April 2010 - Board Minutes

Owatonna Public Library Board Minutes of April 20, 2010

The regular monthly meeting of the Owatonna Public Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 4:30 PM by Vice President Don Overlie. Also present were Jill Holmes, Angela Sager, Ross Leuning, Renée Lowery, Mary Kay Feltes and Gail Plathe. Russ Dunn-Foster was absent. Several Owatonna High School students were present to fulfill the requirement for their Student Community Involvement Project (S.C.I.P.). 
 
For the benefit of the students, board members were introduced, then explained their responsibilities as community representatives on the Library Board of Trustees. Board members are appointed by the Mayor. Their duties include making recommendations and serving as sounding board for library administration. Library staff was introduced.

During the call for comments, several students indicated they are current library users.

The March minutes were approved with corrections on a motion by Jill, seconded by Ross. 

The March financial report was reviewed. The current budget has not yet been revised. Mary Kay noted according to state law, cities must maintain existing funding for libraries at or above a minimum level.

Renée presented Darla’s report on March activities in Children’s Services. Attendance at the three storytimes held each week ranged from a total of 81 the week of March 2nd to 106 the week of March 9th.  Family Fun Night, held in cooperation with Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) was called Monkey Madness. Over 60 children, parents, and grandparents attended. Early in the month Kiwanis Club of Owatonna sponsored Read Around the World with celebrity readers including Mark Arett, Superintendent of the Owatonna Street Department, along with representatives from police and fire departments. Thirty-six people were at the library on a Saturday morning to enjoy the stories. Patty and Darla visited Good Shepherd Preschool and read to a total of 53 children. Two groups from Bright Beginnings (70 children in all) toured the library, listened to stories and checked out books. Darla visited ECFE in Medford to speak to parents and explain the importance of reading to their two-year-olds. On the agenda for Children’s Services the end of April is El día de los niños/El día de los libros, also known as Día. This hour-long program for children includes crafts, snacks and stories in Spanish. Darla is pleased to report Federated Insurance is once again sponsoring the summer reading program with a large gift, as they have done since 1992. Kick off fun day will be June 11th, the day after the last day of school.

Use report for March. Numbers of check-outs at Owatonna Public Library, Blooming Prairie Branch Library and the bookmobile all decreased in March. The reduction in check-outs is directly related to a program cut in 2009: Books to Go! which delivered books to children in over 40 daycares and, for adults, to numerous homebound library patrons. Factoring in the program cuts, the circulation numbers have in fact increased. The number of items formerly checked out to patrons in the Books to Go! program was constant each month.

People numbers for March were about 21,000 at Owatonna Public Library, and 1400 at Blooming Prairie Branch. Transacting borrowers, which is the number of library customers who used their card in March: OPL 3000, BP 344, bookmobile 31. Owatonna Public Library registered 161 new borrowers in March.

Grants: Library staff is applying for grants to support various programs including a grant from AmeriCorps to reinstitute the Books to Go! program which delivered books to children in over 40 daycares. Darla has written other grants to bring performers for the summer reading program. The Legacy Grants are distributed through Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO) the regional library system. Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment of 2008 raises revenue for Clean Water, Outdoor Heritage, Parks and Trails, and Arts and Cultural Heritage.

Mary Kay touched briefly on 2010 budget cuts. These expenditures are on the chopping block:  safety supplies, audiovisual supplies, and 41% from the book budget.

The White Horse by J.F. Herring, a painting donated to the library by Reuben Kaplan in1980, was transported by ARTSERVE to Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) to be examined for possible repair.  The painting will be appraised after restoration at MACC, which is located at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Owatonna Public Library is grateful to Kennard Kaplan who has offered to pay all costs associated with transportation and repair of the painting through the Owatonna Foundation.
 
The new webpage for Owatonna Public Library went live on April 19th. Check it out.

Rochester Public Library will host an exhibit entitled RACE: Are We so Different? May 17th to September 4th. This national touring exhibition is co-sponsored by Best Buy and Mayo Clinic and a Legacy Grant. The exhibit will be reserved for school groups during the day for the first three weeks of the exhibition. Bus transportation will be provided for students from area schools. Owatonna’s Willow Creek School will send busloads of children to participate in the exhibit and accompanying activities.

With no further business to discuss the meeting was adjourned at 5:15pm.

The library board will meet Tuesday May18th at 4:30.

Respectfully submitted,    
Gail Plathe