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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-21-2024-BLT-PUBLIC COMMENTSOctober 21, 2024, BLT Agenda Item Comments These comments on Newport Beach Board of Library Trustees agenda items are submitted by: Jim Mosher Item No. 1. Minutes of the Sept 16, 2024 Board of Library Trustees Meeting The passage in italics is from the draft minutes, with a correction suggested in strikeout underline format. Page 3 (page 7 of agenda packet), first line: “5 4. Board of Library Trustees Monitoring List” Note: The Monitoring List item is misnumbered. It was Item 4 (not 5) on the September 16 agenda. Page 4 (page 8 of agenda packet), paragraph 7: “Motion made by Vice Chair Lauren Kramer, seconded by Chair Chase Reif, and carried (5-0-0-0) to accept revisions to Library Policy NBPL 9, Expressive Use Areas.” Comment: It is not clear from this exactly which revisions were accepted. Indeed, I left the meeting thinking that in addition to staff’s recommendations, since it would not be clear who the Director’s designee might be, the Trustees had agreed to revise the requirement that “All persons desiring to use the Expressive Use Area shall report to the Library Services Director or designee prior to use” to read “All persons desiring to use the Expressive Use Area shall report to the librarian in charge prior to use.” Staff seems to have heard the motion differently, for the copy of NBPL 9 currently posted online, stating it was “Amended - September 16, 2024” does not contain that change. Page 5 (page 9 of agenda packet): The minutes for Item 10 (Pals4pal Liaison Report)contain four incorrect uses of the name “Ralph’s.” They should be spelled “Ralphs”without an apostrophe (it is the the founders’ family name, not the possessive of the given name Ralph). Page 5 (page 9 of agenda packet), Item IX: “Jim Mosher, Newport Beach resident, commented that he will not be able to attend next month so he will be submitting his comments and suggested this Board change the 4 PM cut off time to 5 PM to align with all the other Boards time limit for submitting comments prior to a meeting.” Comment: The minutes are correct: I expected to be the City’s Aviation Committee meeting, but it has been cancelled. The change in the hour at which comments are due is appreciated. Item No. 2. Patron Comments Comment 3, complaining about the lack of directional signage to the Central Library is curious in that it refers to a sign on Jamboree Road with an arrow pointing into a shopping center. This is curious because the entry is on Avocado and neither the ground level “Newport Beach Public Library” monument sign nor the “Newport Beach Library/Corona del Mar Plaza” sign hanging from the traffic light arm have arrows. Nonetheless, it would seem useful for staff to seek cooperation with the Irvine Company to add a sign showing those entering the shopping center October 21, 2024, BLT agenda item comments - Jim Mosher Page 2 of 4 off Avocado where to turn left for the library. Alternatively, adding the NBPL logo, or similar graphic, to the monument sign might help to identify the library’s look. Item No. 3. Patron's Request for Evaluation of Library Resources There are several things that seem unusual about the Director’s October 16 decision regarding "How Do You Make a Baby?" ● The patron’s August 24 request was to move NBPL’s single copy of the book from the children’s to the adult section, but the decision was to withdraw it. ● The book has apparently already been removed, since it no longer appears in the catalog. ● The decision was reportedly made as a result of normal Collection Maintenance considerations in NBPL 2, yet it is said to be appealable to the Board, which I don’t think is normal for Collection Maintenance decisions. ● The Collection Maintenance section says "the Library regularly withdraws materials that are worn, outdated, superseded or obsolete." Yet, I understand this title was acquired in 2021 and circulated 15 times in the three years since. ● I do not know the details of NBPL’s Maintenance criteria, but in the absence of the patron complaint, would our CollectionHQ system have automatically flagged a three-year old volume with 15 checkouts for review as being possibly “worn, outdated, superseded or obsolete”? And even if it had, would that have triggered a re-evaluation of whether the book met other criteria in our Collection Development Policy and possible removal for reasons other than those stated in the Maintenance section of NBPL 2? These seem questions the Trustees might be curious about, yet, unless I am missing it, the current version of NBPL 2 asks for the determinations to be reported to the BLT, but does not seem to contain a mechanism for the Trustees to call the decisions up for review. Item No. 6. Mariners Branch Update In these reports, I am curious how the “service areas” are defined. In the Balboa Branch updates, the service area population is cited as being that of City Council District 1 (as shown on the Council Districts map created at the time of redistricting in 2022). In the present case, the number quoted, 27,819, is slightly larger than the combined populations of Council Districts 2 and 3 shown on that map (24,720). Given the precision of the number quoted, is there a map of what are believed to be the boundaries of the branches’ service areas? If it is possible, it would seem interesting to map the actual locations that each branches’ checkouts go to, and also, for planning of future locations, to assess if library participation per capita falls off with distance from the nearest facility. Regarding the Seed Library, I am pleased to see the library is now inviting contributions of home-grown seeds to add to the variety available (similar to the programs at the Huntington Beach and Yorba Linda libraries). One change at Mariners this year that I do not see mentioned in the report is the locking of the formerly-open gates to the passageway on the north side of the building, connecting the entry plaza in the front of the library to Mariners Park at its rear. I do not know if the locking of the October 21, 2024, BLT agenda item comments - Jim Mosher Page 3 of 4 gates contributed to the reported end of outdoor storytimes, but in my view it makes the branch less welcoming and makes the overflow parking on Dover Drive less accessible (although it also encourages some tennis parking in the library lot on Irvine Avenue). Would the City’s new crackdown on unauthorized camping allow reopening the passageway? Item No. 7. Youth Services Update The new information on circulation and turnover1 by category is interesting, although it is not completely obvious which of the material types shown in the Figure 1 pie chart are regarded as “Non-Book”s. I see, now, how I created confusion when, at an earlier BLT meeting, in attempting to ask about the amount of the library’s collections that is replaced with new titles each year, I used the term “turnover” (which apparently relates, instead, to the number of times an item checks out each year). Whatever it is called, I continue to think the rate of change of titles, or alternatively, how long a title (as well as a physical book or other item) stays in the collection before being replaced, on average, would be interesting to know. In connection with that distinction between “titles” and physical copies of a title (of which there may be more than one), some further clarification of what the reported “turnover”means might be helpful. Does the “79,461 items” used to calculate the year’s “turnover” rate represent all items eligible for checkout, including those that didn’t checkout at all? If so, is there a statistic for the fraction of the children’s collection that could have, but didn’t check out? Regarding the program attendance shown in Figure 6, it would have been helpful to state the month in which “Stay & Play” participants began being counted. Does it account for the 3,000 attendees in September 2023 (the end of the blue line) jumping to 7,500 in the next month (October 2023, the start of the brown curve)? What accounts for the almost-as-large one-time uptick in May 2024 attendance (even though, according to Figure 5, the number of programs was lower than in the previous month)? Item No. 8. Grant Acceptance from California Library Literacy Services The trustees may be aware of AB-1825 (the "California Freedom to Read Act"), a new state bill, signed on September 29 and going into effect on January 1, 2025. It will do a variety of things, including setting minimum standards for the Collection Development Policy of “Every public library jurisdiction that directly receives any state funding,” which must be met by January 1, 2026. The Trustees may wish staff to clarify if they anticipate revisions to NBPL 2 will be needed to comply with AB-1825, and if their acceptance and the City Council’s ultimate approval 2 of this Literacy grant is the only direct state funding that would trigger the requirement. 2 The staff report suggests the BLT’s acceptance is all that is necessary to place the funds in the proper account, but City Charter subsection 708(f)makes the BLT’s acceptance subject to City Council approval. 1 In my view, it might have been more intuitive to plot Collection Size and Turnover instead of Circulation and Turnover, although any of these can be deduced from the other two. October 21, 2024, BLT agenda item comments - Jim Mosher Page 4 of 4 (other provisions of AB-1825 appear to apply to all non-school public libraries in California, whether they accept state funds, or not) Item No. 10. Library Activities Regarding the school outreach reported on page 2 (agenda packet page 37), isn’t it unusual that the school in question,MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School, is in Santa Ana? Does it have a large number of Newport Beach students?3 Regarding the Class Visits (page 3),Cabrillo Point Academy appears to be a home-schooling (“independent study”) program. How many students attended, and from what grades? Item No. 11. Library Foundation Liaison Report Regarding the final item in The Foundation Report provides an excellent summary of activities through October 15. Regarding the final item reported on, the dissolution of Pals4pal Literacy Board, is there some reason why that organization’s remaining reserves would be transferred to a Foundation fund rather than directly to a City fund? I had assumed money donated to Pals4pal was raised on the promise it would be donated to the City program. But from the Literacy Support page on the NPBL website, it looks like it goes to individual learners, subsidizing supplies they might otherwise have to pay for. Is that a function the City could not fulfill? Item No. 12. Friends of the Library Liaison Report I remain curious about how much revenue the Friends receive from Ralphs supermarkets as a result of NBPL patrons participating in the Community Contribution Program 4 featured on the NBPL Friends of the Library web page. According to the supermarket’s first FAQ about the program, they divide a fixed $2 million a year between registered organizations, prorated quarterly based on the relative sizes of the purchases made during that quarter by the customers designating each organization. It would be interesting to know how many participants the Friends have, and how much their participation generates. Item No. 13. Pals4pal Liaison Report See comment on Item No. 11, above. 4 In the graphic at the top of the page, the web designer has used “Ralph’s”. 3 The “Airport Area” of Newport Beach, north of the 73 Freeway, is in the Santa Ana Unified School District.