DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF
LIBRARIES
LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING
1.
ATTENDANCE:
In attendance were: MRS. NANCY ZAKAR, Chairperson; MR.
MARCEL PULTORAK, Vice-Chairperson; MR. ROBERT TAUB, MRS. CANDYCE ABBATT,
MR. RONALD WATTERS, MRS. SYLVIA PRESSMAN, MRS. LILA
AMEN, Commissioners; DR. PATRICK COADY, CITY LIBRARIAN,
MRS. MARYANNE BARTLES, ASSISTANT CITY LIBRARIAN, MS.
TARA GNAU and MRS. JULIE SCHAEFER, Administrative Librarians; MRS.CARLA EGGERT,
Recording Secretary; MS. OPAL ZIEMER, AAUW. Excused: DR. ALEX SHAMI, Secretary-Treasurer, MR. DAVE
SCHLAFF, Commissioner.
2.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The minutes for the November Commission meeting were
approved.
3. FINANCE
BUDGET GUIDANCE:
For the past three years we
have been given a target budget number to meet.
This year we have been told that budget cuts can not be done across the
board as they have been in the past. There
will need to be service reductions as well as reductions in budget and smaller
departments can not absorb an across the board cut. We are looking at a reduction of 75 to 100
additional staff City wide over the next three years which is around twenty
five percent of the work force. The City
is hoping to meet the staff reductions through attrition. Each department has been asked to look for
service and staff reductions that could be implemented. We have until January 10th to come
up with this revised three year plan. With
the election a year a way cuts in public service are not likely.
4. 2005-2006
OPERATING BUDGET PREPARATION:
We have asked each agency,
as we do every year, to submit their budget items. A member of Administration will go over each
agencies budget with them. These budget
items will then be compiled. We are on
track with this preparation. Mr. Taub
asked if specific instructions had been received from the City. Dr. Coady stated that each year we receive
instructions from the City on how they would like the budget to be
prepared. This is the first year we have
been asked to prepare a plan for a three year personnel reduction. Mrs. Zakar asked what the deadline is for the
budget to be submitted to City Administration.
Dr. Coady stated he does not know the complete time table because
deadlines are set for various elements of the budget. The first deadline is
5. 2005-2006
CAPITAL BUDGET PREPARATION:
Dr. Coady reported that we have not received our
paperwork from the City for preparation of the capital budget. Mr. Pultorak stated that there probably will
not be a capital budget submission other than crucial needs, safety and
preservation of assets. Dr. Coady stated
we will have to wait to see what the City decides about the capital portion of
the budget. A good deal of the money for
deficiencies was cut in last year’s budget. They may cut the funds again this
year or limit the submission of new projects. The library is at the highest
number of capital projects than we have ever had.
6. FOUNDATION
UPDATE:
Mrs. Abbatt stated that the
Foundation Committee had interviewed a potential chairperson for the foundation
in the summer. She was involved with
another foundation and had asked us to give her some time to finish that work
and then make a decision. Mrs. Abbatt
called her in early October but she had not made a decision. Mrs. Abbatt will try to call her again after
the holidays. If she is not interested
we can have another committee meeting and proceed from there. Mrs. Abbatt stated that the Mayor may
possibly have some insight on how to proceed if she is not interested as he
came up with her name as a potential chairperson originally. Dr. Coady stated he would talk to the Mayor
about it.
Dr. Coady stated that if we
spend $10,000 we can sign up for the Southeast Michigan Community
Foundation. He feels that we should be a
member because it is a path some people may use for donating funds. Mr. Pultorak asked if it was an either/or
situation. He thought that if you joined
the Southeast Michigan Community Foundation that you can not have your own
foundation. Ms. Gnau stated that you can
be a member and still have your own foundation.
She went to a meeting in September and a representative from the group
was there. She explained that the Southeast
Michigan Community Foundation will meet with an individual or family who wishes
to donate to the foundation to match the money with those member organizations
that the individual or family prefers.
Mrs. Abbatt stated that we spent quite a bit of time on this issue after
the Southeast Michigan Community Foundation came and spoke with us. Mrs. Abbatt believes that there were many
solid reasons why we chose not to join the foundation at that time. Mrs. Abbatt feels that we should wait until
we have a chairperson for the library foundation before we make a decision to
join the Southeast Michigan Community Foundation. Dr. Coady stated the membership gives us
access to additional donations. Mrs.
Abbatt stated that after all the work that has been put into establishing the
library foundation she hates to turn that over to the Southeast Michigan
Community Foundation. Mr. Pultorak
stated that membership would be in addition to the establishment of our
foundation and not as a replacement for our foundation. There is a lot of publicity out there that
says that you should go to a community foundation to donate money. Mr. Pultorak
stated that if this gives us the opportunity to capture some funding until we
can get our own foundation set up we should not miss that opportunity
especially since, as far as he understands it, we do not have anything set up
for our own foundation. Mrs. Abbatt
stated we do not have a chairperson. It
probably would not be as hard to find trustee’s as it has been to find a
chairperson. Mrs. Zakar stated the
Foundation Committee should meet to discuss the Southeast Michigan Community
Foundation again and to look at the candidates for the chairperson position
again. We have had a lot on our plates
with the reductions and the situation with Bryant.
7. CIRCULATION
POLICY CHANGES:
Mr. Pultorak and Mr. Taub
both stated that they had no idea that there was not a limit on the number of
items that a person could check out. Mrs
Zakar asked how many patrons that this affected. Dr. Coady stated that we have 5,000 items
checked out to 94 patrons. Dr. Coady
stated that our proposal is to limit the number of items that may be checked
out to one library card to 100 items.
Several Commissioners stated that they felt the 100 item limit was much
too high. Mrs. Bartles stated that for
large families that may not be that many items.
If the family is large and they do not want all the children to have a
library card they may use one card and check out items for all of the members
of the family. Dr. Coady stated that we wanted
to start by establishing a limit. We will
not publicize the limit because it affects very few people. Most people do know that we did not have a
limit to begin with and most patrons will never get anywhere near the limit of
100 items. One third of library users
are browsers who want to come into the library and look around to see what is
there. Setting a limit allows there to
be more material available on the shelves for those who wish to browse the
collection. Also, material circulates
the most when it is new. This will make
more new material available to patrons.
Mrs. Pressman asked if the book clubs were part of those patrons
checking out large amounts of materials.
Dr. Coady stated that we buy separate books for our book club kits so
book clubs are not a problem. Mr. Pultorak said we should consider a
subscription service for book clubs where they pay a fee for the service. Dr. Coady stated that they came up with 100
items as the limit after surveying other libraries to see what their policies
were on limiting check outs. The
Circulation Committee analyzed the survey results and came up with this
recommendation. Mr. Pultorak stated that
we need to start brainstorming and coming up with new ways to generate revenue
such as increasing fines and charging fees for some services. With the cost cutting pressure we are under
we need to come up with new ways of doing business. He knows we are looking at what other
libraries are doing but they may not be under the same cost pressures and there
may be a reluctance to be the first to do something. Mrs. Bartles stated that we know from the
surveys we have done that we are in the top tier of area libraries as far as
fines go. Most libraries charge .5 or
.10 cents a day in fines and we charge .20 cents. We know that at a certain point raising fines
only causes usage to decrease. Dr. Coady
stated that in the library field it is hard to generate revenue. Fees and fines are used to decrease demand
for service. Mr. Pultorak stated that
the library should be looking at ways to creatively mine the data that our
systems generate so that you can be measure changes in policy and monitor
patterns of usage. That way if we have
to make changes in the future that are negative to some users we have data to
back up the reasons for the change so that people do not feel we are being
arbitrary and capricious in making the changes.
Another part of the proposed changes are to limit the number of times
material can be renewed from six times to two times which will also increase
the amount of material available. Mrs.
Abbatt stated she feels the 100 item limit is much too high. She feels a limit of 50 items would be more
appropriate. Mrs. Schaefer stated she
feels a limit of 50 items will cause a lot of problems at the Circulation desk
as it will affect many more people. Mr.
Pultorak stated we should set the limit at 100 for now but revisit this in six
months to see how it is working out. Mrs. Zakar asked if we could look at the
amount of time items are checked out. Mrs.
Schaefer stated that the length of time an item may be checked out was part of
the survey they did of other area libraries.
Dr. Coady stated that we decided to start with the changes to check out
and renewal limits. Once these changes
are in place we can look at making further changes based on our evaluation of
the survey data. Adjusting the length of
check out time could be looked at in the fall. Mr. Pultorak motioned to
restrict the number of items that may be checked out to 100 items and restrict
renewals to two renewals per item, seconded by Mr. Taub, Mrs. Abbatt abstains
from voting. Motion approved. Mrs. Abbatt asked when these changes would be
implemented. Mrs. Schaefer stated we are
planning on implementing the changes just approved by the Commission in the
spring of 2005. Mrs. Abbatt asked why we
need four or five months to make these changes.
Dr. Coady stated we need the time to publicize the changes to
renewals. To give us time to reach as
many people as possible April is a good time to implement the changes. Mrs. Abbatt asked if the renewal portion of
the changes could be implemented by March 1.
Mrs. Abbatt motioned to have the overall 100 item limit take effect
immediately and two renewal limit to take effect March 1, seconded by Mr. Taub,
all approved.
8. NEW
BUSINESS:
A letter for the Library
Commission was received from library patron Mary Jo Durivage in which she makes
several inquiries regarding the libraries.
A letter has been prepared in response to her inquiry.
Plans for a spring
strategic planning retreat for the Commission were discussed. Meeting either Friday evening from 4-7pm in
place of the regular meeting or meeting on Saturday morning in place of the
regular meeting were discussed. Dr.
Coady asked the Commissioner to think about possible agenda items for a spring
retreat. Mr. Pultorak stated that he thinks the Commission should discuss
dealing with upcoming funding problems. It was proposed that the Strategic
Planning Committee would meet in January to discuss the retreat and possible
agenda items.
The meeting was adjourned at