DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

MARCH 14, 2003

1.ATTENDANCE:

The meeting was called to order at 4:08PM. In attendance were:

MRS. CANDYCE ABBATT, Chairperson; MRS. NANCY ZAKAR, Vice-Chairperson; DR. ALEX SHAMI, Secretary-Treasurer; MRS. LILA AMEN,

MRS. SYLVIA PRESSMAN, MR. MARCEL PULTORAK, MR. ROBERT TAUB, Commissioners; DR. PARTRICK COADY, City Librarian;

MRS. MARYANNNE BARTLES, Assistant City Librarian, MS. TARA GNAU, Administrative Librarian; MRS.CARLA EGGERT, Recording Secretary;

MR. DON VALOCIK and MS. IRENE LILLEY, FOLD.

EXCUSED: MR. DAVID SCHLAFF, MR. RONALD WATTERS, Commissioners.

2.APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The minutes of the February 14, 2003 meeting of the Library Commission were approved as submitted.

3.GLEN MICHAEL’S PROPOSAL:

Mr. Glen Michaels, the artist who created the artwork displayed at HFCL, came to speak to the Library Commission about finishing the pool in the rotunda area at HFCL. DR. COADY explained that Mr. Michaels first came to him about finishing the pool about six years ago but we did not have the funding at that time to do it. In relation to the noise reduction project for the rotunda area at HFCL Dr. Coady called Mr. Michaels to ask about adding a spray to the pool to mask the noise. Mr. Michaels advised that the glue in the sculpture would suffer if it got wet. Mr. Michaels came out to HFCL with another craftsman to take a look at the pool and discuss it. He has come up with an alternate plan, which he is here to present to the Commission. The proposal would cost approximately $8500 and involve covering the bottom of the pool with glass. This glass covering would have three open colonies of bubbles. The glass cover would also hide the working pipes of the pool, which are visible now. Mr. Michaels also discussed properly lighting the sculpture. DR. COADY stated that he had planned to include this in the second wiring project. Mr. Michaels recommended the designer-exhibition coordinator for the Detroit Institute of Arts, Lou Gauci to work on the lighting. DR. SHAMI asked if the current budget conditions would prevent us from doing this project because of the cost?

DR. COADY explained that the cost would be paid for using FOLD money.

CANDYCE ABBATT inquired as to when Mr. Michaels would be able to begin work on the project and about how long it would take? Mr. Michaels advised he could begin right away and it would take about nine months. There was discussion about a possible future plan of putting a fountain in front of Bryant Branch Library. Mr. Michaels discussed some ideas and presented a slide show of some of his other works.

The Commissioners asked Dr. Coady to get an estimate of cost from Lou Gauci on lighting the pool at HFCL. MR. TAUB motioned to approve the $8500 redesign plan presented by Mr. Michaels, seconded by DR. SHAMI, all approved.

4. COLLECTION AGENCY UPDATE:

MRS. BARTLES reported that in order for us to get the computer system to do what we want it to do in lowering the amount of fines sent to collections to $25 would cause a backlash of records to clean up. Trying to do this record clean up manually will involve considerable staff time. We are currently investigating other means of cleaning up these records. MR. PULTORAK stated that they should be able to pull this database off the computer. MRS. BARTLES explained that this is proprietary software and she would prefer to have Dynix handle this type of work because if it does not work we can go back to Dynix. If we do it ourselves and it does not work we are on are own to correct it. MR. PULTORAK stated that we should do it on a test basis on a small sub-set of the data and see how it works. DR. COADY explained that there is more than one approach that can be taken and we are still investigating the ways to handle this. At the April meeting of the Commission they will report on what has been discovered.

5. STRATEGIC PLANNING RETREAT-POTENTIAL AGENDA ITEMS:

MRS ABBATT distributed a list of potential agenda items for the Strategic Planning Retreat. She proposed that the retreat be held on Saturday, May 10, 2003 at 9:30AM and that the regular Commission Meeting scheduled for May 9, 2003 be cancelled.

MR. TAUB motioned to approve the change in the May meeting, seconded by Mr. PULTORAK, all approved.

MRS. ABBATT asked the Commissioners to look over the proposed agenda items for the next meeting. Any additional ideas can be added.

6. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS UPDATE:

DR. COADY reported that the exit lighting project at HFCL has begun and should be completed in about a week. The noise reduction project for the rotunda area at HFCL is in the schematic stages. The facilities study has also been used to submit priority one capital projects as recommended by the study.

7. FY 2005-2006 BUDGET:

City Administration has asked that we take three ideas for cost reduction and prepare a one-page analysis of each idea. We are working on the analysis for removal of the pamphlet file, charging fees for holds and fees for interloans. MRS. ABBATT asked for an explanation of the vertical file. MRS. GNAU explained it contains pamphlets, newspaper clippings and pictures. It is time consuming to keep up and the Internet has replaced the need for the vertical file. Staff has expressed a desire to see it go away. The Dearborn Libraries are currently a State of Michigan document depository. These documents make up a large part of the vertical file. Some investigation will need to be done regarding moving out of this status.

8. NEW BUSINESS:

MR. VALOCIK gave a report on the Friends of the Library gift shop. He reported that sales were dismal for the last month. They are looking into possibly changing the hours that the shop is open. They are currently open from 1-530PM and there seems to be more business after 4:00PM. MR. VALOCIK reported that the inventory they recently did was not correct and he would present this at the next meeting. MR. VALOCIK presented a check for $300 to DR. COADY as profit from the gift shop.

MS. IRENE LILLEY, a FOLD gift shop volunteer, talked about visiting the Livonia Library gift shop to get ideas for our shop. The Livonia Friends gift shop is in an enclosed area in the library and they have considerably more children’s merchandise. They did report that their sales were down as well.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:28 PM.

DR. ALEX SHAMI

SECRETARY-TREASURER