LIBRARY COMMISSION MEETING, March 1, 2004
Present: Commissioners: Barbara Garvey, Chair; Vera O’Connor, Bettye Webb, Helen Boyle, Janet Edwards, Rudolph Ruggeri Absent: Jan Denney
Staff: Library director Emily Bader; assistant director Lee Fogarty; clerk, Carol Leaders
Citizens: 13 citizens from 6 different branches
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Garvey at 5:40.
The next meeting of the Library Commission will be held on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 at 5:30pm in the community room of the Sixteen Acres Branch Library, 1187 Parker Street. It will be proceeded at 4:00pm by another meeting of the Policy Committee, a committee of the whole.
Standing Committees: Chairman Garvey announced the following appointments:
Buildings and Grounds Vera O’Connor and Rudy Ruggeri with one position vacant for one other commissioner who would like to join them.
Finance Mrs. Garvey will chair this committee whose other members include Janet Edwards, Jan Denney, and Rudy Ruggeri.
Planning and Program Bettye Webb and Helen Boyle with one position vacant for one other commissioner who would like to join them.
Standing committee meetings will be open to the public and posted to conform with the state’s Open Meeting Law. Noting that public participation in commission meetings has evolved into an open and productive exchange, Chairman Garvey said that the form that public participation will take in committees will be determined by each committee chairman.
East Forest Park Lease Negotiation Commissioner Edwards reported on the walk-through of this space by a group consisting of herself, library director Bader, Commissioner Ruggeri, Judie Carpenter of the East Forest Park library advisory committee, and branch manager Reggie Wilson. While the landlord has been notified of the library department’s intention to renew, modifications in the lease are required because the lessor is now the City; Mary McFarland of the City law department and a Tower Square real property specialist will work with the group on fine-tuning the lease. At $6.00 per square foot, rent is seen as a fair one. Questions to be answered include: What changes does the staff want and need? Should the City be asked to pay a pro rata share of municipal taxes assessed on the property? What are municipal requirements for renting property?
FY04 Budget Update (See year-to-date attached budget figures.) Assistant director Lee Fogarty presented the year-to-date figures and said that, in general, we are doing well, although she is worried about the small amount of endowment income released by the SMA. In answer to a question about who is doing the investments of library funds, Chairman Garvey answered “Fleet Bank,” but said that this would probably change when and if a library foundation, currently under study, has been established. (A library foundation would have its own board which would make investment decisions.)
Chairman Garvey also said that the library department will be funding part of the cost of the audit currently being performed of the SMA. She sees an audit “as an essential part of the Mayor’s effort to put funding of both the library and the museums on a solid footing.” Expressing her admiration of and gratitude to Emily and Lee, Mrs. Garvey complimented them for their hard work in adapting the library budget to conform with city budget categories while also operating the library system.
More time will be devoted to the budget at the next commission by which time “other things will have become clearer.”
Computer and Internet Policy (See also write-up of the Policy Committee meeting which preceded this commission meeting.) Emily Bader described the new internet policy by which the Library Department would remove all filters from library computers, because filters don’t always work, and patrons, including children, know how to get around them. Parents are seen as responsible for what their children access on the internet.
Chairman Garvey asked staff to be pro-active in publicizing the internet policy. Pornographic images are not to be displayed on library computers, and the (few) patrons who display them in violation of this policy will be denied computer library privileges.
Branch Library Advisory Committees Chairman Garvey distributed the following draft motion on this topic which was moved by Commissioner Edwards and seconded:
The members of the Library Commission endorse, welcome and express our gratitude for persons who are organizing and forming Advisory Committees for the libraries in their neighborhoods. We consider these groups to be an integral part of the Springfield Library Department entitled to the recognition and cooperation that such dedicated volunteers deserve.
The members of the Library Commission join with the Director of the Department in welcoming the participation of the Advisory Committees in the decision-making of each Library as it pertains to community issues and interests, to the extent that this participation does not impinge upon the accepted policies and the professional standards of the Department.
In the discussion which followed, Chairman Garvey recalled the interesting exchanges in which committees asked for the commission’s direction while she welcomed their experimentation. She mentioned the article (referenced below) from BusinessWest on the importance of an organization’s welcoming ALL ideas, both good and bad, in order to come up with new ideas. (Available at .)
Commissioner Boyle said that she felt that establishment of branch advisory committees would result in duplication of efforts and that she felt that citizen energy would be better utilized by volunteering in the libraries or raising money via the Friends of the Library. Commissioner O’Connor urged the commission to empower branch advisory committees and favored passing the motion in its present form.
In answer to a citizen question who wondered what the commission wanted the advisory committees to do, Chairman Garvey replied that “It is not the commission’s place to define their mission. Advisory committees are welcome to experiment and express their own issues and desires. Be creative about the role you’ve taken on.” She went on to say that if citizens think a particular librarian is “unduly interfering” with a committee, they ought to discuss the situation with library director Bader (ebader@springfieldlibmus.org or 263-6828 x 292).
Emily gave examples of issues being pursued by two branch advisory committees: a lift or ramp to make the Forest Park branch more accessible and additional adult book discussion groups for East Springfield. For his part, Commissioner Ruggeri urged committees to “come up with your wish list. You are entitled to independent thinking. No one is going to dictate to you.”
In response to a question another citizen who wondered whether advisory committees would come to the commission for approval of an idea or work through the branch manager, Mrs. Garvey said that a regular time would be set aside on the commission agenda to hear from branch advisory committees. Emily urged advisory committees to invite branch staff, saying they were eager to get help from the community. As to whether reports from advisory committees would be verbal or written, Mrs. Garvey suggested monthly verbal reports for the time being with the possibility of a change after six months or so.
VOTE: The commission voted unanimously to approve the motion without amendment.
Other Business A schedule of meeting dates and locations was presented by the library director (check the library commissioners page on www.springfieldlibrary.org).
Citizens raised the following topics:
Friends of the Library Fundraising Efforts Friends of the Library president Mary Ann Maloney said they would begin the annual campaign on March 30 and asked for volunteers to help stuff envelopes. She outlined a number of other fundraising plans and ideas and asked for volunteers to help with all of them as well. Plans included dinner parties which would net $500. each, an author’s evening in late April, a Friends of the Library bank card, a fall walk-a-thon, a raffle at each branch library, a one-book-one-community event, a Halloween walk in the Springfield Cemetery, and establishing additional levels of membership in the Friends.
According to the year-to-date budget presented earlier, $23,944. of the $50,000. in donations to be raised in order to balance this year’s budget has already been raised. The Friends of the Library are confident that they will be able to raise the remaining $26,056. by the end of June. Mrs. Maloney was asked about the results of a fund-raising mailing that went out in mid-January and answered that “quite a number of memberships came in.”
Chairman Garvey will give the Friends the names of all library advisory committee members. Commissioner Edwards suggested that the commission get regular up-dates on the progress of the fund raising campaign, including a visual to track the community’s progress in reaching the $50,000. goal and asked whether the events outlined by Mrs. Maloney were posted on the library website. Emily suggested setting up a separate Friends of the Library page on the website.
Chairman Garvey asked Mrs. Maloney to return to the commission meeting to present a progress report on fund raising efforts.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00pm.