June 2009 - Board Minutes

Owatonna Public Library Board Minutes of June 16, 2009

The regular monthly meeting of the Owatonna Public Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 4:35 P.M. by vice president Don Overlie. Also present were Angela Sager, Jill Holmes, Renée Lowery, Mary Kay Feltes and Gail Plathe. Russ Dunn-Foster and Ross Leuning were absent.

The May minutes were approved on a motion by Jill, seconded by Angie. All board members present voting aye, the motion passed.

The May financial report was reviewed. Work on the budget for 2010 will begin soon. More cuts are expected.

Renée reported on May happenings in Children’s Services. Classes from McKinley Elementary and Mary Hawkins’ 9th graders visited the library. They were given a tour and checked out books. Students from Owatonna Christian School visited as well as Washington Kindergarten classes.  About 250 students visited the library. Darla and Lisa participated in the “Have a Safe Summer” event at Owatonna Clinic. They talked with 300 people and distributed library pencils and tattoos. Children’s Services staff performed the first “shout out” publicizing the summer reading program at Washington Elementary School. “Be Creative @ Your Library” began with an abbreviated first day. Thirteen hundred children and adults came into the library during the three hour period from 3:00-6:00pm. Children picked up reading logs and checked out books. Everyone enjoyed Mr. Billy’s musical program. A big thank you to Les Abraham for donating his time to provide security during the kick-off and to Jill Holmes for distributing ice cream treats. More information on the kick-off will be included in next month’s report.

When compared with May of last year, the number of people using the library facility decreased about 16% at the Owatonna Public Library. Use at Blooming Prairie Branch Library was down about 6%. However the number of books and materials checked out at both Owatonna Public Library and Blooming Prairie showed an increase. Checkouts on the bookmobile continued an upward trend. Internet and public-access computers are popular with library patrons. In addition, new borrowers increased 18% over May of 2008.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Gail Plathe