Board of Trustees River Forest Public Library Annual Board Meeting Minutes May 18th, 2010 7:30pm Call to Order & Roll Call President Margaret Horstman called the regular meeting to order at 7:35pm. The roll was taken. Present were Trustees Genie Halloran, Joan O’Connor, Joan Cusack, Mark Coe, and Alice Calabrese. Trustee Harley Beck was excused. Also present were Director Sophia Anastos, staff members Rebecca Thornton, Blaise Dierks, Hadley Ford, Margaret Oellrich, Samantha Cresswell, and Sue Quinn. Approval of Annual Meeting Minutes Trustee Calabrese moved to accept the Minutes for the Annual Meeting from May 2009. Trustee O’Connor seconded the motion and a roll call vote was taken. Ayes: Trustees Horstman, Coe, Halloran, Calabrese, Cusack, and O’Connor Nays: None Absent: Trustee Beck Annual Budget Review Trustees commented on how good it was to see savings in some areas of the budget. Annual Reports President’s Report: -President Horstman extended her thanks to the team of Board Members and to Director Anastos. She commented that the biggest step the library made in the last year was the formation and implementation of the Strategic Plan. The newly implemented Committee Structure will help the efficiency of the Board, and she is thrilled to be moving forward with the physical aspects of the building that need work. After reviewing some statistics, President Horstman commented that Trustee O’Connor will be a great leader, she has an excellent staff team to help move the library forward, and a wonderful Director who will help the library continue to grow. The Trustees and staff extended their thanks to President Horstman for all her work. Committee Reports: Policy: -Modified Trustee By-Laws. -Put together a new way of redoing policies. -Adjusted the Meeting Room Policy. -Patron Conduct is the next Policy to be reviewed. Facility: -Children’s Room Remodeled. -Roof work to be started and completed this Summer. -Capital Plan Acquisition. Management Team Reports: Blaise Dierks, Head of Adult Service: -Big Read: Received a Grant in May to concentrate on Edgar Allen Poe. We partnered with Oak Park Public Library, Forest Park Public Library, Dominican, and Concordia. Poe After Dark was our biggest event. This year we will be celebrating Mark Twain. -Summer Reading participation for Adults tripled from previous years. -Online Resources offered increased. -Media On Demand launched last year. -Minor space rearrangement happened on the Second Floor. This included new island display for books and DVDs, new computer chairs, and repurposing some computers. -Computer Classes expanded, and volunteers from Dominican assisted staff in teaching. -Adult Programming attendance has doubled. -E-book reader collection has expanded. -Staff changes: Joy Donahue retired; Joanna Bertucci was added to the department. -Hadley Ford orders all AV material sand reorganized the CDs. -Vendors will now be providing shelf processing; books will come with labels and barcodes rather than being done in-house. Hadley Ford, Public Relations: -Lots of big events happened over the past year that were very well attended. -Partnerships were built in the community. -Added Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter, Live Here Oak Park. -Started work with e-Totty to develop a comprehensive marketing plan. -Tracking efforts for attendance and daily visits to the library will be optimized over the next year. -I.T. Responsibilities: Updating software, improving audio-visual, hardware upgrades, and analyzing the connection speed. -Website: the new website has been up for just over a year, will regularly be evaluated. -Collection Development: Blu-Ray was added to the DVD collection. Margaret Oellrich, Head of Young Adult Services: -Advocated the library within the schools so that we can be seen as a colleague. Teachers now make more direct contact with her. -There was a lot of success visiting Roosevelt 5th and 6th grade classrooms. -All 8th graders got their cards updated. -Teachers received targeted database outreach to introduce them to specific subjects they would find useful. -Program attendance increased 180%. -The Connections program has been much better this year, with far fewer behavior issues. The grant from the Township has been increased for next year. -The next challenge to tackle will be the issues with crowding in front of the building that occurs after school. We will work on taking ownership and collaborating with other involved organizations. -There has been a great increase in getting the teens involved and recognized in the community. -Space is still an issue for the collections, the tiny amount they have gained over the past year is already filling up. Sam Cresswell, Head of Circulation: -The year end circulation was over 197,000. That’s an increase of 16%. -ILL traffic is also up 16%. -Pages shelved over 130,000 items. -Staff changes: Joanna Bertucci graduated with her MLS and moved up to Adult Services. Two new Circulation Clerks, Julie Wroblewski and Ted Bodewes, were hired. -The Circulation staff won the most awards over the year for Word of Mouth Marketing. -DVD policy changes: Nonfiction DVDs no longer have a charge for checking out, and Seniors on Wednesdays get two free DVD checkouts. -Food for Fines happened for the first time during TV Tune Out week. Five boxes of food were collected and $62 in fines was waived. -Recognized by peers within the library community for innovative services and beta-tested new procedures for the system. Sue Quinn, Head of Children’s Services: -Circulation of Children’s materials was up, driven mostly by print materials. Increasing the circulation of AV materials is a goal for the upcoming year. -Program attendance went up 47%. -Tumblebooks use has increased due to a large push in outreach. -Presented “Every Child Ready to Read” in February for the Early Childhood Literacy Initiative. -Ellen Cutter spearheaded the tri-village TV Tune Out week, which met with great success. -The plan for a facelift for the Children’s Room came together and work will be completed by August of 2010. -Children’s Services is at capacity in terms of budget and available time for presenting programs. -Outreach: continued good relationship with the schools and partnered more with the Park District, Fire Department, and Police Department. -A very good relationship has developed with Blue Max, who helps sponsor the Donuts for Dads program in the winter. Election Officers for FY 2010-2011- President: Joan O’Connor Vice President: Alice Calabrese Secretary: Harley Beck Treasurer: Genie Halloran Trustee Coe moved to accept the Officers for FY 2010-2011. Trustee Cusack seconded the motion and a roll call vote was taken. Ayes: Trustees Horstman, Coe, Halloran, Calabrese, Cusack, and O’Connor Nays: None Absent: Trustee Beck Adjournment At 8:40 PM, President Horstman requested a motion for adjournment. Trustee Cusack moved the meeting be adjourned. Trustee Halloran seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.