CH-UH library board meeting
Maryann Barnes
These reports contain member observation and selected highlights of public meetings and are not official statements of the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters Cuyahoga Area. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS-UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD
REGULAR
MEETING—Monday, June 20, 2011
Noble Neighborhood Library
Board members present:
Absent:
Also present:
PROCEEDINGS
President Audrey Cole opened the meeting at 7:04 pm.
Operations Committee
The board approved a resolution for technology expenditures in the amount of $25,720 to include increasing network storage from four to twelve terabytes and acquiring a more powerful PC for the creation of media by the Webmaster. A Jamex coin box to pay for printing on the first floor of the Lee Road Library was also included.
Gifts from the Friends and from Findaway World were accepted. Both groups contributed to the renovation of the Noble Neighborhood Library.
A resolution was presented to Findaway World honoring the company not only for donations to the library but also for a number of different collaborations. The library has been a testing site for products such as the Playway View, a small educational video player for children.
Personnel
Maggie Lindsay will fill the part-time children’s librarian position at the Coventry Library.
Close to 90 applications were received for the full-time adult services librarian position. Seven candidates will be interviewed, and the position will be filled at the July board meeting.
Planning & External Relations Committee
The board approved a number of change orders for the Noble Neighborhood Library renovation and passed a resolution allowing the fiscal officer to begin the public bidding process for exterior work on the building.
Director’s report
Director Levin informed the board that with almost 29,000 ebooks, CLEVNET has more ebooks than the New York, Boston, and Seattle Public Libraries. OverDrive [a digital distributor of ebooks] is adding enhancements that will allow Kindle downloads from public libraries.
Starting in September the Library will partner with Connect Ohio to offer certified beginner computer training. Connect Ohio is a national public/private, technology neutral program with the goal of increasing online connection by the public. After six hours of training, customers will be eligible for discounts on computer equipment. The library will be reimbursed for providing the training.
A recent management retreat focused on the Balanced Scorecard process. Reorganization of library staff has been a ongoing project and the process will produce a new organization chart and updated position descriptions.
The annual audit was successful and the comprehensive annual report is at the printer. It will also be available on the website.
During May, 172 meeting room requests were approved and 167 patron meetings were held at all of the sites.
Director Levin talked about the Know-It-Now Project that the CLEVNET libraries have been involved in for a number of years. It’s a 24-hour live web reference service, and board members were challenged to use it once before the July meeting.
Government report
In August 2010 the Ohio Local Government Reform and Collaboration Commission issued a final report. One of its recommendations was that the State Library of Ohio research issues of collaborations, mergers, and consolidation of library systems. The state library did that in conjunction with the Ohio Library Council and one of the conclusions in its June 16, 2011 report is that no great savings would occur by merging library systems.
Public service report
Among the highlights included in the May public service report are:
· Noble’s reopening day on May 23 hosted 1100 people. The back entrance, first floor bathroom and PLAYroom received many compliments.
· In partnership with Rap Art, the library will host a series of conversations with teens this summer.
· A partnership with Oxford Elementary School provided a library card for every student.
· The library introduced its Blu-ray collection of 152 items. These were checked out 514 times in the first three weeks.
· The University Heights branch added an additional outside security camera due to an increase in disruptive incidents during after-school hours. Last fall there was repeated vandalism of the large planters.
· Kristen Rosebrock-Hayes and Heather Howiler oversee volunteers who are digitizing old photographs for inclusion in The Cleveland Memory Project (www.clevelandmemory.org).
· Over 200 children watched the Cinderella Around the Globe program.
· Coventry Library hosted psychic mediums Carolyn Molnar and Ben Gleisser speaking about their book, Compassionate Messenger. They now live in Toronto, but Coventry was Ben’s first library.
New business
Since Board Member Jason Stein has recently been appointed to fill the seat on Cleveland Heights City Council vacated by Mark Tumeo, the question is whether to recruit applicants for that seat now or wait until November when another member will be chosen by the school board as President Audrey Cole rotates off the board. Board Member Jim Posch indicated that unless a major decision needed to be reached before the beginning of the year, waiting would not be harmful. Use of the gymnasium space in the Activity Center might be such a decision, and Director Levin is meeting the next day with a prospective user of the space. The board made no decision at this meeting.
Next meeting:
Monday, July 18, 2011, 7:00 pm at the Lee Road Library.
LWV observer: Anne S. McFarland