The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About04-02-2025 Library Board Minutes A COLUMBIA HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY 3939 Central Ave NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421 BOARD OF TRUSTEES: MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Approved 5/7/2025 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 271 987 908 772 and passcode T2uo3T8N 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 Melanie Magidow at 5:31pm. Members present: Melanie Magidow; Olga Herrera; Theresa Strike. Members remotely present: Amáda Márquez Simula (City Council Liaison). Members absent: Amina Maameri; Chris Polley. Others present: Renee Dougherty (Library Director); Nick Olberding (Board Secretary); Sara Ion (City Clerk). Public present: N/A. 1. New members, Olga Herrera and Theresa Strike, performed their Oath of Office with Sara Ion. 2. Orientation: Sara Ion familiarized new members with the function of the Library Board, expectations, and background on the City, Library, and Commissions. Both introduced themselves and Renee Dougherty asked them how they see libraries changing in the next 5-10 years. Olga sees libraries as a community support and information center and a resource to supply students with what their school library lacks. Theresa sees a continued shift towards digital and alternative collections (eg. video/board games, tools, etc), a destination for cutting edge and vintage technology, and other community needs. 3. A Motion to table the Annual Election of Officers until the next meeting, when all members are in attendance, was seconded and approved. 4. The Meeting Agenda was approved as is. 5. The Minutes of the February 5, 2025, Library Board Meeting were moved and approved. 6. Review of 2025 Operating Budget: 24.66% of the year and 20.74% of the budget expended. a. Telephone (43210): These costs are higher than anticipated for all departments; the city’s phone system is nearing end-of-life so the IT Department is researching replacement options which could be implemented later this year and into 2026. b. Repair & Maintenance (44000): Prepayment on annual maintenance costs like AMH/Self-Checks. Community Forum: Opportunity for public input. No correspondence and no public in attendance. The CHPL website now has a contact form to submit questions or concerns: https://chplmn.org/board New Business: 7. Consider Approving 2024 Minnesota Public Library Annual Report Submission: The Board was presented with the 2024 MNPLAR which was submitted to the state of Minnesota on the deadline of March 31. This is required each year by state statute and includes various library statistics for the previous year. Key benchmarks are nearing pre- pandemic levels, especially visitor count, number of programs, program attendance, and computer use; circulation numbers are healthy with digital checkouts growing considerably from the year before. A MOTION to approve the submission of the 2024 Minnesota Public Library Annual Report was made and approved. 8. Minnesota Library Association Legislative Priorities: State library advocates testified before committees at the Minnesota State Capitol on February 20 to promote the important work that libraries do. An outline of the Minnesota Library Association’s legislative priorities was included in the meeting packet, with three of them having potential impact on our library. a. Minitex Operational Funding: If Federal funding is cut and cannot be replaced, this could cause significant impact to the inter-library loan program throughout the state. For a decade Minitex has not requested any funding increases from the state, but this year when they were finally going to, they might also need to devise a plan to make up for a federal fund shortfall or potentially scale back shared services. b. eLibrary Minnesota Resources: A collection of e-books, newspaper archives, and databases shared amongst academic and public libraries throughout the state. c. Legacy Funding: Provides funding, via MELSA in our area, for arts and cultural heritage programming to libraries and other institutions, accounting for about $3000 for programs at CHPL. 9. School Library Census Findings: The Board received the Executive Summary from the MN K-12 School Library Census of 2024; this was included for informational purposes due to previous discussions about libraries in the local school district. We have supplied digital library cards to our school district students, and now SORA access (an age appropriate e-book collection hosted by Overdrive); hold yearly open houses for new district kindergartners and their families (with a focus on ELL); field trips and library tours to introduce kids to the library and its resources and collections; new teacher library orientation in the fall; Kanopy Streaming access for classrooms (broadcast license included for all Kanopy titles). The Board asked if we could get analytics for the district’s SORA usage and wondered whether we’ve been asked to or could assist teachers in constructing their literacy curriculum, and if we could add a teacher and/or student focused page on the Library website? Director’s Update: 10. January & February Board Report: Provided as an FYI. a. Metro HRA Housing Choice Voucher Application Assistance: Application navigators from the Metro HRA will be in-house at the library on April 9 (10am-1pm), and April 14 & 15 (1pm-5pm) to assist people with the application process (the application window is from April 9-16). b. MN Attorney General’s Clean Slate Program will visit CHPL on April 24 for an expungement clinic from 10am-5pm to assist with the process of expunging eligible convictions at no cost. c. Hope-4-Youth will have an outreach coordinator here once-a-month (second Thursday in the afternoon) to help homeless youth (ages 16-24) find services. This is in addition to office hours that the Salvation Army and Guild Services also provide regularly at our location. d. St. Thomas’ Ready to Run Nonpartisan Campaign Training for Women: Olga brought this event to our attention which we will post on our bulletin board. 11. Board Books: a. Melanie: The Last Light Over Oslo Alix Rickloff; The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (youth) Karla Kuskin b. Renee: Nuclear War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen c. Amáda: Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS series) Jennifer Worth (streaming on Kanopy/available on DVD) d. Nick: Mickey 7 Edward Ashton; Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger e. Theresa: A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them Neil Bradbury; Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism Sarah Wynn-Williams f. Olga: The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease Daisy Hernández There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 pm. Respectfully submitted, Nicholas P. Olberding Recording Secretary, CHPL Board of Trustees