitor the library’s options in the event it is deemed necessary to switch from PrairieCat to another service. • Both attendance and circulation were up throughout the month of July. 1  • The City Council passed their new comprehensive plan, and the new Economic Development Director will be starting soon. • The library has been experiencing some issues in the technical services department concerning new books. These items have been received with consistent damage where the pages have not been adequately bound to their covers. This creates a longer wait for patrons and adds to the workload of the technical services staff. • The September staff meeting will feature a de-escalation presentation from a guest speaker. The library will also host staff from smaller neighboring libraries that agreed to share the cost of the presentation. • Monday, August 19th, there will be a pop-up blood drive. • Sunday, September 8th, William Kent Krueger will be at McHenry County College for an author event, which Woodstock Library patrons will be eligible to register to attend, though seating is limited. NEW BUSINESS • Patron Behavior Update o The library and staff have experienced a sudden increase of unacceptable behaviors from multiple young adult patrons, as well as an adult patron.  The young adult patrons engaged in disruptive and destructive behaviors. These patrons have been banned until the library is able to contact their parents.  The adult patron directed threatening language towards a staff member. This patron has been served a no trespass order by the police, which does not expire. o Robert asked if patron behaviors have been getting worse over the last 10 years, and Nick confirmed that he has witnessed this unfortunate trend. This downward trend in behavior is a key factor in prioritizing de-escalation training for staff. • Summer Reading Review o This summer, over 600 young patrons participated in the summer reading program and logged over 10,000 hours’ worth of reading. Patrons of any age were also able to return to the Railroad Garden. o 140 adults also participated in the summer reading program for the chance to win the grand prize: a $50 gift certificate to Read Between the Lynes. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Review and Discussion of Board Bylaws o The board discussed the possibility of appointing a non-board member to act as board treasurer. This would require the board to amend their constitution. o The board asked Nick to draft amendments to their bylaws. o Paul suggested adding the City Manager as an approved signer to act on behalf of the board’s treasurer. • Review and Discussion of Strategic Plan Implementation o Nick intends to have this report available for the board to review at their September meeting. • Building Update o The roof’s leak is being worked on, and no additional leaks have been noted. o The children’s department received some upgraded shelving that can better withstand the weight of the books. o The RFQs for the landscaping designs went out to five different companies and are due back August 16th. 2  • Staffing Update o The job posting for the children’s librarian closes tomorrow, August 9th. Nick reported that there are already eight applicants with promising resumes. He is optimistic that the library will have a new children’s librarian by the end of September. o Sarah Jane has moved from part-time to full-time to assist with the children’s department. o A part-time library assistant II, has resigned from her position due to a full-time employment offer she received elsewhere. • Friends of the Library Update o The Friends’ fall plant sale with be after Labor Day on Saturday, September 7th. ADJOURNMENT Christy Johanson moved that the meeting be adjourned at 8:38 p.m., Susan Gullotto 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. 3  Woodstock Public Library Administrative & Staff Reports – August 2024 DIRECTOR’S REPORT We wrap up summer reading at the end of July, and this year’s Summer Reading Club was the busiest since the pandemic. We also had more programs this July than in the previous few years, and several large building projects were initiated. Staffing remains a challenge, but there are some positive things happening on that front as well. Outreach and collaboration with other agencies remained a focal point for the staff. Usually, August and early September are somewhat quiet months as we take a break following Summer Reading and prior to school fully ramping up, and then the holidays. However, this year we did have quite a lot going on. For the first time, we hosted the Bull Valley Garden Club Annual Flower Show, which was as much larger deal than I think any of us anticipated. The show was spread across both the main floor and the upstairs area, and it brought in lots of new people to the library. Definitely a success and a lot of fun—and a bonus, the library smelled really good for several days. Additionally, we hosted two more Year of the Book events, and partnered with other area libraries to bring William Kent Krueger to MCC for a discussion and presentation. We also hosted a blood drive, and the Friends of the Library’s annual fall plant sale, which was very successful—they sold out of all their plants by noon. Staffing was tricky in August as we were still without a Children’s Librarian, and also one of our Library Assistant IIs. The search for our new Children’s Librarian is going well, but is still a ways from being completed. Opening the position up to elementary educators had the desired effect of a much deeper pool of candidates than the last few searches. The rest of the staff, and particularly the Youth Services staff, continue to cover all the things. Our new shelvers are working out great, and we are rearranging the organizational chart a bit to provide better coverage in the Children’s Department until we can hire a new children’s librarian. Things are moving forward with the landscaping project, with submissions for our Request for Qualifications for a landscape design being received. Although we only received one submission, it is a very good submission, from a highly-regarded firm. The library continues to move 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 August 2024 Circulation was flat in August compared to 2023, and in-person use of the building was down slightly from last year. We had 21,766 items, both physical and digital, checked-out, a 0.3% decrease from 21,838 in 2023. 10,477 people came to the library in July, down 3% from 10,842 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 August was mostly routine, though the council did approve a lease agreement with Squire on the Square to open a restaurant in the old Public House space in the Old Courthouse Complex. CIRCULATION SERVICES While August tends to be a slower month, the circulation department was still plenty busy. Carrie and Katie had two Year of the Book programs: With Lisa Rossi-Moser, they hosted an adult craft night creating tunnel books. These unique projects feature layered cutouts from discarded books and turned out fantastic. Austin Nord assisted with our local author event featuring Kathy Spaltro with moderator Mike Fagerholm. Kathy talked about her recently published volume on silver screen star Lionel Barrymore and her upcoming biography on Ethel Barrymore. Tiara Thayer created beautiful bookmarks and bookplates for the author to sign, and we received a lot of positive feedback from attendees. Katie and Lisa were invited to Crystal Lake Montessori School where they gave a presentation to teachers and administrators about library cards and WPL resources. They signed up ten teachers for library cards. Anecdotally, we have had more voter registrations than ever before. Where we used to average a couple per year, we are averaging several per week. Carrie attended a webinar called The Safe Library: Security, Safety, and Service at the Moments of Truth, which had numerous excellent tips for deescalating difficult situations and resources for further training. Lastly, we had several incredible exhibitions throughout our display areas in August. Woodstock fine artist Katherine Weber displayed her watercolors featuring birds in our gallery space. At the end of her show, she donated one of her pieces to the library entitled “Trio” a watercolor on TerraSkin featuring a crane, a turtle, and a frog. The Woodstock Woodworkers Guild showed off their incredible skills with a variety of wood projects in our large display cases. The Land Conservancy also had their Art of the Land displayed in our circulation case and in reference, featuring amateur photography from around McHenry County. YOUTH SERVICES Summer reading ended on July 31st, and August was fairly calm in Youth Services. This is typically the case, but it was even more so this year, since the department remains significantly understaffed. We lost Sloane, our new children’s librarian, towards the end of July, but the rest of the Youth Services team finished the summer programming off strong with two of our favorite programs: The Garden Railroad and Touch-A-Truck. Many repeat families attended both programs. Our Touch-A-Truck didn’t have as many people as last year, since the rain dampened the first 20 minutes of the event. Once the rain cleared, the kids had a great time looking at all the different vehicles. The Garden Railroad continues to be a great success, and the Dreyer family has even made it more accessible so those with walkers, wheelchairs, or wide strollers can travel the walkways around the trains. ADULT SERVICES Post-summer reading is usually quiet in adult services, but we did hold several programs in August and early September, including our fall blood drive in collaboration with Versiti Blood Centers. Additionally, we had a presentation on using iPhones and other Apple products, our semi-regular A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s of Medicare program and McHenry County Department of Health Wellness Screenings. Staff continues to work with MCC on an Escape Room program in October, and there are a few collaborations with the Rec Department and the Opera House in the works as well. Shifting in the adult non-fiction section is continuing, allowing us to ease overcrowding in the middle of the non-fiction ranges. Technology Assistance Appointments • 1-on-1 Appointments Requested: 7 • Resolutions: 4 • Cancellations: 3 • Most Common Consultation Subject: Computer • Average Number of Days for Resolution: 14 Programming • Total # of Adult Programs: 18 o 18- in-person o 0- virtual  • Total Programming Attendance: 392 • Top-Performing Programs by Attendance: o Bull Valley Garden Club's Flower Show- 241 o Versiti Blood Drive- 16 o The Barrymores with Kathy Spaltro- 13 Quarterly Update Throughout Summer 2024, program attendance has been relatively low for individual programs. Outside of a few high-profile, special events, most of our programs saw a very middling attendance. The highest-attended, regular program (programs outside of special events and Year of the Book) was July's MCDH wellness screening with 18 attendees. In contrast, our Winter/Spring regular programming slate saw highs of 26 attendees for our Titanic program, 30 attendees for our Women Spies in WW2 program, and 52 for our Social Security Q&A program. In addition, our Fall 2023 regular programming slate saw attendance reach highs of 24 attendees for the Marguerite, Misty, and Me program and 25 for the Bull Nelson program. However, this dip in in-person attendance was within expectations. Summer programs have to compete against family vacations, concerts, day trips, city events, etc. so, it stands to reason that Summer programs would struggle to capture the same attention as our other seasons. That being said, overall attendance has been through the roof. Our special events, Summer Reading Club, virtual programming, and Year of the Book programs have been filling seats and bringing fresh faces into the library. • Highest Performing Adult Programs of the Summer Season o Bull Valley Garden Club's Flower Show- 241 o Senior Services Expo- 96 o Dr. Temple Grandin Virtual Event- 29 o Charlie Donlea Author Event- 26 o MCDH Wellness Screening- 18 o These five programs accounted for 52% (410/795) of total attendance for the entire Summer 2024 season while making up only 10% (5/49) of planned programs during the same time period. • Year-over-year performance (attendance) Attendance 2023 2024 % Increase June 132 207 57% July 112 196 75% August 67 392 485% Total 311 795 156% Misc. Stats • My "Repairs & Renovations" book display had three checkouts. Next month's theme is Explore the Animal Kingdom.  • The library hosted outreach table events from the Senior Services Associates and the Northern IL Food Bank. LIBRARY OUTREACH The library continues to create and reinforce our collaborations with other local and regional agencies. This month, we worked the McHenry County Health Department, the Illinois Arts Education Association, the Woodstock Recreation Department, and the local Memory Makers group. Additionally, we continue to work with MCC on a variety of projects and outreach efforts. CALENDAR (https://woodstock.librarycalendar.com/) Upcoming Events & Dates of Import: • Sundays: Library is open 1-5 pm • Wednesday, September 18, 6:00- 8:00 pm: Sunflower Mosaic crafting session • Wednesday, September 18, 6:30- 8:00 pm: Virtual Trivia—Only Murders in the Building • Tuesday, September 24, 6:00- 7:30 pm: Social Security Q&A session • Saturday, September 28, 3:00- 4:00 pm: Dragon Party • Wednesday, October 2, 6:30-7:30 pm: Protecting the Freedom to Read • Thursday, October 3, 4:00-5:00 pm and 6:00-7:00 pm: Local Author Laurie Lawlor • Friday, October 4, 9:00 am- 12:00 pm: Library closed for First Friday • Monday, October 7, 9:30 am- 1:30 pm: MCDH Wellness Screenings\ • Tuesday, October 8, 6:30- 7:30 pm: Dead Air—The Night Orson Welles Terrified America