President Andrew Slade called the meeting of the Duluth Public Library Board to order at 4:35 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, 2010, and reviewed the agenda.
Members Present: Dan D'Allaird, Sister Edith Bogue, Jane Brissett,
Liz Benson Johnson, Virginia Katz, Printha Markert, Peter Spooner,
Martha Watson
Also Present: Carla Powers
Excused: None
Absent: None
Approval of Minutes
The Library Board minutes of the November 24, 2009 meeting were
approved.
Communications
Reports
A. Friends of the Duluth Public Library - Markert
The Friends are providing funding for the Northeast Minnesota
Book Awards for 2010 and for the Duluth Poet Laureate for the
next two years. The Mystery Dinner is scheduled for April 30,
and this year's speaker will be local author Kathleen Hills. The
Friends have voted to start selling ads in their newsletter. There
was discussion at the last meeting about the hours at the Mt.
Royal branch.
B. Arrowhead Library System - Brissett
The ALS board approved the system's 2010 budget, in the amount
of $3.2 million, at its last meeting.
C. Greater Downtown Council Annual Dinner - Slade
Slade attended this event along with Powers and Adele Krusz,
the president of the Friends. He reported that it was a good opportunity
to connect with business leaders downtown. Slade and Spooner will
try to arrange a meeting with Kristi Stokes, the Executive Director
of the GDC, to emphasize the importance of the library as an anchor
of the downtown, and perhaps to share some return-on-investment
data from studies done by libraries in neighboring states.
D. State of the City Address - Bogue
Bogue was in attendance for this event, along with Slade,
Brissett, Johnson and Powers. She suggested that next year the
library have a display put together and that board members check
into getting name tags to identify them at public events such
as this one.
E. Manager's Report - Powers
The Manager's Report, which was distributed with board packets,
was reviewed.
Old Business
Advisory Board Roles and Responsibilities - There was
discussion about the document handed out at the last meeting.
D'Allaird suggested following the guideline of reviewing one third
of the library's policies at each board meeting. Another guideline
included in the document was to have the board provide input on
the director's performance evaluation. Powers will check with
Lisa Potswald to see whether she would like the board's involvement
in this.
"Talking Points" About the Library and Its Needs - Powers handed out a document with ideas, and discussion followed. The consensus was that a shorter, more fact-based document would be more helpful, focusing on three points of interest and including statistics. Suggestions for statistics include:
Combined Library Board/Foundation/Friends Meeting - This meeting took place on December 8, 2009, and it was well attended by all three boards. Library board members in attendance agreed that it was helpful and that more overlap between each of these boards would be an improvement.
New Business
Mayoral Committee to Investigate Funding for the Library
- Slade will invite the mayor to attend the next board meeting
to discuss this idea further.
Nominations for Duluth Library Foundation Board - The Foundation is accepting nominations for a vacancy on its board. Katz and Slade both expressed an interest in being nominated. Powers will pass along this information to Mark Melhus and Wendy Wennberg.
Nomination/Reappointment of Beth Kelly to ALS Board - This nomination was approved unanimously. Powers will follow up with ALS and Kelly as appropriate.
Library Legislative Day February 24 - Powers shared some information about this upcoming Minnesota Library Association event. Slade expressed an interest in attending.
Volunteers for Family Fun Day Febrary 27 and 28 - Anyone who is interested in helping out with this event should contact Judy Sheriff.
The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, at 4:30
p.m. in the Library's Conference Room.
3/17/10