Mae S. Bruce Library

Library Advisory Board Meeting

Minutes of October 6, 2005 Meeting

 

The meeting was called to order at 1:10 pm. The following board members were present: 

Linda Coyle Barbara Wells Kim Holliday
   

 

Library Director Brenda B. Cheatham was also present. 

The minutes of the July meeting were read.  The motion to accept these minutes was made by Barbara and seconded by Kim.  All members approved the minutes. 

Member’s/Treasurer Report

  1. Kim presented each member with a copy of the Bank transactions for the previous fiscal year.  We started the account in February with an opening balance of 475.50.  Our current balance is 463.15.

Old Business

  1. The Book Sale is on for this month on the 21 and 22.  The sale will take place during the hours of 10-4.  Kim has been working on the signs and will have them finished.  We will setup for the sale on Thursday, October 20 at 1 pm.
  2. Linda was finally able to talk with The Post.  She will resubmit our previous two articles.

Director’s Report

Brenda discussed the following items

1.      The County Commissioners accepted the budget for this fiscal year that included a slight increase for the county libraries.  That means that the 8 libraries in Galveston County will get only 1.2% of the counties budget.

2.      Most of the grant money has been spent.  The Texas Book Festival money purchased 34 audio books on CD.  The Tocker grant has been used on the 2 computers and desks..  Thanks to the Dobie award, over 700 books have been ordered for the children/teen areas..  The remaining money will be spent on audio books.  The HALS grant has been awarded to the library although Brenda hasn’t received any paperwork.  HALS will purchase the new server and donate to the library.

3.      Katrina victims have been using public libraries to access information and fill out forms.  Our library helped about 12 families.  Our staff even proctored a lady while she took her Louisiana Teachers exam.

4.      At the previous meeting, Brenda mentioned that she and DeAnna would be working on the next Tocker Grant.  She has decided to put that off until next summer or even January of 2007.

5.      We have two staff members that will be leaving us.  Jennifer and Ashley will both be leaving in order to continue with their schooling on a full time basis.

6.      The city budget has been approved and put into place. 

New Business

1.      Our first order of new business was the change of officers as shown below.

Chairperson                        Kim Holliday

Co-chairperson                  Linda Coyle

Secretary/Treasurer            Lark Tedesco

 

We thank Linda for her many years as acting chairperson.

2.                  Kim attended the recent Fall HALS meeting.  She discussed the following items.

a.   Libraries in Texas impacted by Katrina (and now Rita)

·        Texas libraries have done an overwhelming job of helping evacuees from Louisiana.

·        This has made the Federal agencies realize that public libraries are still essential.

·        A Texas Responds Grant has been set up to provide some funding to those libraries that have serviced evacuees.  Senator Cornyn and others got this going.  www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/funding/TxResponds/index.html

·        A Hurricane Resource sheet was handed out.  One item that I thought would be great for us is the Adopt a Library section. www.ala.org/katrina/adopt

b.      A new Gates Grant is coming up titled PACHUG.  It stands for Public Access Computing Hardware Upgrade Grant.  The issuers state that this will be the last Gates Grant.

c.       Peggy Rudd, State Librarian from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, discussed library construction.  Texas has never had state support for Construction and Renovation.  There is a Public Library Fund that exists as a mechanism intended for construction and renovation.  However, funds haven’t been put in there.  She stated that any library seeking this type of information is welcome to contact her.  It was also mentioned that there was a link to building information on the State website.

d.      The Texas State Library will undergo a review by the Texas Sunset Advisory commission to evaluate the services provided.  This will take place in 2007.  More information regarding this review can be found on www.tsl.state.tx.us/agency/sunset

e.       Outcome Based Evaluation (OBE) is an evaluation and planning tool that aims to illustrate a library program’s success.

 

3.                  Kim also discussed a website she found that might be beneficial.  It is on the American Library Association website.  There are a lot of public relations and other useful information and ideas.  The actual website is www.ala.org and the @your library resource address is www.ala.org/ala/pio/campaign/campaignamericas.htm. 

4.                  There are a few changes in library procedure that need to be discussed. 

    1. Community Room Use:  Brenda wants to require that all outstanding fines or overdue books be taken care of before someone can reserve the community room.  The board agreed with this decision.
    2. Brenda has been researching the idea of issuing Family Cards instead of the individual cards.  Currently, every member in a household receives a different card number.  The family card would place the entire household under one card number.  This enables the staff to monitor late fee, and overdue books more easily.  If the family card is issued, the limit to number of books in one subject will need to be changed.  Currently, a person is limited to 3 books in one subject.  After discussing the options, the board and Brenda decided to change the limit to 5 books in one subject under the family card.
    3. The staff has become aware of the need for issuing temporary library cards.  These temporary cards are generally needed when a non-guardian wants to obtain a card for a child or an adult does not have all the needed information for a full service library card..  A temporary card can be issued for a thirty day period.  This should allow plenty of time for a parent or adult to come in to obtain a permanent family or individual card.
    4. Inter-Library Loans (ILL) allow this library to borrow books from other libraries.  Currently, a person can request a library card and an ILL on the same day.  Brenda would like to require a patron to have at least a 3 month active history with the library before allowing an ILL.  Several times, ILL’s have been requested for new patrons and the materials were either never picked up or never returned.  The board supports this decision.

 

Adjournment

The motion to adjourn was made by Linda and seconded by Barbara.  The meeting was adjourned at 3:09pm.  The next meeting is scheduled for January 19, 2006 at 1 pm.