Library Trustees' Meeting - 9/28/2011

The meeting was opened at 6:00 pm with Roger Daniels, Tom Wallace, Leina Smoker, and Susan Turbyne in attendance.

REPORTS
1. Review Draft Minutes of July 20, 2011 Meeting – It was moved (Roger Daniels) and seconded (Leina Smoker) to accept the minutes as read.

2. Treasurer’s Report
a. Account Balances – $93,494.91 as of 9/27/2011
b. YTD Income – Expenses – We reviewed our income and expenses as of 9/27/2011.
c. Projected YE Expenditures – We reviewed the projected end of year expenditures.

3. Library Director’s Report
In August we had 665 patron visits and checked out 620 books and 190 videos/dvds. 29 people stopped in to use the internet. Wednesday evenings have been very quiet so I am interested in adjusting our hours for the fall and winter to make better use of my time.
Jan Serfass finished work here at the library on September 17th. She and her husband have now headed along to their new home in Pennsylvania. It was a pleasure working with her this last year. I am postponing looking for a replacement until we discuss our immediate goals for the library.
Rachel Anderson attended a workshop at Pease Library last week on events and came back with several ideas. She is making plans for a pizza read-a-thon to appeal to 8 to 12 year olds to be held late in October.
We have had a large number of items donated so I am currently going through them and deciding what can be added to our collection. We are making room in the computer room for some additional genealogy materials from downstairs as we have had several interested people in lately. We continue to write articles for the Plymouth Record on a weekly basis and host the Ladies Knitting Society monthly.

OLD BUSINESS
4. Status - Town Master Plan Narrative – Susan suggested that we postpone discussion of this narrative until we review our library goals (see #9a).

5. Lighting Replacement Project
a. NHEC Grant status – The scope of our project does not qualify us for the grant.

6. Remaining projects for 2011 using Library Endowm. Funds
a. Refinish front doors – Schedule ?? – Susan will be talking with Craig Bixby the middle of next month to discuss the work schedule.
b. Re-keying of entry doors – Tom will check out locksmiths.
c. Re-wiring to eliminate remaining knob and tube circuiting
Rewire single receptacle – Tom will talk A W S Electrical Contractors and schedule this project.

7. Boiler maintenance – Roger talked with Carl Doe. Carl will do an efficiency test once the cold sets in, clean the furnace and change the filter. We would like to continue this on an annual basis.

8. Town Facilities Committee
a. Report: Tour of Library – August 4 Tom hosted the group, showed them the building from top to bottom, and shared our plans for the handicap access.

NEW BUSINESS
9. 2012 Library Budget
a. Future Direction for Library: We took some time to discuss what we see in the near future for our town library. It was agreed that we do a good job meeting the needs of our patrons but we do want to continue to improve.
i. In order to serve the next generation of library users we need to computerize our collection. People today want to be able to see what we offer by looking on their home computer, reserve the items and know that they will be ready for them when they come to the library.
ii. We would like to make the downstairs attractive, accessible and available for group functions ie book groups, musical evenings, family games nights.
iii. We would like to offer regularly scheduled children’s programs.
iv. Although we would like to offer additional hours, it was decided to keep to the same number of hours but adjust them to accommodate our patrons. It was agreed to change to ‘fall-winter’ hours. Our new hours, starting immediately, are Wednesday 2-6, Thursday 10-12 and 2-6, and Saturday 10-1.
v. We then moved to a discussion of salary and looked at other libraries serving a similar population base and agreed to a raise for our director. It was moved (Roger Daniels) and seconded (Leina Smoker) to make this raise retroactive to September 1st.
vi. We discussed the need for an additional library helper and the skills we would be looking for in this person.
vii. We would like a cozy, inviting place(s) in the library for patrons who would just like to sit and read and have books, magazines, and newspapers available. We see two possible areas where this could happen and it is something we can move on immediately. Leina agreed to do some research on appropriate chairs.
viii. In addition to all of these things we would like to see happen, we will continue to work on a plan to make our library handicap accessible.
b. Next year’s budget – Due to the time, we agreed to postpone discussion of this item until our next meeting in two weeks.

10. Other Business - none

Our next meeting will take place Thursday, October 13th at 6 pm.