DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

03-10-06

 

1. ATTENDANCE:

In attendance were: MRS. NANCY ZAKAR, Chairperson, MR. MARCEL PULTORAK,

Vice-Chairperson; DR. ALEX SHAMI, Secretary-Treasurer; MRS. CANDYCE ABBATT,

MR. ROBERT TAUB, MR. RONALD WATTERS, MRS. SYLVIA PRESSMAN; Commissioners;

MARYANNE BARTLES, Assistant Library Director, MRS. JULIE SCHAEFER,

Administrative Librarian.  MARGE ECKERT, AAUW.

EXCUSED:  MRS. DIANE PEPPER, MR. DAVID SCHLAFF, Commissioners;

 

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The minutes from the February Commission meeting were approved with spelling corrections submitted by Mr. Pultorak.

 

3. BUDGET UPDATE:

Mrs. Bartles reported that the Mayor reviewed all of the budgets submitted by the city departments.  On our budget one item was removed. We had requested $15,000 to update our training room facility at HFCL.  This is a room that we use for both staff training and when we have staff available to do public training it is used for that as well.  This item was not approved and has been removed from the budget.  City Council discussions regarding other budget reductions have not yet occurred.  Dr. Coady believes that the City will put together a package of different reduction proposals which will be presented to the Council.  

 

4. CHARTER COMMISSION UPDATE:

Mrs. Bartles reported that Dr. Coady checked with Debbie Walling, Corporation Counsel for the City, regarding the Charter Commission.  Ms. Walling said that the Charter Commission is at least 2 months away from talking about the departments.  The Mayor thinks that once they get to the point that they are ready to work on the portion of the City Charter that deals with the departments they will want to meet with the Commissioners and staff to address questions.   Mr. Taub asked what the Charter Commission has worked on so far.  Mrs. Bartles stated she believes they are still working on the first portion of the charter introduction.  Mr. Pultorak stated that posting updates on the Charter Commission on the City web page would be a good idea.

 

5. FINES REPORT:

Mrs. Bartles stated that at the last Commission meeting Mrs. Abbatt had asked if we had reviewed our fine structure lately.  Julie Schaefer pulled out a survey we had done about a year ago in which we contacted several local libraries and asked them various questions about their policies and fine structure.  Julie Schaefer explained that she ranked where Dearborn fell in each category and then at the bottom of each column she figured the median fine for that category. Mr. Taub asked what would be considered an “informational DVD”.  Mrs. Schaefer stated that they are non fictional DVD’s relating to a particular topic which are shelved with our books.  Mr. Watters asked when the last increase in fines was done.  Mrs. Bartles stated approximately six years ago.  Mrs. Abbatt stated we may have addressed fines on DVD’s with in the last four years or so. One of the reasons for the $2.00 per day fine on entertainment DVD’s is to encourage patrons to return them on time as there can be many holds on popular titles. Dr. Shami stated that we may already do this but when entertainment movies are checked out we should make sure to remind patrons that the fines are $2.00 per day on this type of material.  Mrs. Bartles stated that we do have new signage at HFCL, near the drop box, which lists the fines.  Mr. Taub asked if we kept track of fines and if so how much did we collect on DVD’s.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she could not say on DVD’s specifically but annually we collect about $90,000 in fines.  Mr. Watters stated that he would be interested to see the break down in annual fines collected by each category. He felt that we might have an opportunity to raise fines on informational DVD’s as our fines are low compared to other libraries.  Mrs. Bartles explained the fine on this type of material used to be $1.00 per day but was hard for patrons to understand the difference between book, entertainment and informational DVD fines.  Also, there is not a great demand for informational DVD’s and videos.  Fines encourage patrons to return material quickly but at a certain point fines will discourage patron demand for material. Mr. Taub stated that an additional fine for material which is on reserve and is returned late might be a good idea.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she was not sure if our system would allow us to do this because fines are controlled by item loan type.  If we had to put new or popular material in its own category someone would have to manage this, adding and removing titles, which would require a considerable amount of staff time.  Mrs. Bartles stated that the recent policy change in the number of times patrons can renew material encourages patrons to return popular material.  Mrs. Zakar asked at what level of fines a patron would be stopped from checking out material.  Mrs. Schaefer stated that if a patron reaches $5.00 in fines they are not allowed to check out more material. Mr. Watters stated that we should publicize the fact that we have not raised fines in six years even with our budget difficulties. 

 

6. DR. SHAMI’S QUESTON ABOUT HFCC STUDENT AID:

Mrs. Bartles stated that Dr. Coady spoke to Jackie Grady at HFCC regarding the use of work study students.  He was told that this would require a contract between the City and HFCC as well as payment.  HFCC would not provide the workers as volunteers.   Dr. Coady is still planning to investigate this as a possible source of part time workers.

 

7. INTERNET POLICY UPDATE:

Mrs. Bartles stated that with the new Envisonware software that we have in place to manage public Internet usage we needed to update the Internet policy to reflect the move to the new software from our old homegrown software, Dearborn Connect.  Mrs. Bartles explained that the revised policy the Commissioners have been given has been reviewed by the Legal Department.  The Legal Department asked for elaboration on a few points in the Internet Acceptable Use Policy portion of the document.  Mrs. Bartles explained those changes to the Commissioners.  She advised that she has copies of the original document with all of the changes marked if the Commissioners wished to see it. She also explained that anytime someone signs onto a public Internet computer this policy comes up and they must accept it before they are allowed to continue. Mrs. Abbatt asked if a minor has to have a parent present in order to use the Internet.  Mrs. Bartles stated that if they are not 18 they can not sign on to the one unfiltered Internet station at HFCL.  All of the other computers at HFCL and the branches are filtered and have no such restriction as to who may sign on. Mrs. Abbatt stated she was at Esper a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday and a couple of boys were on the Internet.  A male librarian walked up to each of them and asked if there was a parent there with them.  There was a parent in the building but the boys seemed offended to have been asked and she did not blame them as they were behaving themselves.  Mrs. Abbatt asked if the staff understand the Internet policy in regards to children.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she would double check that the staff did understand but that this building has a lot of children as patrons and many are dropped off unattended which is a problem.  The librarian may have been inquiring if they were with a parent for that reason rather than in regard to their Internet use. Mr. Watters asked if an adult was needed to log a child on the computers.  Mrs. Bartles stated they were not.  All patrons are required to have a library card or purchase an Internet day pass for $1 to use the Internet. We have averaged $1000 a month in Internet day passes since we installed the new software. Mr. Pultorak stated that he spoke to Doug Feldkamp, head of MIS about wireless Internet access and was told it was in the works. Mrs. Bartles explained that MIS had been out to each library building surveying the facilities for wireless access.  We know it is coming in the future but we do not have any timetable for when it will be installed.  Mr. Watters stated the Internet policy would have to be updated again before the implementation of wireless access as it has many implications for us.  Mr. Taub motioned to accept the revised Internet policy, seconded by Mr. Pultorak, all approved.   

 

8. J FUND UPDATE:

 Mrs. Bartles reported that Dr. Coady has met with both the Legal and Finance Departments in regard to the j fund monies.  It was decided that the Legal Department will draft a service agreement between the City of Dearborn and the Library Foundation providing for $50,000 per year for four years and the remainder in the fifth year.  The Library Foundation officers seemed okay with this agreement. Auditing and annual report on the use of the funds would be required.  The Mayor will see a draft of the agreement.  Dr. Coady hopes to have a draft document to present at the April Library Commission meeting.  Mrs. Abbatt asked if the money would be distributed in a lump sum each year. Mrs. Bartles stated that the actual procurement procedure the Foundation would follow has not been worked out as of yet.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she works with the City procurement process every day and it is not a bad process.  The rules are very straightforward and out in the open.  There are no questions as to how the money was spent or which vendors were chosen. Mrs. Abbatt asked who in the Legal Department was working on the agreement.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she did not know which City attorney would handle it. 

 

9. INSIDERS GUIDE TO THE COMMISSION BROCHURE:

The Commissioners were given a copy of the final draft of the Insiders Guide to the Library Commission.  The Commissioners liked the graphics, colors and layout and complimented Mrs. Bartles for her work on the document.  Mr. Watters asked if the document had been distributed as of yet. Mrs. Bartles stated it had not but we will have the document printed and put out for the public at our buildings.  Mr. Watters stated we should put it on our web page as well. 

 

10. NEW BUSINESS:

 

Cell Phone Policy- Copies of an email that was received from library patron Mr. Barszczowski, regarding cell phone use in the library, was given to the Commissioners.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she spoke with Mr. Barszczowski today as he was unable to attend the Commission meeting. Mrs. Bartles does not disagree with his position that cell phone use should not be permitted in the library.  Taking into consideration that cell phone use is so much a part of our society now and everyone has a cell phone staff can’t spend their day dealing with cell phone use as they would not be doing the job they are here to do. We do ask patrons using their phones to outside or to the lobby to finish their conversation.  We have signs asking patrons to turn off their phones off or to silent and to go to the lobby to use it.  Some patrons ignore staff or get angry with staff if asked to turn their phone off. Mr. Pultorak stated he believes that the library should be a quiet place or at least quite zones in the library.  Mr. Watters stated that he felt our policy should be no cell phone use at all in the library buildings. Mrs. Zakar stated it would be very hard to enforce a complete restriction on cell phone use.  She asked if there is security staff in the buildings during the day. Mrs. Bartles stated there was not. Mrs. Schaefer stated we currently treat it as a noise situation.  If they are very noisy and the phone is constantly ringing staff will address it.  Mr. Watters felt we should restrict library use for those who break the policy.  Mrs. Abbatt asked we could handle enforcing such a restriction if the person does not have a library card or would not give their name.  Would staff then have to call the police which would just create a bigger disturbance?  Dr. Shami asked if Administration would survey other libraries on how they handle this issue.  Mrs. Bartles stated we would.  Mrs. Zakar asked Administration to respond to Mr. Barszczowski and let him know we are looking into this.

 

Horizon-Mrs. Bartles stated we are starting to load the new software.  Our go live date is April 5th.  It has come to our attention that there is something in Dynix called a grace day which gives patrons a one day grace period on fines in some instances.  The Horizon software will continue to do this if we tell it to.  We are presenting it to the Commission because it is a policy issue.  Mrs. Bartles explained that we currently tell patrons they should not count on the grace period.  The Commissioners felt the one day period was not going to make a significant difference in fines and agreed to leave the policy as it is now. 

 

Circulation Statistics- Mrs. Bartles stated that a new Circulation report was given to the Commission for January and February 2006. The old report was done in R Base which is outdated software.  The new report has been prepared in Excel. She explained the changes to the format of the report.  She also discussed how the Commissions decision last month to change active cardholders from a two to three year standard and the addition of Internet cards affected some of the statistics. Mr. Pultorak stated that he would like to see Internet usage statistics for the libraries.

 

Director Search- Mrs. Zakar explained that the Library Director position has been posted both internally in the City as well as externally on the American Library Association, Michigan Library Association and other web sites.  The Library Commission sub-committee will begin working with the City of Dearborn Human Resource Department on interview questions and will review those applications that are received.

Library patron and Foundation board member Marge Bryer spoke to the Library Commission.  She urged the Commission to conduct a wide search for Dr. Coady’s replacement.  Dr. Coady has worked closely with the Library Foundation and Mrs. Bryer feels it is very important his successor do the same. 

Library patron Judith Patrick spoke to the Library Commission.  She asked when the Library Director position closed.  Mrs. Zakar advised the position posting closes on March 21st.  Mrs. Parker also stated that if the City implements the plan for reducing library staff to part time only at the branch locations some standards for service must be set to insure that branch patrons are receiving the same services. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:25PM.