2014-09-10TOWN OF BERLIN
BERLIN -PECK MEMORIAL LIBRARY BOARD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
APPROVED
Members Present:
Sharon Powell, Chairman
Donna Moore, Vice -Chairman Robert Lewis
Carol Welz Carol Ranieri
Juliet Benjamin, Recording Secretary
Members Absent:
Elaine Borselle
Frank Steele Kathleen Murray
Staff in Attendance:
Helen Malinka, Library Director
1. CALL TO ORDER:
Chairman Powell called the meeting to order @7:00 P.M.
2. AUDIENCE OF CITIZENS:
3. DISPOSITION OF MINUTES, Wednesday, July 9, 2014:
Three corrections to the Minutes of July 9, 2014 - Carol Welz listed as
absent, move to Present. Remove Benjamin Doolittle as a member. Item 7 Old
Business: Paragraph 2, third line, change "and" to "the Foundation and the
Friends". Donna Moore made a motion to accept the Minutes of Wednesday,
July 9, 2014, with corrections. Robert Lewis seconded the motion and the
Minutes were accepted.
4. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT - HELEN MALINKA, LIBRARY DIRECTOR:
The Library Board reviewed Director Malinka's Monthly Report for
August 2014 dated September 10, 2014.
Chairman Powell asked whether the situation with an annoying patron
has improved. Director Malinka stated that it has not and the patron still calls
several times a day but they are working on ways to lessen the problem.
Discussion was held on receiving Director Malinka's report at an earlier
date each month. It was agreed that Director Malinka will send out the report
earlier, Monday before the meeting if possible, and distribute the statistics at
the meeting. Director Malinka stated that she usually has to wait until the last
minute for the statistics update but the rest of her report is prepared sooner.
Director Malinka noted that the Children's Librarians have been
attending open houses held in each school to introduce more students to the
library and sign up more patrons.
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 2
Copies of Director Malinka's Monthly Reports for July & August follow:
MONTHLY REPORT for JULY 2014
August 13, 2014
PERSONNEL:
• Lisa Spalla and a panel of outside circulation managers interviewed 7 candidates
for the 20 -hour position. They narrowed the field to 3, who were then interviewed
by HR supervisor Denise Parsons, Helen and Lisa. Results still pending.
• We hired MLS student Danielle Berube as a Reference Desk substitute.
PROGRAMS:
Adult: 6 Programs with 189 participants
• Sit and Knit met two times with 29 participants
• Movie Showing had 15 attendees
• Dog Listener had 30 attendees
• Cut the Cable had 46 attendees
• Our Adult Summer Reading program has 69 participants who have read 404
books so far.
Teens: 3 programs with 33 participants
• Manga Workshop: 3 sessions with 33 participants
Children: 24 programs with 943 participants
• Toddler Storytime with 4 sessions and 197 participants
• Baby Storytime with 5 sessions and 173 participants
• Parachute Playtime with 3 sessions and 60 participants
• Construction Club 2 sessions with 56 participants
• Family Movie Matinee: Disney Pirate Fairy 1 session with 4 participants
• Messy Fun with Miss Emily: Oobleck 1 session with 28 participants
• Messy Fun with Miss Emily: Sharpie Tie Dye 1 session with 19 participants
• Summer Creations: Beaded Wind Chime 1 session with 15 participants
• Summer Creations: Bottle Racers 1 session with 15 participants
• Sensory Sensations: 1 session with 33 participants
• Performer: Danny Magic 1 session with 126 participants
• Performer: Nature Nick 1 session with 126 participants
• Flower Fairy 1 session with 16 participants
• New Britain Symphony Orchestra: 1 session with 75 participants
SUMMER READING REGISTRATIONS: (as of July 31)
• Children - 562 registrations
• Teens - 48 registrations (with 93 book reviews)
9 Adults - 69 participants
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 3
PLUSSES:
• The Needham Family donated a No -Mess Sandbox to the Children's
Department.
• Channel 3 contacted us when doing a story on the Hawthorne restaurant closing.
They were looking for old pictures of the building. We found a couple old
pictures in the history room, scanned them and emailed them to the news station.
The pictures were to be used in their broadcast.
• CCAT transitioned our computers over to their server. We are now officially off
the town network.
• The Berlin -Peck Library will be participating in the first Passport to CT Libraries
program, running in 87 public libraries from September 2nd through September
30th. Every participating library will offer a Passport to their patrons, that each
patron will take to any participating library to be stamped and receive a small gift.
At the end of the month, patrons will turn in their passports to any participating
library to be entered in two drawings: Most Libraries Visited and one Random
Drawing for all participants. The drawing will be for two adult prizes of $150.00
each and two children's (under 18) of $100.00 each.
• Came had a successful meeting with the public task force, working with our new
circulation system. The committee made some recommendations for LCI to work
on so that the site will be more user friendly to the general public. Some
changes have already taken effect.
PROBLEMS:
• Still having trouble with a difficult patron. We have been working with Doug Truitt
in Social Services to find positive solutions to the problem.
• We are still working on Sierra issues (staff portion of the new ILS).
• We've been having a lot of trouble with our public printer. Fortunately, it is due to
be replaced during this FY. CCAT will be recommending a new one.
PLANNING:
• Need to tweak our webpage to reflect new system, databases and quirky things
we've discovered as we use it.
• The children's department is working to develop the fall schedule, including
adding some new ideas and removing programs that don't seem to attract
patrons. We will be introducing a 1000 Books before Kindergarten program in
October.
• The Berlin -Peck Library will celebrate 25 years in its present facility this October.
Watch for
lots of celebrations, including "25 Programs for 25 Years", a silver ticket give-
away (a
la Willie Wonka!) and, of course, a 25�h anniversary cake!
PROFESSIONAL:
July 2 — Virtual LCI mtg. — HM
July 3 — Dept. heads meeting — HM, CT, LS
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes - 9/10/2014 - Page 4
LS, JN
July 7 - Mtg with TM - HM
July 9 - Reference Dept. mtg - HM, CT, CK, UP, AF
July 9 - Board of Trustees mtg. - CT
July 10 - Staff Meeting
July 10 - Circulation Roundtable - LS
July 16 - Top Managers mtg - HM
July 17 - Public Access task force virtual mtg - CT
July 18 - Member Council in Windsor - HM
July 21 - Mtg. with facilities and P&R - HM
July 21 - Outreach presentation to Percival House - HM
July 21 -1ST interviews for circ clerk - LS
July 21 - Mtg with TM - HM
July 24 - Dept. Heads mtg. - HM, CT, LS, JN
July 24 - Finance Dept. budget primer presentation - HM, LB, CT,
July 30 - Mtg. w/Jim Wren re: RFP for workroom renovation
July 30 - East Htfd. Interview panel - LS
July 31 - 2nd interviews for circ clerk - LS, HM
HM=Helen Malinka
Fal
CT=Carrie Tyszka
Spalla
JN=Jennifer Needham
LB=Lisa Brown
BOARD MEETINGS:
J U LY 2014 STATS
EG=Emily Gontarz
CK=Coleman Kelly
UP=Ursula Pendleton
MM=Mindy Morrison
• August 13 - Friends Board
• September 3 - Friends Board
• September 10 - Library Board of Trustees
AF=Andrew
LS=Lisa
JULY STATS
2014
2013
%
New Cards
104
266
+21%
Renewed Cards
219
n/a
Total Cardholders
6,943
712-2-9-
-4%
Door Count
12,133
13,081
-7%
Reference Questions
2 328
1 948
+20%
Programs
33
36
-8%
Program attendance
1,165
839
+39%
Web a e sessions remote & in
8,326
10,193
-18%
Downloadable ma s e and audio books
757
606
+25%
Circ for month incl. downloads
20,975
24 008
-12%
Cumulative circ to date
20,975
24,008
-12%
Book a Librarian
6
4
+50%
Test proctoring
2
0
Computer assistance
128
138
-7%
Homebound Service
6
2
+200%
Public scanner
175
n/a
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 5
Room use
132
INTERESTING REFERENCE QUESTIONS:
1) Treating and preventing adolescent disorders
2) Do we have a historical romance section?
3) Can I use your ruler? (Then proceeded to put it down his shirt and scratch
his back!)
4) Where can you get a computer for free?
5) Info on the new Costco in New Britain
6) Info on lupus
7) How to make a bat house
8) Articles on the national recovery
9) Books on canning
10) Erie Canal history book
11) The order of titles in the Calder series by Janet Dailey
12) How does mellitus 2 diabetes relate to pancreatic cancer with regards to
military (Navy) exposure?
13) What actors were in the movie The Great Race?
14) Surname meanings and origins
15) History of the Sandwich Islands
16) Do you circulate dvd players? (No, but that's a good idea!)
17) How to renew a passport when the previous one isn't available
18) "1 Can Read" books with cows in them
Many questions regarding the new circulation system and summer reading for
the schools.
ANECDOTES:
• Patron thanked us for air-conditioning and the use of a computer!
During the Messy Fun with Miss Emily: Oobleck program, I was demonstrating
the idea that we would be working with ratios to create oobleck. The ratio was
two (cornstarch) to one (water). I held up a half cup measuring cup for the
children to see and asked if they knew what it was called. They all yelled out,
"That's a measuring cup!" So I asked if anyone had a guess of what size
measuring cup it was. Everyone was silent, except for one little boy who
enthusiastically yelled out "Five!"
MONTHLY REPORT for AUGUST 2014
September 10, 2014
PERSONNEL:
• Sixteen -year circ staff member Shirley Kucharczyk announced her retirement
effective September 5, 2014. There will be a dinner for her Sept. 26.
• Former sub Laurie DeVivo was hired for the 20 -hour opening at circ.
• Lost 2 pages. Will need to fill at least one position immediately.
PROGRAMS:
Adult - 6 Programs with 152 participants
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 6
• Sit and Knit met two times with 21 participants
• Senior Center book club had 4 attendees
• Cut the Cable program had 18 attendees
• Henna designs had 21 participants
17 attended Google Glass drop-in program
• Summer reading — 71 participants
Children - 6 programs with 777 participants
• Parachute Playtime with 1 session and 35 participants
• Lego Construction Club with 1 session and 46 participants
• Family Movie Matinee: Free Birds 1 session with 4 participants
• Messy Fun with Miss Emily: Edible Slime 1 session with 35 participants
• Summer Creations: Coffee Filter Bouquet 1 session with 13 participants
• Summer reading — 644 participants
Teens —1 program with 66 participants
SUMMER READING REGISTRATIONS: (as of August 31)
• Children — 644 registrations
• Teens — 66 registrations (with 103 book reviews)
• Adults — 71 adults read 570 books - Four drawings were held during the summer,
each winner received a $25 gift card.
PLUSSES:
• Children's doubled their summer reading participation this year.
• The Children's Department Facebook page will launch in September.
• Jennifer & Emily will be attending the school Open Houses in September.
• We had a great "Shark Week" display of books and dvds on the front table. We
had a hard time keeping the display stocked- it was extremely popular.
• We have two new volunteers helping with interlibrary loans.
• Our homebound volunteer has set up a specific day to do her deliveries, as the
need for her services has increased.
• C -CAT has been working on some of our computer issues. The public no longer
needs a password to login to the wireless. A staff wireless account has been set
up. They are in the process of copying our adult public computers so that they all
have the exact same desktop options. CASSIE is working much better. The staff
meeting room calendars will soon be improved, as well.
• Coleman is making some changes to our website, as recommended by our
website committee.
PROBLEMS:
• Statistics are not yet easily compiled by our new system. Lisa is having to put in
a lot of time to figure things out. All the consortia libraries are having this
difficulty.
• We still have several outstanding computer problems that C -CAT will need to
address.
• We are still having a little trouble with New Book Alerts. It seems there will be a
transition period between our old ILS system and our new ILS system where not
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 7
all of our new titles are showing up in our New Book Alerts. This should sort
itself out soon as they import "on order" titles from our new system into their
database.
We no longer have access to Consumer Reports through our library. We have
had several patrons inquire about this. Patrons can now access it through iConn.
We have updated our website to reflect this change.
Door counter wasn't working properly, so there are no door counts for August 11-
13. Lisa averaged the other weeks to adjust the count to be approximate.
Loss of pages made getting the books quickly back onto the shelves difficult.
PLANNING:
• Already need to start planning for the FY15-16 budget, beginning with the CIP
due in September. Will be asking for an upgrade to our a -v system in the meeting
room.
• The children's department will be introducing a 1000 Books before Kindergarten
program in October.
• The Berlin -Peck Library will celebrate 25 years in its present facility this October.
Watch for
lots of celebrations, including "25 Programs for 25 Years", a silver ticket give-
away (a
la Willie Wonka!) and, of course, a 25`h anniversary cake.
• Met with a consultant to discuss feasibility of combining reference and
circulation desks.
PROFESSIONAL:
advocacy — CT
HM and LB
August 4 — Mty with TM — HM
August 5 — 25 anniversary mtg — HM, CT, JN, Board and Friends
members
August 7 — Dept. heads meeting — HM, CT, LS
August 13 — Friends mtg. — HM
August 13 — CCAT mtg — HM, CT, LS, JN, LB
August 14 — Staff Meeting
August 15 — Mtg w/town building officials re: workroom renovation
—HM
August 18 — Mtg. w/TM — HM
August 19 — Mtg. with consultant re: circ desk redesign — HM & LS
August 20 — Webpage Committee — HM, CT, CK, LB, JN
August 20 — Webinar on recruiting and training volunteers for
August 21 — TM and Town Clerk mtg re: Council agenda items —
August 21 — Reception at NBMAA for Arts grant participants — HM
August 21 — Dept. Heads mtg. — HM, CT, LS, JN
August 27 — LCI Governance Committee mtg. — HM
August 28 — 25`" anniversary meeting — HM, CT, JN
HM=Helen Malinka EG=Emily Gontarz AF=Andrew
Fal
CT=Carrie Tyszka CK=Coleman Kelly LS=Lisa
Spalla
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 8
JN=Jennifer Needham UP=Ursula Pendleton
LB=Lisa Brown MM=Mindy Morrison
BOARD MEETINGS:
• August 13 — Friends Board
• September 3 — Friends Board
• September 10 — Library Board of Trustees
• October 1 — Friends Board
• October 8 — Library Board of Trustees
AUGUST 2014 STATS
AUGUST STATS
2014
2013
%
New Cards
85
110
-22%
Renewed Cards
153
92
+66%
Total Cardholders
6,920
7 204
-4%
Door Count
10,471
11,235
-7%
Reference Questions
1,966
1504
+31%
Programs
13
32
-60%
Program attendance
995
1,328
-25%
Web a e sessions remote & in
10,159
9,652
+5%
Downloadable ma s e and audio books
699
594
+18%
Circ for month incl. downloads
17,132
18,932
-9%
Cumulative circ to date
38,107
41,973
-9%
Book a Librarian
10
3
+233%
Test proctoring
0
1
Computer assistance
130
124
+5%
Homebound Service
10
6
+66%
Public scanner
173
14
+1135%
Study Room use
109
n/a
INTERESTING REFERENCE QUESTIONS:
19) Are there any new celebrity memoirs?
20) Information on dyspraxia
21) Help me find the NB Herald article that has a picture of my brother
22) Name of the lawyer sentenced in scheme w/chiropractor
23) Formaldehyde hazards
24) Cromwell senior living facilities
25) Roof framing books
26) Ratings of local walk-in clinics
27) Information on dyslipidemia
28) Number for Publishers Clearing House so she can claim prize
29) Information on the true story behind "Devils Knot" movie
30) How to speak with a German accent
31) Iced coffee ratings
32) Red Hat Society books
33) Pictures of Berlin High School in the 60s and 70s
34) Books on the habitats of dolphins
35) Do we have a laminator for public use
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 9
36) How do you spell filigree?
Many questions regarding the new circulation system and summer reading for
the schools.
6. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT:
Chairman Powell noted that she did not have anything specific to
discuss.
7. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:
• Budget Committee -Director Malinka discussed the $6,000 cut in the
book budget. She asked the Board whether they thought she should use
some of the Library Agency Fund #708 to replenish the budget. With the
cut in funding patrons will have to wait longer because the library cannot
buy as many copies of bestsellers. Donna Moore suggested publishing
something in the newspaper telling the public about the Agency Fund
and that donations would be appreciated.
• Chairman Powell asked for an updated list of Funds listing what each
fund can be used for and restrictions. Also the beginning balance,
interest and expenditures.
• Director Malinka noted that she has to submit her Capital Improvement
Requests and will be once again requesting the RFID. She noted the
Radio Frequency Tabs have gone down in price from the past and they
were quoted at $10,000 less. The approximate total for the system is
$70,000, (Tags $35,000 plus cost of Book Drop Sorter and other
equipment). Director Malinka is also requesting an update of the Media
System in the Meeting Room. She is still getting quotes and the price
could range anywhere from $8,000 to $30,000.
Friends Committee
Pat Baxa could not be at the meeting but she gave Director Malinka
fliers to distribute advertising the Book Sale Bonanza on September 19th
and 20th @the Community Center and also the Friends sponsorship of
Good Cause Gifts at the library on Thursday, October 16th from 3:00 to
7:00 p.m., where light refreshments will be served.
• Personnel Committee
Members: Frank Steele & Bob Lewis. No personnel issues to report.
• Policy and Bylaws Committee
Director Malinka is working on a revision of the Internet Policy and she
hopes to have it ready for the next meeting.
• First Floor Expansion Committee
0 Ordinance Committee
Berlin -Peck Memorial Library Board Minutes — 9/10/2014 - Page 10
S.
None
9. OLD BUSINESS:
Chairman Powell asked to table discussion on the Foundation until the
full membership is in attendance.
10. NEW BUSINESS•
Chairman Powell asked the membership to think about possibly moving
the start of the Library Board meetings to 6:30 p.m. This will be discussed at
the next meeting.
Chairman Powell also asked members to think about someone who might
like to serve on the board since we are one member short.
11. ADJOURNMENT:
Carol Ranieri made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:40 PM. The
motion was seconded by Carol Welz and unanimously approved.
Respectfully submitted,
Juliet K. Benjamin, Recording Secretary