ARNOLDS PARK LIBRARY BOARD
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
5:00 P.M.
The Arnolds Park Library Board met Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. in the Arnolds Park Library.
Present were Mitch Brown, Joyce Burgeson, Barb Woodley, Diana Jensen and Library Director, Kara Rice. Absent was Robb Keizer.
Minutes of July 8, 2015 were read and corrected. Jensen moved to approve the minutes as corrected. Brown seconded. All aye.
Summer reading program recap: Rice will be presenting to the City Council an overview of the success of the summer reading program. She has prepared graphs and statistics on past years attendance and total kids books checked out and photos of the program presentations. Attendance was way up for 2015.
Changes at the library: In the Children’s section, they have made a new sign for the young adult section. Different colored labels have been applied to the back spine of the books to differentiate the books in each age group. There are also large labels that will be applied for biographies, classics and book club books.
Employee promotion: Rice discussed with the board members that Deb Hayenga is currently a library aide and paid at Step 1 $10.22 per hour. Rice explained that Deb does much more, whatever needs to be done, and is a great asset to their staff. She suggested that Deb’s position be changed from library aide to library assistant. This change would bring her to a Step 2 wage of $12.50 per hour . After discussion, Burgeson moved to approve the change for Deb Hayenga to library assistant. Brown seconded. All aye.
Library Accreditation update: The library’s State accreditation was approved. As a level three library, Arnolds Park will get the maximum amount.
Certification update: Rice passed her Library Director Certification course. She has to apply for the certificate which is mostly online. It then goes through four departments for signature before she receives it. To keep up her certification she must complete forty-two credits every three years. These courses are typically online with some out of town courses. She will receive credit for staff development meetings and the district meeting.
Library software update: The Arnolds Park library was using a software program called Concourse. This program was not updated to what was needed. Rice researched Apollo software. She has mixed feelings about this program as it is $1400 per year and has a lot of features geared to bigger libraries. In the meantime, Concourse got updated. This program is $500 per year. Atrium is an updated version of Concourse. The library contract with Concourse expires in November. Spirit Lake Library uses the Atrium software. There will be a short demo for the staff next week on Atrium. The cost is $1,000 for start-up and $800 per year.
The State library combined two book download programs, Wilbor and Neighbors, to a new one called Bridges. It is on the Arnolds Park library website. Where it used to say “Wilbor”, patrons will now see “Bridges.”
Bills were presented through August 12, 2015 in the amount of $2,626.89. Rice reviewed the bills. The post office has raised rates twice on book mailings. The library may have to charge for library lending. It costs $3.07 postage to mail a book. She pointed out that so many patrons have been using the library copier that they have been paying overage fees. The library may have to raise the copy numbers. There being no questions, Burgeson moved to approve the bills as presented. Brown seconded. All aye.
Rice will send an article to the newspaper on the success of the summer reading program.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, September 9, 2015.
Barbara Woodley
Secretary