HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-17-2023-BLT-PUBLIC COMMENTSJanuary 17, 2023, BLT Agenda Comments
These comments on Newport Beach Board of Library Trustees (BLT) agenda items are submitted by:
Jim Mosher (jimmosher@yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229)
Item 1. Minutes of the Dec 19, 2022 Board of Library Trustees Meeting
Suggested corrections: The passages shown in italics below are from the draft minutes with
suggested corrections indicated in strikeout underline format.
Page 2 (page 6 of agenda packet), Item 4: “Chair Watkins noted that they were 42% through
the Fiscal Year (FY) and remained approximately 4.5% 45% underbudget.”
[Or more likely, “and had spent approximately 45% of the budget” as “45% under budget”
would suggest 55% of it had been spent – unless the statement was spending was 4.5%
under 42% of the budget. Whatever was said, it might be noted these comparisons are not
entirely meaningful since staff has repeatedly emphasized the budgeted spending is not
planned to be evenly distributed over the year.]
Page 2 (page 6 of agenda packet), Item 5, paragraph 4: “Chair Watkins called for a Motion on
the minutes and Consent Calendar and noted that Vice Chair Ray would abstain from the vote
on the minutes.”
Page 2 (page 6 of agenda packet), Item 5, paragraph 4: “Library Services Director Hartson
asked if Vice Chair Ray reviewed the minutes or in the packet.”
Page 6 (page 10 of agenda packet), Item 10: “Library Services Director Hartson announced that
they moved up from three stars to four stars for 2019-2020 as awarded by the Library Journal.
Newport Beach was one of only 12 libraries in California that received the honor.”
[It might be noted that including NBPL, there were only three “star libraries” in Southern
California, the other two being Santa Monica (4 stars) and San Diego (3 stars). The remaining
9 California star libraries are all in Northern California, including all the state’s 5-star libraries:
Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara.]
Page 8 (page 12 of agenda packet), Item VIII, paragraph 3: “Administrative Support Specialist
Jacome stated that she added the new City Council map and the 2023 meeting schedule to
their binders.”
Item VII. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS
As the Trustees likely know, many (if not most?) of the city libraries in Orange County (for
example, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Tustin) are actually branches of the Orange County Public
Library.
Since December, I have been receiving newsletters from OCPL mentioning a state-funded
program they are offering at least through the end of June, called Zip books.
The program supplements their Inter Library Loan program (which is, incidentally free) by
allowing OCPL to fulfill requests for a title (print or audiobook) at least a year old and not in the
OCPL collection by ordering it from Amazon and having it delivered to the patron’s home at no
January 17, 2023, Library Trustees agenda comments from Jim Mosher Page 2 of 2
cost to the patron. When they return it to an OCPL branch three weeks later, OCPL staff
decides whether to add it to their collection, or dispose of it in some other fashion.
According to the California State Library website, the program has existed since 2011.
CSL’s 2022-2023 Guidelines indicate that in return for some reporting requirements they
provided $35,000 to cover Zip book purchases, and gave the participating libraries considerable
discretion in how the program was administered (OCPL limits patrons to three Zip book
requests a month with values up to $50 for print and $75 for audio).
Given NBPL’s focus on freshly-published works, Zip books sounds like an intriguing tool for
collection development, particularly for adding older titles it might be missing, and something at
least a few NBPL patrons would enjoy. So, NBPL may wish to get on the waiting list for future
participation (it appears the libraries already participating are at the top of the list).