just let in RCCV. Um, we do have a quorum, but it is still 659. Yeah, he's on. He just joined. Andrew Gregory. Andrew Gregory just joined online. Hang on. He's here. Hello.
Yeah. Oh, okay. Um I'll I'll text it to you. Yeah, right. Oh, I found Andrea. I didn't think you were Andrea. No, she's online. Uh, going to order the what days? Um,
Blooms Day, the day that Ulisses takes place. James Choice makes June 16th makes me sound very intelligent. to all those listening. Uh, Monday, June 16, board of library trustees meeting. Um,
and uh, first, do we have anybody online or elsewhere for public comment? No, I think there was Oh, Pat has something. The mic is to you, Pat. So,
so for those who are not familiar, we've had uh issues again in the children's room regarding the um HVAC system. So, we did get in a response uh from a friendly yet
concerned patron about hoping to hear more about the library's uh HVAC air conditioning issues. was disappointed to see the public library Instagram post about the children's room potentially being closed as we approach summer. My kids love to go to the library and would
hate to see the children's area closed for something like the room being too hot without other alternatives, portable air conditioners and or relocating some children's material down to the ground floor. Seems like a simple solution. It's the if the HVAC situation cannot be
resolved quickly. I hope these alternatives are at least discussed if facilities isn't able to resolve the problem quickly. Uh so that was the response and obviously we all have concerns with that considering this is a cooling center on
the hot days. Yeah. So just um not that we have to respond to every comment that comes in, but I think it is appropriate. Um facilities is working on it. Um it's unclear they've they've called to have someone come look at it. We only close the room when it gets to 80 degrees um
for a sustained period. Um and when we just close the room, obviously we don't close the library. Olivia and her team do a great job of trying to get everybody downstairs. If there's a room available, we can absolutely use like this room. We can absolutely transfer things down here. Um we've also um
worked out a way if needed to have someone maybe go and grab books and do reader advisory. Oh, you're looking for the diary of kit books. We can go grab those for you. So, we try to work that out. We don't like leave the staff. The staff is still working to do their best. Um, it's just in some situations, it's
not healthy for people to be in that space. We have asked for portable fans. There are portable fans in the children's room. We've asked for portable fans in the uh administrative office area as well. Custodians leave the windows at night until they have to leave the building. So they stay after
the building closes to do for cleaners and everything and then they have to close those windows for security purposes at night. But usually they can get a few a few degrees cooler. They also leave the air conditioning on all day every weekend 24 hours kind of like they did with the heat. We had the heat
problem. Um so the children's floor does drop a little bit over the overnight um with the rest of the building. Um, normally if all three floors were working, the air conditioning would turn off at 9:00 and then come back on at like 8:00 or something like that in the
morning. But they have it running 247 now. So facilities is aware of the problem and they're doing their best. Any idea of an up? I mean, it sounds like very good response inside of this building, but as to the people that can actually fix it, um, that we don't have
any more information on since probably last Thursday. We're still waiting. Is there any um thought, you know, those portable industrial ones that have the tube that goes to a window? Is there any thought to having any of those come in? We were told because the children's room is so high um that Oh, yeah. The windows
are really high. The windows are high, but also the the ceiling is high so that it's it's not necessarily going to help. Oh, I see. It's the incremental change isn't really effective enough. Got it. Um is what we've been told. Um, however, we are providing lots of ice coffees and
popsicles for at least the staff. So, hopefully that helps. Yeah, next week looks like the weather's going to be hot or actually the end of this week in Yeah, it's it's going to start getting warmer. So, we we're definitely um going to be trying to follow up with facilities um tomorrow. Do they even
know what the problem is or they haven't been able to diagnose? I don't believe they have a diagnosis yet. Excellent. Thank you. Um well, I guess we'll just be Go ahead. No, no, please. Um maybe if Thursday's the day, like
maybe an update this Thursday, if you could just send it to the Bolt account so we kind of know where things are. And again, for all of us, we won't discuss it or or talk about it on the email, but I think it'd be good to know. Sure. Yeah, I can definitely do a one-way communication that way to make sure
everybody gets an update of anything that we've heard. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Uh, next, uh, are there any other public comment online or otherwise? No. Okay, moving on. Um, we're going to
do an affirmation of the bolt statement of solidarity and support for our pride community. And I will just read a prepared statement um which is a statement of solidarity and support for our pride community. Our public library serves all in our community fostering an
environment of respect, understanding, and belonging. Our library is proud to provide a welcoming, safe, supported, supportive, and celebratory space for members of the LGBTQ plus community. Both as patrons and as part of our
staff, we recognize the diversity of our LGBTQ plus community and strive to meet theirformational, educational, and recreational needs. Board of Library trustees, to reiterate, next item on the agenda, are there any
questions or discussion on that? Nope. Moving forward is the summer programming and early literacy update. Drum roll, please. Hi. I wanted to welcome Kelly. Kelly, I'm Andrea Fero, head of public
services. Hi. Hi. Everyone else. Um, so I every quarter give a public services and programming update, but tonight mostly I'm going to yield the floor to um our fabulous children's um
head of our children's services uh department, Olivia McElane, who's going to talk about early literacy. can't actually see up close with my glasses. Confusing to me, but
um Okay, so next slide, please. Just going to give a quick highlight reel um of of what we've already started doing um in June, July, and August. Uh, I'm not going to read through all of
these, but I do want to point out the punk rock aerobics, which I've been begging Olivia to bring in for the last year, and we get to do it. So, that's that's really fun. Um, does anyone have questions about any of the others? Can
you see it? Is this is this the one the the official Boston area punk rock aerobics? It is. It's actual punk rockers. Fuzzy. Exactly. Yeah. is the robot. I tried to get Olivia to buy me a leotard
and some combat boots so I could be appropriately dressed for this, but um she did not. So, does anyone have questions about any of these other highlights? Oh, I was just wondering if the robotics for teens um was doing that or anything in in conjunction with the high school team or anything or any like
the first robotics or who puts that? I forget who's doing it. I don't I don't think it's the t the the high school group has come and and done um programs in partnership with us before. I don't think it's them, but I'm not entirely positive. I could get back to you.
Uh the Narin training, who is it? The police that comes in and conducts that? It is um the public health nurse as well as the coalition for prevention and they just they they did it last week. Um three or so staff
members took took part in it as well as the public. It was open to the public. Um and this is I think the third Narcan training they've done at the library. Okay. Yeah. Great. A really great um it was a nice packed room and they're
fantastic. Yeah, some great community partnership there. That's great. Yes. Yeah. The community health nurse has just been such a wealth of information and programming for us and and the coalition has been wonderful partners.
Great. Okay, next slide. If anyone else has any other questions, um we we have a few old favorites. Summer Sizzlers was just Friday night. It was fabulous. Um, we have vehicle day coming up in August. This Friday night,
um, Amy is hosting a community garden party as part of our rooted and riding um, grant. We have a new bike rally here at the library. I think that's in August as well. Um, for the first time this year at the end of this month, we we are
a venue for PorchFest and we're hoping that that continues on, that we'll always have bands playing Porchfest here on the library lawn. um our teen services librarian brought in the is bringing in the popup cyclinger which is this very cool um
Bostonbased artist who has this whole vehicle and we collect all these plastic things and she turns it into a community art project. So she's coming for a couple of days and even though it was a teenled um program it's all ages are invited to
do that. We're having a story slam and um Kate, our one of our children's librarians, is putting together a camp kindergarten series to help prepare kids going into kindergarten for kindergarten. Um which is something I
think the community is going to love. Next slide, please. Friend speaker series in the summertime um focuses on youth services. So most of the authors are YA or children's authors
um with a few adult authors thrown in there. Um there is a live watch party for Raul III. That's the Vamos let's go read book, right? Um yeah. Okay, next slide please. Our
summer reading theme is branching out in alignment with the rooted and writing grant and that is across all ages. Next slide please. Um, we're having reading parties for all ages. Uh, readathons for kids entering first through sixth grade. And they're
all themed parties. They're all here in the community room or out on the lawn. And, uh, there will be books here that kids can pick up. They can bring their own book. They can snack and do activities. Next slide, please.
And for teens and adults, we have um these hip little silent reading parties, except most of the hip ones are actually in bars and restaurants, and we're slightly less hip than that. But uh we do have our own themed parties where people come with a book or pick one up
here, read together, and then take some time and discuss what they're reading with their neighbors. Next slide, please. Okay, this is a very loaded slide, but we have for teens and adults, we have a little bit of a theme beyond the branching out where we're doing right
now we're starting a cartooning workshop upstairs, a first of a series. We have um a writing workshop, a storytelling and public speaking workshop, and then a story slam. And on the on your right side of the
screen, uh that's all of the teen programs for summer reading. So that's kind of all I have so that you can hear from Olivia more. But do you have questions before I sign off? Okay.
Please welcome Olivia McGawing. Oh yeah, you need this. Sorry. Wake up, buddy. You just died on me. That's true. You know, actually, while
we're waiting, maybe Olivia, I don't know if this is built into your to your thing, but could you introduce yourself a little bit about who you are, how long been here, what your background is. Sure. I'm Olivia McGawen. I'm the head of children's services. I've been here for six years. I started as a children's
librarian and now I'm a librarian, too. And I have a master's I have two master's degrees, one in children's literature and one in library science. I don't actually need it. It's fine. While you're figuring that out, I just want to say this is really great. This
is laid out differently than it has been in previous years. So, this is Nope. Green light. What I did was I downloaded the PDF from our new events calendar and then I
played around with it in Adobe and that's what I created. Yeah, it's uh really easy to read and follow. Um like how it I know it used to be bucketed by sort of children, teens, adults, but this is great to have it
just by a straight calendar. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle worked really hard on my money was on the Canva training that I saw at the end of the director's report. I was thinking that was plague. No, no, it's not Canva. But I I will say though that um in in our
effort to be more sustainable, we are not printing a lot of these um with the exception of the summer programming um because the summer programming is such a busy time and we often people just want something that will take them through the full summer. Um we've made a very concerted effort to only print out very
few of these. Um we make the PDF available to every service desk so that if somebody comes in they can they can print it out or we can email it. Um, but we are trying to reserve our large printing to really the one time per year and it's a it came out beautifully.
This is so awkward. Okay. Um, so I'm here to talk about early literacy programs at RPL. Some of our most successful programming as you'll see. Um, if you go to the next slide. So what happens in an RPL story time? on my left. I guess the screen's left. We have a visual calendar of what happens
in the room. And we do that for kids with um on the autism spectrum or kids with learning processing disorders. We learned that from Ashley Wearing, one of our former librarians, that this is should just be included in all story times because it helps kids process transitions a lot better if they know what's coming every single story time.
So, we use this in all of our story times. And then we always say it's okay to move around. It's always okay to take a break. Um, we ask people not to talk or have conversations um, and save snacks for the end. And then we always say that grown-up participation matters the most because you guys are your child's first and best teacher. And we
really rely on you to practice what we're doing at the front of the room. And so at every single story time, every single one, even if it's a 10-minute story time, a 15-inute story time, a 30-minute story time, all of these things happen. So early literacy skills, early math skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social emotional learning, community recognition,
confidence building, and caregiver bonding. We hit all of those every single time. because it's very easy to do caregiver bonding because you're with your grown-up. Confidence building is you just come every week and you learn your new skills. Community recognition is the people in the room with you. Social emotional learning is super easy
because most children's picture books all have elements of that. Gross motor skills, we jump up and down a lot, like a lot. Fine motor skills are a lot of finger plays, itsy-bitsy spider, all of that. Early math skills, we always include some kind of game that includes math in our story times. And then early literacy skills is the whole story time.
So, next slide. Our regular storytime season is September to April. And that's kind of weird because a lot of libraries do it throughout the year. We just are too busy in the summer to have story times every week. So, we really focus on large drop in story times in the summer. But also, we see a huge drop off in
attendance in May because it's really beautiful out. Reading has beautiful parks. Kids love the park. So, we try to accommodate that as well as we really want to focus on the elementary schoolers because we don't see them during the school year that much, but we see them a lot in the summer. Next slide.
This was our storytime schedule for this season. So, we partnered with two groups, North Suburban Child Resource Network. On Mondays, they had two classes. Um, and then Mandarin Story Time is a local mom's group that came together. Well, that's okay. And asked us if they could host a Mandarin story time because they saw a need in the
community. That's okay. Sorry, I mean to breathe into that. And um they see over like 60 people at those story times every week, which is awesome. Uh we used to partner with them. We used to help them lead. And then we realized like two months into
it, they really didn't need us anymore. So they run it on their own. We partner with them from time to time, which we'll see later. And then on Mondays, our library assistant, Dena, once a month, she does a theme story time. So she does cooking up a story time, which is um they actually bake in the children's room. when there's like air conditioning
and it's not too hot. Um, but they read a book about a certain dish and then they bake the dish in the children's room and then she does dribble travel where they read a book and then they do an art piece or she did sticks and stories the last three months where they go to Mata Cabin and they read a book and then they take a a trail walk through Mata Cabin and then Tuesday
treasures and Wednesday wishes that's me and Kate story times. uh those are registered. Um we see 25 families at those every week. And you register for a six week series and then we have two weeks off and then there's a new six week series and then we have two weeks off. And that's to accommodate the amount of people that want to sign up.
And baby time runs the same way. It's 6 weeks and then two weeks off. Um but it's just for pre-walking kids because once they start walking you lose them. Um they are it's a lapsit. So it's at 6:30 p.m. at night because we try to accommodate working families as well. But it's a lapset. So, we really can't
have walkers in the room. And you'll see as the baby time goes on that they all become walkers. So, it becomes a toddler story time by the end of the year. And then on Fridays and Saturdays, we have dropin events because we see over a hundred people at most of these. So, we have Play-Doh Palooa, Big Body Play, Baby's Boogie, and tons and tons of
concerts. And on Saturdays, we have Jumping Beans, Family Story Time, which usually sees 80 to 100 people. Next slide. And then our out of season story time events. So we just finished up family story time at Memorial Park. We saw like 40 to 60 people at both of those on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. Um it was a lot of fun except when it rained. And then we have treats and beats in June and July which was supposed to be in the children's room but will now be in the program or in the community rooms down here. Um that's at Wednesdays at 6:30 again to accommodate working families. And there will be treats. There'll be
popsicles which is fun. And then we have oneoffs. So we have Teddy R picnic. Rockaba by beats is coming back and of course camp kindergarten. All right. So this is the greatest debate in children's librarian history is registered story times versus drop in story times. So they both have pros and
cons to them but I these are just the pros. So registered story times they build community within group dynamics. They create trust with the repetition of the same librarian and same group each week. It's like a school setting. You can focus on building up on those skills. You can have one-on-one time with the kids. And it's early literacy
based with like entertainment kind of threaded throughout. It's really kind of a school setting. And then drop in accommodates much larger crowds and non-reading residents. We see a ton of Stonemus Melrose. Um what's another one? Lynfield. We see a ton of those patrons
at those story times. Extroverted friends can really shine at drop in story time. They'll be at the front of the room or in your lap depending on what they want. and they and we focus more on family literacy um because it's just too big of a story time, too many people. So, we really focus on like the adults in those story time so that
they're practicing what we're doing at the front of the room. And that one is entertainment based because we do have to be like clowns trying to keep their attention for 30 minutes. Um but we weed early or threads early literacy practices throughout. Next slide.
So, this year we had Peter Sheridan once a month. He's a fan favorite. We recently found out that he's been doing this since 1997. Yeah, I didn't know that. Uh we had music with Marin MCO twice. Um that she had huge crowds at both of those. And then we music and movement with Julie
Stephano, which is more like a storytime concert. She does stories and music. Boogie with Rocket by Beats, which is a bilingual concert. He does Spanish and English. And then we had an RCC grant this year and we brought in Grammy Award winner Alistair Moo for spring break. Next slide.
And then these are some of our like biggest hits for themed story times. So we have one-off story times. Trick-or- treat story time is so our friends can practice like what trick-or-treating is before they actually go out and meet strangers. And that had 112 people this year. We had a baby prom, which was my favorite. That's Miss Carrie. She's
dressed up as a snowman. And the kids did not like it. Um but it was a it was a prom. So they danced, they dressed up, they took pictures. Um, and they got to wear if they celebrate Christmas or New Year's, they got to wear their outfits to prom. And then we had Sparkly Story Time this year, two authors who wrote
mis readers meet misread a mystery reader and a drag artist. And we had 68 attendees at that. And lunar year story time was um where we partnered with Mandarin Story Time. So it was two story times, Jumping Beans and Mandarin together. And that one had the biggest audience with 131 attendees.
Next slide. And then we always have special guests at story time. So we've had Albert from the Office of Equity and Social Justice. Tanya was at our trick-or- treat story time this year from Coalition for Prevention and Support. We've had veteran services, the fire department, the municipal life department, and the police department, including our dog
friends at the police department. Next slide. And this was our overall attendance. So overall, we had 5,735 early literacy program attendees from September to April. And our biggest one was Saturday jumping bean story time.
Those are just the numbers so I don't have to read them off. But so you can go to the next slide. And we have like small stories that we wanted to share. So two of our Wednesday wishes family this year they met up for a trip to Stone Zoo after story time ended at on a Wednesday at 10 a.m. when story time used to be. And they used a
museum pass. So they kept their routine going. They made friends and they used library services that we offered. Kate often gets recognized around town from kids as old as like 15 that used to be at her story times. Our baby story time group from the 2023 season. They still meet every Tuesday at the library which
is very sweet and their kids are now toddlers so they're a lot which is awesome. And then Lara was a Tuesday baby time baby and when her brother was 2 weeks old the library was their first outing together. And my first story time was countdown to kindergarten in 2019 and those kids are now going into fifth
grade. Um, and they come to our tween programs. So, I've got I've known them since they were preschoolers and now they're twins. And the final slide. And why is story time important? It's important because it offers adults and kids a chance to meet their neighbors, express themselves in a safe space, and hear about experiences outside of their
own for the first time. We might be a child's first introduction to a school environment or even their first trip in the outside world after being born like Lara's brother. But by creating these spaces for kids to be able to jump, sing, dance, and read, we are fostering a love of reading and hopefully inspiring them to be lifelong library users. And that's it. Do you guys have
any questions? It's great. Super impressive numbers. Awesome. So great. It's great. After having attended them, I believe they are busy. The Marco
one. That one was great. I'll just say I knew knowing about the numbers, but it's great to have the data and analytics. That was impressive. I didn't realize the continuity of the setup of the program for each one. Yeah, I think that's very impressive. I didn't know that. So, thank you. Yeah. Um I just add
two things. Number one, Peter Sheran also used to be a custodian at the library. Yeah. Um, and the other thing is a little bit um of what adding to what Pat said is um yes, we do have visiting storytellers and story readers and they
usually get a quick lesson from our our staff. I do think it's really important to call out that there are story times and then there are early literacy story times that are in a curriculum. And I I think that's really important to realize that we do get people who say they just
want to volunteer at the library and read stories and that's great. And here are the things you need to learn and understand about child development for the particular age that you're working with. And that can be everything from those things that Olivia listed that they do at every single story time to
things that whether you're a walker or a not walker or entering school or you've entered school. So the amount of work our staff do in the children's department in understanding the social, emotional, intellectual um devel and physical development of
children is constantly ongoing because they're constantly learning more and more from verbal development to how how kids read to listening to getting along with getting along with other kids um in a
supervisor unsupervised environment. So, I guess it's just a shout out to the amount of continuing education this team does, and it crosses over into the to the tween and teens. Um, and I could argue that we could probably even cross it over into helping our adults with
their social emotional skills. Um, perhaps the silent reading parties are good. Um, but I think it's really important that to understand that, um, it's not just a matter of buying some books and sitting down and reading. These people are very skilled and they're very knowledgeable. Um, and it's
a it's a really fantastic team. I what Amy said is absolutely right, but also um, one of the things that our children's librarians do is they model to caregivers how to interact with their children to develop their language skills, but also just to express their
love and their affection. Um, and not everyone has that background. So, that's such an added value. And then the other thing that happens in our baby times and in our toddler story times is we really
create community for new parents and people that are new to the area. And Olivia told stories a little bit about this, how those families and parents continue to meet up afterwards. But, you know, for for new families or new parents, it's often really a lifeline to
come to the library and make those connections before school starts. Um, so they do a fabulous job. Yeah. Does anyone online have any questions or comments? Thank you very much. Excellent.
Excellent. Thank you. Uh, next item on the agenda is the discussion on the policy of lending to residents of municipalities with descertified libraries. So, I'll just the discussion can be can be brief or tabled again. Um, we did not
have a full board last time. We did talk briefly about this and you can see from the minutes um STOM did receive uh funding. They will open. They will probably need to apply for a waiver. We did find out Lynfield passed their override so they will not need to apply for a waiver. Um so the urgency of this
discussion has has sort of come down. We won't know about assuming that they get a waiver. Stonem will happen have to happen with stonem for at least a year. So it's something to keep in the back of your mind. Um, I did have there was a um
there was a super important piece of paper that I was going to bring down with me that I didn't, but hang on just a second. Um, they did a survey, I think it was Kate Merlin, they did do a survey in the state to find out about descertified libraries.
And if you bear with me for just a second, So surveys results they did um they did do a survey of the results of of how uh policies and practices around serving patrons from descertified municipalities. About one half of the
libraries responded, 180 out of 367. And so it's it's actually quite good. um 63% have a blanket policy, 22% have no policy, and 16% are on a case-byase basis. Uh those with a
policy, of those with a policy, of the 63% um um 10 sorry, 7% continue to lend
1% charges for lending, 73% denies borrowing privileges and then um there were some other nos like on the case by case basis about 19%. If you remove the 27 others um basically
9% do offer borrowing 1% charges and 90% deny deny borrowing services. Um so basically of those with policies 90% deny borrowing pro so they didn't do anything about other services it was
strictly about um borrowing books and that has changed because um certain things like the um it doesn't include Boston Public Library which is a different animal alto together because they're the Library of the Commonwealth and it doesn't address
Overdrive. So, um, that those are things that didn't exist when most of these libraries started their policy. So, that's just the landscape that we're in right now. Um, so what is the action we take? I guess just discussion there is no action to
take now that we the um importance of this has definitely decreased, right? Yeah. This is the operative policy as it is. this is the operative policy and it and stay exactly as it is. It's just been brought to your attention um as something we don't traditionally review
every year. Um and it's not it's also something that in terms of there there could be definitely I'm sure there will will be staff input. Um but it is something that is really about um the trustes decision um and the financial
stewardship and and care of of how our libraries and neighbors. Um so I just wanted to bring it to your attention and you can think about it. People could propose changes. Staff don't have any specific changes right
now that I know of. Um well I know I know it was discussed at the meeting I wasn't at. Um, I mean, I like I like having this policy. I think it's important. I'd be open to refining the
in library use, not the the circulation because we just heard the difference between sign up and and when you get people from outside the town. But if that's not an issue right now, I wouldn't worry about it. But if it becomes an issue, I'd be open to expanding that. But I, as this is
written, I like that we have this policy. personal, how do they address overdrive? How does BPL or anybody address overdrive? How in Noble, Noble just recently um uh updated their policy. Um it involves
math, so bear with me. If when you decide to deny services, circulating services, you have to send a letter to Noble. If Noble receives such letters from more than 50% of their
libraries, the descertified library is cut off wholly from overdrive because it's either on or it's off. So, um, having said that, I think there are some things for overdrive advantage where you might be able to have some
some things like Overdrive Advantage is where we buy things where renting people get priority. So, there there may be some flexibility with that. But the base which is the majority of money that we pay to Noble for Overdrive goes to the whole Noble collection. So Noble says
unless there's more than 50% of the libraries that are saying no, Overdrive is going to stay open for everybody. So right. So that means that the onus is on every individual library to send a specific letter to deny service. Yes. And it only has to be over
50%. And as we just heard, 63% of libraries do have one. And of those 90% of them are denial of lending privileges. So we haven't tested it yet in Noble, but um uh you know that's something that could possibly come up and it's possible
they'll change their policy as well. That was voted on by the membership in May. Yeah, having a policy is different though than sending a letter, right? People would have to take further action in order to deny the requirement from Noble is that any time we want to deny a service. if we I
don't know just in like Wakefield all of a sudden and wanted to cut off Wakefield they have to have it in writing they have to have something in writing whether it's a descertification issue or whether it's um I don't know another some I can't think of another issue but if for some issue we decide um to block
privileges for a portion of our collection or um whole of our collection then we have to send a letter in writing to no that's that's always been a policy okay well I guess we just keep a breast of it. If anything changes, we can
revisit's because there's nothing to do. I just want to um add if if we get to the point where we need to revisit this because this is happening to a library in our immediate vicinity. Um I think we my recommendation would be we look at um
programs where you have to sign up that we consider that as part of this mix. Um you know, right now I love that it's open. I mean, we get to go to other libraries and take advantage of their programming and people can come to ours and it feels very fair um and a good use
of taxpayer dollars across the Commonwealth. But if there's a town that isn't able to contribute, I just want to make sure we're really thinking about our taxpayer dollars and you know, maybe it's something like Reading has first like 48 hours ahead of everybody else to sign up or something like that. I
wouldn't want a program to sit empty or have seats and and not have them have the opportunity to join in, but I think that we should then be letting our residents have first. Something to consider. Yeah, definitely. Definitely something to consider.
Anybody online have any questions, thoughts, concerns? Not anybody here. Any other discussion? Excellent. Um, we'll move on to the vote for election of officers for the next
year. How do we do that? Forgot. Is there a You take motions from We just take motions. Um, unfortunately, everybody showed up, so you can't just sort of elect the person who does. Exactly. So, exactly.
Um, do we have any motions for any nominations so far? I'd be happy to stay as chair though it is my election year and I know we have a somewhat tentative what is the policy
for that there is no policy it has been a practice to um it's a practice started by the select board but it is nowhere written down that it's required the only thing that would happen is that should that person choose not to run or not be
elected then for the April May and June meetings you'd have to have a prom chair or vice chair or secretary depending on which position was held sense on that point. I'll just say I I don't think it's an issue the way it is in the
select board. So I one I personally don't care. The only other thing I say that could get in a habit of I don't think we should follow a strict plan. Um, but I think if somebody is is interested in being chair, doing time as
a vice chair or doubling up and learning from that can sometimes be helpful. Makes sense. Other than that, no preferences. I nominate Kathy to stay as chair. Just a reminder, you need to do roll
call votes. Second. Okay. Well, this is odd having a roll call vote for myself. Um anyway, roll call vote. I will start. Are both Andrews online. Gregory is
what? Gregory is all right is to Okay. Excellent. Is there any discussion? If not, I guess we will do a roll call vote. I will start with the Andrews
online. Andrew Grimes, yes. Andrew Gregory, yes. Monette. Yes. Pat. Yes. And I will abstain. Oh, Kelly. Sorry. Where's Kelly? It's Kelly. Excuse me. Yes. Okay.
Thank you very much, Kelly. Um, I will abstain just to be contrarian. Um, thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Um, next we have nominations for vice chair. I nominate Pat Egan to continue. Do I have a second? Oh, can I I can
nominate. Right. Absolutely. Great. I'll second. any discussion? Yeah, I'll start a discussion. Come on, Pat. While uh willing and quote able, um I would also
um I'm also happy to let uh you know, if anyone else, Kelly, Andrew, or somebody else is interested in the year, I mean, I'm happy to do it or I'm happy to let other people get in the role. So, I really uh I'm fine either way.
Good point. Does anybody have any interest online? Kelly Andrews. I think I'd rather get a little more experience first. Fair enough. Any other discussion? If not, we will move to a roll call vote.
Wish I could, but my schedule's just so erratic at this point. Makes perfect sense. I completely understand. I'm going to start with Kelly so I did not forget. Yes. Andrew Grimes, yes. Andrew Gregory, yes.
Wette, yes. I am a yes. That is a yes. Welcome back. Finally, for secretary, I nominate Andrew Grimes. I will second that wholeheartedly.
Anyone else have any interest to or any discussion? No. I will proceed with roll call vote. Kelly Andrew Grimes, do you do you have a Yeah, exactly. It was very quiet. Very quiet. It's a tough job, but somebody's
got to do it. And we choose you. Um, roll call vote. Start with you again. Kelly, yes. Andrew Gregory, yes. Wette, yes. Pat, yes. I'm a yes. And And
Andrew Grimes, yes. Welcome back. And that is that. Uh, next item. Thank you all for your service last year and welcome back. Um, next item on the agenda is the fiscal
year 26 trustee meeting dates. All right. So, I'm just want to tell you this is a suggested meeting schedule for FY26, which runs from July 25 to June 26. Meetings are held on the second Monday of every month unless there are
conflicts with regular holidays, certain religious holidays, or town meeting. The board does not have to meet 12 times per year. In the past, the board has elected to cancel certain meetings due to a known lack of quorum um which is sometimes like in July or August or
something like that, but you can approve all these. I did find out from Laura Jim this year that we submit these to the town clerk and the town manager, but at any time the chair or in chair the vice chair can can change it. So, it's just it's just mostly so you all can put it
on your calendars. And correct me if I'm wrong, we're just voting on the entire calendar. We don't have to individually vote for it. Correct. Cuz that would be fun. Um, do we have any discussion on the policy as written or a motion to change
or amend? Looks good to me. Looks good to me, too. Anyone else? Um, do we have a motion to accept? I'll move to accept the uh meeting dates
and holiday schedule. I second. Excellent. Um roll call vote starting with you. Kelly, yes. Andrew Grimes, yes. Andrew Gregory, yes.
Reggie, yes. Pat, I'm a yes. Um list of scheduled meetings are accepted as written in the packet. Next item on the agenda is the um CY26 holiday schedule. It's also a vote. Yes,
that is a vote. So, what you have in front of you is a list of the typical closings. Um I have gone back in various years and there are there are definitely years where this schedule has been different but this has been the the schedule for a while. Um you the trustees um may use this as a
guide and but should feel free to make changes add to add or delete closing dates or to delete to change actual closing times. Notes for your reference. Um if there is a holiday on a Saturday recognized holiday on a Saturday we we
are closed on that Saturday but we generally observe that on a Friday. This is something that's unique to the to the library. doesn't per se. The state doesn't necessarily do it and the town hall doesn't do it because they're closed on Fridays anyway. So, it doesn't really affect them. Um, other than
Easter, if there's a Sunday, which we're closed on, but we don't close um the Monday afterwards. Otherwise, if if a holiday does f fall on a Sunday, actually, I don't know that Easter is a considered a federal holiday, but um if a federal holiday falls on a Sunday,
we're closed on the Sunday and it's observed on the Monday. And that's the town does do that and state guidelines say that as well. We have we have two uh three eve closings. That's the eve before Thanksgiving, before Christmas and before New Year's. Um as a guide, if
it's if that eve falls on a day where we're open for 12 hours from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., we close at 1. So that's a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. If um we're only open from 1 to 9 or 9 to5 such as a Thursday, Friday or Saturday,
typically we would close for the full day. Um and I'll just add um because I I do I do report this um the most common staff requests, not public requests, staff requests are being closed on Mother's
Day, Sunday, and being closed the day after Thanksgiving. And about 50% of the libraries are closed the day after Thanksgiving. The other 50% are open. So that's just information for your for your for you. But this is the this is
the presented uh closings for 2026. What is um library attendance on those dates? Um th the Friday after Thanksgiving is usually is it's about equal to what we normally get. Um I think because people
are home um actually that whole weekend is usually kind of busy. We also get kids home from um college and they're they're they're getting they just maybe some of them are getting ready for midterms depending on which school they're at. Some some of them are closing in on finals depending on what school they're at. Um it's not like
overwhelming. We don't do any programming that weekend. Um so it is a skeleton crew. It's the minimum. Um we don't require people to take it. We just need to have our minimum number of staffing like we would on a Saturday or Sunday.
Mother's Day. I can't really tell you. I haven't I didn't check that. I should have. Okay. And just curious. I didn't go back and look and I I should have. Sorry. Um is this any different than what we did in 2025? No. Except for except for the fact that the uh Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are on a Thursday. So we would be closed the
entire the option there would be open like 1 to 5 which nobody's you know what I'm saying is Thursdays we only open at 1:00 only open one so the we're closed for the full eight hours on the Thursday um before Christmas Christmas Eve and and on Christmas Eve and on New Year's
Eve. Well, those are definitely traditionally very slow days and that's that actually has been a debate of whether well if we were open to f you know if we were open for eight hours would more people come in is it even worth opening if you're open only open 9 to1
I've you know and again different libraries do different things um some libraries close for the whole weekend um you know not I mean very few of them do but I've seen libraries close for the the Wednesday Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Also, um July 4th falling on a Saturday. That's what you were saying, July 3rd. Yeah. So, we would we would close on the 3 so that the staff um the Monday through Friday staff could benefit from that federal holiday.
Does anyone have any questions or amendments to the um list of library closings? as listed here. I'm okay with going with Just have one other question. Yeah, please do. On what have you seen as um are any of these days any in particular
that you hear from the community where the community is wondering why are you closed that day? Have you received any of that feedback? No, I still get why are you closed Thursday morning? Um but that's been 25
over 25 years. Um, no, I don't I don't particularly hear. Mostly it's the it's the transitions. So, like, oh, you're open Sundays. Oh, you're closed Sundays. Um, so usually it's the transitions. Um we often I think and Michelle you can correct me if
you're wrong but my feeling is over the last couple decades we do see more people switching libraries like meaning people are really like okay um uh reading's open on Sundays but Stonem isn't so you know I'll I'll go I'll go there on Sundays um and but Wakefield's
open Sundays in the summer too so um you know I like their I like their reading room in the summer but I like you know so the people shop around for library services so it's hard to say whether some of the comments come from community members or not, but in general, we get mostly positive feedback. Oh, it's so
nice that you're you're open today. Oh, it's so great that you have a story time in the evening or you have a story time on a Saturday. It's usually positive. Um, you know, okay, thank you. Um, any other questions or discussion?
Do we have a motion to accept? Move that we accept the 2026 library closings calendar. Second. Roll call vote starting with Kelly. Yes.
Andrew Grimes. Yes. Andrew Gregory. Yes. Monette. Yes. Yes. Emmy. Yes. Motion passed to accept the 2026 library closings as written in our packet and as
same as last year. Um, next item on the agenda is the financial report. Passing it to Amy. Okay. So, financial report. Well, we're doing well. Um, we will return probably 1% of our salary. Um, and I think we'll
probably spend down most of our expenses. I'll do an end of the year supplemental spending report and see where we landed on um, gift spending, state aid spending, and trust spending. Um we do spend these last few weeks madly looking at every single bill that
comes in. So to that um end I just want to mention we're doing a warrant this week. It should be available Wednesday. There's a holiday Thursday because of the Junth holiday and then again we're going to have a July 4th holiday. Some
of the some of the dates and deadlines are sort of off a little. Um the town itself does warrants every single week. To make your life easier, we only usually do them every other week. However, from July uh June and July,
occasionally we will have um warrants every week and if they're usually sometimes they're very small and Megan can email them to you for approval. they don't necessarily require the full um and they're usually there at this point it's going to be things like
the three Ingram books that came in and at 27.95 we got to get that bill paid. Uh, also in July, you may see two warrants. One for fiscal year 26 as we kick that off and then the ending of fiscal year 25.
Excuse me. That's just to let you know. Um, particularly Kelly, I know this is sort of your first round with it and those warrants can be overwhelming, but as I said, normally we'll try and do it every two weeks, but for from now until the mid July, you may have one every week and Megan will get it out to you.
Um that's really all I have on the financial report. Um we did receive some nice gifts. Um the Running Lions Club every year gives us um yeah and then we had some gifts in honor of Cherry. Actually, as a little side note of that
is we did have a um an ice cream party to which we invited a lot of you all were invited and we invited um friends and um other folks and we invited alumni staff which we had a good showing and we talked about it and we think that going forward
um maybe we'll call it a cherry on top or something like that. We would like to do an ice cream social once a year that to which we would invite um old and new trustees, old and new staff and have staff have it and just have an ice cream party to celebrate it because it's was really nice to kind of catch up with
some of those familiar faces. So might idea it actually wasn't that expensive either. So bonus that on the terrace. Uh oh, we could do it on the terrace. Yeah, let's change that. Let's make it ridiculous. No. Yeah, we actually just did it in the
in the here in the in the community room. Um, uh, it's big enough that we probably couldn't do it on the patio, but maybe if there's a new terrace outside, we could do it outside. So, that would be great. Are the Tony's available that are um the 64 Tony's
purchased by the women's league? I don't know if they're cataloged yet. I know they were purchased. Does that mean they're probably They might be. They might be. um they know they're hot items, so they do try to process them, but it's it's I'll let my kid check out 64. I was going to say 6 64 processing 64 items like that. It's a little it
does take a little time. So, um appreciate it. I appreciate the the patience there. What's a Tony? Tony is a little um usually what would you call it? a character like
a Disney character or something and it has a little chip in it with a bunch of encoded very high quality sound and stories and whatnot and there's a little box that you buy of course that you charge and you stick the Tony on top and the programming plays through the speaker. Okay. So, you get Elsa, you get
a bunch of Disney characters and kids they read the book. Yeah, they basically read the book. Yeah. Yep. Reads books, plays stories, plays games. My kids adore them and hoard them and hide them and we find them under the couch. Well, and you can
see from we get 64 for $1,000. So that's they're not they're not cheap. No, they're not not a paperback book. So something very very easy to lose. Yeah. Um Amy, in the snapshot, I noticed the locker use was way down. Yeah. I don't
know. I I'm I'm going to check into that. Um I don't know why that was down. I know the AMH was down for a little while. I don't know if it was just a a glitch, but um I I noticed that as well. Yeah. Do we Does the locker use spike on any day of the week? I mean, because if
it was No, that's you know, I don't know. I should say I don't know. I shouldn't say no. I I actually don't know. It's a good question. I think it's a great question for Val. Um she looks at a lot of Yeah. Uh statistics and things. Um, it also just may be another time to push for it, especially now with um it being lighter and people being
like, "Oh, maybe I do want to go to the to the library at 9:30 at night because I just turned I I just came off my patio, so maybe I could go pick up that book." Um, and we're closed Sundays, so I do think it might be a time to to maybe do a little extra push on it. And I'm looking at Michelle. Yeah, maybe
it's 51. Oh, not 15. You think it was 15? Maybe I put down the wrong number. That's the other option. If I put down the wrong number, I will check into that one. Okay. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't broken again. No, it is not broken. It is not broken. Okay, great.
That I can say. Megan's writing it right down. Amy, check locker transactions. Wasn't broken the other day. Um um any discussion thoughts further? Yeah. So, just really quickly, I don't need to go too much through the
director's report because Andrea very nicely talked about a lot of the stuff that we're doing or that we did. Um, I think, um, I do want to say that I've already seen people going out onto the patio. Um, which has been nice. Patio looks
great. Um, and if and if you haven't seen it, I don't know if my you got up to see it, but it just it looks really really sweet. Yeah, I went up to see it before this meeting and, um, it does look really really great. My one piece of feedback is is there any more money to buy like two aderandback chairs?
Yeah, we could we we you know we well yes we have gift money so we can do that. We that pretty much maxed out the rooted and reading budget money but we can absolutely do that. I had put aside some money thinking we might put some down out here but I think it's worth putting more chairs up there just to
kind of get people using it. Yeah. So, and there it seems like there's plenty of room for I was gonna say I'll double check with Megan White, the planter, the planting person to make sure that it's not going to get in the way of any of her any of her What is it? How is it like it's going to be at a high 90s in a couple days? How is it up there when
it's hot out? It Well, today it was cooler than it was inside. It was cooler outside than it was inside. Um, we don't have and and that is on the list to get is an umbrella for the table for the big table. So, we we would get something like we have just out here. Um, which is pretty big. I think that's a that's got
to be a 12 foot um a 12oot umbrella um in terms of span. So, um in terms of diameter, um so we would get something like that that would provide as much shade as we could and just put it up and down during the day. It does get hot with um for like
I'd say from like 11:00 a.m. to 2 or 3:00 p.m. until the it just starts going down. um the sun starts going down and then it it gets a little shade on that side. So, makes sense. It looks really nice. And the more plants we put up there, actually, the I don't want to say the cooler it will be, but the more the
more moisture there will be up there. So, it might help. There's some tomatoes out there. They'll love it. And just as a side note, there's a planter out here that's growing a bunch of pumpkins. They they left a pumpkin in there over
the winter time. And so, those are all volunteers. So, it will take over that entire area. It will take over the entire area. Yeah. It's kind of sweet. Um but other than that, not much on the um director's report. It um has um May was a busy month and I say that knowing
that June is an even busier month. Um I will point out that yes, this Friday um just speaking of ice cream, we will having our community garden party, a green communities information education fair. We did not get as many folks responding as we wanted to, but we have a fair showing. We have the trails
committee coming and um the town forest committee will be there. We have a beekeeper coming. We have someone from the pollinated projects Amherst extension. We have um uh there's like one or two other people. And then we'll have our own busy bees
table for our volunteers that are doing such a great job. I don't know if you've walked up by out front, but we have some people that are coming to weed and to water and it's looking really nice out front and along the side. It's compared to like last year compared to the last six years, it's looking really good. Um,
but we definitely would love to have more volunteers whether it's just someone coming in and watering or doing a little weeding. Interior plants look really good, too. That's so Envirro Green, that's the other thing I want to mention is Envirro Greenery as part of their deal with us. They put in someformational things. So, if you go to Yeah. They don't have every single
plant, but they have some of the bigger plants. Um, which is just to really we we were talking to them about this is our goal is to encourage people to learn about the plants. Um, you know, not only it's good for the air, it's good for your mental health, but you know, do you know what a fishtail palm is or things like that. So, they're doing a good job.
They come in every two weeks. I didn't until I saw it in the front lobby on the way in about an hour ago. Yeah. Um, and then as um Andrea mentioned, will be a porch fest menu venue. That's where we're actually quite quite excited about. Um and the the final thing is um
just even today um I spoke to activas about this if you want to relook at the boards over here. Um and I do need to check in with the foundation as to how the finances will go whether they're giving us the money directly or whether they want to be built but um they
actually hope to go out for bid uh for this project maybe the week after July 4th. Um it's dependent on approval from the procurement and from um the town engineering, but they could go out for approval as early as July, which means um the
conceivably construction could start as early as late August or early September. So um um if you're interested, there's some papers as you're entering the building. There's some papers down down on the sidewalk. So, um, for some color
choices, there's basically tannanish and there's grayish and then there's a combination of tannanish and grayish. So, those are there are but those are concrete pavers and they have like a lifetime warranty or something. So, it's very very sturdy. Was there good attendance at the um
community meeting at the end of May? Like did neighbors come? Um, we had a few neighbor we had more neighbors come than the first meeting. So, I'd say there were about four neighbors there and then we had a representative from the from the foundation came and um they
they were all very pleased with what they saw. Um, and I know I know that Jake went and handd delivered and talked to people, so they basically had their opportunity. And when I look at the I was I was going through the other day and looking back at the survey that we did and the feedback that we've had and
I think it was we've definitely done I think a very good thorough job of making sure that the neighbor and there's no because there's no lighting. on the other thing I should mention is we do not have to go before the CPDC because for a site review the the specifications and scope of the project were such that
it could be just have a receive an administrative review which is by the town planner and we're not doing any lighting changes and we're not and it's the actual paved covered space within the or at the at the boundaries of what would require a minor site plan review from the CBDC. So the chair of CBDC and
the town planner looked over and gave administrative approval for the project as it is. So that's why it's able to kind of move forward a little more quickly than they thought. So it doesn't have to go through a public meeting pro process or hearing. So it's been looked at by a lot of eyes.
Thank you. And that's pretty much all I have. Wonderful. Thank you very much as always. Um I believe the next thing is the approval of the May 12th meeting minutes. We have any discussion, corrections,
thoughts, concerns, motions. Move to approve the minutes as presented. Second. Second. Roll call vote. Starting with you, Kelly. Yes. Andrew Grimes.
Yes. Annette. Yes. Patane. Oh, look at you. Oh, I guess I wasn't here. I got to abstain, too. But we still have a quorum, so motion passes. All right. Excellent. Any um we have some future agenda items listed. Um I
probably did. Hang on a second. Library terrorist update. Oh, yeah. I talked about the warrant schedule. Yeah, we already talked about that today, actually. So, I I might not have to add that on there. Um well, one thing is I will not be at the July 14th meeting. So that will be run by Megan and um
and um Michelle. We will have we should have by the July meeting at least a draft of the warrant schedule which we do for you. And that just again gives you a heads up on boy you have to come in on Thursday or Tuesday whenever to sign the warrants. Um hopefully by by August we'll have
some supplemental spending recommendations. We do not have any large projects coming up except for the terrorists, but that's not using our existing supplemental spending from state aid. So, um I expect that the the spending for FY26 outside the municipal
budget will be fairly conservative. So, I'll have something for you on that. Um Michelle will give you a meeting room youth uh report update and we will if needed um look at the meeting room policy. I think as of today we don't have any specific changes, but obviously
that that could um that could change. Um and that's it. Could we at a future meeting um when you think it's a good time get an update on the lockers? It would be nice a little Oh yeah, a little locker update. Little locker update. Yeah, do that. Maybe August would be a
good time for that because that will give you a little time to maybe do a little PR, talk to the house, see what needs I think that number. Okay. I mean, not I don't It just seems to be low. I mean, it does seem low. It does seem low. It probably is wrong. And
I'm not even reacting to the number. I just think I feel like we get updates on lots of stuff and we haven't really had a locker update. Yeah. No, you're right. It would just be nice to hear about the lockers here. Here what's going on. And I I do think PR has to be part of that because this is something we specifically got we we specifically got in response to people who wanted
self-service. And um it's possible that we're not meet we haven't reached out to those people who really want the self-service. So, And in the summertime it might be different too. People on vacation stuff. Yeah, we'll put that on their agenda. Um and then I will also send out um at
least to Cappy and to Pat a list of the all the policies and probably just acknowledge the ones that we will likely look at in the next year. Um we don't have to look at every single policy every single year. Usually every two years is okay, but we've done a lot of
changes in the last couple years. So, we might have a quiet a quiet policy year, which is okay. Excellent. Thank you very much. Um, if there's nothing else, do we have a motion to adjurnn? Move to adjourn. Have a second.
Second. Um, roll call vote. Kelly, yes. Andrew Grimes, yes. Andrew Gregory, come back to Lynette Pat. Yes, I'm a yes. And one more for
Andrew Gregory. I guess we have a quorum. It doesn't matter, right? I think we're good. I think he cares, right? Thank you all very much. Uh, we're joined. Thank you.