Library Board of Trustees

The Woodstock Public Library Board of Trustees met on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Robert Laurie called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Laurie (President), Mary Beth Urbin (Secretary), Sarah Parisi, Susan Gullotto, Mary Sugden, Gabi Ordóñez (arrived at 7:34 p.m.). OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Christensen (Deputy City Manager), Nick Weber (Library Director), Katie Bradley (Asst. Circulation Manager), Tressman Goode (Coordinator of Community Enrichment Programs at MCC), Tiara Thayer (Library Assistant II). ABSENT: Christy Johanson (Vice President), Mary Ann Lenzen, Gayle Hoch. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Discussion and Vote on approving the Regular Minutes from the September 2024 meeting as presented. Mary Sugden moved to approve the minutes of the September 2024 regular meeting as presented, Sarah Parisi seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS: Tressman and Katie, along with other representatives from the Woodstock Public Library and McHenry County College, collaborated to run an escape room program at the library. This program also functioned as a fundraiser, raising over $600 for STEM initiatives. This escape room was created from scratch by the WPL and MCC staff over the course of 8-months. Katie reported that this program was incredibly successful and well received by the participants, with multiple groups voicing their interest to participate in more escape rooms at the library. This program also attracted people from across the county. Nick stated that he is excited to continue collaborating with MCC on future projects and Tressman shared that, as a local Woodstock resident, he was personally invested in partnering with the library for this program. Katie and Tressman also took time to acknowledge the herculean efforts made by Lisa Rossi-Moser (WPL Outreach Librarian) and Marla Garrison (Director of the Liebman Institute for Science Innovation), who both worked hard to ensure that this program would be fun and successful. Robert offered his thanks to everyone for creating and executing this program. COMMUNICATIONS: None. 1 LIBRARY EXPENDITURES Discussion and Vote on the September 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures. Nick briefly reviewed the cost of the pneumatic system replacement, which was necessary due to age and lack of functionality. This replacement will also allow for greater and more precise control of heating and cooling the building. Robert Laurie moved to approve the September 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Susan Gullotto seconded, and the motion carried with unanimous ayes. Discussion and Vote on the October 2024 Building Fund and Operating Fund Expenditures Robert Laurie moved to approve the October 2024 combined Warrant of operating and building expenditures, as presented, Mary Beth Urbin 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: • October was a busy month for programming and included the Witches and Wizards of Woodstock event. This year’s Witches and Wizards event was quite successful and featured more participation from businesses on the Square than in past years. • Heather was hired as a children’s specialist to fill the role of the children’s librarian. Heather has been acclimating well to the library and has run multiple, very successful, story time programs. • There was an increase in circulation and general visitor traffic throughout October. • The library’s Technology Assistance service has continued to increase in use, thanks to Austin’s excellent ability to explain technology in easy-to-understand terms. • The library will close early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and be closed the full day of Thanksgiving. • There will be library representatives present at the Lighting of the Square to hand out craft kits. City Updates: • There is new perimeter lighting going up around the Square. • Squire on the Square is open and doing well, but MobCraft Beer is looking to leave its space in the Old Courthouse Jail House. • The hotel project is still moving forward on the corner of Calhoun and Jefferson, and the City is looking to acquire the dry cleaner building. Paul noted that the City may also obtain land via eminent domain if needed. • The new garbage contract has passed. However, the City was unable to contract with a company that was willing to continue a bag/sticker program. The sticker program will be phased out over the next several months. The current Yard Waste sticker program will remain as is. 2 NEW BUSINESS • Patrons Behaving Badly Update o Back in September, a patron was discovered to be concealing a large knife during a supervised visit with their child at the library. This patron was subsequently issued a no-trespass warning by the police. o Back in July, a patron made discriminatory remarks towards a library staff member and subsequently received a no-trespass order. After this initial incident, the patron called Nick for an explanation and proceeded to hurl profane language at Nick. Most recently, this patron emailed Nick to remark that he had not forgotten the action taken against him. Nick reported the email to the police department. o Nick reiterated that the library staff are never expected to endure abuse of any kind. • Capital Improvement Program Discussion o The Library is working on planning and funding the following large-scale projects for FY25/26:  Improving the staff and public parking lots (this does not include the auxiliary lot).  Begin landscaping initiatives and construction.  Updating and installing internal signage throughout the library. • Gabi asked if the signage is in Spanish, to which Nick affirmed that the goal will be to include Spanish translations on most, if not all, of the library’s signage. • Review and possible Vote on the “Photography and Filming Policy” o The library updated the wording of this policy to reflect the library’s respect for patrons’ 1st Amendment Rights. o The management team is working on training staff in small groups on how to effectively respond to 1st Amendment auditors. Discussion ensued concerning 1st Amendment auditors and audits. o Mary Sugden moved to adopt the “Photography and Filming Policy” as presented, Mary Beth Urbin seconded, and the motion passed with unanimous ayes. • Post-Election Impacts o Trump’s last presidency resulted in reduced funding and other anti-library sentiments. With this in mind, the board discussed some potential concerns and trends that may emerge in 2025, such as an increased prevalence of book challenges, and the need to increase library advocacy efforts. o Nick highlighted that the library is not currently beholden to federal funding in order to operate. Furthermore, the State of Illinois has already established strong support for public libraries and passed legislation to prevent book banning or censorship. • Landscaping Design Project o Nick shared the designs proposed by Bluestem, which prioritize removing invasive plants and replacing them with native species. These designs account for the Bayton Outdoor Space. There are also designs proposed to transform the auxiliary parking lot into a nature walk space. Landscaping for the library will be accomplished in phases. o The library will also be looking into increasing the number of security cameras to cover exterior space around the building, especially as the exterior spaces are improved. 3  • Discussion and Possible Vote on Changing the Board Meeting Times o Nick will review the procedure for changing the board’s regular meeting time so that the board may vote on it at their next meeting. The board voiced interest in changing their meeting time from 7:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. • Discussion and Possible Vote on Changing the Board Constitution and Bylaws o The Board’s Constitution and Bylaws were updated to reflect current practices and allow the duties of the secretary and treasurer to be allocated to a duly designated staff member and City treasurer, respectively. o Mary Beth Urbin moved to adopt the amended constitution as presented, Susan Gullotto seconded, and the motion passed via the following roll call: Aye Aye Aye Aye Robert Laurie Mary Beth Urbin Sarah Parisi Susan Gullotto Aye Aye Absent Absent Mary Sugden Gabi Ordóñez Christy Johanson Mary Ann Lenzen Absent Gayle Hoch UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Building Update o The front doors were once again failing to close and operate properly, but the issue has been resolved for the time being. • Staffing Update o The children’s librarian position was addressed in the Librarian’s Report. o The library has posted a vacancy for a part-time LA1 position. • Friends of the Library Update o The Friends will be meeting in January 2025. o The library is working with the Friends to finalize some project funding. o Nick reiterated how grateful he is that the Friends of the Woodstock Public Library are comprised of such wonderful individuals who go above and beyond to support and advocate for the library. o The Friends are still working on an ambassador program. The timeline has been extended through spring 2025. • Witches and Wizards of Woodstock Update o This topic was covered in the Director’s Report. ADJOURNMENT Susan Gullotto moved that the meeting be adjourned at 9:07 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 – November 2024 DIRECTOR’S REPORT November is the start of the second half of the fiscal year, and the month we start all of the various holiday programs and events. This November was slightly busier than last, with more people coming into the building, and more materials being utilized. We also held more events and presentations than in past years. Staffing finally started to settle down, with the arrival of our new children’s librarian. There remain challenges, but things are moving in the right direction. Outreach and collaboration with other agencies remained a focal point for the staff. With the holidays starting, November is always a busy month. This year was no exception. Heather completed her first run of storytimes, and all reports were that they went very well. We hosted our annual Turkey Bingo session and all participants had a good time. The library also hosted a blood drive, health screening session, and multiple crafting programs. The Year of the Book is winding down, but it isn’t quite done yet—there were two local author programs in November. And though it was a cold night, lots of people turned out for the annual Lighting of the Square event, and the library was there to provide stories and crafts for the participants. Staffing was good in November, though it slipped a little again in early December due to illnesses and the usual “end of the year rush” to use vacation and other paid time off. The search for our Library Assistant I opening yielded a pool of 70+ applicants. Many of these were completely unqualified, but the committee did narrow the pool to 11 applicants who will be interviewed on Thursday, December 11. The trial run for our new way of scheduling our part-time staff is underway, and we are also tweaking how we handle our weekend staff rotation. Things are moving forward with the landscaping project, with a revised drawing from Bluestem Ecological submitted and under review by the Landscaping Committee. The design has a lot of promise both aesthetically and as a teaching opportunity. The Bayton Outdoor Event Space is being rolled into the landscape project as the two efforts overlap in many areas and keeping them separate would be difficult. Bluestem and the Landscaping Committee will be presenting the design at the January Board meeting. The library’s old pneumatic control system, for the HVAC units in the 1984 portion of the building, has been replaced, but the final piece—the installation of the control system—has not been completed, to the frustration of the director and the staff. Public Works is trying to get Johnson Controls to finish the project this week, but we have no assurance that will happen. CIRCULATION & PROGRAMMING November 2024 Circulation was up slightly, by 1% in November compared to 2023, and in-person use of the building was up by 4.7% over last year. We had 20,245 items, both physical and digital, checked out, compared to 20,052 in 2023. 10,555 people came to the library in November, compared to 10,079 in 2023. FINANCIALS Spending out of the new fiscal budget is past the halfway point, and at this point, things are tracking well. The 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 meetings in late November and early December were mostly routine, though the council did recognize the 5/10/15 etc. anniversaries of employees in November, including several library employees, and bid a fond farewell to Deputy Chief Pritchard in December. DC Pritchard retired after thirty years of service with the city. They also discussed some possibilities regarding the old Die Cast site in light of the withdrawal of the company originally chosen to build on that site. CIRCULATION SERVICES One noticeable uptick at the front desk that doesn’t get captured in statistics is the sale of garbage and yard waste stickers. With the impending changes to both service and prices, circulation staff is selling more stickers and answering more questions related to garbage service than ever before. Carrie and Katie facilitated Turkey Bingo the Monday night before Thanksgiving with Children’s Specialist Heather Butner joining to learn the ropes. This year’s program maxed out the registration at 30 people and had 4 more on the wait list, so it was disappointing that only nine people attended the program. However, those that attended still had a good time and enjoyed playing the game and earning treats for their Thanksgiving dinner. For Year of the Book programming, we partnered with McHenry County Libraries United to host nonfiction author Abbott Kahler at MCC. She gave a humorous and enlightening talk about her most recent book Eden Undone. WPL also hosted an author event for local Random House author Alyssa Wees and the launch of her latest book We Shall Be Monsters. Our gallery showcased the brilliant and creative photography of Harold Rail. Katie attended a WILIUG steering committee meeting, and Carrie is working with the McHenry County Libraries United committee to schedule author events for 2025. YOUTH SERVICES November is always a busy month for the youth services team. Kate and Heather attended the annual Lighting of the Square event on November 29th. This year they were inside Stage Left and partnered with a musician doing storytimes and entertaining the crowd of all ages. While there were less attendees due to the cold weather, there was still a decent crowd, and Kate and Heather handed out about 400 crafts. They are already planning on what to change for next year. Heather is wrapping up storytimes for this session. Attendance has been pretty steady and she continues to receive positive feedback from attendees. Each session ends with about 15 minutes of unstructured time that allows for the children to interact and complete activities or crafts. This seems to be a highlight for caregivers and children alike. The caregivers have commented that they appreciate the opportunity for the kids to work on social skills and it has allowed the adults to connect and build relationships with one another. We have developed a good rhythm, and Heather is looking forward to the next session in January. Kate is busy planning for the 4th Annual McHenry County Library Lovers Expedition which will start in February. This year all 15 McHenry County libraries are participating, and patrons can visit 12 libraries to be entered to win one of 15 gift baskets. Those that visit all 15 will be entered into the grand prize drawing. ADULT SERVICES Adult services started the month with the 3rd Quadrennial Tiny Presidents Scavenger Hunt which was extremely popular, participants of all ages scoured the library in search of tiny presidents that they could turn in for a prize at the front desk. As a polling place on election day, the library had several hundred more visitors than a typical Tuesday. The library's e-mail newsletter service is switching to LibraryAware in December. The current 3,900 subscribers were alerted to the new service in the November newsletter and library staff is learning all the functions of LibraryAware. In addition to the monthly newsletter, LibraryAware also provides separate reading recommendation newsletters on a variety of topics and themes. Austin Nord has switched the television signs at the Front Desk and the Young Adult area to run promotional slides using Roku photo streams, which provides us more control over the slides. In November the Friends voted to provide a TV to use as an electronic sign for program promotions in the Children’s Department. The new TV will use the same system. Shifting in the non-fiction collection is making good progress. With the non-fiction audiobooks being integrated into the non-fiction book sacks, library staff are investigating compiling a list of all the non-fiction book on CD titles to assist patrons who are just interested in those titles. Once the audiobooks are moved then the plans are to expand the Large Type shelving and shift the remaining audiobook collection to create a lounge area near the windows. This will provide much-needed extra shelving for the large print collection, which is growing, and create a more comfortable seating area around the piano once it is moved. A magnet sweeper was added to the Library of Things in response to community comments about the need on the "What's Happening in Woodstock" Facebook group. It has proven to be extremely popular with one patron using it to find hundreds of nails in their yard. Technology Assistance Appointments • 1-on-1 Appointments Requested: 11 • Resolutions: 6 • Cancellations: 5 • Most Common Consultation Subject: Phone • Average Number of Days for Resolution: 3 Adult Programming • Total # of Adult Programs: 16 o 15- in-person o 1- virtual • Total Programming Attendance: 151 o 55% month-over-month decrease from October 2024 o 12% year-over-year decrease from November of 2023 • Top-Performing Programs by Attendance: o Blood Drive- 17 o Hollow Tree Spinners- 15 o MCDH Wellness Screening- 14 Passives • The "Table for One" book display had 14 checkouts. Next month's theme is “Holidays at Grandma's.” • The library did not host any tabling events this month. • Starting in January, the 2nd Giant Puzzle Challenge is set to begin. CALENDAR (https://woodstock.librarycalendar.com/) Upcoming Events & Dates of Import: • December 12-January 6: D200 All School Winter Art Show • Fridays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm: Technology Assistance Appointments • Saturday, Dec. 14, 10:00-11:00 and 11:30-12:30: Storybook Players Short Plays • Saturday, Dec. 14, 1:00-2:00 pm: Rescue Readers • Sunday, Dec. 15, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Christmas Movie Trivia & Bingo • Tuesday, Dec. 24: Library closed for Christmas Eve • Wednesday, Dec. 25: Library Closed for Christmas • Tuesday, Dec. 31: Library Closed for New Year’s Eve • Wednesday, Jan. 1: Library Closed for New Year’s Day • Friday, Jan. 3: Library Open • Friday, Jan. 10: Library opens at 1:00 pm for All City Staff meeting