Minutes of Scheduled Board of Trustees Meeting

April 21, 1999

Call to Order

The regular Meeting of the Library Board of Trustees was called to order at 7:10 p.m. In attendance were Board President Campbell Geeslin and Trustees Toni Cox-Burns, Betsy DeSoye, Janet Elmiger, Hope Furth, P. Lynn Oliva, Oren Teicher, Saul Yanofsky, Library Director Sandra Miranda and Assistant Library Director Charlotte Szabo. Absent with notice was Trustee Don Simmons.

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Library Board of Trustees

The minutes were approved on a motion by Trustee Elmiger, seconded by Trustee DeSoye with one correction requested by Trustee Furth, under Friends, "annual meeting will be held May 23, 1999."

City Detail Listing of Obligations vs. Budget as of 3/31/99

City Detail Listing of Obligations vs. Budget as of 3/31/99 were reviewed by the Board. Library Director Miranda reported that Public Works reported on a few probable causes of the overage/underage with respect to Gas and Electric usage which were corrected.

Bills: 1998/99 Budget, #18 & #19

The payment of bill vouchers #18 and #19 were approved on a motion by Trustee Cox-Burns, seconded by Trustee Elmiger

Report of Library Administration

The Board reviewed written reports, and were pleased with the new format. Trustee Cox-Burns and Trustee Oliva both referred to Mr. Swift’s Monthly Report, and requested further explanation concerning vacancies and indexing respectively. Library Director Miranda stated both issues were critical and would be discussed under New Business. Mrs. Miranda highlighted administrative activities and upcoming events at the Library.

WLS

Trustee Cox-Burns shared materials with the Board from WLS meeting which included a new salary scale, and stated the Book & Author luncheon was again very successful.

Foundation

Trustee Cox-Burns reported the Business Leaders Breakfast held at the Library on April 14, 1999 went very well with a good number of attendees from the business community. Mrs. Cox-Burns also reported that the Foundation kick-off event would be May 16, 1999.

Friends

Mrs. Miranda announced the Friends’ Book Sale will take place on April 24 and 25 and shared a sample of the Friends’ new centennial note cards that would be available for purchase at the Circulation desk at $5.00 a box.

OLD BUSINESS

Proposed City Budget

The Board received copies of the Proposed Budget submitted to the Common Council at its April 5 meeting. Library Director Miranda called the Board’s attention to new Performance Measures added to account for onsite and remote use of online library services.

NEW BUSINESS

Westchester News Index Proposal

On a motion by Trustee DeSoye, seconded by Trustee Teicher, the Board approved use of the Library Gift Fund in the amount of $3,600 per the proposal/quote submitted to create a newspaper index database on the Library’s SIRSI system, if WLS failed to immediately present a viable current and future solution, as promised these past fifteen months.

Personnel

Library Director Miranda reported that due to critical staffing shortage with 7 vacancies, various public services have been discontinued: public computer instruction, outreach services to children grades 7-12, staffing at reference desk, plans for fee-based fax service. Vacancies have caused slowdowns in purchasing, processing, replacement of books, etc. Mrs. Miranda reported the Library is ready with candidates to replace 3 of the 7 positions; these requests will be submitted to Personnel for processing. The Board decided to invite Mayor Delfino to the next Board meeting to discuss this and other issues of importance.

CyberSpot Policy Revision

On a motion by Trustee DeSoye, seconded by Trustee Elmiger, the Board agreed to revise the CyberSpot to prohibit games as well as e-mail and no chat.

Adjournment

There being no more business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

Betsy DeSoye, Secretary

Library Board of Trustees