Meeting                                                          of the                                  Columbus Public Library Board                                               October 12, 2006 The regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbus Public Library Board was called to order at 4:30 PM on Thursday, October 12, 2006 by the President of the Board, Craig Neid. He read and signed the “Certification of Compliance” regarding the “Open Meeting” law. Other Library Board members present included Carol Keller, Jim Schaefer, and Jerry Jirka. Also present were Joe Mangiamelli, City Administrator; Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian; and Robert Trautwein, Library Director. Notice of this meeting was given in advance with a copy of the agenda posted at City Hall, the County Court House and in the Public Library. All proceedings hereafter shown were taken while the convened meeting was open to the public. The Minutes of the September Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as presented. Under “Review of the Completed “2005-2006” budget, Trautwein distributed a draft of the final accounting for the year. He noted that for the library’s account, around $3,200 more was received in revenue than had been budgeted and, under expenditures, the budge was under spent by $6,800. Trautwein also reviewed the budget for the County Library Service. The Library Director distributed the October Financial Reports for the City Library, the County Library Service, and the Library Foundation. He noted that October is the first month of the 2006-07 budget year. A motion was made by Jim Schaefer and seconded by Jerry Jirka to accept the expenditures. The motion passed by roll call vote: Jirka-aye, Keller-aye, Schaefer-aye, and Neid-aye. The Director had nothing to add to his Director’s Report There were no Committee Reports. Under Correspondence it was noted that a letter had been received from the County Clerk notifying the Library Board that the County Supervisors had appointed Liz Young to the County Library Advisory Board. Under Old Business, Carol Keller asked if the Library had received the funds necessary to hire a part-time library aide to work in the Children’s Room. Trautwein said that the Council had approved that budget item and that he had been working with Mike Ogelvie, the City’s HR person. On the topic of “Review of Library’s Outreach Services”, Trautwein said that in February when Library Board was reviewing the input from the library staff regarding an evaluation from the staff, it was observed that many of the employees believed the library was understaffed. One of the Board’s recommendations was to explore the possibility of eliminating or cutting back on the number of “outreach” services or hours involving staff. Trautwein handed out an “outreach” schedule developed by Mr. Hruska for the coming fall/winter. Trautwein noted that Mr. Hruska has been enthusiastic about providing outreach to the day care centers in Columbus. Trautwein said that he had encouraged this outreach as many of the children seen by Mr. Hruska would have little or no chance to visit the Library. Trautwein said that he has had a problem with visits by both Mr. Hruska and Mrs. Hansen to schools that have paid “media specialists”. He said that for the past two years, Mr. Hruska has been the sole provider of “library skills” training for the students at the Middle School. Following some complaints from other school media specialists about the lack of involvement of the Middle School media specialist, he asked Mr. Hruska to end his training sessions at the school. Students from the Middle School are continuing to visit the Public Library to learn more about what the Public Library can offer. Trautwein said that another part of the Library’s outreach services is visits to the senior citizens’ nursing homes. Sally Hanson, a staff member, visits the homes on a monthly bases to review books and read selections from books. Mrs. Hanson had been working with a parochial school media specialist but Trautwein said that he has asked Mrs. Hansen not to do that anymore. Trautwein summarized by saying that he thinks outreach services by the Public Library is important but he questions the public library’s role in providing outreach or library skills training to students in schools with media specialists. It was noted that Mr. Hruska has tailored his outreach schedule to occur mostly from 9 AM until 10 AM, when the Library is closed. Craig Neid said that the addition of a part-time Library Aide in the Children’s Room on evenings and weekends will help alleviate some of the pressure on the staff. Jim Schaefer commented that the first consideration should be adequate staffing at the Library, not outreach services. Trautwein said that he hopes that in the future, all the more outreach will be performed by volunteers from the “Friends of the Library”. Mrs. Hansen is using some volunteers to do library programming in the nursing homes and Mr. Hruska is using volunteers in his summer reading program. Mr. Neid said that he didn’t think the library board ever doubted the value of outreach services. The question the board had was whether outreach services was exacerbating the problem of not having enough staff. He suggested that in the future, should additional outreach services be requested, the Library should look to filling those requests with volunteers from the “Friends of the Library”. Under New Business, Trautwein outlined his projected timeline for the renovation of the Children’s Room ceiling. He also presented an outline for re-carpeting the art gallery. He said that he is planning to get the Art Gallery area re-carpeted during the week of November 20th. (He confirmed that the Christmas Tree Festival will be held from November 13th until November 19th). Announcements: It was noted that the Library Foundation meeting is to follow. A motion to adjourn was made by Jim Schaefer and seconded by Jerry Jirka. This motion passed by voice vote.