DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

NOVEMBER 14, 2008         

 

1.  ATTENDANCE

In attendance were:  Mr. Marcel Pultorak, Chairperson; Mrs. Nancy Zakar, Secretary-Treasurer; Mr. Robert Taub, Mrs. Candyce Abbatt, Mrs. Jihan Jawad, and Mr. David Schlaff, Commissioners; Mrs. Maryanne Bartles, Library Director; Ms. Julie Schaefer, Deputy Library Director; Mr. Steve Smith, Administrative Librarian. Excused: Dr. Alex Shami, Vice-Chairperson.

 

2.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the October 2008 Library Commission Meeting were approved as submitted.

 

3.  FOUNDATION UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported that the next Library Foundation meeting is the Monday, November 24 at 6pm.  They are working on a tri-fold brochure to target ten to fifteen thousand households in Dearborn to encourage donations.  One of their new board members, Elizabeth Nato, has a lot of experience with this type of brochure and direct mailing. 

 

4.  BUDGET UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles stated that we have asked each agency in the library to submit their budget requests to Administration.  Mrs. Bartles and Ms. Schaefer will meet sometime next week to begin work on the budget book for the Mayor.  At the Mayor’s recent “In the Loop” sessions, which give City employee’s a chance to asks questions of the Mayor, he was asked if their would be further staff reductions for this upcoming budget year and he said no.  We plan to submit a budget that will pretty much mirror this year’s budget. 

 

5.  INFORMATION ITEMS

A. Policy Review:  Mrs. Bartles reported that the Administrative Panel has met a few times about this.  When we started reviewing the manuals it became apparent that since the policies are imbedded in the manuals it would be a huge amount of reading for the Commissioners to do.  We will need to pull the policy statements out of the manuals and provide a list to the Commission.  We also need to review the manuals as some of the information is out of date.  We hope to have the circulation policies and the information services guideline polices for the Commission at the December meeting. 

B. eCommerce (credit cards):  Mrs. Bartles reported that we purchased software to accept credit cards as payment for library fines and fees.  We had some trouble getting it going but it’s working now and we have been accepting credit cards at HFCL since mid-September.  The circulation supervisor at HFCL, Veronica Susalla, feels strongly that we are getting payments we would not otherwise get due to credit card acceptance.  We have worked it out well enough that we should be able to add the branches soon.  We still have a few bugs to work out with the reconciling but once that is taken care of we should be ready to expand the program to the branches.  The software also has an online component which allows for payment via our web site and we hope to add that in the future as well.  Mr. Schlaff asked about the fees paid by the library to accept credit cards.  Mrs. Bartles stated that we were able to join the City of Dearborn merchant account, which includes other City departments, so the fees are around 2%. 

C.  Output Measures:  Mrs. Bartles reported that we have done output measures in the past but not for a while.  Steve Smith is heading out the output measures committee.  We are going to be doing output measures for the week of Nov. 17 through Nov. 23rd during which we will record the number of reference transaction that we handle.  We will also look at other data that we are already recording in other areas.  We hope to be able to collect the same output measures data again in March next year as March is normally our busiest month. 

D. Goal setting (city-wide):  Mrs. Bartles reported that all the City department heads are attending a two-part facilitated goal setting workshop. The facilitator is the Opdyke Group.  The plan is that they will set goals for the City in the workshop sessions and then each department head will go back to their department and set goals for their department which in the libraries case is a function of the Library Commission.  After the goals for the City are set, Mrs. Bartles will come back to the Commission to see how they want to proceed with goal setting for the library.  We can either hire a facilitator or the Commission can work on goal setting in a strategic planning session.  Mr. Pultorak asked if there was any further word on new Library Commissioners to fill our vacancies and Mrs. Bartles said there was not.  Mrs. Bartles stated that the City plans to survey residents and ask them to prioritize city services.  Mr. Pultorak stated that the Mayor spoke at his neighborhood association and he is focused on employee accountability, follow through and common sense in giving good customer service. 

 

6.  ACTION ITEMS

A.  Library Hours:  Mr. Pultorak reported that this item had been tabled until the November meeting because the Commission has not had a chance to review this with the City Attorney.  Mrs. Bartles reported that she gave the Commissioners some calendars to hopefully better illustrate the different scenarios.  The proposal is to have the library summer hours begin on June 1st and run through Labor Day in order to make it more consistent year to year.  Mr. Pultorak stated that this was discussed with City Attorney Kim Craig who advised that the Commission does not have a requirement to get the approval of the various unions before making such a change though they do need to confer with the unions which they have done. Mrs. Bartles also discussed, as a future consideration for the Commission, extending the library hours to 6pm at HFCL on Friday and at the branches on Wednesday and Thursday without changing the opening time.  Mr. Schlaff motioned to accept the proposal to have summer hours begin on June 1st and end at Labor Day, in order to make the hours more consistent for library patrons, seconded by Mr. Taub, all approved. 

B.  Library Commission By-laws:  Mr. Pultorak stated that the Commission discussed at their last meeting changing the by-laws with respect to references to the City of Dearborn charter in order to make them consistent.  Mrs. Bartles reported that she took the changes to Corporation Counsel, Debra Walling, for her review and she had some questions about why the quorum was so low which Mrs. Bartles explained was self preservation because the Commission was down members.  Ms. Walling also said the by-laws should state how many affirmative votes are required to adopt a resolution or take action.  Mrs. Bartles gave the Commission some example from other libraries.  Mr. Schlaff motioned to accept the proposed changes to Article 6 and Article 7, seconded by Mrs. Zakar, all approved. 

 

7.  COMMENTS

         Carla Eggert thanked the Library Commission for the beautiful flowers they sent to her while she was off sick.

           

    Mr. Pultorak stated he started to look at the basic training for trustee’s DVD that was recorded from a training session put on by MLA.  He stated that there is a lot of information that does not apply to us as a public library.  Mr. Pultorak offered to outline the information for the Commission so that they do not have to go through the entire DVD.

 

     Mrs. Bartles stated that the Commission pictures have been hung in the Library Commission Meeting room. 

 

     Mrs. Abbatt asked about the status of the Read posters.  Mrs. Bartles stated that Denise was having problems with the software but she would check with Denise about them. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:48 PM.