Of the library board to order, please roll. Call. Councilmember Bowie. Councilmember Jalali. Councilmember Johnson. Come to PRESIDENT Kim. Council, PRESIDENT Maker Councilmember - Yea, here. And Chair Jones here. And we have 3 present. Reaction was council member each allowing can be excused and then Councilmember Johnson will be arriving shortly. The first item that we have on the agenda is the approval of minutes. But we will that item. And we'll be going straight to the staff report. So the first item that we have is staff report. 25 dash 29 leathery safety model update. Thank you. And we have
Rebecca right here to go ahead and start this presentation. So welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Larry Birkhead, Justin Councilmembers. I just want to state upfront that. This is a really complicated topic. There's lots of new ones and we are super happy to meet with you individually or you further information. If there's something in particular each word is interested in. Obviously, there will be time for questions. So talking about library safety our model in our strategy. Update I want to start out by underlining for sizing that the safety of our staff is our highest priority. The public library has a unique role to play in our city our public spaces. When we
think about what that means. We talk about the library is a place it's warm in the winter. It's cool. In the summer we have bathrooms. It's a place for people to be. It's very lower, perhaps no barrier public space that people can come without having to buy anything. Or be a member or any any of the ways that we might create barriers to people being in public together. Where space we provide services. We host meetings. We. Partner very effectively in some instances post space for things that. That need that space and then lastly, where a content provider you can trust for books, materials programs, whether that's online or in our physical spaces that it's a one of the
rules of the library. When we're talking about safety, mostly our community comes to us because they see us as a safe place. And sometimes they come to us for help specifically because of the reasons that I mentioned above. There might be a particular service provider. There MAY be a meeting. It might be a safe place for them to be outside of the colder outside of the the heat for a while. All of these reasons are valid library. Use us. But sometimes they might. Contribute a little bit of friction to our space depending on how people are thinking about the matter public library and how they're expecting it to be you. And they show up there. 24 Rebecca, sorry. Yeah. So just I just want to announce that Councilmember Johnson just arrived.
we just know when to take them for business. No. That's okay. I just want to I just wanted to announce that she's arrive so that it's for the record that choose to that. She's here. Thank So we were open over 32,000 hours and we had 1.2 million in-person visits. I want to emphasize that less than one percent of those visits and did and what we call an incident in our libraries. So overall libraries safe spaces and the vast, vast, vast majority of people that are walking through our doors every day. Coming for one of the purposes that I mentioned above. Tis work has evolved. This is I think a topic that I've noticed the most change an over my almost 17 years of work with the Saint Paul Public Library. And everything that shows up in our communities who shows up in our libraries, including the
challenge our library staff are serving on the front lines and the job that they do involves. So w're asking them to do a lap. And as I said, if your space and a place and people are coming to you for content and they're coming to to feel safe. That's a very complicated public place. That's a very complicated. List of reasons to kind of keep track of him be situationally aware of you know, things recently. I would say the pandemic and post pandemic, perhaps most especially the opioid epidemic and how it's heading our cities with fentanyl in particular. I worked the library and the city partners have done. Terry, Imagine how community first public safety happened in Saint Paul and then some work that the libraries been pursuing even
before the pandemic, things like, what does it mean to be trauma sensitive when you're providing customer service? What does it 2 provide social work services in the library. What does it mean to be bias aware about the strategies that we're using to provide customer service. That Those are key ingredients that were capitalizing on when we're talking about safety. And so I want to underline that we definitely don't do this work alone. You see some of our partners here o n s and familiar faces. Police fire parks that is I think also one of the biggest changes that I've seen in my time as a city employee is the enterprise approach that we're bringing to this conversation about public safety. Stronger than they've ever experienced. And a key way to make. I think the library in our library staff feel like. They're not alone in addressing some of the
challenges that in our city. Some of our past practice that's informing our current practice as definitely or code of conduct with that looks like, a I mentioned incidents and incident reports a practice of noting and documenting what's happening in our spaces across our system when somebody someone's behavior is outside of the boundaries of our code of conduct in the library. Look at our banning guidelines and we determined if if that behavior is eligible for something that we refer to as a banding. So, for example. Somebody is, for example, smoking Fenton on our public restroom and we know who it is. W will then that person from library spaces for 30 days. In terms of how we were addressing behavior,
challenges in our spaces. We've had a mix of contracted security. We've had support from community ambassadors. We have done a ton of training with our staff in some ways we have improved our internal practices and addressing situations and behaviors. But really 2022. That none of those things where enough we had come to the end of the things that we as a library could 200 known to improve safety. So we were granted 1.5 million funds to help us evolve this approach to safety in the republic's basis. So updated every safety plan. It's a key addition to the city's community. First public safety work and we want to create a welcoming and safe city that works for everyone. So we the first thing we did when we started out as we
realized we had, you know, we had kind of taken it for granted, frankly, that our community members Cs as a safe space. We have never asked them what makes them feel safe. Do they feel welcome and safe and comfortable in her library spaces and we contracted with a front called St k Communications and they put together really amazing team to help us evolve this work and approach to help us surveyor community members the people on their team included. People with backgrounds in MARCH, traditional. Security and building management. They included violence interrupters. They included people expertise in restorative justice. Neighborhood safety. And they also included library staff
and community and included some of our city partners as well. Highlights of our community feedback. Emphasize that the library is a safe place. That's where we got that phrase that we've been using. They helped us come up with it. The library is a place to do life that that's what people are coming to do and they're coming to our spaces. So fortunately, majority of our Saint Paul residents feel welcome and safe and comfortable in our libraries and what's an acceptable to us is how safe and welcome and comfortable you feel in our libraries. Unfortunately less for bipoc patrons that are way, Peter. So as you'll see, that's a key portion that we want to continue to address. We're talking about a culture of safety in our buildings. We're going to keep talking about it. It's key performance indicator that will continue
to measure. But the community members, highest priority is for the library to be a welcoming and respectful place. What that looks like to them is sometimes things that I think seems simple and are not like being greeted when you come in the door being able to identify who wins the library. Staff person having a comfortable place to knowing the library's cleaned regularly. These are the things that matter to community members when they're thinking about a welcome and safe space. Safety plan, which - we evolved at the end of 2023 and we've been working on since has 3 pillars not going to death in some of them. Really. We're talking about building a culture of safety that all of her work in the library so welcoming environment. It's snowing library staff there. It's displaying and using community agreements which I like to think of as a friendlier face
of our code of conduct, perhaps it's something we worked community members to inform. If you've been in our libraries, you'll see them. When you walk in the door, you'll see, Steph, I don't wear So fail on my part today, but you'll see our staff wearing ours. Lanyards that we had all staff wear. So it's easier for patrons to be like, oh, that's a staff person. That's a person. I can ask my questions. We want cultivate relationships with neighbors and community. And we want to set a positive tone in our spaces. The second pillar is really about consistently responding to those safety challenge us. So we wanted to make safety rules. Internal staff positions. We wanted to respond to incidents
consistently and fairly. We wanted to document and learn from that response and we want to create cite specific play books that are really dialing and 2 crisis and emergency management and each of our building us. So I'm going invite and I spent much of 2024. Working with hr to develop those new safety can invite up or new library. Safety manager Alex Cra 8 and one of our safety specialist Robert Edwards. The 3rd and Alex is going to tell some of the improvements that we've made in the Specific safety practices at the library. Thank you, Rebecca. This is so exciting signals that been worked on for a long time. So that's a welcome, Alex. And Robert. Thank you for being here.
quarter toast. Will cost under. Thank you. All and introduced by name is out Cori. I am the lever safety manager little bit about myself because I don't think formally spoken at this yet. Has been with the library since MAY. 24. Before that, I was working with Saint Paul Public schools doing similar work in emergency management and crisis support and helping our schools develop safety plans and practice those skills. So excited to help support that In the library spaces. As addition to that, we have budget for, but we also onboarded 5 safety specialist DECEMBER. So we've talking again time. Talk about that later. First, want to talk about couple of things that we've implemented so far. First off, we talked about what was called the safety playbook. This is what is could be considered like the
emergency response guide, the Mercy Action plan. This tends to be the one stop sign at the one-stop source for. The response guide for libraries after specific sites well, while Management administration can give can give guidance on what to do. It doesn't always get that clear instruction on how does this work in my space? So that's where we give this a specific playbooks to give that opportunity to say this is the got. These are the goals that we want to hit these goals. We want to hit when we're responding to a situation. That is the things that we have to consider in our spaces. So that's what the goal of those playbooks are. I would say that they are still living documents. We've made. Countless changes since we since we first implemented them. But that's because we want to be able to be responsive to the realities of
the space. We've also done is implemented some trainings that staff have the opportunity to participate in to enhance their knowledge. The first one written on there is well behavior management. This is this is the this is helping in terms of like de-escalation training. We have escalate situations in our spaces. We'll also prioritizing the personal safety of our staff members while they are. Interacting in those situations. And sometimes the answer is just we're not engaging because we want to stay safe. We also offer first aid and cpr to our staff members so they can respond to those medical emergencies. Specifically for our safety specialists. We have trained and prepared to administer Narcan or naloxone
in our spaces. If tv. As we have identified that that is a continuing and growing problem in our spaces. We want to make sure that we can respond to that. And then that last one on there is what we call the standard response protocol. It's a major port, major area of our safety playbook. It give a little bit more information on that on the slide deck here. The center's spots protocol is a set of universal building wide procedures that we have we have and we are currently working implementing in our library spaces. Which allow us to these fife's universal actions that allow us to respond to a myriad of situations. So for example, we MAY go into a secure, full or something is happening outside
of our building. That key there that we train our staff. If there's something of concern outside secure MAY be the right tool for you. Seoul, the advantages of using this is that we could to use the same language and all of our branches. We have library staff wo are helping out the other branches to either, you know, stay open or they're going over there you know, promote a program or whatnot. So our goal is for a library. Staff is accused here lockdown. If you hear secure, you know what that means. And you know what? The goal are of that action. Additional benefit. Our partners in parks, recreation or working on adapting this as well. And and our students who go to Saint Paul public are very used to this. So when they come to our library spaces, they have the information as well. One of the key areas that the playbook specifically
articulates. How do we successfully achieved a lockdown in that in our spaces or how do we successfully securing our spaces? So playbooks had that answer buildings. And that's what I'm hoping branches develop that thought process. One more thing at it in terms of implementation that we didn't get on. The slides is. Infrastructure that we're working on is the paper monitor's in our in our bathrooms. We've identified a lot of smoking or vaping that wants to I mean, in in our bathrooms. We are. Coming to the end of our pilot over at Rondo in Arlington with providers and our goals which we think we've met, is that we reduce the amount of cases
unnecessary exposure for staff wear? Oh, I think so. It was smoky and they're all let me go take a sniff. That's you don't want to do that bcause that's not what we want our staff to do. This lets us understand that from a safe distance and respond safely as well. Cuncil PRESIDENT Inc, thanks, chair, just Appreciate the update. I remember when we funded the paper monitor's, I believe the plan to. And Clinton all libraries. I thought right away. But is that not the case? Thank you. A couple of the neck I understand we have the funding for it, but we wanted to make sure that we had the role out o it late. But we have and what we've learned when we first started at Rondo was that there is a life. Technical details in the like software suite in how much information is there. And that's almost been a little overwhelming. So we've been trying to filter that down. So more accessible for staff who
need to respond to that? Seoul, once we have that child and we're writing a operational guidance for that and then we can roll that out to the rest of our staff, a little more efficiently with that as many bumps. Doctor Hartman. Thank you. Just to clarify the funding for the pilot locations was in the 2024 budget and now in the 2025 budget, we have the funding to bring them to the remainder of the locations. So be working on that as soon as we can. So we aso want to talk about our safety specialists. And I want to talk very briefly and then pass it off to Robert here but the overall purpose of our library safety specialist says to help support the overall safety
strategy. So those 3 pillars Rebecca talked about, you know, supporting that warm and welcoming environment being in the space is going. Who is in the space Quite frankly, the community knowing that we're space as well. The content, the the safety specialist or helping develop. So the trainings and the In the guidance that we are that we talked about earlier and then. Further along are also looking talk about more of that were sort of more of that restorative justice peace, how we can implement that into some of our work as well. I'm gonna step talking over the past after Robert. A tough little bit more about what his work will take. Fellow council members in board members thank you for listening to in allowing the space to share my experience. My nme is Robert Lee. It was
the 3rd and before coming to library on my head, Tanya criminal justice degree in 2019 because I wanted to help those unserved that other population that often gets. And looked an underserved like myself growing up. And so I first started as a substitute teacher have a substitute teaching license in Minnesota and Wisconsin do my journey there. I found myself wanting to the little bit more criminal justice involved. So this last summer for started with the library was working at childcare center in the line. Do community. And there I was. The school leader ad i had brought my own restorative justice program. Well, wanted to teach the youth about Rondo history while restorative justice to manage their behavior as well. Giving them
time like a different type of learning from from planets to neighborhood community stuff to just Rondo and everything in between. And so I found ourselves at the library and the library. This is my first time post-pandemic experiencing the library and the environment definitely seemed a little different when we first came in the typical Liberian used to just seeing families or people studying or people hanging out. But there's kind of different clientele that I noticed a little bit. It made me question my safety little bit. But in the environment Rondo did a great job of having separate spaces and everything. And so the library was a safe space for me and my kids. You the library every day. And we did learning we
did the library provided us with. And that area was coloring sheets. I feel like a bother them too much because every day I came, I needed something different. Is I hate you again. Can I borrow this? Can I have that? But they were open armed. They're welcoming and it was a safe space for used to hang out for me to teach them in an environment outside of our day care. They showed them a little bit something different. So it's a pleasure to be at the library every day. Fast forward a little I see no library safety specialist position come about online. Wasn't sure what would have meant and what it was. But I was interested in it with my criminal justice backgrounds after interviewing him, figuring out what I would
have to do, I was more than excited to bring safety and customer service together to deliver an experience to the community that they have not had before. When I first stepped in, I was not sure what the job look like. But you better believe that MISTER Allison, the library folks MAY sure we had all the training that we need. Let me tell you, when I say always earning I mean, from how to check out a book to well training, too. Just the how to find the back ends of this and that trust you. There is a training I after being no offense to anybody. Aout 2 weeks, I was ready to get to work. And I was very excited. My one question was that how can I start my day every day or what does this look like or how do I do my job the right way? 2, I believe it this
morning. She just said. Just greeting people ad saying good morning, just a good way to get us started. So I work the and on Mondays. And then I work George Wladimir throughout the rest of the week. And I started my by sitting at the welcome desk and every person that comes to the door, I greet Hello, good morning. How are you? Hello. Good morning. How are you? Most of the people reply back with a hello and a good morning. Some people don't I don't get offended. I just try to keep it moving. And I found value in that because as I found myself navigating the library space in actually doing the job and approach uncomfortable situations or situations, I was not sure about my customer service in my grace in the way that I saw people as humans let every interaction and so. First lke this year when Dave just
freshly there is gentleman who the library was welcomed by an isis. Steph Curry. Well, look for That means I just kind of look again okc. Fresh Prince freshman gonna come. He's like, yeah. First principle over. He's like, listen, man. You do. What cable said. He's like, I just want tell and that about show and what wish you and I'm like. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm like, you know, I'm Robert. This is what I do. So what my job like super cool minister talking and not a problem. Just pushing those kind of odd encounter. But I was worried I was here to greet people overlay the next time I seen the guy. He says his prints come over quick, I got any So I've gone over. I say, hey, listen, I you said you shouldn't lady over there. He's opened something And what it is, but she's
healthy over their Nestor. And I'm like. came in. So I go over to the printer like a meme. How are you needing issues actually, I do. Trying to figure out how to print this and do that. And like, ok, so. Again, I have plenty of training. I do find a library book. I know how to look up so much. I got you covered. This is easy. So okay to drop the money in the premier click this button. That magic. So I found myself magically navigating the system. Pretty I go back over to morph runaway. you know, she you him and, you know, sometimes you just put stuff together in or so. I was just like. Yeah, you're right Cool see So my final encounter with this gentleman was recently in year to set a again. Fresh prince going over here. Real quick. And he's like what would you say about a person
or to a person who's never pay bills who's never had a housings never graduate from school and never tried. He was like you probably would, you know, say they're a little and I was like, wait a minute. I was like, wow, I would say to a person like that. It sounds like you never had an opportunity to take advantage of renting a house. You're going to school or paying bills. But it seems like if you had the chance to do so you would do it. So I wouldn't I would encourage you to look into it if it's something you want. And he was like, he's kind of look that, you know, it's like, yeah, man, like you got He wasn't expecting that in no reply, but it was get ready to get housing in. I'm excited about and I can't wait, know, just site, dude. That's also Mike. I'm excited for isis. Like if you don't see me around anymore, just
know that I'm safe now as not a problem in. So I've seen them last week and approached him and I'm like, hey, how's your house and going like, how's everything? And he was like houses. One good. I got to interview I'm so excited. I was like, man, I'm proud of you. If you need to advocate anybody, let me know. He was very grateful. And they Jimenez, just somebody really stuck out to me and made me feel proud to and there's other times when I am any crisis or in situations where up to so things. One thing is important as my body language. So everybody approach approached them calmly. And we work things him. Why started to notice compliments for my coworkers about my ability to do my job in such a and I appreciated, you know, those compliments it's really just about your energy and how
you present there is. There was a gentleman who banned from the library. He wanted to come back and we had to I had to re asking to leave. But while asking him to leave, he was cnvinced that I was that he was like first, we'll use him tonight. He's like he's not wrong guy. Wrong. But I knew it was him. And so instead of like being aggressive or pushing, I was like a. Is actually is use the right person and this is what's going to happen. Walking him through the process of how we can come back or what it would look like. He was like he stopped me is like no, this isn't real likewise. And he's like, because you're you're you're convincing me you're doing such a good job of being so nice that. This can't be real. And I was like, no, it actually is real. And I don't have to be mean and aggressive for you to
kind of see that. It's really just kind of is what it is. And this is how I'm going to handle it because that's why him immediately they do because he was just so thrown off. And here we were just having a stare down and I'm like a yeah. It is what it is. And, you know, that's the starting to move in as he left. Just was like a man. You know, I can tell that you are not kind of a guy that I was going to be pushing or China. So you slide, you know, thanks for being cool. And reassured him not a problem. If you like to come back here is a process. You can appeal this. You can have a conversation and we can move forward. And one of the last Tories I would like to share is it's not always easy at the library whenever we're dealing with these patrons and individuals not willingly going these conversations on getting though, caught Ames.
And recently I was spat on Monday at work. But that didn't deter me from the work. I didn't act out the situation that happened. Everything went through I saw moved on from it. I don't have bad days with this position because every day's a new day to serve in some days. When are we approach people, they don't even remember the last time. So something it's even more important for my energy to be point. So. Within that, though, I still do find joy for the job because just 3 days ago when I was working and what I often like to do is go through you services. And if there's a group of kids just hanging out, I like the city reading books. So I was sitting in new services and walking through and has seen a
group special Ed youth that were there from the city of Saint Paul asked if I can read them a book. And it it brings such joy to my heart to be able to do so many different things at the library and reading books to the youth and just interacting with them is one thing that really brings joy to my heart I find myself reading this book and there's a young lady sitting next to the issues like repeating the words and she's really excited in. It truly is a blessing. And so for me, I show up to the library every day, ready to serve, not knowing what will happen but know that if my presence is there in my energies, right and our focus on being light, that any good thing as possible. So I've been with the library since the middle of DECEMBER. And like I said, had a bad day. I
love going to work ery day. Every day's a new day in every day's opportunity to juice again, way so thank you all for listening. I appreciated and thank you. So than an accident follow-up, the end of So I think you can hear from what rapper to saying that research practices are sort of next pillar that we really need to implement in 2025. When sometimes when we ban people, it's because we have no other tools in our tool box. And so we're hoping that leaning into restorative practices like Chad's in circles, can be a way that we can rethink some of our vetting process and rethink some of those kind of lower-level behavior disturbances in the library. I my best example of this is that you feel is program and the city attorney's office
where they have. Really, I think figured out what are the situations that responds really well to restart of practices and you know, I think there are things like dog bites and noise complaints frankly, a lot of the things that I happening in our space. It's not a big thing that it's not a crime. For example, for for the crimes. We called the police Department. But for something that's crossing boundaries, we need to have other ways then banning to address especially if you're coming to the library to do your life. It's pretty had. If you get banned period of tme, that could be 30, 60, 9180 days. And last but not least continue. Going to think about as a trauma, sensitive
organization as you know, we're exposing our staff to trauma through their jobs and so it's our responsibility as employers to think about what are the tools to address that Robert has figured it out, it not great to hear about Seth getting spat on and things like that. But so those are the things that we're looking into right now. We have a staff will be in committee that exploring what are the actions that are going help staff addressed some of those challenges that they can face? Do want talk about how we want to measure the success of this work. So this is a lot of information. You know, when you do a big plan and a strategy to really get to love. Coming up with that key performance indicators. But I think these are just indicators that we can just imagine how successful they
were doing our work. This first when you'll see is the equity inclusion and anti-racism one when we re survey, our patrons are planning to safety survey an annual basis. We hope that that the inclusion of different things that people have told us they wanted a welcoming safe environment, safety specialist staff. They can pick out help by Pat. I packed hatred report feeling welcome and safe and comfortable at a rate that's more equal to library patrons overall. I go too far into all of there in the power plant. But I do want to point out We are super hopeful about our safety specialist model are incidents and some of our locations have fallen and are banning Stephen as well, which frankly, I didn't expect to
see as soon as as soon as we've been seeing it. So our work for 2025 Israeli that full implementation of that safety strategy and model add to our existing team of safety specialist launch or a sort of practice as and finish that playbook process with all locations. We're going to continue to partner with others in the city's community. First public safety gull. We're going continue to evaluate our model together that qualitative and quantitative data and identify sustainable funding source for it. And We have identified an architectural partner and we're developing a timeline for some staff and community engagement for welcoming and
safe Rondo Project, which as you recall, some funding to potentially move the bathrooms and make some space changes at the Reagan Library to contribute to. Sept head. I can never remember what it stands for other until safety. We are really happy to take questions. And Councilmember Johnson were happy to provide any kind of work specific to die. Said this to the other council members before you great. Come to an acre. Thanks couple questions for. Thank you so much for the presentation. Robert, it's especially great to meet you. I feel like we. Often don't get to hear from people who are working directly on the front lines. And it's really great to hear your experience and thank you for everything you're doing. I am glad t talk about how
measuring success. Because I was gonna be one of my questions. And and curious what you're hearing directly from from frontline staff. How are they feeling about safety? How are they seeing these measures playing out? We don't have safety specialist in all of our buildings that in their buildings with safety specialists and staff are already telling Alex and me and the safety specialist themselves how much they appreciate the work. How much it is. Contributing to that welcoming culture of safety, quite frankly and some of our buildings. We need folks whose only job is to contribute to. pay attention, to interrupt the haters before they get out of control. 2. Keep that constant situational awareness
that sometimes the rest of our staff are they have other And I think that is part of the reason that the model is succeeding so far. I also think with the advent of Alex's regular trainings in in the behavior management, the incident management. First aid and cpr. It can be a struggle to implement those trainings and the regular enough basis to help staff. Remember how to do it, quite frankly. And they think. That's been key piece of what we've been able to do with expanded capacity on our team to bring things that we as library staff don't have expertise and that's where thanks Justin asserted the follow-up question. I'm curious. I know you talked about serving patrons to see how they feel in the library's. That's one
of the metrics. But I'm wondering, serving staff. He's also want that's definitely part our key performance indicators as serving staff and particularly how they feel about their role clarity. What what is their job? What isn't their job? Where do we lean on community safety measures, for example, where do we look to safety specialist positions that center and how their whether they're feeling safe? Yes, well, you can. And then finally chair, thank you. I'm just curious. I know we've talked about. Staffing in libraries in our budget tax many times. And the fact that staffing itself is one of those. Letters, for example, we don't have LeBron safety specialist because we're not going to have those across the board just having enough. Bodies on hand to deal with situation when it comes up is key how are we doing in terms
of staffing and how are we tracking how often libraries have had to close earlier open late or closed due to lack of staffing? Yes, we are tracking We had a strange confluence of factors in 2024. That led to really high vacancy rate in the library system. And we have largely retired those positions. And we will be close. I raise this morning due weather. I believe we've closed library once this year due to staffing situations, as you know most. And that's mostly because it think all of us with children know that this has been really hard winter for illness. Staffing situation has improved with our new hires call Alex's work for helping us bring those new hires like immediately on board tower addressing topics and safety and case
management. summary. Thanks, Chair I just wanted to say overall, I enjoyed every part of the presentation and I I just really appreciate you all coming back and sharing with us the results of the survey. And and really it sounds like it's at the beginning of an evaluation phase, which and the council here beef always been wanting to see more departments come back and discuss that part of their workout was publication happens and after and so I really appreciate offer that I also enjoyed hearing the real-life work experience is being on the ground. And so I want to say thank you to you both and proper you to have done incredible job being a story teller and hope you continue doing what you do for a very long time. I want to commend all of you on that,
you know, from our library staff to the partners that you have in the room here for your work because what I for the grounded in this moment is that it takes so much compassion, shown so much patients and so much love for community to be doing the work that you all are doing, especially when you are facing violence that you are facing the situations that are really hostile and to be able to bounce back continue to do this work from a place of joy. It takes a lot do that. And so I I have utmost respect for each and every one of you. I'm really glad that you spoke about successes and how we measure that because that is something really interested in. One thing I wanted to hone in on is really the is that overall I it seems like there
were huge takeaways from the survey that consultant, Ed, is that right? The consultant that tat I would like to asked for all of you really to take more into believe that peace around safety, but that that our bipoc patrons are experiencing lake for me representing. Ward 6 in the east side where it is a very diverse community and where we're having he didn't heights be renovated like I I believe that even physical changes to libraries is a way that folks can feel safer. And on top of that, there's so much more that can happen within that 2 that we can do. And so some of the things that I've been hearing a lot about how we can get more staff are speaking different languages and the
library's, how we can make sure that Stafford reflect about the diversity in the communities even like the materials that we have I know that we've had a big boost in bringing in more books that are in different languages. And that is huge. Love to continue to see more of that. And so those are things that I hearing from people. They really loved. It would like to see more of. But I also think that there's so much more input for us to be getting from our communities about this. And I know that the you you did it are ready. And I I hope that we will and do it many more times down the I I would say even do do ya at of the year. Really take gauge it. That would like but differences. You see it like that is even how you how you can measure success to. And so that's something that would encourage and us all to
consider doing. And I would be really supportive of making sure that the continue funding things like that so that we can actually have the resources to make those surveys and Justin Ways of engagement happened in our library department. I was wondering. Overall, if you have any anything you'd like to share are able to share in terms of of like safety that patients are experiencing. Like, what are some of the things that you have heard on the grounds that you would like to share with us that way. We can start thinking about postings, especially as we start talking about the budget season for next year in which I I do want to say this council cares so deeply about seeking libraries and and that's why we very
hard to make sure that we did putting more funding for safety and libraries, including the support money as well. Thank you. Councilmember Yang. That is I think you hit. What part of what makes it so complicated is that all of the things that we do add up to a safe place for community and we can I see them that is what a committed to us to keep surveying and keep asking some of the things that I called out as ways that patron said made them feel welcome and safe and comfortable. We're things that patrons emphasize, for example, that it's a respect library, but they know that the bathrooms are cleaned regularly. There were some things that were. More important to our bipoc patients that are way patrons, I believe actually being able
to identify library staff and especially who's safety specialist, which we're still working on is one of those pieces. So thank you. And share your commitment to. Continuing to study and do better this area. Something so much. And just one last have I I was wondering, like, are we at are we moving around the lbrary safety specialists that I know you had few libraries on the slight there where they are deployed right now. But if, for example, there was a situation where escalation happened at a different library like that. How would a situation like that be addressed or if we aren't moving the library specialists specialists around tan what are the ways in which you do address that moment on the spot at that library.
Thank you. The we're trained wr safety specialist as a system-wide resourced. And the reality some of our branches need that resource more than We one of the reasons we want to hire a full complement of 6 is that we can have flexibility to continue to address what I would call Councilmember Johnson's really familiar. We had the best move in front Sunday and had immediate increase in incidents I the Should we have a situation like that? Again, that totally a taste that you would deploy. One of our safety specialist that's really good to Thank you again. Thanks, everybody. For all your hard work. Schools were Jones. Thank
you so, yeah, I also really enjoyed just I always enjoy hearing about different stories and the different counters from our wonderful staff members Robert. Thank you giving me a few things to go about a little then also just being able to hear just how you are able to engage with community members. And so I think one of the things I take from your yur definitely their position today is really around. It's important to have PRESIDENT Individuals and committee members who have a trust that with you. So when they do need to ask the question when they do need to, you know, for recommendation or for resource that folks are there. So really do appreciate that. It was like multiple encounters with this gentleman for he asked for something for himself and that means a you
know, the broader sheme of things, because I know that there are a lot of like, repeat. Committee members and visit our libraries and come back for resources and sometimes they MAY not mean anything other times they might want to tell you someone else thinks something. Maybe one day they're going to ask you for assistance and help to so appreciated. Hearing that I am wondering more so for the couple things. First, I believe they're still floating safety specialists. And so when you're just seeing those like floating, like I how are you tracking that knowing that there's a lot of I'm assuming that there is. Safety specialist that floating around to different public libraries and some just wondering what that looks like from metrics and point how are you tracking that success? But
then also, I think just from a the futuristic wins, it'll be helpful to know for those that are not currently having a safety specialist on site. Maybe they haven't actually had a floater or if they. Didn't get assigned one as But what are the metrics that you're looking for to determine whether they MAY be a potential candidate in the future? My cousin it only if they have a certain amount of increase incidents. Is it? We're looking at surrounding areas, crime rates and surrounding areas like what kind what kind of partnerships, I guess or information are you getting from some of the people that you're working with a witness or just in general how to determine cause. Just just curious. Thank yu. Councilmember
The real truth is we're going to lean into it. How we're going to determine that. I think alright, easiest metric is the magic of incidents and that are happening and they rising in a way that we really can't explain and then we'll reach out partners and police and one s. You know, sometimes like. Every day, I'm surprised. Having worked it for the university and a London having another piece of the puzzle come into play about some of the challenges that we just experienced as a city on that corner. And Robert was like, yeah, the plasma center people are coming because they need money and it's like, yeah. Seoul, we don't have. And flooding safety specialist yet hopefully going to hire that person Part of
country and process is I think helped us identify our 6 candidate. You're really clear what the job was. And that is not what they were interested in. I think yes, at this point, I would say incidents because it does tend to be at a measure of. Shankly. Sometimes I think it's early warning system. What we see in the library's, we tend to see maybe before some major partners and other organizations are aware of it because we on the front lines. So if we see a rise in incidents and the ivory, it's likely that something is happening in the community and I look forward to evolving this work and figuring out like where the data sources we should be paying attention to. What are the metrics? Yeah. And incidents in our buildings
that we might look at 2 determined very safety specialist. It's customary. turtles, I have a question and was wondering if you can talk a bit about how you all are tracking. The incidents like different types of incidents that are occurring our libraries. I think that that would be. Very important, informative. Like, for example, how many in a year like how many incidents are drug related, would be good to know that way. We can also think about strategize whom or to Poland to address what like. These the types incidents, Bates, based like, you know what category it is an and so on. Yes, thank you. Councilmember have something we call an incident tractor and it's it's a tracker, rebuilt and Ad We can share for specific examples with individually, perhaps a few them, yet I I'm interested in seeing like annual.
report on that. If if that's me, you able to share. And think that starting off maybe was like the one on one presentation. First would be a good we will reach out to schedule something. Thank Rebecca and Alex never do want to thank you all for coming. Just a Robert. I really appreciate your story and stories that made me think of when I visited, visited George Latimer yesterday and I was greeted o multiple occasions as the entry each room welcoming when I left. They said thank you and I am ready to do something. Actually that director Hartman our meetings. But princess meeting with said yesterday. But you don't you know, you can just stop at the library, wants to get a sense of what it's like to be there. You really have to be there for for the whole day or multiple days. And your stories, I think, really captured that if you are repeated encounter
with the same person and what it's really like to work with the library's in 2 experience, the people that that this is them. So thank you so much. And also want to recognize there are a lot of folks in here that are part of our overall library safeties there, folks from on ppd familiar faces, emergency management and parks. And so thank you to all of you for being there today. And with that will go on to. That's what's going that would We back you. So we have minutes a for FEBRUARY 5th, 20 us. All right. So I'll take a motion from concerning to approve this item. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye posts. Minutes are. The last item on the agenda is a staff report. Staff
report. 25 Dash 3, 0, upcoming leathery events. So we have Stacy in a few others with a snow college is that we're really close to end of our time. But this is still just such an exciting topic. And I'm excited to hear from you. Thank you. Library tear Dallas Metro board members. We're here to share briefly about 3 brave. And I'll just kick us off with quick reminder of what it before handing over to my colleagues here. So read Brave is our city by the club. We do it once a year. We partner with Mayor Carter. We purchased about 5,000 books and we distribute them to community ever in our 12th year. Every brave it started as a program for teens in that very much remains the driving force of what you have is a young adult book get those in the hands of school kids over 3,000 books with kids and Schools in Saint Paul this year. The rest are
being distributed via our libraries community members. So anybody can step in and grab a book from one of our libraries and then we'll host a number of face programs. And there's an online tool kit as well for readers of clubs, educators, cetera, to guide them through this book and the brave conversations that we are inviting people to Haftar this read, give it to Marlene not to talk about the book and then quickly got attacked programs. Thank you. Good afternoon. Live report chair and council members. My name is Marlene. Okay to going to try to go through this really qickly. I do wish we had more time because this is such an amazing book. I won't be able to do it. Justice in like a minute. But the title that you have is a cada which the authors Nettie of core for.
She's a Nigerian American author widely sought after in libraries and schools. And so we're really excited to hst are here at the end of the month. So as a state alluded to, it's a young adult fantasy novel. It's set in Africa, which is one of the things that makes it a brave title on the genre is African Futurism, which is distinct from Afro Futurism. And I want to talk about that a little bit more, but I won't. But again, that's one of the things that makes the title brave is that it is written from an African center and it centers African spirituality, African mythology, magic and then some of the other things that like make applicable to the human experience. So te other thing I want to really point out really quickly is the title itself. A cada is a derogatory
term. It is a reserved solely for black Americans in it basically means that they're outsiders, that they've lost their history longer they're no longer connected to that African history is so it's unintentional title. That's one of things that makes it really brave. And the plot is around for schoolchildren. Sunny, who is she born in the U.S. To Nigerian parents. They moved back to Nigeria. They she finds out she magical powers and she's part of elite sort secret society of folks who have powers lot of time to get rougher. It gets referred to as an African Harry Potter but never herself pushes back on that because it has an African sitters in there because I'm of time and I wish I could tell you more about this amazing title, but I see you all have copies and I hope you do get a chance to read. And again, thank you for your time this afternoon. Us.
Hello, my name is going It's an honor speak you in front of Chair and council members. I wanted to specially talk about the programming was at the heart of reprieve. Programming we believe that stories have the power to connect us to new ideas to each other, to our own identities. And every year we create programming. That brings brings the themes of our own repay book off those pages ad into real life experiences and using these teams. We invite readers to explore it. Teams and come together and share their experiences. Important aspect of rebate that happens in spaces that are always seen as inside the classrooms. So from MARCH, 25th to the 26 author, core 4 will be visiting 5 Paul Public Schools Central,
central high school Harding, High School Johnson High School school been world bring community as well as Como Park. Senior hgh school. These visits goal simply beyond just meeting the author. They ensure that books are placed directly into the hands of students and that it sparks excitement in reading and create opportunities for young people to engage in the themes that they find in the books that are important for them. We also have community based events as well beyond the classroom. We the African art of healing that kicks off our community events. And this is in partnership with the Ocean Center for Intercultural Healing. And I an organization that dedicates to the uplifting of African and African diaspora at I asked
for Rick cultural practices, particularly in healing so matter practices and art expression, artistic expression, we have another event, rebate talk brain, which I again. Aligns with the center of reprieve, which is that stories bring people together. On MARCH. 26 read Brave talk. Grateful be just doing that. Bring new panelists into the conversation with a kind of which author native for floor and with Mayor Carter moderating. This is a space where young voices will be uplifted and we're intergenerational dialogue will take place where we listen. Learn and reflect on the the book shake us on as the community. We'll also again this morning, just discussion. It's also an experience. We will also have
cut. She 9 artists, too perform. And then we also will be showcasing artwork created by Twin Cities. Artis Leon Rose Jackson and the Little dog whose work response to the themes of a cada which lstly, we also rebates right time with Mayor Carter and this. Invited readers to explore what it means. Reclaim power 2. To to come to force ad at the sories that shape us inspire us and connect us can start at the library that literacy ad community engagement go hand in hand and to our libraries are paces where those connections can dig in and rll. So also the only every year we do every year. It's not just about reading a book, right? It's about conversations, connections and experiences that come from it. Whether it's a service the first book person speaking on stage next to the mayor or a child.
Listening to a story. These moments have lasting impact and through we make the library a space where stories don't just live on the page. They live in our voices in our communities and the ways we come together to learn from each other. So this little bit about free trade. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to see see him early and go for sharing that I'm really looking forward to to this year's. Re brave and I attended some of the events last year. So I'm looking forward to doing that again. And hopefully all of you will join since we are already kind of running up into our time for each area, have to a fun and questions but will reach out if we if we do have any. And so with nothing else to come