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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_LAB_11.20.2017Minutes of the Meeting of the Library Advisory Board City of Georgetown November 20, 2017 The Library Advisory Board met on Tuesday, November 20, 2017 at 6 p.m. in the second floor Small Conference Room, Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. 8t" Street MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Pat Baldwin, Michael Barnes, Lindsay Cooper, John Hudson, Pete Rose, and Linda Schaffer. MEMBERS ABSENT: Thom Sinwell. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Eric Lashley - Library Director. Chair Rose called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. Regular Agenda A. Citizens wishinq to address the Board. As of the deadline, no persons were signed up to speak on items other than what was posted on the agenda. No action required. B. Review of minutes of the October 16 2017 Library Advisory Board meeting. — Pete Rose, Chair. Motion by Barnes; second by Schaffer to approve the October 16, 2017 minutes of the Library Advisory board meeting. Approved 6-0. (Sinwell absent) C. _Consideration of the Library Director's report. — Eric Lashley, Library Director. Lashley reviewed the monthly statistics. There were no patron comments for October 2017. The Friends of the Library held another successful Author series event featuring Meg Gardiner, with over 140 tickets sold. Second hand Prose had the highest sales in history by asking for a donation versus having set prices. Not only did they bring in more money, they also did not have to pay sales tax. Nine new sculptures were installed at the library and downtown. The first and second place sculptures are located at the library — Mary Morse's "The Kite" and "Freshwater Cowgirl" by Anthony St. James. The library has offered our Community Outreach Librarian position to Sheri Miklaski. Miklaski was a previous employee and will be returning to assist with outreach efforts and serve as the volunteer coordinator. Chair Rose sat on the interview panel. Library staff completed inventory November 6-10 and found less than 2% of items were missing. The library will run a report in several months to determine which missing items to replace or remove from the catalog. New flooring was installed on the east side of the first floor during inventory. More space was created for patrons of the Red Poppy Coffee Company. No action required. D. Review of Community Resource Coordinator's report — Eric Lashley, Library Director. Lashley reviewed the monthly report from Patrick Lloyd (attached). As the report indicates, Lloyd is seeing a wide variety of patrons in need and it is clear there are often limited services available in Georgetown. Lloyd was interviewed by the Community Impact newspaper for the November issue. No action required. E. Review of WOW!mobile report. - Eric Lashley, Library Director. Lashley reviewed the monthly report from Kalena Powell which included project ideas that she will share with new Community Outreach Librarian Sheri Miklaski (attached). No action required. F. Review of the library's Community Survey as part of the strategic planning process. — Eric Lashley, Library Director. Lashley reviewed the preliminary results of the Community Survey. Although the response rate was high (767 responses), the sample was skewed towards senior citizens and highly educated patrons. The board discussed ways in which to reach a more diverse audience with targeted surveys and focus groups. Lashley will try and have a list of comments for the December meeting. Lashley reviewed the article "122 Things You Will Be Able to Do In the Library of the Future That You Can't Do Today" by Thomas Frey, which began discussion among board members regarding collecting oral histories, 3-D printing, virtual meetings, virtual reality and collection local archives. Many features listed for future libraries have already been implemented or considered by library staff. No action required. G. Consideration and possible action to schedule a tour of the new Central Library and a branch within the Austin Public Library system. — Eric Lashley, Library Director. Board members previously expressed interest in researching examples of libraries that have planned well for the future. In response, Lashley will coordinate a tour on Saturday, January 13 of the new Central Library and Twin Oaks branch library in Austin. Board members will tour the Central Library in the morning, break for lunch, and then tour the branch library. No action required Consideration of future meeting dates. — Pete Rose, Board Chair. The board decided to resume the regular meeting schedule and therefore, the December meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. and the January meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. No action required. Chair Rose adjourned the meeting at 7:15 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Pat Baldwin Pete Rose Secretary Chair GPL Community Resources Report: 2017 Third Quarter In the second quarter of 2017 GPL engaged a total of 38 patrons in conversations regarding community resources, down from 29 patrons in Q2. This puts GPL on pace to assess and refer 139 patrons in 2017. 65.8% of patrons interviewed in Q2 were female and 34.2% were male; this is generally consistent with the gender breakdown in previous quarters this year. Our patrons' need breakdown is below. Patron Deeds Q3 2017 Ernergency Hou sin€,, Fin. Assistance. Physical Health Legal Benefit Assi starrre Mental Health W I ducatioll W Other Needs included under 'other' and their frequency are listed below: • Employment — 3 • Older adult care or enrichment — 3 • Grief and loss — 2 • Transportation — 2 • Education —1 • Active domestic abuse —1 • Housing rights/advocacy —1 Q3 requests for financial assistance were the highest of 2017. Mental health and housing remain the next highest needs for our patrons, consistent with Q2. Legal need remains relatively low compared to its high in Q1 Children in the household 31.6% of patrons in need stated that there were children in the household, the highest rate of 2017. Domestic violence 10.5% of patrons in need self -identified a history of domestic violence, the lowest rate of 2017. This includes one patron actively experiencing domestic abuse. The Community Resources Coordinator does not typically ask patrons directly if they have or are experiencing domestic violence. Patrons often volunteer this information. Thus far in 2017, 18.3% of interviewees have volunteered histories of domestic violence. Veterans No patrons reported being veterans in Q3. In 2017, 5 total interviews have been conducted with veterans. Discussion GPL was able to refer patrons to some sort of service within Georgetown in just 63.2% of interviews, up slightly from Q2 and consistent with Q1. In cases where patrons are not able to be referred locally, common referrals are to Hope Alliance (Round Rock), Safe Place (Austin), and Foundation Communities (Austin). Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid — as of September 2017 -- was not accepting new clients for pro bono legal assistance. That same month, Georgetown Gospel Justice began offering once month, free legal clinics at GPL. The CRC expects requests for financial assistance to continue to rise in Q4 as families struggle to make ends meet during the holiday season. There is also concern for the impending cold weather and the ongoing lack of nighttime shelter for patrons who are literally homeless. :'� :•�'� •Mi: 1 Kalena Powell Community Outreach Assistant Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) This October I had the privilege of attending the annual ABOS conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Outreach staff at libraries all over the country are providing such wonderful services in so many different capacities based upon their specific communities and their needs. Inspiring work is being done in preschools, prisons, community centers, neighborhoods and schools in collaboration with library outreach programs. These programs are benefiting and connecting with people of all sorts of backgrounds to enrich the lives of their patrons and fellow citizens. So, the primary task, for me, in absorbing all of this information is collecting the shiny little gems and trying to craft them into something marvelous for our patrons in our community. I have a tendency to dream big so I sat down with Patrick to discuss some of these ideas. The following is my Outreach wish list for making shiny dreams come true. 1) Art project collaboration with wowmobile kids and Georgetown Art Center. • The "seed" of this project will be an art contest I will offer over the holiday break to determine how many interested artists we have in our wowmobile communities. • I will continue collaboration with Patrick and Dana. • End goal is to have an Art Show/Reception for these children and their work... eventually. • We'll see how it goes. 2) Outreach Services for Veterans What can we offer? What do they need? How many veterans in underserved populations are living in Georgetown? How can our Outreach assist other organizations already serving? This is a more complicated and delicate goal. I will start by reaching out to other organizations and asking these questions as I continually ask myself and the Outreach Team as this idea develops. • More to come... 3) Virtual Storytime for Parents in court appointed rehab facilities. One of the most impressive sessions I went to at ABOS was given by Titus Moolathara from the Free Library of Philadelphia about their Prison Outreach Service. His presentation highlighted the Stories Alive program he created. Stories Alive Stories Alive sessions will offer an incarcerated parent an opportunity to read a book to his or her child through live video conferencing stations set up both in the prison and in neighborhood libraries. This video visit will be on a computer screen, similar to Skype or FaceTime. Free books will be given to families who participate! These visits, through reading and storytelling, aim to support family literacy and strengthen connections between family members. Stories Alive is available to incarcerated parents at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF) and Riverside Correctional Facility (RCF). All visits are free! The idea would be to see if we can adapt this program to fit our community's needs. - A small pre -selected collection of age and subject appropriate picture books are kept at the facility and at the library in the rooms where the video conference would take place. - The child would pick the book they would like their parent to read to them. The parent would then pull that book from the shelf in their institution and they would share an important familial and literacy experience. - The program would be available to inmates that meet the behavioral standards of their institution. - The skype/video conference session is supervised on the inmates end and adheres to all appropriate rules of the facility. This is the most complicated of the three ideas. I love it though and am excited to discuss the possibilities of making this happen in some form with Sheri Miklaski, our new Community Outreach Librarian.