The Ainsworth Library Board held its regular monthly meeting on June 5, 2024 at the Ainsworth Public Library. This meeting was advertised in the local newspaper, on the radio, posted at the library and on the library’s website and FaceBook page. The meeting was called to order at 5:03 p.m. Notice was given on the posting of the Nebraska Open Meeting Act. Roll call showed four members present. They included Todd Flynn, Stacy Gilliland, Luke Hitchcock, and Alane Lentz. Member Phyllis Leach was absent.
Stacy Gilliland made the motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting. Alane Lentz seconded this with all members voting in favor of. Alane Lentz moved to approve the claims for payment. Luke Hitchcock seconded this with all members voting in favor of. The Monthly Library Report for May 2024 was presented.
MONTHLY REPORT FOR MAY 2024
CIRCULATION TOTALS: 2021 2022 2023 2024
922 939 _ 1024 1,030
HAPPENINGS AT THE LIBRARY: Radio Spot was done 4 times this month.The Internet was access a total of 61 times. Over Drive checkout of e-books & audiobooks showed 488. Library Board meeting was held on the 1st. Director attended two Director’s Zoom meeting on the 2nd & 9th; Learn about Kanopy on 6th; Public Library Accreditation Process on 14th; Preventing Burnout & Fatigue on 23rd . Three new library cards were added this month. Library Foundation Board held quarterly meeting on the 22nd. Katherine Kerrigan’s last day for COE was on the 7th. Summer Reading Program Registration was held from May 1st-18th. A total of 53 children signed up. No water pressure on 15th after construction crew worked on line. City got it back on. City was called on the 24th about broken tree branch over the parking area on 5th street. It was fixed right away. Storytime was held on the 21st with 12 attending. Library was closed on Memorial Day.
Discussion was also held on the sprinkler system and issues at the curb by the construction. There was no water pressure. City employee came and adjusted the flow of water which corrected the problem.
The Summer Reading Program “Adventure Begins @ Your Library” started on June 1st. We had a total of 53 children sign up. Toddler Time had 8 children. An adult must stay with them during the program. Preschool has 17 children registered. K-1st Grade group had a total of 12 students and the 2nd-4th grade group had a total of 16 children. K-4th grade will keep track of time read by way of Reader Zone from June 1-June 30. We have the readers divided into four sessions. We will have preschool and toddlers come on Tuesday and the K-4th grade will come on Thursday. We will use a travel adventure theme. Week 1 will be travel adventures; Week 2 will be sky adventures, Week 3 will be sea adventures, and Week 4 will be land adventures.
It was noted that the Brown County Commissioners had acknowledged our request of $11,000 and we will have to wait and see if they will allow it in their budget. The City Clerk had not gotten back with the numbers for increase on utilities, insurance, etc. We will finish up our request at the next meeting.
Our public library accreditation expires at the end of the year. In order to make our Community Needs Response Plan, we will need to do a community survey and/or hold a community meeting. It would be nice to have a community member to be on our committee for this plan. Director has been putting the word out there on this. Information on our Peer Libraries was shared and compared with our library. The Broad reviewed some of the questions for a survey and approved of them being put on FaceBook, website, and handed out to the public. The Accreditation Form will open on July 1st and we can start to complete it and see how many points we have and if we will be a bronze, silver, or gold star library this round. Accreditation is now good for five years instead of the previous three years.
The library received their State Aid for 2024 award letter. Our library will be receiving a total of $1,317 this year. The award was determined using the following formula:
Base amount $ 565
Per Capita Pay $ 242
Accreditation Bonus $ 400
1% Incentive Pay $ 110
Yearly Employee Performance Review was completed on Wanda Raymond and Ellen Voss. Alane Lentz made the motion to approve the review. Todd Flynn seconded this with all members in favor of. The Library’s Director Review will be completed by library president and then approved by the board at the next meeting.
The Chamber had requested the library to extend hours on June 27th when a lot of bikers are in town. Chamber thought that it would be nice to be open so bikers could come in to use the internet, catch up on the newspapers, or just to cold down. Library Board approved of being open till 6:30 p.m. on the 27th. Director will work the extra time on that date.
ESU 7 will be doing a Migrant Education Program on Tuesday in June and July from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Ana Garcia and Nicole Flynn will be the instructors for this program of 24-25 students. They have asked if they could meet at the library during that time. Since we have our Summer Reading Program running on Tuesdays, it was not possible to have them here in June. I told them that they could meet here in July.
Under workshops and meetings, we had reviews on the Thursday Director Zoom meetings on May 2nd and 9th; the Kanopy for Nebraska OverDrive Libraries on May 6th; the NCompass Live: 2024 Public Library Accreditation Process on May 14th; and Preventing Burnout & Fatigue Meeting on May 23rd. The Library Foundation Board held a meeting on May 22nd and items discussed at that meeting was shared with the library board. It was noted that a Public Library Accreditation Workshop would be held on June 12th. Board members were encouraged to attend this three hour class or to watch the recording.
Under correspondence, an email from Sam Shaw at the Library Commission was shared. They have been comparing date from the FY2019 public library survey (the last year before COVID related closures and restrictions) and the recent public library survey. Some troubling trends have emerged. They had a survey for libraries to complete to better understand the changes in the statewide numbers and reasons for declines in many library service measures. Our library completed this survey on 5-29-24. Our library had a photo of one of our small library patrons at a storytime making a craft in the Central Plains Library System newsletter. Articles from various library newsletters and journals were shared with the board.
The next meeting date was discussed. Due to the meeting falling on July 3rd and the 4th of July holiday the next day, the meeting was moved to July 10th at 5 p.m. Since there was no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:51 p.m.
