Library Advisory Board – February 2024

Video Description:
Library Advisory Board – February 2024

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Speaker 1 0:00
Let’s go ahead and call the meeting to order. And in terms of the previous moments, Tracy, I’m sorry, Matt, you know, this time the night, obviously, but even see corrections were the previous three minutes where you would like to make a motion to approve. Motion to approve

Speaker 1 0:31
Second back. And hopefully I’ll be able to be in person at the next meeting. So I can say first American and sugary any public? I don’t think so. But since I’m not there, and might be received somewhat enable members from the public who would like to be speak at this point.

Unknown Speaker 0:53
There’s no no one here. Thanks. Wait, and

Speaker 1 1:00
I cannot remember who signed up for the monthly I figured we all know is that you? Yep, that was. So for this one, um, that folks could share their favorite movie or CD or kind of Tom something other than a book that you found in the library. And so I’ll just go ahead and start for a movie, I found KonTiki view, which is about just based on a true story, where someone was trying to prove that it was possible to that for the population of the Polynesian islands for them to have sailed there. And so he built a craft to prove that it was possible. And so that’s the whole movie is like his degree to prove everybody wrong.

Speaker 1 1:54
Okay, I’ll try. Next. This is not media. But I unfortunately did not have a secret. But I still enjoyed seeing pockets from the library in the past and look forward to checking those out this year.

Speaker 2 2:12
I can go next. So I just now realized that kind of some classic musicals are not necessarily in the children’s section, I kind of assumed that if it was rated G, it would be in the kids section. And that’s not the case. And so like Sound of Music, Annie Newsies, they’re upstairs. And our family recently discovered that, and we watched Ed recently.

Unknown Speaker 2:53
That’s the online group, anyone here.

Speaker 3 3:00
So I don’t know that I have a specific single DVD. But it was 2003 2004, somewhere in there. And I was living on my own in this tiny No way could have been a leap could have been legal, like trailer apartment kind of shot who was in New York State. And I was working at the Valley College Library. And I was new to that library, which is not humongous library, but very beloved by the community. And they had an amazing, amazingly curated, DVD collection. And in particular, their foreign films subtitle just all over the place. And as I worked there, I got to know the woman who was in charge of developing their collection and surprise, she was super passionate about foreign film. So while I was living by myself with nothing going on in the woods, I would come home from work with like a stack of DVDs, and I would just watch all these foreign films. So that that still sticks out to me about all these years later, as some kind of cultural education that I that that year that I was there, getting to discover all of these things from outside United States that I you know, I never would have heard about otherwise. It was cool. It’s

Speaker 4 4:48
the name of it, so one that I found was kiss the ground. It is a documentary, narrated by Woody Harrelson And our library has it. And I was about it’s, it’s basically about, you know, if the soils die, we die. And so you know, the carbon that’s supposed to be up there, it’s actually supposed to be in the ground. So carbon, yes, it is good when it’s in the soil. And so how, you know, it makes you go back in history to the decimal and how, you know, these mass agriculture, it’s really destroying our, our planes and our natural, healthy soil. And so how we can reverse reverse that. And it was it was really interesting. And I think, you know, as looking looking at Council priorities, and you know, what we can do at the local level, considering long one has history of agriculture and farming that just kind of tied it in. So I was fascinated by that was really interesting.

Speaker 5 6:08
really specific, but it’s sort of a book, but also sort of not the Wonder books that are new to our collection, which other libraries now, I use those with my daughter. And they’re very, very fascinating, because it’s kind of like a real long story, the actual like device that weaves the stories in the book. So you can kind of listen along and actually read the book along with the audio. So it’s been kind of an interesting experience, because I grew up with what CDs where you would listen to, on a CD with actual physical book as well. So this is kind of a new modernization of that. And it’s really interesting to have that as an option for you to call yourself one wonder books wonder.

Speaker 6 6:55
Yeah, so last, but not least, I’ll just say wonder books is it’s a newer thing that you’ve started to receive within the last year. Yeah, yeah. You know, they’re, they’re certainly not the cheapest item, because it’s technology built with a book, but they’re really, really cool and popular. And then, Cynthia, just since you met, I think it was professional see library, right. Anyway, I just want to mention, we had our kickoff on Sunday for the free seat, hacking stuff, and had over 400 people here on Sunday. It just gets bigger. And I have to acknowledge that that’s, in large part funded by the Friends of the Library, like many things here. But that’s a huge thing that we couldn’t do without them. And we have some sponsors to around that are contributing three things to that, for that program. So after all those plugs and everything. Boy, this one, this was easy for me, a friend of mine years ago, or a colleague, I should say, when I worked when I lived in Northern California, told me about a movie she loved. It’s called the Red violin. I don’t know if anyone’s heard of this. And I saw I borrowed it from the library. And she was just fascinated with it. When she told me about it. It was actually a few of her, but I didn’t see it that I weighed it. And so it’s really worth finding, if you haven’t watched it, it’s it’s truly the story of this violin. It’s like that through the violins life. And it’s experienced with all these people through history, and it bounces back between the violence, you know, when it’s built by this Italian violin maker, and there’s a lot of petitions out, give away this sort of thing. And then it bounces to current times where it’s being auctioned. And it’s a you hear integrated all these stories. Yes, yeah. I thought that would be like long. Yeah. And then because it’s from the early 2000s, for sure. Such it’s just such a good story. It still rings as one of my favorite films to watch. Just because it’s, you know, you start watching and realizing it’s really the story of the violin and the people in affected right. Not so much. Well, that’s the story anyway. I was last Jackson and Samuel Jackson. Yeah, he plays AUCTIONEER in current time, which was an interesting casting. And so you get a little of Samuel Jackson s things here and there, you know Not taking anything from anybody, but it’s it’s really. But he’s also very different than if you think of anything he’s done. He would have never pictured him in Israel.

Speaker 1 10:12
Oh, that’s a great question. Thanks for asking that when I just took the tables. I’m sorry. Okay, I’m gonna launch Reddit in the next one, it’s been a while. I like to continue to keep this as an agenda item, if anyone has different thoughts. I know it does take a little time. But it’s lovely to get to know everyone in this manner as well. Let’s move on now to our more serious business, pic the budget process update under new business. And I hope to break this up under old business in the next few months, just asking for an update in the process, my understanding the process will start pretty soon. And my hope is that this board will have a strong understanding of what’s been requested this year. So we can in our role as an advisory board really communicate to council, what we agree with the priorities, and hopefully we’ll be able to learn more about that when we talk about it every month. So I want to share just a little bit about the timing in any particulars. Yeah, so

Speaker 6 11:25
Well, the timing. I mean, this will be my second year round. And I think, for us staff, we start talking about and getting the system probably in March. So pretty soon. And, you know, there’s a whole timeline. And as we get closer, I’ll share that so that, you know, this board knows of deadlines and things coming up. But outside of that, what I can share you with you, you know, given where this library is, you know, between the election and then my my budget requests, effectively, none of them getting filled at all. So my intention this year is really to put the exact same budget requests back in. There was a lot there. And I’ll I’ll be sure to update this more with enrollment or reminders for it, I guess, you know, because I did share it last year of what that was in, there’s a whole slew of budget requests between personnel, a high priority supporting outreach with staffing and funding to support that department, which is now still a department of one with no budget set for the person working. And then other other increases would be to collections across the board, both physical and digital, pretty substantial increase there, if I remember right, to help us be able to add not just physical, but also digital collections to really meet a population the size and offerings that we should be providing. You know, and then a number of things throughout which which I’ll, I’ll get into more detail with with this board. Next time, there was one component of the budget request cycle last year that I put in, which was to add like it was it was in addition to what the election would have funded, which was a full blown branch library. But I also added to my budget request, if you might remember, basically like a storefront type of a branch this year, I will likely leave that out. That was fairly intentional last year, give everything going on. But I this year, I need to focus on just the funding of the library and not really trying to add things like that. It at least that’s where I stand right now. But outside of that, it’ll pretty much be the same request, which was a mallet to somewhere in the seven or $800,000 of budget increase to this our current budget.

Speaker 1 14:28
Well, thanks, Dan. I didn’t expect at least much on this. This meeting. Just wanted to start the conversation. And I think that we can also discuss in the next two meetings, and Susie will will play the undergrads as well help us communicate some of this to Congress all they want to. I’m trying to create a meeting we’ve emailed in the past. So I knew we could craft some of that going forward. I don’t have anything else on this agenda item for right now. To see Would you have any questions or comments? No, we will dive more deeply in next time. Jamie, go for it.

Speaker 3 15:05
I have a question that does not have to be answered right now. But it’s more of a can we think about it? Which is is there? Is there any sense to this strategy of sort of narrowing down the budget items that we approach counsel with, to those things that are essential and operational. And having the items that would definitely benefits for you to make a case for meaning, but they’re not strictly operational, they are, like, blowing, expanding. Because when I hear you say that that’s hold off on a storefront. My immediate thought was just like, I think that’s good, because the more that we can encourage or persuade counsel to see long, long cities as really funding operations,

Unknown Speaker 16:14
day to day.

Speaker 3 16:17
Let’s get there first. Because that would then create an opportunity for volunteer groups, such as the friends to start to wait, we’re focusing on advancing the mission. And so it’s, it’s just a baby step towards starting to separate those functions into what I will humbly say, with their rightful places.

Speaker 6 16:53
I mean, like, I can address that in part. Oh, no, I think you’re right, the storefront that’s, I think that will clog things up like in the sense of what are my core operational needs. As I am trying to visualize the budget requests I have from last year to this year now, that’s the only thing out there that I can say is not a critical operational component, everything else in school, my mind. That’s not to say it couldn’t still be prioritized. And I did that. When, when the results of the election came in, and I went and talked to the city manager about what my budget request, what what, if anything coming? Yeah, and the answer was zero. But I when they’re prioritizing, even within that, figuring, and so the higher prioritization, and there was certainly personnel costs, to help staff things that we need, which is always the most expensive, then it went down. But, you know, if I think of it as the bigger picture, it’s all there. I mean, we need we need more staff we need, we need to spend more on collections, we definitely need a programming budget. I’ve never, I mean, that’s just we’ve talked about that here before. That’s, that’s a core service anymore, just like collections, it’s going along to the fact that we don’t have that. So it wouldn’t be hard to start outside of the satellite branch. We’re gonna call it everything else left is pretty much falls within what you just said. Yeah.

Speaker 3 18:30
It’s not that you would change necessarily what you were going to do, it’s how you talk. It’s the language that you use, that you could authentically or one could authentically represent that list as for operational needs, yes. Before anything else, and there’s a lot of else that we would really like to have.

Unknown Speaker 18:58
Yeah, that’s all understood.

Speaker 1 19:01
I agree. extremely gentle clarification. In fact, impacts can effects a good fight? That’s how we communicate City Council. And especially, you know, the size do you the programming is important for it that’s not being funded currently. So let’s continue the conversation on that as well. Any other comments or questions right now?

Speaker 1 19:38
Great, so let me take this case marry him by the way he doesn’t agree with politically diddly and unexpectedly.

Unknown Speaker 19:49
She’s not allowed to comment.

Unknown Speaker 19:53
But it’s fine.

Speaker 1 20:00
But hey, well, like I said, this is really an introduction, we’ll bring it up next month for old business. The first two items are really just updates that came from the action item report. So I did put that as an agenda item, I just thought we could maybe discuss a few. If there are other updates from that. Please feel free to John. But these are two of the ones that I wanted to touch in about to ask if there have been any last time that conversation was that for St. Framed or part prospects, and pretty much stalled in sales wanted to check in to see if there had been any movement.

Speaker 6 20:41
At least from my side. No, I mean, I had sent Susie’s, some of the contacts I had had meetings with, you know, just just in case, there’s any chance, but yeah, it from my standpoint, the last stood from the district’s perspective was, was going to be difficult because they, they needed it to be a signature to opt in. And that’s how it’s been working. When they did the testing. They weren’t getting enough parents to sign. And so it’s, that was the last mitigation I heard from the district, at least for myself was they don’t see it moving forward unless that changes.

Speaker 4 21:26
That was that was essentially I did speak with our city manager, because I mean, this is an inter governmental agreement. So one of the things so I’ve spoken to the district, and they told me the same thing that it was going to be really hard to navigate and, you know, just kept hearing about reasons why it wasn’t going to work. But we have signed, I mean, I remember approving that. And, you know, you have the intergovernmental agreement, that is a signed document by both representatives from the city and the school district. So it is a legal binding contract. So, you know, my feeling is we need to, you know, uphold the contract, you know, in looking at, and looking at the language on there, it’s not

Unknown Speaker 22:15
very specific about that it

Speaker 4 22:17
has to be one way or the other and opt in or opt out. I think, preferentially we want the hours, is that correct?

Speaker 6 22:26
That’s my my thought to make it easier. But I’m not. I’m not a school shaper. So and

Speaker 4 22:33
I’ve noticed that if the school district is we do lose libraries or grip, traditionally, they had been opt outs. And now it seems the last few years, are you under the school district everything is becoming you have to sign the permission slip. And I think what has happened is that in the opt out, maybe kids are giving the parents the paper or something. So they didn’t know to even that they could opt out. So I think that there had been some conflict with that. So that’s kind of what was the feedback I was receiving? So, you know, how could we make this functional? How could make this work, especially for kids? You know, for me, it’s an equity issue for kids who least have access to books, and, you know, parents been able to take them to, you know, to the bookstore, or pick up those books that this then provides that that gap that closes that gap for kids who are least able to to attain those books, or maybe don’t have internet at home, so they have to come over here. Those those kinds of issues.

Speaker 3 23:58
I had wondering about that after we last talked about this issue at that last month’s meeting or and it came to me as part of my parenting duties, which is an I don’t know that the it behind it everything. But what I remember hearing is that part of the lack of enthusiasm around the opt in was how, like the the system was going to be able to work with opt outs a lot more easily than it was going to work with trying to figure

Unknown Speaker 24:35
out how to submit permissions live

Speaker 3 24:39
with your Yes, yes, just like how you, I guess, integrate that data. But we have our district has a thick canvas and there are certain forms that are created and housed online and parents are They were reminded and communicated to about completing for various things. And I think that if you could set that up electronically, so that the parent facing piece is you see, opt in or opt out, you pick one or the other. And then basically on the back end, as long as everything else was an opt in, you can just export that opt out list and bring it into whatever. I don’t know if it’s cleaner to do it that way, or it gives you more options for, for working with the responses.

Speaker 6 25:46
I mean, on that, specifically, that’s a school district for importing, for the library sick with the technology is there to import all these student IDs. But basically that has to happen. And then they’ll know which IDs they can put into basically a file that then we take. So that once it hits the library that’s been worked out. So you’re right, it could be a technology issue that can be handled in a way to make it more clever.

Speaker 3 26:23
Yeah, everything is so in your face. And to your point, see about the kid ever get?

Unknown Speaker 26:31
Did the parent ever get out the thing? Yeah, right. Yeah, I

Speaker 3 26:34
have that happen more than once with my elementary school aged child. Why are we sending papers wanted to put this in campus, and if I forget about it, sends me a reminder,

Speaker 4 26:50
the teacher forgets to send him the Thursday folders that have been it then become next Monday’s folder, because digital signatures are rare.

Speaker 6 27:00
I mean, the other thing with this is when I was having conversations, because when this started, this was not necessarily age restricted at all, which is ideal. However, my thought was, we’re really trying to get digital access, so that they have access to our databases and things like that. Yeah. And it was the idea of one of the people from the school district that I was working within this that will maybe we should just make this for high school students initially, because the school district doesn’t place restrictions on content they can access or on some level, in comparison, yes, whatever that means, which is great in the sense that because obviously, as a public library, we don’t restrict access to any content that’s up to the to the child’s gardener yet. So if that’s the case, and it’s only high school, there’s at least in my mind, and I’m probably oversimplifying this, that makes it a lot cleaner, because you don’t have to worry about the younger ages, what content they made all the access, because the high school students don’t have the same restrictions according to what I was doing. So I really tried to push that in a sense like that’s a great idea. And that’s who’s going to use this stuff. The models Yeah, yeah. And then the other all the other students already have access to eBooks through Surah which is the bilinear version of for schools and that’s already content restrict Yeah, that’s built into how soil works. I’m talking about the just the library stuff so I don’t know that’s the there’s nothing that’s developed as far as I know so what Susie shared as far as having some conversations

Unknown Speaker 29:01
you know if there is abuse man we can

Unknown Speaker 29:04
I can I did solid you did.

Speaker 4 29:08
It sounds like you don’t have to solve the problem like for that I

Unknown Speaker 29:11
feel like I do.

Unknown Speaker 29:13
Say yes to join the solution. Okay.

Speaker 6 29:19
I wouldn’t but you know, but but to that point, I would be more than willing to have another conversation or conversations with okay, how would it be happy to have you and Harold there anybody that can help support where I’m coming from and what I what I’m saying yeah, to help guide that conversation and you’re more than happy to do that but okay.

Speaker 1 29:50
Then turned to me. Thanks for this update, and hopefully there will be a new bid at some point in the future and we’ll bring it backup. So another thing that you know is a long term project is caps. And finally, remember that students are children and teens, the shopping update, satanic, there’s anything that you wanted to share, yeah,

Speaker 6 30:15
this will be much, much quicker because it’s not a hot topic necessarily. So we, we’ve been working with a consultant, we had everything in order to get materials ordered, I signed off on it. And then one of the vendors and as a part of this is stopping operations of a particular product to another company, or they’re moving operations to another state, I can’t remember what’s happening. So my consultant found a different vendor. And they came back with a quote, which is, within reason of what we were originally quoted, it’s a little bit more, but it would help to not have to wait because I don’t know with this movement of warehouses what that means. I mean, that that could be a few months, and it could be a year for all I know. So I just said move forward with it, I signed off on it, they’re competent, they can still get everything shipped here in mid April, by mid April, all the materials, and then we’ll be able to, well, they will be able to then move forward with removing all the shelving and have everything done before summer reading, which is the goal. But if there’s any delays at all, that’s going to push materials not getting here till up until May or mid May, that’ll be a challenge. And then I’m just going to have to push this until August or September. Not a huge deal. That’s not at the year. So well. I mean, at least I know where we’re standing. But that’s the update. It’s going to be fantastic. When this is all said and done. Just just to refresh that area, it’s new shelf, and the shelving is the shelves themselves will be bright white, and then some woods a lot of color and panels. And then we have some shelving that’s on a combo like curved shelving on one side and seating on the other. So that you can actually have a storytime by the back windows. It made a lot of better use of space in that sense. So I’m excited about it. And so knock on wood, there, there’s no delays. And as far as I know.

Unknown Speaker 32:32
He said roughly the first time I reading.

Speaker 6 32:36
Yeah, it would be too disruptive to interrupt that. So it’s either gonna have to be done before that or, or wait until it’s over.

Speaker 1 32:47
Any questions or comments on those items? Great. So we started talking about this yesterday, or yesterday. Last month, so, um, about one that stack. And one of the things we’re going to do is pause having staff members come to these meetings. You know, I would love to first to learn more, but I think it’s important to to give them that time. So but I just wanted to ask John, if there were other movements right now that we should be aware of. I know last time we talked a little bit about limiting some of the tabling and some of the larger studio events, which were a person supportive of the kind of what other further items are great areas. Once again, leaving him up burnout and trying to protect from from all the necessary training, trying to try to make that balance with the what’s necessary and what can be cut back right now. So John, any updates on that? Just

Speaker 6 34:03
a couple. Yeah. So So you’re right, I mean, effectively kind of got paused. So I was bringing staff here for some library one on one kind of stuff, which I would like to continue at some point but it’s just a little challenging with everything going on with staffing, and then we’ve we’ve had some turnover recently. So it’s just you know, every month Cynthia and I made that a week before this meeting and kind of talked about the agenda. I finally just said last week, like I keep saying like well, maybe next month but I have to be realistic and just say like let’s just take a listen till I feel like I can bring the staff in here again. It’s just something I can’t prioritize right now. Even though I know it’s it’s much appreciated. So we’ll get there. And as far as festivals, it’s an outreach component, right when we go to the city and festivals and set up a library booth or attend wherever. So I spoke with Lily, our outreach coordinator about that and, and prioritize some of these events. And and even the ones that we still might go to how to downsize it to reduce the staff requirements of how we staff those events and the activities we have. I mean, we just we always went all out for these things. So it’s not just being like Cinco de mio, with a tech, but we would be there in a booth with staff. And then we have all kinds of games, you can make your craft and all this stuff. And, and I just said, you know, anything like that we do. We need to limit the staff requirement to be there and limit what we’re doing. And we don’t really need all that stuff. And some of this is coming from Lily herself. Right as the outreach coordinator, acknowledging that there’s outreach of that outreach, which is like connecting with people when she goes to the parks, and in the schools. And then these are festivals as she calls them, which is great for the visibility, but but really, the return on investment of that isn’t really as great. It’s not that it’s not valuable. And with all the staffing and everything we needed, I would be happy to be all of them. But it’s it’s just not something so there’ll be a number of them that we probably won’t participate in this year. One of one of them is, in some of this is a trade off, I should add to so if you think about a big city event, like rhythm and Roosevelt, so last year, the library did two things. Not only did we have a booth that had crafts and require no less than 12 staff for the day, we also had to staff it to help just with the event itself, because it’s so busy, right? So we had people helping with volunteers, coordinate net or other other tasks that that as a part as a division of recreation and culture, we need to help recreation staff. So if I remove the tabling part, I have more staff to help with actual fat, which is truly risky. And it’s in its value. And rhythms specifically I mean, people are going to hear music. Yeah. Enjoy food trucks there. And the library visitors or that come to the tent are already visitors. We’re not We’re not garnering new. So that’s the to make a long story long anyway, that’s that’s that’s what that’s all about. So there’ll be so many do like it’s hard when you start thinking about certain events and what you prioritize are not, you know, we’re always certainly conscientious of reaching out to specific communities within Walmart. Right. So Cinco de Mayo is very important for that reason as a cultural event. So Lily, really wanted to be there. I agree. So that’s one of the we’ll still be up and rolling. we’ll scale it down. So we’re there but not in the same way we were last year, which required no less than kind of stuff. Because of how we approached it, right? We did it to ourselves, and I would love to, but you don’t need to do much work. It’s a lot more physical. And honestly, when people visit your tent, you’re going to play events. I mean, people watch swag. So I’d rather spend the money on like a free pen that says Longmont library, and then that’s it. You don’t need to make them. So we are in agreement. So it’ll be a few things like that. I will be at Pride. But that’s a little bit easier to staff because it’s a shorter event. It’s only four hours. But in the same sense as a cultural ethnic communities and we want to make sure we have a presence and that’s also that’s the biggest conversation we’ve had. Cynthia the board so as far as capacity, other budgetary effects aren’t necessarily about capacity is just for realization of things like collection budget numbers, you know, one thing to share in this realm certainly is we made a number of cuts to our physical magazine collection, which I am starting to get some comments about. This is largely budgetary. Last year we overspent on physical magazines, but not all of it then some of it that’s being pulled from those shelves. As our publications that already ceased in publication, we were just keeping back issues to fill space. So there’s no need and then other titles up there, we were very conscientious about what was decided to cancel the print too. And in a high percentage of those are already available in the living through our digital magazines. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Right? People like to hold a physical magazine as much as I like to hold a physical book button. Those are those are hard decisions. And so that that’s something that’s not a staff capacity, although, on some level, it is for the staff that have to maintain a collection. But that’s really not the reason why.

Speaker 1 40:51
You mentioned that there have been some turnover.

Speaker 6 40:55
Yeah, a little bit. So we’ve had one of our librarians up in adult services. My name was Devin Smith, pretty much tombstones. She’s not quite dead. But she she left her last day was last week, for family reasons she’s moving to Missouri somewhere, really was hard for her to leave. But she had a big role here, she managed our homebound service. And so one of the staff up there, wanted to resume that responsibilities. So we had the benefit of that person getting a good week or 10 days of overview and training from Devin to that person to help ease that transition for such an important service. So that was good. And Devin also oversaw all the living collections, she was the our collection development for all our content. So we have another internal staff member up there that wanted to take that over. And that’s a good opportunity, the person who has taken that over, doesn’t have experience in collection development. So we’re creating this opportunity, he will learn this from the department manager, Penny, you bet that one of us when she was one of the ones that came here, for the adult department had get some coaching there. And part of the requirement for him to take that over will be to do some collection development coursework. So he’s very excited. So I think that that’s great to do that. And then we’ve had a couple of people within our technical services area leave us somewhat recently, well, one was just Friday as well, last Friday, also found that news is one of our catalogers was leaving, but that’s shifting some responsibility. We had a part time Spanish cataloger that was recently brought in. But she already had a job that was already nearly full time. So I think the idea was great. She could have managed both and decided that she needed to stick with the other one. But what I will say the end, if there’s an advantage to something like that, in some conversations I had with the department head for tech services that will receive that. I propose the thought that other staff because we have other bilingual staff within that department that can do Spanish cataloging. And there’s not a great deal of it with some that maybe doesn’t want to hold position. So I’m taking that position and we’re talking with HR now. And I intend to transfer those funds to outreach and actually have a position that supports that part time but it’s it’s something to get us somewhere. So good question. I’m glad you brought that out. Cynthia, I was gonna put that in my department, my director of tape, but it’s just fine here. So so that’s that’s some of the recent turnover.

Speaker 1 44:18
He’s tried it in some circumstances, certainly right now, but any sense of timing when when there’s a new builder?

Speaker 6 44:26
Such as Southern Yeah. Well, with the departure of stache tower, that’s, that’s so that’ll be internal. So I mean, although we have to, there’s a little timing issue there because we don’t have a job description that’s would basically be an outreach assistant, right, whatever you want to call it. So we kind of have to create that in and get that through HR and then post the position so there’s a little tiny there, but definitely the librarian position up An adult services that is just about ready to be posted. And, and, and actually with that I am speaking with the department head there. Because some of the responsibilities that she had are being absorbed by their staff, we are posting that job to be someone that does more outreach to the business community. And like, like a lot of big libraries, public libraries out there will actually have a business librarian. We’re not going as far as to say that are recruited like that. But the intention is to be really be a counterpart to what Billy already does. But from this side of things, and kind of engage with entrepreneurs and the business community in I’m thinking, helped develop partnerships, they’re out in LA. The other part of this is we’re requiring Spanish fluency in this job, whereas usually, it’s preferred or some level of that, but in this case, it’s required. So we really want to recruit there to help build our engagement with with a growing Latino population.

Unknown Speaker 46:16
That sounds great. Well, that says a librarian position, you will say librarian position. Great. Any questions or comments?

Speaker 1 46:33
Okay. Well, moving on. So I was headed back to you.

Speaker 6 46:46
Although some of that I was going to cover in my direct traveling, so this is just fine. The there’s two other items I wanted to bring up. One of them, I think came up last month, I think I brought up a challenge we had on a graphic novel last month. But I and I think in that conversation I mentioned there’s some pending state legislation. Yeah. Does that sound familiar? It does. Yes. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 47:22
Yeah, we’ll talk about it when? Materials

Unknown Speaker 47:24
and library Correct.

Speaker 4 47:26
Yeah, did Bill 20 40494. Nice. So

Speaker 6 47:31
just an update on this today was a hearing on this with a lot of testimony. They call testimony, especially public comment. Yeah, yeah, that’s basically. But they I was able to tune in for a little bit of interview went on for hours. Because there was a lot of people who wanted to have something to say about it. I’m pleased to say that most of the testimony shareholder in support of the bill, I think that, you know, I might have mentioned this last month, but in the very high level, I think this is a good effort to really draw attention to the fact that maybe we do need legislation that tax this, basically, our First Amendment. I mean, it’s sort of ridiculous in a way that we need it. But given where we are in this climate, that’s what they’re trying to do and model what some other states have done. Some people call it a ban on book bans. You know, that’s, you know, it’s the first amendment right. It’s kind of kind of what it is, in a sense, but so they they talked about that today. I’m not really sure that that’s there. But

Speaker 4 48:55
anyway, it’s coming back again on Wednesday, the 28th. That one

Speaker 6 49:05
more day are okay, so this, this Wednesday was turkey. Those are those are things you can tune into, or at least audio wise, I would have loved that video to see. So just just an update on that, but also internally. I met with our selection committee here, because we have been talking about revising our request for reconsideration process that we have. And in some of this might be informed by this legislation because it has some requirements in there if it’s passed, which are things I would put in place anywhere. The things that we don’t have so one is a residency requirements and challenge. Materials and reflection right now we don’t state that And I and I think that’s important. And then the other that we debated a lot as a team, but after looking at a lot of other libraries, and that legislation doesn’t state this, but I’m stating it, you have to have a full use a full access Longmont library card to challenge you have to be a library user. There’s there’s various opinions on this around the state of weather. But but many libraries have implemented that. So those are a couple of things we will put in place, we will also mimic some of what the legislation says, although we came up with this before, which was to have caps. So and I have an item that might be formally challenged. If it is and can’t be challenged. Again, that item cannot be challenged again for five years. So people can challenge it, but we’re not going to review it because it was already challenged once. And then the other side of that is a cap on how many times a person or an organization can challenge something. And I don’t remember what number we came up with, as a team that there was some cap on that that way. And some of this is unfortunately, this isn’t a response to not necessarily anything that’s happened in this library. But it’s certainly out there, where organizations organize themselves and do challenge after challenge. And they flood the system. And then just like it’s so it’s kind of setting it up so that we don’t run into that here.

Speaker 3 51:35
So my hearing that there’s a cap on the number of challenges that can be made by any one entity, is it within a certain timeframe?

Speaker 6 51:48
Or it would be a timeframe? I just don’t remember when I don’t remember the timeframe as a team that we talked about? Yeah. But yes, there wouldn’t be a timeframe. So let’s just say it’s also five years like the item. So if you as an individual or organization, challenge, something you can’t challenge something. I mean, you can just close, we won’t be acknowledged,

Unknown Speaker 52:17
because you already defensive.

Speaker 2 52:20
Yeah, so you get you get one shot. So with with regard to kind of flooding the system that made me think also what, what if you are inundated with a lot what happens to the material father being reviewed? Are they still available? Or did they get pulled by they’re under review, no one policy

Speaker 6 52:38
and our current policy states this, actually, but it will remain anything that gets formally challenged with a request for reconsideration. It states in there that the item will weigh on the shelves or they’re challenging or display or a program that it will remain on display or the program will be canceled.

Speaker 2 53:02
Okay, I think that’s great, because you don’t have to worry about being flooded. You can’t use flooding the system as a strategy, though.

Unknown Speaker 53:11
You haven’t noticed any

Speaker 6 53:15
items disappearing? No. Collection, no, we haven’t had that here. And that has happened in places.

Speaker 6 53:33
So that anyway, that’s where we are internally on this process. And then you can look up the legislation to kind of see what’s going on there. So that’s that. And then the other thing I have which I wanted to share this group here, so I haven’t even brought this up here yet. But we were gathering we every year we gather a number of statistical components as a requirement that we file with the state library. And so I’ve been trying to work and Tracy’s done a lot of this of simplifying how we gather this information and it made it much easier to then gather data that we have, it’s very, it’s kind of like it exists in various places. So we’re kind of streamlining that and then my marketing person took that and made basically a no report and try to do is show you this

Unknown Speaker 54:42
really quickly.

Unknown Speaker 54:53
We’re good

Speaker 6 55:02
Since visible my screen to focus on, so that’s the agenda, you know, this is the annual that my marketing person compiled. And this can be something too, you know, I know this board talks about various communications with counsel. But it would be great to incorporate this in communications that you have and even present an annual report to council, many courts to the summit requirements. But I’ll just show you quickly what this looks like. So it captures some key data points of what we’re doing, and I will definitely send this out. So don’t feel you have to capture this out now. In fact, some of these numbers just came in today. That’s why I sent the when we met I mentioned this because I didn’t have it yet. So so this is a lot of programming numbers here. You get down and then digital usage. In this, I think it’s good we’re separating. So this is the the 433,000 was what Walmart has done between ebooks and databases, just ebooks is 223. But it’s worth pointing out, you know, our ebook and the audio delivery collection is shared right that’s a consortial partnership we have with Lafayette Lewisville Broomfield in Loveland. And we broke a record this year by hitting over a million checkouts so that between the libraries and out of that million we have what almost Well, 200 200,000 That’s a lot of news. If you want to prove to people that Iran is being used, even if they’re not coming in, these are the numbers you can share. Right. And then physical materials, we all got close to a million circulating out of this library, which is a lot of libraries in the year almost 70,000 holds retrieved, it’s probably more holds replaced but we were not counting the ones that people decided that can be recorded. And then it’s broken down between areas here. Worth mentioning things like discovery passes 14 Other that’s that 100% Friends funded Yeah, to go to museums and other things. Same with library things over 500 items checked out from library things we don’t even have that large

Speaker 6 57:51
so happy to talk to any of those but also miss out and you can even visit again next month if you want since this is new, over 5000 library cards issued last year top top digital downloads and then then there’s a whole marketing to show our E newsletter engagement here and then our our website engagement I’m pretty sure the library’s homepage is the most visited site in the entire city of Lagnado website

Speaker 6 58:39
so you get it’s really broken down here because this is the marketing person so she she got very detailed in what her at her realm is in that events and programs as it relates to online we don’t do a whole lot of registration you know so but when it says event sold out, and obviously we don’t charge for it, but when we do registration, you know author events, okay, so these are 36 of them in a year. We’re at full capacity and then the last part is social media engagement, which is largely Facebook

Speaker 6 59:29
so I know it’s going through fast but I just wanted to share this with you all get into the board and

Speaker 4 59:38
this will be something good for now. Oh, for sure. Yeah, sure. Your presentation.

Speaker 6 59:45
And part of part of my conversations with staff here with our number gathering is I wanted in a way where I can extract an offer be this fancy, but something Where I can create a little quarterly report that then can be presented to council to show like what we’re doing. I just don’t? I think if you don’t see it, a lot of people just don’t know. And you hear you hear it out there, right? Why don’t why don’t I mean, even someone today legislative session, let me be admitted he was a legislative, he’s like, I love the library. I’ll support anything, right. But I know for me, like, I get what I need largely valid, except that I checked off physical books, but I recognize people need it. And it’s like, yeah, and let me show you how you No, no, I just don’t think that.

Speaker 4 1:00:40
And that was what that was. The other point of conversation that I have with counsel was the hidden costs, things that we don’t really see. But these are costs that are incurring, these are actions that are happening, you know, people are tapping into these digital collections a lot. And we’re not because we’re not physically seen,

Unknown Speaker 1:01:03
this

Unknown Speaker 1:01:05
doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.

Speaker 2 1:01:10
Hey, John, I have one question on one of those statistics in there, you don’t have to reshare it the very first statistics set that 100 was 120,000 people, is that duplicated or duplicated number? No,

Speaker 6 1:01:23
it’s um, it’s a total of people that attended programs between adult children outreach and otherwise. So it’s got to do with engagement. So it’s, if you looked individually, it would add up between adults and children and outreach 200 or 3000. People.

Speaker 1 1:01:44
Excellent, thank you. Thanks so much, Chad, in the first name without IP, you’d be great to consult to see if we can fit in the hurdles for the longest, which is very odd to me. But in my time here, we have not presented to council Marzec come up. So I think it’s maybe we should do, Susie or JC? How do you make that happen? Any suggestions?

Speaker 4 1:02:17
You know, we can go about a couple of ways. You know, one, the mayor can request it, when she’s writing up the agenda, she can just have that put in. I can request to have that be part of a presentation for a there’s so we are not general business, I think it would be a special report and presentation to out to request to have you all come in. But I probably wait until you you know, you kind of give me the

Unknown Speaker 1:02:50
the cue that Okay, we’re ready to present this. And I didn’t know if it has to be accepted by the board or

Speaker 4 1:02:57
So there, there are a couple of couple of ways that it comes back to us in combat in special reports and presentations.

Speaker 6 1:03:07
Yeah, Cindy, I think what Suzy says the best way would be to just try to get it on the agenda in that sense, not not just try to come in during public and made weaker, but actually be on the agenda presented as the library’s 23 annual report. And that’s something that the board, this board can decide. You know, I mean, the reports there. So, you know, I don’t think there would be much tweaking to it at this point, it would be much more of a matter of timing, and what groups here, people here decide who and when people. I mean, that stuff gets pulled out a little bit. So, you know, it’s hard to know why that would be. But I put that process.

Speaker 1 1:04:01
Through my perspective, it would make sense to go ahead and put it in process. What do you what did other board members say? Yeah, and I have not sure whether it works to you is that the board members presenting or the director or I mean, I’m happy to contextualize it in the same way John can but I’m happy to,

Speaker 6 1:04:27
you know, the day we can work together, whoever presents it. So there’s a better, you know, intimate understanding of it, but generally would be the board presented. I would certainly be there to help answer questions, which presumably could come up or just like key answer, but what does that number so if we get into that, I would certainly be there but it’s generally there’ll be a board presentation.

Speaker 1 1:04:57
Yeah, then that would be great. Susie I’m free to request I would it be possible if I email you tomorrow?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:05
Sure that request, right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:09
I don’t even know, like a formal process to get.

Speaker 4 1:05:12
So yes, there are the two ways that I’ve seen things happen is that the mayor will just put it on the agenda. She sets the agenda with Harold, though, they’ll decide what, you know, what’s to come forward. And then other times, it’s a council member requesting, I’d like to hear from, you know, some so I, you know, I made a motion a few weeks ago to have open space review the department to come out and do a presentation on, you know, what areas do we have? Log, you know, sectioned off for true open space and natural preserve areas, we were getting a lot of questions from residents say that we’re kind of cutting cutting down these areas are small, and we’re actually not we’re expanding some of our open space. So really an informational meeting that will be coming few months ahead. So that, you know, I’ve seen it happen.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:18
So, you know, I

Speaker 4 1:06:19
could ask the mayor, and, you know, she says, just make a motion. So, I don’t we don’t have to set the day. Right, I could just get it. So it’s on the docket to come sometime in the near future.

Speaker 1 1:06:37
Thanks, Susie, for rocking with that. I think, Katie, you’re ahead, Jamie, it sounded like you were in agreement. What do you all think any comments to

Speaker 3 1:06:46
just that you will during the weeks leading up to the election, one of the frustrating things that I heard most frequently was that you know, some variation of a Longmont resident not knowing about dot, dot dot not knowing anything about the library, you know, all of its many services, and also the needs specifically and this was your someone else, maybe in this room who shared my sentiments, either here on the friends board, were way after the election, we’re talking with somebody about the library and it comes up, you know, what is really needed? What are the gaps here? And how’s it potentially going to impact the community long term? Or the person’s like, oh, my gosh, I had no idea. It’s like, just just have this on the tablet, there was all this information out there in the ether, and you do nothing, just the library needed more funds to operate. And us like no. So I think that’s still out there, that people selectively take in information. And often if they don’t see if they’re not confronted personally, with the visual of the crisis, then it somehow doesn’t land, right, because it’s in competition with all of these other needs. And we’re in information oversaturated culture. So I think any opportunity that the library has to get out in front of decision makers in front of the public and saying, look, look at what we’re doing, look at how much we’re doing. Right. One of the comments I heard all the time was, why is the library need more money? Every time I go there, there’s no one there. It’s never crowded. They seem like they have enough space. What they’re not seeing are all of these, the activity that’s happening online or from people’s homes, or the programs that just again, aren’t right in front of you. When you walk through the door to pick up your home. You don’t see the you know, get it out. 100 200 people stuffed into a room. Your children. Yeah, department. So, yeah, it’s just publicity, right? It’s educationally informed. Yep.

Speaker 1 1:09:38
Any other comments? Hi, Susie. I’m Elaine Amara. Just kind of so we can make sure to remember that for me. And then yeah, that’s, that’s the end and try to get on the agenda in a month’s time. Thanks for sharing that, John. Anything else but the directors report before we

Unknown Speaker 1:10:07
move on? Nope, that’s all I have.

Speaker 1 1:10:12
I need to switch screens tomorrow, which is next. And I think it is spreads. Yeah. Any report from the Friends of the Library Liaison,

Speaker 3 1:10:21
I was not able to attend last week’s meeting. John, you were there, you can share the highlight. But I, for my part, it’s just been getting ready for a sale, which starts on Wednesday, Saturday. And the other conversation topics I know are sort of Top of Mind, on the friends board is there are I think there are two spots on the board that are potentially opening up in the not too distant future, I think there’s one spot is opening up in the next couple of months with the Vice President stepping down, and then provide us some shuffle internally and launched this whole big long conversation last month around. We call it like legacy planning. And not only needing to recruit more members and volunteers within the friends, but to then recruit some of those recruits to join the board. Right and discussing that various approaches to that, and maybe what types of strategies or the types of outreach would make the most sense, but there was kind of like this little wake up riddle that I saw go through the room.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:04
You know, oh, yeah, when’s

Speaker 3 1:12:05
my chairman, that’s my turn. But we’re going to need some some new people in the pipeline, to fill these roles in the next, you know, anywhere from the next couple of months to the next two years. So then that connected with it, they’re talking about their upcoming retreat, and what agenda items might be most highest priority for their retreat, talking about membership, and development, like really sort of fleshing out a membership program or a donor program that has a little bit more structure to it has maybe some more tiers, and some clear benefits and some clear language around what that support translates into, literally, in terms of impact that your membership dollars have, just like you would hear on a, you know, an NPR, CPR, membership, drive, like friends can be adapting some more of that language, instead of, I think, I think the model that they’ve had, is not helping them to grow. And they’re going to need to grow, to meet goals, to be able to help the library at the same level that they’ve been helping in the past. Trying to think about leaving anything out. There’s a lot of things that were kind of inter woven, returning to the question of upgrading the website, and the whole clan release relationship management software that’s connected to that. And so I don’t I don’t know where those conversations will lead. Some of them are certainly complex enough that they would make sense to happen in a retreat type setting to allow for more creative and longer conversation were entered in the conversation. But yeah, like a little more only means it’s kind of exciting

Speaker 3 1:14:31
to say sale, doing really well. Between the workshop and with the sales. Yeah,

Speaker 6 1:14:41
I mean, one thing I can add from that we are going to do with the sale is have some signage around, they showed a sample that it basically lists out all the various things that they’re funding. font, they’re their support funds. So basically, if you buy books, this is what you’re funding. And then it lists all things, all these things out library things, discovery, whatever, you, you name it, it’s there. And I, you know, so I think that, that that’s not a bad idea to let people know what is my money actually going towards going to the all these programs. So that was one fact they haven’t they plan to implement this next sale. And then the friends chair sent me a note that they want to send a council that is select Council Hill, or maybe remind council that the library depends on the friends for 100% of programming. And so that that’ll be getting sent out. So I think they’re also in addition to everything that Jamie just said, I think they’re trying to think about how can we increase communication that really lets people know exactly what this is going towards? And why it’s so important. So

Speaker 3 1:16:01
they breathe. I’m curious if they brought up the idea again, or having like a little table in the corner during the sale, where instead of telling people or asking them about membership, at point of sale, have a separate location for those conversations that has a membership site?

Speaker 6 1:16:28
I don’t know. Do you remember? Tracy, that detail

Speaker 5 1:16:31
specifically for like memberships? I think they were wanting to have more discussions with patrons not related to the sale and specifically for membership. So it probably wasn’t the same lines? Yes, yeah, like that. But I think there was some dissension with the board members of how realistic that is within the space they have available.

Speaker 3 1:16:56
And the staffing to just how many other people beyond the members of that board, actually sign up to sit there at the tables. My experience has been that it is more than half board members. All right. So I don’t have anything else.

Speaker 1 1:17:32
But things for today, in case you didn’t know, I just want to mention that Jamie also volunteers, those sales. So recognize your rights there as well. And they helped me you know, an ad because this is on asset and communications, when we do share about programming coming from their friends, how unusual that is, and how that is not the ideal function or role

Unknown Speaker 1:17:58
of of that group. David, questions for Virginia and gentlemen. Let’s move on to our city council liaison and CO pastor to you. Yeah,

Speaker 4 1:18:13
so yeah, I kind of embedded a little bit of stuff going on. But again, you know, just informing the Council of what the needs of the library are, especially as we start thinking about, you know, the pre stages of budget, planning the budget, you know, a couple of things that will be coming up to council that we’ll be talking tomorrow is our fourth of July event. So in the past, we used to have it at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, they canceled that space during COVID. And then one of the things and I guess there were other conversations that I really wasn’t aware of, as to why they decided to stay at Fox Hill golf course, including, you know, really concerned for, from public safety around being able to manage the fallout zone and traffic impacts in around the, you know, hoever and Rogers Grove, you know, that whole area. So I think that as our population has increased, that area that we’re determining was less and less feasible. Kiwanis public safety and Boulder County, so they they had it at Fox Hill golf course. But you know, there were concerns that arose there with it being close to the hospital. You know, it’s kind of it’s far away from the city center. So, you know, there was an equity piece around, you know, people four would just be able to go outside of their homes and watch the fireworks where then a lot of people in town were having to drive to the outskirts to be able to see the fox Hill golf course it’s a private, white space. So, you know, again, it was, you know, having to pay to get access to drugs or use or whatever they have there. So, you know, so we’re going to be talking about it tomorrow. Personally, I would like to see it come back to Boulder County or Boulder County Fairgrounds, somewhere in the center. You know, I heard from residents about, you know, that we’re going to have it a Dickens and I have not heard about that, that’s on my packet. So I was like, kind of taken aback where this idea came from, but we’re going to be discussing it all tomorrow as well. And then other things that we’re going to be discussing in relation to the Fourth of July will be the possibility of moving into a drone show, instead of fireworks, because of climate, dry brush, you know, the concerns for wildfires. So that again, that’s going to be we’re going to kind of move around the to see what’s going on. I mean, my feeling is okay, well, let’s give it a try. It’s flops, right? We have next year. You know, we just won’t know if you don’t try? Either way. Oh, yes, yeah. So you know, the other, you know, there’s things that we can, what we’re trying to do is kind of create a space, where maybe we just don’t have the firework show, but we’re also by itself, but we also have, you know, kind of like carnival games, food trucks, you know, different other activities, as well. So, picnicking, live music, so to kind of make it as an event type of thing. So, but it doesn’t need to be closer to the center of the city, not I’m not a fan of it being over where we’re asked. And I think, yeah, so I think one of them Boulder County Fairgrounds, Dickens far. Yeah. So we’re just going to be exploring other other options and how we can create that. Another item that will be coming, and if this was brought forward by councilmember Yarborough was around compensation for city council. So currently, every two weeks I bring home my $380 Check. Or my work I do on council and, you know, I’m, that’s all I can afford to do both. But, you know, one of the things that we were looking at was really at sustainability. So not necessarily for those of us who are sitting on council now, but long term, you know, for the next year, but people coming in. And, you know, really, our community has been very vocal about wanting to have representatives who represent the community. So we have a large portion of people who are working class individuals. So really having that kind of representation on council. And we’re not going to get it with the pay that that we have. Because, you know, again, people who can afford to stay at home, or who can afford to cut to part time to devote the time needed for to run, you know, to be council or mayor. You know, they wouldn’t be able to afford to do that. So, I think for her one of the arguments was really looking at long term. And then, you know, we were going to be looking at comparable cities, you know, for Collins, there counseling members make 300 or 3321 a month. And our council we before taxes, your 1000. And I think the mayor is 1500. So in Fort Collins and their mayor makes a little under 5000 a month. Council makes more than 3000 a month so it’s, you know, we’re gonna be looking at different communities. There are other communities Aurora Councilmembers, and Mayor, they all make a little under 1800 a month. That’s it. So you know, we’re going to have a discussion around that as well. And again, they’ll be met with opposition. Just consensus. So, you know, we had our monthly Council retreat or our annual Council retreat, and we went over looked at our goals and objectives or priorities and again, they continue to be housing, transportation and early choice was good education. So how that those goals really fit into everything else that we’re doing as a city around equity sustainability, core services, making sure that as we expand housing that are the core services we provide to the community is sufficient, sustainable and accessible. Transportation, we’re moving towards Vision Zero. So really that multimodal sharing the road with pedestrian cyclist, and cars were moving away from that idea of car centric. And really we’re sharing the road with with many different types of passive participants. And the other thing, we recently were working with different agencies around micro transit. So instead of the large buses through RTD, you know, just smaller bands, and like the via type services, and having where we’re able to get these vehicles out there more frequently, to pick up and drop off passengers. We’re working with RTG to expand services. They do the cut off time at eight o’clock. It’s really not feasible for people who are depending on public transportation. That’s the cut off. So we have residents who said, you know, they want to come to public invited to be heard and capsule, but they know they have to be back on the bus by eight o’clock or before eight, so they can get back home before they answer this. So I know that we have flex and other types of transit, public transportation, that run, maybe run a little bit later. But yeah, that was. Yeah, so that’s, that’s kind of what we’re exploring and see how we can expand services. I know RTD really doesn’t want to expand services. If the ridership is low, but what we’re saying is, ridership is low, because you have not expanded services. It’s very convenient. If you expand the services made the stops more frequent. It’s extended the morning and evening times you will get more ridership. So what do we have the chicken before the egg kind of thing. So we’ll see. doing whatever we can to find it in grants, federal funds are for dollars, on how we can fund the transportation as well as the housing housing criminal.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:02
was the last time you raise the 99? The raise the council pay? Yeah, it was 99. You know?

Unknown Speaker 1:28:19
It was really changed. Yeah, no.

Speaker 4 1:28:26
Oh, my goodness. So any questions or? I’d be happy to you know, if there’s anything Oh, tell me more about that we can connect or send me an email.

Speaker 1 1:28:39
I personally really hope that they do is compensation in case it’s so important. And you’ll devote so much time and energy to this. Um, I guess somebody’s coming ahead. And, you know, when I when I hear early childhood education is one of the council retreat goals, such as Hi high in force with library services. So did that come up at all?

Speaker 4 1:29:01
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And you have we have these programming. You know, what? I think one of the places we’re connecting with is Wild Plum. That’s the one that’s near here TLC, or is it why as well, there’s an early childhood, there’s Aspen, right? That’s what it is. So, you know, being able to connect library services with some of these nearby childcare facilities, especially ones you know, your Headstart your TLC also serve low income. So you know, there’s a lot of opportunity there. If, you know we provide the funding for

Speaker 1 1:29:56
you so much for that update. Next, Danny should pause any other questions or comments? Right kind of standing agenda item is library profession news. We talked a fair bit about that already. What’s happening in the state legislature right now? Anyone else have anything else to bring for that? I did. Go for it.

Speaker 3 1:30:24
So, last month, I, you may remember I briefly mentioned this library, an individual that was just starting to kind of explode into what I would call mainstream awareness. Right. And I couldn’t remember their name at the time, but it’s Michael freeze. And I had been, yeah, I’ve been following that Instagram account for some time, and was just absolutely delighted that this librarian was getting so much positive, infectious attention for our public libraries, in just the most non, the most inclusive way that you can imagine. And so I was really excited to tell all of you about last month, as a gallery member, you know, get the right names for the link so that you can share it out anything that I saw in my feed, that Michael was invited to be the keynote speaker for Capcom,

Unknown Speaker 1:31:34
before, oh, my gosh, this is perfect.

Speaker 3 1:31:36
This is amazing. I cannot write this down. I gotta tell the you know, at the next meeting, I share that this is happening too, because the awareness. And now, as I was preparing for this meeting, I saw that Michael foods is resigned from his position. Because all of that fame and exposure that brought such light to public libraries around this country had also brought out a lot of this role. Yes, a lot of less positive energies that were very unfortunately directed at him, and making it not only untenable to do his job, but I’m terrible, too difficult to maintain one’s so I don’t know if this just happened a day ago was when it was being reported. So I don’t know if if my mom was still participating in Cal con, it sounds like you stepping away from his position at the library. But it’s not stepping away from the library advocacy, and would like to kind of more conversations on the national level with with lawmakers and so forth. So all that to say, I’m very, very concerned. I’m very concerned about our librarians. I’m very concerned about the ones who are working today. And the ones who, who might be vulnerable to being driven out. And the ones that haven’t entered the field, and who may be discouraged from doing so, as more and more of these unfortunate events take place. Paired with that, like a final is HB 66 Do you want in Tennessee, which I say wish I could have brought it up when you mentioned Jamba Colorado bill. But this was another thing that just kind of rolled across my radar. What I’m afraid that it’s precedent setting, basically, it’s a bill to lower the barriers for community members to have materials or public libraries. So to make it even easier, and the language that was being used by the proponents of Seville was very slippery, and it’s sounded like it was going to be you know, they were doing this to help the libraries. You know, let us come in and take these books off your shelves before an angry community member comes forward. You know, we can proactively preemptively remove these things. And if we just let, if we just let the residents decide what they consider to be their community standards for obscenity or inappropriate material, right? Like, don’t worry about this first amendment stuff. Because we here in our little town of Oak Ridge or something tendency, you know, we really know that that stuff doesn’t belong here. It’s, it’s, I would say, it’s unbelievable, except that enough of this kind of thing is happening now that it is all too. But I’d wanted to bring it to our group’s attention. Because I think things like what John is moving forward with already having these conversations about updating the challenge request forum. It’s kind of like we’re already supporting legislature, Colorado to walk down, you know, No Man’s this is what we mean by free speech, stuff like that, like, proactively do it now, do it now. So that, you know, if some of these experimental builds off, start making their way toward us. Hopefully, we have some, some things in place. Those things just keep going up. They go on to some other library or state. Not good. They’re coming. They’re coming. He was thinking, you know, there’s all the school library stuff that that I was hearing about the most for a few months, and now it’s starting to be more public library stuff.

Speaker 6 1:36:58
Like sound? Yeah, I mean, Arkansas, for sure. I think Alabama, they have some some things in place that are horrifying, like some laws or policies, such that affect public dollars. In Arkansas, particularly. Librarians can be brought up on charges.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:22
So there’s, there’s some wild stuff out there. Whatever reason that that will make us like, you guys or whatever, don’t don’t have this fear starts to get well, but it’s still disturbing.

Speaker 3 1:37:47
So I’m very concerned about these things are going to start. I’m not starting with that they’re going to increasingly disincentivize people from staying in the field.

Unknown Speaker 1:38:07
Similar to

Speaker 1 1:38:15
being an editor at a very sad and important conversation to pay attention to even if it’s not, you know, even if our state is moving in a different direction. But anyone who doesn’t know California is the Colorado situation of library conference this year. It’s at Breckenridge. I haven’t internet for many years, but when I have it’s been great. It’s an early September and it’s open. So I mean, it’s it costs the money. But and I want to check this because this are my nursing without looking but I’m, you know, as board members we could spend, once again it does, there is a fee associated. Trying to enter y’all are going to the public viry conference in April. I hope that there is funding for y’all to get into the cap on it. And that would be of use to you and some of your staff.

Speaker 6 1:39:18
I mean, that is well last year, it was easier because it was in Loveland which had been for many years. You know, with with PLA and the staff going, of course, I got funding for that from the friends, but but my existing professional development budget would barely support that because then it’s it’s far enough to require, you know, more financial commitment, right. So, mileage and obviously booked room and board and that adds up quickly. So that’s going to be pretty challenging, but it’s not out of the question. You know as to maybe get one or two people that was cow con when it was in Loveland, I was able to send a number of people. And so that was that was great. But we’ll see. But you’re right, like boards and commissions. In fact, they have specific tracks sometimes or at least sessions for that. Some of its, you know, depends on the conference, but there’s usually sessions that are specific to boards, and commissions. So it’s, it’s worth looking at, if they’ve gotten far enough to have any specific sessions or agenda. So far, the person that Jamie bribe is still on the agenda because he just sent that out today. But his his announcement of resigning was so recent that I don’t know if that were made or not.

Speaker 1 1:40:56
I’m trying to keep an eye out and see, what if there is a session specific to boards and commissions and that up to this group. On library board, comments, or comments, really members of the board? Sitting next thing, okay,

Speaker 6 1:41:20
no, I’m just gonna say because I’m not library board at this point. But I wanted to share something with the board at the end of the meeting. So if there’s no more comments, I can do that now. This might endless war, positive milk. censorship. Yes, we just we just talked about, but I just wanted to share this for I received a thank you note today, randomly. This, this doesn’t happen very often. Usually, if I get a note in the mail. It’s something I probably don’t want to read. But this is short, so I’ll read it to you all. My husband and I moved to London a couple of years ago and are so impressed with the services the Longmont library provides. We appreciate being able to pull books and pick them up from the library. This is a tremendous service. Recently, we have noted your offerings of library of things, the seed garden, and the multiple CD and DVD offerings and audiobooks. Congratulations also on your very effective ways to engage adopt first signed a happy pager. So I just wanted to share that because for someone to take the time to write something. You know, we all know how that goes most of you back. People are really not this nature. So I did

Unknown Speaker 1:42:57
I thought about writing a thank you note for

Unknown Speaker 1:42:59
the people I know.

Speaker 1 1:43:04
I want to include that as the somebody to consider when we do share, counsel, that type of feedback as well as so powerful.

Speaker 6 1:43:16
Yeah, another staff member told me to over the weekend, a patron was up in the computer lab and stopped one of the staff and just said, you know, I just wanted to say that I got my high school degree because of this library. I did all my coursework here. And without it, I wouldn’t have eyes. So talking about a story to share. Right now, what’s your date? On the Yeah, yeah, I know the anecdotal.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:57
That’s awesome.

Speaker 1 1:44:03
Thanks, but it’s a great note to end on. Our next meeting is scheduled March 18. Where is the first day of st reign spring break? So it’s the way that I’m excited that he will attend please just let us know. Picture while firm. But otherwise, I will join us at 853

Transcribed by https://otter.ai