HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_LAB_03.16.2015Minutes of the Meeting of the
Library Advisory Board
City of Georgetown
March 16, 2015
The Library Advisory Board met on Monday, March 16, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. in the staff
conference room of the Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. 8th Street
MEMBERS PRESENT: Pat Baldwin, Michael Barnes, Lois Case, Tom Hagen, Linda
Nix, Margaret Thompson, and Pete Rose.
STAFF PRESENT: Eric Lashley- Library Director
Regular Session
A. Citizens wishing to address the Board. None were present.
B. Consideration of minutes of the February 16, 2015 meeting. — Margaret Thompson
made the motion to accept the minutes of the February 2015 Library Advisory
Board Meeting. Lois Case seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
C. Election of Vice -Chair and Secretary — Eric Lashley. Michael Barnes made the
motion to elect Lois Case as Vice -Chair and Margaret Thompson as Secretary
of the Library Advisory Board. Pete Rose seconded the motion, which passed
unanimously.
D. Consideration of Library Director's report — Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that
circulation and visitations were slightly down for the month of February. Lashley
noted OverDrive circulation is doing well with 1,901 checkouts of e -books and 432 e -
audio book checkouts. The bookmobile circulation jumped to 3,118 checkouts.
Director Lashley reported that volunteer hours are going up since Kalena Powell
took over as the volunteer coordinator.
Young and Rusty were the musical entertainment for February. The Friends of the
Library's Hill Country Author Series, featuring Chris Tomlinson, was very successful
with over 150 tickets sold.
The library's free tax assistance has been going well.
The library opened an hour later than normal in March 5 due to predicted bad
weather.
The Large Painting Group from Sun City has the art display on the second floor of
the library in March.
Lashley read the patron comments for February.
E. Overview of library policies, budget, staff, and operations — Eric Lashley. Lashley
handed out a copy of the library's staff directory and explained the duties of each
staff member. Lashley handed out a copy of the library's budget and noted that the
largest part is for personnel. Lashley explained how the library purchased its
materials and discussed the various vendors the library uses. Lashley took the
members on a tour of the Technical Services Department and showed the Board the
current backlog of library materials. Lashley noted that the reduction in circulation
statistics corresponds directly to the backlog of new books not getting out to the
book shelves in a timely manner. Lashley noted that the library is hiring an intern to
help catalog, as well as shifting staff members from the public services department
to technical services to assist with the backlog. Pete Rose and Tom Hagen
suggested that the Library Board draft a letter to the City Council, informing them of
the library's staffing issues that need to be addressed. Addressing this issue with
council will potentially help the library deal with the heavy workload in relation to
placing orders, cataloging, and processing new library materials.
F. Report on 50th Anniversary Committee — Linda Nix and Eric Lashley. Nix and
Lashley reported that the kick-off for the 50th Anniversary celebration was a great
success. Each member of the board was given a t -shirt and tote bag. Nix and
Lashley talked about future events and noted that the library had received a lot of
media attention.
G. Report on February 27 staff trainina. core values. mission statement, and customer
service policy — Eric Lashley. Lashley reported that Dr. Ron Swain facilitated the
library's staff day of training. The staff worked on the core values, mission
statement, and customer service policies. Lashley had recently received a report
from Swain about ideas generated by the staff, but had not condensed the ideas for
the board. Lashley will bring back a condensed version to the board in the near
future.
H. Consideration of dates of future Board meetings — Eric Lashley. The next board
meeting will be Monday, April 20, 2015,
Chair Linda Nix adjourned the meeting at 7:45 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret T ompson, Secretary i Va74ixI,Li'k`air