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Home My WebLink About01-06-2021 Library Board Minutes COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY 3939 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421 BOARD OF TRUSTEES: MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 Approved 2/3/2021 NOTICE THAT THIS MEETING WAS CONDUCTED BY A COMBINATION OF IN-PERSON AND ELECTRONIC MEANS Following a determination by City Manager Kelli Bourgeois, and emergencies declared by the United States, The State of Minnesota, and the Columbia Heights Mayor & City Council, this meeting did, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 13D.021, occur by a combination of in-person and electronic means. In all meeting formats whether solely in- person or a combination of in-person and electronic means, members of the public who wished to attend could do so by attending in-person or by calling 1-312-626- 6799 and entering meeting ID 972 4084 9927 and passcode Wffdi0 at the scheduled meeting time. If there are any questions about this notice or attending/calling in to a future meeting, please contact the City Clerk at (763) 706-3611. The meeting was called to order in the Library Community Room by Chair, Catherine Vesley at 5:34pm. Members physically present: Catherine Vesley; Teresa Eisenbise; Tricia Conway; Nick Novitsky (Council Liaison). Member remotely present: Christopher Polley. Also present: Renee Dougherty (Library Director); Nick Olberding (Recording Secretary). The Minutes of the November 4th, 2020, Board Meeting were moved and approved unanimously via roll-call vote. The Bill Lists dated November 4th, 18th, and December 2nd, 18th, 23rd, 2020, were reviewed; All were moved, seconded, and approved unanimously via roll-call vote. Questions and discussions on Bills and Accounting: • Winter Newsletter: Costs around $75 per printing. This is the library’s seasonal event/program calendar available to the public on a quarterly basis. • Oprah’s O Magazine (subscription ended): Ended their print version December 2020, and is now digital only. • Comprise Project: Charged by Marco (printer/copier contractor) for configuring the public copier for connection to the Library’s new Comprise Print Management kiosk. • MLA Membership Renewal (Dougherty, Belanger, O’Brien): Yearly renewal of professional membership in the Minnesota Library Association. Catherine feels that these memberships are very important, and the reasonable price is well worth the professional affiliation. • Budget: Not all December totals have been tabulated (including payroll/utilities), and there are a couple more Bill Lists for 2020 that will still be assessed in January. Part-time payroll will be under-spent due to furloughs at the beginning of the pandemic. Also, staff was transitioned from thin-clients to desktop computers, the cost of which will be transferred by IT/Finance in year-end accounting. For Your Information: • New ACL Director: Colleen Haubner was appointed in mid-December. Formerly employed by YMCA of Greater Twin Cities for over 30 years, most recently Executive Director of the New Hope location. • Kanopy: Beginning January 1, Columbia Heights Library cardholders can now stream documentaries, classic films and independent films through Kanopy. ACL has negotiated a capped payment model for 2021, and is including CHPL at no charge for our first year to gauge usage. Each cardholder may use up to 10 user credits per month (most films are one credit). Thereafter, we will establish a Memorandum of Understanding on the cost to CH to continue service. Based upon the city’s portion of the overall county population, I estimate this will result in a cost of $1,250 (based on current contract). • Demise of RBdigital: RB Digital (host of the library’s digital audiobooks and magazines) was acquired by Overdrive in 2020. This prompted MELSA to review the consortia digital offerings shared by metro libraries. Overdrive will eventually take over as the provider of all our digital books, audiobooks, and magazines; audiobooks migrated in December, magazines will this month, and we wish to postpone the CloudLibrary e-book migration until after the school year ends, as to not disrupt the students who received eLibrary Cards during the pandemic. Overdrive has two mobile apps: Overdrive (eBooks/eAudiobooks) is the only option for Kindle users, but Libby (eBooks/eAudiobooks/eMagazines) is available for all other devices. Old Business: 1. Update on Comprise PC/Print Management Upgrade: Comprise SAM went live on December 22nd, and even though there were a few initial hiccups, it works much better than the system it replaced, and there are more features/capabilities (including wireless printing.) Other features we will utilize in the future are credit card payments (once we have a merchant account), the ability to pay fines, purchase merchandise, and make donations, and reserve computers ahead of time. The transition for patrons has been positive, with most users intuitively figuring out the new process. Printing and copying have now been merged into one device, which helps with social distancing in the print area. New Business: 1. Proposed Change in Service Hours: Given the availability of staff, our diligence in adhering to COVID protocols (no staff infections yet), the current decline in community spread, and vaccine distribution, Renee proposes that we consider returning, in increments, to pre-pandemic service levels. Currently at 32 open-hours/week (since July 6); our next increment should be 40 hours (while maintaining an hour of cleaning/shelving time after the daily close). A motion to approve an increase in open-hours of (M-W: 11am-7pm; T-F: 10am-4pm; Sat: 11am-3pm) starting in February 2021 was seconded, and approved by roll-call vote. 2. Proposed Increase in Maximum Items for Checkout: ACL is considering increasing the maximum check-outs per cardholder from 50 to 100 items; if this occurs, CHPL should also increase for consistency. This would not make any difference for the majority of patrons, but would be a benefit for families that share a library card, homeschoolers/teachers, and some other patrons (as well as potentially increasing circulation and freeing up shelf-space). The downside is that an individual could accrue more fines by having more items at a time, or we could lose more items at once if an individual does not return their items; the pros outweigh the cons. In the event that ACL does increase the maximum checkouts, we would like pre-approval in order to follow suit. A motion was made to increase maximum checkouts to 100 items per card, contingent on Anoka County’s decision with a start date to be determined; it was seconded and unanimously approved via roll-call vote. 3. Policy Review: Internet Policy: Renee Dougherty updated and red-lined the 2005 CHPL Internet Policy and presented the changes to the Board. Changes were made to include the wireless network. Filters exist on the network to block illegal, predatory, and pornographic content, but otherwise access is mostly unrestricted for users. Patrons may choose from multiple internet browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge); not stated in the policy, but was asked by a Board Member. A motion was made to approve the 2021 revised CHPL Internet Policy, it was seconded and unanimously approved via roll-call vote. Items from the Floor: • Pat Sowada “Citizen of the Year”: Catherine Vesley’s effort to nominate Pat, with the help of Margo Ashmore, M. Rebecca Loader, and former Board members, were successful. Catherine also made a monetary donation to the CHPL Foundation in Pat Sowada’s name on behalf of the Library Board. She passed around the thank you card she received from the Sowada Family. (CV) There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was made at 6:29pm by Tricia Conway, and seconded. Respectfully submitted, Nicholas P. Olberding Recording Secretary, Library Board of Trustee