April 13, 2005

The regular meeting of the Rapid City Public Library Board of Trustees was called to order by Monte Loos on April 13, 2005 at 5:15 p.m.  Present were: Eric Abrahamson, Bobbi Christenson, Lynda Clark, James Olson, Greta Chapman, Terri Davis, Ed Hughes, Jennifer Irwin, Jeanie McCallister, Renee Ponzio, Jennifer Read.
Absent: Ron Kroeger

Open Forum for Staff and Public: Nothing presented.

Introduction of Staff: Staff members present introduced themselves. Ponzio discussed roaming with the new tablet pc in Reference. Staff will use the pc Monday through Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. to help patrons immediately. Statistics: An average of six questions per day. Youth Services also uses a tablet pc.

Minutes: Olson moved, Abrahamson seconded the approval of the minutes of the March 9, 2005 meeting.  Motion carried.

Budget Reports:  The Board reviewed the budget and bill reports.

City Budget and Bills:
City Budget: Clark moved, Christenson seconded to approve city budget and bills for March. Motion carried.

County Budget and Bills: Olson moved, Abrahamson seconded to approve the county budget and bills. Motion carried.

Auxiliary Funds: Budget and Bills: Chapman will provide the revenue projection information to the Board via e-mail.

Administrative Reports: Chapman updated, answered questions and informed the Board on the following:

Statistics: Statistics are not able to be from web catalog until the new system will allow.
Clark stated these statistics might be misleading because of change-over in the system.
Abrahamson moved, Christenson seconded to request a change in the report to reflect only current numbers until we have comparable data within the system. Motion carried.

Update Statistics gathering: Nothing presented.

Director’s Report: Updates were given on the following information for memo’s attached:

ALA/WGBH grant: Abrahamson moved, Clark seconded to approve the American Library Association/WGBH (Boston Public Broadcasting) grant. Motion carried.

Contract Renewal List: Clark moved, Abrahamson seconded to approve the Contract Renewal List. Motion carried.

Surplus List: Chapman indicated that our color laser copier was a high quality used machine which was operational for several years. Copier technology has been upgraded. The copier goes into the city surplus.
Olson moved, Abrahamson seconded to approve the Surplus List. Motion carried.

National Library Week: We are in the planning stages of having indoor and outdoor signage. We need to draw more of the public to this event. We adapted some of the cultural practices and are trying different periods of the day for programming. This is a different approach within programming to see what is effective.

2012 Meeting: The 2012 recommendations are now with the City Council. Further discussion about the proposed Fire/Police/Library Station will be forwarded to CIP.

Acoustic Update: Three outside candidates had interviews with Rod Johnson - the City Project Engineer, Monte Loos and Greta Chapman. All have good qualifications. However, Larry Hansen (Engineered Aero acoustics, Inc.) can provide design drawings for bid information. His bid proposal cost was higher than the other candidates, approximately $7,500.00 because of providing the drawings. Larry Hansen was picked by the Committee for the project; however it will be six to eight weeks before he can be here.

SDLA Mid-Year Conference: Chapman encouraged board members to attend the conference here at the library on Wednesday, April 20. This is SDLA’s first attempt at holding the conference mid-year. About thirty people have registered. Chapman stated that we are fostering the network of Black Hills libraries.

Thinking Ahead Conference: Olson stated it was an excellent conference and was well prepared. There were presentations around the theme of democracy; bringing in the role of libraries and how they are involved with democracy in the community. The last speaker was Margaret Wheatley, who brought things together at the end in a good way.
Loos stated it was an opportunity to see a very large city library up close. The break out sessions gave an insight to librarians. The building and design was amazing, a firm out of Israel designed the Salt Lake City Public Library. It is a five story building with imminent space throughout, including a roof garden. Hughes was interested in how their library runs. The Rapid City Public Library does some things differently, such as having a drive up window. Chapman stated that Rapid City Public Library has a sense of what is changing public service, simplifying the public’s access. It was a rewarding conference.

Committee Reports

Finance

Budget 2006 - 08: Abrahamson expressed concern with the proposed budget in that it does not state the strategic plan focus. He stated the budget is about daily operations instead of strategic planning goals. Clarification of strategic goals was discussed by Board members.
Olson moved, Christenson seconded to approve the 2006 – 2008 Budget. Motion carried.

City Council Liaison: Nothing presented.

Liaisons
Friends March Minutes: Chapman and Loos met with the Friend’s nominating committee. The library does want to continue having the Friends of the Library group. They might re-schedule the time they meet together and what they do during that time. This was not known at the time of the meeting.

Foundation:
Annual Fundraising Dinner: Abrahamson encouraged board members to attend. The Foundation has been receiving contributions for the silent auction. The speaker, Dan O’Brien will be talking about his second book.

Other Business: Nothing presented.

Upcoming Meetings

Agenda April 25, 11 – 12:00

Foundation Fundraiser Dinner April 30, 6:00 p.m.

Library Board May 11, 5:15 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned by consensus at 6:45 p.m.