mute 702 on uh May 13th already 24 we can call to order uh okay we've got a uh a pretty full agenda for tonight rather than go through it we'll do it one by one we've called to order the next thing is public comment does anyone have public comment is there anyone online who has public comment no great so we will move on from public comment to item three rmld EV charger update welcome thank you very much can you all hear me fantastic all right so my name is a j Pond I'm at reading mines for Lake Department I'm the integrated resource specialist and I wanted to give a pre brief update on the uh EV charger at Reading Public Library so there are two sets of EV chargers at the library there is a standard chargo branded um level two charger this is the standard one you know and love for the past 10 years and then there's a second charger there that has been there for about six months now it's the big white Obelisk that is taller than we are um and that is a DC fast charger it is much larger it is much more powerful and it is effectively a step change in how people use um electric vehicle charging hello so uh I have some handouts for the Board of Trustees I can also add these and emails to you to have them um attached for public viewing as well so there are two sheets here um showing utilization on one side and then um energy output on the other side one for the level two charger that we've had you know a couple years of data for and then there and then we have the DC fast charger which we have data for the first 3 months of 2024 so there are two things to keep in mind about how the DC fast charger being used the first is that we're seeing roughly a similar number of sessions between the level two charger the normal one and the DC fast charger however we're seeing much shorter charge times for the DC fast charger people are there plugged in for less time but people are also using that charger at night people are using that charger even when the library is closed which to me suggests there are a lot of people who are heading out from work heading out from home very early or coming home very late that are charging their car at the library to top up on the other side we'll see some graphs the big thing to keep in mind is that although customers are spending about half as much time at the DC fast charger the charger is putting out three to four times the energy output per month so this is a real demonstration of what the DC fast charger does the level two charger can't whereas a level two charger is a very very good option for if this is your destination and you're stopping here and you plug in your car and you'll get 10 12 miles of range back while you're at the library with the DC fast charger you spend 20 minutes charging up and depending on the state of your battery you can get 50 60 70 mil of range right then and there it becomes much closer to the gas station experience that we know as opposed to the charging public charging experience that we're roughly familiar with nowadays so these numbers although these are very very preliminary you know that the charger hasn't been online for very very long and it's not super well known yet but even now this is some very very promising usage data coming out of this charger so that's the good news there's some not so good news as well so um this charger is being run through a grant program run by the state house in particular the Massachusetts Department of energy protection or D we're going for a grant for them and this this system is part of that Grant there a couple of requirements we have to meet to make that Grant payment um and one of them uh that we uh put in all the paperwork and then they came back where's your Ada where's your um disability accessible parking spot so we sent him this photo or a photo like this and said see the accessible uh ramp hash marks uh there is a uh a wheelchair accessible space and they said no they need a different one specifically for the DC fast treasure hence come again why is that um Grant requirements um it's part of so we figured you know there's already a ramp accessible parking space there for an EV charger this should be fine and then D came back and said no there needs to be one specifically for the DC fast charger and one specifically for the level two charger which we applied for another Grant with the same organization so both of these Chargers need different um ramp access spots rather frustrating um so I'm reaching out to DBW to get that um put together but I wanted to let you know first and get your thoughts before I go reach out to DBW where does it need to be placed huh where does it need to be placed it needs to be placed on one of the spots um on that so there are two spots marked out H white spots here the white spots marked um so the one on the left is the one that's already there that's already marked uh marked out for the level two charger the other one we're going to have to mark out one of those spots um for the DC fast charger so instead of two spots being open there'll just be one and then hashed out spot so the the white spot on the right is currently an e charging spot correct take it away exactly it given the speed of the the DC is there a way is it a way to configure it so two handicap accessible cars could get to to park there and still take advantage of that fast charger potentially it really comes down to the length of those cables um that's where things get iffy um I will note that the likelihood of having two um accessible Vehicles parking there at the same time is pretty low uh so you only need one spot hashed out for that DC fast charger and you can only it only has one nozzle right or one thing it has two nozzles um but they are of different plug standards I guess what I'm saying is how many cars can charge at one time theoretically two uh in practice one um why why in practice only one from what we've seen of the charging data there there's almost never a time when both plugs are being used uh in part because one of the plugs again Grant requirement is for what's called a Chad plug um which you may know from Nissan Leafs a couple of Mitsubishi electric vehicles and nothing else ah so one thing that's marked on this um on this photo is is the moment where the requirements for the grant lapse and then we can do our own thing a little bit so for the level two charger spot we can free that up in June 2025 and potentially find a more functional use for that spot for the DC fast charger that spot will get opened up again in October 2026 and at that point we will also think about changing the charger plugs to ones that people actually have on their cars so I just want to make sure I'm understanding what you're saying here because I I felt like you said because it's two separate grants each Grant requires us to have one of an accessible spot for it correct so then we need to have both of the ones that are here in white I thought I also heard you say we need to have one of them so I'm confused yes okay so um the level two Charter spot that's already hashed out that's already set that's already you know on the street I just the one farthest to the left in the exactly is already there it's already not a parking spot I just want to be clear that was never a parking spot okay so that was always hashed out because of the turning radius for vehicles coming around the corner so that was never a parking spot but now it's going to be a parking spot no now well now it's still the it's still the it's just so it's not to be a handicap accessible spot it's to allow extra room for someone bring a wheelchair out of a vehicle it's it's extending it to be like a van accessible correct exactly okay and so and so we'll need to do the same for the DC fast charger spot so which of the two spots we Mark out it's not hugely important just that one of them has to be hashed out for that van accessibility it's the case we're losing one paring St yes correct so we're going four to three which could would be theoretically reclaimed after 2026 exactly so hate to give you bad news but it's something that when this went in we should have it should have been done that way then exactly got it and as to the um I don't know the terminology ho the hose the connect table yes table nozle the nozle the zapper thing of a jig um is there any way to like have a more quote universal one now I I know that's a bit of an issue but if we have one that really works for one car um unless your data saying like oh my gosh like there's so many Mazda users here in reading that have this one particular brand um like is that something that could swiped out too or is that like longer period so I have two I have two answers for that the first is while the grant period is live that plug is stuck there okay it's part of the grant requirements in the text um once 2026 rolls out um hopefully the car industry will have agreed on which plug will rule them all um you're still not quite there um but uh at that point we can really re-evaluate what plugs we put on there because we're still in the wild west of figuring out which plugs we're still pre B right so remember the era when every computer mouse had a different plug attached to it that's where we are for electric vehicle Chargers so what's do we need a motion to allocate this what's the next step I don't feel like we're being asked I I would least like to get your comment on it I don't think we have a choice it sounds like every people love the DC fast charger it's not going anywhere people use it we have a grant that covers it Grant requires the spot we have until 2026 to suffer the inconvenience we can do what we want sounds like not a whole lot we can do right but we can't take it we can't take that or add that space is that correct Amy that is correct I think you'd have to I think that's I think that has to do with that you know the fire truck's getting in there emergency vehicle getting in here yeah so that has to be exto I guess anyway yeah it already is it already is okay even more not spot I mean again if if with the layout if we're going to have three cars two charging stations if the middle one could somehow be able to access that seems it' be helpful but I mean I don't know if that white space has to be there on the left and the right or it can move around but moved around can't really uh yeah I like that idea actually yeah but I I don't know I'm just thinking if we've got three and two it would be be nice but I also you know we don't want So in theory though so that white space could actually be it could be that second in the second slot over exactly the right hand car is that way there would be excess but like you said there's only ever really going to be one person at a time probably using yeah okay all right it looks it looks neat that way because it looks bookended but right you know It ultimately matters like what is more functional for people actually using the charger I just picked one of them out of the Hat effectively preferences I I would think somebody was more focused on yeah alas the DPW what they think I I would prer to them but it'd be nice if they could be used right um yeah okay sounds good y thank you for all this inform question yeah thank you great thank you um I guess my actually I do have one more question is is there any is it helpful to the trustees do you want sort of an annual rmld update on the usage would that be helpful for you going forward or do you just GNA assume that everything's fine I know because the question of Statistics had come up at least once before so I think this would be a great time if you if you're fine I think the data is very helpful and yeah I I can give it to you on regular basis yeah um so these output these graphs are are pulled together on at least a quarterly basis okay um so depending on what you would like I can either email to all of you or I can come to the actual meetings and talk about it on camera I think it's important to know how popular they are because um I've had people come up to me and say um there are all these empty spaces where nobody's parking and they resent the uh electric charges because they can't use that space they don't have an electric vehicle yeah so it's important to know that it's being used often so you can say well maybe it wasn't being used when you were there but it's being used a lot so yeah I can't I can't necessarily claim that the charger the spot is used more than an empty parking spot but it is definitely um the most popular public EV charger we have in our set it'll be used more I think as time goes on exactly um so so even in like the other towns that you do did you do in Wilmington so um we don't have any other DC fast Chargers yet um but out of the other level two Chargers um these are the most popularly used public Chargers also seems like there's a lot of capacity left too there's absolutely a lot of capacity left um 15 19% plenty of I think why don't we ask you have my email Conta yes so if you could just maybe put it in your calendar to send me a quarterly update and then if you notice something like really big and you want to you know come say like woohoo it went up or woohooo it went down you we you could talk we can talk about adding you to the agenda and it would be very easy for me to add this just to the packet like you know just as here's a piece of information if you guys want to look at this and then we can in invite you back if they want or you could again contact me if you have something special you want to report sounds like a plan yeah I think that definitely makes sense updates and then maybe once a year or something when there are questions absolutely well thank you very much appreciate the thank you very much take care thank you excellent now uh move on to um item four Pride statement and in the packet there is a some draft language would you like to yeah address so I want to share with everybody I um in light of pride month coming in June and also uh a bit motivated by the events of the bomb threat and the audience that it was targeting I'd like to encourage us to have make a statement of support for the pride community in Reading um both within our community that uses the library as well as our own staff um so this is a draft statement I appreciate if you've all read it and and give your thoughts happy to entertain edits questions um this is similar to how we made a statement supporting the Asia Pacific Community um which has been added to the website and so my proposal is that we um would also add this to our website thank you so we have the draft language I had two comments um one may Verge on creating a bit of controversy my first one's simple which is statement of solidarity and support in the title yes the second I'm just going to throw it out there as a board we have to decide where we are with the Oxford comma Oxford Comm let's go for the Oxford comma I'm one of the few that actually don't have a dog in this fight Oxford but I work with a lot of people and they I know they can sell matching but I do believe we have two uses one without with and one one without y there's one with and one without so uhal consist I don't want to I don't want to make a stand I do Oxford me too motion to take the Oxford comma forever just kidding I think we do it in all of our minutes too so I yeah I'm full Oxford team o but beyond that that comment those two I didn't have any other comments but I'll throw it open to the the rest we would um then say our library is proud to provide a welcoming safe supportive comma and celebratory space yes for comma people Y which already exists after the word educational and next to the last line yep y two others and two others right that Oxford any other comments questions wonderful I have no comment I think it's great how would this be used where would we be posting this or using it I think I think we can post it I think we can also um on June 1st we can have Desiree put out put out a press release that's nice and I you know I think it'll coincide with the actually probably do it in the last week of May before the pride parade and um to to launch to launch um Pride Celebration month and on the website we would put it same spot yeah where we also have the land acknowledgement there as well right right yep tiny comment yeah I said we recognize the diversity of this community does that just say our community this might okay that's good point like it's referring to just the lgbtq plus Community okay let go yeah we recognize the adversity of our community and strive to meet okay I just turned over a little bit when anything else should we have so the one we're changing is that this before the community and the next and the last line yep is that correct okay gotcha so the three edits are statement of adding of adding the comma after yeah yes statement um if we're recognizing the diversity of our community then we're meeting the educational recreational Etc needs of our patrons of our patrons all our patrons oh well I I I believe the language is meant to start Broad and then get to specifically to the to the support of the pride Community well we talk about the diversity of our community and also and and therefore strive to me the in informational educational and recreational needs of our lgbtq patrons adding therefore for after before strive I don't know or not so what you know what Pat the intent was that the first sentence is really broad talking about our whole Community right and then to bring in the message to be specific to the lgbtq plus Community since that's the statement of support okay I could I take out my thing so yes so that's why it's saying this community in this in the last sent so you want to keep this Community well the goal is to not keep repeating the acronym like four or five times in three sentences which you know we recognize the diversity of the lgbtq plus community and strive to meet the informational educational uh and Recreation needs of our lgbtq there and say if you just say we strive sorry and their and their UC diversity of their yes we recognize the diversity of the LGBT commun our okay there we go our LGBT community plus and strive to meet their education educational needs periodt plus again okay right so then the period is after KN yes yes okay the oord period y right and anybody else okay move we approve the statement of solidarity and support for our pride Community as amended second second all in favor hey carries thank you very much thank you everybody thank you man thank you very much okay moving on to item five ad hoc Library landscape committee update share my [Music] screen I have your my allergies are kicking my butt today so yeah everybody apologize it just kicked off all hang in there happens a lot no worries Amy you might be in the Splash Zone that's okay you can just time you want me to hit a Gallagher sh all right folks so I appreciate you allocating some time to to to hear from from me oh I apologize uh GNA pilowsky 3 Haron Avenue so uh I've been a part I've been a member of the writing Library Landscaping committee and we've been exploring some options for uh effectively utilizing more of the outside uh space and while the committee is not ready to make a recommendation just yet I wanted to just take a quick moment and update you folks on what's been happening because activitas um in a landscaping architectural firm that we've been working with has sort of wrapped up some of their preliminary Concepts and shared with us so instead of making you wait a few months and because I know you're all excited to hear from us wanted to kind of give you a heads up give you some prelimin Ary um results while the committee continues its discussion and figuring out uh devising a path forward so it's very likely you will see me or someone else from this Committee in the next month or two depending on how the meetings align okay so updates from the library Landscaping committee um the members are listed uh below there's a lot of overlap uh it's great it's it's there's overlap between other committees and uh residents uh direct uh upor so uh and if you don't mind going to the next slide we uh started out with a simple goal which was to support uh rank public libraries core Mission quoting it here pulled it directly from the website not going to read that it's lovely but we wanted to do this by uh creating a little bit more of um uh a little bit more space outside that allows us to facilitate different uh learning activities as well as engagement for small groups uh if folks want to spend a little bit more time outside having a for example a book discussion or having some kids activities where they learn about native plants those are just examples we're not you know sold on those particular programs um so in order to do that we've gotten together we discussed some of the things that we as a committee wanted to see but we're not you know um we're not the ones really driving this it's being driven by the residents those are the needs that we're trying to address so we proceeded to engage uh with multiple different stakeholders uh Amy if you don't mind go into the next slide um we started out with community outreach uh effectively try to understand what it is that uh the members of uh the residents here the members who attend the library what is it that they're looking for so there was a distributed um survey that was done we also held public sessions uh we we've obviously engaged with you folks at one point in time relatively briefly but you also have some members from Bolt that are on the uh Landscaping committee uh and we've also have members from the running Public Library staff so kind of pull in a lot of different people to to contribute to this uh we've worked with Landscaping Architects uh so that group was activitas you might know them from um the Birch Meadow complex that that work that's being done there were responsible for kind of taking that dream and making it a reality and we're iterating with them to converge in the solution we also have Town staff um and we've included them as members but non voting ones uh so they attended some meetings whenever they can they're pretty busy and pulled into everything imaginable am next slide please so there's also of the public story came in and it was actually pretty well in line with what the committee first brainstormed um on the right hand side you see a word cloud that was made by activas for us but uh the survey itself contained 250 responses which is pretty pretty good for those that that that uh for for the residents that utilize the library 90% of the response uh responders said that they come here monthly and uh that breaks down into you know about uh 40% that come here weekly and 50 that come in monthly so that's really really good uh engagement with folks that are actually spending time here and understand what the space has and how this space can be improved or outside space um 35 were satisfied with uh current events that are being held I think that's a really good number too uh you're not going to get you know 100% satisfaction so in terms of batting that's that's a pretty good average right there uh 55 wanted more events uh so 55% wanted more events so that kind of demonstrates that there is a potential need to evolve the space or create a new additional space for for Community engagement uh learning and Etc and some of the things that stood out to us was um requests for additional shading and seeding that makes sense especially if we're talking about the outside space uh as well as some of uh additional Green Space so kind of making it a little bit nicer if you will maybe focusing on um native plants but we'll get there eventually maybe next slide please so activitas came back to us with a couple of different preliminary Concepts and the committee sort of focused on one in particular that is being shown here um some of the items that are labeled all of this is in the notes and the minutes that we hold that we have for our committee so you can look at it in Greater detail at any point in time but effectively if you exit out of that door uh one of the things that you'll notice is that there there's a paved patio with a I can never pronounce this correctly pergola structure really yeah oh wow okay I've tried this like dozens of times uh pergula uh where it not only does it provide some shade but also a bit of um kind of um not even it's not isolation it's more of just a little bit of privacy if you will just by existing you'll see a few images uh of what that what that kind of looks like and it provides a little a little bit of you know Comfort comfortable place to potentially do some work and we also looked at seating and a small stage that's just around the corner in the library there's a slope so um there's an image illustrating in the top right hand corner kind of a side view of what it would potentially sort of look like uh we do sometimes have events here that involve you know music um so that would be a kind of a good place potentially uh changing some of the um plants would be would be nice and so this sort of what came back to us from activitas now we were faced with a bit of a chicken and knif problem we don't know what things cost they don't know what to design for so we needed to converge onto something and gets we needed to start somewhere this is a great start we actually had three additional designs but some of them were non viable maybe due to having the road rest structured such the fir tracks can get in not important this is kind of what we're showing to you for the time Amy slide these are examples of the pera sorry of perula so it does provide uh pretty good shading some of the options were discussed were uh for example a roof that automatically senses moisture and rain and closes by itself and that's super duper fancy and that's awesome we love it probably not going to get it seems excessive seen as how no one's really going to be holding activities out there in the middle of a hurricane so but nevertheless uh some some some seating some chairs so that folks can sit and potentially do work do reading whatever it is that they may want to uh do in that space next slide covers a little bit more about seating right there's a couple different things that are proposed uh chairs and uh benches where once again uh smaller groups can congregate and have a discussion be it about a book or magazine or an event here whatever it may be right um Amy next slide please so the cost breakdown came uh to us and all of these different things including hardscaping and retaining wall Etc the price T came to uh $1.3 million and at first we were shocked and I'm sure you are as well but one needs to take a step back for a moment or so and really break it down uh so this is a preliminary cost estimate uh I'm emphasizing things in blue this is not the expected cost uh we will not be uh using taxpayers to fund this and uh we'll be looking for funding through additional uh be it grants or donations so we're not we're not we're conscientious of the bills that are coming down the pipe for this town we don't want to add any more to it right but we needed to start somewhere and we had no intentions of um of holding back activitas in what they think they can design for us uh right off the bat uh we don't want to put any barriers in front of them we just wanted to see what is effectively uh the art of possible if you will and so we kind of gave them free reign and gave them some suggestions and this is what they came with and uh we also uh talk to them about additional options so all right one and a half or 1.3 million might be quite a bit is there an alternative to that can we bring down Say by a factor of two bring down to something more manageable maybe 750 or so it's roughly what the committee was uh discussing and that's where we left off um as a committee if you have any questions I'm going to try to be really careful answering them because I don't want to speak for the committee as a whole so bear with me here uh activas actually did a pretty good job in not only this and showing us what is out there what is possible but in turning around and they were able to come back to us relatively quickly and say hey look here's an Al alternative where we scoped some some of the things Chang some things and yeah we got it to 750 pretty easily right so there's a lot of flexibility I don't want to get too fixated on this number it's a starting point uh we now have a road map to you know 750 for example as our total budget the committee will be meeting evaluating that particular proposal seeing what else uh we can do in terms of not only funding this effort but who potentially could also uh uh um provide similar solution in order to make sure that we do our due diligence prior to making a recommendation to this committee all right um next slide please so next steps is we're going to continue to engage with the community uh we have some idea of what it'll end up looking like we want to bring that forth to the public maybe have a poster displaying options in the library just as an example still brainstorming these things um there needs to be a refinement of the actual concept we need to examine how we can reduce cost um nothing was goldplated but it also wasn't necessarily the the the cheapest material out there frankly we don't want the cheapest one somewhere in between and that's kind of what we're trying to converge onto um so we need to have farther discussion with uh Landscape Architects and identifi sources of funding be it's state or federal uh or local different groups might have uh some money that they're will to play pledge to a project not necessarily just give it away but kind of put forth in the uh as a as as a pledge so those are the options that we're exploring or will be exploring as a committee in the next meeting or two once we decide and have a clear road map uh we will be coming back to you folks and giving you a better overview of what the recommendation is effectively from from the Landscaping committee I believe that's the last slide so I'm happy to stick around for a little bit longer and um and there any questions that you might have and I appreciate the time you folks allocated to this so thank you anyone have any followup [Music] questions on the nonvoting Town members who who are they now um I know non voting committee members uh the non voting committee members so we we uh we had Fidel okay um I SU that uh Matt is also more than welcome to join us at any time uh we had uh Ben cares um I don't believe there's a replacement for him just yet and we had Andrew uh M McNichols uh so he's also been exceptionally swamped recently um so they've they've participated here and there I I'll just add too that we have run this by fire police DPW and Facilities um and in DPW it also included not only the director of DPW but the town engineer and so they were sent the all the storm dra because we have all that stuff the drainage and the where the water pipes are sewer pipes are so um as a conceptual design it's um probably very doable meaning based on the information they have they didn't just come and do a picture they actually it involved significant amount of research and measuring and and things like that so um it's it and again police fire DPW and Facilities um so facility but to know about wiring and all that other stuff so so and the safety piece of it they they all sort of seem to think that this was a um decent presentation of of of doable presentation for them to maintain or them to put in or things like that you saw only a couple of slides that we pulled out from the presentation given to us by activitas um they have you know dozens of slides and multiple pages of the actual cost breakdown um removing soil making sure that there's a retaining wall Etc just saw a snapshot of it that's all the plans are really quite thorough the plans are very thorough the uh breakdown of the costs were also quite thorough yep and was like two or three pages in pretty pretty fine print yep I needed my reading glasses for [Music] it question is it okay if I ask um does it take away Green Space though I love I love that um like Amphitheater seating but does it add any trees or actual Green Space or is it mostly like structures yeah so I don't believe it will take away much green space I haven't counted up the trees but it's I think we we ask them to preserve as many trees as possible that are already existing and I believe it's actually adding Green Space in it it depends on how you define it like all right so effectively we remove a plot of grass that's gone pagota goes in but around the pergula per pergula around the pergula um there were flower beds for example in some of the images so not exactly sure exactly how one would Define like maybe in terms of surface area yes but in terms of quality it's an improvement we're we were really asking for a lot of native plants which can be uh used by local insects like pollinators right and then seeds and birds would come in so we're trying to not lose Green Space that makes sense um we're conscientious about uh drainage and water being able ble to maintain uh the landscape if you will once it's done so there's a budget there's an item in there in the price breakdown that actually said hey we're going to take this much amount of money and put it effectively in an account where we just skim off the top every year to be able to maintain the uh the the vegetation that they put in that kind of make makes sense is that okay I have a a question the what struck me about the amphitheater area which I think it's it's absolutely great is just this proximity to the driveway which is the main egress as cars are leaving the libraries to come around back there was there any thought um put into putting in some sort of a barrier there if you're thinking a lot of children are going to be out in that area and you've got where it's the main egress from the library um only EG so um you're talking about see how that comes right up against that dve GRE toting in trees oh okay got it I didn't see that thank you yeah this is actually a sidewalk in between yeah okay some of the is a different color green represent um new existing and new I think it does I think the darker what the dark green are new planting new plantings right yeah so they're actually be Greenery added uh trees added right the yeah right lose some surface area we on the volume yeah y density yeah all right we have a sense as to how attractive that is to skateboards well and this is where the value engineering comes in So yeah so are you are you referring to the tiered seating by I'm just thinking you go down like there's it's mainly green so I'm guessing it's not can't be that attractive but yeah I'm no it's a good it's a good question to think about in terms of um there a lot of stuff on the property that's already skateboarding think so I would think so I mean I don't know that can we have some well I'm not say I've been out skateboarding a lot lately we' had some we've had some interesting uses of our hardscaping railings and steps just put it it that way that makes sense I don't want to give anyone any ideas thank you for coming sharing thanks for letting letting us rmld presentation right folks thank you appreciate it feel better all right moving right along to item six state of the collection report we are I'm going to table that Jamie was unable to attend today okay so we're going to push that back to June do we need a motion to table or can we just yes a motion to Jamie is unable to attend motion to table second any disc discussion hearing none all in favor thank you carries and we move on to the local history room policy a review of the policy so we have um red lines and a clean version um thought the red lines were clear but I don't know if you want to any particular things you want to highlight or just just to the the points of the uh the changes are really again this is we're trying to make sure we get the procedure out of there and get the policy into there uh get make sure it's strictly policy um there are some changes um in that like before it was like oh you can't bring your bags in there and we you know we quickly realized that after trying to implement that we don't want to be responsible for people's belongings so yeah so you can bring a you can bring a backpack in there so some of the some of the actual um working through the procedures of what our previous had we realized we just want people to come in and say who they are use it use it as appropriately um you know and if they if we can bring them the materials we're going to do that if they have to use the space there's a certain amount of um the procedures will include a certain amount of orientation but we want we want them to use the the the space safely um and then um and then we want to see them leave without the things without damaging anything yes so and um actually um I think Sarah Kelo and JN G the local history librarian were very instrumental in making some of these changes um they pulled out a lot of the procedures we now have it's much more detailed procedure document which is nice because for our staff because then you know if something changes um then we just have to change the procedure um you know we said fine use your use your cell phone in the in the local history room um some of this was also reducing barriers so like such as the cell phone um so we don't want to be too restrictive but most a lot of the deletions were just um were just sort of um about the uh perfunctory like about procedure versus policy and it shortens it up a bit have a couple of questions sure under scope so this non circulating e collection that supposed to be an e but it's not supposed to be e right actual physical things right yeah it's non circulated in the merged one I think we corrected that okay oh maybe I should only be looking at that version then have a very minor edit bullet point five on the amended or final copy needs a period yep y on the second page um the reproduction and photocopying Y um items apostrophe s uh last word on the got me too I wasn't sure if that's depending on the items condition item what is the condition of the item the condition of the item under conditions for accessing materials I think there's supposed to be a period after reader advisory desk yes and then under the pleased note when we talk about like no food or drink or chewing them no pens all makes complete sense to me but if we're allowing people to carry bags and things into the room now this seems less I think yeah forcible I mean you're not going to search anybody's bag where before when we weren't allowing that and you couldn't carry much in yeah at least they won't dig it out of their bag and use right I think that I think that's the request of the honor System kind of thing and do check use of EDS not available right if they're in the pocket right and if they if they do use it then um I believe and if you don't mind me asking Andrea we do check on the folks once they're in there you know um well it's it's a little bit hard now that that um research generator services on a different floor than than it but we do have to open we have to unlock the door for them and then we have to go and lock it again when they're done so it gives us a couple of access points to sort of guide the patron but also just check to see what's happen in the room and I believe the new procedures have like have a for any librarian letting someone in there hi my name is librarian one and here are the five things that you really need to know about using the space actually there are six six okay here are the six things um and in addition to uh you know here because a lot of the materials are locked yeah um so they can't get into any of that so it would be like oh we're just chosing a street list great here are the street lists no pens no food no drink um how about also having it posted yeah do we have a little sign in there have also a QR code yeah yes I believe so with it anything that's locked we we just requiring them to bring it downstairs to the our desk to actually access the material with the staff member present yeah so we encourage that more than sitting in the in the room or you know study per the other thing i' question is the um patrons who engage in behavior that could cause damage to materials may be denied access it feels like where this is you know I understand our the library wanting to be a welcome in place to all and and if you you know if you be behave inappropriately will'll give you other chances in the greater Library space but where this is such delicate material if someone's engaging in behavior that could cause damage to materials maybe we should consider saying will be denied okay but I I'm happy to have other people weigh in here it just seems like it's really delicate material I guess it's just a question of like are they chewing gum or are they like taking notes in the margins of we can't replace okay I see I see what you're saying I was thinking like yeah obvious I wasn't thinking gum I was thinking like they're ripping material yeah I mean you could have somebody who's a regular user who pulls out a sick one day and and through no fault of themselves not get banned for life but I think I like having the flexibility to okay trust the staff to make the right decision yeah I mean it sounds as if it's behavior in the sense that it's conscious yes like I'm going to do this and ruin this yeah not um I got sick and I couldn't help it or you know something beyond my control but it's like if someone goes in there deliberately tries to Def face stuff or yeah I know there have been situations in places like the Boston Public Library where people go into um restricted areas and they they steal stuff or they rip Pages out of a old book because it's a page they want so that's the kind of stuff that I think um is engaging in bad behavior but um other things I think probably aren't you're two in come and you know you manage to nobody knows that you're doing it I guess it's you're not put sticking the gum in the pages to keep stick them together and wreck it I mean I don't know I'll just add anecdotally that since 2021 um sort of postco but we implemented this um before it was an open room um it is much more secure it is we don't have I mean the biggest problem we had were youngsters younger people coming in after school and you know playing Chase with the chairs the rly chairs and things like that and and they weren't necessarily damaging anything but they were definitely disruptive and were not using the space as it was designed so we kind of encourage them now to go to their space that they have they have a wonderful space um so in general I think it's it's this policy overall is doing exactly what it was meant to do which was to really address the needs of a special collection um that we you know we can't replace so have you had to deny anyone access no um and and it actually works out well because JN does these one-on ones so people are very um there there are the heavy users that know what they're doing when they're coming in then we have people that are just curious about oh you know I'd like to look up some stuff about you know do you have anyone who can help me and so J does these one-on ones and they get a really a great introduction to the space I think Joselyn and and the other staff too but you know are very um have an excellent very professional presence to really stress how important this these materials are and the care that we take for them I mean I think when you're they like here's a pillow for which you may you know put the thing on and you know don't that helps people understand um that these aren't the paperbacks that you take to the beach and you know um so it it does give it its appropriate um D house I guess so the biggest um problem we used to see was people defacing the yearbooks because they cut things out or or make copies and just make a mess and um since we locked those up and got them fully digitized that has really yeah improved greatly we do try to drive people to the digital copies whenever we can digital copies are great I would imagine that most people all they need to know is what the information is they don't need to see the actual document in their hand so the digital copy would be adequate for research purposes mean if you want to know when someone was was born in writing you don't necessarily have to see yeah the uh Tom Clerk's handwritten notification that so and so was born in such and such a date in 1897 so you just need to know that that's what what happened any other uh comments or questions on the draft policy okay hearing none I think we had a handful of um minor edits that I think we captured that can be incorporated and then we will be seeing this again in a month next moving on uh to item eight which is going to be a vote on the C cation trust committee appointment would you like to address that yes I checked with Phil rushworth and he would like to be um reappointed to the Celebration trust committee and um so we just need a motion and vote on on that to the Phil rushworth Phil rushworth to the Celebration cons seconded any comments questions discussion hearing none all in favor okay motion carries bring us to items nine and then 10 the financial report and the director's report um so you have our fin your your printed financial report um we're right on target every um we're looking at salaries we knew we're going to be under budget because transitions um we we watch Megan and Jamie and I are now watching all of our other spending expense spending on kind of a kind of a weekly basis because we just really want to come in right at the end of June 30th on target for materials and on target for other expenses um on Monday April 29th the town budget went through town meeting um it was it was a little you know there was definitely some comments and things not particularly with the library but took us an hour and a half a couple hours to get through but it passed overwhelmingly so um it was a it was a it was a good budget the library's request was a 3.6 increase um I like to include that spending scorecard it's something that kind of slips by um in the big um budget warrant warrant for the meeting that includes the budget um it does give you a breakdown and I think it's helpful to see sort of the the scope of the library budget um in amongst everything else if you interested um we do have a public copy of the warrant that you're welcome to browse through you're welcome to borrow mine do you have one from town meeting yes so but it has the whole school budget it has everybody budget with all of their statistics it's all online yeah um but it's fun yes and and so again from thanks Joe from our um vcom liaison um but I think it went really well and um so that's always sort of a relief of um we kind of got through that um and uh other than that there's just a quick report on the gifts we had mostly cash gifts um this last month and that's all it is with Finance question any questions on finance hearing none director's report so I won't go through this um piece by piece um just one quick update exterior lockers are fixed y so just a quick update on the on the fix I believe there's actually a piece of cloth there's a cloth thing out here do that again cloth there's a great floss that you have to lift up so the damage was coming and yes they should figure out a fix for this because the sun was coming in and it was actually damaging the screen and they don't have a product that's going to withstand that amount of sunlight apparently which should um so you can use it they're working on some ways to encourage it and and the way that it was fixed didn't didn't require any drilling or any you know further modification that could damage the insides to to the thing so it was the safest most um reasonable I guess fix so now now becomes the negotiations on on our 2025 maintenance contract so they manufactured a product that couldn't be in Sun and never said it cannot outdoor well they never realiz it I guess I didn't really think about it but we're not the only ones who are going through this so I think there's an in there to fix that you mean other exterior products are exposed to the sun put Phoenix and it just melts right exactly exactly well and sometimes these are Under like at a um if you get to a big County Branch it might be at something something under a big shelter you know like a like a but big bus stop and we consider doing that um but we're like oh no we have this great overhang it's not going to get rain on it it's not going to get snow on it there will be light um so you can see it um but yeah a very convenient spot too it's an extremely convenient spot so um trust me we're going to every time there's any kind of comment feedback just be like fix your screen fix your screen fix your screen that seems so just keep going on with that but it's good to have them going up and um we're going to I think we might be doing a PR launch like loers are back maybe we should I we should but I haven't heard from b or Jamie yeah I didn't know if they were like oh there nervous about it I think they also want to figure out like is there a way we can do velcro things so you can just kind of like you know maybe that's already there so but give it a try okay I'm no expert I'm trying to use this Compass though it seems like it's east to west like it would be actually well positioned not get direct sunlight just low enough just low enough that it gets the sunshine so um the compass on my phone for once one time just curious though you said so there's a cover now on the screen is there signage that says please that's C back I think that's what they're working on and we did say and we we've talked about that and the thing is is that staff will have to go out there once in a while to put the books out there and things so we'll we'll figure out a rotation to kind of go check on the machine regularly it is a little bit more work for us but um we're gonna we're going to do what we can with it and see how that works out promotion with the history room it's like an old timey photograph underneath um I just we just had the animal extravagance it was just last um I said coming up but forgetting it would happen before this but that was a really great event I don't know there were you know there were donkeys there were or horse miniature horses there were bunnies and the snakes were like like the most popular thing there were like nine kinds of snakes like 15 yeah so people had pictures had pictures of them they could hold the snakes and all the other things but it was very popular and it was very um it was a great family event and there were actually even had some teenagers stop by probably the snakes probably I'm guessing were very attractive to that um but it was I to say it was um it was one of the events that we do that just really sh it shown a spotlight on how the teams work together because we had everybody you know between promotion and cutting out pieces for the crafts and making sure the crafts were available in different ages and making things accessible scheduling working with facilities for the the um over time you know we had to had the the uh custodians did an amazing job with the setup and breakdown and and um so it was just really a great you know Library wide event for the community so just yeah I just want to make a note Megan really helped get some teen volunteers into to work the event as well he Megan hey Megan Clemente so thank you very much um for that and uh we'll be going um I understand why you had the snakes here but I have to say when I saw the wagon that had the stake sign on it the reptile sign I was going to return a book to the library and I didn't do it yes I saw that I saw that going in and I thought no I'm I'm gonna wait for later I I'll bring it over tomorrow I I 100% agree with you and it takes all kinds it doesn't I mean I'm sure some people are clearly interested but I was clearly not someone asked me this morning one of the staff members I was like oh to go they're like good and um oh actually a little quick update is that the fish have um been red distributed so I guess to other people and we are getting a turtle up in the up in the um in a terrarium rather than the fish tank it's a little easier to maintain basically live amount 200 years I know so um at any rate I was speaking about the the turtle thing and asking about that and then right after that I said how's the inal thing and they're like oh do you like snakes and I just looked at the staff memor I was like well not in the library you know like I wasn't sure whether they were going cuz like oh we have a turle the next we'll have a snake like not in the library not in the library but they were just up they out that great either time talking I proceeded to then see a whole bunch of different Staff pictures of Staff members with different snakes on them and how I can handle but yes we will not have snakes on the library puppies I'm sure were very popular too yes there's little puppy puppy with so um and also just um a shout out to Andrea who's going to be attending an intensive um train the trainer um for uh issues surrounding First Amendment um sipa and social media internet privacy and confidentiality that's being run by the American Al Association of law Librarians um how many how many in your cohort do you know three from Massachusetts three from Massachusetts Librarians yeah when is that end of this month end of this month um and um we uh Elizabeth was able to get a MLS grant for a course on um libraries in aging 101 so it's always great when we get um funded funded training so and then just our regular list of a selected list of uh what people have been working on as usual it's it's just always very interesting I'll be asking her about those those things when uh she's finished her course I want to know how to be empowered as [Laughter] a okay any other questions I don't really have anything else to report from the direction report um April's usually you know we had a big vacation week and so we had a lot of was very busy up here um which is a little surprising April vacation's usually a little quieter but it was quite busy this this year um and we're just getting ready for our summer reading that's really basically between now in June uh we're looking forward to um uh summer Sizzlers we're looking forward to the summer reading um juneth Freedom Festival and I did mention to the library Consortium series which is this new um I think the I think there was a bill in the current this current War warrant um and there's actually Andrea you can speak to that how many programs they have it's a you want to tell them what the Consortium yeah I think I I think I probably gave you a little bit of a preview the last time I presented on programs but um we're going to call it the friend speaker series we're just re rebranding it but it's the name of the organization is the library speaker Consortium and you subscribe to it to get like bestselling authors and Hot Topics you get about four programs online per month you subscribe per whole year um and they have everything from bestselling authors like Shelby Van Pelt of the octopus book remark and um a Mars from gentleman in Moscow um to business leaders and health and wellness coaches and teen authors we have um Kate Dello coming for children's authors in the summer have a whole summer reading thing in July they also have they have um an agreement with the Smithsonian Institute so various curators from the Smithsonian speak there's one on Mars and there's another on the space station coming up this summer so the way that that works is we have access to everything all the Live Events we have access to their entire back catalog even before we subscribe so they've been around for two or three years now and when folks register they can either watch it live or go back and watch it whenever they want and we'll also be doing some of the programs as watch parties or some kind of in-person tie-in to better promote them and try to bring people into the building but it it breaks down to a little bit under $200 per program for a lot of content so we will be piloting this year and um hoping we can get decent turnout even though it's online does it have a maximum number of participants is it like licenses or something no no and not only that but anyone who stumbles Upon Our content can register through us so you doesn't you know doesn't exclude say North Reading residents um from getting to sign up and watch our content do you need the noble card or just anything you don't need anything except to register for the for the talk and it's the first one in June the first one is June 3 and it is a Smithsonian talk about Mars yeah and I think mostly it'll be ya and and adult content you know like 80% adult content maybe 20% ya or ya crossover and then in the summer they just have just over a month of of children's programming I could see that being like its own newsletter you know the friend speaker series for this month includes like yeah Michelle's working on like a for the front P page of the summer brochure on breakout thing um so that it's kind of branded as its as its own thing so people kind of understand to expect big names and always online um and desire is working on a a press release to announce the subscription on the program it seems as if um you should also put it on one of the screens yes Library I mean because it's the kind of thing that seems as if um first of all people need to know about it to use it and the more publicity you can do on it the better yeah we're heavily promoted I think because it is virtual and that's going to be confusing it's also confusing right go live or get it later how it works it sounds as if it's something that um people would enjoy especially content's amazing I mean the content is really high quality especially since you can use older ones whenever you want yeah so you know that's perfect I would think yeah does that historic go to the same price tag like is this is there going to be um funding issues coming up with it in terms of the the budget that the friends have with it well this year we're using I split between the two fiscal years because we didn't know about it until we were well into this FC year like I never heard of it and then when I heard of it I was like I want to do that but but it was you know it's 3,500 for our population size to do it per year so a th is coming out of um gift funds this fiscal year and then 2500 is coming out of um from the friends the Friends pilot money so if it's successful we will ask for it mostly out of the adult budget adult programming budget from the friends going forward or come back into the foundation or something I I am not sure but we we'll just have to wait and see if we can get enough people to attend to make something you might want to try for a couple years before you scrap it if it doesn't seem to work well the first year I think people sometimes need to know about stuff and where it spreads did you see this thinging on TV you know on online it was great you know you'd love it and well you know people will tell other people about it I think so we may want to try it for at least a couple years before we decide maybe it's not great I hope it works sounds sounds wonderful yeah I hope so too I I think I think if we're creative if we if we tie it into enough book groups if we take it to the schools you know we'll be able to take the content with us to the senior center fact I think we already have party plan at the Senor Center that's great they want on demand so that's what it is and yeah if and if it grows I mean this would be something that I think the foundation really likes everything except name of it sounds great they would consider they would consider naming rights that if you want to give you want to give money they'll consider you guys naming rights the June 13th as I always say the foundation we're not your friends yesth is the next Foundation meaning yes feel free to go pck I just want friends have only just barely started so we we'll we'll see how that works but no no I just I just I think it's a I think it's a great idea I was just wondering with the when you were talking about the backlog library and then say her program I'm like well it sounds like it's almost like the equivalent of like going into canopy and opening up Great Courses yeah saying I want to do a bunch of Great Courses things yeah great s cool you know where to find us thank you excellent and I will be curious to hear um you know in in June or another subsequent meeting that you're able to make I think some of the Chicago stuff will be interesting after after you attend that I I think I'm presenting for summer programing the next trust okay so we can add you want to hear about the law too I you might want to give that presentation yourself but I can try it'll be interesting great thank you very much I have I have a quick question I think Michelle probably Ed to you um noticing under professional development the sampling one of them is how to train your community on Libby um and so just just curious if we've done a sort of an introductory session on you know for people who still don't really know how to use LI or canopy or hoopla this is more of an Andrea question oh is it okay I went technical we did have um what's it called Michelle on the website where you take the short little a whole Library have a n Academy and several other little like how to kind of like YouTube um but through something more specialized to libraries and then our Elder Services librarian did it at the senior center okay honestly the way that this usually plays out at the um reference desk is people want to help in the moment with their device when it's not acting the way they think it is and that's it's like that with um okay tablets and just almost any Tech help we give usually people come to us like we try to do a job series and and show people how to maybe set up a resume or something but then they never really show up for those events but when they need us in a pinch then they want it on to me so that's what we find with liby is people come in when they're like I don't know how to install it or how do I download the content or that kind of thing that's when we really see people okay isn't this list though the stuff that's being taught in this no I'm sorry I should have I should have put another header in there that's what I sort of understood yes all right so I I forgot at header that header should have been after Elizabeth powering mature adults there should have been and selected so this is some of the stuff that you guys people have been y to okay sorry I misunderstood words thank you any other questions on anything in the director's report or discussed hearing none next agenda item is review and approval of our April meeting minutes that are contained all right some maybe typos I don't know um on page two um under votes uh Safe child policy second paragraph um it says note should it be noted yes we can fix that and on then on uh financial report on the first line should it be um Miss Lon uh recommended or do you want to keep it as um present tense recommended is fine we can change to recommend it and um on page four um a period after middle sex AV or else right th it out uh under director's report um third line from the bottom 59 middle sex AV either a period after a or the whole word my English teacher had away now oh I see what you're saying yes okay which still means that if Andrew signs the last page there's no CH the last page and page and cor any anything else as always it was incredibly thorough I don't know how she types that fast but amazing quietly I mean grant that I'm over here but I normally I'm no it's only it's only two fingers she's amazing she's amazing motion to accept the minutes as second motion seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor of accepting minutes thank you very much last we have our future agenda items a preview of a busy June with the summer programming update that we got the uh foreshadowing for Community DEA assessment update I think what that is going to be is um Amy and you can clarify that'll be Albert coming in to essentially give a summary of the presentation that was made to the select board for those that missed it as to the findings uh and conclusions of the assessment uh we'll vote on that history policy we will elect new officers uh we'll vote on our future dates in the holiday schedule any anything else for the future item The Collection services update the state of collection update is uh oh I'm sorry that was just tabled I'm actually think maybe we won't move that I just I'm sorry I just I misremembered Jamie and I discussed actually moving that to August or possibly September after the year end close that way we're doing dat of the collection fy2 24 so nice because you'll have AES how many how many we added how many we deleted this year you know money spent during that fiscal year um so we might permanently shift that that report um to to August I like that idea it's after the close of the fiscal year yeah that sounds good is um this coming Sunday the last Sunday we're open for the summer is this the date yep because we're not we don't we don't do Memorial right okay so this Sunday is the last Sunday until October October we restart the Sunday after Columbus Day no we start before October 6th October 6th okay thanks Megan and we are open the Sunday before Columbus Day Sunday before okay do you promote that like hey last Sunday I'm actually writing a note to myself right now to do that okay think that'd be a good idea something out just a reminder excellent any uh any other future agenda items anyone would like to suggest hearing none move to adjourn motion to adjourn has been seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor you think give us a chance to say anything e