The Ainsworth Library Board meeting was held on July 2, 2015. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, radio, library website and bulletin board. President Kara Welch called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. Notice was given on the Open Meeting Act posted on the wall. Roll call showed four members present. They included Todd Flynn, Mark Kovar, Phyllis Leach, and Kara Welch. Member Amanda Evans was absence. We had two visitors attend the meeting that are fairly new to Ainsworth and interested in the library. Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting.
Phyllis Leach made the motion to approve the minutes. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting 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. Board spent time reviewing the estimate spending for the rest of the year that was sent to the City Clerk. The Monthly Library Report for June was presented as well as a list of titles purchased this past month. At this time the circulation numbers on Smart Investing Grant for the three 30 day periods of before, during, and after training was shared with Board. Board granted permission for rest rooms to be left open for the community event to be held in the Courthouse Park on July 11th. If there are any issues in the rest rooms , we will not do this again in the further. Scott Clark will handle the key and lock up when they are done with the event. The photo of the teen area was shared that was published in the Nebraska Community Foundation 2014 Annual Report. It showed off the new furnishings and turned out very great
An update was given on the Summer Reading Program. We had a total of 73 children signed up for the five different programs. Total attendance at the Toddler Time was 60; Preschool Story Time was 70; K-1st Grade Fun-Hour was 55; and the 2nd-4th Grade Fun-Hour was 56. Last day for K-4th graders to keep track of time was on the 27th. Reading Time Slips were due on 29th. The picnic was held on July 1st with 25 in attendance. The top readers in the K-1st Grade: Most hours read was Daniel Thornton with 21 hours and 35 minutes; 2nd most hours read was Tatum Sorensen with 14 hours and 55 minutes; and 3rd most hours read was Erick Hitchcock with 14 hours. The top readers in the 2nd-4th grade group: Most hours read was Sydney Olinger with 39 hours and 35 minutes; 2nd most hours read was Corbin Swanson; and there was a tie for 3rd most hours read with 23 hours and 15 minutes by Terrin and Tess Barthel. We had 8 Middle School readers sign up for the Lunch Bunch. The first discussion was held on June 10th with six readers present to talk about the title “Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam”. Pizza was served for lunch. The next title White Star: A Dog on the Titanic” was handed out and they will meet on July 8th to discuss it.
The Library Foundation held a Half and Half Ticket Sale at the Alumni Parade. A total of $52 was raised. Dr. Evan Evans had the winning ticket and he handed this half back to the Foundation. All proceeds will go towards the ADA projects (Check-out desk and front door Opener). Board thanked Mark for working on the ticket sales.
The Board finalized the proposed budget request for the upcoming year of 2015-16 for the amount of $125,419. The amounts were inserted that the City Clerk had suggested. Phyllis Leach made the motion to approve the proposed budget to present to the City. Mark Kovar seconded this with all members voting in favor of. It was noted that County Commissioner Buddy Small had called the Library and acknowledged the $11,000 request from the County. He stated that he could not say yes or no at this time as the budget was still being worked on.
Our library is up for library reaccreditation this year. The application is available now online and the last day to submit our application is October 1, 2015. The accreditation guidelines have been redesigned since we last accredited so there are many changes. Some of the guidelines will be pre-filled with statistics and other information reported in our annual public libraries survey and supplement survey. We do meet the 12 minimum qualifications and so we can now begin filling out the form. Director has the username and password to start the process. We must have an up-to-date strategic plan approved by the Nebraska Library Commission for this. Accreditation is based on an accumulation of points. There is a total of 275 possible points. There are three levels of accreditation: Bronze (175 points required); Silver (200 points required); and Gold (250 points required). For a number of the guidelines our library will be compared with its “peer libraries” (Libraries with service population 15% higher through 15% lower than our service population). Director will start to complete this application so it will be ready to submit by the deadline.
Now that the Summer Reading Program is completed, the library director will be working on typing up the Strategic Plan for the Library and submitting it to the Library Commission. A review of past findings was shared and a discussion was held on all the information we needed to put in the plan. Our two visitors at this meeting gave us there thoughts on our library and what area we are strong and weak in. They are used to a large library in Colorado. It was great to get their input and we thanked them for the interest in our library.
Under workshops/meetings we had a review of the Art of Narrating An Audio Book Webinar attended by Wanda Raymond on June 11th. It was noted that all library staff attended the NebraskAccess Expansion Webinar on June 17th and will be attending the Database Road Show in Atkinson on August 26th. If Carolyn cannot work that day, the Board gave permission to closed the library so staff could attend. A Growing Up Wild Workshop will be held at our library on July 14th from 6:30 -8:30 p.m. Wanda Raymond has completed her Library Technology Basic Skills class and just starting her Collection Management.
Under correspondence, we had a update letter on the Dash for the Stash Contest which stated that the individual winner for each state prize of $1,000 has been notified and that they are in the process of final details before making a statewide announcement. Information from the Nebraska Library Commission on the new NebraskAccess resources was shared. The new resources went live on July 1st. Items of interest from various library journals and newsletters were shared with the Board.
The next meeting date and time was set for August 6th at 5 p.m. Since there was no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m.
