President Andrew Slade called the meeting of the Duluth Public Library Board to order at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25, 2009, and reviewed the agenda.

Present: J. Brissett, L. Benson Johnson, V. Katz, P. Markert, A. Slade, P. Spooner, M. Watson, C. Powers,
Excused: E. Bogue, D. D'Alliard

Approval of Minutes
The Library Board minutes of the June 23, 2009, meeting were approved with a slight amendment. The book club referred to under New Business does not meet at Mt. Royal.

Communications

• Manager's Report: Library News from July/August 2009
• BookPage for August and September 2009
• Handout: "Get Ready for School" bookmarks
  

Communications were reviewed and discussed. Powers read an email from Judy Sheriff, explaining that the bookmarks were placed inside "Ready, Set, Learn" backpacks to be distributed to children at kindergarten screening. Powers also read a letter of commendation for Roseann Agriesti that was sent by a volunteer who appreciated Roseann's efforts to help workers at the book sale feel appreciated.

Reports
A. Friends of the Duluth Public Library - Markert
The annual book sale brought in more than $28,000 this year. Silent auction items have not yet been included in the total. Markert explained that the Green Room was set up differently this year in order to improve the display of books. Almost everything had been sold by noon on Friday, which is an improvement over past years' sales.

B. Arrowhead Library System - Brissett
Brissett reported that she was unable to attend the August ALS board meeting due to a family emergency. She plans to be at the October meeting.

C. Manager's Report - Powers
The Manager's Report, which was distributed with board packets, was reviewed, and the Board Briefing was discussed.

Slade left the meeting at 4:20.

D. Board Briefing - Powers

• Y.E.S. Duluth Summer Youth Workers: Now that the summer is winding down, our partnership with the Y.E.S. Duluth program has come to an end. Some of the young workers who came to the library through this program were, unfortunately, not the best fit. However, we did have one person in particular who did an outstanding job with every task we assigned her. In general I'd say that participating in this program was a valuable learning experience for the library and the workforce development division, as well as for the workers themselves.
• Unique Management Services: We have decided to continue with this service at the end of our 90-day trial. It has resulted in an increase in the amount of fine money being collected, and we do not feel that it has caused problems with customer service. We will continue to monitor the collection rate as we move forward, to ensure that this service remains cost effective.
• Gates Foundation Donation: It is now official that our library will receive a total of 50 public access computers from the Gates Foundation over the next two years. The Main Library will receive 28, Mt. Royal will receive 14, and West Duluth will receive 8. Library and MIS staff will be getting together soon to figure out details such as the purchasing process, where to locate all of the computers, what software to load on them, etc. The Friends of the Library and the Library Foundation are beginning a collaborative effort to raise $48,000 for the required local match.
• Computer System Update/New Servers: We are in the process of ordering two new servers for the library, in order to make it possible to load the latest Polaris release. We need to upgrade to release 3.5 by the end of the year (we are currently on 3.2) in order to fix a bug in the online catalog before January 1, 2010. Dave Lull is working with MIS to coordinate the purchase of the servers and the software update.
• Frontline Staff Working Group: As we work at restoring library hours and finding the most efficient way of providing service in challenging budget times, I've decided to bring together a small group of staff members who spend a lot of their working hours at the public desks. I asked each member of the library's management staff to recommend one person from his or her division. The group will include representation from Reference, Popular Library, Youth Services, Circulation and Technical Services. My intent is to have this group do some brainstorming and make recommendations to the management staff, the library board and/or the city administration for how we can improve our operations.
• Community Resources Department: The Community Resources Department, of which the library is a division, has gotten together a few times over the past couple of months. This department also includes Parks & Rec, Planning, Community Development, Workforce Development, and Business Resources. The division managers and the Chief Administrative Officer have met to discuss forming a common mission statement, developing an identity as a department, and working together to increase our visibility within the community. Although our divisions are different from one another in many ways, I think we are finding that we have more in common than we expected.

Old Business
Update on 2010 Budget: Powers made a brief, high-level budget presentation to the City Council on August 17. The library's budget initiatives include hiring 14 13-hour-per-week shelvers, filling budgeted unfilled positions, and increasing the materials budget by three percent. However, the city administration is carefully balancing priorities as it attempts to reconcile a $6 million budget gap. So far there has been no official word on the status of the library's budget.

New Business
Selection of representative to attend Gates Foundation workshop: Johnson was selected to attend the "Turning the Page" workshop on October 6 and 7. Also attending will be Powers and Friends of the Library President Adele Krusz.

Combined Library Board/Foundation/Friends meeting: Powers reported on a luncheon meeting with Slade, Krusz, and Dean Casperson from the Library Foundation. The four got together to discuss the roles of each of the organizations and how the groups can work together for the benefit of the library. One idea that emerged is having the Friends and the Foundation collaborate on raising matching funds for the Gates Foundation grant. Another idea is to arrange an evening meeting of all three groups. There was discussion over who should be invited to the meeting and whether or not there should be a speaker. The consensus was no speaker is necessary, but the meeting should provide information about the roles of each organization and identify some common goals for the group. Powers will relay this information to Slade.

The meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, at 4:30 p.m. in the Library's Conference Room.

10/8/09