DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

February 8, 2008   

1. ATTENDANCE

In attendance were: Mr. Marcel Pultorak, Chairperson, Dr. Alex Shami, Vice-Chairperson, Mrs. Nancy Zakar, Secretary-Treasurer. Mrs. Candyce Abbatt,

Mr. Robert Taub, Commissioners. Mrs. Maryanne Bartles, Library Director;

Mrs. Julie Schaefer, Deputy Library Director; Ms. Tara Gnau and Mr. Steve Smith, Administrative Librarians. EXCUSED:  Mr. David Schlaff, Commissioner.

 

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the January Library Commission meeting were approved as submitted.

 

3. FOUNDATION UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported that the Library Foundation has received the second payment from the Owen Trust.  Mr. Pultorak asked where a donation to the Library Foundation should be sent.  Mrs. Bartles stated that Library Administration will accept donations for the foundation.  Checks should be made payable to the Dearborn Public Library Foundation.  Mrs. Schaefer reported that the fabricator who will work on the Children’s upgrade project was here on Thursday with Chris DeBear from Library Design.  We will meet with Library Design soon to discuss how the project will be staged.  Mrs. Bartles reported that we will need to have voice and data lines run to the new Children’s reference desk.  Mrs. Bartles is working with the Communication Department for the City to get quotes for this work for the Foundation.  Mrs. Zakar asked if the Foundation is currently at eight members. Mrs. Bartles reported that with their newest member, Steve Schroeder, they have eight members on the board.  Mrs. Bartles reported that the Foundation has a tentative web page.  Mrs. Bartles will email the Library Commissioners the URL for the foundation’s beta web page.  The next meeting of the Library Foundation is Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2008. 

 

4. BUDGET UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported that she and Mrs. Schaefer met with the Mayor regarding the library budget. Mrs. Bartles did convey to the Mayor the need for a full Library Commission in order to do strategic planning. The meeting dealt mostly with reviewing the line item budget.

 

5. INFORMATION ITEMS       

1.   Word Processing-Branches:  Steve Smith reported that word processing has been installed at Esper and Snow Branch Libraries.  Word processing had been previously installed at Bryant Branch so all the branches now have word processing. 

2.   New Commissioners: As mentioned earlier Mrs. Bartles spoke to the Mayor regarding the need for a full Library Commission. The Mayor stated he is aware of the vacancies and is working on it. 

3.   Bookmark Contest Reception, Feb. 10th @ 3pm: Mrs. Schaefer reported that we received over 800 entries,  from public and private schools in Dearborn, to our bookmark contest this year and ten winners were selected, two from each grade. Nine of the ten winners will be in attendance with their families at Sunday’s reception.  The entries are currently on display in the rotunda at HFCL.  The winning entries will be displayed after the reception on Sunday. 

4.   Downloadable List:  Steve Smith reported that the downloadable lists that were out of date on the webpage, as discussed at last month’s Library Commission meeting, have been removed from the web site.

5.   Monthly Statistics-Review:  Mrs. Bartles reported that Tara Gnau did a survey of what type of statistics other area libraries compile.  A list was distributed to the Commissoners.  Mrs. Bartles cautioned the Commission to think about what type of statistics that they really want to see as some of the statistics listed for other libraries may be nice to have but could require a lot of work to gather.  Mrs. Bartles goal is to gather the best statistics to tell the Commission how people are using the library rather than statistics on what staff does everyday because that information is in the annual report.  Internet and database use statistics would illustrate important parts of how the library is used now.  Mrs. Abbatt asked how much work would be involved in breaking the circulation number down in terms of what is being checked out.  Mrs. Bartles distributed the circulation detail report for all agencies that Horizon provides that gives this information.  It can not be edited or tailored so the report is 56 pages long. Mrs. Abbatt stated that the Commission would be more interested in what media patrons were checking out than the subject matter they are checking out.  Mrs. Bartles stated that the data would have to be extracted from this report.  Mrs. Abbatt stated that they would not need the circulation detail every month, every quarter or bi-annually would be sufficient. Mr. Pultorak asked if the circulation detail report can be received as a text file rather than a hard copy. He has software that can analyse a text file with Microsoft Excel using a template. Mrs. Bartles stated that it can be saved to a Microsoft Word file. Mr. Pultorak asked if Mrs. Bartles would email him the circulation detail text file report.  He would like to try to summarize it and come up with some different report examples to share with the Commission. Mrs. Abbatt stated that knowing the number of external homepage hits would be good information to have.  Mr. Taub asked if circulation usage could be broken down by age and gender.  Mrs. Bartles stated that it can, but it does not break those values down into what each age and gender checked out.  This information was compiled for the Mayor’s budget book and our largest users are children under 18.  Mrs. Bartles stated the circulation numbers can be compiled by subject, format, by age group, and by gender.  Mrs. Abbatt stated that seeing library fines more than once a year might be helpful.  Mrs. Bartles stated that fines are pretty flat at about $100,000 per year.  There was discussion about programming statistics.  It would be very difficult to compile programming statistics more than once a year. Mrs Abbatt stated more web statistics, internet use and demographics seem to be the most important information.  There was discussion related to listing donations as part of statistics or announcing them at the Commission meeting so that they will be entered into the minutes.  Mr. Pultorak discussed library delivery as a service to patrons for a fee.  He asked if other libraries did anything like that or contracted with a company to do this.  Ms. Gnau stated she would look at the list serve to see if there is anything like that.  Mrs. Bartles stated that she suggests that statistical information be provided to the Commission graphically as much as possible. 

 

6. ACTION ITEMS

There were no action items.

 

 7. COMMENTS

Mrs. Bartles informed the Commissioners that former Mayor John O’Reiley Sr., the Mayor’s father, passed away on Wednesday.  He was 89 years old.  There will be a visitation at the Ford Performing Arts Center on Sunday from 12noon to 7pm.  The funeral is on Monday at 11am at St. Alphonsus Church. 

 

Julie Schaefer reported that the Museum Adventure Pass program really took off in January with over 350 checkouts. 

 

Mrs. Abbatt asked what is going on with the library newsletter. Mrs. Bartles stated that we do not have any money to put out a printed/mailed newsletter.  We are trying to develop an online newsletter that people can sign up for through the BookLetters program. 

 

Mrs. Bartles stated that we have joined the Everyone Reads program which is a community read type program. The book selected this year is the Bee Keepers Apprentice by Laurie King.  Tara Gnau passed out some promotional information on the program to the Commissioners. 

 

Mrs. Bartles advised the Commissioners that we have purchased software from the American Library Association to allow us to make our own “Read” posters.  In the future we would like to have the Commissioners pose for a picture with their favorite book           so that we can create a “Read” poster out of it. 

 

Mrs. Bartles advised that the Mayors State of City Address is Feb. 20th at 7pm in the HFCL auditorium.         

 

Mrs. Bartles announced that we received a $300 donation from Anthony and Margaret Wade for the Bryant Branch Library, $400 from Alex and Susan Owen, $100 from Kathleen Monahan for Snow Branch Library and $400 from James and Janet Lesinski for Bryant Branch Library. 

 

Dr. Shami asked if we could hang a picture of the Mayor in the room the Commissioners meet in.  Mrs. Bartles stated she was not sure if there was an offical portrait of the Mayor but she would check.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:50pm.