International Falls Public Library – Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes – March 14, 2018

Present: Library Director Diane Adams, John Dalton, Darcy Sullivan, Lindsi Barnhart, Paul Nevanen, Dick Peterson, Ted Saxton

Dick Peterson called the meeting to order: 4:30 p.m.

Review of January meeting minutes. Barnhart made a motion to approve the minutes, Nevanen seconded, motion approved.

Financial Report: The current bills were reviewed. Nevanen made a motion to pay the bills, Sullivan seconded, motion carried. Dalton signed to pay the bills.

Director’s Report: Thus far 2018 circulation has been disappointing. We are currently 13% below our 2017 numbers. Storytime attendance is back up with numbers above twenty each of the last three weeks. We had decent turnout for Vintage Aprons with 8 enthusiastic participants and the edible car contest had a small crowd of 14 kids. We selected ReadSquared as our online system for tracking participants and reading for any reading programs we create. We will currently be using it for Reading Ready and Summer Reading. We plan to re-launch the Reading Ready program on April 30th.
Summer reading plans are coming together. We will be doing one summer reading for everyone. The goal will be to read at least 20 minutes a day twenty days of the each month. Kids entering grade 6 and below will allowed to select a free book to keep. Teens and adults can request a book for the library to purchase for the collection and they will be placed on the request list for the item. As well, each person reading at least twenty days of the month will be entered into a monthly drawing for larger prizes.

Old Business: Upcoming programs include weekly storytime on Thursday mornings at 10:30am. The Polar Polers will present information about the Tilson Creek Bog Walk on Tuesday, March 20th at 6:30 and a photo preservation workshop digitizing old photos on Monday, April 9th from 6 – 8 pm.

New Business: The board saw the annual report and Peterson signed letter of approval.

Paul is reading The Lady from Zagreb by Philip Kerr, Ted is reading boring computer manuals and online statistics regarding schools and class sizes. Darcy is reading Louise Erdrich’s Tracks, and Lindsi continues to read Portrait of a Lady. Diane just finished Checked by Cynthia Kadohata and is reading Anna Karenina, John is still reading Grant by Ron Chernow and also Anne Perry’s Echo of Murder while Dick continues with Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson.

Next board meeting: April 11, 2018, 4:30 p.m.

Adjourned: 5:15 pm