The Ainsworth Library Board held its regular monthly meeting on April 5, 2023. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, over the radio, on the library’s website, and posted at the library. The meeting was called to order by President Phyllis Leach at 5:01 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Nebraska Open Meeting Act.
Roll call showed all members present. Members included Todd Fling, Stacey Gilliland, Luke Hitchcock, Phyllis Leach, and Alane Lentz. Library Director, Gail Irwin, was also present for the meeting. Alane Lentz moved that the minutes be approved. Stacey Gilliland seconded this with all members voting in favor of. Alane Lentz made the motion to approve the claims for payment. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members voting in favor. The Monthly Library Report for March was presented as well as a list of titles purchased.
The Summer Reading Program was discussed. This year the theme will be “All Together Now”. We will run the program all of June. Children may sign up till May 15th in person at the library, on Facebook, or from the library’s website. We will have the younger children come on Tuesdays (Toddler Time from 4:30-5 p.m. and Preschool from 1-2 p.m.) The students in K-4th grade will come on Thursdays from 2-3 p.m. We will have all grades together this year. We plan to do a Sidewalk Chalk Festival, Pet a Truck, Music from Around the World program, and a Kindness Fun. K-4th grade will read and log time read on Reader Zone from June 1-30th. Prizes will be handed out after the 4th of July. Fliers have been developed to hand out of school and to the preschools.
Our library joined the Northeast Community College with their NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Big Read. We received 10 copies of the Big Read title of “Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body” by Rebekah Taussig. The readers may keep the book after they have read it or pass it on to another reader. A discussion time will be held on April 17th at 3:30 p.m. to share thoughts on the title. A report will be sent back to NCC on how many readers we had and total of attendance at the discussion.
Information on the Library Board Certification Program was share. It was noted that the Board currently has 10 continuing education hours. The Board will need to get 10 more units before 9-20-2024.
A student from the Ainsworth High School has contacted the Library about being a COE Student at the Library next school year. Discussion was held on this topic and the Board had no problem with having a COE Student next year. The Director will contact the student to let her know.
Having met the standards of service described in the Public Library Accreditation Guidelines, our Library was awarded state aid for fiscal year 2023 in the amount of $1,320. The award was determined using the following formula:
Base Amount $565
Per Capital Pay $245
Accreditation Bonus $400
1% Incentive Pay $110
The state Aid payment is not intended to replace local funds for the library, but is granted to provide for enhanced services over and above those provided through local funding.
Plans were discussed for National Library Week which will run from April 24-29th with the theme of “There’s More to the Story”. We will hold a Storytime on Tuesday featuring the Bernstein’s Bears. We will hold a drawing for the stuff Bernstein’s Bear Family. Financial Literacy Story Books (Money Monsters) will be featured on Thursday of that week.
It was noted that the Ainsworth Area Art Guild will hold its Annual Spring Art Show at the Library this month. They will hang the art work on the 14th. Judging will be held on the 15th. The show will remain on display till the 29th. They plan to do an Art Basket give away. It was noted at this time that Bright Horizon currently has a display up at the library this week titled “What I was Wearing” to highlight domestic abuse month.
Several grants were discussed by the Board. It was noted that the Library did not apply for the Midwest Region American Heart Association Grant. The Board had discussed applying for funds to purchase a Blood Pressure Monitor for the public to use at an early meeting. Due to the high cost of purchasing a monitor with stool & stand, it was felt that we could not afford this. The Library did apply for the American Library Association Game On! Grant. This was a $500 grant to purchase board games for the public to use and for library programing. Grant recipients will be announced at ALA Annual Conference in June 2023.
The Board will start to work on the upcoming budget for 2023-2024 at the May meeting and finalize it at the June meeting.
Various workshops and meeting attended by the Board and Staff was shared. It was noted that the Director has attended several of the Thursday Director’s Zoom Meeting from the Library System and the State Advisory Council on Libraries Board Meeting in Lincoln on March 3rd. Gail Irwin was re-appointed to the council till 12-31-2025. Staff will attend the Reader Zone Zoom Meeting on April 10th. The 2023 Early Childhood Meeting of Planning Region Team 17 will be held on the 5th of May and Gail plans to attend this.
Several items were shared under correspondence. It was noted that the Nebraska Library Commission was challenging the FCC’s Broadband map on behalf of Nebraska Public Libraries. The aim of the challenge is get the FCC to update their map ensuring that all of Nebraska’s public libraries are designated as Community Anchor Institutions with the correct address and geographic location. An accurate map will help identify the unserved and underserved communities most in need of funding for high-speed internet infrastructure investments and will be used to allocate funds for this. Information on the upcoming Atriuum Library System update for the OPAC was shared. Our options are the Canvas or Gallery upgrade for our card catalog. The Public Librarian Certification Program sent a new certificate to Gail Irwin stating that she has been approved at Level II through 2-1-2026. Legislation update was shared with the Board on bills that will affect all school libraries, public librarians, and educators in Nebraska. A hearing was set for March 24th for LB441. Items of interest from library journals and newsletters were shared. It was noted that it was three years ago when COVID-19 brought the country to a standstill. Many of the articles highlighted this. The newsletter from the system office had the Week of Weeding Contest information in it. Our library will participate in hopes of winning the $100 Amazon Gift Card.
The next meeting date/time was set for May 3rd at 5 p.m. Since there was no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:54 p.m.
