The Ainsworth Public Library Board held its regular monthly meeting on August 7th at the Ainsworth Public Library. This meeting was advertised in newspaper, over the radio, on the library website, and posted at the library. President Kara Welch called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Open Meeting Laws. Roll call showed three members present. They included Mark Kovar, Phyllis Leach, and Kara Welch. Members that were absent included Amanda Evans and Todd Flynn. Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting.
Phyllis Leach moved to approve the minutes. Mark Kovar seconded this motion. All members voted in favor of. Mark Kovar made the motion to approve the claims for payment. Phyllis Leach seconded this with all members voting in favor of. The monthly library report for July was presented as well as a list of titles purchased.
An update was given on the Phase Two of Library Improvements. It was noted that Iree McNally called and said that we will have to wait until cold weather before she could paint. It was noted that the Energy Efficiently form to NPPD on new lighting was submitted. The total on the form came to $1620. A review was given on the Garden Walk held on the 31st. We had five homes to visit: Rick & Lesley Holmes, Jeremy & Kelli Kral, Doug & Cathie Pankowski, Tim & Michelle Sinsel, plus the Healing Garden at the Brown County Hospital. We had over 60 people at the library for hors d’oeuvres. A total of $627 was raised for the flooring project. Director has sent out thank you notes to the home owners. A thank you note will also run in the newspaper next week. It was noted that we had a very nice thank you in the paper for holding such a fun event by Kathy Worrell. Photos of the event will be placed on our library website. It was noted that the sofa for the teen area would be delivered on Friday. We have a journalist from a magazine coming to Ainsworth on Saturday. One of the places they want to photography is the library and teen area which was furnished with funds from the Brown County Foundation.
It was noted 51 children from our Summer Reading Program have been submitted into the NEST 529 College Savings statewide drawing. The drawing will take place later on in August. If a child from our library wins, our library would also receive a gift of $250.
An update was given on the Smart Investing @ your library grant. It was noted that we have a very nice bulletin board up promoting the new financial resources. We have also made a display of all the new resource materials from this grant right next to the board. A meeting will be held in August to explain how we go about doing the public financial training classes. The remaining books have arrived from the grant and are currently being processed into our collection.
A number of items from OverDrive were discussed. The Front Line Tech Support statistics from February to June 2014 was shared. A vote will be taken soon to see if we should continue this tech support or not. The Nebraska group will also be voting on if we should start to add ebooks from Simon & Schuster. If we do, S &S says we will need to have the “Buy-it-Now” option listed. It was noted that the Kids/Teens eReading Room is now live. Results from the OverDrive June Circulation Challenge were shared. We did not reach the number needed statewide so our group did not get the $1500 in credit for future purchases. Patrons are being asked to vote for the next Big Library Read title for October. The Nebraska Library Commission is requesting testimonials from our users on the OverDrive service. They will use these testimonials when they present their budget request to the Legislature. The board was informed on new updates to the OverDrive digital library website. Users now can suspend a hold, hold auto-checkout, use two different maturity settings for browsing books. This allows adult users to exclude titles for younger readers and young readers to exclude adult titles from their search. They can also mask all mature adult cover images with a basic cover image. A collection of recommended titles will also appear on the homepage with titles that are available for checkout and suggested based on titles the user currently has checked out or on hold. To improve search results, the default search behavior has changed from “OR” to “AND”. This change will meaningfully improve the relevancy of the results.
Discussion was held on how to develop a strategic plan for the library. This will need to be place by next summer. We will be up for reaccreditation in the fall of 2015. We will start this process at our next meeting.
It was noted that our library did a broadband speed test as part of the Digital Inclusion Survey. The test results showed: 4.9 Mbps on Download; 824.0 Kbps on Upload, and 54ms on Latency. This is an area that may need some improvement but with receiving free internet service it will be hard to increase unless we want to pay for the service.
Northeast Community College will be holding some fall classes in our tri-county area. The classes that will be held at our library include the Windows 8 class on Nov. 18th from 6-9 p.m. and Introduction to Digital Photography class on September 18 & 25 from 6:30-9:30 p.m.
The Board worked on finalizing the proposed budget for 2014-15. The County is still working on their budget so do not know what amount we will receive from them yet. The City Clerk had stated that the workmen’s comp would increase and she would insert that amount for us. Mark Kovar made the motion to approve the following budget request to the city for budget year 2014-2015:
Revenue: Rent $25
Inter-library loan $250
State Aid $1238
County Funds $11,000 ***Not final as County still working on their budget
Library Cards $105
Sales Tax $150
Copies $1,000
Book Sale $300
Fines $700
Miscellaneous $300
TOTAL REVENUE $15,068
Expenses Salaries $51,434
Social Security $3,935
Retirement $2,056
A&H Insurance $10,000
Workmen’s Comp $ ?? ****City Clerk will insert amount
School $1,400
Building Maintenance $4,500
Capital Outlay $1,238
Computer Tech/Repair $1,500
Utilities $5,000
Building Insurance $3,000
Cleaning $1,920
Sales Tax $160
Professional Fee/Loan Fee $1,000
Public Relations $360
Miscellaneous $800
Books & Magazines $12,000
Children’s Program $750
New Equipment $2,500
Supplies $2,500
Capital Improvements $15,000 ***Replacing carpet/tile that was installed in 1979. Estimate was $20,000 but Lib.Foundation will help on cost.
TOTAL EXPENSES $121,053 ***This is without Workmen’s Comp
NET PROFIT (LOSS) $105,985 ***This is without Workmen’s Comp
Phyllis Leach seconded this motion on the proposed budget. All members voted in favor of.
A review was given on the Library System Consolidation Committee meeting our library director attended in Lexington on August 1st. The articles of incorporation were developed so the system directors can start to work with the attorney and the State Secretary of State. We will be asking to change the name to Central Plains Library System. At the next meeting, the By-Laws will be developed for the new system. Tech 101 series will offer training for library staff on Sept 24th, Oct 22nd, and Nov. 19th at the Atkinson Public Library. This is being sponsored by the Library Commission.
Articles of interest from various library newsletters and journals were shared with the board. The next meeting date was set for September 4th with a 5:30 p.m. start. Since there was no other business to come before the board, the meeting was adjourned at 6 p.m.
