May 13, 2021 Library Board on 2021-05-13 3:30 PM

I'm sorry. Um, now calling to order the, uh, library board of the city of Denton. Um, starting out with. Presentations from members of the public. We don't have any. Um, Okay. Items for consideration. Uh, Consider approval of the minutes of April 8th, 2021. So moved. Anybody like a second. Laura seconds. Okay. All in favor. Aye. Okay. Let's move forward. Um, now, of course, it went away. Okay. There we go. Um, Receive an informational report and hold a discussion regarding the friends of the Denton public libraries. Um, can you guys hear me? Okay. Yeah. Um, the friends board met on April 15th and discuss the status of future book sales. Uh, they haven't made a decision yet, but they will decide whether to have the August book sale at their next meeting in July. Uh, during the meeting, the friends board voted to approve a new three year agreement with the library. Um, their bookstore opened back up on May 1st. They have an acrylic shield at the counter and plenty of PPE. Um, at this time, they're not advertising that they are open yet and they're not limiting the number of people who can come in at this point. They kind of want to wait and see how things go. Um, as of March 31st, 2021, they had $22,280 in their checking account. That's it. Great. Hey, did you have anything to get out of that, Jennifer? No, that was more comprehensive than I had. Receive an informational report and hold the discussion regarding the Emily Fowler library foundation. Um, so really no changes there. They did get a $50 donation for their checking account. Um, and then I'm going to be reaching out to the three trustees. The grand opening for the Nook Park behind Emily Fowler Center Libraries being coordinated on June 21st. And, um, we're asking if one of them can do a brief speech, um, as part of that, since they did donate $15,000 for that. Okay. Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding library phase reopening plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. All right. Well, we're open. So we're very excited about that. Um, on May 1st, we open for drop-in access, um, and in phase three, adapted services. We expanded our temporary hours, so we aren't quite back to where we were pre-COVID, but each branch is open nine to six for their opening days. And then each branch has one evening where they're open, um, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Um, and we've got those spread across the branches. So three nights a week, a library is open till 9 p.m. We have Monday through Saturday service right now. Um, curbside hold pickup is available at the North Branch still. Um, but, um, Emily Feller and South, South Branch are not set up or staffed for that curbside service, so that halted once we opened the doors. Um, we added, pardon me, grab-and-go browsing, um, with self-check. Those are available for first-come, first-serve. Um, and then we added also access to our study rooms for first-come, first-serve use of the study rooms. Um, and we're so excited. Um, y'all reviewed the programs at the last meeting, so we're going into that phased virtual/in-person programming. Um, we had our first, um, youth program was this morning at South Lakes Park in the pavilion. It was a story time, and they had 18 attendees, which was good for kind of easing back into it. I expect those numbers to continue to grow. Um, but we're getting good feedback so far, no issues. Um, everything has gone really smoothly, knocking on wood. Excellent. Um, I have a question. Um, computer time, is that more limited than it would have been before? It's the same technically. Um, before, the rule was two one-hour sessions per day. Um, however, in the past, if there was no one waiting, we would extend the time. Um, just, we just did that as a courtesy because it's an empty computer, no one was waiting. Um, so at this time, we're still kind of holding to our, what the rules are. Um, over the summer, we do expect to slowly kind of bring some things back, so less paying attention to those time limits. Um, bringing some furniture back slowly so people can sit down and enjoy, but more spread out. Um, opening up the water fountains, those kinds of things. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Excuse me. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the 2021 Summer Reading Challenge Program. And I'd like to introduce Casey Fenucci. She is our Summer Reading Challenge Chair for this year, and she's going to give you the update on Summer Reading Challenge this year. Hello. Hello. Good to see you all. Glad to be here. So our Summer Reading Challenge is coming back for 2021. We're very excited. It's going to be starting on May 27th, and so that is the last day of school for Denton ISD. It goes through July 31st. This year we are completely online. Everyone can sign up at denton.readsquared.com beginning on May 27th. There is no library card required, so anyone can participate no matter where they live since it's virtual, and people of all ages are encouraged to join the challenge, there's no age limit. The goals of the program are to prepare very young children for success by developing their pre-literacy skills, helping children build their reading and language skills, motivating teens to read, and encouraging adults to experience the joy of reading. So, as we are completely online, we will not have paper logs, however we will have teen volunteers at all three locations to assist customers with signing up online. There is also an optional reading log that is available for download from the website that will not be returned to the buildings, it's just for children to have a visual way of tracking their time. And we participate in the annual theme that is chosen by the Collaborative Summer Library Program. So that theme this year is "Tales and Tales." So that's "Tales" spelled two different ways, and it's all about animals. So for our kickoff, which will be Friday, May 28th, we are having a virtual show put on by the Fort Worth Zoo. There will be one at 10am and one at 2pm, so hopefully we can have quite a few different people attend, and we'll be telling them about the rules of the challenge, and then they'll get to see a live showcase of animals. For our ending celebration, we will have a virtual pet parade where children can show their animals at home, and so that will be a Zoom meeting just like this where everyone can participate. So for our prize structure, it will be the same as last year, where after reading five hours, everyone can come choose a book that's theirs to keep. The five hours after that is another book prize that they get to choose, and then any additional five hours is an entry into a raffle for a prize basket. And we'll have a certain number of prize baskets for each age group, and they'll be age appropriate and they'll fit with the animal theme. For marketing, we will be doing a big push on social media. We have bookmarks that are already being handed out at our drive-through window and in the library locations. Those have the dates and the website on them. We plug the challenge at all of our programs where we mention it and encourage people to sign up. People will see our tables with volunteers as they walk in the building where people will go over to register. And then we are sending out digital flyers to schools in our area, and we are featuring an ad in the Citizen Connection newsletter for June, and we'll also have a banner hanging over Locust near Parkway that advertises the dates and the challenge. So that's all I have. Oh yes, the commercial, we filmed a commercial, and there are dogs in it and people reading and it just was, we actually got the final version today and it's going to be released on May 17th on VTV and social media. So, so it'll be on social media, we can just go find it. You'll see it on the 17th. Great. Cool. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, come back, come back. I wanted to tell you that you know I do the book review column for the Denton Record Chronicles so my June will be on TAILS and it will be all children's. And maybe a few young adults, and then the July one will be TAALS and it will be young adult and adult on like Arthurian legends, Greek legends, all of those kinds of things so wonderful. Yeah, those two will be part of that. Great so you and I have emailed before about getting some teen volunteer participation, but with the pandemic it wasn't possible but if you would like to try that again I'd be more than happy to. Great. I'm pretty I've got all my things for this year columns already sorted, but for next spring, we can definitely start that right after Christmas, and I'll have my May column be that that sounds good. Thank you. Alright, next. The Nook Park is there's a grand opening being scheduled it's tied into the 2021 make music day, which will be June 21, that's a Monday. There will be musical events happening all over the city, but the Nook Park will host several of them including a story time in the morning. And then, either right before kind of after lunchtime there's going to be a grand opening celebration with Rotary Club, I mentioned the foundation and some other organizations coming so I invite all of y'all there as we get more details about that agenda I'll send it out to the board. Also, but should be exciting and a musical. That was June 21. June 21. It's a Monday. It's a Monday. Cool. I'm off Mondays. Okay. Anybody else have questions. Okay. Library Card Youth Art Contest. So we kicked off the Youth Art Contest for a youth courtesy youth card. Oh my gosh all those words. And we had over 267 entries that was my count last week but I know it's been updated. The entries are broken down into age groups. And then we have a panel of art experts three art experts who will be judging the contest so for each age group, there will be a winner. And each of those winners, we will do a short run of library cards based on their artwork so anybody who wants to get a replacement card can do that. And that's what we'll be issuing for new card holders also. So, very exciting so hope by next the next meeting will have those winners and you can see that artwork. Very cool. Next space update. All right. So I did send out photos at the last meeting mostly what we had was boxes and paper from said boxes as we were unpacking things, and I sent out a photo and it's attached to the agenda. If anybody's watching kind of a walkthrough of the new maker space and North Branch had the forge, it's moved to a larger room what was the reference room. And so when you walk into the room on the left we've got some beautiful see through storage cabinets so whatever's in storage that does have to be secured but now you can see it to know what's in there and ask for it. We have a temporary staff service get desk, the new one should be in towards the end of the grant period. And it's coming from New Zealand of all places. And so, who knew that that's where their factory was. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. And so that'll be in later but right now we have a table that we're using. And behind the second storage cabinet is where we're going to put our t shirt press. So we're just waiting on the cart that will hold that to come in before that comes out. We're still waiting on the CNC machine that will be on the left side of the back wall that should be arriving in the next week or two. And then we have two laser engravers those have arrived, and we're working with facilities to get the ventilation cut through the wall to get those operational. And then there is a short storage cabinet. As we turn the corner, and then there will be two 3D printers on a table along the sidewall which currently are in the old forge because we don't want them to be affected by the dust from the ventilation construction. They're temporarily in the old forge but that's where they will go. And then we have our new large 27 inch laminating machine in there, the new tables with the existing computers are already set up. The new services is working with us, those should be networked and up and running, probably in the next two weeks or so. And then the large screen monitors that would go in front of those that computer lab configuration will be moved into that room at that time also. Some of the equipment that we had already in the forge is moved in there and available also. So, the LSE or AccuCut, I keep saying LSE, AccuCut die cutting machine that's going to be available. And then we also have the snap circuits, soldering irons, things like that. So as we're getting those set up, and the safety sheets are being developed and the training is going on with staff we're making those things available for the public. We have button makers, those are out, and we invite anyone to come by and make a button for free to test it out so we have a one inch button maker or 2.25 inch button maker. So, start testing out some of our equipment we also have a cricket machine, and that is available for anyone to come out and use anybody who wants to use that they just create their own account with that design software, then they can come in and bring their own and start making their, making their design. So the area is open. It is open Saturdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays right now. And anybody can walk in and we will happily show them around we're so excited about everything that's going on in there. And like I said, as, as we get that equipment set up and staff is trained then we start, it's just available for the public at that point. There are several programs that are already scheduled. Casey had her first program last week, last night, and it was 3D printing, they 3D printed planters and then planted plants in there. So people were thrilled and there's a big post on Facebook right now with the Denton plant sharing group that just raving about the program so we're very excited about that. So come on down if you haven't seen it yet. I have a question about that the program you just talked about so that so they like, how many people participated or could we be able to. So right now we have pretty limited for our in person inside the building programs. For programs in the forge we have a limit capacity of six and five cane. Okay, and then so they come in and they what they're shown how the 3D printer works, or they, they had to pre register, because the 3D printing is not immediate, we had to pre print those. So we had those ready to go. And then they got to hear all about the three, basically there was a big plug for 3D printing. And then they got to plant their plants inside there. Anything else. It was a tie in with mental health awareness month, and so they tied in. Basically, the stress release of gardening and planting and watching things grow so there was discussion about that too. Okay. All right. And so did the 3D printers run at all during the program. If they were running they were just running with other people's printouts. Okay, they were in the other room because the dust. Okay. All right. Thanks. Anybody else. Oh, yes ma'am. I asked several times at the drive thru window. If the schedule of programs is printed yet, and they keep telling me no it's online, I don't like online. I'm old. I like things to hold in my hands have they been printed yet. So, we originally weren't going to print them but after you had expressed interest in that last month. We're doing a short run. They are at the printers right now we're waiting for the final quote and then they'll get on the printing press so it should, it should be soon but I don't have an exact date yet but it is in process. All right, thank you. Okay, anything else. Okay. The cares grant update. The cares grant update for cares grant. We did receive funding for adding to our digital materials collection ebooks and digital audio books. Those have all been purchased and are available in the collection. We did get a note in those catalog records that they, those were funded through the grant. It was, let me get that amount here was 316 ebooks and audio books were purchased, and those came in throughout April. And so during that month they had already circulated 354 times. Wow. And so, those, those are very popular, and the selection was based on the patron requests we went there first with our selection. We also ordered 15 more circulating Wi Fi hotspots, and those were just finished being processed today and so they are being shipped out to the branches and they'll be on the shelves or the whole shelf probably because we have a social media post going about that tomorrow morning to remind people that those are available. And so those are on their way. And then the Wi Fi expansion for outdoor Wi Fi in the parking lots and then the park, those that equipment has been ordered. Just with all the shipping delays that have occurred through to coven. We're expecting the equipment to possibly come in by the end of May, and then TS is ready to install as soon as as soon as it comes in that's all they're waiting on at this point so we'll, we'll be doing a lot of promotion once that happens. Okay. All right. Text treasures grant update. Laura Douglas and her special collections team were awarded a wonderful grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Texas State Library to digitize our older issues of the Denton record Chronicle to try to preserve them because of their microfation microfilm and that it lasts for a while but not forever. So this is our second year with the grant. Everything has been digitized this year. It's up on the portal to Texas history, and the link is in the AIS that was attached to the agenda if anybody wanted to see what was in that collection. And she has already submitted the grant for the third year so we're waiting, waiting to hear if we will get a third year of that grant, but your two has been digitized now. Excellent, excellent. Okay. Collection process reinstatement. So, when coven hit one of the things we did was we halted our collection process. So with our circulation policy, if you have something that's overdue before it's do you'll get a notification with a reminder. Once it's overdue you get a notification saying you forgot to turn it in after seven days, you get another one at 14 days after 21 days that item switches to build status so the cost of the item is just charged to your account. Now keep in mind we do not charge overdue fine so at any point, if any of those materials are turned in. There's nothing on your account no charge or anything. After an item has been overdue 81 days. So that is considered long overdue. Then we use a library specific collection agency. This is not a credit agency nothing goes on anyone's credit credit report. And they just give gentle reminder calls they're very focused on customer service because they understand that libraries want to keep their customers. And so, at that point, a fee for that service is added to the patrons account. So if the patron does return the items, the cost of the item goes away but that fee remains on their account they are still, they still have to pay that we had stopped that process when covert head, and we are in discussions to start it back up now that we're open again, but we didn't want to start cold so our plan is to start with the oldest items which now are a year overdue. And there's only a few thank goodness that are that old, and we were going to contact them first with an additional courtesy notice to say hey we're going to start this up, please return your items before that charge ends up on your account. But to give them a heads up, even though they received all those notices, it's been a long time, and we wanted to remind them again. So we're looking to reinstate that service. Later this summer, but wanted to let you all know our process for going about that anybody that was sent to collections we would start with the email reminder, please get it in, give them several weeks to a month to return it before the account was sent them to the collection agency. Okay, any questions. No. Okay, moving on consider recommending to the city council approval of an ordinance of the city of the city of the city of Denton, Texas, adopting a schedule of fees for the Denton Public Library superseding all prior ordinances establishing fees and conflict management for the Forge schedule, providing for several several ability and providing for an effective date. So we do have an official schedule of fees and that includes things like lost cases if you lost a case or an RFID tag was ripped out, or pieces from a kit went missing, or those collection fees that were assessed. And with the Forge we have so much more equipment that we need to provide materials for so we need to update that fee schedule and the updates that we are recommending to you all that hopefully you will vote to recommend to council are raising the 3D printing and match the current costs that we're paying for filament, which would be 75 cents for per 10 grams, and then adding maker space material costs for laminating costs for the large laminator at 50 cents a linear foot, and then selling miscellaneous materials in kind of price size categories of $1 250 $5 $10 or $15. And we're looking at that breakdown based on that cost so some of the things that we're looking at selling for materials are there's some cute shapes for little dog tags, whether they're for your pets or for necklaces or crafts, and those are about $1 so that would be in the $1 category, something in the 250 category might be, there's some cute leather ornaments for Christmas, that you could use on the laser engraver. Some of the higher price one there's some really nice cutting boards that you could engrave on with the laser engraver. And then there are raw materials that, because we wanted people to be able to come in and just start using equipment, without having to come in and go oh no I have to order that and leave and go to a store order something online. So there would be raw materials of sheets of acrylic or sheets of wood that would work in the laser engraver, or the CNC machine. So, those would be the materials. Are these priced at cost to us, or are they cheap and so they're cheaper than Michaels or Hobby Lobby or things like that. Yeah, we but we're planning to buy in bulk. And so, it's just whatever we calculate what that cost is, and it would fit in one of those categories. So, one of the things in the $1 category is the button making sets, which would be a Ziploc bag with for the one inch buttons it would be eight sets you could make eight buttons for $1 or six of the two, 2.25 inch buttons for $1 and we just calculate that cost. If you have equipment you can bring your own materials like the cricket, you bring your own vinyl we aren't selling that but particularly the laser engraver because we are concerned. There are certain plastics that can produce toxic fumes. So, if you're doing acrylic it has to be either one that we provide, or there is one vendor that is guaranteed to work and not cause anyone to get sick it's the correct kind. You can come in and show us, and it has a special decal on it so we can tell what it is. But, yeah. Okay, going back to what you just said then. So if I wanted to make a t shirt. You need the cricket, the vinyl so I'd have to bring my t shirt and my vinyl to there that I wouldn't be able to get there. Correct. So there won't be there won't be vinyl for sale, not for the cricket. Okay. Interesting. Okay, the iron on and those kinds of things. Okay. All right, does anybody else have questions. Does anyone want to motion. I make, I make a motion that we accept the suggested fees for the library. Dr. James second. Okay. All in favor. Say aye. Okay. Opposed same sign. No post. Okay, that passes. Wait a minute. I apologize I have a little clunky system here. Receive a report hold the discussion and consider recommending approval of the following dent in public library policy updates integrated library system policy. This one hardly had any changes we had to change the name of two titles positions because we did that reorg over the summer. So, now we have circulation supervisor, and instead of la one we have la choose that the content, otherwise, there were, there was no change. Okay, we need to vote on it right. Yes. Okay, can somebody motion. Okay, Laura motions and second. Jim seconds. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Raise your hand. I'll post same sign. Okay. And then also the policy the collection development policy. So there were nominal changes to this policy this is the policy that guides us and what we're purchasing in our collection. So we did update the mission statement, because it had the old mission statement on there. We also updated the description the community description to reflect current statistics, anywhere that DVD was mentioned mentioned we change it to DVD slash blu ray to indicate that new format. We added a bullet on page three pages three and four kind of breaks there about digital materials. And we updated the periodical sick section to remove trade periodicals because that's not something we have been collecting. Those are professional journals for various professions. We clarified that materials not purchased are or required only referred to circulating and regular reference collections and not special collections. And then we had combined. We had stuck the special collections collection development policy at the end of this, and we actually want to separate those out and the board had approved the special collections collection development policy earlier. So it is already separate we just needed to remove it from this, this one. Okay. Anybody have questions. Okay, someone motion to pass this. Anybody. Okay, let's let Laura do it and I'll second. Okay, sounds good. All right, all in favor say I raise your hand. All opposed same sign. Okay, that past community use forge policy. So we had this policy and it has been completely revamped so I can't even go through all the details. I'll summarize the changes. The prior policy was very focused only on 3D printing processes, because at the time that was kind of the, the main feature that we had in the forge, and we used to allow the room to be rented like we do the meeting rooms for groups for meetings, what we have found is nobody is renting it anyway. So we wanted to change that and not have that option. The room would be available when it's not open to the public for library programs or if the city needed it for training purposes. But our concern with making it available for rental as we have some of that equipment that can be dangerous. That's why we staff the forge. And if somebody's in there we can't guarantee that they may not hurt themselves. And so we didn't want to rent it out anymore. So the new policy proposed is much more comprehensive about the use of a full maker space not just 3D printing services. The, some of the things that rolled over with a clarification about what the equipment can be used to create and what is not allowed with that. That has come up before is someone can someone 3D print a weapon. So no, that is not in our policy. Patrons would submit their print job to our technology librarian, and he monitors those printouts so it can't sneakily come through. And then it clarifies just basic usage cleanup what what you're doing before you leave and please don't have food or drinks in their age age limits a little bit of an explanation as we are going to require a waiver for use because we do have some that T shirt press for example gets up to 400 degrees that's pretty hot. So you have to be very careful and so we do have some waivers coming risk is working on that right now. So it's a complete revamp of the policy. Okay. Any questions. Okay. If someone wants to motion that general motion somebody seconds. Okay. All in favor, raise your hand, say aye. All opposed same sign. Okay, was the second on that I didn't see it. Okay. And so, in concluding items we do need to discuss our meeting in person in the schedule. We can meet in person again, and not interrupt anyone's workday. So, city council met earlier this week, and there was a proposal to return to in person meetings and so for our, the library board can return to in person meetings are traditional meeting day and time would be the second Monday of each month at 530pm. The location traditionally rotates between the three branches, North, South and Emily Fowler, and I emailed out a tentative schedule based on that traditional rotation, and just wanted to see if everyone is good to come back starting next month, that would be June 14 at Emily Fowler Central Library. Great. Yes. Definitely. Yeah. Anybody have any issues with the map. No. Okay. Okay, that's great. And we can. I wouldn't have been able to come to this meeting if we weren't doing it virtually though. Jennifer, can you put on the Jennifer, can you put on the agenda. Since you've rearranged that entire Emily Fowler library taking us on a tour of the library. Yes. I would love to do that if they did an amazing job. Staff moved every single book. The only things that didn't move were the DVDs downstairs, music, everything else they moved. At the next meeting also just as a heads up. We've been asked. They are trying to get all boarding commission bylaws, as similar as possible. And we are the outliers that have a president and vice president as opposed to a chair and vice chair. And so we've been asked to discuss and have you all vote on changing the wording in those bylaws to match that. So just a heads up. It's coming next month. Okay. Does anybody have any other agenda items they'd like added for next month. Not, not now. Okay. The meeting of the Denton library board is adjourned at 412 PM. Thank you all so much.