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Library Board Minutes 03-08-2016MINUTES OF THE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING Tuesday, March 8, 2016 5:30 p.m. Members present: Library Services Coordinator Deb Luken, Beth Metzger, Janet Bridgland, Ralph Olsen, Sandra Lommel, Patron Services Supervisor Brandi Canter, City Council Liason Charlotte Gabler. Minutes approved as presented. Old Business: ■ Filling of Elaine Setergren's position on the Board delayed until June 7. Library Update, Deb Luken: ■ Circulation for January and February showed a decrease of 3.5% from the same period in 2015. Out of the 32 branch libraries in the GRRL system, 26 reported a decrease in circulation. Overall circulation for GRRL is down 4.5% from 2015. Ebook and audio book statistics show an increase of 9.7% from last year. Express station usage is growing. Self check outs for February of 2015 were 19.88%, self check outs for February 2016 were 33%. Patrons are paying fines via the Express station as well. Legacy funded programs were: Cartooning with Gary Harbo and Introduction to Genealogy with Tom Rice. Programs funded by the City of Monticello included Baby Bounce, Toddler Time, Story Time Rocks, Rainbow Corner, Family bird Program, Teen Book Club, Make and Take Valentines, Wii Gaming and eReader/Tablet Help. Friends sponsored Felted Woolen Mittens. There were a total of 35 programs with 739 children, teens and adults in attendance in February and March 2016. ■ Adult Reading Program, "MinneSNOWta Read Away the Winter" was popular: 257 participants and 276 reading coupons were turned in to win the Kindle Fire donated by the Friends and a gift card from GRRL. ■ GRRL fund raising program: High Five March 1-31. ■ Friends Book Sale: April 9 and 11 ■ Rider's on the Orphan Train: April 18 ■ Straw Bale Gardening with Joel Karsten and Friends Annual Meeting: May 17. GRRL Report, Patron Services Supervisor Report, Brandi Canter: ■ GRRL has a new Strategic Plan to improve the patron experience. There is also a Core Values statement that will be used as guidance for Exceptional Service, Forward Thinking, Community Focus, Service Priorities and Organizational Priorities. ■ Community meetings in the summer of 2015 gave a wealth of information about what the patrons want to see at our locations and on the website. Technology based services are a high priority. Two key projects are moving forward. One is revamping the public website to be more user- friendly and to work better for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. The other project is VuFind, an update to how the public searches and views the library catalog. A "soft launch" will be available in April and feedback will be gathered from users in order to make improvements. ■ Deb Luken will be retiring on March 31". A strong pool of candidates is available for the LSC position and hopefully the position will be filled by April 11. New Business: ■ An open house for Deb Luken will be held at the Library on March 31s' 3:30 — 6:30. ■ Brandi will send a letter to board members with the name of the new Library Services Coordinator. The next meeting will be Tuesday, June 14 at 5:30 p.m. Meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sandra Lommel, Secretary Added note: Brandi sent an email to all board members on May 2 regarding the acceptance of Sarah Seeley as the new Library Services Coordinator. Included in the note was information about a question raised at the board meeting concerning the addition of ebook titles to the GRRL collection. ■ The number varies widely, based on pricing, release dates and how many existing digital titles need to be replaced because limit on usage has been reached. ■ It is not uncommon for publishers to require repurchasing a title after 25 to 35 checkouts. ■ Digital titles tend to be more expensive than physical titles. ■ $70K has been budgeted for digital collection in 2016 that includes $10 K for platform fee. ■ A number of state agencies and librarians have been working to bring about Ebooks MN (https://library.biblioboard.com/categories) as an alternative, free ebook service. It is hoped that these items will be linked through the catalog soon. Also there are links on the new catalog platform for items with Google Previews. You can see what this looks like for the catalog listing for "Wish You Were Eyre" (https://find.griver.org/Record/836863) and follow the Google Preview link on the listing.