ST. LOUIS COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT
MEETING OF THE BOARD
WEBER ROAD BRANCH
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
3:30 PM
The monthly meeting of the Board of the St. Louis County Library District was held at the Weber Road Branch, 4444 Weber Road, 63123, on Monday, June 16 at 3:30 p.m. The agenda had been posted in all branches of the Library District at least 24 hours before the meeting.
ATTENDANCE:
Library Board Members:
Jean Weinstock, President
Lynn Beckwith, Vice President
Kenneth Stricker, Treasurer
Chingling Tai, Secretary
Edith Cunnane, Member
Others Attending:
Charles Pace, Director; Gary Holdefer, Associate Director and Comptroller; Tim Wadham, Assistant Director, Youth and Community Services; Barbara Brain, Assistant Director for Adult and Support Services; Kristen Sorth, Manager, Human Resources; Marie Conlin, Library Planner; Jim Bogart, Development Manager; Jennifer Samson, St. Louis County; Leander Spearman, Recruitment Coordinator; Eric Button, North Regional Administrator, Candace Oliver, South Regional Administrator; Paul Bayless, Weber Road Manager; Brenda Columbini, Assistant Manager, Weber Road; Trudy Williams, Bridgeton Trails Manager; Cheri Remington, Assistant Manager, Bridgeton Trails Branch; Jason Kuhl, Daniel Boone Manager; Emily Althoff, Eureka Hills Manager; Donna Spaulding, Mid-County Manager; Matthew Lakin, Coordinator of Training; Patti Lee, Trainer; Stephanie Nordman; System Administrator Manager; Cindy Fehmel, AV Selector; Charlene Zinkl, Meramec Valley Manager; Jake Fejedelem, Manager ITS; Geri Olmstead, Assistant Manager, Nicole Clawson, Manager, Youth Services; Dottie Wobbe, Oak Bend Manager; Anna Schurk, Assistant Manager Oak Bend; Shannon Crary, Electronic Resources Manager; Christel Maassen, Manager, Government Documents Library; Jennifer McBride, Manager, Communications; Mary Arnhart, Manager, Business Office; John Fox Arnold, Counsel, Lashly and Baer; Lisa Stump, Lashly and Baer; and Sandra Williams, Executive Assistant and Friends Coordinator.
The MINUTES, dated Monday, May 19, 2008, were approved by the Board (Beckwith/Cunnane).
PUBLIC COMMENTS: There were no public comments.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
The Treasurer’s Report dated May 31 was approved subject to audit (Beckwith/Cunnane). Gary Holdefer reported that the Library received $34,000 from TIF projects and the $100,000 maximum amount from the Athletes’ and Entertainers’ Tax.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT:
LEGAL SERVICES: Mr. Pace introduced John Fox Arnold and Lisa O. Stump, Lashly and Baer, as the new legal counsel for the Library. Attorney Arnold greeted the Board and stated his delight in being present.
WEBER ROAD STAFF – Mr. Pace introduced Weber Road Branch Manager Paul Bayless and Assistant Manager Brenda Columbini. Mr. Bayless gave an overview of the staff, patrons and neighborhood of his 37 year old branch. There is a very large Bosnian community that visits the branch. Enrollment at this branch has actually increased.
LIBRARY FOUNDATION BOOKSTORE – Mr. Pace announced that the Library Foundation Bookstore will have its grand opening on Wednesday, June 25 at 10 a.m.
GRANT – Mr. Pace announced that a $70,000 LSTA grant was received from the State Library for RFID implementation.
CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES– Mr. Pace reported that there were several concerns and complaints about the weeding at the Grand Glaize Branch this month. Library administration will continue to monitor this situation.
MAJOR LIBRARY EVENTS – On May 21, the Library hosted well known journalist Cokie Roberts. She spoke to a crowd of over four hundred people in the main reading room and promoted her book Ladies of Liberty. June 5 the library hosted annual suspense night of mystery writers and June 6 we hosted Lauren Weisberger with a reception preceding the event.
FACILITIES – Construction is complete on the new computer lab at Prairie Commons and is nearing completion at Oak Bend. The HVAC project is wrapping up at Bridgeton as well. Severe storms in the area on June 6 resulted in our patrons and staff being temporarily relocated to the basement for safety reasons. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging is underway at Sachs Branch.
There was an act of vandalism at the Lewis and Clark Branch where windows were broken in the children’s area. The Library was closed and no one was injured.
MPLD – Gary Holdefer and Tim Wadham attended the Missouri Public Library Directors meeting in Union, Missouri on June 5 and 6.
AUTHOR EVENTS – The Library welcomed author Leif Enger for an event on June 11. Eighty people attended the event.
STIMULATE IMAGINATION/SATISFY CURIOSITY (STRATEGIC PLAN) – Jason Kuhl, Manager of Daniel Boone Branch gave a presentation on expanding and promoting materials and programs by increasing attendance by ten percent for the next 5 years. This will be done through branch promotions and when people sign up for Library cards. He also spoke of training staff for standardized story time procedures and establishing a minimum of programs for adults and teens per month at branches.
Jennifer McBride, Communcations Manager, followed with a presentation on developing and coordinating a branding program for the Library and Foundation to deliver a consistent and effective service message. She said branding will help change the public perception of the library through both a new identity and marketing strategy. Messages from the Library will be consistent visually and verbally. Cohesion has been hired to lead the re-branding initiative.
Cindy Fehmel, AV Selector, presented a report on researching existing community opportunities for the pursuit of lifelong learning with the purpose of developing partnerships to enhance existing programs. She said the following action steps have been created to address this objective: develop a resource directory of outside organizations we have partnered with to be put on the intranet; create a forum on the intranet where staff can exchange ideas and discuss programming; and off site programming should be encouraged where staff would go to public places, organizations, hobby groups and school faculty meetings to promote library awareness.
Emily Althoff, Manager of Eureka Hills, gave the final report’s objective of enhancing the visibility of the library collections in all formats by reviewing usage statistics, branch shelving locations, current policies and purchasing guidelines with the goal to increase the annual circulation by an average of 10 percent over the next five years. Her PowerPoint presentation showed new Kiosks and displays of material at the branches. This includes weeding branch collections to increase circulation, displaying a “suggest a purchase” more prominently in the catalog, hiring a library design consultant and reviewing current selection practices.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
CIRCULATION POLICY/GRACE PERIOD – Barbara Brain reported that the six month trial grace period for 14 day materials for working very well. The Board approved making the circulation changes and grace period part of the permanent circulation policy (Beckwith/Cunnane).
NEW BUSINESS:
FOUNDATION – The Board approved Ridley Pearson’s request for a leave of absence from the Foundation Board (Beckwith/Stricker).
LEGISLATION (SB 711) – Gary Holdefer reported to the Board information on SB711 sponsored by Senator Gibbons. Under the new law tax rates set by the Board in August will become the “tax ceilings” for 2009 regardless of any assessment increases. The Board may want to consider assessing rates at the Library’s tax ceilings and designating part of the funds to the capital improvement projects in the Facilities Master Plan presented earlier this year.
BUILDING REPAIR – The Board approved the quote of Commercial Flooring for $281,027 to install carpet at Daniel Boone, Florissant Valley and Headquarters (Stricker/Beckwith).
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT (READING GARDEN) – The Board approved the administrative staff recommendation to sign a property exchange agreement to develop a reading garden on a one acre site donated to the Library by Sachs Properties. The new location will be adjacent to the Sachs Branch (Stricker/Beckwith).
TECHNOLOGY (SOFTWARE) – The Board approved purchasing software from Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III) for Item Status Application Programming Interface (API) which allows Millennium system to communicate directly with RFID tags. The cost is $21,500 (Cunnane/Stricker).
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (FULL TIME-MEDICAL RENEWAL) – The Board approved the Mercy Medical Plan as the new health insurance carrier for the Library. A Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) Plan will be established (Stricker/Beckwith).
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (PART TIME) - The Board approved SRC Aetna as the insurance carrier for part time staff. There is no cost to the Library (Stricker/Beckwith).
CLOSED SESSION
Kenneth Stricker moved that the open meeting adjourn and the Board reconvene in closed session pursuant to Section 610.021 subsection (1), (2), (3), (9), (11), (12), (13) and (14) to discuss matters relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation; property acquisition or sale and any personnel matters involving hiring, firing, discipline and promotion. All approved by individual voice vote.
The meeting adjourned at 4:48 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
____________________________________________ __________________
Chingling Tai Date
Secretary