DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

April 8, 2005

1. ATTENDANCE:

In attendance were: MRS. NANCY ZAKAR, Chairperson; MR. MARCEL PULTORAK, Vice-Chairperson; DR. ALEX SHAMI, Secretary-Treasurer; MR. ROBERT TAUB,

MR. RONALD WATTERS, MR. DAVE SCHLAFF, MRS. SYLVIA PRESSMAN, MRS.CANDYCE ABBATT, Commissioners; MRS. MARYANNE BARTLES,

Deputy Library Director, MS. TARA GNAU, Administrative Librarian;

Excused: MRS. LILA AMEN, Commissioner, DR. PATRICK COADY, Library Director.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The minutes of the March 11, 2005 Commission meeting were approved.

3. LIBRARY RETREAT:

Mrs. Zakar discussed the handouts sent in preparation for the Commission retreat. The retreat will be held on Friday, May 20^th from 4-7pm. The regular Commission meeting scheduled for May 13, 2005 has been cancelled. She stated that the strategic planning pyramid might be helpful in their thinking process about what vision, value and mission statements are and to help the Commissioners determine what the difference is between these types of statements. The vision statement relates to the future and if there were no strings attached what would the library be. The mission statement is what we do. She asked the Commissioners to look over the information in preparation for discussing these items at the retreat. Beth Weyer-Utley spoke to the Commission regarding the meal plans for the retreat. We will order a Mr. Pita assorted sandwich platter which will include several types of sandwiches such as ham, turkey and vegetarian. There will be fresh cut fruit, dessert such as cookies and an assortment of beverages.

4. FOUNDATION UPDATE:

Mrs. Abbatt stated we might want to invite Ann Knoop to the retreat to meet the Commissioners briefly. Mrs. Zakar stated that the foundation sub committee should meet with her first. Mrs. Zakar stated that the Commission needs to come up with a list of potential trustees for the foundation which will need to be approved by the Mayor before we present it to Ann Knoop. Mrs. Abbatt stated that a list of potential trustees was presented to the Mayor in 2003. Mrs. Zakar stated that he would like to look at it again. Some of the individuals on our original list are no longer available. Mrs. Zakar stated that if the Commissioners had any new names of potential trustees to let the Foundation sub-committee know. Mr. Watters asked if there were any specific requirements for trustees. Can an individual serve on more than one foundation board? Mrs. Abbatt stated that they really could not be on a City related fundraising board. Mrs. Abbatt went over the current list of 14 individuals who were originally considered as trustees. We need seven trustees so we need to have more potential names for the list. The Commissioners discussed some individuals and added some potential names to the list. Mr. Schlaff cautioned the other Commissioners about approaching anyone as a potential trustee at this point in the process because you are not sure if the committee as a whole or the Mayor would agree to the person. Mr. Watters asked what the cut off date was for submitting a name. Mrs. Abbatt stated that there really was not a cut off date but that they would like to have the foundation up and running by the fall. Mr. Pultorak asked how long of a commitment would trustees need to make to the foundation board. Mr. Schlaff stated that it would really be up to the trustees to decide.

Mrs. Abbatt stated the next step was to pare down the list, subject to the Mayor’s approval, and then decide who is best to contact the potential trustees.

5. LIBRARY BUDGET:

Mrs. Bartles stated that as far as the libraries are concerned the operating budget and the capital projects budget have been submitted to City administration a while ago. They just completed that library aid appropriation request because we were not sure exactly how much money we would receive from the state. We finally got that number and submitted it last week. Mrs. Bartles understanding is that Finance will submit the budget to the City Council by April 15^th. Mrs. Zakar asked if they had been asked to resubmit anything. Mrs. Bartles stated that in the beginning of the budget process they had to change a few things but they have not been asked to change anything further. No further positions have been eliminated though they have not allowed us to fill the Assistant Librarian position open due to a resignation in Adult Services at HFCL.

6. CIP PROJECTS:

Mrs. Bartles reported that they tested the new fire alarm system at HFCL this morning and it passed inspection. The final walk through with the architect will be on Tuesday. The fire alarm company will hold two training sessions with the staff. The first session will be on April 14 and the second on April 21^st. Once that is completed we will move forward with additional staff training on evacuating the building. We purchased orange vests for the staff so that they can direct people more effectively. We are going to train staff on not using the central staircase. There are two emergency staircases that the staff will be instructed to use in an evacuation. Dr. Shami asked if it would be a live drill. Mrs. Bartles stated we work with the Fire Department and it is always a surprise for the staff. They may know a drill is coming but they do not know when.

The new elevators are working but there is a problem with the floor. They put a new tile floor in each elevator and they are not sitting correctly. You can feel when you walk on it that it is mushy as if it were not glued down and if you shuffle your feel you could trip on it. Discussions are underway with the elevator company to fix the floor.

Part of the deficiency study that was done of all City buildings identified the spiral staircase at HFCL as a safety issue because of the way the steps protrude and because you can walk into the concrete riser. We are going to have a black wrought iron railing installed which will circle the concrete riser. The architect has finished the specifications and it has been sent to Purchasing to go out for bid. The Mayor has approved the window design for replacement windows at Bryant Branch. The architects will begin working on the specifications for the window replacement. The roof at Bryant is damaged. A roofing company is going to inspect the roof at Bryant in order to determine what repairs need to be done. We are going to try to bundle those repairs with the current project to replace the eaves and gutters at Bryant. The front stairs marble stairs at Bryant will also be repaired. We are also working on having the front doors at Bryant replaced. The canopy repair at HFCL is being done in house and we are still waiting for the crew to be available to do the work. There are only two employees in the City that can do the work. We were originally hoping to cut the canopy back but we will not be doing that now. We are still working on the specifications for the carpet replacement at HFCL. The railing that encircles the mezzanine is topped with a wood piece. The veneer on the wood has started to bubble and peel from the heat of the sun through the windows. Dr. Shami asked if there was a safety issue. Mrs. Bartles stated that we had a structural engineer check it and the railing is still structurally sound. We are going to have a new coat of veneer applied to the railing. The work will be done in-house by the City carpenter.

7. ENVISONWARE:

Mrs. Bartles reported that two employees from Envisonware came out on Wednesday and Thursday this week and installed the software for us which was part of the package. They helped Steve Smith and Mark Hancock, who will be running the system, to understand how the software works. We do have some issues to work through and we expect to have more. The software has been set up in the training room so we can see how it works. There will be a meeting next Friday with the Supervisors to discuss how we will implement the new software and the new Internet cards. Both Purchasing and Finance are working with us to determine how we are going to offer both network printing and copiers to the public. This process has been very time consuming but we are finally almost to the end of it and will submit it to the City Council either this Council meeting or the next one. We will get out of the burden of having another vendor control the system for us. A vendor will still supply the copiers. Patrons will not have to worry about copy cards and losing the value on those cards. We hope to have Envisonware up and running sometime in June. Envisonware allows network printing from the Internet and manages the time patrons spend on the computers. If no one is waiting for a computer a patron can just walk up and log on using either their library card or their Internet user card. If all the stations are busy they will go to a station set up for reservations and it will automatically queue them up. The person who has been on for the longest amount of time will be asked to sign off. They get a ½ hour if patrons are waiting. The Internet user card will cost $1. Mr. Watters asked how the copy or printing fee would be collected. Mrs. Bartles stated they will key their library card or Internet user card number into the print station. They will have an account in which they can add funds. Right now funds are put on a copy card and if the card is lost the funds are lost. With the new software the information is stored online so if the card is lost the funds are not lost. One of our problems is figuring out how to deal with someone who does not want to register for an Internet card. They will be able to get a guest user pass which will be good for one day. That will also cost a $1. Mrs. Abbatt stated she did not think that the $1 fee was enough. Mr. Pultorak stated we may have to rethink that fee down the road. We need to see what percentage of people using the Internet are library card holders. We need to make data based decisions. Mrs. Bartles stated that Envisonware has a lot of reporting capabilities.

8. STAFF:

Mrs. Bartles stated that we have reassessed our staffing levels over the last year. James Lawhorn was moving back and forth between HFCL Children’s agency and Bryant as a Librarian II. It was not working well. Too many things happen on a daily basis particularly with the volunteer program at Bryant that a supervisor needs to be at Bryant on a regular basis. We have decided to move Jack Oakley to Bryant and he will be the supervisor there. James Lawhorn will go to Adult Services at HFCL to replace Jack. That will leave HFCL Children’s without a supervisor. Julie Schaefer, who is the Administrator over Children’s and the former supervisor of Children’s, will cover the supervisor role. We feel that we can better cover the lack of a supervisor here at HFCL than at a branch location. Mrs. Abbatt asked how Jack Oakley felt about returning to Bryant. Mrs. Bartles stated he was very happy about it. Additionally, Pat Crosbie who is an Assistant Librarian will go from Esper to Bryant. She was temporarily assigned to Esper to cover a maternity leave. The volunteer program is going well but we are trying to establish more training for volunteers and we are identifying those volunteers who are particularly good at certain things. It is a very big job to coordinate the volunteer program so we realized we needed to give them more staff to handle it. They are open the same amount of hours as the other branch locations. Toni Oakley who is the Librarian at Bryant will be moved back to Adult Services from Bryant.

9. NEW BUSINESS:

Dr. Coady called before the meeting. He received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the Commission and he wanted to extend his thanks to everyone.

At the previous months meeting Mr. Pultorak had asked about the Bookletters program. Mrs. Bartles reported that since Bookletters appeared in the library newsletter that goes to everyone in Dearborn’s home total subscribers went from 547 last month to 822 this month. We are hoping to offer a new list under Romance soon. Bookletters has invited us to a four hour workshop at the West Bloomfield library to learn marketing tools and tips and tricks. We have four staff members signed up to attend.

Mrs. Pressman asked how many of the Commissioners were planning to attend the Mayor’s Commission dinner on May 6^th. Mrs. Zakar stated that the Commissioners need to RSVP to the Mayor’s office by April 20^th. She asked the Commissioners to email her as well so she knows how many people are planning to attend. Mrs. Zakar will get to the dinner early and reserve a table all the Commissioners.

Marjorie Eckert from AAUW complemented the library on the book club set up. It’s a marvelous program. It reaches a lot of people.

Mr. Watters stated that the Commission packets are now being emailed to the Commissioners so that they can print it and bring it to the meeting. If you are unable to print something you should notify Carla so she can make you a copy. If she does not hear from you she can assume you were able to print it and will not have to bring as many copies to the meeting.

Mrs. Zakar reminded the Commissioners that the regular meeting on May 13, 2005 is cancelled. The retreat will be May 20^th from 4-7pm in the regular Commission room.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:05pm.