Hooksett Public Library

Board of Trustees

October 5, 2005 9:00AM

Minutes

Present: Mary Farwell, Chairperson, Mary Leger, Secretary, Heather Shumway, Director

Secretary's Report:

Add to September 13, 2005 minutes:

• HS will keep track of new patrons year to year.
• Also, HS will speak to Debbie Schimmel regarding first graders visiting the library. Will express an interest to be invited to a Teacher Workshop meeting to explain how the library and schools can work together.

Minutes were then approved and filed.

Treasurer's Report: Treasurer's year to date and monthly figures were discussed. With 25% of the year passed, budget figures are at slightly more than 20%. We are anticipating very high upcoming utility bills and will be tracking this.

Director's Report: Attached

Unfinished Business:

• CIP HVAC-Phase 2
  • HS looking for hard copy of Integrated Engineered Systems proposal. MF to try to obtain dates for presentation.
• Shelving Options
  • HS waiting for proposal from Ed Comptois - will call him again.
• Estimate To Replace Meeting Room Rug
  • Mike from A&E Flooring will be here 10/11/05 for estimate.
• Payroll Issues
  • Contract in place-signed by MF. Precise Payroll is now merging. New name is American Payroll & HR LLC. No change in service or procedure is expected
  • HS will compile a checklist for Alice of things to be done on each visit and reports to be prepared for Library Director and Treasurer
• Electrical Fire-Status of Claim
  • Fire Department has been asked to submit a detailed report of our electrical fire and subsequent actions to our insurance carrier.
• Walmart Grant
  • HS to make a copy of the deposit slip from the Book Sale and take to Brenda at Walmart, as the grant we have applied for is a matching grant.
• Library Publicity
  • Book Sale advertisment in The Banner, PTA Folders, PTA Newsletter, for all three schools.
• Wireless Internet
  • MF wants to add a line in the policy regarding what damages could occur. A check with Panera may be beneficial, as they offer this service and must have a policy.
  • Tech Net (GMILCS internet group) to discuss. One question…does that open us up to liability if building next door is tapped into? Do we need to add a protection clause to policy? Tabled for feedback from Tech Net.
• Target Grant
  • Article and picture should be published to announce Target Grant when everything is settled.

New Business:

• Donations for 2005
  • No monetary donations yet.
• Request for Reconsideration
  • The Cat Who Killed Lillian Jackson Braun by Robert Kaplow was opposed by a patron. Trustees felt that jacket explained content. Two staff members reviewed it and did not think it was x-rated or pornographic, although, not particularly good either. Need to write procedure for reconsideration of material.
• Library Sign
  • Our options are renovation or replacement. Sign to be removed because it is incorrect. HS to check quotes for new sign.
• Request for Civic Orgs Advertising Sales
  • Community bulletin board might be appropriate. Need policy when benefiting Hooksett in some way. HS to check other libraries to see if policy is in place.
• New Trustee
  • We have more than one interested candidate. We will interview all of them. MF suggested that since we have positions for library projects that need to be filled, perhaps these interested parties can help if not chosen as Trustee at this time. Some of the projects include a young mother's group, teen programs, marketing the library, and researching the possibility and costs of the library housing town, and historical society archival documents. HS will bring it up at a Staff Meeting for additional staff input
• Budget
  • HS prepared a very detailed draft of the 2006-2007 budget. Trustees iscussed preliminary figures and will be researching various items for further discussion at a later time. MF will check with Diane Savoie about projections for utility and health insurance increases.
• Newsletter for Town Council
  • It is our goal to have a newsletter to the Council and Budget Committee by the nd of October. HS to prepare draft and email to trustees for feedback.
• Copier
  • HS is researching costs of leasing vs. buying a replacement copier. She will present findings at next Trustees's meeting for review
• Friends
  • Kathy Scott will be designing a logo for the Hooksett Friends of the library to use.
• Vacation/sick accrual
  • HS will email MF her vacation/sick accrual figures that she sent to Precise Payroll. We need to think about how we will keep track of the numbers on a fiscal year basis, so that we know how much money will need to be placed in the special vacation/sick accrual fund at the end of the fiscal year.

Items We Are Tracking:

• Volunteers
• John Queenan's WWII Plaque Publicity
• Insurance for Library Contents
• Vacation Policy
• Policy manual - update and add policies as appropriate

Next Trustee Meeting: Weds., Nov. 2, 2005 9:00AM

Circulation:

The library has raised $405 in donations for the Red Cross. Donations were made to the Red Cross by patrons who in turn had their fines waived. Staff and trustees are encouraged to donate to the total before it is presented to the Red Cross, if they wish to do so.

Children's Department:

Storytime has begun with a roar! All morning classes are full, as an alternative there are slots open in the afternoon classes for any new children in the community to join through the year. Toddler time has also begun on its once a month time slot. The storytime parents are thrilled with the tea and coffee setup and feel very welcomed when they are here.

Vickie completed weeding the children's paperback collection, weeding the items that need considerable repair. She continues to work on weeding the juvenile nonfiction books, focusing on out of date material and items needing replacing.

Vickie attended the most recent Merri-Hill-Rock Coop meeting with me as we heard from Ann Hoey on the PLA program, Every Child Ready to Read at Your Library. It was very informative and gave us some great ideas to try in the future months.

Building Maintenance:

The town insurance company has requested a detailed report from Gimas Electric and the Hooksett Fire Department in response to the claim for our electrical fire. Diane Savoie has contacted both parties regarding the reports.

Peter Lennon of the Hooksett Fire Department conducted a follow-up inspection of the areas needing changes in his recent inspection report. The areas of note were either completely fixed or in the process of being fixed. We owe thanks to Wes for his help with updating our fire extinguishers and other areas of concern. During our walkthrough, we discovered that our assembly permit had expired. Peter issued us a new permit for each of our large meeting rooms. It is our expectation that these will be reissued annually as part of our routine inspection with the Hooksett Fire Department. We determined that Atlantic Security had not performed building inspections in the past and that future inspections will be conducted by the fire department.

Staff News:

Mark is working very hard to keep up with processing new books as well as all of the new book donations that are flowing in. Mark continues to supervise Jane Potter as she volunteers her time each week. She has completed weeding adult fiction and is now compiling a list of all titles within each series. These lists are then checked by Rosanne who is looking for gaps in popular series. The goal is to eventually label all of the fiction series items as Mark currently does with new titles belonging to a series.

Jeff has completed our wireless set up and we are now a wireless hotspot with access upstairs and downstairs. There is limited signal in the upper parking lot, even with the extended antennas. Jeff has completed installation of the new staff computers and is working on the installation of the public computers, including the two new research-based computers.

LeeAnn and Mark will be attended the NELA conference in Worcester with me this October. There are a number of programs that sound very informative and with direct impact on how we conduct services here at our library.

Respectfully submitted,

Heather Shumway

October 3, 2005