The Ainsworth Library Board held it’s regular monthly meeting at the Ainsworth Public Library on May 4, 2017. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, over the radio, posted at the library, and on the library’s website and library’s Facebook page. President Mark Kovar called the meeting to order at 5:06 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Open Meeting Act. Roll called showed all members present (Traci Alberts, Todd Flynn, Mark Kovar, Phyllis Leach, and Alane Lentz). Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting.
Tracy Alberts made the motion to approve the minutes which Phyllis Leach seconded. Vote showed all in favor of. Alane Lentz moved to approve the claims for payment. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting in favor of. A review was given on the Budget spending. The Board spent time reviewing the Monthly Library Report for April as well as the List of Titles Purchased.
An update was given on the activities held during National Library Week. A story time, relax and color a bookmark, no fine day, and a Lego time was held. Since Nebraska was celebrating its 150th Birthday this year, we held a “Guess How Many Books In Library on the State of Nebraska?”. The winner was Melissa Doke with the guess of 974. We had a grand total of 937. Mrs. Doke won a red flip flop container/server, Road Apple Wine from Niobrara Valley Vineyards from Nenzel, NE; Double K Popcorn from Valentine, NE; Kool-Aid packets, and Game Day Cups with a Red N on them.
The Book Discussion Group will be taking the summer off. They will meet in September and decide the titles to read over the winter. The One Book One Nebraska title of Black Elk Speaks will be handed out at the September meeting. The group will share thoughts on this title at the October gathering.
The Summer Reading Program was discussed. Fliers have gone out to the schools as well as articles in the newspaper, and over the internet/radio. There is an on-line registration form this year. Sign up is from May 1 to May 10th. The Bingo Sheets were shared with the Board. It was noted that the NEST 529 Scholarship drawing would be held again this year for the children completing the reading program. Five participants from each of Nebraska’s three Congressional Districts will be awarded the scholarship. A Middle School Program will be offered in July as well as a Tri-Lingual Language Class (English-Spanish-Signing) for children age 5 -8 years old.
The Board started to work on the proposed budget for 2017-2018. Phyllis Leach made the motion to request a total of $11,000 from Brown County for the upcoming budget. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting in favor of. This is the same amount as in the last several years.
Under the line item of workshops/meetings, it was noted that our library director had a meeting with Sharon Osenga when she was visiting area libraries on 4-24-17. Sharon stated that the Library Commission was awarded the Makerspace grant and information will be released soon. Sharon will be retiring the first of September. It was noted that the Library Foundation Meeting would be May 18th. Information was shared with the Board on the MyHeritage Library Online self-paced class to be held during June.
Under correspondence, it was noted that the Choice Gas Supplier Selection was completed by going with Ace. Information was shared that the Library Commission moved the Nebraska Libraries on the Web to a new server to allow more secure SSL (https) login pages for the websites. It was noted that our library had sent in our Month of Weeding participation form to the Central Plains Library System. We have a chance to win a Kindle Fire in a drawing. Information was shared on the need to contact our U.S. Senators for support of LSTA and IMLS funds. Library Director contacted two U.S. Senators and has heard back from Senator Deb Fischer on the matter. The Spring Broadband Nebraska newsletter was shared with the Board as well as other articles of interest from library journals.
The next meeting date was set for June 8th at 5 p.m. Since there was no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:44 p.m.
