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Home My WebLink About12-2024 Library Board MinutesA COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY 3939 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421 BOARD OF TRUSTEES: MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Approved 1/8/2024 ATTENDANCE INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC Members of the public who wished to attend could do so in-person, or via Microsoft Teams at columbiaheightsmn.gov/join-a-meeting and entering Meeting ID 258 492 181 742 and passcode GWnPxW at the scheduled meeting time. For questions, please call the library at 763-706-3690. The meeting was called to order in the Library Community Room by Rachelle Waldon at 5:37pm. Members present: Rachelle Waldon; Melanie Magidow; Chris Polley; Carrie Mesrobian; Amina Maameri. Members remotely present: N/A. Members absent: Justice Spriggs (City Council Liaison). Others present: Renee Dougherty (Library Director); Nick Olberding (Board Secretary). Public present: N/A. 1. The Meeting Agenda was approved. 2. Library Board Photoshoot with CH Communications: This was done before the meeting was called to order so that Communications staff could be on their way--members were asked to choose a book of their liking from the collection to hold for their group photos. 3. The Minutes of the November 6, 2024, Library Board Meeting were moved and approved. 4. Review of 2024 Operating Budget: 91.53% of the year and 81.62% of the budget expended. a. Gas (43830): A warm end to last winter and beginning of this one means the gas budget is underspent. b. Building Maintenance (44020): This budget line will be overspent due to unforeseen plumbing problems, A/C system repair, roof maintenance, and boiler repair. c. Individual lines may be over/under without issue--it’s the bottom line that matters. Under certain circumstances the Board may reallocate funds from one line to another, but it’s generally unnecessary. Remaining funds in the budget roll over into a mandated fund balance account to ensure continuous operation in between property tax disbursements. Community Forum: Opportunity for public input. No correspondence and no public in attendance. The City website has a contact form for each Board/Commission for the public to submit questions or concerns: https://www.columbiaheightsmn.gov/government/boards_and_commissions/index.php After clicking desired group, scroll to the bottom of their page to find the contact form. Old Business: 5. Update on CHPL Foundation Grant: The Foundation will donate funds for approximately half the cost of the parking lot expansion—gifted over three years (the first being $29,086 received this month). The Library Board expressed its gratitude to the Library Foundation for its support in making this possible. 6. ALA CORE Forum (Makerspaces, Hybrid Spaces, Unstaffed Hours): Renee was able to attend the American Library Association’s CORE Forum in Minneapolis last month. She attended sessions on promotion strategies, artificial intelligence, Makerspaces/CreatorLabs, Open Libraries, physical space usage, and DEI aspects of library programming. The experience will help make more informed choices in future planning and strategic planning. The Board asked if there is any one thing she saw that could be implemented immediately—Renee said one thing would be putting up a Welcome (in many languages) sign to more firmly express that the library is open to everyone. 7. Discussion of Spiritual Care/Meditation/Prayer Space: Continued from the previous meeting. Staff get the occasional request for a private room for prayer, which we happily accommodate if space is available. We’re unsure if anyone has ever asked whether we have prayer rugs to loan out. The Board discussed the topic a little more and concluded that having rugs to loan out is not necessary, but in addition to simply providing the private space by request, we should have signage to inform visitors of the option to ask for a room. Some visitors may wish to take a few minutes for quiet reflection but don’t want to ask for a room or know that they can. New Business: 8. Collection Location Practices (ACL/CHPL): The Anoka County Library decided to change up some of their shelving and labelling strategies; we will be following suit on some of it, but not all. The Board agreed that the stance we are taking here at Columbia Heights was logical and preferred; with the fiction sections it makes sense to keep the genres separated to make it easier for browsing. If the new genres become numerous enough to warrant their own separate shelving, we will make the decision at that time. We have received one complaint from a patron not happy with ACL interfiling all the fiction genres together, so we will solicit feedback from ACL as this project continues to see how it’s working in their 8 buildings. a. Youth Media (CD/DVD): Youth media was separated by Easy/Juvenile, but will now be interfiled together, which we have already been doing. Going forward, new youth media will all be designated as Juvenile. b. Youth E/J-Nonfic: ACL will be interfiling these two nonfiction classifications together; we will be keeping them separate, but they are already close to each other in the building. c. Fiction (all ages): ACL is adding new genres to include Thriller, Horror, Historical, and Urban in addition to the longstanding Fiction, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance, and Western. They will be interfiling all these genres together alphabetically by author within Fiction; we intend on keeping our existing genres shelved separately, but the new genres will initially be interfiled within the Fiction section. 9. Proposed 2025 Fee Schedule: Renee updated the 2025 Fee Schedule to reflect the waived new library card fee that the Board had previously approved, but they need to approve the whole list officially so the City Council can also approve it for the new year. A motion was made to approve the revised Fine/Fee Schedule for 2025, it was seconded and approved. 10. Accept and Receive 2024 Gifts to the Library: The Board was presented with a list of gifts received by the Library in 2024, which included: Nadine Snead/James J. Lipka ($150), Elisabeth Porvaznik ($50), CHPL Foundation ($20,000) for E-books & programming and ($29,086) for the parking lot expansion, Northeast Bank ($1,500), Friends of the Columbia Heights Public Library ($300) in memorial of Rita Norberg. The Board was very thankful; a motion to formally accept the 2024 gifts to the Columbia Heights Public Library was moved and approved. Director’s Update: 11. MLA Leadership Role: Renee has been selected as the MLA Secretary for 2025--congratulations Renee! 12. October Board Report: Provided as a FYI. a. Immaculate Conception student field trips to the library have resumed, and English Language Family Nights at the schools have spurred interest in visiting the library by several new families. b. Puzzles: Elizabeth Ripley has connected with Carrie to facilitate a puzzle-related program. 13. Board Books: a. Chris: Beautiful Country Qian Julie Wang; Showing Up (2022) Kelly Reichardt (streaming on Kanopy) b. Carrie: Witches are Coming Lindy West c. Melanie: Last Train to Istanbul Ayşe Kulin; Tuesdays at the Castle (juvenile series) Jessica Day George d. Renee: Small Things Like These / Foster Claire Keegan; Bluebird, Bluebird / Heaven My Home Attica Locke e. Rachelle: The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka; The Book of Delights Ross Gay; Dog Songs (poetry) Mary Oliver; Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch) Nintendo of America (available via ACL) f. Amina: A Whale of the Wild Rosanne Parry g. Nick: The War of the Worlds H.G. Wells There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:37 pm. Respectfully submitted, Nicholas P. Olberding Recording Secretary, CHPL Board of Trustees