November 2009 - Board Minutes

Owatonna Public Library Board Minutes of November 17, 2009

The regular monthly meeting of the Owatonna Public Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 4:35 by President Russ Dunn-Foster. Also present were Jill Holmes, Don Overlie, Renée Lowery, Mary Kay Feltes and Gail Plathe. Ross Leuning and Angela Sager were absent.  Four students from Owatonna High School also attended in order to fulfill a requirement for their senior social studies class.

Board members were introduced to the visitors and Russ briefly outlined the board’s responsibilities.

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

The October financial report was reviewed. The program budget was explained.

Renée presented the Children’s Services’ report on October activities.  Pearson Inc. of Owatonna sponsored Read for the Record held at the library the evening of October 8th. Terri Wallace, Owatonna School Board Chair, read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to 63 people. On the same day 2,019,752 children across the globe read this book by Eric Carle, breaking a world record for the largest shared reading experience ever.

Halloween stories, songs and finger plays were shared by 116 people at the Pumpkin Party, which was held in cooperation with Early Childhood Family Education. Water-filled tubs were provided for the children to scrub their free pumpkins, and craft materials were also available.

Darla visited Migrant Head Start twice during the month. Thirty people attended the first session and 28 were present for the second session. Owatonna Christian School’s kindergarten class visited the library later in the month. Twelve people were given a tour, read stories and checked out books.

During the month of December first graders from all local schools will visit the library to hear The Polar Express. All children will receive a library card if they don’t already have one. They will each check out one book.

Library use reports: People numbers were down a bit at Owatonna Public Library over the same month in 2008, and circulation was down about 14%. At Blooming Prairie Branch Library people count was down and check-outs decreased slightly. Owatonna Public Library added 136 new borrowers in October. Approximately 3000 people used their library cards at Owatonna Public Library in October and 350 at Blooming Prairie Branch Library. Usage had been increasing at a steady pace throughout the year so it is a bit disappointing to see the numbers drop, however slightly.

Other Business

Mary Kay noted she and Ryan Brown attended the city council budget study session. The library made a lot of budget cuts last year. Staff has a good grasp of the economic reality of this situation. Deliveries to 46 family day cares and 20 homebound library patrons were cut. In addition, coffee service, two movie showings per month and visiting authors in adult services were also eliminated. All library staff are working nights and weekends and shelving books.

The library is using volunteers for special projects such as the summer reading book give-aways. Three team leaders gathered their crews for the three separate book give away days. Their time and effort was very much appreciated by staff.

AquaBrowser, the new front end of the catalog that is already in place, was discussed. This upgrade has been in the planning stages for several years and SELCO has been working on implementation for two years. The user interface has been changed, and it will continue to evolve.  Release of AquaBrowser will happen soon.

With no further business to discuss the meeting was adjourned at 5:05PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Gail Plathe