North Liberty Community Library
Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
December 21, 2009, 7:00 p.m.

Board members present:

President: Melissa Murphy
Vice President: Cindy Diouf
Secretary: Margaret Logan
Members: John Henk

Library Director: Dee Crowner

Guest:  Jennie Garner, Assistant Library Director

President Melissa Murphy called the meeting to order at the North Liberty City Council Chambers, 25 W. Cherry Street.

Approval of Agenda:
Approved.

Public Comment:
None.

Approval of Minutes:
November 16, 2009

A motion to approve was made by John Henk and seconded by Cindy Diouf. 
The minutes were unanimously approved.

Reports:

Budget – Jennie Garner reported the budget is on track with expenditures for 2009-2010.       

Youth and Teen Services – Andrew Frisbie:
January 8 from 10am - 11am will be a Trunk Show dress up playtime for preschool aged children.  We are going to have clothes and other things the children can play with and dress up in.   This will be held downstairs in room G1. 

January 14 from 2:30pm - 4pm will be Play Inside Day.  Indoor activities will be planned to keep the children busy.  This will be held in one of the downstairs rooms.

January 15 family movie night begins again on Friday nights at 6pm one time a month.   Bring your own soft drinks and the library will provide at least one bag of popcorn.  The movie will be “G-Force”.    

I was recently approached by some students from Penn Elementary about forming a book club for students.  I’ve met with the students and we have decided to have a book club for 4th through 6th graders.  The first meeting will be held December 30 to talk about our favorite books.   The plan is to meet on the first and fourth Thursdays because of early out day.      

Adult Services – Elaine Reitz:

Sociable Seniors continues to meet every Monday from 10am -11am.  They seem content to just sit and talk with one another. 

December 19 was the Cookie Decorating program from 10am - 11:15am.  There were 11 signed up.  Greta Reynolds, owner of Teddy Bear Bakery, lead the program.

January 18 is Martin Luther King Day of Service.   An idea is to combine our Fine Amnesty month and Food for Fines with a community Wide Food Drive.  We will be working out the details in the next few weeks.

The Last Tuesday of the Month Club will meet the end of January.  We will be reading “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo.    

Assistant Director – Jennie Garner:

Jennie Garner reported.   The husband of one of our volunteers sponsored the Lose to Expand program for the library through a matching gift program at Quaker Oats from where he is a retiree.   We have not heard about the matching donation from Quaker Oats but have found out that we should be receiving a $500 matching gift in February 2010.

I have finished cleaning up old fines and deleting patrons whose accounts have been expired for more than three years.  I have deleted around 40 patrons in the last three months and made nearly 230 inactive after deleting old fines.  

I am in attendance at this meeting tonight because Dee asked each of us that attended ILA to come back with an idea.  Her idea was to have each staff person attend at least one Library Board meeting a year to talk about their position in the library and summarize their work.  She thinks this would be a great way for the Board Members to get to know the Library Staff and learn about what they do, and for staff members to learn more about the Board.  I have assigned each of the staff a month to attend the Board meeting.  I will send out each staff member’s job description as they attend the meetings so you have an idea of their job at the library.  

Director – Dee Crowner:
Dee reported a patron recently donated $1,000 to the building fund.  This is an annuity from TIAA-Creff.  The library also received $400 from the Pilot Club for audio books and large print books.  The large print collection usage has increased.   The Community Foundation of Johnson County donated $2000 that will help to purchase a new automation system for the library.   Just recently the library received a $100 donation from an Iowa City resident.  This went into the building fund.     

I have gone through the long overdue material and made them lost.   Jennie will run a report and get out certified letters with a notice that January is Fine Amnesty month and to please return the material before we press charges.   If the material is not returned and over $100 we will work with the police. 

January is Fine Amnesty month.  Any overdue material may be returned and the fine removed.   We also accept payment for any fine in Food for Fines rather than limit that payment to $10 in non-perishable items. 

In January we were able to add both a Hobbies and Crafts and Home Improvement database through the State Library of Iowa’s agreement.  These databases were pro-rated for part of the year.   Usage on these databases is high. 

Janet will be writing a grant to INS to purchase several laptops.  If we receive the grant, South Slope would match the grant.  We would like to purchase 4 laptops to be checked out for use in the library.  Check out would be limited to patrons 18 or older with a valid driver’s license.  This should free up regular computers for the children and teens. 
The Council has given the library the go ahead to begin fundraising in
January 2010.   We could see the completion of the expansion by summer 2012.

Friends
The Poinsettia sale began October 24th.  Around 160 plants were sold.  There are 30 plants left at the library and being sold for $3 each.           

Policy Review:
Confidentiality of Patrons –This policy was reviewed.  A motion made to approve by Cindy Diouf.  Margaret Logan seconded the motion.  It was unanimously approved. 

Reconsideration of Materials – There was some discussion.  A motion was made to approve the policy pending grammatical corrections by John Henk.  Margaret Logan seconded the motion.  It was unanimously approved.       

Old Business:
None.

New Business:
Board Training DVD

There are now Board Training DVDs available for review. 

2010 Budget

The North Liberty Community Library Budget Request FY 2010/2011 was distributed to the members.  There was some discussion.

Other Business:
Closed Session.  

Adjournment:
There was a motion by Margaret Logan to adjourn.   Cindy Diouf seconded.   The motion was unanimously approved at 7:30 pm.