DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

NOVEMBER 10, 2006

 

1. ATTENDANCE

In attendance were:

MRS. NANCY ZAKAR, Chairperson;

MR. MARCEL PULTORAK, Vice-Chairperson;

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

MRS. DIANE PEPPER, MR. ROBERT TAUB, MR. DAVID SCHLAFF,

MR. RONALD WATTERS, Commissioners;

MRS. MARYANNE BARTLES, Library Director; MRS. JULIE SCHAEFER, Deputy Library Director; MS. TARA GNAU, MR. STEVE SMITH, Administrative Librarians;

MRS. MARGE ECKERT, AAUW.

 

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the September and October Commission meetings were approved as submitted.

 

3. FOUNDATION UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported that the service agreement between the City and the Library Foundation has been signed by all parties.  The initial payment of $10,000 has been made to the foundation and they have deposited the funds in their bank account.  They need to have insurance in place before the transfer of the additional $140,000 can be made as per the agreement.  This needs to be done with in thirty days of the City Council resolution.  The Library Foundation is working on this and should have it in place by the end of November. The furniture needed to establish the foundation office will be approximately $5000.  Mrs. Bartles reported that there is a little bit of money left in the HFCL carpeting project purchase order so the carpeting will be replaced in the room the Library Commission meeting room and foundation office area with carpet tiles.  This will allow us to the place the data and phone lines under the new carpeting and bring them to the center of the conference table. 

 

4. BUDGET AND STAFFING UPDATE

Mrs. Zakar introduced Steve Smith to the Library Commissioners who did not meet him at the last meeting.  Mr. Smith is the new Administrative Librarian.  He officially started his position on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006. 

Mrs. Bartles reported that revenue and expense projections portions of the budget for this fiscal year and next fiscal year have been submitted to City Administration.  The capital portion of the budget is due December 1st and we are working on that now.  Mrs. Bartles reported that at the CDI meetings they have been asking each City department for budget cuts.  Library Administration has come up with various cost cutting scenarios for the libraries.  The least cost savings scenario is the one with the least service impact and we hope that City Administration would go with that scenario.  This would effect our staffing but would have a minimal effect on the public.  We will present our first and second reduction scenarios at the CDI meeting next Friday, Nov. 17th. Mr. Watters asked if a percentage or dollar amount for the cuts needed was given by City Administration.  Mrs. Bartles reported City Administration is asking for cuts but have not given an official number needed.  Mrs. Bartles would guess in the area of $3 to $3.5 million dollars. Even though the City continues to cut staff, costs for health care and pension funding continue to increase. 

We currently have a vacancy for a Librarian II due to a retirement.  We are allowed to fill the position by promotion.  Testing for the position will occur next week and interviews will follow that.  We should have the position filled by December. We have vacancies for a newly created professional part time position and we hope to fill three of those positions by year end.  Mrs. Zakar asked if those part time positions would require a library science degree.  Mrs. Bartles stated they do not require a MLS but will require a bachelor’s degree.  Mrs. Pepper asked about the grievances that were filed that were mentioned at last month’s meeting.  Mrs. Bartles reported that due to retirements we had a Librarian II and an Assistant Librarian position in Processing open as well as an Assistant Librarian vacancy in Adult Services both at HFCL.  Initially City Administration advised Mrs. Bartles that she would not be able to fill any of those openings.  Mrs. Bartles was able to get agreement for City Administration to be able to fill the Librarian II and one Assistant Librarian position. City Administration agreed to allow Mrs. Bartles to hire some part time professional staff to take on some of the work created by the additional vacancy.  The union filled a grievance stating that those jobs belong to the union and Mrs. Bartles is giving them to non-union staff.  The grievance has been denied by the City and the union must now decide if they will go to arbitration. If it goes to arbitration and the City were to lose, Mrs. Bartles would not be able to fill the positions with full time employees.     

 

5. OLD BUSINESS

1.   QSAC CERTIFICATION-We have submitted documentation to obtain our initial QSAC certification and have been inquiring with the State of Michigan for a status report for the last two weeks and have not heard anything yet.  We are continuing to prepare the documentation for the next level of certification. Mr. Watters asked what value there for the library for certifying.  Mrs. Bartles stated that, as of now, there is only the recognition that the library has achieved an established standard. In the future it may be a requirement in applying for grants.

2.   COFFEE SHOP- Mrs. Bartles reported that she spoke with the Library Director at the University of Michigan-Dearborn Mardigian Library.  They currently have a café on site but did have a kiosk type coffee stand before the café.  They were told by Wayne County that they could not have a kiosk and they had to close it down because of the hot water needs and sanitary issues. Mrs. Bartles has a number to contact Wayne County regarding this but has not talked with them as of yet. We also have an issue with not having a hot water source for a kiosk.  University libraries seem to do well with a coffee shop while public libraries do not seem to do as well.  Mrs. Bartles has not heard back from the City Purchasing Department regarding the vending machines.  Mrs. Zakar asked where Mrs. Bartles was considering placing the vending machines.  Mrs. Bartles stated that we would put them on the mezzanine at HFCL

3.   WORD PROCESSING- Mrs. Zakar stated that Library Administration has a proposal before the Library Commission to make word processing available to the public at HFCL.  We do not currently offer this service to patrons. If approved we will offer Microsoft Office.  We have enough licenses to offer Microsoft Word and Excel on every public computer at HFCL.  We do not have enough PowerPoint licenses to offer that on every machine but we will offer it on some of the computers.  We will also sell floppy disks and USB flash drives if the service is approved.  Mrs. Abbatt motioned to approve the word processing proposal, seconded by Mr. Pultorak, all approved. 

4.   BY-LAWS REVIEW COMMITTEE- Mrs. Zakar stated that at the last meeting we discussed reviewing our by-laws.  The document states that we last changed them on 01/30/06 but at that time all that was done was a change to the title of the Library Director. We have been discussing Library Commissioner participation by phone if they can not attend a meeting which would require a by-law change.  Mr. Pultorak stated he spoke with the City Attorney regarding phone participation and she stated that as long as the Commissioner who is not present can fully participate in the meeting, phone participation is fine.  However, voting by email would not be permissible. There was some discussion regarding the City Charter revision currently going on and how it may affect the Library Commission in the future.  Mrs. Abbatt stated she has looked at the state law regarding libraries and we are required to have a Library Commission or board.  She will look over them again for the next meeting.  Nancy Zakar, Marcel Pultorak, Robert Taub and Diane Pepper will form a by-law review committee to go over the Library Commission by-laws. 

5.   MEETING ATTENDENCE- Mrs. Zakar noted that we have 100% Library Commissioner attendance at today’s meeting which is wonderful. Mrs. Zakar stated that a library patron has tracked Library Commissioner meeting attendance.  She came to a recent meeting to present her information on this problem.  She has asked us to change the meeting time if Commissioners are unable to attend.  Mrs. Zakar stated that all of the Commissioners agreed to meet on Fridays at 4pm when they agreed to serve as Library Commissioners. We can change the meeting time if the Commissioners feel it would be better for them. However, we have discussed changing the meeting times in the past but have never come to a consensus on a better meeting time so Mrs. Zakar is not sure that changing the time would make a difference in attendance. The Commissioners discussed the time and agreed they wanted to keep the meeting on second Friday of the month at 4pm. Mrs. Zakar asked the Commissioners if they are not still committed to attending the meetings to please let her know.  The by-laws state that three consecutive absences or four non-consecutive absences can be cause for removal from the Library Commission. 

6.   LOAN PERIOD FOR DVD AND MUSIC CDS- Mrs. Zakar explained that currently DVD’s are allowed a two day checkout period and Library Administration would like to extend that to seven days.  Music CD’s can currently be checked out for seven days and Library Administration would like to extend that to fourteen days.  Our collection of both of these types of materials has grown.  Some patrons will not check out DVD’s because they know that they can not return them within two days.  If there are holds on the material they will still only circulate for two days for DVD’s or one week for music CD’s.  Mr. Pultorak motioned to accept the changes, seconded by Mr. Taub, all approved.

7.   CODE OF CONDUCT- Mrs. Zakar explained that the copy of the new proposed Code of Conduct that the Commissioners have shows the changes in red font.  Mr. Pultorak motioned to approve the changes, seconded by Mr. Schlaff, all approved. 

8.   CAPITAL UPDATE- Mrs. Bartles stated that she hoped to have a hand out for the Commission on the status of our capital projects but she was not able to have it for this meeting.  She will have it for our next Commission meeting.  Mrs. Bartles stated that the windows at the Bryant Branch library are currently being replaced. The doors at Bryant will also be replaced.  Mrs. Zakar asked if the Chamber of Commerce is still planning to move into the lower level of Bryant.  Mrs. Bartles stated that they are still in negotiations with the City.  Security cameras have been installed throughout HFCL and at Snow and Bryant.  They will be installed at Esper as well. The tapestry project at HFCL is not going well.  We have been working with a company for over a year and they have still not done the work so we are going cancel the purchase order with them and try to find another company to do the work.  

9.   NEW LIBRARY COMMISSIONER- Mrs. Zakar reported that she and Mrs. Bartles went to see Sylvia Pressman and presented her with the citation for her forty years of service to the Library Commission.  She is doing well but is no longer driving and felt this was the time to give up her work with the Commission.  Mrs. Bartles spoke to the Mayor’s office and the Library Commission needs to supply a pool of candidates with their biographies completed to the Mayor and he will select from the group.  Mrs. Bartles asked the Commissioners to consider people they know for the Library Commission.  Carla will email the biography sheet to the Commissioners.  If they have a potential Commissioner in mind please have their information for the next meeting. 

 

6. NEW BUSINESS

Mrs. Bartles stated that she forgot to mention at the last meeting that Peg Watson passed away.  She was a former Library Commissioner who was very active in the City.  Mrs. Bartles discussed the schedule for the remaining public education series that the City is presenting.  In the month of October the library collected $1573 in Internet user card fees which is about double what we were collecting before the yearly pass cost was raised to $10.  We had our first public computer class, basic Internet usage, yesterday. Seven patrons attended. They rated our instructor as excellent and all stated that they would like to see more classes and would be willing to pay for classes.  If we do more advanced classes Mrs. Bartles may ask the Library Commission to allow us to charge for the classes to recoup some of our costs. 

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:06pm.