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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Ames Public Library Board of Trustees Minutes of the Regular Meeting 01/19/2012Ames Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes January 19, 2012 The Ames Public Library (APL) Board of Trustees met in regular session on Thursday, January 19, 2012, in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 515 Clark Avenue, with Bradley, Budd, Luckett, Meier, Rawlins, Schill, and Stow in attendance. Campbell and Manus were excused. Library Director Art Weeks, Assistant Director Lynne Carey, and Librarian Mike Quinn were also present. Call to Order: Board President Luckett called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Adoption of Agenda: Moved by Stow, seconded by Bradley, to approve the agenda. Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion approved unanimously. Approval of Minutes: Moved by Stow, seconded by Schill, to approve the minutes of the meetings of December 15, 2011; January 5, 2012; and January 9, 2012. Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion approved unanimously. Public Forum: None Consent Agenda: Budd moved and Bradley seconded adoption of a resolution approving the consent agenda: 1) Claims Report 12/1/11 – 12/31/11 2) Donations a) In honor of Pam Sebbel from Debra Sanborn ............................................... $20.00 Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion approved unanimously. Financial Reports: Library Director Weeks stated that the library had expended 49.3% of its general fund budget at the mid-point of the year and he saw no concern at this time. Stow acknowledged staff for managing the expense budget so well and inquired about the library’s revenue streams. Weeks said state aid is down by about $15,000 and loss of the Gilbert contract also looms as a problem. He said he had met with the City Manager and explained showed how the commodities and contractual expenses would be kept down; public hearings on the budget will be held in February and the City Council’s vote on the budget takes place in March. Luckett asked if there was any possibility of increasing the revenue stream. Weeks said the library had very few options; the only charges are for copier machine fees and fines. There has been some discussion about user fees, but he does not feel that is a viable option – people (non-Ames residents) would probably not pay for library cards and the staff time it would take would not be offset by the amount of income. Weeks said the library will be cautious with spending throughout the year and expenditures on travel and the collection can be adjusted as needed. Trustee Meier noted that the computer depreciation fund line did not show any internal charges (from the City) in December. She also noted that the totals in the Library Expense Summary (page 23 in the board packet) did not add up and requested that and recommended staff check on both matters. Administrative Staff Report: Weeks stated contracts for surveying and geotechnical services had been signed this week; some surveying has already been done. He reported that the project seemed off to a good start, as $10,000 had been budgeted for those services and the contract totals came to $7,700. Weeks spoke briefly about some concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two pieces of legislation meant to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. He said the legislation seems logical at first glance, but the American Library Association (ALA) is strongly opposed, as are most Internet service providers. One of the various concerns is that libraries might unwittingly have links to material that has a copyright. Weeks distributed an ALA PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide for the trustees’ reference. Trustee Bradley brought up her concern that library revenues continue to dwindle and asked if Weeks had thought about any strategy to regain the contract with Gilbert. Weeks said that Gilbert’s new contract with Story City is for three years. It would be possible to track APL’s circulation with Gilbert residents and see how much activity Story City is getting from Gilbert. He felt that restoration of state funding for libraries would require advocacy from citizens who are able to influence the legislature. Ames Public Library Friends Foundation (APLFF) Report: Trustee Stow said the APLFF had met the previous Thursday. The sales committee is being pro-active about looking at options for storage of books for sale and places to hold future sales during the library construction period. The next sale will be held April 13, 14, and 15. Stow said that Weeks had attended the Sauer-Danfoss Celebration of Philanthropy earlier in the month. The January 18 issue of The Sun featured a picture showing that Sauer-Danfoss has committed $75,000 to the library building campaign. Library Building Project Update: Weeks said that some funds are still remaining from Phase I of the project, but it will be closed out by January 31 and the library will move into Phase II with the architect. A draft of the Phase II contract is currently in the hands of the City Attorney and will eventually go to City Council. Weeks also said he is now looking into the scope of service that will be assigned to the owner’s representative (OR). If everything goes right, the library should be able to send out requests for proposals to owner’s representative candidates by the end of the month. It might be possible to get a qualified person selected as soon as March or April, but the process could take four or five months. The rest of the timeline was outlined as follows: Design approval: May 17 Bid letting: October 10 Bid due date: November 9 Bid opening: November 13 City Council approval: December 13 Construction groundbreaking: December 2012 or January 2013 Construction substantially completed: late in 2014 Luckett said a couple people have asked where the library will be located during construction. Weeks said he would be asking the owner’s representative to help find space, work on lease negotiation, and coordinate the logistics of the move. Stow recommended that staff be working as soon as possible on their departmental plans for making the move. Weeks stated that he felt staff should drop back a little and identify needs first. The library will need to outline its requirements, learn what the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements will be, determine if the building can be used for any purpose such as storage, see if the library could be split into more than one location, and set some minimum standards for the temporary space. Stow reiterated his feeling that staff should be asked to work on this as soon as possible so that they will be able to work with the owner’s representative. Discussion followed about the need to have an OR who is familiar with Ames as the owner’s representative. Luckett agreed that staff should be organized to do preparatory work as soon as possible. Policy Review: Library Security Cameras Policy Mike Quinn, Information Services Librarian, stated that this policy was initiated in October 2008. Since then, additional cameras have been installed. Only a few changes to the policy are being recommended. The first is a statement that would allow for real-time monitors to be set up in a public area, in case there were ever a need for additional surveillance. Quinn stated that there is also a proposed change in the length of time images are stored, from 21 to 14 days. Weeks said that the new cameras record images at higher resolution, which means that the capacity of the hard drives is reached earlier. When asked if he felt he new cameras were a success, Quinn said staff was pleased with them. He cited three cases in which they were crucial in identifying individuals who were taking items out of the library. There would have been no way to do that without the cameras. Quinn reiterated that staff does not monitor the cameras continuously, but it is helpful to have the data to refer to, when needed. Stow asked if the images were extracted in case of litigation. Quinn said they could be extracted via video link or downloaded to DVDs. Weeks said that extraction has been done for law enforcement; the library has had two arrests and convictions. The recordings have also captured some behavior problems that he has been able to address. Some recommended changes in wording were discussed. Moved by Stow, seconded by Meier, to adopt a resolution approving the changes shown on the Library Security Cameras Policy distributed around the dais, along with the following amendments: (1) substitution of the word “our” in place of “the library’s” in the second paragraph under “Privacy and Confidentiality;” and (2) substitution of the word “access” for “view” throughout the section re-named Authority to Access Recorded Data.” Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion approved unanimously. New Business: “Take your Child to the Library” Day Luckett said that Mayor Campbell has been asked to proclaim February 4, 2012, “Take your Child to the Library Day” in Ames at the City Council meeting on January 24. Weeks explained that the event will encourage families to come to the library for story hours and to introduce them to services they may not know much about. Activities will take place between 12:00 and 4:00 p.m. on February 4. Trustee Comments: Bradley said she was delighted about the proclamation. Meier said she was excited about next Monday evening’s session on the Civil War that she is signed up for. When visiting with Information Services Supervisor Mary Logsdon, Meier learned that there has been a great deal of interest in the series and the library has had to order more books. Rawlins inquired about the statistics on the subscription databases, particularly on the tracking of remote access. She said she looked at some of the databases (Consumer Health Complete and Hobbies and Crafts, for example) from home, but the report shows zero page views. Mike Quinn said that tracking customer usage has been a constant problem with the vendors for years. One problem is the inconsistency in the way usage is tracked – with some vendors counting each log in and others counting every click within the site, for example – and there is no standard. He said the inaccuracies are very frustrating. Information Services staff members actually discussed this recently because some of the databases were showing very low access. Quinn said the vendors seem mainly interested in selling the product, but are not that interested in providing data. They do continue to increase the price by about five percent each year. Weeks said vendors could be shooting themselves in the foot if they are providing undercount at the same time libraries have to make hard decisions about budgets and library directors are looking at services that are not heavily used. Adjournment: Moved by Rawlins, seconded by Stow, to adjourn at 7:53 p.m. Vote on Motion: 6-0. Motion carried unanimously. The next regular meeting will be on Thursday, February 16, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 515 Clark Avenue.