##VIDEO ID:nAZHh2NNUEI## you're now unmuted right okay all right we'll call to order uh this August 12th 2024 meeting um happy pop is unable to attend so I will attempt to fill those very nice shoes uh we're going to call the order public comment we're going to get a state of the collection we're going to review two policies that were circulated meeting room and tutoring excuse me uh we're going to discuss and vote the Strategic plan that was discussed last time and then your standard reports agenda future items so first public comment no one is in the room is anyone online no there is nobody online okay I will add one public comment then just because it's not on the agenda um just recognizing the events uh in Worcester last week at their Library as far as the attack also the great outpouring for the next uh or open house day the following or two days later um but I think it's always a a chance to unfortunately revisit rules and protocols around safety because it's never nice when those are the headlines so I just wanted to express uh our admiration for the good folks doing hard work in Worcester and I think the fact that they had such a robust event shortly after really speaks volumes Umar to things that have happened here I like the volumes part okay all right no other public comment then we can close public comment and we can move on to the state of the collection report all right that's me I'm Jamie peny head of collection services and I'm here to give my annual is report of the collection I'm going to talk a little bit we have some stats about um here have some statistical some excuse me statistical information about our Holdings how many items we have and what kinds they are and also how they circulate I had it shared and then I unshared it was up it was and now I'm Chang that's okay I can talk a little bit beforehand so I'm also going to talk a little bit about collection management how we decide what we get you know what we have how we get it how we weed it um so basically we've got the selection and acquisition of all of our materials and then we have the deselection and the weeding of material of the materials it's like the life cycle of the materials that we have so basically our colle collection is divided into a couple of little sort of sections we've got the adult collection the teen collection the children's collection we have fiction and non-fiction we have formats we've got print large print we have audio various audio form formats including CDs playaways audio enhanced books like Wonder books or the Tony which are very cute and they are very new we just got these there's a box about the size of a Kleenex box and then you put this is I don't know I'm not familiar with her but this is James and the Giant Peach and you put this on top of it with a little magnet and it reads the story and it's very cute and colorful and fun and we just heard about them we actually had a lovely donation from I believe it was a league of women's league of reading who gave us the first you know U batch and now we're buying more apparently they're quite popular and so we're buying more characters they're often characters like there's one of all dogs Clifford the Big Red Dog and I don't know who's another famous dog you know dogs old yell that's too sad to have I don't have sad no Sad Dog Snoop I don't even think it's Snoopy in there but I know there's Clifford but I'm trying I'm struggling to think of another kind of dog we have that you know that sort of thing so those are very cool and new so I'm excited about those we also have obviously DVDs CD music CDs a library of things um and econtent we have ebooks and E audio books we also have um a couple of services in for with which we can down watch streaming videos and also some of those services like canopy and KLA can that was a spoonerism canopy and hoopla and you can also stream um ebooks and audio books through those Services as well so um our internal International collection has been growing we've been growing it a lot this year that we did some um some surveys of the languages spoken and reading especially in the schools I think the schools did a big survey there's been a few surveys um and Portuguese is kind of bubbled up so we've been buying a lot of Spanish and Portuguese materials this year in children's teens and adult you know content which is pretty exciting you know we used to do it in fits and starts but we're really trying to um you know make sure we think about diversity and um build it into the annual budget every single year we shouldn't just wait for you know let's let's refurbish it we're going to buy a certain amount every year so we have money allocated for each of those in children's teen and adult and I'm looking forward to It's tricky sometimes to find the books and they can be very expensive but I think it's still worth it to do it because um mostly it's you know popular material in English that was translated but we are looking into some sources for you know books originally written in Sp Spanish or Portuguese and buying those so that you know people will be familiar with um you know stuff that is actually popular and orig originates in that language um let's see what else okay so who picks it all Librarians participate in collection development and we've got various you know there's two committees the since the bulk of it is basically fiction and non-fiction we have two Committees of three for each of those um and then children's has various folks who pick like the comics and graphic novels the non-fiction the board books the picture books those kinds of things so they have different folks that are managing each of those collections they get a budget every year of how much they can spend we let them know every month or so how it's going and then they can you know allocate their money throughout the year um also this is kind of a new thing this year and I'm not sure why it took us so long to do this but the fiction and the non-fiction folks we used to have a separate person who bought all of the audiobooks and then we thought maybe we should have the fiction people buy fiction in print audiobook and E content as well and that same with a non-fiction so less by format and more by content and then you buy whatever formats are needed some very popular um titles we're going to get in all three we're going to get you know we might get a playway and a CD audio book and an ebook and e audiobook and a couple of print copies and a large print copy and so forth um some of the tools that we use include professional journals like Library Journal um Publishers Weekly book list also popular things like People magazine Entertainment Weekly that doesn't exist anymore but we used to use that a lot you know stuff that people will get and find out about and um ask about and we get that booknotes newsletter is that what it's called booknotes no it's called what's it called doesn't really matter what's called book what book page and those are around the library and people can you know take patrons can have them for free and you know it it it informs a lot of our selection as well also you know we think about diversity we hope somebody to do a an official diversity assessment in the meantime we just try to be very mindful of buying content that has different looking kinds of people on the cover and is written by you know own voices and people of color and dis people with disabilities Etc queer people and we want to make sure we have that content even and and when we weed it if even if it's not cirking that well we'll tend to keep it because we just want to make sure it's here and available at all times um even if it's not going out a lot and I would say those cirs are growing those circulations are growing but I don't have the data yet to back that up but I'm I'm I feel it in my heart so it must be true um we use vendor um tools as well like there's this thing called the hint list High interest titles in our um primary book vendor and they collect you know upcoming stuff that's in all all um age groups and we go through those and see if it fits in with our collection like for example I do fiction I'll look at things in the hint list and I I think do we have this author already have they done well you know do they seem to do well in reading or if it's we're often well we're happy to buy a debut that's we you know we we like to buy a lot of Debut um titles um so that's a vendor tool that we use but a lot of the book vendors have those kinds of tools you know to help people help Librarians busy Librarians with collection development and of course Patron requests and feedback as well um you know we have a form I think on the web on our website and people can just you know talk to the I mean people talk to their the people at the um service desks so we often collect those as well we see if things are being interor loaned a lot if something is being asked for a lot we're like oh obviously we should buy that or have it in you know in Noble uh what else so oh and then you know the life cycle of the book or the whatever it is goes through and sometimes we have to weed The Collection um it's very weeding is very important um we have a statement about it in our collection development policy and we use professional tools for that as well there's something called The Crew guidelines which are which means continuous review evaluation and weeding which you should be doing to your collection all the time and the Hallmarks of a healthy crew policy is that you make it part of your policy you gather your usage statistics and you build it into the calendar and what we've done is each sort of we we've divided especially this is with non-fiction we've divided the non-fiction into various sections that are manageable for each staff person and then they have like this is going to be your month to weed and you go through it and you see if it's you know if it needs weeding and so some of the CATE the the reasons why you would weeding something is a very cute little acronym called musty so which means you should weed misleading and or factually inaccurate um information that can be tough nowadays but there it is ugly worn you know just spotted moldy whatever taped up you know replace it if you still want it replace it if it's sueded new additions um you know travel guides from the past are not helpful health and information from the past is not helpful we want to weed those even if there is not a perfect brand new book to replace something like that you don't want that information really to be out there it's not safe if something is Trivial you know fads will pop up and there'll be a bunch of publishing about that and then you know years go by and nobody's interested anymore you don't need a million books on the OJ trial for example you know something that's popular at that moment if it's irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community I would I wouldn't say there's much that's irrelevant to folks in reading but you know the big the big three I always say are cookie cookbooks craft books and craft books gardening gardening gardening craft and cooking yeah homely Pursuits for a nice Suburban Town yeah cookbooks are they go out I mean we have some sometimes when we weed The cookbook section it'll be those 70 the recipes are fine but the pictures are from the 70s and the color is all weird and there's lots of jello molds um so we weed those but when you look at the the cirs they're still cirking it's amazing somebody wants a Jello Bowl somebody wants a Jello-O recipe a Jello-O salad they're very yummy and then also oh the material can be found elsewhere if it's really easily available elsewhere you don't necessarily have to have it especially if it hasn't gone out I mean if something's going out we keep it unless it's misleading but if something is going out even if it's you know the the trivial or the materials available elsewhere we'll we'll keep B but you know reading is a very information Rich Community I mean the world is much more information Rich than it used to be so if we sometimes you weed something and then somebody will come and ask for it but there's always someplace to find it another Library will have it that information can be found elsewhere online you know whatever so people are terrified sometimes of weeding because you really know that as soon as you weed something somebody will come and want it and that strikes fear into every librarian's heart but it's okay it's G to be okay the libraries ever talk and say um we have this copy and I see that there are like 10 of them and it hardly ever circulates who wants to keep this so we sometimes no sometimes they do um if especially if it's like a precious sort of um I remember somebody was giving away a set of um religious books based on the golden bow or something like that you know I I don't usually do most of the stuff that we weed is you know 100 copies of a very popular book that just came out not 100 I'm exaggerating obviously but we get multiple copies of very popular titles and we really only need one in the long term once that interest has weighed we and I don't usually offer them up I put them in we donate them to More Than Words which is I didn't mean donating we put them well we give them to them and then they take them away and do who knows what to them I think she's talking just more about are we are we do we make sure that there's always a copy of of there actually there actually is a um field in everybody's book to to show if you're the last holder okay but sometimes and sometimes that is significant but it isn't always significant if you're the last holder of a travel book from 2010 that's not we're not here to preserve every travel book you know it's the popular collection but yes I just think in terms of a of a novel or something absolutely yeah particularly if it's by an author who has some sort of decent reputation yeah exactly Classics and things like that yeah for sure great example of that are the mystery writers who have you know tons and tons so we can't have necessarily A through Z for the you know alphabet mystery book I believe we do though probably we don't the point being is that if we need to eat it we always check to make sure like there's another copy fairly we're not the last one that has and that's something that we know every other Library looking at there has to be a complete set somewhere within Noble exactly okay you can get your hands on it you can get your hands on it um what was I just going to say about I've lost my train of thought Mysteries Amy could you shrink this so we can see the whole oh yeah yeah that's what I want to do let's take a little look at this so here's a snapshot of I think with as of July the top one is our Holdings okay so you can see that and that's broken down into adult ya I don't like the term ya I prefer Teen um because it stands for young adult and you may remember at some of our book challenges that happened last year um there was a a person who came to it who was like young adults they're not young adults and it's kind of it makes them feel anxious that we're treating 11y olds as young adults because they're not it's just a term of art that the I guess the publishing industry um has taken up so I I like to say teen because it is teen appropriate and now there's a new emerging category that some folks are collecting called new adults which is to me young adults kids you know early 20s like that new adults but young adults is a term that the publishing industry uses and a lot of libraries use it as well so you can see in audio formats there that's the um breakdown you can see very few in ya because we learned that they hardly ever take the audiobooks out they don't have cd players they just don't that's not how they access information so we've really been deselecting a lot of that collection bookses you can see are quite High materials in electronic formats is that is not databases it's not databases it's things like it's not ebooks either though these are physical right they are physical items that you have to access um but I guess it's stuff like these like these are materials in electronic format the Tony yes a lot of times they're the kids books that have the CD and enhanced audio books Wonder books and stuff like that miscellaneous includes things like Museum passes and probably also library of things I think is in there as well then you see print serials that is not the number of different titles we have that's the number of issues we have it's kind of hard to figure out what the it's a bigger uh job to get statistics on the number of subscriptions but that's what Aris is for we'll see that later so there's the totals so can I ask where do the ebooks sit the ebooks sit in so this doesn't show how these are these These are print materials are physical these are physical physical materials okay got it yes tangible physical materials we're going to see the E stuff um when we look at the um ARS report can you scroll down to see the circulation yes I can I just thought it' be interesting to ask so I heard you say playway so playway is still popular they are and in fact I think they're almost growing a little bit in popularity because as we know cars aren't being made without with CD players anymore more and people don't so it's nice to have a little self-contained device that you can listen to with headphones without needing a machine especially if more than one person in your car wants to listen to story different the kids in the back seat might all want to listen to your oh okay yeah interesting but yeah I think I find that surprising as well because I trust me I go into Jamie all the time I'm like when are we getting rid of all those play when we getting rid of all those audio music CDs just like they're still circulating they are they really are see you know we we know that DVD CDs those things that you need those machines for we're not making them as much a lot of um films and TV shows aren't coming out on DVD as much anymore companies want you to keep subscribing to their streaming service forever they don't they don't want you to own it anymore you're probably never going to be able to find a Disney DVD again they used to Disney used to put them in the vault and then every 20 years or so or even 10 or 15 they would re-release them Cella or some classic like that and it was only available for a short time it's very hard to find those DVDs nowadays it's really hard and they're expensive so yeah but if you if you subscribe to Disney plus then you'll have them forever and ever and ever um so then now here this is the circulation so you can see that the primary things that are circulating are I guess books of course what is this a snapshot TimeWise this this is from we're hoping that this that number 33,000 looks very similar to the number that for our physical circulation in the month no that's not fiscal year we do 30,000 a month oh yeah yeah I'm sorry this is July I this is actually the last hope it's the same number I put in there half of the book population is rotated every month no not 66 one3 well yeah you're right 33 yeah close for 40% but it could be the same book going out 100 times rather than yeah 33,000 different books going out that's so a circulation Trend yeah it is it's we are the second highest circulating sometimes the first in Noble per capita wow at least first in our heart um and but Amy if if the numbers are different it might be because miscellaneous for example includes Museum passes and I bet you're not including Museum passes true that is true that is correct so we might have okay go yeah don't worry I know I know it was 30 something I'm sure we can figure out why and I'm I'm actually currently working on a little bit of a better statistical report I keep statistics every month of what we had and and that's just a number that carries over for the fiscal year from the previous one so I'm sure there's slippage y so every couple of years or so I do a brand new one where I just I look at every single thing that we own as of you know June 1 and I figure out what the real numbers are not the numbers that have just been sort of added and deleted over the years even the last time I think I did a real really big one was about five years ago where I just kind of did it from did it fresh so this is saying that in the month of July 2200 videos circulated Yes W they really still going out oh I I don't really want to spoil the magic this does include renals oh oh so if I have a DVD and I'm away from it then I just keep ring do get three four hits but okay it and that's just that's always been the case though yeah and it does count because you're saying this person needs it for more time yeah yeah um so we count that or two week periods or whatever yeah okay um there only supposed to renew them twice but you know we depending on you know we sometimes forgive that if people are having hardships interesting to see how many things go out in a month and how many things go back in a month because I'm sure those numbers never match up and Librarians are often the worst offenders yes we are how many or books do each of you have I don't have any books did you want to pull up that I want to just pull up the ARs um the little Holdings page and the collection page because that does include databases and downloadable like streaming I'm sorry streams of videos well she's pulling up can I ask a question yeah I was curious about you said obviously use Noble as a check and I like the idea of like last cop Cy ever that they know that but I'm curious are most people just kind of coming in or looking or are you still what percentage are doing online as I can say I am very stereotypical I will sit there I will read the book review on Sunday I will type in I will make my requests and then they'll show up three months later at a totally inconvenient time yeah and you'll go when did I I often I'm just curious do you have a lot of people that are doing things like that and that a way to say oh this is a popular title we've pulled this from PE six excellent question do we have an answer yes we do Jamie you are the answer you Jamie what Jamie undersold in all of that was her role as the handmade into all that is so all those committees all those people who make the selections Jamie is sitting there looking to see where the hold lists are right how many people are on hold how many copies and you know what is our and she determines okay it is not acceptable for us to have one book with 17 holds we need to have one book for every 10 holds or whatever that is so we get those reports those are checked regularly she totally underestimates that and Jamie is also the person where she's I mean it is her department but amazing she is she does do this which is looking to see you know because we have basically 11 or 12 people all working on collection development sometimes working in team sometimes working independently she often will flag things that fall through the cracks right and so she is the one who does pretty much all the ordering she sees everything that comes in she sees at least a record of everything that comes goes I'm sorry that gets ordered and a record of everything comes in and um so don't sell yourself short I'm I just Tred to tell you about the collection I wasn't going to tell you every great thing I've have yes I do love I have a list called the old holds list and every month I print it out and it tells me holds have been sitting there for more than 30 days and I am so into it and so proud of it I love it so much um and it tells me like I'll go oh my gosh this book that just came out called sandwich I don't know why I thought oh yeah sandwich Beach read people going to want I got two copies and now there's like a thousand holes on it so I can't even tell you how many copies we have of Hannah um Kristen Hannah's the women that's like the most popular book right now it has probably the most Hils on did you read it I don't I don't see a moment in time when I'm gonna be able although we have probably 12 copies of it so so yes to your to answer your question yes we have we have our processes and then we have a couple safety nets which include reports from Noble and then just there's also a report called the purchase alert which is like and you can set it up to say if we have if there are more than I think five holds per copy or there are holds that you don't own on something you don't own it will alert you so that you can decide whether or not to get another copy or to buy it at all so that's are you looking at the list that's specific to readings collection or are you looking at like so when I go in and want a book I often will just say all public libraries and I'm like just get to me as quickly as I can get it so the list that that report that you have is that showing what are the holds on the reading collection that's the reading holds reading holds no people holds people who want to pick it up at reading bar codes who want to pick it up at reading who want to pick it up at reading okay if reading is your hold location I don't care where you live yes that's correct and although I do say that the you know everybody in the state in the world really are my patrons you know I buy extra I don't buy extra copies because Beverly has a million holds on something I buy them when we do so yes it does matter like so if you were to put yourself on so it doesn't matter if I said is it in the reading collection or is it in all public libraries what matters is I say I want to pick it up in reading right that's what matters so if there's something that reading for example doesn't own but several people have placed a hold on it that and we don't own it but they do want to pick it up at reading I will get I will find out every time there's five of those and then I can decide oh yeah it's time for us to get it it's just a weird blip okay yeah so and that's where the evaluation this is an old book all of a sudden and you're like oh some talk show or some you know there was some or there's a TV show being made out of it and then you have to go you know you want you know something is coming out like um the aort book hology is back on the best the K Bush CB is went flying about they really did sidebar here I have an original pressing of that album and I have another I have a young friend it's a friend of my as a kid of one of my friends who now is a turntable and he's a little hipster collector and I gave that to him and he recently sold it with my blessing for 120 bucks that hounds of Love wow I was pretty happy about that all right so what did you want to see in this I just wanted to show some of the database because the Aris will tell us how many database so I want to see hey what are we look I know we're just looking at the whole thing that we fill in okay I I want to see so Holdings and what's it called Library one that was called Holdings in case you're wondering we we received 33,000 ILS last year yeah this this shows you some cool stuff yeah okay here we go should we receive more requests than we should fill more we fill more than we receive I think no not anymore no oh we used to be they call that net lender net borrower we want to be a net lender we not all right so there's the children's books for you okay so let's go to um what do they call them now use online learning platforms yeah they used to call them digital resources I think so so usage of databases is 84,000 last year and that's just local databases so there's local databases that's stuff that we get ourselves in pay for reading pays for there's databases that Noble pays for and then there's databases that the state pays for but look at how look at the database usage and what is usage I don't it's clicking you have to yeah you know we get statistics that say views pages and there are rules that ARS the state gives us about what constitutes um a hit there's our electronic sub yeah I wanted to see that ebook thing you just buy it ebook so first is okay that's Prince this is just the um see electronic collections have been renamed online learning platforms right so did I the so we have upstairs we only have six electronic serial subscriptions seral yeah so that's individual things I think like Consumer Reports okay Wall Street New York Times um this is the to I'm just afraid if I scroll too fast sorry oh These Are by these are by age group these are the Holdings so we have 20,000 ebooks because that's all the Holdings that are in overdrive for children though those children's tit look at the adults and there's there's there's there's this exact section for adult teen children and somewhere there's in red are the totals for everything yeah what is what gets a little fuzzy and it's very difficult is when you have a a service like hoopla who actually also has ebooks we don't count that as as ebooks we just it's a hoopla service and we just count it usages so um and that's just something that's that's where the system for collecting and Counting data is not caught up with the systems for providing right you you report that you have that service but you don't list every single audiobook that they have available as your audiobooks what about with Libby can you distinguish the audio Libby is overdrive okay is I do do that is overdrive yeah Libby is the app I guess that access overdrive with so here's you know obviously books remain um books um but here's the Holdings yeah there's ebooks 84899 yeah at the top over 200,000 at the bottom we have copyright for over the course of last year we had the copyright for 84,000 ebooks what do you mean we have a copyright not copyright but we use access yes so we have access to the overdrive and and you know and then you know you get into the final things which what's not reported here is the number of people that use borrow a book from the mvl overdrive or from the Boston Public Library overdrive we try to report that to you all um or at least I we get a report and share it amongst ourselves um say you know how many people we can get that say um people with uh R public library card checked out 700 books from other Consortium other eBooks from other Consortium um overdrive systems doesn't tell us who it is doesn't tell what it is is but we can get the raw number on that so while we'll say there were 5,000 uses of of overdrive from our library users it doesn't include when our library users go out of network and I would say that the the ebook and E audio is opening up you know you can anybody with a library card in Massachusetts can use vpl um and you can also use other you know you can do any of you use Li you can tell it what network you want to be looking through and so you don't have to have like the reading library card to go borrow a physical book like you would you can just use your card and it's they're opening that up you know there's they they're weird with their data and then in other ways they're open you can borrow it anywhere is that a recent change no it's not is it isn't no um I've always been able to get a BPL card um if you have a valid library card anywhere else in Massachusetts you can use it as to to apply for a BPL e card e card always been able to give you access to all of their databases and to all of their overdrive Libby stuff and that's true for BPL but I don't know that it's true for other networks no the the other networks are new yeah because BPL is the is the um library of Last Resort or whatever they call it see special funding from the state for that I thought I had a separate BPL card you actually oh I used to too suggested to me they had a broader Network at one point so I didn't know if I used maybe I used my card to get in the door and they to have done that because they do they they allow that but you do have to prove that you're at least a resident of the state yeah so presumably if we gave you a card we must trust you so so you don't even have to be a resident I don't think I ever entered my reading card number I used it depend on what it depend depends on what year you did it it's been a long so depends on what year you did it so but that is that the reciprocal lending is something we can only do we only collect that really data really for Noble at a at a sort best case level but um yeah people use BPL stuff we would have no idea if you were at home searching you know reference USA at the BPL business Branch or whatever using your BPL e card they have no record of that but I guess there's some funny stuff on here I see total micro forms 650 and what we do what they tell you to do is go to one of your you know it's usually the newspapers that you know the local newspapers like the The Advocate and Chronicle and all that stuff and they say to you go to a drawer and count the one in one drawer and then just multip it by the rest because we don't expect you to go to because you're physically counting them there's no digital way to know how many you have so I just find that number little kind of funny 650 that's a lot I guarantee if you ask josin she will count X Jo Jin will definitely C she's our um book ler librarian um anyway what's happening I'm just moving I don't know what's going on you're only moving the bottom split screen I'm actually going to stop this sh oh you do have a yeah you do have a split screen there um um that data which was submitted um I think I mentioned it last time the RS data which is the annual report something annual something information survey um prints out in that beautiful ugly PDF format but it it is where we pull a lot of Statistics from and it's it's an annual report that we do for the fiscal year and it's reported to the state um so we get I would say a large portion I would say everything related to our collection we probably get through Noble because Noble manages Evergreen so they're able to pull up and distill like okay Jamie this is how many books you get we can run that report every month but they also give us a yearend statistic so um and then there's many other things that on that RS report that we have to manually do programs reference questions staff Staffing highest degree of Education of various staff members things like that so we report quite a bit um but the collection piece is is is pretty fascinating and it's changed over time and they're collecting more um like challenges this share they carto lot of information about challenges about challenges informal challenges they were looking for challenges to programs Collections and I think displays yes separated out into three and then they said if you had any were they for children's team for adults have to say what the books were no we did not have to say what the no titles no the formal challenges would have been already filed with the intellectual Freedom committee and the Massachusetts liary Association and the a so that already would been filed they were just looking for share numbers and I think one of the things we were discussing today earlier was that when we report things to the state sometimes it's for a very specific certification reason you how many hours were you open um sometimes the state is collecting this information so they can just get an aggregate number for the state so they don't care that how many programs Reading had was more or less than last year they're not grading us on that particular thing or even the number of books they have they're looking to Aggregate and say we 371 public libraries had to do this report this is how many books you know this is how many circulations this is how many programs were run um so it's not necessar those particular things aren't about grading or judging us the state is actually and the federal government are using it to you know really justify why we go to the state house and we ask for money for Public public U for state aid to public libraries and things like that um although we always get worried like was that the same number that we had last year did we go down did we go up we do sometimes if if it's too different from the previous year it will flag it and say you know you got to justify it yeah you only had 5,000 people come last year now you had 25,000 you know and we're like oh right it was Co that was a big year where everything was different it was just Co that was the answer for why we have zero programs this year or yeah yeah that's why so it's it's I want to thank you for you know talking a little we don't usually go with this in depth about the collection but it's something that we really do spend a lot of time looking at and analyzing it's a really piece of what we do um unlike the programs that you get a pres presentation on and get you know have Andrea in here three four times a year telling me all the hundreds of it's really cool really fun stuff and collections are too but the I agree and some people are like data I am one of those people why I became a tech services librarian and not a public services Li if you put me in front of a if you made me do a program I'd be fired but Jamie does really do a lot and it's it's a lot to handle um know I have a good team as well but Kath cath Katherine jeffre on scan who's the um librarian 2 in collection Services did the prime the bulk of the Holdings and collection stuff in the ARs report I barely touched it and I also Amy does all the like how much square feet do you have in your building and the other thing that um we didn't talk to we have to talk to tonight but maybe for next year's update is we can talk about how like we obviously have a very human based service here and there are pure data driven systems and there's even AI driven systems which we're not particularly big fans of at the moment I've yet to be proven that because I think some of the things that our folks do in terms of assessing information assessing the temperament of the community at the time qualitative data qualitative data that they pull in from you know how angry was that person when I for the item um so I think and you know collecting soft hits like reference you know oh somebody mentioned this at the desk somebody mentioned this at the program somebody you know those sort of soft hits are good so but I think it's something to you know definitely keep an eye on so anything else Jamie I have nothing else but I can answer any questions if you have any more cool thank you very much lovely to see you all great formative do a great job well you know I hope so I do love my old hes report very much it's my favorite thing the Tony I feel like we need to have somehow generated with a little bow on it for they do it but then I lovingly and carefully figure out what you know like I for example let's just take an example of a single book that's very popular and there'll be like a 25 holes on it and I'll just go okay it's working through and I'll put the names of the next three people just so I can see that it's moving and if somebody is still there and they shouldn't I go oh they I look at the record and they I'm like oh they have overdue books and we give it to the circulation department and they call that person and they say you have this unhold and you're never going to get it until you return these other books or whatever the you know the reason is so I I see how it's flowing through yeah absolutely and it's by the card but it's and it's value added and it's by the card number and there's no judgment on that person oh yeah no no just bring it back that's all we care we don't care we just identify the problem and offer you a solution if you tell me a terrible sad story I will clear it that's just one on public tell me the same sad story 15 times in a row because then we're on to you was that kind of like the kid in high school who's absent because his Grand his grandmother died how many grandmother do you have my dog ate the book then keep your dogs away from the books I I return that it's probably under your car under your car seat there are a lot of car seat cars it's true I've done it myself okay all right nice evening everybody okay so moving on to item four which is a review of the meeting room policy and we have minor Corrections and clarifications and the red lines have been provided um what I think they're pretty discreet and somewhat self-explanatory but uh anything in particular like us to call our attention to do you have anything you wanted to um we really it's true really did want to just keep we had Minor Adjustments to the policy um we changed some of the language because going to be moving to new software for the um for both the calendar and for the room booking so just minor changes with that um additional fees may be May apply we want it we change it to oh yeah additional fees applied and then one of the things that we are going to be getting but not yet is credit card payment and that won't be coming for about 6 months and it was because it was going to be very expensive monthly for us to use the service that they currently have available and so we're going to wait for until probably the end of the year and then we'll be able to use stripe which the town already uses and W be expensive our goal here is to and Megan Megan runs US Reports on all of our fines and fees um so we can tell like how much are we spending in printer paper how much are we spending in replacing chairs and because all of that gets paid out of the fines and fees revolving fund approved by town meeting every April um and we decided on additional fees May apply when paying by credit card because we'll probably start off with um passing through the fee to the to the patron because it's usually a small fee do it now if you pay your taxes or any of your bills online you you pay the credit card fee our goal I think would be to bring that down to us being able to absorb the fee but we just don't know we don't know what that balance is so we we left that so that we can evaluate it each year and change as needed um but that that's just to let you know that in the policy it says there's a possibility it's likely that we'll probably charge you a and honestly most governments and nonprofits do charge a fe whenever you do anything you make a donation sometimes it'll say you know there's an addition processing fee for online oh I just had a I see uh there's um under technology assistant at Le least five business days yeah that was Direction I just wanted on number four and five they're a little bit duplicative but we felt that we really wanted to reinforce that until you actually hand over the money we consider it can be a confirmed reservation but it's not a final or it might be an approved reservation and we have we that is one of the biggest things that we come into is that people showing up they haven't paid and we're like where's the check well I it's coming or like well you can't have the room until you've actually paid for it and you know well I have to go home and yes you do have to go so um it's we realize that this number four and five are duplicative a little bit and reiterative but we're trying to enforce the point and what Michelle was just talking about is we just again it's a minor correction up above it says um you have to request assistance five business stays in advance we're just trying to make sure everything matches so back to the four and five you were just talking about I was feeling the same way that they're duplicative I get the point of why you can you I'm you know why you're emphasizing this I I was struggling with the word finalize in number five okay was like oh I see what you're saying um please that your reservation is not confirmed until payment ised so that was a language thing a language because of sofware so please note that um your reservation is not finalized until payment is received so that actually yes that makes sense so taking um we took out the approved applications are not confirmed because that was confusing and so then um and that helps us to reiterate that you need to make your payment I could just say you can't can't come and do your program until you pay the I think honestly now that I'm looking at it again I'm wondering if number four could just end that number four should just be about the time frame and we should get rid of rental applications are consider considered p p pending or anything like that we should just say you have to make your reservation between 5 days and 90 days period that's the end of the story and then we talk about the payment in the next one which is payment is due within 48 hours and then that's and is not yet oh wait wait and then payment is due within 48 Hours of notification approval the library May cancel reservation due to non payment so they take out that middle part yeah we could take that metal part out and just leave that and actually the shorter it is the easier it is to rely on and go back to yep there's one sentence in number five says it may cancel it doesn't say it will I mean if you really want the money in advance yeah do you want us to say will because you can I think you shouldn't I do you want the money if the money isn't so if someone comes and pays you 24 hours in advance you're still going to let them do the program we've let them pay day up we have um if somebody is if somebody knows our policy what will happen is we have cancel people's reservations because they haven't paid and then they'll just go in and they'll rebook their um they'll reserve it again because they because it has been within the um five days within the five days um so they're basically playing the system I guess and so if we do say um the library will cancel a reservation due to nonpayment that is much more solid and I guess I would question this says payment is due within 48 Hours of notification should it just be within two business days prior to the event say one more time do you want the do do you want to do do you want do you want the money up front like I want the money up front because I don't want the room being held and then not used that's right that's why I want the money up front yes I want my money so if you hours 90 days you put in your application and at six days the library approves it you have two days pay because then now we're holding that room for 84 days and if they're not going to show up and use it we want someone else to have a chance that's exactly so I guess my only question is do you think 48 days do you think if we extended 48 Hours 4 sorry 48 hours thank you Terry welcome do you think that there would be an advantage to coming down tougher on the payment but giving them a bigger span of five days so um five business days from a notice of approval to come in with the payment of confirmation never know what that means do that include the first day you're told yeah I never know how I just I mean I mean yeah I I think maybe we should just go around the room and have what do you think the payment okay so four first of all four I think we agree four is ending after event date and time of the event right yes payment is due no later than because you could get paid months in advance right okay later than two business days before the event this before the event this is notification of approval yeah so we mediate oh you want to so you want to get paid right away yeah you want get paid right away one of the reasons why we added this was because people were not paying right and so to be fair the credit cards in it like that'll it is going to make it so much right better so if someone's reserving and the and the and the treasurer for their thing is away in Florida and blah blah blah blah and that has happened and that has happened you know I mean on the on the other hand it's a $10 $20 I was going to say if someone if someone in the group can't come up with the 10 or $20 and then get reimbursed by the organization I mean that's kind of sad well we also if someone is willing to tell us hey I have a situation where I can't get the payment and in time we are we will work with somebody this just helps us be and you need a policy that says may instead of Will and that's why we say may yeah that's the reason y so payment is due within 48 Hours of the notification of approval I mean I would switch that to two business days so it isn't 48 right 48 Hours you know I I did this at 3 p.m. on Saturday that's true right and if the library isn't open on Sundays if it's a period of time where we're not open on or holiday weend or and it's consistent with what we say with the five business days up here yeah two business that's good do you think two business days is enough I think that was my question yes I do and then do we need the second the Bold sentence or do we just say the library May cancel the reservation due to nonpayment period just not and nothing about not received within I think we can say I think we it's too confusing I think we just say yeah as written it's basically like I want you to pay us now but yeah we're gonna take yeah and no we don't we want to say we don't I know that's the policy but you don't need to say like pay 48 hey we need to say you need to pay up the library May cancel the reservation due to non-payment you run the risk of losing I think that's great I'll be really curious or the library the library May rerent the space at that time I think if we leave it to do to non payment then it doesn't even it's it's we're being much more firm and then if you had if you had Amy editing it she'd put it in yellow highlight bold it and circulate it may cancel but that's okay that's that's why I don't do that I mean you know if they're not able to get their payment together they could rebook a week laterre looking far enough out right get I suppose it encourages someone to have advanced planning to say that I understand that I need to be ready to go and roll with this once my reservation's accepted y okay good discussion thank you um so Megan's got all that and we any other questions related to the meeting room policy sorry I want to ask about number six oh yes the full refunds are issued to cancellations received when day so I'm here's how I'm reading it tell me if I'm right so I'm reading it as two things full refunds are issued to cancellations received when business day in advance of the event so I have to cancel my event I do it within a day you refund me y and then next sentence also if the library is closed due to weather or if the library must cancel the event due to scheduling conflicts we will also refund you correct those are the three situations things right that separate sentences I feel like it needs to be separate sentences okay because I was when I first read it what you're saying yeah it is two sentences I almost felt like it was being cancelled only I was only getting my money back if the library closed if I can we could make those into subp Parts refunds are issued when cancellation is for one bus for one business business day the library has to close I don't even think you need the sentence that starts cancellations by the applicant I would just take that last s out okay I got you this is why we record these meetings so we can make these changes and number seven yes to be consistent I would encourage you to say we'll be with build within five business days business day every five business days number seven should be five business days instead of seven days Y correct y thank you how many times did we look at this this is why L to it I mean I think that's why yeah and you're helping us really um no it's all good it's really firm it up yeah I mean this is the document that you can use to back up right whatever you're trying to enforce in the meeting room so yeah nice to give you flexibility but still be rigid it's nice to have yeah exactly we we try to reduce all barriers but sometimes preventing someone from doing something when someone behaves badly it prevents other people from using that same resource so that's what this is about this is about not necessarily blocking access to one person making sure other people have equal access Equitable access to the rest of it okay EXC and for the record I was not laughing at what you were saying laughing at the last thing that you have full discretion over the use of that piano I do I just reached that point um on the adopted and amended yes the adopted and one of the amended doesn't have just got it oh look one of them doesn't even have date we don't know what date it was approved in June 1988 but yes we will correct the punctuation on that they didn't have computers back in 1990 it's a small thing but you know we're also you know somebody's embracing the one space after a period now so we are moving okay all right I can by going back to probably I can probably go back today not not you need to do that but I would imagine it it must be in the U it's probably in there somewhere notes it's definitely something that we just kind of passed loss over I'm like oh yeah it was it was it was J it was somebody somebody thought thought it was a good idea all right great for everybody can we move on to the next agenda item the tutoring policy which which is uh again provided here in a red line so several of us went over this um and made again some minor changes um and clarifying language um we wanted to make sure that it was understood that uh the tutors are responsible for whoever they are tutoring that the library is not um responsible for making sure that the tutors know when we're open and that um they monitoring their students so that's one of the reasons why you're seeing a whole bunch of changes under 78 n we have no way to know whether the tutor is using the library as a classroom or or whatever so I felt that that was more of a purpose statement than a like eight really should be two different points oh yes the tutors may not Reserve just students may not use Library telephones and then Library will not take receive payment oh I would say then I would say the one before that should probably be two two as well tutors are not respons are responsible for checking the library hours and making appointments and the next one should be tuts may not Reserve tables I agree with both there might be four might be four po points there each of these stand a lot that would have moreze points correct because then they'll be like I didn't read the second sentence with the cuts you still may be on that one page so it's hard to see with the red line I know it will it will be on two pages if we make them into four events but or bullets any other questions or comments on the tutoring BS okay so we're clear on those those edits we're just everything Standalone fantastic let's go up to the top see where we are uh discussion and vote on the fiscal year 26 through 30 2030 strategic plan so um got the changes from Mora or I'm sorry we had the changes from the meeting and then Mora Incorporated them into um there were the comments as far as we could recall from Megan watching them meeting over and over again in taking minutes um and my own watching it were really just about a couple of the um points on the three areas of focus there wasn't there were no changes to the mission or anything like that so um I believe were they mostly under the space in place talked about diversity increasing diversity among staff and board members I know that was one and um I think anywhere you see the word feasibility that might or investigate um soften the language on some of those things um we can go through these quickly I'm starting with customer convenience you guys just want to read and see if you have [Applause] I have a question on P seven the library is space in place yes um I realized that this is something you haven't done yet but wondering how you could broaden the U meeting room policy outside of reservations and internal use I think it's just to really look at the things that we were just looking at and might be something like expand the number of reservations it might be to increase other spaces for opening it up to more profits you know what are Community needs that's what it was intended just to you don't have very much time available do you when it's not used except maybe during the mornings I yeah so I think that's one of the things is when is it not being used and how could we how could we better use those times okay there's definitely competition for the evenings usually right right so it's morning and afternoons um but I will say the 12 times a year does occasionally we we've had some people so it's just it's just I think it was just a thought process of and I think that maybe came out of some other comments and questions people had like oh it seems like we should use the meeting room more and to make sure that the policy and our current setup is not a barrier how many people push up against that 12 per year limit it hasn't happened that often it was happening for a while with a few organizations but I'm not seeing that right now um I don't know if they're going elsewhere um I see this also being part of a larger question is let's look at the number of we've seen an increase in the town using our our right and that's that's good for sure um do we see an increase in the public using it if not why do it have to do with the policy do we want to see an increase in those uses either by the town or by or by the public um are we are we are getting generating as much revenue as we did before or less oh no we know Co yeah the numbers are moving up we haven't increased the um the rate that people have to pay but it's slowly coming back so um looking at the stitches statistics from last year um it hasn't gone up that much it's gone about about um a fourth um and once we have our new um software in place and once we have credit card payments and once we have we're going to be getting a new um the hybrid system I am planning on really pushing out for more people to use a space so my goal is to have more people use it and do have the same organizations use it over and over again and I'm just looking to get more variety of people knowing that we have it and then I also want to say that one of the organizations that um we're having issues with we're actually working more with them so we've done things where um Librarians come into their meetings and actually um do presentations for them um we are um publicizing our events to their newsletter so it's we're really trying to make am guess no no build Partnerships I mean one of the things one of the philosophies early on was that this is not somebody's Clubhouse yeah we wanted to be very specific like this can't be your soul maybe that's something that should change maybe if this is and the nice thing about having this go through fy3 is hopefully now in fy3 the town will have made a decision on what kind of community center if any that it wants to have if that Community Center has 16 meeting rooms that's going to drastically change how we use our space yeah it will depend on how the town charges for them too correct correct so that's why we always want to keep these things in mind because that's I think you know because we know there's a potential for either a senior center or a community center we want to one of those things that we would offer that overlap are things like the community R they're not going to have a collection they're not going to have necessarily the same type of programs that we do but that meeting room rental is something that we want to keep an eye on over the next few years um in an effort to I feel like we're back to the meeting room policy a little bit but in an effort to um bring more groups in do we translate our policies into other languages no we should maybe we should yeah we totally should that's yes we should really be doing that we should translate all of our policies so that sure an understanding of what our policies are but if we're looking to have Outreach to different kinds of groups then we could if we provide it in other languages people may understand our what our offering is yeah I think that's a great idea that would also mean that we should have um lots of stuff translated other languages which aligns with many of the other right parts of our I me seriously yeah I mean if people don't know what the services are because they can't read English then they don't know what the services are so they they won't come because they don't think there's anything here for them right I mean that also goes to the the website and having translations as we're transitioning into a new website correct start thinking about that on the Strategic plan um under Community Learning and engagement goal four um just what Jamie said really struck me about young adults yes when I read the bullets under go 4 it seems what we're really saying is we want to develop transition strategies for tweens and teens to grow into Library Services okay engage with goal for which bullet point no so the goal here is saying for young adults right and Jamie's point was right young adult people have a strong reaction to that when you're talking about younger and we also hear a saying tween but 13 is not a tween yep so I I these bullets don't seem to be in line with what we're saying the goal is so could we say Youth and Young adults age 11 20 we could broaden the goal so do we really feel like the goal is and tell me tell me I mean you guys know better than I do but do you really feel like the goal is ages 17 to 20 or is the goal really ages 11 to 16 see your point I think it's in my perspective it's more of you're transitioning out of school so you know you're not coming to the library to study you're not coming for particular books or anything you know it's it's a transition point in your life where maybe you cut the library out because it doesn't fit so I'm kind of seeing it as a 16 to 20 range um of people that are finishing school or or kind of transitioning in their Lifestyles you could also just talk about transitions in general because I think I like whatw was saying though I'd love to seeet I'd love to see that as a bullet how about how about how about because this is all saying tween and teens teens and we want to add another bullet okay so we broaden it to 11 to to users transition points along points so tween to teen teen to older adult I mean tot TW to young young adult true young what about ex I it's out of the elementary out of the children's sorry out of the children's room you know from into tween and then twe to teen and then from Teen to an inde we want to have a we want to have a focused strategy we those groups working so you've got the elementary ones and you've got the team librarian and we're mashing together to have a strategy to deal with twin we have an adult librarian and a teen librarian teen librarian going to be busy coming together to say how are we transitioning for these adults that are going to college or you know staying living at home with their parents or somehow made millionin and can afford a house and anything um you know that age group between 16 and 20 I see what you're saying there you know we're transitioning to being independent young adults we're transitioning between kids and yeah I like that yeah so I'd be happy to work on with that and um for the sake of um the public meeting Etc I'm wondering maybe Andrew and myet I could run a draft by you to be proposed for the September meeting sure yeah that works yeah one idea I had if you want to stick with this although I think you can probably come up with something better is taking the third bullet and changing it to assess usability of existing space and collections to meet the evolving needs of young adults and you'll just send that to me I mean I would even go assing the needs of individuals yeah anyone right yeah or transition when you're transitioning yeah yeah you're going to have if I'm not putting empty nesters in there on your own at that point um we about things the other one I want under library is space and place yes whole four I know this was one that we had um talked a lot about the wording of those two bullets um just makes me a little nervous that we're putting a goal saying we're going to support fundraising efforts I can see that um I actually was wondering continue Library landscape improvements or usability usability you know improving enhancements or something like that because I think when I go back to this I think that we need to you know the committee work is great and you're going to and we'll continue to that but I think the committee's also has discussed things that we can be doing outside of the landscape committee that that that can um um mesh with or support or enhance and you know and so I wonder whether if we change if we took off the second bullet point and added something about other enhancements and improvements um but keep the focus on we understand that there's still a big potential project that we could be doing on the outside that's going to be serving the library serving the community but then add a second bullet point that says you know and other enhancements as financially feasible um I do think that if you're investigating the recommendations for the implementation of feasibility the big thing behind that is can we afford it yeah and I think once you've done that you're going to have a whole set of other steps the second bullet point assumes you've gone through the first bullet point and come to the conclusion that you can yeah so that might be you know that might be part of the feasibility thing yeah I also don't love investigate because okay first of all only I feel like we're we are trusting the ad hoc Library landscape committee to have done all of the investigation evaluate or prioritize well prioritize prioritize is good yeah prioritize I feel like we're going to take the recommendation and we're going to prioritize it based on money right we're going to say okay these are all the things that could be done that that's such an awesome plan but what can we do with the plan so hypothetically that prioritize who how who who is this for this is this is now consider the Massachusetts boers and this is also a document that when I if assuming I I'm not we're not going to get money from the mass laborary Commissioners to do this but if I'm applying for a such and such Grant from the such and such bank and I can say our strategic plan includes a focus on the library of space in place of which goal number four is to enhance and increase you know usability of exterior Library spaces and we have done this and had this you know so it it what it does is it codifies to anyone who asks why we are pursuing these things well we said we were going to pursue these things so that's what the purpose of having that in there um if something's not in here we absolutely can pursue it and do it yeah just that by putting it here we have we validate it's it's to validate things the bigger things that you're going after so going back to the things like languages if we have to invest in you know a language a language a translator yeah CU interpreter's voice translator I think is writing so we have to invest in a translator and then I go back and I say oh well I'm going to need you know I'm going to use by the way trustees I'm going to use 50% of our state aid money this year on on completely translating all our documents you all are going to no and say yep we understand that is something that you know or when I apply for a grant to have somebody help us with that funds they say yes you know what you're doing says oh I came up with it last night I would almost back a little bit to what you were saying where change goal for to not necessarily mention the library landscape project um But continuing Library Landscaping first bullet point is the support of the ad hoc Library landscape committee and then a second Bull point would be continuing landscape projects or or you so goal four is continue to enhance our outdoor space or continue to libraries Landscaping not specifically focusing on the project right and then the bullet one focuses on Project yes but it gives us more a bigger umbrella Let's us do something that's outside of the atog committee right yeah it gets to the something that's outside of the inside yeah I mean it didn't it doesn't even have to say library landscape project yeah you could just say um continue use of or continue or explore beautification of the library Outdoors yeah we could go back to what it said in the previous strategic plan which was pretty good and I can go look what that like I can look at what that said and it did say something like I think that was investigating some feasibility but it was definitely saying look you got to do you have this outside space are we being educ our mission and meeting are we doing our core values the answer at that point was no we have progressed we have progressed and we have and now we're now we have these con some Concepts and ideas of how we're going to use the outside space to meet our mission core values and and vision and so we're just we're going to take whatever that was and we're going to do that holist as a holistic bullet point one part will be landscape committee and one PE one and their subsequent projects or recommendations and then one part will be other that sound good good go up a little bit more on go to so we can bring out so the second part and use data to support the development of a diverse board I don't think I'm fully understanding that would it be used data to help educate and support a divorce for I'm I'm a little confused I thought that conversation was looking at like the town census data and saying writing is 15% BAC therefore we should try to have a representative board and we should have a goal that our board reflects that thought that's what that conversation was that sound to people yes so there might be a better way to say that but that's how I remember that conversation maybe the idea of reflecting the community of a a board to more closely reflect the divers a diverse board that that that better reflects the diversity of the community a board that better reflects the diversity of the community okay like already on the record we're not likeing this one but I know it's okay I'm thinking I know what that say something is the word reflect increase like you wanted to to better represent the wonder if people will look at that is trying to I don't know influence the outcome of Elections exactly that's my worry I'm just what I'm wondering now is like for example does the superintendent put in a strategic plan that includes the composition of the school board no but teachers and staff yes it's one of those things where it's we don't have any control opposition this board ex why would we set ourselves set ourselves a goal to change the board and our and and as far as directing the libr library the staff while we are not directly involved in staff we are directly involved D with the library director so do you want to get rid of the whole goal or just the board part I would I don't I just don't like the second bullet point I'm fine with um the first bullet point I would say if there's a way to adapt it to say that we are using data to support support um using data to support Community according to those representations how about strategies to increase diversity among Library staff and engage so that's one part of it but the second piece I'm trying to get it is the engagement of the community involvement in the library which could be board members could be volunteers well actually you could just you could stop with volunteers you can take board members out and put in volunteers because y'all are volunteers I like that whether I have volun that are helping me playing computers or staff you know something else do homebound delivery we should be looking at all of our volunteers holy as being an Engaged part of our community and that's what should be more diverse perhaps I think volunteers is fine to put in I agree but to say you want to control how who's on the board that looks pretty tacky um and I don't think how does that lie with you Pat it you that that is I think it's in other places but it also as we heard from jie today it plays in to the awareness about Collections and about um you know data and usage you know so it has a lot of benefits could could could the library have um try to establish uh some kind of informal um Advisory Board yes as long as it's not as long as it's not a public board yeah no and and we've thought about that for like um uh like independent books or or you know like Affinity book groups or something like that just say like oh we'd like to have we'd like to have a board of people you know not a board we'd like to have some advisers or focus group that would work for and you know usually you would have a fin night time on that to advise us on developing a program so I I I was thinking that if you did something where had a group of people who met maybe two or three times a year and had ideas about about what the library could do that it isn't doing now and then if you had a diverse group of people on that board or that not group then you would get ideas from people who are not necessarily represented on the Board of Trustees right but they could still have ideas that you could bounce bounce back to us and or maybe you would even need to ask us because you just say that's a great idea we'll just do it yeah I like that and I think the idea is that because you said you started to say engage and I think that's why I just thought oh yeah it's engaging it's not just engaging you it's engaging more people in the community in general I can't hire everybody in the community so let's focus on those volunteers it also make people feel as if they belong yeah um if they're I mean we could actually maybe have a a list of criteria for the kind who who we would like on the board to help us to help us you know it's not a board no sorry focus group group Counterpoint we have comment every month I know I know come in but I think I don't think we need people who would have to come every month I think we should do it maybe three you know three times a year or whatever we don't know that answer because about it over three to five years exactly that's right I mean it might be the kind of thing where we reach out to individuals that have the highest circulation exactly something to that nature or or people who we know exist in the community but we never have seen that group of people here so this is where we just end it's not just using the library we want these people to be involved with the library so I think it's more than just providing services and like say the MLL Community or whatever that is definitely those are libraries as users this to me this bullet point is about creating the library as a place where you want to come and volunteer or you want to work where you feel included you feel belonging you feel that there's Equity um so that's what this is about by the way I was at a um a baby shower yesterday and um the people of table was sitting at um were extoling the reading public library um so I just thought you guys should know that thank you I had nothing to do with this it was a spontaneous thing I said nothing I said nothing and it just was spontaneously came out well I appreciate that it's good to hear um not surprising but okay any other questions or comments on the Strategic plan or if not we've got a couple few sections to we want to get through discuss next month everyone else feel good about everything else yeah we have one more deadline no um do this one more time just's do this one more time I do you are GNA have to vote on something because I do need to get it done after the okay all right moving on financial report okay really nothing to report um uh the director's report and the financial report are both I think it's really hard to be off kilter within the first 8% of the year um so we're we're de on you will have noticed in the warrant this week though it's a doozy and it's the doozy that always comes at the middle of August because it's all of our annual payments to Noble um and feels like a lot but you know I think would you say Megan 90 something per or 86% 86% of it is no so rest of it's um Jamie already mentioned um but the other thing I would have reported is that we went over the materials budget for the year and allocated all of our our things out to that and um we did have a gift um specifically from the The UU church that was to um in support of the juneth so we put that into our juneth account director's report is um ah I had more I had 3 33,8 14 and I think Jam's number was 33,6 something 69 but um look at that Locker use I was going to say it's nice it's up nice it's back to where it was literally a year ago so we're very excited to have that going um and you can see like our overdrive usage just keeps going up and up and up so um we have spent a lot of time talking about ARS today so it's all done we got the dig in Grant $220,000 um we did send out a quick press release about that and um but it does start till October 1st um but we are um gearing up and we've already started talking with Consultants we've already started working on programming and we've already started um almost really spending the money but we have it so but we're very we're very excited we have a really great team working on this um our grants this is um this is really a library wide grant that has the team is it's not just one or two people that are going to be running the grant this is this is a library right grant people from every Department working on this so it's very exciting do you want to mention anything about the app um so we will have the new app later than we thought um we were running into some issues with um privacy software um Evergreen and Noble uh and we were sort of at an impass and then communico who we're getting the app from is going to actually um work with us to make the app they're working around the issues that we're having with privacy uh and Noble and will be giving us what we're looking for uh to integrate our system so people will be able to um use the app to check items out to place items on hold and it's going to look really good um and so and they understand that it because of this little bump um they were FASTT tracking it with their software developers um so I'm not really sure when it's going to be ready but it'll the bump isn't going to be more of like a little speed bump than a mount that we're gonna have to be dealing with we have our app extension our current APP through September 15th so it'll be before September 15 so how are you communicating that there's a new app is it just if someone goes to the app it says you need to update and then the update goes through or are you actually pushing something out to let people know we're going to have to push something out to let people know I don't think it's going to be seamless I think something will have to go up um on um um Google Play and then um the Apple Store store um not at that point yet uh but when I do we'll make sure people know so currently um because of the soft I know it's not the same thing but um we're going to have a gap in time for the um meeting room bookings and so I've put stuff up on the website we'll send something out shortly um we'll do as much as we can to make sure people know this is happen look into getting something from um the Google Play Store and or and the um Apple Store something I mean I know that as a banking customer one my bank changed out apps and they were very clear they sent me three things saying the app is changing it's not an update it's an actual chain I actually also I think because and then and then like we were like just so you know your things can stop working next week so if there's a way we can get those emails or send out a blast email on the actual app I can send something on the app itself but what I can also do because we had to create Apple developer and a Google developer um site I think I can change change the language basically we'll make sure people know okay great there's been a lot of technology and I'm all like I'm trying to like dump it out of my head and because just putting something on sorry putting something on the app someone would only see it if they have notifications set to otherwise they won't won't yeah send them you know they won't it won't be obvious right right right they won't know until they try and use it yeah they try they I I think uh the video stars in the children's room could could definitely come up with a few humorous things remind people to update their app Olivia doesn't exist you're right did you see the glasses one there yes people already have instram gets a lot of traffic yeah instram of traffic y and they get you're watching it on the phone you can immediately go and delete that app and get the new one we will make sure it happens old and new I think Pat volunteered to be part of the video I think that's what I just heard yeah so that's what I heard I'll be the angry caller I have on working to be in it no no no no no yes yes I love it oh then when she get Made for More radio we someone from the town I love it I'm so excited about this this is awesome we will make it happen uh we have a new resource available which I just talked about the friend speaker series is going great guns we had a good month of programming in July tomorrow is vehicle day oh vehicle day yeah you can come can't anymore it would be creepy oh you can come cuz you're a TR see still a little creepy a little creepy hats creepy it's public and it's outside so all these things are better but it's still you want to touch an adult come on KN at my neighbor's door can bu your kid first hit it and push the buttons I mean you know oh just the honking um honing I did just want to um let you know our staff day I think I might have said earlier that was on October 4th we've changed that our staff development day will be Friday November 1st the library will be closed so I really wanted to um I figured if I left it till September or October I don't know I was nervous that that I forget to tell you but we will be closed on that day and we'll have a lot of we will have a lot of notification on that as well for the public um actually what's not on here because I sent this out last Thursday um but we do have a new hire in the children's room that's going to be starting on August 26 she except the off for last week later last week um and um so we we're expecting her you know pending all the cor checks and physical and all that other stuff but yeah so she's accepted we're excited and um hopefully um other than maybe getting some high school pages on board as our other High School pages are graduating gra graduated I think we might hopefully be done with hiring for a little while so we're really good at it great I have for the any questions on either of the director's reports hearing none I believe the next uh item is the minutes of our July 8th 2024 meeting that are in the packet I've reviewed I have no notes or comments myself beautiful it look great that's my only note hearing none do I hear a vote I'm move we approve the minutes of July 8th 2024 I second seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor carries 40 okay got a 3% of battery uh perfect for the future agenda items so September we're going to have uh the Strategic plan and we will have fall proing and an update on summer reading and a report on the library landscape committee that we caring about we're not saying we don't care about oh no U we're just pledging to support with our hearts and we'll view the new app all together yes yeah I well I think it'll be ready she's so the person communico has really um been supportive and um very Hands-On um easy to access and very pleased with them and and if I have a um I need any beta testers I know that'll be well I know I will be reaching out to you please do yeah let's do thank you where to find us I will be happy to break it somehow perfect thank you anything else anything else on the future agenda items I can think of do I hear a motion motion to aour I hear a motion do I hear a second second seconded all in favor there we go thank you thank you thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e