HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-06-2019 minutes
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY
3939 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421
BOARD OF TRUSTEES: MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, November 6th, 2019
Approved
12/4/2019
The meeting was called to order in the History Room by Chair, Catherine Vesley at 5:33pm. Members present: Catherine
Vesley; Patricia Sowada; Tricia Conway; Stephen Smith; Christopher Polley; and City Council Liaison, Connie Buesgens.
Also in attendance: Renee Dougherty (Library Director), and Nick Olberding (Recording Secretary).
The Minutes of the October 2nd, 2019 Board Meeting were approved. The Board wanted to add how appreciative they
are for me making sense of all the discussions, and compiling it in to clear minutes. Thank you!
Bill Lists dated September 9th & 23rd, 2019 were reviewed. Each was moved, seconded, and approved.
Questions and discussions based on Bills and Accounting:
• ILS Q3: COH’s share of the library system cost, plus delivery.
• Orkin: We don’t have any specific pest problems; preventative maintenance contract on city buildings.
• Utilities: Under-budget for the year.
• 1810: Covers cost-of-living increases in the interim before contracts are settled.
Old Business:
1. Finalize Strategic Plan: Over the last month, Renee had consulted with several staff members, and developed a
couple additional Values to consider in the plan (Equal Access & Intellectual Freedom), and also had some
reservations with the Mission Statement. She felt like our Collections should be mentioned in the mission, and
could use some fine tuning to better encompass our full mission. The Board is going to take the next month to
think of better ways to include our main points. Approving the Strategic Plan has been tabled till the December
meeting.
2. Budget Presentation Update: Renee had her initial budget presentation for the City Council…including increases
for part-time personnel wage increases, mandatory IT Services increase, and $1800 to pilot Kanopy Library
streaming video service. Library revenue fluctuates based on how much printing is done and whether/when
people are willing to pay their account balances (these revenues are never a guarantee). The Council spent a
disproportionate amount of time discussing the Kanopy service (something Anoka County is already offering, but
Columbia Heights patrons are restricted from using). This year there were a few unanticipated costs related to
maintenance renewals on our Automated Materials Handler/Self-Checks and the transition to Windows 10 (much
of these costs are being covered by donation funds from the Library Foundation). The Council even asked if we
felt our number of Open Hours are sufficient? Some patrons would like us to be open later some nights, or longer
hours on Saturday, but we are open more hours than most ACL buildings. The City Council will continue the
process of reviewing City Department budgets, and will be making their final decisions in December.
New Business:
1. 2020 Library Holiday/Closed Dates: Closed Dates are relatively the same as previous years; all the same City
holidays, plus our annual ACL Training Day in May. I had the date for Good Friday incorrect, so I needed to update
that. The Board motioned to approve the 2020 Closed Dates; all were in favor.
2. 2020 Library Board of Trustees Meeting Schedule: The 2020 Library Board Meeting dates continue to fall on the
first Wednesday of the Month @ 5:30pm in the Library History Room; the only meeting that needed shifted is
January, which would have occurred on New Year’s Day otherwise. The Board motioned to approve the 2020
Meeting Dates; all were in favor.
Items from the Floor:
• Kanopy: Renee had discussed this service with Cortni/Bri, and would like to offer this to our patrons; Kanopy may
allow us to offer it as part of a trial run. $1800 was earmarked in the 2020 budget to cover costs related to this
streaming service, which also contains some content with PPR Rights, which would allow public exhibitions (could
be very useful for the library, ISD-13, and community groups like HeightsNEXT).
• Greg Gaut (Reinventing the People’s Library): Local historian/author; would be interesting to have him do a
program on the Carnegie Libraries.
• November 13: Oral Histories (presented by Twigs & Branches Genealogy) will teach methods of interviewing
relatives for inclusion in your ancestry research. It will include class participation.
• Law Librarian: Anoka County Law Librarian open office hours at Columbia Heights on 2nd Wednesdays of each
month.
• December 3: Tea 101 Class (presented by TeaSource) will be an intro to everything tea, and will also include free
samples and treats provided by the Friends of the Library.
• Junior Kitchen: A series of sessions which will train teen instructors, who will in turn work with children to teach
nutrition and food preparation skills.
• The article that Tricia forwarded to the group had links to grants offered by the National Endowment for the
Arts, which Catherine will look into; maybe secure some funding for a public art installation.
• January: The Board would like to put together a plan for reviewing our Library Policies.
There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was made at 6:36pm by Catherine Vesley, and seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Nicholas P. Olberding
Recording Secretary, Library Board of Trustee