ST. LOUIS COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT
MEETING OF THE BOARD
HEADQUARTERS BRANCH
MONDAY, MAY 18, 2009
3:30 PM

The monthly meeting of the Board of the St. Louis County Library District was held at the Headquarters Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh, St. Louis, and MO 63131 on Monday, May 18, 2009 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
Dr. Lynn Beckwith, Vice President
Kenneth Stricker, Treasurer
Dr. Ching Ling Tai, Secretary
Mrs. Edith Cunnane, Member  

            Others Attending:

Charles Pace, Director; Gary Holdefer, Associate Director and Comptroller; Barbara Brain, Assistant Director for Adult and Support Services; Kristen Sorth, Manager, Human Resources; Tim Wadham, Assistant Director, Youth and Community Services; Marie Conlin, Library Planner; Carrie Robb, Adult Programming Coordinator; Eric Button, North Regional Administrator; Jennifer Samson, St. Louis County Government; Carl Hendrickson, Citizens Against Pornography; Katherine Konakci, Citizens Against Pornography; Laura Kostial, patron. SLCL staff attending:  Leander Spearman, Anna Kwiatkowski, Ken Cieslak, Julia Mangner, Robbin Oehler, Kathy Wiese, Heather Pehrson, Michael Cohen, Cynthia Schultz, Denise Keller, Karen Sieber, Joyce Loving, Lori Boschert, Natalia Catlett, Stephanie Nordmann, Charlene Zinkl, Nicole Clawson, Tracy Fletcher, Cheri Remington, Jennifer Jung, Ellen Meschke, Mary Jo Hartmann, Susan Scupin, Julie Cruise, Laura Kasak, Kerrie Coborn, Pat Woodward, Anna Schurk, Cindy Fehmel, MaryAnne Marjamaa, Brenda Coleman, Erin Chapman, Dottie Wobbe, Sharon Elliott and Sandra Williams.

The MINUTES, dated Monday, April 20, 2009 were approved by the Board (Beckwith/Tai).  

Mrs. Weinstock thanked Barbara Brain and her staff for their work with the EcoFest and making the public more aware of the program. 

PUBLIC COMMENTS:  Laura Kostial addressed the Board to request clarification on the policy distinguishing teen material from high school labels. 

TREASURER’S REPORT: 

The Treasurer’s Report dated April 30, 2009 was approved subject to audit (Beckwith/Stricker). 

Mr. Holdefer reported that the State Aid payment for the first half of 2009 has been received.  The Library received $118,330 for the property sold to Dierberg’s.  Half of the State Athlete’s and Entertainer’s Fund was received in the amount of $50,000. 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT:   

Customer service issues 

We received letters from some schools we serve with the bookmobile regarding their concerns about the future of this service. We have let these schools know that no final decisions have been made and that they are not in any immediate jeopardy of losing service. In other respects it was a fairly quiet month with no real pattern to the concerns and indeed the total number of complaints was fairly low. 

Major Library events 

April 22 at 7 pm the Library hosted Dr. Peter Raven, President of the Missouri Botanical Gardens and one of the world’s leading botanists and advocates of conservation and biodiversity.   He discussed ways in which each of us can make a difference in terms of preserving a healthy environment for future generations. A total of 86 people were at this program. 

April 25 was EcoFest at the St. Louis County Library, a celebration of all things green. Door prizes were given away and members of the public were able to visit with exhibitors from local organizations and businesses who shared their knowledge about living green. This event started at 10 am and concluded by 4 pm. We had 175 people attend this program. 

On May 7 the Library Foundation hosted our annual donor appreciation breakfast in the reference area. The program took place at 7:30 in the morning and was over by 8:30. Unfortunately author Rick Bragg who was supposed to speak at the breakfast was unable to attend due to plane trouble in North Carolina. Nonetheless we had a good turnout and many favorable comments from our donors and supporters. 

We hosted international bestselling fantasy author Rick Riordan Friday, May 15 and it was part of our celebration of Read St. Louis, a joint collaboration with the City Library. This was the largest event we have ever had.  Tim Wadham will give more information on this event during his report. 

Facilities 

We have begun the process of evaluating proposals we have received from architects for the Tesson Ferry project. A recommendation regarding selection will be made at a future Board meeting.  

KMOX Interview 

I was a guest on the Charlie Brennan show recently discussing the bill that Senator Jane Cunnigham has proposed.  It would require written permission from the parents in order for children to check out certain library materials.  

Visit to Columbus 

On May 4, I led a group of six SLCL staff members on a trip to the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio. They were ranked number one in the nation according to Library Journal’s ranking system. The staff members accompanying me on this trip were, Lori Boschert, Barbara Brain, Eric Button, Kristen Sorth, Kathy Wiese. We arrived in Columbus about 2:30 in the afternoon on Monday and went directly into a tour of the main library in which we visited several subject departments for the remainder of the afternoon. We took a large number of pictures and I plan on making a formal presentation to the Board at our June meeting about everything we learned and some of the new initiatives we hope to implement here in St Louis as a result of what we discovered in Columbus. 

Upcoming Author Events and Programs 

Friday, May 22 the Library will play host to Michael Pollan as he discusses his latest book In Defense of Food.  

Michael Connelly will be joining us on May 30 to discuss his latest thriller, The Scarecrow. Friends’ members will have the opportunity to attend a special reception prior to the main program.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS 

None 

Mrs. Cunnane announced that she can’t attend the June meeting in person, but will be available via conference call.  Dr. Tai announced that she will be in China.  But absences are officially excused.

NEW BUSINESS 

TESSON FERRY 

Mr. Holdefer reported that the Library has received 24 responses to the request for qualifications (RFQ) for architectural/engineering services for the Tesson Ferry Project.  A total of 54 firms had either requested the RFQ, were listed on the top 25 firms in the St. Louis business Journal or were listed on the State’s Minority/Women Business website.  The evaluation committee will consist of Ken Stricker, Board Treasurer, Charles Pace, Director, Gary Holdefer, Associate Director & Comptroller, Tim Wadham, Asst Dir Youth & community Services, Eric Button, Regional Branch Administrator and Ed Clark, Facilities Manager. 

Staff will also send out a RFQ to Bond Underwriters and Investment Bankers.  Recommendations for both professional services will be presented to the Library board at future meetings. 

PROPERTY ROAD DEDICATION AND READING GARDEN 

At the June 2008 meeting the Board approved a “Road Dedication and Property Exchange Agreement” in order for the City of Chesterfield to construct a new road next to the Sachs Branch.  The area designed for the Reading Garden will now be adjacent to the Sachs Branch parking lot.  A resolution to designate the Director to sign all closing documents is required.  A second Board resolution designates the Director to sign on behalf of the Library a “Development Agreement” with Central Park Square, Inc.  In the development agreement, the Library agrees that it will complete a Reading Garden no later than May 31, 2014.  The Board approved both resolutions (Cunnane/Stricker).

POLICY (PROFESSIONAL SERVICES) 

Mr. Holdefer reported that the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) reminded staff that Missouri Statute RSMo Chapter 8.285-8.291 is very specific about the process for hiring architects, engineers and land surveyors.  Qualifications must be reviewed and evaluated without respect to fees.  Sealed envelopes may be requested. Once the evaluation is complete, the Library would negotiate the fee.  If a contract is agreed to, then all other envelopes are returned unopened.  The Board’s by-laws; Policy II, Professional Services has been revised accordingly.  The Board approved the revision to the policy (Cunnane/Stricker). 

POLICY (COMPUTER USE) 

Mr. Wadham reported that the library has recently experienced some copyright violations that have forced us to disable wireless internet service at some of our facilities.  This does not relate to inappropriate content, but rather to our customers using our bandwidth to access illegally copied files such as feature-length motion pictures.  (IT) services are pursuing a remedy to prevent this illegal downloading through the acquisition of a new wireless access controller.   He stated that our existing policy needed to be revised to address wireless internet usage.  The revised policy was reviewed by legal counsel. The Board approved the revised policy with an additional statement that says identification from accompanying adults is acceptable for minors (Beckwith/Cunnane). 

POLICY (MEETING ROOMS)

Evanced Solutions, a software product used for meeting room reservations and event listing and registration, will be implemented this summer.  The implementation of this product will require some changes to our current meeting room policies.  Our current meeting room fee is $10 for a meeting up to three hours in length and $5 for each additional hour or portion thereof.  The new system would calculate based on half hours. 

Mr. Wadham and Carrie Robb, adult programming coordinator, also recommended that the Board reinstate the 30 day advance policy for advising outside groups that the Library wishes to use a meeting room which has been rented.  This will provide the library staff with greater flexibility to bring special events to the general public when offered to us on shorter notice.  Staff will make an effort to accommodate displaced groups in another meeting room at Headquarters or at a different branch location.

Dr. Beckwith wanted and received clarification that any outside groups bumped are done so for library use only.  The Board approved the policy change (Beckwith/Stricker). 

RICK RIORDAN (SPECIAL REPORT)

Mr. Wadham reported that Rick Riordan was guest author on May 15^th and that the Library had an attendance of 1,530.  The author signed until 10:30 p.m.  Mr. Wadham thanked Nicole Clausen and Desiree Schumann and the Youth Services staff for their assistance in making the event successful.  He also read information that had been blogged by the author praising the event.  Dr. Beckwith asked that future special reports be placed on the agenda. 

BENCHMARK LIBRARY COMPARISONS

Mr. Wadham presented information written and verbal on benchmark comparisons of staffing hours and circulation with peer libraries in the Master Facilities Plan.  The information was to provide us with tools to evaluate our staffing patterns and our branch library service models.  The Library is looking for ways to be more efficient.  Mr. Stricker asked that the information be sorted in several ways to give us different information. 

TECHNOLOGY (ACCESS CONTROLLER)

Mr. Pace reported that because of improper downloading from the Library’s wireless network that services had to be disconnected at several locations.  A new wireless access controller would solve the problem.  The Board approved the recommendation to purchase the access controller from World Wide Technology at a cost of $23,237 (Stricker/Cunnane). This was the lowest and best bid. 

TECHNOLOGY (TIPS PURCHASING AGREEMENT)

Mr. Pace reported that the library would like to purchase telephone handsets for use with the new voice system.  By joining The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS), the District will be able to save at least $10,000.  There is no cost to join. The Board approved the request to join the cooperative (Beckwith/Cunnane). 

Mrs. Cunnane would like to display a statement that Reviews for books are available on our website by clicking a button.  Barbara Brain said that the information is available on most new books and that the statement will be added to the website. 

Dr. Beckwith moved that the open meeting adjourn. Kenneth Stricker seconded. All approved by individual voice vote.

The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, 

___________________________________________                      __________________

Chingling Tai                                                                                         Date
Secretary