Monthly Meeting
                                                                        of the
                                                  Columbus Public Library Board

                                                                January 12, 2005


The regularly scheduled meeting of the Columbus Public Library Board was called to order at 4:30 PM on Thursday, January 12th by the President of the Board, Craig Neid. Other Library Board members present included Carol Keller, Jerry Jirka, and Jim Schaefer. Also in attendance were Joe Mangiamelli, the City Administrator, Brad Hruska, the Children’s Librarian, Jill Owens, CPL employee and MLS student, 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 December Board meeting were reviewed and allowed to stand as presented with a motion from Jerry Jirka and a second from Jim Schaefer. The motion passed by voice vote.

The Library Director distributed the January Financial Reports for the City Library, the County Library Service, and the Library Foundation. Trautwein noted that the large purchase listed under “library supplies” was for 10,000 barcodes. Regarding county library services, Trautwein explained the annual $600 garage fee for parking/storing the bookmobile. A motion was made by Jerry Jirka to accept the financial reports. This motion was seconded by Jim Schaefer. The motion passed by roll call vote: Neid-aye, Schaefer-aye, Keller-aye, and Jirka-aye.

Regarding the Director’s Report, Trautwein said that there was nothing more to add to his written report, except that he was a disappointed in the attendance at the foreign film festival, but he is considering a second film festival in the spring.. .

There were no Committee Reports.

There were no items of Correspondence.

Under Old Business, Mr. Trautwein explained that he and the Children’s Librarian, Brad Hruska, will be attending a 2 ½ day training session in Lincoln from January 13-15. for the “Prime Time Humanities” program. For the coming year, the 6-week “Prime Time” will be held between the end of April and the last of May. Mr. Trautwein explained that the library received a grant from the Nebraska Humanities Council to offer the humanities program to Hispanic children (between the ages of 6 and 10), and their families. Discussion followed regarding the recruiting of students and their families. Mr. Trautwein explained that the Library will be working closely with the elementary schools and with Dee Condon, the Migrant educator for the school system. For the first year of the program most of the families would be coming from Emerson School area. Next year, the focus will be on Sunrise Elementary school and their families. CPL has a good rapport with the Hispanic community due to our offering of Literacy and GED programs.

Mr. Trautwein reported that he had learned from Matthews Specialty Vehicles that the new bookmobile will be added to the production line in May. He has been working with the company’s graphic artist and has sent the current logo (open book with wheels) to the artist. In February, he and Karen Hake will select the carpeting and furnishings.

Discussion turned to the Library Director’s Annual Evaluation. Mr. Trautwein said last year’s evaluation was in the board packets. He then distributed a copy of the goals he gave the board last year with commentary interspersed that reported on the status of each goal. Goals for 2006 were handed out next. Mr. Trautwein explained the procedure for past evaluations and the board’s goals for him. Craig Neid and Jim Shaefer will do the evaluation this year. It was decided that the next Library Board meeting will include an Executive Session at 5:00 PM, The annual Foundation meeting will be at 5:30 PM.

Trautwein noted that the steering committee for the “Friends of the Library” group had met. Prior to the meeting, Melodee Pedersen had worked out a rough draft of a newsletter as well as the articles of incorporation. He said that the newsletter draft had been sent to the printer and the articles of incorporation have been sent to the Secretary of State to be “registered’. The steering committee will now begin soliciting members and will submit an application to the Internal Revenue Service to become a designated 501c (3) charitable corporation. He said that it is the intention of the steering committee to call an organizational meeting in July, 2006 to elect officers. It was noted that in the membership solicitation form, a space for the new member’s e-mail address was included. Trautwein said that it is hoped that much of the communication to new members will be done by e-mail.

It was suggested that Library Board members give the Director their e-mail addresses so that some of the communication between and among Board members might be done electronically.

There were no items of New Business.

A motion to adjourn was made by Jim Schaefer and seconded by Jerry Jirka. This motion passed by voice vote.