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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/6/2014 - Board of Library Trustees 1 CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH Board of Library Trustees Meeting Minutes January 6, 2014 – 5:00 p.m. _________________________________________________________________________________ The agenda for the Regular Meeting was posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014, at 11:30 a.m. on the City's website; at 10:20 a.m. on the City Hall Electronic Bulletin Board located in the entrance of the City Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive; and at 9:45 a.m. in the Meeting Agenda Binder located in the entrance of the City Council Chambers at 100 Civic Center Drive. CONVENED AT 5:00 p.m. 1) CALL MEETING TO ORDER – Chair Johnson-Tucker called the meeting to order. 2) ROLL CALL – Roll call by Administrative Assistant Elaine McMillion. Trustees Present: Jill Johnson-Tucker, chairing the meeting Jerry King Eleanor Palk Robyn Grant John Prichard Staff Present: Tim Hetherton, Acting Library Services Director Melissa Kelly, Support Services Coordinator Debbie Walker, Youth Services & Branch Coordinator Natalie Basmaciyan, Reference Supervisor Allen Kesinger, Reference Librarian Elaine McMillion, Administrative Assistant Rebecca Redyk, Human Resources Public Present: Jim Mosher, resident Nicole Shine, Orange County Register reporter 3) PUBLIC COMMENTS REGARDING CLOSED SESSION – Jim Mosher asked that if possible it would be very helpful if the Board would make a prediction on how long the closed session will last. He clarified the comments he had made at the Assessment Center on December 16, reminding the Board that even though it is the role of administrators and staff to find a Library Services Director who would fit well with the City Administration it is also their role to take into consideration what is good for the public. Chair Johnson-Tucker noted that the Closed Session should not last more than 15 minutes. Trustee King noted that it is not part of the process to determine the length of a meeting. Public and Library staff were excused from the meeting. 4) CLOSED SESSION – 5:03 p.m. 5) RECONVENE FOR REGULAR SESSION – 5:20 p.m. 6) ROLL CALL - Roll Call stood as previously called. 2 7) CLOSED SESSION REPORT – Chair Johnson-Tucker noted that there is no Closed Session report. Chair Johnson-Tucker moved Agenda Item B.1. Library Services Director Recruitment Update to be reported on prior to public comments. B.1. Library Services Director Recruitment Update – Human Resources Supervisor Rebecca Redyk provided an update on the Library Services Director recruitment. An assessment center was held off-site on Monday, December 16, 2013 in which eight candidates were invited to participate. Two panels of professionals and staff participated and narrowed the eight candidate pool down to three individuals. Currently there are two candidates in serious consideration. The candidate that is selected will be undergoing more pre-employment screening before an announcement will be made. There were no questions. The Board thanked Rebecca for her time and she left the meeting. 8) PUBLIC COMMENTS – Mr. Mosher commented on the Library Services Director recruitment and stated that it would be useful for the public to know in a little more detail on what happened at the assessment center, in terms of what kind of evaluation were the candidates subjected to, and what standards were the panel members looking for in the candidates. He feels that there is nothing confidential about this and that it would be helpful to the public to know in order to understand the process by which the new director is selected. He noted that the minutes of the last Civil Service Board meeting stated that there was a presentation of a new employee evaluation system. He suggested that the Board of Library Trustees may want to know more about this system since they are in charge of the administration of the Library. 9) APPROVAL OF MINUTES – December 2, 2013 Regular Meeting It was moved, seconded (Trustee Prichard/Trustee Grant) and passed by all Trustees present to approve the minutes from the Monday, December 2, 2013 Board of Library Trustees meeting as amended: Page 2, paragraph 2 add “City” to Deputy Attorney. December 16, 2013 Closed Session It was moved, seconded (Trustee Grant/Trustee Palk) and passed by all Trustees present to approve the minutes from the Monday, December 16, 2013 Board of Library Trustees Closed Session. 10) CURRENT BUSINESS A. CONSENT CALENDAR 1. Customer Comments – Monthly review of evaluations of library services through suggestions and requests received from customers. 2. Library Activities – Monthly update of library events, services and statistics. 3. Expenditure Status Report – Monthly expenditure status of the Library’s operating expenses, services, salaries and benefits by department. 4. Board of Library Trustees Monitoring List – List of agenda items and dates for monthly review of projects by the Board of Library Trustees. 3 Chair Johnson-Tucker asked staff for clarification on employee benefits, utilities and materials expenditures as listed in the Finance Report, of which Support Service Coordinator Melissa Kelly explained. It was moved, seconded (Trustee Grant/Trustee Prichard) and passed by all Trustees present to approve the Consent Calendar Items as presented. Motion carried by all Trustees present. B. ITEMS FOR REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION 1. Library Services Director Recruitment Update – Presented earlier in the meeting. 2. Critical Review of Online Database Resources & Services / Database Usage Report – Adult Services Coordinator and Reference Supervisor Natalie Basmaciyan reported on the Library’s database usage from July 2013 through December 2014. The most frequently used database services are those that track family ancestry, monitor stock portfolio health and stock company finances. Value Line had 19,522 page views in the first month of the fiscal year, while Morningstar and ReferenceUSA (Business) accumulated 4,353 and 3,969 respectively. As of today Morningstar received 28,159 page views and Value Line, 114,641. From July to November, 2013 the NetAdvantage database collected 8,552 page views, and Proquest, the premier database for searching magazine, journal and newspaper articles reached a total of 13,676 searches, with Ancestry at 6,168 and Heritage at 4,705. These are the most heavily used, with the remaining databases not reaching as many page views. When schools are closed in the summer and winter months, Facts on File, Opposing Viewpoints and the Biography Resources Center see lower numbers. To help increase usage statistics, this service is promoted through advertisements and promos on the Library website homepage, as well as on the Library’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Questions were asked and answered during the presentation. It was also noted that the Tuesdays @ 2 training sessions will start up again by the end of January or early February 2014. 3. Possible Meeting Date Change from the first Monday to the third Monday of every month – Acting Library Services Director Hetherton began the discussion by noting that there are no meeting conflicts in the City that would preclude the Board of Library Trustees from changing their meeting from the first Monday to the third Monday of every month. Chair Johnson-Tucker distributed her suggested revisions to Article IV of the By-Laws under Article IV Meetings, Sections 1 and 4 as follows: Section 1. The regular meetings shall be held on the first third Monday of each month commencing at 5:00 p.m. at the Central Library or at a specified branch library, unless noticed otherwise. In the event the first third Monday of the month is a holiday observed by the City, such regular meeting shall be held on the next business day commencing at 5:00 p.m. at the Central Library unless noticed otherwise. Special meetings may also be held subject to compliance with the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. Section 4. Study sessions, if necessary, may shall be held on the first Monday of each month if necessary at the Central Library, prior to the regularly scheduled board meeting, for the purpose of discussing administrative reports, hearing staff presentations, gathering information, reviewing, discussing and debating matters of interest to the Library. No official action shall be taken at a study session. Study sessions shall be held subject to compliance with the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. The revisions will be red-lined as shown above and presented at the February 3, 2014 Board meeting for action. It was moved, seconded (Trustee King/Trustee Grant) and passed by all Trustees present to move forward with the revisions as presented. Motion carried by all Trustees present. 4 C. MONTHLY REPORTS 1. Library Services Director Report – Acting Library Services Director Hetherton reported now that the holiday season is through we are in the budget season. He would like to petition Chair Johnson-Tucker to form a committee of two Trustees to meet with Melissa Kelly to discuss the budget and related proposals from the City. It was agreed to discuss this at the end of the meeting. Library Assistant Mara Cota who earned her MLS and has worked for the Library for seven years has accepted an Outreach Librarian position with San Mateo County which will be a good opportunity for her. The Millennium software was updated on Veterans Day while the Library was closed. It took a few hours and was completed during this holiday closure so as not to impact customers. The update was needed in order to implement a new cataloging convention called RDA which shows a ‘see also’ selection by author or genre. It works well with the RFID self-check kiosks also. The City IT department will be installing new public scanning machines at Central and moving the old ones to Corona del Mar and Balboa branch libraries with the upgraded software installed in them also. This will provide free public scanning for customers at all four Library locations. Wednesday Tim will meet in the Sound Lab with City IT staff to look at the set-up of the equipment. The Sound Lab should be up and running very soon and will provide the ability to transfer VHS to DVD, cassette to CD, and vinyl record to CD. A Web ad called Amaze Yourself will be put on the Library website to help promote these services and customers will be able to take advantage of creative pursuits in the Sound Lab. Replacing the drive-up book drop at Central that used to be located on Avocado Avenue presents a safety issue due to the reconfiguration of the road and sidewalk in that area. The City Public Works department asked staff to find a location somewhere in the parking lot at Central. Once a new location is proposed staff will bring it back to the Board. This new book drop was funded by the NBPL Foundation. Tim Hetherton and Melissa Kelly met with OASIS staff this week and the Library concierge service will begin at OASIS and go live on the catalogue on January 31, 2014. 2. Friends of the Library Liaison Report – Trustee King noted that there is nothing new to report. The Friends did not hold their monthly meeting in December. 3. Library Foundation Liaison Report – Trustee Grant noted that there is nothing new to report as their December meeting was not held. 4. DSLS Liaison Report – Trustee Palk reported that the DSLS committee held their retreat in December so they did not hold their regular meeting. Consequently, there is nothing new to report. 6) BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES ANNOUNCEMENTS OR MATTERS WHICH MEMBERS WOULD LIKE PLACED ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION, ACTION OR REPORT (NON-DISCUSSION ITEM) Chair Johnson-Tucker asked for two Trustees to volunteer as committee members to meet with Melissa Kelly to discuss the fiscal year 2014/2015 budget planning. Trustees Grant and Prichard volunteered. Melissa Kelly will coordinate the meeting details with them. Chair Johnson-Tucker asked if Mona Kobersy who replaced Mara Cota in coordinating the Young Adult programming would come and report to the Board after she meets with the Young Adult Advisory Committee (YAAC) at the March 3, 2014 Board of Library Trustees meeting. 5 7) PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS Mr. Mosher addressed the Board about revision of the By-Laws. He suggested that the Board take into consideration that they may prescribe their own changes, as they don’t need now and never have needed the City Council’s approval on when to meet. He noted that in Section 3 of Article IV the specified sequence of agenda items listed in the By-Laws is not the sequence the Board is currently following. In the same Article, Section 5, the By-Laws state that all meetings shall be open to the public. However, not all Board meetings have been open to the public. He also commented on Section 6 in this same Article IV. He stated that the creation of a budget committee seemed to be an action of the Board and he did not see that on the agenda. 8) ADJOURNMENT – 5:54 p.m. Submitted by: Jill Johnson-Tucker Chair Approval of Minutes