The Ainsworth Library Board held their regular monthly meeting on January 9, 2019 at the Ainsworth Public Library. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, radio, at the Library, and on the Library’s website. President Traci Ganser called the meeting to order at 5 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Nebraska Open Meeting Act. Roll call showed four members present. They included Todd Flynn, Traci Ganser, Phyllis Leach, and Alane Lentz. Member Pedro Bordes was absent. Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting.
Phyllis Leach made the motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting. Alane Lentz seconded this with all members voting in favor of. Traci Ganser moved to pay the claims. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting in favor of. The Board reviewed the budget spending sheet from the City Office. A list of titles purchased was also shared as well as the Monthly Library Report for November and December. It was noted that Brown County paid the $11,000 for their part of the funding of library.
The 2018 Nebraska Public Library Survey and the Public Library Data Survey Supplement has been submitted. A copy was presented to the City Clerk’s Office for their file. The Board spend some time reviewing the completed form.
The Nebraska Library Commission has accredited our library at the Gold level through December 31, 2021. We had a total of 252 points. The Community Needs Response Plan was also approved. The library will start to work on the goals listed on this plan.
The Board was informed that a Heat Press/printer and supplies had been ordered by the Library Foundation for our Makerspace. The equipment just arrived and staff is in the process of learning how to fill the ink supply system with the pigment ink. There will be no cost to use the machine just for the transfer sheets/supplies as stated in our Makerspace Policy.
The Summer Reading Program theme will be “A Universe of Stories”. The program manual has arrived and staff has started to look it over for planning programs this summer. Materials to use with the June programs have been ordered.
It was noted that on December 4th, Three River Communications put in new equipment to run the internet and our Wi-Fi system. We had a few bugs to deal with at first but everything is working well now.
Cammie Waits from the Women’s Club had contact the library to see the library was open to the possibility of putting some of the lighted Christmas decorations around the library (mainly the snowman and kids). The creation of the Veteran’s Wall will take some of the area that they have used in previous years. The Board is open to this idea but wondered if there would need to be electrical boxes installed and how that would look in the yard around the library. More discussion would be held with Cammie on this matter.
Various workshops and meetings that staff and board members attended in the last several months were shared. It was noted that Gail Irwin had attended the Delving into OverDrive workshop in O’Neill on Nov. 14th, the Nebraska State Library Advisory Council Meeting in Lincoln on Nov. 16th, and the NCompas Live: Public Library Survey Using Bibliostat on Nov. 30th. Information was shared on the Library Foundation Board Meeting held on Nov. 14th. Traci Ganser and Pedro Bordes did an On Board or Overboard meeting on the 15th of November for CE hours towards Board Certification. Traci stated that she had just completed several other programs for CE as well. One of these was on social network. Traci suggested that Library Staff take more photos of them working on various jobs and post to Facebook. Library Staff plans to attend the Full Steam Ahead Workshop in Atkinson on Feb. 6th and the Summer Reading Program Workshop in Ravenna on March 29th.
Under correspondence, we had information from the American Library Association saying that Congress passed the Museum and Library Services Act and to thank us for writing our Senator’s to vote in support of this. Our library has sent letters to Senator Benjamin Sasse and Deb Fischer to oppose the S. 1010 the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act. A letter has been received back from Fischer on this matter. The Nebraska OverDrive Libraries group will be revisiting the OverDrive Reading Room options. A vote will take place in January to see
1. If libraries would like to keep a combined “Kids & Teens” room or separate to “Kids” and Teens” rooms.
2. If libraries would be interested in setting up an Audiobook eReading Room separating the ebooks from the audiobooks.
After the hearing the pros and cons, the Board did not care either way on the Kids and Teen room but they did think it would be nice to have the audiobooks in a room by itself away from the ebooks.
Articles from various library journals and newsletters were shared with the Board on the state of net neutrality, America’s Star Libraries, and on information literacy and the Hispanic community.
The next meeting was set for Feb. 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.
