Jacksonville Public Library Board of Trustees met June 11.
Here is the minutes provided by the Board:
The regular meeting of the Jacksonville Public Library Board of Directors was held June 11, 2018 in the library’s conference room. Present were President Mary Fergurson, Forrest Keaton, Ted Roth, Kevin Eckhoff, Craig Albers, Robert Underbrink, Adult Services Librarian Hillary Peppers and Library Director Chris Ashmore. Absent were Noel Beard, Elizabeth Kennedy and Katie Weeks.
President Fergurson called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm.
It was moved by Keaton and seconded by Albers that the minutes of the May board meeting and the minutes of the special June board meeting be accepted as submitted. Motion carried.
It was moved by Eckhoff and seconded by Underbrink that all financial reports for June be approved and that all properly approved bills for June in the amount of $50,103.14 be paid out of general funds as funds are available. Motion carried.
Keaton reported the balance from the latest Endowment Report.
Director’s Report-
May was another eventful month at the Jacksonville Public Library. On May 4, social work intern Darin Michaels gave his final presentation to MacMurray College Social Work Field Director Jodi Pupillo, Hillary and me. Darin gave a nice Power Point presentation summarizing his semester at the library and provided detailed statistics with Excel spreadsheets. After his presentation, Jodi, Hillary and I met with Darin to give him his final review of the semester. On May 18, I had the honor to award Darin his honors medallion at the MacMurray College Social Work Program Pinning Ceremony. It was a fine ceremony that I was proud to be a part of. The library will likely have at least one, if not two, junior social work student interns for the upcoming fall semester.
As part of the library’s increased focus on outreach and public relations, we had a table at the Lincoln Square Farmer’s Market each Saturday in May. Two staff members set up from 7 am until 10 am, displaying promotional materials and library books, as well as checking out items and signing people up for library cards. The reaction from the public was quite positive and we plan to continue our presence at the Farmer’s market throughout the summer.
On Thursday May 17, the library hosted the first program of its three-part summer travelogue series. Ana Flores, project coordinator for Illinois College’s admissions office and coordinator of the college’s Khalaf Al Habtoor Leadership Program, shared her experiences leading a group of students and staff on a trip to Puerto Rico in March. Ms. Flores talked about the island nation’s culture, as well as the group’s efforts to assist residents recovering from two major hurricanes. The final two travelogue programs will be on Manchester, England and Berlin, Germany.
Another interesting library program held in May was a screening of the PBS documentary Death and the Civil War on Thursday May 24. This film attracted over twenty people and was a kickoff to a series of events held over Memorial Day weekend commemorating Morgan County in the Civil War.
The library’s annual financial audit was held on May 8. Accountants from Zumbahlen, Eyth, Surratt, Foote and Flynn Ltd. arrived at 8:30 am and had things completed by 4:00 pm. As in past years, the accountants complimented Kim Pohlman on her accurate bookkeeping and the library on its accurate keeping of minutes.
Other goings on in May included the Friends of the Library book sale on Saturday May 19; a site visit from RSA/RAILS consultant Wendy Adams-Good on May 22; and a meeting with Judy Tighe of Jacksonville Main Street about projects that Main Street and the library are collaborating on.
All of this was in addition to regular monthly activities, including my radio appearance on WLDS; weekly conversation group meetings; poetry club; and book club. Other activities keeping me busy in May included web site and Facebook maintenance, collection development and maintaining the day-to-day operations of the library.
Adult Services-
Hillary took a well-earned vacation in May. She spent a good portion of the month making final preparations for the summer Books on Wheels Program, which began on Friday June 1.
Hillary continued to weed fiction in order to accommodate incoming new books as well as worked on upcoming adult programming for June. She answered reference and genealogy questions in addition to assisting patrons with general requests and technology questions.
Hillary contributed to the weekly Shelf Life newspaper column, created the June library newsletter and worked to promote library programs and services through print and social media.
Interlibrary Loan/Holds-
In May, there were 910 items borrowed from other libraries; 748 items lent to other libraries; and 403 reciprocal circulations.
Circulation Services-
The library continued to provide excellent service to every patron that walked in the door during the month of May. Library staff were busy getting ready for the Summer Reading Program that runs from June 1 through July 23. After being contacted by the library, a total of 17 businesses in Jacksonville donated prizes and money for the adult Summer Reading Program. Sarah designed a bookmark for the program this year that will give patrons the chance to review a book they enjoyed reading. At the end of the summer, she hopes to gather the reviews and make a display of the books that patrons recommended. She displayed a banner with the names of the sponsors at the circulation desk. She also distributed short teaser flyers around town and made copies for staff members to take on their various visits.
Sarah spent time each day assisting patrons with technology questions and any account issues that came up. She also had RSA turn on self-editing in the online catalog so that patrons can change their email address or phone number without having to contact the library. Sarah moved books from the “New” section that were no longer new to make room for new additions. She also attended two RSA meetings in May—a users group meeting and a circulation committee meeting. New changes were made to the library’s online catalog and decisions were made about future policies that will affect our library. It is important to remain informed and for our library to have a voice in these future changes. Sarah also updated the Bookpak on the website to reflect our most current book additions.
Sarah designed and taught four basic computer classes in the month of May that were well-attended—anywhere from 10-17 people showed up each night. She also generated an email list for Hillary so that new patrons can stay up-to-date about library information via the digital newsletter. She also added entries to the library’s blog as time permitted. The pages started and finished a project in which they shelf-read all of the periodicals to ensure that they were in order.
RSA frequently sends the library different reports detailing possible mistakes made while transcribing information into the catalog. Sarah spends time each month correcting and cleaning up patron and item records so that everything can be consistent for staff ease of use. She also spends time tracking various information for statistical purposes such as number of items withdrawn etc.
The Wi-Fi hotspots continued to be incredibly popular with patrons. In order to speed up the waiting time for those who wish to check one out, Sarah decreased the checkout time from three weeks down to one week. This did not affect the hotspots that were currently checked out. She edited the waiver to reflect this change.
Extension Services-
May started out busy with lots of book deliveries and new book orders, then ended with a mostly peaceful vacation in Kansas for Diane (except for the monsoon, flash flooding, and tornadoes).
Diane attended the Morgan County Professionals for Senior Wellness meeting at Heritage Health on May 3 and represented the library at the Reaching Forward South conference at Edwardsville on May 11. The conference featured programs on a variety of topics, including disaster recovery, mystery rooms, DNA testing through genealogy sites and architectural walks.
The Knollwood Book Club discussed "Mary, Mother of Jesus" in art and literature on May 4 and the Jacksonville Senior Center Book Club talked about "Queen Elizabeth II" and her ancestors on May 22.
On May 18, Heidi and Bridget helped Diane put together a display on famous mothers as part of the regular delivery to Balsam Terrace/Spruce Manor for a HUD "Strong Families" Mothers’ Day celebration. The poster and books featuring mothers drew quite a few lookers and a couple of new patron sign-ups.
Youth Services-
Youth Services had a lot happening in May. Garden Club was in full swing. Story Time, Lego Club, Lap Sit, and the three S.T.E.A.M. sessions kept going strong. Adding in all of the school visits made for a very busy month. Garden Club has been a big hit so far this year. The group averaged 27 kids each week in May. All of those helping hands got the garden planted faster than ever before.
During May, Cindy visited all of the elementary and parochial schools to talk about the children’s Summer Reading Program. Speaking of Summer Reading, approximately 150 kids signed up for the program in the first three days. The Opening Summer Reading Party on May 29 had a new entertainer, Kevin Farris, who was a big hit with the crowd. Cindy changed up the craft sessions in two ways. The first is that for six of the eight weeks, the kids will be making ‘Giving Crafts’ that they will leave for the library to give to organizations in town. They will be making scarves for the New Directions Warming Center; dog and cat toys for the Morgan County Animal Shelter; coloring books for the kids at the Women’s Shelter; decorations for patients in various nursing homes; and a pillowcase bag for DCFS to give to foster kids. In addition to these crafts, Cindy also has a second craft that kids can make to take home with them. The second change is the time of the craft sessions. Most people want to come in the morning, so Cindy devised a way to get four craft sessions in before noon and only one in the afternoon. Overall, Summer Reading got off to a great start in May.
Technical Services-
Lauren continued to excel in her role as cataloger. With Linda’s cataloging assistance and Heidi’s and Kim’s efficient processing of materials, things ran very smoothly in Technical Services.
Committee Reports:
Automation/Technology-
None
Building and Grounds-
None
Finance-
None
Personnel-
None
Public Relations-
None
Friends Of The Library:
Ashmore reported on the Friends of the Library Book Sale held on May 19. The Friends made approximately $1,000 during this one-day sale.
Rails/RSA:
None
Old Business:
The board reviewed two proposals from library consultant Sarah Keister Armstrong. One proposal was for assisting the library with a community survey to direct a long- range planning process. The other proposal was for working with the library from the community survey all the way through the final long-range plan.
The board decided that it was in favor of the later proposal and would like to pay for it with per-capita grant money. The next per-capita grant that can be used for the consultant is the FY 2019 per-capita grant. This grant money would thus be spent/encumbered before it is received.
The board directed Ashmore to ask Keister Armstrong for a more detailed proposal for the consulting work for the full long-range planning process and this proposal will then be presented for approval at the July board meeting.
New Business:
Ashmore presented a progress review on the library’s Strategic Plan Goals for 2018. He then reviewed this with the board. Near the halfway point in the year, things are moving along nicely.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:32 pm. on a motion by Eckhoff, seconded by Underbrink.
https://www.jaxpl.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Minutes%20of%20June%20Board%20Meeting(3).pdf
Alerts Sign-up