e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e all right ready to go one two three here we go okay welcome everybody uh welcome to the uh Library board meeting it's 4
pm on Thursday February 13th uh 2025 uh we're in the city hall council chambers and we've got a quarum and so we'll go ahead first thing we have to do is approve the agenda we have the we've had the agenda by email for quite some
time so I'll make the motion to all right we've got Manan makes a motion to approve the agenda do I have a second second second any uh discussion on that hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I I post same sign okay we have
an agenda and now we need to approve the minutes from our January meeting again we have those uh in our packet so any corrections or additions or anyone uh any comments otherwise I'll take a motion to approve those so moved I have
a motion to I have a second second all right motion a second uh any further discussion all in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign we've got minutes and now let's talk about the first month's financial report April we
are 8.49 per through 2025 and our budget is approximately 6.02% expended some of the bills that we paid during January January included $248 to Minnesota Elevator for our annual um service charges they come quarterly to inspect
those elevators for us $789 to Amazon to replace the air conditioning unit in the server room um it was not running anymore and um we need that to keep that equipment a safe temperature
$1,363 to Ingram for books and CD audio books for $46 to plunket for our quarterly pest control and $338 to Verizon for service to our a um hotpots that we check out our annual
subscription to the star Tri Tribune was paid in December and that was $753 but it was prated to 2025 due to it basically serving the 2025 year and then just a note that the AV rental Revenue line is has been removed from the budget
reports because the library no longer charges those rental fees for our AV Equipment okay anybody have any questions or comments about the financial report we're off to a good start so all right we'll just move on to
uh what H what happened in January um so our we have a new library Aid Danielle alre started yesterday um and we have one more Library Aid starting March 3rd um we had a little bit of
a um Rocky hiring process we had two Library AIDS who actually started and then worked a couple days with us and decided that they couldn't make the the job work for them so they um resigned and we just went back to that the pool of candidates we had work pulled from
before so um but we're excited to have Danielle joining us and then we will have another Library Aid starting March 3D okay um the doors the new doors on the bookdrop entrance were installed yesterday um you have some of that um
finishing work on your agenda for an action item today um and then I do need to um have a lockmith come to install and Rey the the bookd drop door to match the um hallway door okay so the those
keys are all the same and then we did I don't have the invoice for that yet but we did have to have some work on the HVAC units above um the main part of the library um they we were having issues with them going out and so they put some hoods on them and so that should should
help that going forward but I am hoping that I'll have that invoice to report is that the wind I suppose yeah and just up there open to the elements on the roof and then um last month I had asked if anyone from this board was interested
in serving on the Travers duu Regional Library board for Brown County um and I sent another call to our other Brown County Libraries and Jane Evers from hanska has agreed to serve on that board so great good um so that's great to have
voice of a smaller library on it this time um so thanks to Jane and thanks to Sharon Lang the director at the comfrey Li oh excuse me she's from comfrey um thanks to Sharon Lang at the comfrey library for recruiting her and then I just wanted to note that
the memory H lab has been really busy lately with ongoing and new projects Leroy has had a lot of new appointments plus continued use from people who are in the middle of projects so um we meet with patrons who are new to the memory Labs get them trained on how to use the
equipment that they're using for their project and then um they can usually come in and use it independently to continue their project until it's done so it's just been busy for him with those orientation appointments and then just any additional assistance that they request and then he's also been working
on our mobile memory lab equipment purchases um which is part of our planned planned expenditure for that melon Foundation funding okay any questions or comments otherwise we'll move on to
what's happening in h February programming um tomorrow February 14th at 10:00 a.m. we have Clifford's special story time it's Clifford the Big Red Dog 62nd birthday this year and so we're partnering with Luca books to host a special visit from Clifford himself
during story time and they are also visiting um the the schools and I believe numis house as well with Clifford for a visit um and then the friends of the library is are sponsoring books to give away during those programs
to Children good just a note that we'll be closed on Monday February 17th for President's Day reopen for normal hours on on Tuesday the 18th and then the Narin will be at the library on Saturday Saturday February 2th second at 11:00 a.m. they'll visit
without their masks and lead a story time and craft and so that's a nice way to introduce children where it's a little less intimidating I know they're scary sure I know I [Laughter] don't they scare me you know
so come on oh I get I get over it quickly and that's an annual tradition and they usually talk a little bit about crafting their masks and kind of the the stories of their different characters right right and the kids get to touch
the masks I think so well is the best any other anybody want to make a comment or a question otherwise we got several resolutions we had a big uh agenda here so the first uh let's uh get open up the first
resolution uh this is resolution number 20253 approving disposal of Surplus item uh during January 2025 the library replaced the trip light Sr cool 12K air
conditioner that cools the server room the old air conditioner was no longer able to keep the room at a safe temperature for technology and was replaced with the same model the old air conditioner was has no residual value to
the Li library and the library director recommends that it be declared Surplus and disposed of so anybody care about an old air conditioner otherwise I'll take a motion
to uh motion to adopt the uh resolution three our maintenance tech technician did open it and clean it out to see if he could get it working again and it didn't work no too bad well I'll make the motion for resolution 03
second second okay motion on a second any discussion hearing none of the secretary call the RO Dustin yes Caitlyn yes ruthanne yes Ivan yes Manan yes Lynn yes Hope yes Nancy
yes we have a resolution three okay come on now we have to open up working on resolution I'm having I'm struggling to get my resolution open here can you help me
here it is okay I'll read it oops uh resol uh resolution 20254 accepting arts and culture Heritage fund Grant in its January 2025 meeting the Traverse duu Regional
Library board awarded new Public Library uh with an arts and cultural heritage fund Legacy Grant in the amount of $2,500 uh for performances by
the Nintendo nintend Tunes video uh game Jazz Orchestra at four Brown County locations Friday May 2nd uh at 700 p.m. at the dyman free library and sleepy ey Saturday May 3rd at 1 p.m. at the new
home Public Library uh Saturday May 3rd uh at 700 p.m. at the ComFree uh free library and Saturday May 10th at 3:00 p.m. at the Hansa Public Library uh the uh n n neton to Tunes
performed Jazz arranged video game music spanning the past 40 years uh of gaming the six piece Ensemble is from Southern Minnesota well that sounds like a lot of fun that's sounds like a lot of fun
theyve performed for us in the past and they've run a great and I think it's supposed to nintend toes like Nintendo thank you dear thank you uh have a hot ticket in orchestras across the world right now
really that's cool no I'm this is not working here the music all right um do I have a motion to uh accept that resolution so moved any I do a second I'll second
uh let anyone have a discussion otherwise secretary call the rooll please Dustin yes Caitlyn yes ruthanne yes yvan yes Manan yes Lynn yes Hope yes
Nancy yes all right all right is it working for you no it's just not working want to trade spots oh sure sure I'm mean ask get upset oh okay I don't know what have I done wrong
nothing it's not me it's not me all right there we go here we go um we've done this before this is resolution 20255 to approve the 2024 Minnesota public library annual report for the new
Public Library by state law the submission of the 2024 Minnesota public library annual report for New Alm uh Public Library is a submission of the library board and must be approved by the board attached is a copy of the
report from the new Public Library as prepared by Library director April idy anyone like I said we do this every year we do this I have some quick highlights I can oh please do that okay I just want to note that the report
looks like it's repeating twice um and that's because because there is a system level and a location level report um so that would be libraries like the Martin County Library that have multiple branches they report for their system and for each branch but since we don't
have additional branches both sections of that report are the same information for us but I just wanted to note that that's why it looks like that okay um I discussed some and year end stats on items at the end of last year so I'm not going to highlight those again I just
wanted to talk about some other things contained in the report so on page four um it has um a section about inter Library loan which is um we were able to share within our Regional Library Travers to Sue with the other
member libraries but inter Library alone are items that we're receiving from outside of that system from the Greater Minnesota um so we provided IL inter Library loaner IL to other libraries and we received from other libraries but
those numbers were down this year this is most likely due to the downtime that we experienced in 2024 when minitech are inter Library alone provider migrated to a new software system so they stopped um
moving items while they did that migration to make sure it was as clean as possible so that is likely why those numbers are down this year on page five and six of the report it talks about our programming so we
offered 606 programs and this is for all a um includes all ages and that also includes our live virtual programs and those 606 programs had 6,612 attendees um one reason for the the
increase in that this year is that um we I re examined the state's definition of our um programs versus self-directed activities so for us self-directed activities are things like our um adult
winter reading program where there's not an event led by a librarian but it's an activity that our patrons can participate self-directed um so in the past we had categorized our art group chess club um
needle working group as self-directed activities but they're not they're really programs because they're they're Gatherings where people are engaging so um that's part of the reason for that that change and then our 2023 views of
recorded Pro program content was high because we ended up on some YouTube playlists in Asia some of you might remember that um and they were really drawing eyes to our YouTube videos and suggesting them widely and now our um views have dropped down closer to
previous year's levels for those for 2024 and then on I'm sorry was there go ahead on page seven our total physical materials um we usually hover somewhere between 68 to 72,000 items and that kind of depends on which weeding projects we're working on or which collections
we've been trying to build out um so right now it's a little bit higher on that end but we are working on the weeding project of our non-fiction collections um so that we can use those Grant Monies to to update those as well okay good good good and I'd be happy to
answer questions on any other information that you're curious about anybody have any questions I figured out what I did wrong you have to close the old one before you can open the new one oh well doesn't matter it's in terms of participation there were
some things that were and these may be addressed in what you just said but it seems like there's more overall the numbers are higher this year in in a number of categories over last year's numbers yes and I think
continuing to build back our numbers after the pandemic it's been slow but steady year-over-year yeah for us um do you know what the state does with this information or do they ever come back to you with questions or
feedback from the report um each year there's um kind of one person at the state who who heads this and so when she sends out information in February about being able to start the report she often has sessions you can attend about um data points that they're collecting
differently or um and offers an opportunity to ask questions and um they use they compile this information and they send it to a national level and so it's used for advocating for libraries
um justifying spending for libraries um so there are you know Federal programs like the eate program that they use to support um connectivity in schools and libraries and so some of this data helps those programs and um justify the need
for them got thank you for that question other questions or comments otherwise I'll take a motion to AC accept resolution 20253 or 0605 excuse me so moved you
have second I'll second I a motion in a second any further discussion hearing none all uh with the secretary please call the role d yes Caitlyn yes ruthanne yes Ivan yes
Manan yes Lynn yes Hope yes Nancy yes all right resolution passed okay now in my mind this is our important most important resolution this has been a long time coming here uh it's resolution number 20256 approving the purchase of study
room pods in March 2024 the new Public Library was selected to receive re a grant of $250,000 from the melon Foundation to be used for upgrading and enhancing the
libraries memory lab local history projects and enhancement to library services and space enhancements to library services and space included installation of two
study pods and one memory lab pod the total budgeted from Grant funds for this project is $135,000 for study pods and $
26,200 for study pod Furniture the library director uh contacted several vendors whose proposals and product brochures are attached the library
director has also attached a summary of the proposals as well as a photo showing the planned location of the pods the total cost of each proposal is as follows
Juniper $70,000 15388 popping pods $61,800 think tanks 88,9 193
$335 and your space $6,998 1 the library director recommends approving The Proposal from your space because these products maximize the available space are handicap accessible
and offer a configuration that will meet the library's needs okay now uh since we we have these pictures uh but uh people uh uh listening may not have these pictures I'd like you to please explain
where these pods are going to be going in the library so the location we've chosen is on the main floor near the service desk um kind of in the public computer area um this the wall we're looking at is the wall where the DVDs currently are so those will move um we
have a couple spots in mind up on the nonfiction non-fiction floor for those DVDs um we'll also probably lose the counter where the new magazines are displayed but there's options for that too mhm okay um do you want me to talk a little
bit about the the option that I'm recommending yes I do okay yes I do um so the yourspace pods came out on top for us um for a few reasons one they have the price is good but those those pods are more customized to that
specific location that we're looking at the other three vendors um that I've quoted here are um like pods that just are they're one size and shape and so you get what you get the dimensions that
you get so we were looking at things like I think it was with juniper one of the pods was really deep and then the smaller pods were not deep so we'd be looking at you know pods sticking out from one another not fully maximizing
that space whereas the your space ones they'll they'll all we flush with each other in the front and the back um to maximize the full space that we've designated for them um the other thing about the your space pods is that they sit on our floor and the other ones all
have their own floors and so that cons had some concerns for us whether or not they'd be accessible for a wheelchair oh good point uh we would lose a little bit of the sound dampening with them have sitting on our floor but to me the the
other pluses of that were you know brought it up for me um and then the other thing is the configuration of the your space pods I think will work with the furniture we'd like to put in then some of the other
options had kind of oblong pods where it hard to be put a would be hard to put a table where people could sit around it or um configure the memory lab equipment that we have in a way that would make sense and not be tight and also be able to get someone who has is using a
wheelchair in those spaces um the all of the pods that I quoted um are plug in place so they have ventilation systems and Lighting systems in them um there was one vendor I talked
to who required um you had to wire the electricity and we just decided not to go that route so I know people have have questions so or comments about these um I was just going to say I
looked at all of the the pods that you had looked at too and I I agree with your assessment on choosing this particular style of pod I think it will like you're saying the accessibility is better with it being on the floor and
then just the design of them I think will blend in more with the design of our of our library some of the other pods were very futuristic almost like you were going to go into them and like take off in a spaceship which like if that makes people want to
study I don't cool yeah more versatile to the one you chose so well the installation is that longterm insul I mean is it going to take them months or weeks to put it in
or they estimated like two to three days okay just depending um I did have your space quote on um they um quoted on these These are Standalone pods although the walls will be flush with each other
but they also um quoted me on conjoined pods where the walls are shared but then we would lose the ability to dissemble them and move them later yeah so we do have the option with these although we'd you know either have to hire someone or figure out how to do it but we could
move these at a later time if we decided they needed to go somewhere else so the the plan uh they come in sixes and two is what's the plan how many of we're going to get two right or one for the memory lab and two for downstairs right yep so we'll they'll actually all
three be in that spot oh they will be okay so they'll just be right in a row there um we'll have one for the memory lab a a smaller room for you know two three people and then another larger one so the memory lab and the the larger
study room will be the same size okay all right so I'm assuming the furniture is a separate order yes some of the pots did um the vendors did include some furniture in them and the configurations of the furniture I didn't think were
very flexible and with the your space we just start from scratch with the furniture we want in them so if if some of the furniture we have works we can use that or we we also have Grant funds to purchase okay did you have the opportunity to
look at reviews of the Euros space options yeah we I looked at um reviews and some of the things on their website um and they were generally positive for all of the companies um I didn't really see a lot of negativity there
so did you want to talk about uh uh how we expect uh patrons to use these yes so we get a lot of requests for private spaces um since the pandemic
it's been um people who are meeting online for different interviews and stuff for um we've even had um people who are having legal meetings and they need a a um private space to do that and we just don't offer that in the main
library and our meeting room gets frequent use so it's not always available and it's not really a private space because new cats working down there our maintenance technician moves in and out of there um so these would offer would allow us to offer that to
our patrons um so we envision small study groups using that um people using them for the meetings and things I described um we have tutoring that happens at the library they'd be a good spot for that too there'll be a reservation system
then for people to use them the next piece of work once we um pick a vendor is to have a study room policy um to govern that use and it'll I imagine we'll be able to carry over some of the the policy from the meeting room but we'll have you know specifics as to um
how they can be reserved and whether um you know we're offering first come first serve when reservations aren't scheduled those kind of things and um that's uh although they're quiet and enclosed
uh and you can't hear people in there uh you can see in the Librarians can see can see in it's um yes the doors um on the yourspace ones I believe the the full door is glass and then we are
choosing um a half glass the upper will be glass of the side of the Pod that um faces the service desk so we just the into them and we chose pods that don't lock as well okay oh except for the memory lab one we asked for a lock on that oh because of the equipment equipment all right but the study rooms
won't okay okay good ide good idea well I've been I'm really excited about this I have wanted a study pod for the longest time now what am I going to do there that I need a meeting I'm going to
schedule a meeting soon all right sure you can all [Laughter] go is the design in um what's included in the packet here is that your finalized design that's that's what um
we would like to go with okay with the finishes and okay yeah I think the there's the framing is like a brush silver and then the the panels um are like a light oak color to match close as closely as we could get to match the
shelving in that area of the library details yeah details and then I think the interior is kind of a um gray [Music] Bel good could you talk a little bit about
the the difference from the the budgeted amount to what the proposal amount is and just maybe some future flexibility what that means so I had when we had um built the the um request to the melon foundation for the crant we had looked
at I think I looked at um pop and pods and a couple other pods I wasn't aware of your space at that point so i' had gotten some rough quotes from their websites and on the bigger spaces and so we estimated based on just bigger spaces at that point um and so when we asked
for the $135,000 that's where those that amount was coming from um now with that melon Foundation Grant um funding if we need to make major changes in the budget we do have to go to them with that request
so I don't think under spending at this point is going to be a problem but if we would like to find a a way to use that money we'll have to have that approved by them otherwise that money would have to be returned and I do have a a couple ideas that I don't think are ready to share publicly because I don't want to
promise anything that's not going to happen but um we do we are already looking at what potential we have that would um still meet the the guidelines of that Grant the usess they want that funding to go to when do you have to use the funding guide do you have Rel so
it's a 5-year Grant um so we got that in March of 2024 we have until March of 2029 okay okay spend that spin spin [Laughter]
spin uh anyone else have any comments or questions or concerns um I like the the clear like I think the clear windows are very important especially for those that may be working with children for just like safety reasons and
transparency the the clear windows I think help make everybody feel safer would we um were originally just talking about study rooms as a dream we had always thought they might be on the non-fiction floor um but Megan when we were going through she made a really
good point about we want them where we can easily monitor them and why we chose the location at the service desk like that that's very yeah yeah yes well there's a lot to think about you know and we've
been thinking about this for quite some time so I'm really happy yeah I will I will take a motion I assume that that we can uh accept the library director's uh uh
recommendation I'll take a motion I'll move second second any any other further discussion like I said this is uh this is probably the most important thing we're doing today so if anybody has any any you've done such a great job of
looking this stuff over just um I just wanted to note that your space's lead time they said is about 8 to 10 weeks um depending on where that ends up when we hear from them I would we would be
installing maybe April May or if we can't get it done by may we would want to wait until after the summer reading program is is over so that would probably be September then at that point so it'll kind of just depend on what their timeline is too okay I do have one
more question oh no that's not good please so after installation if there's something about the pods the design of the pods that you don't feel like is working well in the library do they offer ways to like move
pieces or you know kind of like a puzzle where you can say h let's make this wall different in some sort of way or I think I think it would come with it an additional fee but I don't think it's outside of the the realm of possibility
um because they these are slightly custom because of the choices that we and the me the measurements we're choosing sure um but if you know if we wanted to order a a wall with a full window or something I think that would be a possibility because the way they
described it is that they these pieces all slot together theyit cubicle walls yeah assembly required yeah it's not like they're um you know putting insulation in them or anything like that they're you know maybe screwing pieces that are meant to kind of click together
okay well it's going to be fun to see them yes really fun really fun anybody else like I said this is a this is an important item please please don't hesitate
all right Dustin call the roll Dustin yes Caitlyn yes ruthanne yes Yvonne yes Manan yes Lynn yes Hope yes Nancy yes great y on to resolution yeah yay hooray
very happy very happy resolution 20257 approving use of fund balance for door Automation in December of 2024 newm city council approved replace placing the library's
Southwest entrance using the city's 290 fund the library director and City IT director recommended adding electric strikes to both West Library entrances
uh when the doors are replaced which was included uh in the vendors quote what is an electric strike yeah I wonder that it's the where the door kind of latches those they have to have put a
special strike in that can work with um the computer the the system that will signal to it to um latch and unlatch oh my goodness okay so um I don't know if you've noticed like the re the doors here at City Hall have readers outside
of them and so they're on a schedule to lock at a certain time okay and then um city employees have badge access to get in those doors when the building is closed and so that's what we're looking to end up with at the library oh great
thank you thank you anyway uh in the quote uh this will make it easier for the library to manage and monitor access to the building and make Library access more consistent with other City buildings which makes sense
after what you've said um additional work is needed by an electrician an Alarm Monitoring company company to connect the strikes and set up the automated system the City Finance director recommended that this portion
of the work come from the library's budget or fund balance the library director recommends using the fund balance because this is an unbudgeted project the city's IT director recommends using the following vendors
for the project due to their familiarity with the library wiring and City alarm systems respectively all right there's uh two of them Full Service Electric these are bids right no um they
oh no no they're quotes they're quotes and but so we would need to complete both right right yeah okay I got it uh and so the proposal is to have full service electric install the data cabling in jack cable Junctions and add
and then additional cable um for U $1,681 and then the additional cable is $24 and then the another vendor Precision alarm would install the door
controllers card readers switches for $548 of60 for a total of $7,350 60 and we do have that in our
fund balance yes okay all right um this it kind of coincides with the security camera project the um city manager is encourag encouraging departments to make sure that the buildings are secure um and one thing that these card readers
offer is that um if I swipe my card at 8:04 a.m. there's a log of that in the system so if we have a concern we can go back and look at who was there who was there mhm do all the library employees
have the cards or will that be all we all have ID badges we don't currently use them for a lot because we are just at the library and we don't have this system right now so like we use them when we come over here and have to get into the mail room and things um but
then but this would take um place of the keys that Library staff have for the building oh yeah and that's always good okay will all staff have them yes um and what we can also do is we can um kind of set rules so like Library AIDS
can access the building 15 minutes before their shift starts kind of things or um 15 minute like we usually start at 8:30 so they could access the building at 8:15 um and maybe only Megan and I have access to the building all the
time I have a question so these are uh electronic entry do they also have like a an actual key back up okay yes so we would retain keys for like myself and Megan and our maintenance technician just in case okay
excellent good work good work this last month well well and we all we all remember the unfortunate events when somebody went into the Pu oh gosh you know well put that out of our mind but
yes I can understand why the city manager is uh urging all the all the everybody to be real careful about security so absolutely all right I I will take a motion to uh approve the use
of fund balance for the door automation I'll make that motion thank you Manan do I have a second second any further discussion any other questions all right Dustin call the rooll Dustin yes Caitlyn yes yes
ruthanne yes Ivan yes Manan yes Lynn yes Hope yes Nancy yes okay good is there any other business to come before this board I don't have any okay anybody else anybody else I think I figured out how
to use my own computer all right so maybe maybe next time I'll I'll figure it out but anyway all right uh uh no further oh give me that Gam all right no further business meeting adjourn good
yay