Library Advisory Board
Minutes
July 20, 2009

Joyce Szylvasy called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Library board members present were: Joyce Szilvasy, Marilyn Louwerens, Alice McRae, James Coffield, and the newest member, Carla Hunt. Also attending the meeting were Bill McRae, Dan Owens, Katie Voss, and Nicole Hartline.

Roll Call:

Joyce Szylvasy started the meeting by having everyone introduce himself or herself for Carla Hunt.

Minutes:

The minutes from the April meeting were reviewed and the typographical/spelling errors were noted before a motion was made by Alice McRae to accept the minutes. Marilyn Louwerens seconded the motion, and the board voted to approve the minutes.

Round Table Discussion:

Carla Hunt asked about the changes to the hours of operations, and Dan Owens explained that the changes were driven by the budget cuts the County was facing.

James Coffield asked if the County was still using employees from other departments to fill vacancies in the library. Dan Owens said that three workers had been assigned to the library from the Building Department, and one of those workers had taken another job in the county. There are still one-and-a-half full-time equivalent positions vacant in the library, but it seems the County does not have anyone to fill the positions.

Carla Hunt asked it the library used Diversified Career Training (DCT) students. The library has used these students at the DeFuniak Springs and Coastal Branch libraries. Carla Hunt said she would contact the DCT coordinator at the Freeport High School to see about have their students help at the Freeport library.

The plans for a new library in Paxton are on hold because of the cutbacks in the County’s budget. Carla Hunt noted that integrating the public library with the school library is mutually beneficial. Dan Owens said that talks of operating a joint library have been put on hold because of the budget.

Katie Voss reported the attendance of the summer reading programs at the Coastal Branch Library were very good this year. The attendance was significantly higher this year because the Boys and Girls Club brought their members to our programs.

Carla Hunt asked if the library had been involved with the Boys and Girls Club. Books withdrawn from the collection, and that were still in reasonably good condition, had been donated to the Boys and Girls Club in DeFuniak Springs.

Director’s Report:

Dan Owens observed that the use of the bookmobile was up substantially in April-May-June compared to the same period last year. The bookmobile has been out of service for more than a week because of a broken part on the generator.

The County’s budget problems have affected the library’s operation. The average monthly fines collected have gone from $2,740 to $4,963. The number of subscriptions to magazines and newspapers will be reduced, saving the library approximately $1,650 a year. Dan Owens speculated that patrons or the Friends of the Library might pay some of the subscriptions. The five of the online database subscriptions will be cancelled, leaving the Lyrasys/OCLC (which is needed to maintain the state wide database to make the library eligible for State Aid and Federal grants), the TLC service (which is used for the online library catalog and circulation system), and ProQuest (which provides access to an extensive archive of newspaper and magazine articles). Cutting out the online database services will save approximately $3,755. Carla Hunt suggested the Ancestry.com contract might be renegotiated to make it more affordable by limiting its use to only one online user at a time. She also suggested the Friends of the Library or patrons might be willing to pay for some of the online databases.

Dan Owens plans to eliminate some of the standing orders for new books, and to cut back on the number of titles on the standing orders for popular authors. Library patrons will have to wait longer to read the most popular author’s latest releases. The library will rely on Amazon.com to meeting immediate demand rather than using the standing order plans to meet anticipated demand. A question was asked about discounts the library gets with its orders. Dan Owens replied that the book vendor Ingram gives a 40% discount and the library receives a 10% discount when ordering through Amazon.com.

The library has already started to try to cut costs by turning off unnecessary electronic equipment, shutting of power supplies and fax machines at night, and turning up the thermostats during the summer. These measures have been implemented to save money in this year’s budget so there will be funds to roll into next year’s library budget.

Old Business:

Annual Plan – After minor changes brought about by the revised budget were suggested, Carla Hunt made a motion to accept the revised plan. James Coffield seconded the motion, and the board voted to approve the Annual Plan.

Technology Plan – The Technology Plan was reviewed and changes were made to reflect the revisions in library’s operation. Alice McRae made a motion to accept the plan. Carla Hunt seconded the motion, and the board voted to approve the Technology Plan.

Bookmobile Schedule – The consensus of the library board was “Draft A” is better than the other two proposed schedules. Alice McRae made a motion to accept that schedule. Carla Hunt seconded the motion, and the board voted for the new two-day bookmobile schedule.

New Business:

Library Hours – There was a lengthy discussion about the changes to the library’s hours of operation. Dan Owens explained some of the factors that were taken into consideration for making up the new hours of operations. It was generally agreed that keeping the library open on Saturdays was preferred, but the patterns of library use indicated more people use the library on Mondays than on Fridays. Dan Owens recommended changing the Flowersview library’s hours so it would be open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and closed on Wednesdays. The library board generally agreed that under the current budget constraints this was an acceptable solution. Dan Owens commented the hours would be change if he were directed to do so by the County administration.

State Aid to Libraries Grant – Dan Owens presented a copy of one of the forms used for in the application process to show how much the library had spent in FY2008. The amount of money spent from “local” funding is used to determine the amount of funding the library will get in State Aid to Libraries.

Next Meeting Time & Date – The next meeting was set for October 19, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. at the Coastal Branch Library.

Other New Business:

Carla Hunt stated she has a great working relationship with the Freeport library, and the library has been a great help to her library at the Freeport High School. She commended Nicole Hartline and the Freeport Library staff for helping her meet the needs of her students.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m.