International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
September 9, 2020
Present: at library Diane Adams, Library Director, Paul Nevanen, Dick Peterson, MaryJo Winkel, Mona Johnson and guest Heather Weaver, Ashley Kostiuk
Call to Order: Peterson called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm
Motion was made by Kostiuk, seconded by Nevanen to approve the August minutes, approved unanimously.
Financial Report and Bills: Motion by Nevanen, seconded by Johnson to pay the bills.
Director’s Report – August circulation was almost identical to July circulation with a small increase in the number of digital items borrowed through Libby.
We have reached out to our volunteers and one is ready to come back, one isn’t and our third main volunteer fell and broke her wrist this summer and is still awaiting surgery so won’t be back yet for awhile. We have moved the volunteers from Thursday to Friday as there are fewer people in the building so less exposure risk for all. The volunteer is also willing to come in early and help us disinfect materials before moving to processing new items. We would still like to find a volunteer to help disinfect items on Monday mornings as that is our heaviest morning for disinfecting, although it should get a bit better once we open on Saturdays (which begins September 12).
We are going to try some different things this fall as we can’t do much in-person programming. We have put together a dozen ‘takeout’ craft boxes with a craft project for teens and adults and will make them available till gone then create a new project. We used Knudson grant money to purchase a grow light and stand and will do some fall/winter indoor gardening demonstrations. We will start lettuce seed on Tuesday before our Wednesday meeting. As we harvest crops, it will be made available to our patrons for use at home. We will provide books and (videos as we have them) about gardening in the winter and indoors. We also plan on growing alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts, others maybe and making available for patrons to take and eat at home. We will prune some of the library plants and make cuttings available and in the spring will plan on starting starts again to share with library patrons.
Boiler installation has begun. Asbestos has been removed and the crew doing the install has about removed all the old parts that need to come out and my understanding is that sometime next week they will begin installing new conduit.
Old Business:
Upcoming programs – Storytime starts September 17. Current storytime plan is to hold it in-person in the meeting room. We’ll shift the orientation of the room and spread blankets out on the floor, with each family taking a blanket to sit on for storytime. Beth will do lots of rhymes and manipulative stories that can be done bigger than just reading a book. We will also purchase multiple copies of one book that will be read with families together that each family can take home and share again.
Budget 2021: No news.
New Business: Johnson moved to nominate Ashley Kostiuk as Vice-President of the Library Board, seconded by Nevanen. Motion passed unanimously.
Next Friends of the Library sale – Booksale was held September 2, will hold a sale each month on the 7th for the remainder of the year at various times.
What are you reading? – Ashley is reading The Night Swim by Megan Goldin, Paul is reading Paris Hours by Alex George, Diane is finally reading Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, Heather is going through Hood by Stephen Lawhead, Mona is tackling Mastering the Health Continuum by Nancy Miggins and Dick is reading Hokule’a: the way to Tahiti by Ben R. Finney.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14th at 4:30 pm.
Meeting adjourned at 4:55 pm.