Hooksett Public Library

Board of Trustees

August 9, 2005 9:00AM

Minutes

Present: Mary Farwell, Chairperson; Lisa Gillis, Treasurer; Mary Leger, Secretary; Heather Shumway, Director.

Secretary's Report: Minutes from the July 22, 2005 meeting were approved and filed.

Treasurer's Report: No report at this time.

Director's Report: Attached

Unfinished Business:

• HVAC
  • HS reported that balancing between rooms still needs to be done. When the new controller issue is settled, we will schedule a walk through.
• Donations for 2005 RSA
  • Voted to always have an agenda item entitled 'Donations' in case donations are received during the month.
• Rehire List at Town Hall
  • A list is kept at Town Hall for Do Not Hire purposes.
• Shelving Options
  • NH State Library Rep Sue Palmatier found that the Library is not legally held to policy to receive more than one bid for shelving. As vendors for this type of shelving are very hard to find, trustees agreed to have HS place order under current bid.
• Payroll Issues
  • New contract for payroll will be in today's packet.
  • Reserve for unused vacation time set aside. Numbers will be agreed upon between MF and HS and will get settled as soon as possible.
• Meeting Room Policy
  • HS will put together and have ready a notice to those who use meeting rooms regarding disruptions. Included will be first a verbal warning, second a written warning, then a one month suspension from meeting room use.
• Electrical Fire
  • HS will have a detailed bill written by an electrician per order of the Fire Dept. HS will obtain a detailed bill by electrical contractor, Gimas, Electrical, and submit the bill along with a detailed written explanation of the fire and subsequent actions, to Diane Savoie, to be submitted to the town's insurance carrier.
• Letter to Michael Perra
  • MF will send a thank you letter for his desk bid, but we are unable to accept due to a lower, qualified bid.

New Business:

• Payroll Issues
  • Voted to put an extra $10,000 in bank account to cover payroll and taxes in case of an emergency.
• Sunday Hours
  • LG has been approached by several people who would like to see the Library offer Sunday hours. Trustees expressed budgetary and staffing concerns. HS would like to work toward that but would first prefer to offer Saturday AM hours during the summer of 2006. To be discussed further during budget preparation sessions.
• Boundary Walk Through and Examination of Easements
  • Meeting scheduled for 8/9/05 at 1:30PM. Participants include Peter Holden, Mike Sorel, Amy Alexander, Dave Jodoin, Heather Shumway, Mary Farwell, Lisa Gillis, Mary Leger.
• Fire Inspection
  • MF would like written documentation when annual Fire Inspection takes place. Documentation to include status of each fire extinguisher, noted by location. HS will check with the fire department to see if they can conduct our annual inspections, rather than having to pay an outside vendor.
• Letter From Charles Watson
  • The town wishes to know if there will be a negative impact on services due to population growth. The library response is that there will be little negative impact, on capital items, due to the size of the building. There will definitely be operational impacts due to the projected increased circulation based on population growth
• Volunteers
  • HS will develop a policy including a timetable of service. PTA folder flyers for early September will be worked on to get donations for October Book Sale. HS wants to do some checking before we advertise. Will discuss at next staff meeting if advertising within the Library may be enough. Inserts in PTA folders will be used to inform residents of opportunity to purchase books for their children at the Book Sale. To be discussed at the next Trustee meeting is who will write PTA flyer and timing needed to get to the SAU office
• Summer Reading Program
  • LG informed Board about a Summer Reading Program in Maine in which her children participated. This program required a commitment for stricter involvement from the children, holding them accountable by signing a contract, for example, to read a certain number of books, and possibly receiving a used book if their commitment is met. HS will give VD materials collected by LG.
  • HS would like Trustees to attend the Campfire being held August 16th at 6PM.
• Magazine Rack
  • HS knows of a company that will solicit local businesses for magazine subscription donations to the library. The local businesses would in return have their stickers with their name on them on the cover of the magazines.
• GMILCS
  • HS reports that a formula proposal has been provided. This will be part of our 06-07 budget.
• Policy For Staff Payment When Library Needs To Be Closed
  • In the future, alternatives and options, such as a safety meeting, or a staff meeting could be held in another part of the Library, when certain rooms are closed for use.
• Pets Prohibited
  • The Trustees agreed, for liability reasons, that no animals, other than service animals, should be allowed in the library.
• Wal-Mart Grant
  • MF asked that the Wal-Mart grant be written and prepared for submission as soon as possible as Wal-Mart receives many request in the fall.
• Tabled until a later date:
  • CIP-Phase II HVAC

Items we are tracking:

• Replacement possibilities for Library Trustee Lisa Gillis
• John Queenan's WWII Plaque Publicity in Banner
• News letter for Town Council
• Full time equivalents
• Target Grant
• Fines going back into book purchases
• Estimate to replace meeting room rug
• Updating Library sign with current hours
• Insurance for library contents

Next Trustees Meeting: Thursday Sept. 8th, 10:45 am

Circulation:

Circulation numbers are slightly up, as compared to 2004. It is recognized that July of 2004 was the first month of the Thursday closings, although the staff feels positive that this is a swing in the right direction. The staff has noted a good deal of browsing and checkouts resulting from the various book displays of new materials.

Lee Ann Chase noted at a recent staff meeting that "many borrowers have expressed positive feedback involving their suggestions for new books, since their suggestions have been fulfilled. A big 'thank you' to Heather for having accommodated the suggestions in the purchase of the suggested items." These suggestions have been generated from a new suggestion box on the circulation desk which has received a strong number of book requests.

Children's Department:

Summer Reading Program is going strong! Vickie had a crowd of 75 people participate in an evening star gazing at Donati Field, a great event for families, regardless of the biting insects that plagued them.

An article was published in the Hooksett Banner interviewing Miss Vickie about the summer reading program.

August 14th has been declared Library Day at the Fischer Cats stadium. Participants of the summer reading program have received ticket vouchers for themselves and their families to attend this great event. Several of the library staff members and their families will also attend and participate in the festivities. The Hooksett Public Library is very appreciative of this generous donation by the Fischer Cats to the State of New Hampshire Summer Reading Program. In addition, Fungo, the mascot of the Fischer Cats visited the library and his trainer read H is for Homerun to the group of children attending.

August 16, there will be a Campfire Celebration to end the Summer Reading Program from 6:00-8:00. There will be two storytellers and a drummer to liven the festivities and s'mores cooked on the campfire!

Events:

The library book sale will be held on October 15th. The date was changed so as not to conflict with Hooksett Old Home Day.

Building Maintenance:

The trouble with the HVAC controller not holding the correct time appears to be an error in the system that was ordered and put into place. Additional parts have been ordered and will be installed in the next few weeks to enable the controller to hold time of day and the on-off schedule.

Peter Lennon, a fire code building inspector from the Hooksett Fire Department conducted an inspection of the library on August 1. The items of concern for Firefighter Lennon were a number of emergency lights which need to be repaired to working order, upkeep of existing fire extinguishers and the clearance of materials in particular areas of the library which are near electrical boxes or large building appliances. The fire extinguishers had been maintained by Concord Fire and appeared to be an oversight in communication with the library of which extinguishers need to be replaced. The Director will work to update the specifications as noted in the report and a re-inspection will occur in 30 days time.

After participating in a fire extinguisher safety demonstration at Hooksett Kiwanis, the Director will be arranging to have the Hooksett Fire Department conduct a similar demonstration with the HPL & GMILCS staff at the library in the near future. In addition, procedures for evacuating the library in the event of a fire will be discussed with the Fire Department and an emergency procedure manual will be created.

Staff News

Weekly staff meetings are continuing to be a great success! The staff is finding the ease of communication to be a significant asset to the smooth running of the library. It has been a surprise how much there is to share and discuss each week and the two hours allotted routinely fly-by.

Heather Shumway received a letter of appreciation and commendation from the NH Library Trustees Assn. for her presentation on the NHLA Pay Equity toolkit at the recent NHLTA conference. Of particular note in the letter was the following passage:

"We are delighted to tell you that the evaluation forms noted particular reference to the Pay Equity sessions. Your cogent remarks and conversant delivery impressed our attendees".

Friends of the Library

The Friends group recently held a meeting to discuss the future of the organization. A clear emphasis was the role of the Friends organization and future recruiting and retention of new members. Lee Ann Chase, who is a member of the Friends and Director Edie Cummings of Griffin Memorial Library in Auburn will attend the next meeting to share ideas with the group on their successes. Kathy Scott, a new member to the Friends agreed to update the Friends brochure to reflect recent changes. It is the hope that each of the Friends Committee members who were in attendance will recruit at least one person and bring them to the next meeting. Director Heather Shumway has several people in mind to approach and will be doing so over the next month. It is the feeling of the director that the Friends Group has a great future ahead, we just need more participants and to clarify our focus. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend future meetings.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Heather Shumway

August 9, 2005