International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes – May 8, 2019

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

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

Review of April meeting minutes. Saxton 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, Winkel seconded, motion carried. Dalton signed to pay the bills.

Director’s Report:  April circulation was down 3% from April 2018 and quite a bit lower than last month. We are still ahead 1% year to date over 2018.  Hopefully May will be a better month. We will be doing our second week (of four) tallying reference questions and all visitors to the library the week of May 6th. I am hopeful next week will be as busy as this week was for questions and helping patrons.

Summer reading prep is going well. We have the summer reading booklets and will be doing class visits the week of May 13th. Summer reading will begin June 3.

Staff meeting will be held on Monday, May 20th at 9am focus will be on summer reading, including readsquared the online platform we use. We have hired Charis Boyer as our new part-time library clerk. She started working on May 2. We also hired Kristine Morgan as a substitute and she will be getting some hours this summer and the full-time staff will all be taking vacation time.

Old Business: Upcoming Programs: Wednesday, May 8th at 6:00 pm the Sutter Brothers present Sons and Daughters of Northern Lights concert and Wednesday, May 15th at 6:00pm adults can enjoy learning about the Scandinavian art of wire working. No further programs until summer reading starts June 3

Anna Meyer Bequest – Kerry Meyer expects the recording studio to take another couple of weeks to finish up. Equipment is being ordered with Musicians’ Friend and Small Town Tech. Hopefully we can be up and running by the June board meeting. I still need to work with TechSoup and a European company for software. Board recommended we do a project unveiling and invite ‘family’ to see what has been done.

Digitization Project – no progress

KTI – Koochiching Technology Initiative – The Koochiching Technology Initiative continues to move forward with fund application deadline for the end of April. I will be applying to get equipment to improve wi-fi in Smokey Bear Park, improve our wireless internet connection, add LinkedInLearning  for the community, purchase a years’ subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud for in library use and add a chat/texting reference service to our website. Library contribution of the grant will be with in-kind services and equipment to utilize Adobe Creative Cloud in the recording studio.

New Business: Donations – each meeting will include a list of donations in the previous month for acceptance by the board. The library on motion of Barnhart, with second by Sullivan accepted a $40.00 donation from Janice Leerssen in memory of Joyce Christenson and Sharon Olson.

The 2018-2019 annual action plan was shared with color coding by what was accomplished and what didn’t happen over the year. The 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan proposed for the coming year was presented and approved with Dalton moving to accept and Nevanen seconding the motion.

The board then met in closed session completing a director review.

Friends of Library book sale: May 23, 3:00 – 5:00 pm

John is reading The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher with Dick reading Us Against You by Frederik Backman and really enjoyed Hijinx and Hearsay: scenester stories from Minnesota’s Pop Life by Martin Keller. Paul is enjoying Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles while Ted is having great fun reading The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: kung-fu cavemen from the future by Dav Pilkey with his son. Darcy is reading Lewis Carroll’s Adventures in Wonderland while MaryJo is reading Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts and Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup by John Carreyrou. Lindsi continues to read Dostoevski’s short stories and Diane is reading Everyone Needs Attention: helping young children thrive by Tamar Jacobson.

Next board meeting: Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 4:30 p.m.

Adjourned: 5:35 pm

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *