Library board meeting notes: 24.03.14
A Quincy Votes! member attended this meeting. While care has been taken in their creation, these notes are not official meeting minutes and may contain errors or omissions.
Per Corrine Mitchell, Chair of the Board of Trustees:
Prior to the meeting beginning, this conversation happened. "Need to provide name and address if you want to speak. Everyone has five minutes to speak. They have to sign in at the beginning of the meeting. To hand in any written documentation, has to go through" (and that thought was not finished). The members of the group provided documentation to the Trustees. (There was a group of five citizens who came to the board, and I was the sixth observer).
Highlights of the Board Meeting:
Staff members are being added to the branches and the children's library.
As part of the strategic plan, listening sessions (open to the public) and focus groups (by invitation only) are being held. Listening sessions start on 3/23 and the last one is on 4/8.
New vinyl album and video game collections will be available at end of March at the main library.
Richardson Building: will become the heart of archive, genealogy, and special collections research; the door to the yard will be opened starting May 30th, and the City has started surveying the building as part of a plan to fix the roof and replace the windows.
Highlight of the Public Forum after the Board Meeting:
The Quincy Republican City Committee had previously met with Director Slymon regarding a donation of a series of children's books and the donation was rejected. (The Tuttle Twin Series, written by Connor Boyack and Elijah Stanfield).
The Committee was here because they were very disappointed with that stance and believed that the donation did meet the collection policy and wanted to discuss this with the Board of Trustees with the hope the books would be accepted.
At a January meeting with the Director, she sited the collection policy and the fact that as a member of the Old Colony Network, some of these books were available in the system and said that they were not checked out and usage was low.
The Committee did research and provided to the Trustees information on the usage of these books in the seven Commonwealth Mass library's that have them. They provided commentary of the "accessibility" of the books to early language users from a teacher, a former Trustee of the Library commented on the quality of the content of the books and other statement upholding the value of these books were made.
The chair of Board of Trustees agreed to take the books to look at them and get back to the Committee after her review. (If there was a timeframe to respond to the Committee, I did not hear it.)
Meeting called to order 8:38 am.
Approve 2/4/24 minutes. Approved.
Director's report: (Sara Slymon)
Reassigned one library assist to Childrens Dept. Two more: so one will go to Adams Shore and North Quincy. Believes staffing model is too complicated; too many people on circulation and then circulation has to lend people. Will be making some changes to get to a simpler model with more staffing in other departments.
New staff member comes from Berkshire Athenaeum's maker space, and she will be working to deliver programming with our (coming soon) maker space on the first floor. Ribbon cutting is targeted for May 20th.
Working to have a new staffing model for Richardson Building. Going to have the Archives and Special collections staffing it frequently. There will be docent tours of the building. And research based appointment for archivist. We will also open the door to the yard on May 30th. Concerned about how empty that building is and having one librarian sit there for a full day with few visitors.
Planning to get the "envelope" work done. (Roof on Richardson building, replace the windows; because it’s a national historic landmark, lots of rules and regs to obey).
Strategic Planning: 8 listening sessions, 2 for teen-ages, focus groups are invite only; listening sessions are public. Will do focus groups sessions w/ Manet, Father Bills, with the Friends. Will have a draft of the five year Strategic Plan at the next meeting and vote in May so it is in effect for next fiscal year. There will be an annual action plan, specific to our goals that year to make progress on the overall strategic objectives. The values, mission, etc. will be for all five years, but each year updated so meet short term goals.
Listening session: led by director or deputy director, will have some prompts to get conversations going. Will have posters and markers.
Will be launching video games and vinyl albums at main library. We used to have video games, but all were stolen. Resale value is now lower, so hopefully, this will work out. If not, then the Library won't have video games.
Branding and signage: working on it. Power for maker space being installed. Ribbon cutting week of 20th of May.
Treasurers Report: all is good. Did a few reimbursement checks.
Foundation Report: We are still forming the foundation and giving it a new shape for the future. There are funds in the foundation treasury and Chair wants to hire someone to manage funds for us. Looking for recommendations, Chair will investigate and talk to the mayor. Foundation is currently inactive. We have an accountant who does taxes. Suggestion go to City treasury depart to ask about municipal experience with this.
Friends: bringing in much more money than they were. More hours, more visibility both contribute to this. They are expecting at least $25,000 this year (up from $20,000).
With the draft of the strategic plan in May, the budget will have to be done in June.
April 11th: holding a special meeting open to the public 9:30 to 10:30. It will need to be posted.
Bylaws review: sent out, Chair is looking for suggestions and changes be sent to her before the next meeting so they can be voted on at the next meeting. Any adds/changes/questions should get back to Chair promptly so they can be sent to everyone for review and be voted on at the April 11th meeting.
The Brand is on its way. (Editorial comment: I think this means interior signs)
Director evaluation: will be done by committee. Discussion of who wants to be on the committee. People volunteer and then a few are selected.
New Business: Foundation budget for this year. Need to know how we spent the funds last year to figure out this year. This is not tied to the municipal budget. This is the budget the Trustees manage. Art writes the checks. We get similar donations to the various trust funds. Trustees have never declined a request proposed by the Library director. Art said he can compile a report. The Trustees give an amount to the director every year, used for conference fees and to cover travel expenses to those conferences. Chair wants to know where are we, how much did we spend and how much can we give next year. Art says its fairly consistent. Chair: we need to know how we spent the dollars. Action item: need a draft in May, so we can vote on it.
Last month: proposed amendment to the borrowing policy. (It was one sentence about teens). Approved.
9:06 am adjourned.
Open Forum
Quincy City Republican Committee: They have purchased a series of children's books, referred to as "The Tuttle Twins". They were written by Connor Boyack and Elijah Stanfield. The books cover topics in American History and Economics for elementary school children. They wanted to donate them to the Library and previously, they met with Director Slymon. The Director refused the donation, based on the collection policy. After reviewing the policy, this group wanted to meet with the Board to present further evidence of why these books should be added to the Library and per their reading of the collection policy, perhaps the Board of Trustees would accept the donation. The committee present included a former Trustee of the Library, the head of the Quincy Republican City Committee, a teacher and other members of the community.
According to the statement that was read, the committee was providing documentation as to the value of the books. There was a teacher who wanted to explain that the books were very accessible to new/early readers.
Two of the books are being used Florida curriculum. Have been in touch with Title 20 outreach coordinator, who provided some of this information. 5 million of these books have been sold. There are seven libraries in the Commonwealth that carry these books. Have done extensive amount of research about books held and how many times these books have gone out. (Spreadsheets provided to the Trustees.) One series has 13 books, and not all libraries have all 13. This Committee feels strongly these books should be on the shelves in Quincy.
Director had provided feedback why these titles should not be on the Library shelves. The committee offered to bring the books into the Library for people to review.
The Committee has an interest in improving and enhancing the TCL system. The Committee appreciate and are very proud of the library being a landmark and historic resource. This group wanted to purchase of the "Tuttle Twins". Shared these books with others, reports were good, with no criticism. Before Christmas, we offered the donation, and received pushback relating to the Library's Collection Policy. After some time, a copy of collection development was received. Set up appointment to facilitate the donation. On Jan 8th held a meeting, that was not a public meeting. The donation was refused, and a copy of the collection policy was given with several area highlighted. One such highlighted area was customer use. During the meeting it was discussed that some titles were available at Brockton public library and none were checked out. On Jan. 9th, we called Brockton and received different statistics about the use. Section 13: selection of materials is vested in the Library director. There was another sentence about being overseen by the Board. Given that sentence, this committee wanted to speak to the Board about the donation.
Next highlighted area referenced the reputation of author, highlighted demand, comment was made the publisher was not reputable. It is unclear how that conclusion was reached. Reference was made to Libertas Press. When the committee asked the author (because of a comment from director) were they related to "code publishing", the answer was no. Perhaps two different groups using "Libertas" press.
The library strongly encourages patrons to suggest authors. We are a Quincy-based organization and are unhappy with the rejection of this donation. According to the director there is no space issue, this is a demand issue by the director. The usage figures are documented in the handout. There does not seem to be an appeal process.
Former Trustee of the Library also spoke. She has her grandson reading these books, he thought they were awesome. She once was a 'newly arrived’ people, and if these books were around, she would have loved to know about civil war, American economy. Parents, if they read these types of books, would educate both themselves and the child. She wanted to say a good word about the Tuttle Twins.
(In the middle of the statement, the five-minute time limit occurred. There was a discussion between Board members of whether a different person could continue reading the statement. No one was completely certain of the rules, and decided that a second person could continue reading the statement (so long as it did not exceed another five minutes) given they would be saying "something new" and not reiterating what was previously said. The statement was read to its end by a second person. Then a third person got up to state their perspective of why having these books would be beneficial to the Library.
The chair of the Board of Trustees agreed to look at the books and get back with a decision. (If a date for a response was discussed, I did not hear it).
