The Ainsworth Library Board held its regular monthly meeting on November 6, 2014 at the Ainsworth Public Library. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, over the radio, posted at the library, on the library website and Facebook page. President Kara Welch called the meeting to order at 5 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Open Meeting Laws. Roll call showed four members present. They included Todd Flynn, Mark Kovar, Phyllis Leach, and Kara Welch. Member Mandy Evans was absent. Gail Irwin, Library Director, was also present for the meeting.
Mark Kovar made the motion to approve the minutes. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting in favor of. Phyllis Leach moved to approve the claims for payment. Mark Kovar seconded this motion with all members voting in favor of. A budget spending review was also done by the Board. The Monthly Library Report for October was presented as well as a list of titles purchased during the last month. Director noted at this time that Travis Newcombe would be doing a Magic Show on the 8th at the library with proceeds going to the post-fire effects for the Royal Theater. Board members had been emailed on this matter several weeks ago and agreed to holding the benefit at the Library. It was noted that Pam Scheer is now the GED Tutor and she has been working with students on Tuesday night and Sunday afternoon at the library. The State Art Guild’s Traveling Exhibit is currently at the library. Notice was received on the death of a former library board member-Orville Gilpin. It was noted that an Affordable Care navigator would be at the library one day a month for the next three months to help the public with finding health insurance. Saner Plumbing will be installing new faucets in the rest rooms soon. They will be motion censored with a battery under the sink. The faucets have been having issues for a long time (one links and no water come out in the other). See enclosed copies. Some of the data was available for the Yearly Summary for 2013-2014. A complete summary will be available at the next meeting. It was noted that the Public Library Survey will open on the 12th and we have until January to complete it. A new item this year is keeping track of how many devices come into the library using our free Wi-Fi.
A review of Teen Read Week activities was presented. This week happened to fall at the same time as Homecoming Week at school so not a lot of teens in the library. We did extend the sign up time for prizes by one week. We had two winners: Kyann Voss and Shania Johnson. An article was in the paper and on the library website so promoting the reading for fun message was out to the public.
Plans were discussed for Children’s Book Week. A special story time will be held. Staff has several workshops/meetings to attend this week as well as our book basket auction.
It was noted that the Windows 8 Class by Northeast Community College will be held on Nov. 18th at our library. One staff member plans to attend this. The Library has registration forms.
It was noted that the library was a Facebook page. You can find it under “Ainsworth Library” in Facebook. Reports were shared on statics for the first two weeks. In week one, we had a weekly total of 2,092 and week two we had a total of 558. This page will provide information on activities, services, and programming of the library. Managing a library Facebook page is one of the guidelines in accreditation for public libraries.
The winners of the Nest $529 scholarships for Summer Reading Programs students was presented. Unfortunately we did not have a winner from our library. Pierce Library was the only small library to have a winner and the rest were from larger cities in Nebraska. The new manual for 2015 Every Hero Has A Story has arrived. We have until December 1st to order material for the summer program.
The monthly report for Smart Investing @ your library grant was shared. We had two comment cards to mail to the Library Commission. Our library just received the public training promotions and will get started advertising our February public on-line class in December.
Phase Two of Library Improvements was discussed. Director checked with the City Clerk’s office to make sure that we have started to receive our credit from NPPD after we put in our new LED lights. We are getting credit each month until we use up the $1600. It was noted that a check has been received from the Brown County Foundation in the amount of $1,400.62 for the teen area grant. No contacts have been made yet with carpet dealers. The Book Basket Auction Fundraiser will be held on Nov. 22nd from 6-8 p.m. We currently have 22 baskets with more on the way. We will need to bring food, move the baskets to the Elks, set up and take down/clean up. Board will be contacted after the Library Foundation meeting next week to assign jobs. Proceeds will go towards the flooring project.
Board worked on the strategic plan for the library as well as reviewing and updating library policies. The Meeting Room Use and Reservation policy was reviewed. Mark Kovar made the motion to approve and adopt this policy. Phyllis Leach seconded this with all members voting in favor of. The current policies for Intellectual Freedom; Disruptive Behavior, and Confidentiality of Library Records were given to the Board to review and discuss at our next meeting.
A review was given on the Technology 101 class staff attended on the 22nd of Oct. Our 3rd and last session will be Nov. 19th in Atkinson. Director will attend the Nebraska Overdrive Libraries Group meeting on Nov. 12th. Ainsworth Library Foundation Board will meet on Nov. 13th. Director will attend the System Reorganization Meeting in Lexington on Nov. 20 to make policies for the new system. Director will attend a Meridian Library System Phone Conference Call meeting on Dec. 4th. The purpose of this special meeting is to vote on adopting the Plan of Merging the Meridian Library System into Republican Valley Library System with the name to be changed to Central Plains Library System.
Under correspondence we received the certificate from Movie Licensing USA on the Public Performance Site License for the copyrighted major motion pictures Exhibited at our library. It is good from 10-01-14 to 9-30-15. A note from the Meridian Library System was shared on the death of Judy Grandstaff, the director of Blue Hill Library and former RVLS System Administrator. Articles of interest from various library newsletters and journals were shared. The Northeast Library System’s Straight Talk newsletter had a photo of the Tech 101 class in Atkinson having some fun during their lunch break.
Holiday Closing dates were set for the library. The library will be closed on Nov. 27th for Thanksgiving but open the following day on Friday. The library will be closed on Dec. 24th, 25th, and 31st, plus Jan. 1st for the Christmas and New Year holiday.
Since the Board does not met in the month of December the next meeting date and time was set for Jan. 8th at 5 p.m. The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.
