The Ainsworth Library Board held their regular monthly meeting on September 6, 2016. This meeting was advertised on the radio and in the local newspaper as well as on the library’s Facebook page and website. President Mark Kovar called the meeting to order at 5 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Open Meeting Act. Roll call showed four members present. They included Traci Alberts, Mark Kovar, Phyllis Leach, and Alane Lentz. Member Todd Flynn was absent. Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting.
Phyllis Leach moved to approve the minutes which Alane Lentz seconded. Vote showed all in favor. Alane Lentz made the motion to approve the claims for payment. Traci Alberts seconded this with all voting in favor of. The Board spent time reviewing the budget spending for this year. The Monthly Library Report for August was presented as well as a list of titles purchased this last month.
An update was presented on the proposed budget for 2016-17. It was noted that the Library Director attended the City Budget Workshop on 8-24-16. The City Clerk believes that no changes will be made to the request but won’t know for sure until the budget hearing is held. No word has been received from the County at this time on our budget request to them.
The schedule for Little Paws Preschool to visit the library was shared. Their first visit was on September 6th with one class in the morning and one class in the afternoon. A bill had been sent to the school for books that are still missing from past school years. This was forwarded on to Loup City and we are waiting to hear back from them.
September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. This will be promoted on the library’s Facebook page and website as well as in the local paper. Library Card Sign-Up Month will be discussed on the radio during the weekly Thursday Library Visit.
The Book Discussion Group has restarted for this year. The first book up for discussion on September 19th will be The Kitchen House. The group will vote on upcoming selections at this meeting. Eight people have checked out the book so far.
Updates were given on the library improvements currently being worked on at the library. The ADA Door Opener project has begun. The box hole was cut out in the low ceiling and vent work done right above the door. We are now waiting for the door opener box to be installed and electricity connected to it. The ADA Check-Out desk should be installed around the 19th. The old storage room has been emptied and is ready to be painted. Alane Lentz stated that she would be willing to start painting on the 12th. Director will make sure that the paint and needed supplies are here.
The Library Director asked if we could do some updating on the Internet Policy. We have had several problems with people accessing questionable sites dealing with pornography. A list of sites that one person has been visiting will be shared with the Sheriff Office to see if they know if any sites on the list had child pornography involved with them. The board gave their approval to start to work on updating the internet policy.
Information was shared from the Ainsworth Library Foundation Board Meeting on August 18th. It was noted that election of officers has held with the following election: Marsha Fuchs-President; Mark Kovar-Vice President; Wendy Allen-Treasurer; and Beverly Whitney-Secretary. A Book Basket Auction will be held this fall as a fundraiser for the library. A Fall Work Day is being organized to clean up the outside of the building and to get rid of volunteer trees etc.
Under correspondence, information was shared from the Nebraska Library Commission on the new password for NebraskAccess and their resource databases as well as adjustment of Public Library Accreditation expiration date. The number of public libraries up for re-accreditation was too large a number for their staff to handle efficiently and effectively since evaluation of the accreditation application form and review of the required strategic plan are both time-consuming processes. They are trying to get the number down to 56 libraries each year. They did a random drawing of libraries and will extend each of the winning libraries by one year. Several articles of interest from various library newsletters and journals were shared.
The next meeting date/time was set for October 6th at 5 p.m. Since there was no further business to come before the Board the meeting was adjourned at 5:58p.m.
