I I'd like to call the this meeting to order um at 605 pres here we go thanks this is February 26th 2025 for the meeting of the board
of Library trustees uh do they record this they are speak up president um Katie mcgonagal Library director n O Connor trustee Michelle Jones trustee Jean Cento trustee Larry
Balman secretary Cindy mcot chairman uh let's see are there any public comments I don't see any public so I guess not let's move on to the meeting minutes has every Anybody Everybody read the meeting minutes um are
there any comments about them if not can we we move to accept the meeting minutes I'll make a motion to accept the thank youan we have a second Nancy OK coner will second and thank you Larry they were
very good that now uh Katie can you do the director's report do you have to vote to accept oh let's vote to accept the we have to vote to accept the minutes all in favor I I
I now we can move on to the director's minutes thank you I mean the director's report okay um so I'll start with children's highlights there were 38 programs this is going back
through the month of January um there were 38 children's programs 617 program attendees there were 249 reference transactions in the children's department and there were passive programs and 232 participated in the
scavenger hunt and 194 guesses went into the guessing jar January was filled with a variety of programs and the bean stack winter reading challenge the challenge ran from January 1st to January 31st and there were 105 participants and they read for
a total of 139,900 13 highlights during the month of January there were 14 programs there were 197 program attendees and there was one passive program January saw the highest attendance for teen programming yet
programming is going so well that a new program will be launched in April called teen fandom Club where teens can connect with fellow fans play games create fan art write fan fiction share favorite episodes and show off their fandom Pride
the teen Department also set up for the mass center for the book's monthly reading challenge and participated in the bean stack winter reading challenge and then Below on our packets here you can see some pictures that Erica included for us for the tech take apart
winter afternoons the so what program team program has really taken off and it's been really effective and there's a really great crew that comes through how many l of regular there were 197 Total Team attendees for the team programs
just during February just during February and keep in mind we had February break for the schools also so that's really great really unbelievable there's a lot of repeat teens that are coming to programs and also a lot of new teens that are coming in so it's it's a good variety um Erica is doing a really nice job making really great connections
in the community um for adult highlights there were nine programs 105 programs attendees and then upstairs at the information desk there were 183 reference transactions 255 hours of
study room use and there were 18 requests that went unfulfilled wow The Adult Services Department continued Outreach with Bluebird Estates and the Pleasant View Senior Center additional Outreach locations are being researched to continue to meet the needs of the
patrons where they are not everyone is able to make it to the building so it's nice that we can get out into the community The Adult Services Department continues their wide variety of programming including a puzzle challenge craft and painting sessions a book club and a
cookbook Club a new seed Exchange program will be launched in the spring and so there was another Puzzle Challenge uh and this is just a couple pictures from that puzzle challenge that was held and that one was on a Saturday which was [Applause]
great from the circulation department there were 14,410 items circulated that was an increase of 1,361 from December and an increase of 870 from the previous
January there were 44 new registrations there were 60 reference transactions at the circulation desk there were 10 non- Library meeting room uses um there were 17.75 volunteer shelving hours that's a
jump up from the previous month because we have our fantastic swap volunteers back which we're really excited about and then our door count was 11,12 so we were very busy during the month of January both doors for people
coming and going yep we're very excited about this next little bit the library launched assabet interactives Museum and park pass module which is a reservation software that allows patrons to book a museum or park pass up to 90 days in advance that's
cool up until now passes were available by first come first serve and you had a physically be in the building to check them out this module allows patrons to plan their outings in advance there are 17 different organizations and 11 of them can be checked out digitally rather
than having to come to the library to pick it up and drop it off that's good for these digital passes patrons receive an email with a barcode that they can show on their phone or print from home and use when uh when they go to the
location patrons can now choose a new Option the library added a new museum pass for 50% off admission to the New England Air Museum which is uh located in Windsor loock Connecticut so we're very excited um
it's going really well it's very convenient you can book in advance there are a few Museum and park passes that we aren't able to circulate digitally so fol have to come and Che those so those are a loan still that hasn't changed um
but everything else it's you just check it out when you need it so this is all on the website Y and today you can't even go to the movies without they they want you to to do everything in advance time or TOS they won't take cash yeah so
for people who don't know um they can just go at on the website go to aset is there a link y so when you go to the library website it's in a couple of spots just for convenience um we have it up along the top navigation and then in
this kind of the center of the homepage there's like buttons and one of them is Museum passes okay and it's pretty self-explanatory from there okay and but staff is happy to walk anybody through it or have any questions and we're also kind of talking about maybe like almost doing a program about like how do you
come in and book the Museum passes like so wanted to do something separately but any staff member at any desk happy to help yep or if somebody called or yeah right yeah yeah that's good um for tech services this one's a
little briefer but um they were very busy back in the tech services department so that's like cataloging processing receiving there were 616 items added to the collection and 386 items were deleted from the collection and then 68 items were like
reclassified and then to continue on with that circulation part um not only did we add the ASAT interactive Museum and park pass module we also added and launched the event calendar okay so
you'll see a kind of a screenshot below of our new event calendar um so folks can go on and register for our programs and see what we have coming it's already been utilizing it looks great great yes so um asbat has been uh wonderful to
work with I've emailed back and forth with them regularly um other team members have also emailed to ask questions they helped us do some customization so even from this screenshot here to what's currently live they helped us customize the colors in the calendar so that it would match kind
of our logo like our colors which was very nice so they've been really helpful um further in this packet here uh is the libraries submission for the annual report to the town that was
turned in on February 7th so um in three pages there is the libraryies portion for the annual report that will be printed and available um in the town manager's office and it will also be available online once it's completed
from all of the Departments that um include their [Applause] information and just an update uh an another update for the library that there is currently an opening for a full-time Library circulation assistant position we're in the process of going
through the steps to uh fill that for professional development the during the month of January staff attended the following professional development sessions whether in person or virtually the assabet interactive trainings Ingram
Express um how to launch a seed Library sorry I have a little typo there I wish that H was capitalized if you don't mind um and state ethics commission conflict of interest trainings which I think probably a lot of you are starting
to get the conflict of interest training emails you probably just did it um sometimes I think it's um it's emailed directly to each person and then when you complete the training then that gets notified to the see that wasn't how
it was before so yeah things change things do they do they do um for the friends an update on the friends the Friends board met in January and there was much discussion focused on fundraising and publicity including the friends winter raffle baskets the bake
sale and the upcoming Thunderbirds game um I was here when they did the bake sale it was very successful they had a lot of folks coming in it was a huge display they had lots of goodies that seemed to go really well some really tasty things um and there raffle baskets
seem to be very popular and there were lots of folks that were paying attention to that and then the upcoming Thunderbirds game is on March 17th which is on a Sunday hopefully all you folks can go we're going um and then another update on the
friends they sent their winter newsletter out and that was distributed to their membership at the end of January their next meeting will be in March and Gan is going yep it's next Tuesday y um so Michelle what we've been
trying to do is kind of a rotation of board members who are interested and available to attend a Friends Meeting just to kind of continue to build that relationship that we have with our friends grou then we know what's going on with them and they know what's going on with us yep so that's great so they
will have a meeting in March and then they will have meetings in May and June and then they will take a break for July and August and then start back up in September okay yep um [Music] and then if you haven't yet seen our
community room um the Department of Public Works repainted our community room and it looks beautiful oh uh it's they did such a nice job um very quick efficient they did tons of patching painted the room it looks beautiful they
did a lovely job so they have done some really nice touch-up work for us over the past few months I know how busy they are especially in the winter season so we really appreciate it they recently repainted the study rooms they did the stairwell and the community room so that was a lot of work for for DPW for here in the library so we really appreciate
it now let's see uh we have a policy review of The Lost and Found policy we do and then I am almost completed with the local history collection and room policy I will bring that next month but that is draft format so all right okay
yep yep and then our next meeting is going to be be Wednesday March 19th right um can I ask a question for you uh reference transaction does that just mean an interaction with a staff member or yes great question it's any time um
we we consider like reference transactions anytime where patrons are coming to a staff member to ask for assistance okay whether it's reader advisory which means oh I'm looking for my next great read can you help me find that or how do I use this resource can you help me with faxing okay um anytime
that we are able to assist or interact with a patron we're going to consider that and a tidbit from Mora today that she wanted me to share with the board how you keep track of that they we just do it tally and all the ask you a question mark it down just track it you
you have a form that you check at each public service desk is it on the computer nope it's just a sheet of paper and then weekly or monthly that's somebody's task is to then compile the entire week or month however they're tracking it each department and we keep
track of all of that and that's a requirement for Aris also um Mora had asked me to share out with you all that she has received many many compliments and um
approval approvals from the community about how grateful they are for our printers and our copiers and our fax machine she said it's almost daily someone says wow thank you so much I don't have a printer at home or I just ran out of toner or I needed to print
this packing slip or what have you and she said it's just they get lots of compliments about how helpful the team is and how reasonably priced because it's only you know 15 cents for black and white and 25 cents for color and great so it's it's a it's you know it's
a reasonable price for folks to come in and and use these devices and we just got brand new ones on the first and second floor thanks to the IT department um they worked really hard on getting us new devices and uh you charge them per page that yeah bless you but there's
nowhere El in town to print now that Staples is gone so I wonder if that there was like an uptick for when Staples were removed like if if that meant more people were coming here sure sure I don't know what other locations might be available but um you know it's only a dollar to fax in
other places are two or $3 per page think about coming here this place has everything we try really hard it is for for every age Jean I might yes exactly so if yeah intergenerational it's so generational yeah and everyone's so
happy to help so it it's very nice and you don't really realize how much it has until you need it absolutely and then and and a lot of people aren't aware which this is good that they be can become aware of how many varied Services there are they it's not just the place
where you come and get a library book and check it out there's so much more to that there's many services available and we hope to get the word out to the public about it you know it's it's um here for them and it takes up
very little percentage of your tax dollars yeah compared to to how many services you get for that amount of money so um we hope they take advantage of it yeah all right well our next meeting as
you said is March 19th 2025 at 6:00 people are welcome to come and um if there's no other I got to do this one I was trying I do the lost and found policy oh we did I thought we I know no we're so close we got to read
it I think we have to do the lost and found we have to do the L and found policy if we could do that Katie that would be great so we don't currently have a lost and found policy this is new this is not an update to something that we already have in place this is a new policy um this was kind of initiated
because we have a lot of items that get left behind at the library and we kind of have our own internal procedure if you will but I think it's important to actually have a policy in place so that way everyone is aware of what it is and
then it also gives us um kind of a guide to what we do with these items that end up getting left behind because there are things keep that have been loed in the safe for years so there we only have so
much space and lied um here's the lost and found policy please note that I did consult with the police chief who was very helpful I sent this to the town manager he has seen this I did consult with mblc just to get some input there aren't a ton of libraries that have lost
and found policies so um it was really helpful to get input from a variety of different folks that would have some experience in have some input on it so um this is the lost and found policy and I'm open to your questions
okay patrons who visit the East Long Meadow Public Library are responsible for their personal belongings as a courtesy the library will hold some lost and found items that are found by or given to library staff this policy outlines Library staff's response to
Lost and Found items within the library on Library grounds or at Outreach locations lost items Library staff will perform a reasonable search for items reported lost by patrons including checking the librar designated lost and found storage
areas for any items matching the description provided patrons are encouraged to check in periodically in case an item has been found and Library staff cannot determine the owner found items found items collected by Library staff will be dated and
stored in the designated lost and found storage areas for up to 14 days with the ex following exceptions wet dirty unidentifiable or perishable items such as food beverage containers and personal care items will be disposed of
immediately documents with identifiable information left in The copier inside library books or other circulating materials on tables or in other public spaces will be shredded personal items such as wallets identification cards Keys bags laptops
jewelry musical instruments and mobile phones may be stored in a secure location reasonable attempts will be made to contact the owner to rec reclaim their lost item unclaimed items items not claimed
within 14 days will be discarded donated or recycled as determined by the library director or design the loss and found policy is subject to review an amendment by the board of Library trustees and it's reviewed February 2025
okay it's no so straightforward I can't I can't think of anything yeah no say about it yeah it's very straightforward I think it's fine yeah yeah I have a question I think we uh so um two things came to mind um with the
increase of teenss and being in the space and probably increase of like school books or homework items and stuff um distinguishing like say say like a homework has a kid's name on it with like some of their information um that
wouldn't fall under the document of identiable identifiable information right so so somebody comes and makes a photo copy of their driver so that's going to be um making sure that that's like a different like so when papers are
left on a table um if it's like a kid binder or an entire their folder if something is a student any age right and they leave their entire binder we're not going to toss that out we're GNA it happens a lot so have POS we try
our best to then contact that person or we'll hold on to it for a little bit we have like an internal spreadsheet that we keep that like tracks who found what where they found it what the date was were we able to get in touch with the patron did they pick it up so we're
going to keep that internal document and we're going to hold on to things where we can y School instruments are that's a big one got all sorts of school instruments Chromebooks from the schools so we're not going to get rid of those things we're going to do the best that we can to hold on to them for a little
while but um and especially as the repeat kigs Erica is going to know the team more and it happens in children it happens all over the place we have adult students that come in all the time and that might leave something behind um so we do the best that we can it's kind of
our best judgment but there are times where somebody prints out their boarding pass for a flight and they don't realize they may have printed multiple copies and they've left it on the printer we're going to shred those just because we want to make sure that we're protecting privacy but things that we do collect we
have a couple storage areas in the library that we tuck those aside so that way we can hold on to them until somebody comes but like I said we've got a set of car keys from three years ago yeah yeah we don't it's probably been so know right so we needed some sort of guidance to be like how long do we keep
how long do we hold right so um and and they do make every effort to try to find out whose it was if if it's identifiable at all yeah you know and and of course if it's still here after you right finally notified
people then right but I think our uh our glass display case currently is full of like is this yours like it's full of Lost and Found items trying to get people to claim their things oh there's tons of hats and then we have an entire Tupperware bin full of stuff back in
circulation I we just it just piles up and it happens but we need to have to happen oh yeah cuz look at all the kids that come well I do it too I leave my stuff behind I I suspect people are sitting one place and then they move and they
for I mean how many times with librar you can put things on a shelf and forget yeah I live coffee mugs all over the place so it happens um but so this this is what we're looking to add to our
policies that looks good to me um can we vote to accept it tonight well why don't we do that okay so do I have a motion to accept the lost and lost items policy y make a motion to
accept the lost and found items policy and unclaimed items and Larry will second that thank you so the the last and found items policy is accepted um do we all vote we to vote
have to vot we have to vote yeah that's okay let's vote I all in favor I I'll oppose none let's move thank you K that was a very good job doesn't happen often I know I was
like faar like oh I didn't mean it that way I just meant that usually there's no comments well there's a lot of back and forth which is what's supposed to happen so exactly great thank you all um before you adjourn our meeting oh okay um also
in your packets here and you probably already received these but the Massachusetts Library Association sent out a legislative update and call to action and in this email that they sent out and this is being distributed far and wide by Massachusetts Board of
Library Commissioners the Massachusetts library system um uh MLA which I've already mentioned Massachusetts Library Association libraries across the Commonwealth um there are some legislative agenda items
that are being promoted right now um including some bills that are are uh kind of going through the process so I have that included in here this includes an act regarding free expression and information about that bill um the FY 26
uh budget like the request from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners so all of this is included in your handout and it's all available through MLA and mblc and that's what I have for you
all please contact your local representatives and continue to advocate for the importance of libraries yes thank you oh I was interested in the um School library standards act that was included there and how many schools don't have
certified libran certified librarian teacher yeah yes very important are there any more comments or or um no anything else to add if not then I think we can adjourn the meeting um do I have a
motion motion motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting and Nancy are you seconding Cal second the meeting is adjourned at uh 6:32