Chambana Sun

The city of Champaign Public Library Board of Trustees met Sept. 21 to plan for IT needs.

Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the board:

Agenda Item #4 (a) Library Board of Trustees Minutes of Meeting 3rd Floor Conference Room, Main Library September 21, 2016

1. The meeting was called to order at 5:32 p.m. by President Wolske.

2. Members Present: Deb Busey, Trisha Crowley, Michael La Due, Charles Lansford, Minnie Pearson, and Martin Wolske

Members Absent: Ballard, Blakeman, and Thomas

Library Staff Present: Donna Pittman, Amy Al-Shabibi, Jill Bouvet, Brent Colclasure, Debbie Keith, Kristina Hoerner, and Michael Rogalla

Visitors Present: Richard Kong, Skokie Public Library Director via Skype and Natalie Frankenberg, League of Women Voters

3. Approve the Agenda:

• MOTION by Lansford to approve the agenda as presented; seconded by Pearson. All: Aye.

4. Approve the Minutes:

a. Regular Meeting Minutes, August 17, 2016

• MOTION by Busey to approve the minutes as presented; seconded by Lansford. All: Aye.

5. Strategic Planning: Skokie Public Library Experience:

• Richard Kong, Skokie Public Library Director, talked via Skype about the strategic planning process they completed in 2016. It was as handled in-house with a core committee made up of 12-14 people which included two board members. There were six subcommittees made up of staff. The core committee met once per month during the process which was mostly for information gathering from community members about local and national demographics along with facilitating conversations within the library about what they were seeing, where they were headed, and what was important to the community. At the end, they compiled the data and a draft was presented to their Library Board for final approval. Kong invited everyone to view their plan on their website at https://skokielibrary.info/about/strategic-plan/.

6. Director’s Report:

• Pittman reported that things are going well with the Café and offered samples along with a coupon for a future purchase. The daily business has doubled and we are hearing many compliments with the new products and coffee with the improved customer service.

• Pittman announced famous best-selling authors will be here including Elizabeth Berg on December 4, David Sheff on January 23, and Terry McMillan on May 4. Award winning children’s authors Eugene Yelchin will be here on October 21 and Peter McCarty will be here on April 12. We are very excited about these programs. Kudos to Esther Yi, Douglass Branch, who was able to secure the visit with Terry McMillan.

• The Tuesdays at Ten series started again featuring local innovators talking about the things they are working on.

• Pittman noted the meeting rooms compared from last year on July 1 to this year on July 1, there were 128 meetings for 83 groups. The same time period this year was 273 meetings and 145 groups which has doubled in the short time we have offered rooms at no cost. People are very thankful we have removed fees for non-profit groups.

• Pittman reported summer reading has concluded with over 4,100 kids and teens reading 4.8 million minutes. Staff has been out in the community for library card sign ups at Quad Day, Edison, International Prep School, CU Days and others.

a. Technology Update by Amy Al-Shabibi:

• Al-Shabibi gave an overview of what the IT department is responsible for and the planning that takes place for short and long-term needs. Upcoming services/projects will allow people to pay at printer stations by credit card; the new website has been a large project and will launch soon; Polaris servers are due for replacement; meeting room software refresh; checkout software updates; new canisters and credit card swipes to work with new credit card chips; new telephone system coming via the City; Internet system upgrade; providing Adobe Cloud Photoshop Creative Suite to the public; and transitioning to a new accounting system.

b. Assistant Director Search:

• Pittman indicated that the Development Director position will remain vacant and she will move ahead with hiring an Assistant Director, renaming the position to Deputy Director which is now more common. A job posting has been prepared and we will post for 30 days. Hopefully interviews will be held in late October or early November and hire someone before Thanksgiving.

7. Financial Reports:

a. Approve “Check Register” and “Handwritten Checks” for September 2016:

• MOTION by Pearson to file the check register, handwritten checks and check summary for August 2016 in the amount of $420,333.33 as presented; seconded by La Due. All: Aye.

a. 2016-2017 Financial Statements:

• MOTION by Lansford to accept the financial statements for August 2016 as presented; seconded by Busey. All: Aye.8. Correspondence and Communications:

• Article from The News-Gazette written by Kelly Strom, Collection Development Manager, entitled: “Business Books for Labor Day” (September 4, 2016).

9. Committee and Liaison Reports:

a. Champaign Public Library Foundation:

• Crowley reported the planning has begun for the annual appeal and they have increased the number of people on committees.

b. Friends of the Champaign Public Library:

• Lansford reported the Friends continue to provide significant summer program support, staff t- shirts, teen reading programs and are a thoughtful, hard-working involved group.

10. Comments from the Audience:

• None.

11. Comments from the Board:

• Wolske stated the ILA meeting in October falls on the same week as the regular Library Board meeting. After discussion, it was decided to move the Board meeting to October 26 at the main library. We will meet at Douglass Branch on December 21 since the meeting room is unavailable in October and November.

12. Next Meetings or Events:

• Regular Meeting, Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 5:30 p.m., 3rd Floor Conf. Room, Main Library

• Regular Meeting, Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 5:30 p.m., 3rd Floor Conf. Room, Main Library

• Regular Meeting, Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 5:30 p.m., Douglass Branch Library, Large Room

13. Adjournment:

• MOTION by Pearson to adjourn; seconded by La Due. All: Aye. The meeting adjourned at 6:38 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

__________________________ Michael J. La Due, Vice-President

__________________________ ______________________________ Minnie Pearson, Secretary Jill Bouvet, Recorder