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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary.Minutes.05-06-2021CAPE GIRARDEAU PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF IRUS ZEES Thursday, May 6. 2021 :a, 7am Cape Girardeau Public Library ATTENDANCE Present:.Amv Trueblood, John McGowan. Red Redinger, Emily Vines, Stacy Lane, John Voss. Cindy Fleischmidt, Dave Diveley, Rekha Patterson Also present: Director Katie Earnhart, Linda Bailiff President Stacy Lane called the meeting to order at 7am. The minutes were reviewed. Red moved to approve the minutes, MINUTES seconded by Dave. Motion passed. BILLS The bills were reviewed and discussed. PRESIDENT'S Amy presented a letter from AARP tax help volunteers thanking the library REPORT for the use of the community rooms. The slate of officers will be presented for a vote at the nest board meeting. The slate will remain the same: Smcv, President; Amy, Vice -President, John V., Treasurer: Dave, Secretary. Stacy, Red & Cindy have expiring terms for June 2021. Please look out for communication from Amanda McKinney. DIRECTOR'S Director Earnhart announced that she and her husband arc expecting a baby REPORT in November. KATIE HILL 1. The Community WiFi Project: a. As mentioned last month, stats will be tracked and reported on the monthly board report. We track several bits of data with this project. Number of devices that agree to the terms, reason for use, and number of users/uses. The number of devices that agree and the number of users are drastically different (tor example: April 1-25" has 140 devices vs 800 users). This is because when a device agrees to the terms and is granted access to the network that access is good for up to 24 hours and spans the entire network (all parks). So a user could gain initial access at Capaha in the morning and head over to Kiwanis park in the aftemoon and not have to agree a second time. The number of users is a more accurate usage number for our purposes. so starting in April our stats will change to reflect this number. We will of course continue to track the number of devices and the reasons for use. b. Signs have been ordered and will be installed by city crews at the parks. Once a sign is installed at one of the parks, a ribbon cutting will be scheduled. 2. Reopening Plans: a. We achieved our goal of 15 vaccinated staff members on April _'0`". We also hit the benchmark for the County positivity rate of below 5 for 2 weeks or more (currently at d weeks ). On April 21" we began implementing changes to get us closer to pre-COVID operations. i. Hours: We will return to normal hours (M=IIt 9am- 9pm, P -Sat 9am-5pm, & Sun I -spm) on May 3rd. ii. Computers: Computer time limits will increase to the normal 3 hours starting April 21". iii. Seating: Seating throughout the building will return to normal by Monday. April 26th. W e will try to place seating so that they are socially distanced, however, we expect that the public will police themselves and will keep their distance. iv. Masks: We will post signage at the entrances that masks are recommended but will require masks if the patron needs direct assistance from staff. Staff are still required to wear a mask while in the building. This will continue so long as the County health department still has the recommendation. v. Passports: We will continue through May with appointment only passport services. Passport appointments will expand as our hours return to normal. vi. Study Rooms: Study rooms will no longer have time limits starting .April 21 st. Also, we will no longer require appointments for use. It will be first come, first serve. Capacity will be 50% through the month of May (1-2 people per room). vii. Community Rooms: The community rooms are available with no time limits starting Monday, April 26th. Weare limiting capacity to 50°'o through the month of May. Previously the rooms could only be used one at a time, this limitation has been lined. viii. Notary: Notary services will no longer require appointments as of April 21 st. Notary services are available M -F, 9am-4pm. is. Programming: Programming can now be held in- person so long as 50"% capacity rules can be followed (at least through the end of May). However, staff have planned Summer Reading to be held virtually. SRP will continue to he held virtually as planned unless staff feel they can transition the program to in- person. s. Concierge Service: The Friends decided to wait until the fall to staff the concierge desk. State Funding Update: a. Advocacy efforts paid off this year. Both the House and Senate have passed the recommended budgets from the Secretary of State for Libraries. State Aid for libraries was approved for $3,501,001 (same amount as last year). REAL. funding increased by over $1 million for a total of $3,[09,250, and an increase in A&E funding by close to $3 million for a total of $3.740,000. A&E continues to not be funded as the statutes require, but this increase is a step in the right direction. b. These increases have gotten us closer to the funding levels we had in 2015, which has been the goal of the MLA legislative committee the past several years. Strategic Plan Update: a. Goal #1; Objective 1: While our Market Penetration, like other libraries in Savannah, continues to trend downward, we have seen 50 customers move from Inactive Status to another cluster and a total l75 users move from Inactive to another cluster since we began sending the Occassionals emails. In. Goal #1; Objective 2: We saw this goal being met for Novelist usage early in 2019 and through early 2020. C'OVID put a damper on this. We hope to boost these numbers back up in the coming months. We definitely hit a home run with our drive thr t stats Of course, COV ID was the driving fierce behind this increase. We have slowly started to see our drive thru number dip back down as patrons begin to feel more comfortable entering the building. We do still hope to encourage use of the drive thru even after we return to normal operations. c. Goal 42; Objective 1: The number and format of our programs has definitely been atPected by COVID. Our transition to virtual programming has provided us with N aluable insight about what interests our patrons. Unfortunately, it is difficult to discern who (what age) is watching/interacting with our Virtual content. Once we resume in-person programming we will start using the programming tracking software through Savannah. d. Goal 92: Objective'_: This number took the deepest dive as a result of COVID. The convenience of parents putting holds on one card to pickup at the drive thru was prohibitive to meet this objective. We did, however, modify our policy to allow for all K-12 students in the district to be eligible fur a library card. We partnered with Cape Public Schools to send out library card applications to all students. The first message was sent in early April 2021. We hope that we can include the application during tall enrollment to garner more applications. e. Goal 142; Objective 3: Our use of I umblebooks exploded during COVID. But as we reopened to the public in May 2020 our number deflated. Unfortunately, funding from the State Library for this platform is being reviewed and this service may or may not continue in the future. L Goal »3: The Building and Grounds committee took a break from planning due to COVID. They will reconvene this spring to discuss future building projects. g. Goal 44: We still continue, even in light of COVID, to be providing excellent customer service to our patrons. The NPS survey continues to go out to patrons and our ay erage NPS continues to stay in the 90s. h. Other thoughts and observations: i. While COVID has caused our library visits and circulation stats to drop this past year, we saw a major increase in our digital checkouts. We have seen a 45% increase in digital checkouts via the Libby app when looking at l" quarter (Jan -Mar) 2019 and the same time this year. Even prior to COVID we saw an increase in digital usage from 2018 to 2019. Curious if this trend will continue as people start venturing back into the library. ii. Savannah staff also provided some commentary: "I he quarterly average for activity in 2019 was just 12,000 or so, while today, even with the lowered activity, it's about 18.000. Part of this is that even though less customers are active right now, they're checking out a lot more items per capita - so while the number of active customers arc down, the number of activities per person is up." MARKETING Emihreported on a marketing meeting with Katie and Whitney on 4/13. COMMITTEE Whitney is currently transitioning to pre-COVID conditions, while maintaining the library's online presence. Family requested some written expectations from the board and Whitney will report monthly on progress. There are some radio spots that she is also working on. Emily had a suggestion to add enough to the marketing budget for perhaps a TV ad in the coming fiscal year. The Ethics Statement was reviewed. John M. made a motion to accept, POLICY & Amy seconded. Motion passed. BYLAWS COMMITTEE Parental Leave (dralt) Policy: Citing Katie's pregnancy announcement. John M. made a motion to go into closed session, seconded by John V. to discuss a personnel matter per RSMO 610.021(3). Katie and Linda lett the room. Closed session began at 7:32am. The board meeting resumed at 8am. John Voss provided the board with an overall look at the library finances TREASURER'S and how the money is being spent 1'he library has about a 20'o tax revenue REPORT increase per year, while the staff costs with benefits increase is about 3.70„ per year. which is unsustainable. I he nest Friends meeting is scheduled for I ucsday. May 18°i at 4:30pm at FRIENDS the library. Rekha will attend. The next board meeting will be June 24, 3021 gid, 7am at the library. NEXT MEETING Amy made a motion to adjourn at 8:20am, seconded by.lohn M. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned.