this is a recording of the South Public Library Board of Trustees it is April 8th at My time on my computer's wrong it says 4:13 it is 7:13 p.m we will do a roll call so here in person is Lynn
Blair Tammy Sack the Salon Andrea Bugby John Felden Cindy Warner Cindy Warner is on Zoom [Music] so we have um no public comments that I
can see so I will send around um a copy of the monthly report from the department head meeting so to recap um in March we circulated
6,31 physical items this is a record for us which is awesome um and it's a 25.57 increase compared to March 2021 so March was like a super month um we had 11 LL programs with 89 attending four
kids programs with 72 attending two general audience with 43 attending and 14th programs with 27 attending um I did mention Hoopla on here i'm going to loop back to that later um our plant seed and supply swap which we are co-sponsoring
with the Agriculture Commission will be May 3rd from 10:30 to noon um drop off days are May 1st and 2nd and then briefly before we start on May 3rd um anyone is welcome to bring in plants for the swap as well as new gardening supplies uh the library staff attended a
CPR class last Wednesday at the fire department um eight of us or it was seven of us seven of us were CPR certified we have some upcoming programs the babysitting class for teens is two sessions we just had one on Monday the next one is this coming Monday is always
a full house uh the board of health nurse is offering a tick prevention class and she's going to be doing a third session of stop the bleed which has been extremely popular it fills up every time uh Steve Cormier will be presenting on his book about the Westfield River a local resident native
plant expert and permaculture designer will be talking about uh the Southwick Wildlife Management Area on South Longard which we're co-sponsoring with the Conservation Commission our summer reading kickoff June 21st 10 to 12:30 will have a magic show a mini zoo with a
pig i don't know if it's a large pig or a mini pig it's a pig we're excited um they're little they're Juliana pigs oh there so they're little pigs i think so will it be a unicorn pig no no i could ask that for next year
um and then this will be the last Saturday we're open until September so this week uh running through the 12th is National Library Week i scheduled a social media post for each day of this week to highlight one kind of special resource that the library has we also
have the hearts out in the lobby in the children's room so people can write down what they love about the library we've gotten some really nice responses and it's only Tuesday so I'm hoping to get enough that I can get some poster boards and like put it on the wall outside the restroom there because it's a big empty wall i really just want to
just canvas the wall with nice things um I attended a training on privacy and data security through CW Mars the staff are also watching that same training this week we're kind of going through policies and procedures seeing what needs to be reworked or changed or
edited um and that is that so I have talk about the that how important is it oh actually really important we're going to talk about that later anyway so I'm going to
table that for later and we have think one side March minutes for everybody everybody takes a quick second to read through just um give me the heads up and then we will vote on it
motion to accept the March minutes do you have any seconds all in i I I about old business if we're making it an annual survey but it's every other year it needs a new name
i don't think it has like an official name that's just what we've kind of called it we can come up with something much better than Yeah so these are our March program reports overall pretty good um March was a busy month so that's
kind of reflected in you know we had almost 150 kids use the dramatic play area um 81 in the maker space that's very good and then yeah March was just a a really busy month there was a very high increase in circulations um which I
guess could be attributed to you know the weather wasn't so great people were looking for things to do or they're just discovering how fun the library is which we've really been trying to do with our our outreach and social media even that like 36 new cards yep 36 new cards the
reference questions really jumped up um so we helped a lot of people with that and then of course you know as as usual the ebook circulations continue to increase what's the 10,00 Books program that is um it's a program where kids can sign up
um to read a thousand books before kindergarten so they sign up with us they get a free book and then they come in every I think it's either every like couple hundred books so they check in as they get their way to up to the thousand and each check-in they get like to pick a free book and a little prize cool and
then they get like a a special book at the end and a certificate that says that they read a thousand books so yeah we have a bunch of kids that are doing it and I think I just checked off somebody who did like 600 a couple days ago so
any questions about statistics for March okay so for the old business um I wasn't planning to talk much about Hoopla and so we made as we said at our last meeting at the end
of March we were going to communicate that we were dropping the number of checkouts per person to seven and then I went at the end of March to look at how much our bill was and went "Oh my goodness it was $640." So I think my communications
backfired in that I said "We're dropping the number of circulations." And people went in and borrow borrow borrow so it was our bill was $640 um and then I went I said "Okay I'm going to keep an eye on it for April." So I went to check in after like the first week of April and
it's already up to $142 so if we're tracking that to the end of April we're looking at a very another very expensive month so I talked with our Hoopla representative um and I just said maybe this just
wasn't the best way to go about it so we did discuss putting a cap on per month um so also having it remain seven borrowers per person so that one person isn't going to go in there and spend our entire budget you know on us so having
seven borrowers per person but also capping it and I I I'll look at the math maybe like $400 $450 a month just capping it at that and saying you know once we reach that we're not going to spend any more because I was I was very
surprised when we when I saw our March bill that was very expensive um it all of a sudden just went you know we it was trending upward and then it just went way upwards but maybe you know our communications made our patrons go "Hey what's Hoopla let me check that out let me sign up for it." Which is there's
nothing wrong with that that's fantastic we want people to use it but we also just want to make sure that we don't have any like surprise huge bills so I'm thinking if we cap it at a certain amount per month then we can at least control control what it's going to be um
they did say that you know the way the system the system works is that we said like say $450 a month the system that Hoopla is will break that down per day so if there's a very expensive you know day it's going to it's it's going to
take $450 and break it down for every day of the month if you know what I mean um so there may be some days that people won't be able to borrow anything and that's just kind of the downside of that and that's what I wanted to avoid but at the same time we got to have something
in place to make sure that we don't get any astronomical bills what happens when someone isn't able to borrow on that day is it just like they can still borrow yeah okay but if they have already taken something out can they still access that oh yeah if something's already been
borrowed absolutely yeah yeah but they just can't borrow anything new and it'll be I don't know what it'll give them some type of message that's you know explains that there's a cap per day try again tomorrow so got to think through my Victorian murder
mystery here well I mean that's the thing and certainly I completely understand that we don't have the money to pay for it but it's also a lesson that this is really popular this is something people want so if there are ever opportunities
like Hey you know we we're putting money into this program it's not quite successful but this is something we know people really want absolutely yeah definitely definitely yeah when we sit down to look at our budget next year and planning everything out I do think um
and I had it later in here in the agenda to talk about the year- end budget so obviously with you know these unexpected surprises we're going to go a little bit over in our Hoopla allotted budget this year that's fine we'll just balance it out with something else but yeah so so
next year usually um once we learn what our budget is in hopefully soon because the town meeting's coming up in the middle of May um so hopefully by like early May we'll know what the finance committee proposed for our budget so we can kind of sit down and start to think
about you know our info materials budget which Hoopla is a part of and um and thinking about how we want to structure that for next year so you know maybe it does it does need to be something that yeah people we need to throw a little bit more at it because people like it and it's popular and
that's great we don't want to deprive Jennifer Murder Mysteries you know we don't want to do that so um now is that something that any of the fundraisers that happen could help if you needed to supplement or is that just strictly for programs
the friends potentially potentially like if you needed it or something yeah if we need it i mean we we do and we have a trustees account too yeah but there's not much i don't think there's that much in it i don't know the number off the top of my head but I don't believe it's very much um but yeah I think next year
once we get our budget numbers we can sit down plan and I think that'll be a good plan of attack to to see what we're what we're looking at this year and then planning ahead for for next year so I think I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to Hoopla i'm going to check it again tomorrow see
what it's see what it's looking like and then maybe talk to Hoopla maybe talk I wonder if there's any grants I'm not a finance person but I wonder if there's any kind of grants or something that might help in the future yeah I wonder if the cultural council would help I don't they would I think they usually
fund programs I don't know I I don't know if they would fund something like that yeah I don't know if that would fall in Oh that's right Cindy Cindy's on the cultural council yeah I don't know that that would fall into the purview of the cultural council um because it's usually cultural
programs i don't know that that would fall in so I guess my question is are people aware of the fact that number one that there is a fee for this are they just shoving a bunch of stuff in a maybe someday I'll read it you know section and then never going back and actually
utilizing it um yeah when I blasted out our messages about decreasing the checkouts that I put I put everywhere social media I put signs around here um I emailed I sent out an email that did highlight that it
is a you know a cost per checkout so I I think I I would think most people are aware um but you know if you know we I I don't know the nice way to put that you know in our description come check out
Hoopla this is great but beware it costs money each checkout you know I have to kind of craft a craft it to make it sound so like we want you to use this but you know but slow your check out a ton of stuff i have a kooky idea and I don't know if it's in bad
taste but you know how co time we got rid of late fees which I really appreciate but what if when people started bringing things back late we said to them listen we don't do late
fees anymore but if we had late fees here's how much you would owe and if you'd like to put that towards our hoopla bunch you could we have a little donation jar at the desk which kind of gets some people you know if they feel bad about bringing things in late okay so they Yeah we do we do get some
from that but I'm gonna be honest i feel like if somebody is bringing something in late they're more likely to sneak after hours to the book drop so that nobody would see them just saying we're not speaking from experience not
by experience right Jen ever yeah so maybe it's um maybe it's just something we put in the messaging of advertising Koopla you know even if we say you know it's a it's an ondemand pay by use you know but we don't want you know then then I'm afraid the message might get convoluted that people think
you know like when people are checking out ebooks and it takes them if they have a Kindle it takes them through Amazon and then they always get afraid that they're going to get charged so we just have to kind of think about how we want to craft that message to make sure it gets across but but yes that's that's
that's a that's a thought process for when I'm not so tired so yeah that's that's what I'm thinking for Hoopla i'm going to talk to them set a cap and I think it's I think we it's a more than generous cap whatever I decide to do 400
450 you know and then we'll just we'll be able to kind of budget for it better next year when we have a a cap on everything all right oh summer reading opening day i already mentioned that uh June 21st i did after
our last meeting I talked with our Saturday staff because June 28th is going to be motocross um about half said "I don't care i'll come anyway." A couple said you know we prefer not to because of the traffic and everything so I did run it by our town administrator
and she said you know that's that's fine if we just start our summer hours early that means just the staff will shift to their summer hours one week early everybody's fine with that and um so we'll be closed for the summer uh the last Saturday will be June 21st and then
we'll be open the first Saturday in September so it's really not you know some some weeks some years Labor Day is later so we're closed a Saturday in September so you know we're really it's not any much any longer than it normally
is all right um the CPC project so I have I needed three quotes for the bid to give to the town so the
procurement officer can approve it so I did get four bids which is really nice um the quotes range from our most expensive was 50,000 and our least expensive
was 25,000 so yeah it's it's a wide range i guess it just depends on the company and what they're kind of envisioning for it um but the quote that I really like was
um Cadet Comey and Sons came and um they spray painted the yard to do the measurements so they could see what they look like the picture is not so great but they had like a drone come in and take a picture of what they spray painted so there's like the sidewalk out
front and there there'd be like a little sidewalk branching off the middle where the picnic table is would be a big circle and then we'd have a couple branches going out for the different musical instruments and so that I I'll I'll talk to um the
procurement officer because that one was the quote that was kind of in the middle that was 34,000 when we're talking about numbers this big you know from 25 to 34,000 it's it's a lot but it's not like 25 to 50,000
they were the ones you know they had us pick out different like a different color for the sidewalk he was very excited about the project so that was kind of the one that rang true the most to me um but yeah so I will talk with um I'm
hoping to get this compiled and sent to the procurement officer this week you know to see if there's anything like if we're obviously you don't always want to choose the lowest bid so she deals with um anytime we have to do any bidding or anything like you know
stuff that costs a lot of money um so I'm I'm thinking about the the 34,500 quote again it really all depends on I don't know if Cindy's had time to touch base
with Nancy from the friends yet about I have not okay i know she I know they're meeting tomorrow night if you're interested tomorrow at 5:30 if you wanted to um to chat with her or NY's Nancy's usually around if I think I gave you her email if you guys
wanted to yeah you you did connect us via email i can try to make it at 5:30 5:30 is just real tight for me oh sure i mean they usually meet 5:30 to 6:30 so if you show up halfway through care so All right good yeah good
to know i have um I'm waiting to hear back from the family too the family is kind of scattered all over between the Cape and New Hampshire and Alaska and so yeah I mean this this is going to
take you know take time anyway i'm going to get it submitted this week and I don't know how soon she's going to be able to look at it so okay that's that to give you an idea is just the kind of number that that I'm thinking of yeah no no you had Yeah you had shared like a ball you had had like one quote I think
the last time we spoke and you said like 25 and so I I think I kind of estimated it like 25 to 50 so yeah yeah so we're kind of falling right in the middle of that so yeah perfect yeah so I'm gonna send
that in i did I did get one um I did get one email from the percussion play company that does the musical instruments that says they're they're adding a 10% tariff on items you know it would have been nice to have been able to order them earlier but you
know these things take time so it is what it is but okay um we received our second state aid award um in the amount of $14,860.87 andrea did you catch that
14860 14860.87 yep so that was part two of our state aid which is fantastic um so those numbers are pretty healthy i don't know what the future will bring
but that's a good number all right policy review time everybody's favorite time [Music] so I have the material selection policy and I'm sorry it didn't copy in color i'm going to keep the color one because
so I know directly what to look at but you should it's kind of like a light gray on there so you can kind of tell what we're talking about so we have the material selection policy um which we were talking about last time and so I did I know we wanted
to make sure that the library bill of rights as Andrea brought up was mentioned more prominently what I did was I slightly restructured the section um I did obviously highlight on the the first
paragraph under authority and responsibility materials and resources will be ordered in accordance with the library bill of rights seeing the appendix the way that it was written made it look like the bibliootherapy was the only one that but I think the
intention of it was that it is for all of them so I went on the second page um specific principles for the selection of materials in all collections and then I or added at the the bottom of that numbered listing the bill of rights
again so I think that's pretty well highlighted there um unless anybody sees anywhere else on it's technically page 13 at the very bottom we mentioned this last time we're just removing because the library of things are no longer you have to be a
South resident so we're just removing that that there was that I think that was it i did add on I I had at the end here appendix F because I wasn't sure if we wanted to add the
library code of ethics when I was reading through it to refamiliarize myself i wasn't sure if it I don't know if it necessarily fits into I did I make copies if anybody wants them I did make copies if anybody you gave us an
attachment to it what was that Cindy in the emails you gave us an attachment directly to the so I didn't I don't know if these Um okay i felt like this might be something that could function well as its own
policy as opposed to the collection development policy because it it has to do more of like with the ethics of the position as a whole as opposed to just the collection development policy so I was thinking if we wanted to we
could potentially add the code of ethics as its own standalone policy in the policy handbook my thought in even bringing these up was if we ever found ourselves in sticky situation
um the it it it gives the library it I don't want to say a chance to pass the buck but to say we're not making up these rules like so I don't I don't know that the code of ethics needs
to be there the library what is it the Bill of Rights um the library bill of rights it's it's I mean it just gives us one more place to turn like a higher up that it's not the South Library who has these principles it's all of the libraries that have these principles
absolutely so however you feel safe um and supported I'm fine with yeah i mean I think and I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts either i mean I feel like it it could definitely
be its own standalone policy in our policy handbook you know we could um we could just copy it in there you know and just happen to be it its own standalone thing because I think it's
probably important enough to do so i agree with I am not trying to be like hyper political i'm concerned even though this is the American Library Association and not the South Public
Library that when you read the language of number nine in the current um way that things are being talked about I think that if we say we are going to start including this as a new
thing we put ourselves in a position that could be um facing a conversation that nobody wants to have sure yeah i mean I think with the policies that we do have including the
library bill of rights it potentially could be seen as redundant and that we already have you know we have the Bill of Rights in here you know I had just you know and it it may be just
something that you know that doesn't necessarily I mean obviously you know there are things that we uphold but maybe it's like I'm 100% behind it yeah yeah i would like upon a shirt and I would be happy to wear it around town i'm worried about the
library getting caught in the middle of something that they shouldn't be put in the middle of i mean maybe it's more of just like a this is more of like looking at it from like an individual's perspective an individual's ethics that doesn't necessarily need to be a policy in itself
you know it's just something that Do you know where you know where my train of thought is going i hope maybe you can be honest if you don't we're it's it's almost 8 o'clock we're all tired here
so maybe it's just something that you know I feel like what we have in our material selection policy with the bill of rights I think that's enough that it covers the ground of what we want it to you know and this is something that you know these are
um ignoring the door um that it's more of an individual thing and that these are things that you know individuals uphold as opposed to just a policy that we're putting in in our handbook book maybe it doesn't necessarily fit the because the policies are more about you
know procedures right structure of the library this is something that's kind of different from that okay you see you see where I'm going i think so okay yes so so I included it in here to see if that was something we'd want to and
that's and that's fine i mean I'm fine with um I think the Bill of Rights covers the ground that we need it to so do we feel like um the changes in the collection or the material I keep calling it the
collection the material selection policy do we feel like you know the bill of rights is mentioned enough and that the restructuring of the second page here I think it it sounds less like that's just for the
bibliootherapy I mean potentially we don't even read that paragraph the second paragraph on um page technically page 12 but page two about the bibliootherapy because it's it's directly pointing out that one aspect of the collection when it all of
this applies to the whole collection i'm sorry I'm not sure where I'm looking the second page there second paragraph down okay and as a thought I was going to mention um I asked other libraries if they included the um ALA ethics in their
policy handbooks and most of them did say no so I think there was only maybe one or two that actually said that they included it um but most I think a lot of them said they included the Bill of Rights so yeah if everyone is if happy with
these changes if if we feel like it looks good then we can vote or if there's anything else anybody wants to bring up about i am completely open to suggestions may we need to um make a motion to
accept changes yes motion to accept changes andrea seconds i I do second but can you pause your motion 100% all right so you talked about taking out the second paragraph on the second page yes and
that's fine either way but how are we approving are we approving it as submitted here um with that second paragraph in which is we can we could leave it that was just a suggestion it didn't sound like anybody had any strong feelings about removing it i would
prefer to keep it that's fine then we can keep it yeah i think what you the little tweaks that you made um cleared up the Yeah I think just the way it was written made it look like it was referring to only one section
okay so okay go ahead Jen oh I [Laughter] remotion okay and I second i did also send everybody um
Sorry well I'm trying we're trying to get everybody out of here at a time okay sorry hold on motion in motion again motion in motion all in favor i So wait a second so So
this copy shows the ALA item that you said didn't need to be a part of it yes so we're we're gonna we're going to remove that and so we have to be specific in the notes that we're going to accept it with the
following changes yeah perfect thank you Cindy yeah I didn't see that there was a place where it talked about I got it at the very end and then I realized I I was when I was working on it i was I was putting it in there and then I realized
that it probably doesn't belong so the very last page that got okay so I make a motion to accept the changes to this policy with keeping the second paragraph on the back of the first page and
getting rid of appendix X i second that motion all in favor i I Okay I think that was everybody i did send everybody the links to um and if anybody wants a copy you're welcome to
take it the freedom to read statement and the um which I realized I should have talked about when we were talking about the material selection goal statement but I did send everybody a copy of the the freedom to read statement the freedom to view statement but these might also be
under the same vein of the um the code of ethics and that it's not necessarily something we need to mention or have as part of our policies a few libraries said they did they did include the freedom to read and the freedom to view
statements as part of their collection development policy but again I wasn't 100% sure if it was something that we would want to include it may be in the same vein of the the code of ethics i feel like in the material
selection policy this is not appropriate i think that it might be worthwhile to have something that just blanket says that as a member of the American Library Association we accept and follow um the
materials that have been crafted by the ALA since its inception in 1916 said it someplace I don't remember where which might include the freedom to read statement and ethics and all the other
things i like this thing on the last page the labeling systems yeah yeah yeah so that's that was another thing so maybe maybe why couldn't you just say that you're going to follow them and that if anybody that copies of the ALIA
code of ex ethics etc would be made available upon request yeah so maybe maybe we just have and I could draft something up for like next month and just have it be like you know the library follows the freedom to read statement the freedom to view statement
potentially as Cindy suggested the code of ethics and and all of these are available you know the library can provide you with a copy of any of them if you want to see the verbiage associated with it the the
reason why I I say any of this is that I have to run for reelection i had to go around and collect my signatures and I went I actually went door to door and the one statement that I was given by the people of this town was they are all
very concerned about banning books and so reinforcing to them that we are following ethical standards that we are following things like the American Library Association
etc and that you know we kind of have these guiding principles that reinforce what they're asking of us um as voters I think is a good thing not that they're going to come pull
these these documentation and ask for it or whatever but I think it just kind of reinforces something that people right now are very concerned about so so maybe for next month I could just draft up something like you you all had
been saying and that we you know we are in support of of these following documents they can be found here right you can ask yeah or you can here's the website of where you can find Yeah okay
and this one is quick we noticed when we were going through our hotspot policy and this one is highlighted in in yellow um a quick change for that so um it says on here
patrons are welcome to borrow the hotspot devices for one week we did find out um that they had been cataloged so they've been going out one week and they've been set to renew for one week we have four of them we have a
bunch of them they're very popular so maybe even the next year I'll try to get one or two more but usually we have one or two here and if somebody's going on vacation a serious vacation where they need some Wi-Fi with them they're probably going to be gone for maybe more than a week so if the board isn't
approved of that um I will just edit this to say that patrons are welcome to borrow the device for one week with one renewal yeah that's Yeah because it says if it's not needed in the beginning so if everybody's in approval if you'd
like to get the the motion rolling yet again I'll make a motion i'll make a motion to accept public library hotspot policy change yeah seconds Andrea oh I'm voting sorry all
in favor andrea andy I I Okay so in when we were going through our data and security training with CW Mars
there was just a couple things that I needed to firm up with how we do a couple policies and one of them was most notably in the public service policy and then what happened was me adding one section included me reviewing everything
and nitpicking the little details as one does um so I will just go through the yellow spots that I highlighted um those are where the changes are so we did change
um to in order to receive a replacement card we need people to present their IDs because people had just been coming in and we want to just make sure that we confirm their ID or confirm who they are before we give them a new card attached
to their account um and then and on record I want to go on saying that even though the staff know who I am they still actually confirm my ID yeah that's they do they're doing their job good um so they'll need to present their ID and
then a replacement we've always been doing this we we changed this a long time ago a replacement card will be issued at no cost um and then renewing a card so cards expire every two years they must renew their library card in person if they no longer have their card an ID is required to confirm their
identity to issue a replacement if a patron is unable to renew their card in person they are requested to contact us by phone so we always want to try to renew them in person but there may be examples where a person just simply cannot get here and we will handle that
on a case- by case basis and go through and confirm the information on their card without giving them any information have them telling us the information so we confirm who they are and I have a Yeah just curiosity question like when you do your books on the go do you have something in case somebody needed to
renew their card there when you're on site okay yeah yeah what I can do is um that I'm guessing those people if they don't drive or no longer Yeah like when we when we do when we do the books on the go yeah that's that's kind of handled in its own special you know that's something we handle in its own special circumstances so that would be a
case where a person just simply can't come here right and we want to make sure that they can access stuff so we we work with it um down below it says museum passes originally it said library passes which makes no sense so I changed it to museum
passes um under puppets and toys they can be renewed and I want to remove but they cannot be reserved because why can't people reserve a puppet it doesn't make any sense um and then also down here if the
hotspots are available for one week and not renewable we're going to make them renewable because they technically have been uh late fees and other charges um I would like to remove that the library does not accept replacement
items for lost or damaged items and just remove that sentence altogether because I feel like if somebody can replace something the same item they can also get it cheaper from Amazon or something obviously I would like them to ask us
first before they do that but if we remove that sentence um because technically yes I have been lenient with some people in that obviously the price we have in the catalog is the price that we bought the item for and it's potentially a lot higher than a
replacement that they could get at a bookstore or from Amazon so I would just like to remove that sentence i appreciate that i think it helps a lot of people we want to make it as easy as possible
and slight that below that I was getting really nitpicky with this below that the paragraph that says there are two i changed it to two return boxes because we no longer have three i felt like that was necessary the last page
um I suggest we remove number two because library patrons have priority of attendance everyone is a library patron whether you have a card or not i don't I think that's kind of irrelevant um and then number four um I say we suggest I
we remove that um I I don't feel like it's relevant um and then the exhibits and signs we have a separate policy about that so I don't think there's any need to have that mentioned here as well there's a specific policy about signs and everything displaying your your signs
here i make a motion to accept the changes tammy seconds all in favor i I Tammy said I
and then lastly what do we have here that we cover the public ethics i mentioned fiscal 2025 year end budget we are working our way through the end of the year um the only thing I was going to mention was that I mentioned before Hoopla went a little bit over we
can accommodate that in other areas um in all other aspects of the budget we seem to be on track for the end of the year we're seem to be doing just fine and then the last thing I had on here was to um discuss I don't know if any of you have
been following um the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the potential impacts i have been following um what's been coming through i think a lot of it is still
unknown um but most most recently I think the thing that most recently came through to not today um but so obviously we get most of our funding from like local funding and then
we also get things through the state like the state aid um so I think the the things that are the kind of the biggest risk for us right now are um Comcast which is the Commonwealth catalog which allows us to request things throughout the state have them
sent here the statewide databases and um potentially Libby too because CW Mars uses a part a portion of federal funds for Libby so there could be the
potential for um longer wait times less items but again I think a lot of it still up in the air the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners I think they said
about half of their staff are funded through federal funds um my questions were about the state aid you know that comes through the state however it's a federally funded position through the board of library commissioners that
oversees that program so again I think there's there's there's there's a lot of unknowns um and I just sent out a memo to our staff today to just kind of if anybody hadn't been following it just kind of what the updates are what the potential you know
like I mentioned the databases COAD the potential things you know at risk um one one library did have this this nice uh figure that I will share with you um she said in 2024 Massachusetts libraries reported 36 million visits
more than Disneyland and more people than attend the entire season of the Red Sox Bruins Patriots and Celtics combined so I think as our numbers show from last month that we are busier than ever and maybe the sports team should support the
libraries across the state that they they the Bruins works with the libraries a lot they do like visits and whatever their mascot is i can't remember what he's called the mascot goes around to visit library i don't know
so yeah just so everybody's aware you know I think now is more important than ever to just you know you are our board of trustees and I welcome you to to talk up the good parts of the library not that not that there are any bad parts
that's always there parts you know talk up about how important the library is and I don't know the last time I got a book I got a paper cut oh yeah i was really upset about that that happens that happens so it's it's okay i I work for Cured
you're covered we'll take care of you thank goodness i'm so glad you're here with me that's why she does audio books now exactly hope you end up with carpal tunnel or something yeah so so that's that's ultimately the
the state of things is I'm just keeping an eye on it and we don't we don't not much more you can do there's not much more we can do um I've just I've just been kind of keeping track of everything that comes
through the MBLC did eliminate some services already this came through on April 3rd um grants that were awarded to 18 libraries not us um Perkins library accessibility trainings were cancelled um access to training and continuing
education for library director staff trustees friends of the libraries group and foundations made possible through certain organizations and a grant to the department of corrections and funding for the MBLC's manga book
collection that serve the department of corrections so there's there's already some services that they have eliminated but now I don't at this point don't use Libby or Hoopla but if Libby does get eliminated are more people going to jump
over to Hoopla yes potentially yeah yeah i don't I don't think it will be eliminated altogether i think their messaging was that um CW Mars gets a certain portion of their funds it doesn't sound like It sounds like what would happen would be
less less materials for borrowing which would mean longer wait times which would still make things kind of inaccessible so they might want to migrate over to Hoopla so we we'll kind of keep an eye on that and that's also something that's you know good to remember for when we thinking about the Hoopla budget for
next year and maybe allocating more towards that because the nice part of that is it's on demand so yeah and I'll keep you you all updated as as things come through and as things change um but there's there's bound to be
things felt what was that Cindy i said there is definitely bound to be things felt because what they're looking to dismantle had access to $294.8 million so you don't wipe that out and not have
it felt so stay tuned yep absolutely absolutely um so if you do go on to the board of library commissioners website you can go on to the ALA website there's all kinds of information there about what's going
on who you can contact anything like that um we have not other libraries i'll add before we end we have not crafted a message yet to the community i did have
a patron ask me and bring in an example of what another library has done um and before I wanted before I did anything I wanted to check in with our town administrator because it is kind of a political matter and to be making a statement on that you just want to be careful and make sure that you're not
you know so um she recommended that we hold off until there's more information but um I know a I was talking with the AWAM director she's having something come out on Thursday so I'll keep an eye out for that see what theirs is like
hopington which is in Central Mass sent out a really nice one um if anybody's interested I I have a copy if anybody's interested in reading it um they sent out a really nice one yesterday or today and so we'll
we'll just be kind of keeping an eye on that i've I've been answering questions as best I can if people ask u but so far only one person has suggested that we make a statement only one person has suggested make a
statement how many people have been asking about surprisingly not many a few um a few have expressed concerns but but only a handful i I don't think it's it's been on the forefront of the news so it may not be something that people and it
hasn't been trickled down to the thought factor yet yeah yeah so absolutely so I I'll see what addons looks like they'll see what's coming through from other libraries and then um probably soon once we get more information then I'll check
in with our town administrator again and then even if I just draft something up and you know have them approve it before we send it out because they that was a really nice one i have a new trustee question and I don't know if I need to ask it during the meeting or after the meeting which
is more appropriate like I'm not sure if it's Yeah yeah go ahead we're among friends okay well um because we're a board of trustees when you talk about when you as our library director ask us to to talk
about the library and talk it up and why it's important why people like it um is it appropriate for us as trust as members of the board of trustees to write to our senators and tell them why it's important is that I think so yeah
if you if you have questions um the board of library commissioners has its own like trustee list serve so you can ask like a question and it's all trustees who belong to that email list so if you put a question out there and you say what have you guys been doing
you'll probably get a bunch of responses if I can share that with the board if you guys are interested and just how to sign up um thank you yeah yeah i mean in in my thoughts you know that's that is kind of essentially the role of the
trustee is you know you can do what we may not be able to do and you can reach out and you know can't read it you could take it home for some nighttime reading keep it just for the note in case yes so so absolutely
absolutely I would I would think that that's perfectly fine um and then yeah definitely I'll send along the information about how to sign up for the list serve and then um you know if you ever have a question or even right now you can post to them what is everybody
doing and I'm sure that they will have some definite answers ending on a happy note I make a motion to end on a happy note on a happy note with smile All right so we will end our meeting for
tonight um I don't know if Charlotte or Gabrielle have any questions um otherwise thank you for staying yeah thank you for Thank you for listening to us we hope it was helpful thank you thank you so much for letting
us join absolutely absolutely good luck with the rest of your semester thank you thank you have a good night everybody okay hey good night everyone good night