DEARBORN DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES

LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING

03-13-09

1.  ATTENDANCE

In attendance were:  Mr. Marcel Pultorak, Chairperson; Mrs. Nancy Zakar, Secretary-Treasurer,

Mr. Robert Taub, Mrs. Candyce Abbatt, Mr. David Schlaff and Mrs. Jihan Jawad, Commissioners; Mrs. Maryanne Bartles, Library Director; Ms. Julie Schaefer, Deputy Library Director; Mr. Steve Smith, Administrative Librarian. Absent: Dr. Alex Shami, Vice-Chairperson

 

2.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the February 2009 Library Commission Meeting were approved as submitted.

 

3.  FOUNDATION UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported the next Library Foundation meeting is Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 6pm.  They have almost completed the tri-fold brochure for mailing.  

 

4.  BUDGET UPDATE

Mrs. Bartles reported that the City is facing a potential $10 million structural deficit.  Each department head was asked to go through their budget and cut as much as possible in hopes of reducing the deficit by $5million. Mr. Schlaff asked about the capital budget.  Mrs. Bartles stated she was asked to defer two items and she was asked to give up the mezzanine renovation at HFCL and the parking lot at Bryant.  Mrs. Bartles asked to switch the mezzanine renovation project with the lighting project recently submitted as work on the mezzanine project has already begun.  Mr. Schlaff asked about the Chamber of Commerce moving into the Bryant Branch lower level and if they would be renting the space.  Mrs. Bartles stated that renovations will begin by the end of March and that the Chamber of Commerce will pay rent and a portion of the utilities for the west side of the lower level of the Bryant building to the City of Dearborn.

 

5.  INFORMATION ITEMS-

A.   Budget Book- Mr. Pultorak stated that the Commissioners should have received copies of the budget book via email.  He thanked Mrs. Bartles for the information and asked her to forward the budget numbers when she receives them.

B.   LSTA Grant- Mrs. Bartles reported that we did not receive the LSTA Grant that we applied for in order to set up a learning English lab and purchase Rosetta Stone software. 

C.   State of the City of Dearborn- Mrs. Bartles stated she has four extra folders from the Mayor’s State of the City address for any of the Commissioners who would like one.  There is mention of the renovated children’s area at HFCL.

D.   Graphic Novels-Ms. Schaefer advised the Commission that we will begin separating graphic novels, which are comic book type illustrated books, from the regular collection at the request of our children’s and young adult committees.  The graphic novels that we will separate will be the paperback fiction type of books and there will be a section for children’s graphic novels and a section for young adult graphic novels.  Non-fiction books in the graphic novel format will continue to be shelved with the regular collection. There was discussion on the graphic novel format.

E.   Library Minutes- Mrs. Bartles advised that we will post the proposed minutes within 8 days of the Commission meeting on the web site and make them available for the public. Mrs. Bartles apologized for not doing this previously as we were not aware of this requirement.  Mrs. Bartles reported that the February minutes were posted in the proposed format.

F.    Library Director Evaluation- Mrs. Bartles reported that the Commission asked her at the last meeting to research library director evaluations.  Mrs. Bartles gave the Commissioners a packet of information including a current library director job description which was updated by Pat Coady before his retirement, an article on evaluating the director from the state of Wisconsin and one sample of a director evaluation from another library.  Mr. Pultorak stated that it is the job of the Commission to evaluate the library director and he asked the Commissioners to review the information provided by Mrs. Bartles so that the Commission can discuss establishing a procedure and timeframe for evaluation. 

G.  Code of Conduct-Crying children- Mrs. Bartles reported that the Mayor suggested the possibility of adding something to the library code of conduct regarding crying children after a recent incident at the library.  Mrs. Bartles researched other libraries codes of conduct and found that many of them have lengthy descriptions.  An example of a code of conduct statement regarding crying children from Cook County Library was presented to the Commission.  There was discussion relating to the current code of conduct and it was decided the statements on disruptive behavior were sufficient to address this type of situation.

H.   Policy Review- Mrs. Bartles advised the Commission that the staff, in monthly committees, would be working on updating the Collection Development, Children’s Program, Problem Patron, Marketing, and Volunteer manuals as well as creating a Facility Usage and Rental manual. Mrs. Bartles described the type of policy information included in each manual. 

6.  ACTION ITEMS- None

7.  COMMENTS-

Mrs. Abbatt asked how the volunteer program at Bryant was progressing. Mrs. Bartles stated she gets a monthly report on the program and it seems to be doing well. The Bryant volunteers continue to do the paperback processing for the library which used to take a lot of staff time. There will be an orientation for new volunteers on Saturday, March 21st. 

 

The April meeting of the Library Commission has been moved from Friday, April 10th to Friday, April 3rd due to the Good Friday holiday.  We will post the meeting change to the web page and at each library location. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM.