Arts in Public Places Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

It is 5.30. So we'll call the meeting to order with Ryan Parker, Katie Jones, Gouldsby, and Jason Allen. Chapel? Chappelle. Chappelle attending. Do we have anyone from the public online to come?

We don't.

Great. So on to board business. First piece is the review and approval of the July 6th library board minutes. Do we have a motion to approve? Do we have a second? All in favor? July library board minutes approved. Next piece of business is the liaison to the Frenzel Library. Michelle had mentioned, Michelle has been serving as the library board liaison to the Friends of the Library. She mentioned to us previously that that has a term limit associated with it, and therefore she needs to step down and have a replacement. Maybe an informal interest of any current board members on serving in that.

And when does that entail?

My understanding is that it's a once a month meeting with the Friends of the Library. And I don't know if it really entails anything more than that.

That's what it's been so far is just once a month they're board meeting. More often than not, it gets canceled. So it's really like every other month. Is it usually in the evening? It's usually a lunchtime. It's on a Wednesday, I believe. At lunchtime, and they generally do it via Zoom. They will, from time to time, try to have an in-person meeting, but generally via Zoom.

I don't mind doing it. I'm not sure because it's during the workday, but usually I have my desk around that time, so I could probably do a Zoom meeting, but I'm not sure. I can't say 100% that I could make everything.

Does it need to be a dedicated person, or can it be like... She, she can do it one way. I can do it.

I would say for continuity with the, with the friends board, it probably should be the same person, but I also think it's not a huge deal. If, for example, like that person were to be Katie, if she had to miss one now, and again, I don't think that's, that's too bad.

And then I think it's informally asked for.

All in favor of Katie being the liaison would be sufficient.

All in favor of electing Katie to the liaison.

So will you introduce, or will I get introduced, or just contact information on each else?

So what I will do tomorrow is send Annette Phillips, who's the chair of the Friends, your contact information via email, and we'll copy you on it as well, so that you'll be in the loop.

Just out of curiosity, how long is the term? One year.

One year.

Are you capped at one year, or is it like two one-year terms? The way it was made to sound to us, and I have not inspected the bylaws myself to double check this, is that it is one year period.

OK. OK. We're going by the Friends of the Library bylaws. And so they're maybe not as fleshed out as the ones for the county or maybe not as restrictive as the ones for the county. Yeah.

Okay.

Great. Then we're on to the presentation for the community services year in review.

Okay. All right.

We'll do that. I want to show your time here. Well, I guess it is.

And then how do we change pages? Do you, can we just, I think I can just fill up. Okay. I wouldn't click on.

Do you want to click?

It might be easier just for me to change page. Okay.

I guess we can do that.

Yeah. Well, hi. Thank you. I'm Chelsea Ashcraft, and I'm a senior management analyst for Community Services Department. And I'm glad to be here for my second year in a row for the Community Services year-end presentation. This presentation has been traditionally given by the Parks and Rec Board to the Barks and Rec Board. So it leans towards parks, projects, and recreation-focused programs. but Gwen and I felt that it was still worthwhile to share it with you again this year, not as a full picture of what the library, all the library accomplishments, which go far beyond what is shown in here, but to give you a broader view of what's happening across CSD and how library services then connect to the department's overall impact. This presentation is built around photos, to keep things engaging and avoid death by power. You guys can sit back, relax a little. We had a busy year and visuals help highlight how our work aligns with council strategic goals and department-wide priorities. Some sections will move quickly, while others may slow down a bit to provide more detail. And similar to last year, there are two puns sprinkled in. See if you can catch them. With that, let's take a look at what we've accomplished here and how it's shaped our community. As we get started, I want to frame how community services approaches our work. Every project, partnership, and program ties back to the council's strategic goals, supporting objectives, the integrated master plan, and our CSD roadmap. This alignment keeps us focused on impact, supporting quality governance, operational excellence, quality of life, and environmental stewardship. Tonight you'll see how each accomplishment connects to that framework and how those connections translate into real improvements for the Community. For the second year in a row Community services was named a gold medal award finalist by the American Academy for parks and recreation administration. This recognition places us among the top agencies nationwide for delivering exceptional Community services. We didn't take home the grand plaque last year, but we had a lot of fun as first-time finalists and being recognized again reinforces the strength of our team and our services. As part of the process, each finalist agency submits a five-minute video and a detailed application showing how we manage parks, facilities, programs, resources, and services. The award focuses on leadership, innovation, stewardship, measurable results, and meaningful community impact, all backed by evidence. Our materials are submitted and the grand plaque announcement will be made at the NRPA conference coming up on September 30th. Maintaining accreditation is another part of operational excellence. As a CAPRA accredited department, we complete an annual review to confirm we continue to meet national standards. It's a detailed process, but ensures our policies, procedures, and operations stay aligned with best practices and reinforces that our quality of work is intentional and sustained. Operational excellence also shows up in day-to-day improvements. Many CSD employees completed professional development workshops through strategic government resources this year, helping us refine how we track progress, set objectives, and stay aligned with council goals. We also made several updates based on community feedback like shifting summer concert times later and improving procedures across divisions. At the library, re-envisioning the summer reading challenges led to better participation and a more enjoyable reader experience. Individually, these changes are small, but together they demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement and responsiveness. As part of our focus on better communication, social services decided to try something a little different. They created a spokes animal to help the community better understand who they are and what they do. They chose the hummingbird because to many in New Mexico, it represents joy, healing and resilience. They named the new mascot charm, which is the word for a group of hummingbirds. It's perfect because just like a charm of hummingbirds, our social services team is always buzzing around gathering resources to nourish the community. Charm is a small but meaningful reminder that connection and support are always close by. Recruiting and retaining staff remains a top priority and we've made real progress through new approaches and consistent effort. Our recruitment and retention incentive program helped fill several key positions. And the lifeguard trainee program continues to be successful, bringing candidates in, training them directly and promoting them into lifeguard roles. We also had a strong summer with our intern program. While we had fewer interns, almost all transitioned from summer temps into more permanent part-time positions. Across the divisions, we filled several important roles and some long standing vacancies. Unfortunately, some positions like our arborist and golf pro remain hard to fill, but we continue to actively recruit. Community engagement continues to evolve as we expand the ways we share information and gather feedback. Since last August, we've held 16 public information or listening sessions across a variety of CSD projects and conducted at least six surveys to capture input directly from residents. We've also seen real value in bringing information straight to project locations. Temporary concept boards, like those that were at the athletic fields in Dinosaur Park, give people a quick way to see proposals and share thoughts immediately through survey links. For more complex projects, starting with a design charrette, as we did with the North Mesa Recreation Master Plan, helped bring multiple interest groups together from the very beginning. That collaborative start produced a final plan that reflects the community as a whole. All of this work shows our commitment to listening, acting on what we hear, and continually improving based on community feedback. We've continued updating our website regularly, but social media really is where we've seen major engagement. From July 25 through June 26, our community services Facebook and Instagram reached more than 1.5 million views and received over 33,000 visits on Facebook alone, with more than 5,200 combined followers. In addition to community services, we also manage dedicated library accounts, launched in October 2024. Does that sound right? 2024, okay. They've grown steadily and now reach more than 340,000 views and 8,300 visits from June 25 to June 26, with more than 1,000 followers across both platforms and strong engagement throughout. Together, these channels help us share updates, programs, project announcements, and opportunities with a broader audience quickly and effectively And effectively, especially residents who may not attend meetings or events but still want to stay informed. Now shifting into infrastructure updates, I'm happy to say that Golf Course is now fully operational with all 18 holes open and regular hours Tuesday through Sunday. And the new 19th Hole Sports Pub is open as well, which I hope many of you have already enjoyed. The Recreation Division opened hosted a re-grand opening this past Saturday with a ribbon-cutting and family-friendly activities. When it comes to asset management, we're definitely playing under par and have chipped away at some big projects this year.

Thanks for laughing.

Both the 37th Street Play Lot and Pinon Park Playground were completed this spring. These updates were much needed to meet ADA accessibility requirements and align with our integrated master plan. We celebrated the completion with a ribbon cutting on May 5th, and it's been great seeing families already making full use of the upgraded spaces. As you'll see throughout tonight's presentation, many of our improvement projects include ADA upgrades. We've been intentionally integrating accessibility work across parks, trails, facilities, and amenities to align with our ADA transition plan. So I will call out every ADA detail moving forward, but know that accessibility has been a consistent thread woven through much of the year's work. At the Rose Garden, the Parks Division worked closely with Valley Fence Company and the garden volunteers to complete the deer fence installation. And at Ashley Pond, we completed some sidewalk replacements for pedestrian safety and will soon be adding additional power banks in the main parking lot for vendor use. The new decorative bollard designs for Trinity Drive have also been reviewed and are moving forward. Both the North Mesa and East Park port renovations are complete, and the upgraded surfaces and layouts are already getting a lot of news. These improvements address aging infrastructure and help bring the facilities up to current standards for safety and playability. Phase two of the athletic fields renovation is still in progress. Senior field is complete, and the contractor is finishing up Spirio and Bun Ryan following last year's work. This project experienced delays and is officially shifted into a fiscal year 27 completion, but once it wraps up, the fields will have the upgrades they need for improved playability and long-term use. For the Brewer Arena renovations, about 90% of the restroom and grandstand leecher footing work was completed as of August the 7th. The crow's nest and remaining grandstand construction will begin now that this year's rodeo event is over. The project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2027. The Aquatic Center's pool resurfacing project is a major multi-step renovation of both the Olympic and therapy pools, as well as the mechanical room. This major renovation will improve reliability, safety, and the overall user experience. Kenyon Pool has been serving as our temporary pool solution while work at the Aquatic Center moves forward. After some cleanup and repair work, it's been open since May, giving lap swimmers, swim team, and families a reliable place to swim throughout the season. We did have a few challenges early on, but overall it's become a well-used community resource, meeting a wide range of needs during the construction period. profession is that before and after yeah this is this is before we got there and then yeah after we got it was quite meaty and then i could i didn't even get to see what it looked what the pool looked like before so yeah yeah sure uh-oh okay sorry see i told you not technically advanced Over at Mesa Public Library, the outdoor classroom took an unexpected turn during the final design review. A large water and gas line was discovered running through the original footprint, which meant the design couldn't move forward as planned. So our library and parks teams have been working together to rethink the layout and create a new configuration for the seating and covered areas. The project is still moving ahead just with a revised design that fits the site conditions. One of the major planning efforts completed this year was the artificial turf study, which Council approved in November of 2025. This study gives us a foundation for understanding where artificial turf may be appropriate, what the long-term maintenance and sustainability considerations are, and how different options could align with safety and environmental stewardship. We haven't applied the plan yet. but it's ready to guide future field improvements and recreation amenities when we reach that evaluation stage. Building on that planning work, one of the biggest accomplishments this past year was the approval of the North Mesa Recreation Master Plan on January 27th. This plan is already guiding real progress where the bike park emerged as a major priority. We received substantial input from the biking community And because of that engagement, Council increased the budget for the bike park during the April hearings. We're now in the process of preparing the design build request for qualifications and proposals, which will launch phase one and put the plan into action. Council approved the Guahe Pine Cemetery Master Plan on November 4th. We're now beginning phase one, which includes the design and construction of additional columbariums, an ossuary, and a scatter garden. These elements will expand capacity and give residents more options for memorial spaces moving forward. Continuing with our work on North Mesa, the Picnic Grounds Master Plan is still underway. This plan focuses on improving usability and upgrading amenities throughout the area. Sites Southwest is nearing completion and have refined three composite concepts into one final conceptual plan that they shared with the Parks and Rec Board last week. It's another example of how we're using master planning to guide long-term improvements in a thoughtful and intentional way. We shared the draft concepts for the Biocanyon Trailhead design with the community at the end of August, and the feedback is helping shape the next round of revisions. Urban park renovation designs are moving through community engagement now, with our second meeting held August 6th. These upgrades are part of our ongoing asset replacement work and address important accessibility needs. It's a straightforward improvement, but one that will make urban parks courts safer, more usable and aligned with the standards we're applying across all of our facilities. We've made steady progress on the Mesa Trail renovation, hosting public meetings in March and June and sharing updates with the Parks and Rec Board in July and August. The renovation will upgrade about 2,500 feet of this trail to modern trail standards, revitalizing the surface and improving access between East Park, Nambe Place, and the airport. We've been working closely with Groundwork Studio on the renovation designs for both San Ildefonso, otherwise known as Dinosaur Park, and Grand Canyon Play Lots. Along with hosting listening sessions this spring, Corey and I also took the boards into the schools to ask the real experts what they wanted. Final designs for these playgrounds are nearing completion and almost ready to share. As we shift from infrastructure and asset improvements into quality of life, this is where a huge part of our work really shines, supporting health, well-being, and the social services that strengthen our community every day. A big piece of that are our volunteers. In open space and trails, groups like the Tough Riders, Girl Scouts, YCC, and the N3B contributed more than 270 hours this year on trail maintenance and improvements. At the library, our volunteer program joined the Volunteer Los Alamos platform, supporting its growth with about 20 to 25 volunteers each month helping with programs, events, and daily operations. Our work on the community health plan expanded this year as we moved from planning into real implementation. We hired a program specialist to increase outreach and education, and plans for the Community Health Action Center are progressing. We now have a task order in place for the site feasibility work. Regionally, the behavioral health plan was approved by the state, including $2 million in funding for fiscal year 27. These steps position us to better support residents, strengthen partnerships, and continue building a more connected system of care. This year's Night to Remember was our fourth annual event welcoming individuals with special needs for an evening of donated formal wear, crowns, photos, treats, and dancing. It continues to be one of our most meaningful celebrations thanks to strong community support. We also collaborated across the library, recreation, and the Art in Public Places board to create a beautiful new mosaic for the public art collection. Artist Jay Muzak guided community members through a kind of paint-by-number tile process, resulting in a large mural now installed at the Justice Center, a great example of art, collaboration, and community pride. And our social services summer intern, Evelyn, surveyed local teens about their program ideas and will continue that work through the school year, helping us better understand what youth in the community want and need. Our afterschool partnerships continue to be a big part of how we support youth in the community. Pop Hangout remains a popular middle school activity. And thanks to Recreation Division's collaboration with the Teen Center, Justice Center, J-JAB, the schools, and other organizations, Students enjoyed events like the teen center takeover, ice skating, roller skating, and the year-end celebration at Ashley Pond. Social services staff attend each month as askable adults, helping wherever needed, and they support the end-of-year surveys and activity planning so the program stays responsive to what students want. Social Services continues building strong partnerships across the community, working closely with school prevention specialists on events like the Youth Summit, and staying active with groups such as the Early Childhood Coalition, Family Strengths Network, the DWI Council, and statewide educational programs. Staff also maintain weekly hours at both libraries and the farmer's market, making support visible, accessible, and woven into daily community life. Building on those partnerships, we expanded our nature-based wellness efforts this year and now have 25 certified forest therapy guides across two cohorts, including several CSD staff. This growth is helping Los Alamos emerge as a regional destination for forest bathing and nature-based well-being programs. We celebrated a joint graduation for both cohorts this summer and are partnering with Forest Bathing Santa Fe to host the first annual New Mexico Forest Bathing Day on September 19th. In addition to expanding wellness programs, social services strengthened community prevention training. This year, we offered mental health first aid, suicide prevention classes, and opioid overdose and harm reduction training, with more sessions scheduled for fall. We also grew community use of the Unite Us referral platform through targeted training, making it easier for organizations to connect residents with the right resources. We expanded our wellness and special needs programming this year with adaptive swim lessons, giving participants more individualized support and comfort in the water. We also hosted two adult paint nights early in the year. These were simple, relaxing evenings that gave people a chance to unwind, be creative and connect. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. The library expanded lifelong learning and cultural offerings this year by adding two new digital resources, craft and hobby, and Get Set Up, giving residents free access to hundreds of live and on-demand classes covering creative skills, digital literacy, wellness, and more. A new library series in White Rock is being piloted called Discover, featuring hands-on programs like cell phone photography, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong, no, Qigong, forest bathing and genealogy research. Alongside this, we continued supporting music and cultural programming through recreation and the library, adding even more variety to year-round offerings and giving residents new ways to learn, participate, and connect. The golf course partnered with Bee City Los Alamos this year to establish dedicated pollinator habitats in some of the rough areas. Now that we've covered our work in health, well-being, and social services, it's time to jump into some of the programming highlights from the year. Atomicon continues to be one of our most anticipated annual events, bringing energy, creativity, and a big turnout every August. Our author talk with Jason de Leon, the 2024 National Book Award winner and best-selling author, offered a powerful look at the impacts of human smuggling in Latin America. For a special treat, we're helping bring the Trans Rocky Single Track Mountain Bike Race to Los Alamos as the first leg of this year's three-day event. Our leg takes place on Saturday, September 19th, and it's a great chance for the community to come out, cheer, and enjoy seeing riders experience our trails. We also hosted our first downhill derby in the fall of 2025. It had a small but enthusiastic group of participants, and we're excited to offer it again this year as interest continues to grow. Mudfest was a hit again this year, and we added a new teenage bracket for the first time. It drew two teams who competed against each other, and it was great to see youth jumping into an event that's usually dominated by adults. Each year, our hockey tournaments bring strong regional participation to the ice rink. In January, the Atomic Winter Classic hosted 16 teams, totaling more than 220 adult players, and their families from New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. We also hosted the Nuclear Shootout College Hockey Tournament featuring teams from UCLA, Michigan State, Cal State, Northridge, and UNM. These multi-day tournaments take substantial coordination, scheduling, and ice prep, and our recreation staff did an outstanding job keeping everything running smoothly. Events like Santa's Workshop, Pumpkin Splash, and our dive-in movies are some of our longstanding traditions. Because they happen every year, it can be easy to forget how much planning and coordination go into making them feel fun, smooth, and welcoming for local families. These programs strongly support Council's quality of life goal and the CSD roadmap priorities around belonging and family connection. They create a reliable, joyful experience that families count on year after year, and they help anchor a sense of community tradition in Los Alamos. Gymkhana continued to be a steady, well-loved event this year, providing a great opportunity for families and writers to build skills, connect, and enjoy time at Brewer Arena. And our dessert dance, the annual Father, Daughter, and Family Dance, remains one of our most cherished community traditions. Staff invest a lot of care into making it feel special each year, and families consistently express how meaningful it is to have a welcoming, celebratory event they can depend on. Our summer Friday night concert series continues to draw big crowds, and we make a point each year to bring in bands that resonate with our community. Our 4th of July celebration returned to Overlook Park this year, but we hosted it on Dara Jones due to the ongoing renovations at Spirio Field. Even with this smaller space, we had an excellent turnout and a fun, vibrant community event. Our annual fair and rodeo parade took place as usual this year, another one of those community traditions people can always count on. As we shift into our work supporting inclusion, access, and belonging, the golf course accessibility upgrades completed last year continue to make a meaningful difference. Every hole now has at least two accessible tee boxes, the restrooms and practice area meet ADA standards, and we have an ADA-compliant electric cart available. It's still something we're really pleased with, and it remains a great example of how we're improving access across facilities. We've added more ADA projects this year that directly support accessibility improvements across our parks and facilities. Along with the golf course, we now have the two playgrounds that include new ADA features, and more updates are underway at the Dinosaur and Grand Canyon Play Lots, along with the ADA-focused redesigns for the Bio Canyon Trailhead and the demonstration garden. The Open Space and Trails Management Plan was officially approved by Council in October of 2025, and it now gives us a clear, consolidated framework for how we care for our open spaces, trails, and natural resources. With that plan now in place, we've continued making steady improvements across our trail system. Some of this year's work included bridge replacement on the Dot Grant Trail, resealing the crusher fines on the Connect Connect ADA Trail, repairing other trail bridges and installing new trail signage. It's all part of keeping our open spaces safe, accessible and well-maintained for both residents and visitors. We continued improving operational sustainability this year. Our robotic mower fleet expanded and logged 141 hours of runtime since August of 2025, covering about 180 miles and saving staff roughly six hours per week The parks team even built them special houses and had fun naming them, with examples like Mozilla, Turfinator, R2-Mo2, and Lawn Ranger. We're also increasing our use of battery-powered tools, helping reduce emissions and noise across operations. Separately, thanks to a partnership with the Friends of the Library, surplus or unsold books are now donated to other organizations, keeping them out of the landfill. Before I wrap up, I want to acknowledge some of the ongoing challenges we are working through as a department. Park staff continue to address vandalism in our trails, parks, signs, and restrooms with about 184 documented incidences over the last four years. Staffing shortages remain difficult in key areas like parks maintenance and lifeguards, and social services is managing rising intakes at a time when regional mental health and substance abuse resources are limited. Even with these hurdles, our staff continues stepping up with creative solutions, cross team collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to community services. We have a strong lineup of improvements ahead and our staff are ready to make each one of them happen. Coming up are the North Mesa Bike Park Phase 1, completion of the Brewer Arena Grandstand and ADA improvements, upgrades to the demonstration garden, and construction for urban parks athletic court renovations. We'll also be moving forward with the new Dinosaur and Grand Canyon Playgrounds, improvements to the Bio Canyon Trailhead, continued cemetery upgrades, and the East Park Mesa Canyon Trail renovation with ADA improvements. It's a busy year ahead, and we're excited for the work to come. And just as a reminder, the grand plaque announcement will be made at the NRPA conference on September 30th. We're once again feeling hopeful this year. So please send us your good thoughts and encouragement as we aim to bring back some very good news to Los Alamos. So thank you all. I know that was a lot to take in. Community Services never has a slow year. And you just powered through a full tour of the many things we've been up to. We appreciate your service on this board and your support for the library pieces of our work. We're proud of what our team's accomplished, and we hope you feel proud of how these efforts strengthen the community. With that, I'm happy to open it up for any questions.

I do think I missed the second pun.

The second time? Oh, I snuck them into the same one. They were both the golf course.

Okay. I just have one quick question.

The Brewer rodeo grounds, that's actually the first I've heard that they're like upgrading them. What exactly are you guys doing?

Well, um, so The grants. So the initial plan was to improve the grandstands and make them more ADA accessible and then work on the pros nest. So the opposite side where they do the calling and some other areas around that. But then when the contractor first came out last year, year and a half ago, they realized that the grandstands were a lot worse than we expected. So they ended up demolishing the whole grandstands. And so for the last two rodeos, we've rented some grandstands that we brought them in. So we're redoing that whole area. It's going to be all brand new. It's going to be a little bit higher, I think, than what they have been in the past. And they'll be ADA accessible. So we'll have some wheelchair in the beginning. And then I think up in the middle section.

So it sounds like more like I'll use the term customer capacity, more patron capacity.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The brands will be bigger. And then I think the, um, the, the, the, what do they call it? The crow's nest will, we'll have some improvements.

And there's something else that I hear about, but, um, can't remember now, but it'll be nice.

And it should be done by next year's rodeo event.

What else?

Challenge me.

I'm slamming seven.

Thank you. Is this something you guys would like to continue each year?

It's good to see it all kind of, it can seem when you see the updates on social media and things, it can feel very kind of disparate, but it's nice to kind of see it all together. Yes.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- And I were thinking that it's kind of nice to have you get you get immersed into certain aspects of it, but then to be able to see it as a whole.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Great Thank you so much.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- The next item on the agenda is the chairs report, along with the board and condition. I will say I fell ill on last Thursday, which was the board and commission report luncheon rather for the four. The report I wrote kind of covered just the last quarter, the community services survey and the work that we did out at the concerts and advertising that out. Atomicon as well on the 29th is always a grand time. Excuse me. And I'm at a loss for what the last portion of what I played was. But yeah, bear with me as I transition from Beth's stellar chairship. It's hard to follow that up. But yeah, the next portion is the Friends of Los Alamos County Library Liaison Report. Michelle has been serving in that and is absent today. And as we transition to that, we will get a fill in on Katie. So now we're over to the managers report.

All right. So we did successfully interview and fill two library board spots. So Katie and Michelle are continuing on. Probably not a big surprise, but we are still one position short. So if you know of anybody who's interested, please encourage them to apply to the library board. So for the month of August, our print circulation was 24,273. Digital was 9,926 circulations. That's 29% of the total, which was 34,199. So in August, we took a programming hiatus, but we still held 23 programs with a total attendance of 2,656. And you might guess that the majority of that was Atomicon. I think we doubled our attendance from the previous year. We have difficulty capturing that number because there are events in so many places, but all indications are that it was doubled. So in terms of upcoming programs, on Wednesdays, every Wednesday this month, we're partnering with JJAB on a Create and Paint event for middle and high school teens. So there's pizza involved, so that is pretty well attended. And on September 19 we have an author talk with the New Mexico poet laureate, who is Manuel Gonzalez. And on September 24 as part of the Discover series here in White Rock, we'll have a session on life drawing with Ken Niebel. Let's see. In terms of projects, with the EV charging stations at Mesa Public Library, we are still waiting on the commissioning to happen. So the infrastructure is in place. It's the commissioning of the two charging stations that needs to happen before they can be used. And the deadline for that was October 8th. So we expect some movement on that very, very soon. And then we are ever steadily working towards our software migration. Our real life is October 1st and we are starting to get the word out this week to the public. So you might've seen that on our website or press release on that. At the end of my little bullet points here, I'll have Rochelle give you a demonstration of the catalog. So get a sneak peek at what that looks like. So in terms of staffing, we are fully staffed, knock on wood, for the moment. And lastly, I'll share with you some comments that we've had over the last few months. A patron complimented the library and said that it was world class. And another patron said Atomicon was amazing. So it's one of the best events that takes place in the county and wanted to thank the library for doing it. And two patrons today complimented the lockers and said that we hope to get some for White Rock. And yes, the plan is to get some of the outdoor lockers for White Rock as well after we get through this migration. And then a patron enjoyed the adult summer reading program this year and wanted to thank staff for putting it together. We appreciate those comments. Rochelle, I will slide this down and you can I'll take over and show What's been Yeah.

So this is the homepage of our new catalog. We've tried to keep the colors of the same as what is on our website so that it will be a cohesive So you see, so this is a discovery layer, which means it's more than just a catalog looking for physical books in the library. You can also search in the same time, e-content and other resources all together in one place. And I'll show you that a little bit. So on the landing page, the most impactful, oh, there it goes. So the most impactful thing. And when this is open on a larger screen, these browse categories down at the bottom. So these are the browse category names, but the items show up in these with these cool cover images and just kind of keep going. So right now we've highlighted mostly new materials in the library. So the new and adult collections, things in the new team collections, and then in the youth collections as well. So we can kind of target the audience, meet them where they are. And then we also have this cool feature that it automatically, once we did the settings in the backend, it will pull in the current New York Times bestsellers. These are ones that we have in the system. This data is from April. So we actually have like,

way more best sellers than that in the system.

And just because we're using this for training and such, it's not quite up to date. So I also wanted to highlight this menu bar across here. So this home button will always bring the user back to the catalogs homepage, which is where we are currently. This button here will go to the library's website. So that's an easy way to For them people to get there, and this is the message about the migration and there's a handy dandy page that that was built kind of giving the public some information about that. Back to my presentation, so this is this button will take folks to our digital resources. Which is integrated in this catalog features, so this comics plus one we've left up at the top just kind of as a feature resource. We will add some more before we go live. But then easily in these categories, users can find what they're looking for by opening up these categories to see. And obviously the searching, which I'll show you in a minute, also such as these items as well. So the other integration is our events calendar. So users can easily just click on our events link and it will go directly into our sprint and share product, which gives all the information and details about various events. That's also searchable, which I'll show you for in a moment. All those open up in new tabs for people's convenience, The get a card feature so people can register for a card online if they aren't able to come into the library and they want to start using our digital products right away. We have that now, but it looks really cool. And so, yeah, they can put in their information and then they are instructed to bring their ID and verify their information with physically here in Los Alamos County so that We know that those users don't live in, you know, Connecticut or something. And then we also have our materials request dropdown, which brings you to purchase suggestions, which is all integrated in with the new ILS system. Users can make a request once they're logged in. And then also our interlibrary loan, which folks can obviously request them. So I'm gonna choose that. I have a couple of things to show you. I'm going to actually go ahead and log in because I'm going to highlight something here in the browse categories.

You're welcome to just sign in as me.

It doesn't like my password, just be advised. Google is gonna yell at me, but I will change that. So once you're logged in, you can see here that the browse categories added two more things. So once users are logged in and they've created some lists, the button for their list is right here in the browse categories. And then also similarly, the saved search.

Okay.

Oh, there it is. So I also saved a search to this account, which is just once you created that and saved it for yourself, it stays there in your account. So we're Not continually redoing things And you can have multiple multiple in there, show you a little bit of that. So, um, now I'm going to actually show you how to save a search. Looks like So we're going to just do this in a keyword search in the catalog, but I'll show you some other options in that regard as well. So once you've performed the search, as you can see, there are a lot of things in this particular search. So I'm going to do a couple of things to narrow it down. I'm going to, I only want to look at books. So I'm going to click on that books button. And then, and you can see that it shows up here and the implied filters so people can easily clear it or move it if that's not what they meant to do. I'm also interested only in the nonfiction titles. So I'm going to go ahead and select that filter and then I'm also going to look only at things that are adult audience. So I'm going to Select that one. And then I really don't have time to look at all this stuff right now. So I'm actually going to, so here you can change the search the way that the results are sorted. It's defaulted right now to best match, but I'm a librarian and I like things to be in alphabetical order. So I'm going to put these in alphabetical order. which obviously has the numbers at the top. But then the cool thing is, is now I'm going to save this search. So it will save all of those filters that I applied. It's going to save all that. So I'm just going to save my search and I'm just going to name it travel. And the next time I log in, when I have more time or whatever, I will be able to go back to that search and find what I need. So another cool thing is, I'm actually just going to, this mask is really funny. So I'm just going to go back to the homepage so you can see that. So I'm going to do a different search and I'm going to use this feature over here. So I'm going to search for poetry, which is obviously very, very wide. And then over here, instead of just searching in the catalog, I'm going to ask it to search in combined results. And that will give you another indicator of how broad this is. So when I do that, as you can see, the event with the Poet Laureate comes up here, several of the physical items in our collection. as well as articles and databases, items that might be in there. And so that's just a broad way to look at. If I had a list with poetry in it, my list would also show up there.

The same list?

Mm-hmm. OK. Yeah. If there was poetry in the list, it would show up there, because that's the search term. So I'm just going to show you some other things. So I'm going to limit. that I'm going to do an author's search instead of keyword. Where's the menu? Why is it not there? What's happening?

Maybe go back home and see. Oh, I'm a little stressed out there for a second.

Okay, so I'm actually going to do an author search in the library catalog. And it's smart enough that you don't have to do things last name first. And you also don't have to worry about capitalization. So one of the really cool features of our new catalog is, this is a little bit funny to see, but so like the Black Wolf, I think is the most recent one of her titles. And as you can see, all of the different formats that we own are all there in that search together.

It integrates the Libby.

And then, yeah, and it integrates Libby and blah. So yeah, so every, if we own this title, it's going to show up in this search, either the book, the large print, the audio book. So we do have the physical things coming up first. And then yeah, the e-resource items. This is a training thing. So I can't go into Libby and hoopla, but if I did, I could just push this button and get to where I need to go. to put it on hold or to borrow it. So I'm also going to, I really kind of want, I don't, I haven't read this series. So I was thinking about starting it. And so I'm going to do this sort by publication year ascending so that the first title in that series shows up here at the top now. And then Oh, this large print one is checked out. And so I'm going to go ahead and place a hold on it. So, um, I, this is my user is set to pick things up at Mesa and, um, I'm going to go ahead and put that on hold. Another really cool feature is that it gives me some options of some things that are currently available that I could look at while I'm waiting for that other book. So if I wanted to check out this book, Um, I could take a look at it here and be like, oh yeah, that's here at Mesa. I'm going to go and get that off the shelf so I can read it. Now I'm going to do another search. I'm just going to go back to keyword and, um, this is going to be just going to search wide. Um, so this is another really fun feature. As you can see, I did a broad search for chess. So it's giving me some items. Interestingly, a music CD that's available on Hoopla. But what I really wanted to highlight is I might be a patron who's just interested in looking at a book on chess or learning how to play. And as I'm scrolling through here, I can see, oh, wow, they have chess events. I didn't know that. Let me see what that's all about. And I can click on that and see when the next chess event is, the time and where it's located. And then I can add this to my events because I am logged in. And so I'm just going to click that button and add it to my events. And I'll show you more about that in just a second. So now that we've looked at a few things, I'm going to go and look at my account and see what we see on that page. So the account summary, which I got to from this hamburger menu, it shows me if Libby and Hoopla were hooked up, it would show me those items. So it's showing me that I have one title currently checked out and three titles on hold. If I had anything overdue, it would show here or anything ready for pickup. We aren't using the campaigns feature initially, but when we do, that would be super cool. So if I'm not sure what I have checked out, I can click here or in that menu on the left. And that reminds, oh yeah, that's the book that I have checked out. Cool. And then I can look at my holds. So I can't remember what I have on hold and it's just taking a moment to load and So I have this other Louise penny book on hold. And I think it's actually going to come here pretty quick and I'm actually have a meeting late And so I need to change my pickup location to one of the lockers outside because I won't be able to pick it up until after the library closes And so even though the item is already on hold for me, I can go ahead and change that particular one item's pickup location, which is also kind of handy. And then while I'm in here, I can open. So this is just a snapshot of everything. If there were any Fees on my account, but they didn't return something before six months or whatever the timeframe is that will show here and eventually we will have the ability to take credit card payments on online. So if I have, oh, I need to take care of that and take care of that, but that's coming soon.

So in here.

Um, I opened up this account settings box and then I can look at my preferences. So, um, right now in my, my account has a crazy username. Um, but my account, oh, this is what I was going to show you. So, um, this is if I'm logged in, uh, this default sort for new searches. I actually am always looking for the newest thing. And so I'm just going to go ahead and change that for myself too. It's always now going to default instead of best match. It's going to default to the newest thing in that for me on my searches. So I'm going to save that down here because that's what I want to, how I want it to be. Users have the ability to change many other things based on their preferences. And so that was just one that I wanted to show you. Also, I opened my own contact information. And when I registered, I forgot to give a phone number. And so I'm going to go ahead and add my phone number now. Oops. But now I'm going to email, because that would be silly. But So I'm going to go ahead and do that. And then I'm going to go ahead and save that. So now my account has a phone number on it. And then in this other preferences, so in the messaging settings, we have it set to default to email. But now that I have put in a phone number, I can actually change when I get a hold. I can change that to a phone number and I'll get a call. We are actually also, when we launch, we'll also have SMS text messaging. So actually that would be a much better way for me to get that. When there's a hold filled, I'm out and about and I want to know on the way so I can stop by the library and pick up my hold. This digest feature, if I have five things on hold and they all come in and they all show up, Instead of getting five separate text messages, I'll get one text message telling me that all five things are available. So that's a really cool feature as well. So one other really cool feature that this has is patrons have the ability to link accounts. So this can be for traditional family structures, parents, guardians, and children. Or if my elderly mother is living with me and I need to want to know what's going on with her account because I'm picking up her stuff and her holds, then I can link that account. Right now, for this purpose, I have Junior added to my account so that I can see when there's holds or finds on Junior's account. And I can very easily remove that or I can disable account linking altogether. But I want to show you what that looks like on the end of the other person who I'm linked to. Because as you can imagine, that can drive some questions for privacy reasons. But in order for the account to be linked, the person linking, so in theory the parent, has to know the library card number and the pin of the person who they're linking to. So it's possible for that person to say, you know what, I'm really not interested in that person having that information, being able to look at an account. I'm just going to show you what that looks like. So the first time I log in as junior, it tells me right here, that an account has been linked to mine. And so do you want to continue to allow that? I can click on yes, or I can click on manage linked accounts so I can get rid of it. Yes is pretty easy and shows you what that will do, but I'm going to actually go into the managed so I can show you what that looks like. So if I decided that I really would not prefer this person to be able to see my account, I can actually remove it and it's going to give me a, are you sure message and then it will actually prompt me to change my team so that the person who linked my account won't be able to do it again. Right away. So as you can imagine, household conversations with how that's going to work. But, um, but yeah, it's, but it's possible and it will just make it easier for families to manage things all in one place. instead of logging out and logging into somebody else's account and going back and forth. You can link with maybe. So that was all I had prepared for this particular. I'm actually gonna do that. And I think it's gonna send me an email.

Oh, no, it just wants me to change my pens. Just gonna do that. Make it something more fun. Oops.

So now the person who linked my account cannot do it again because I've changed my pin. So I can, does anybody have any questions?

I do. Okay. Three questions. On the main landing page, the browse categories. So just a good example, I thought, change those, like, so say this year is, you know, the 250th anniversary, how books focus on United States history, or I guess I should say, is staff able to change that to different events?

And that was, thank you for asking that, because I had a parenthesis here to say something and didn't say it. So yes, we actually have endless options for our creative staff to create digital displays. I think Um, as you know, in the library, um, the staff does great with just really great creative displays and we can actually mirror those. So we can create the digital version of that. Um, or we can do completely different. Yeah. And this, and it's kind of, um, it's kind of unlimited. I've seen in some of the demo libraries, like their subcategories are like fill the entire space. Because they just max out. It's just, I don't know if there is a limit, but it will never reach the limit if there is one because it's it's very, very bad.

Next question on the message settings button. You know, obviously you can send like different notes that say, hey, this book is in, you know, that kind of thing. But when you a few Seconds earlier, you had the add events feature. Is that something that might be able to?

I meant to show them.

You're asking great questions. So because I did add those chess events. Yeah, well, I also didn't highlight it. I was supposed to, but yes, thank you for asking that question. So yeah, so I added the chess event. Oh, but that's on the other account. So this is Junior's account. Junior is not interested in playing chess or seeing poetry. Yes, but let me sign in with this other one. Not very creative when it comes to numbers.

Thank you for asking the question.

Um, so yeah, so I'm still on my account thing here and I can double check my events and I can see that I've actually, um, added two of the chess, um, events cause I really want to go to that. Um, I can, oh, I can't go this week, but I can still go next week. So I could easily remove that one. Um, there isn't an example for me to show you, but some of our events do have registration. And the way that it's set up is I would see that it required registration. And then I would have to go into SpringShare, though, to actually do the registration. But the system will tell me, okay, you're interested in this, but you need to register.

From this page, could you, it doesn't look like it, but maybe I'm just not seeing something. But from this page, hypothetically, could I say, hey, send me a text message, reminder, 24 hours of events or something to that effect?

No, not to that level of granularity. In Spring Stream does it do that? I don't think so. So this is what it would look like. This is what our event calendar looks like.

There is for meeting rooms. So I'm guessing there is for events as well, but I'm not entirely certain about that.

There isn't one to show. That might be a fun one. I will have to look. Yeah, and I'll have to see if that

Because I'm notorious for not writing things down and remembering them like two days after.

Yeah, after it happened. Yeah. Or even being able to add it to a calendar. So, yeah. I will definitely make a note of that. If that's a setting that we can turn on, we will. Or one of the great things I didn't mention, again, So our new ILS, as well as Aspen, the catalog, are open source software. And so they're constantly being improved. And Aspen receives about one update a month. So it is constantly being improved. And so we already know some of the things coming with the next couple of releases. But that's something that as a team, we can put in the back end, we can go in. Yeah, exactly. And then the coder, they can say, oh yeah, we're working on this. It'll be in release 2611 or, oh, that's a great idea. We'll start working. So it's really great that it has those features. Our ILS, the staff side of it has updates twice a year. So that one is also constantly being approved. But everything for us is supported by Bywater Solutions. They are experts in both Koha and Aston. And then they are actually posting the software for us or the data. And then they're our support. So if we have any problems or issues, we can reach out to Bywater and help us out. So yeah, so we're pretty excited. Our staff did training last week. So yeah, we have training all last week and it was very well received by the staff and we think everybody, especially now that they've had more time to be in there and looking at things and actually getting to practice and do things, I think the staff is also pretty excited about the new system. Our current one is just Older and it's tricky to see. And that was one of the first things is like when you look up a book on the internal system. Currently it's me. It might as well be like lines of code. It's just like one line and you have to see, oh, that's really what that is. But in a new one, it shows up with the jacket to me. Oh, that's that built. And then it has the information all just right there. So, but this should, um, this should make the users, um, happy and it should be easier. And a lot more modern and a lot easier to use. And a lot of these features, some of them we do have currently like the integration with Libby and Hoopla. It's just not the greatest searching capability, but the integrating right with the events and stuff like that, that's newer. So I also didn't mention reading history. The patrons have to, they have the ability to stop their reading history. And so if I don't, I don't want to know, I don't want anybody else to know, and I'm just, I can stop recording my reading history and it will get rid of my current one. And then if I sign back up again, it'll start from that point forward. So in our current system, if folks have things, Their lists and such. They're not going to migrate automatically, but the staff is is available and able to assist people to grab their lists out of our current catalog and so that they have it and they can enter it themselves. But we have all that capability. Any more questions.

Are you able to search specifically for only books that are available right now. I just know my biggest criticism of the old system was because it took a second when you look at a book to figure out if it was on hold, there was no way to add a filter. And it's like, well, I don't really care which French travel book I'm looking for. I just want a French travel book. And you would wait for 15 seconds. It would load. Oh, someone has it. I move it down. Yes.

So I like to do a broad search. It's going to bring back a lot of things. But you'll see here in this facet over here, available now at, so if I really need a Penguin book today, I can limit it to, things that are only available right now at Mesa.

This is a hot topic.

It's one of the reasons why I use it.

I'm guessing the stars is your personal reading?

So, yep, because I'm logged in and if I read this book and I want to give it four stars, I can do that. And then it does ask me if I want to do a review. So I can actually, this book is so great, I want to go to.

And then others can potentially see those, that review.

Not the typing part, the stars. So if I were to write a review, that would only be visible to myself so I can remember. But the star ratings can be visible. It doesn't indicate who gave it the rating, but it will say, you know, there was four or five stars and three, four stars were just like, so.

But only for other Los Alamos County Library users. Right, exactly. Yeah. Will, so in the beginning then, a lot of these aren't going to have any stars.

Yeah.

It'll just be like. People will do it, yeah. As they find them or look at them, they can.

Yeah, and then the users will also start to get recommendations. So I showed you that, the while you wait. So I don't, I'm waiting for that Louise Penny book and that gave me three suggestions. But once I've rated three things, so even just by giving it the stars, the system will start recommending things to me. Let me see that.

Oh yeah, recommend for you. Yeah.

So, you know, I rated that penguin book. So if I read a couple more, I'll probably start getting some recommendations for, you know, wild animals or whatever it is that, you know, based on, but users have to rate three things before they'll start getting those. So, you know, we hope that this is very user-friendly and that the community will We'll enjoy it and even more use of the libraries.

Have any patrons like seeing this type of presentation yet or is it going to be?

No, we've done a couple of different presentations for the staff at various, you know, when we first signed on, we kind of had a preview and we've done, but this is the first one I've done for folks who don't actually work at the library.

So no general, I guess, general public.

So we're starting to be getting the word out to the public this week. And so, as I mentioned earlier, starting with the press release, and then we'll be doing social media probably daily until we go live at the end of the month. So we'll be sort of giving it to the public in bite-sized pieces.

So there'll be 30-second video here, 20-second video here.

Yeah, yeah. And this all of the the press release and all the social media will link back to this page directly where folks can get more information on once we go live. We've also built up frequently asked questions page right now that pretty much Has the same information as this. So this will be like for once we go live will transition more so frequently asked questions so that it'll be easier for for folks to find what they're looking for specifically. This does give a timeline. So we will lose a few different services for a couple days because Bywater has to extract our data. So they have to take it out of our current ILS and then be able to load it into the new one. And so the biggest impact, I think, for the public is, well, starting on Sunday, they won't be able to place folds for themselves. in the pack. So basically it'll just be a place you can look at books, but you won't be able to make any changes to your account or place any holds. And then on the Monday and Tuesday before go live, we will be using the new system has an offline system. And so we'll be able to use the offline circulation to check things out to people during those two days, we won't be checking anything in because that's when our data will have been extracted. And it'll be loading into the new system. And so once we go live, our soft go live is on the 30th. So once we go live on the 30th, we'll be able to check everything in. So we won't be able to check things in during those two days. People can return them, but we're just going to hold on to them. And then we'll be able to check them in. And then people will be able to start placing votes again. But we will be able to check out items for folks that come to the library these kinds of things. Yeah, it's a really great system. I think this, you know, just because the staff, you know, muscle memory, they know where to click and what to do currently. So I think there'll be a little bit of, just a little bit of slowness, but it's the new system is very intuitive. The one on the staff side. And I think that, yeah, that it'll start getting some, people will be very pleased with it and be able to do what they need to do.

Any more questions? Thanks, Michelle. Sign out my library board user.

And then I think Junior was still signed in, maybe. I don't know. Oh, yeah. It's okay.

But yeah.

Do you have the basically sign out every time or say, you know, someone's doing a search, you know, at this computer and then they go to get their book or whatever. Right. How long will it take to sign this out?

So the settings, the system knows the IP addresses of the library buildings. And so if a user is logged into the catalog in the library, it does have a timeout. I think it's, it's pretty short.

So it might already be signed.

But at home, you can just sign in and space because of that. It, it knows that that's not one of the library IPs where a different person could be using that computer. So the system was pretty smart in those things. So, but I will make note of the, um, getting text messages about the events and see if that's something we can turn on or we can submit it as a bug and potentially get something like that to find.

Yeah, I did that.

I was going to go to the Georgia O'Keeffe. This historian that came as a Fuller Lodge was several months ago and I had gotten to see him a year ago. It was the time change that got me. I lost track of the hour and then when I came, oh no, it definitely happened. But yes, I do recognize that it would be nice to have, like, don't forget to go to this thing this time. So, yeah.

Thank you. Great.

The next item on the agenda is the council liaison. It looks like councilor Rieger is absent. So we're on to informational items. The only informational item I have is the next meeting is October 5th at the municipal building. And are there any final questions or thoughts?

Good for thought. I'm not exactly sure when. If we're at the municipal building, are we going to be in the small 100 room? Because I think early voting will already be in.

I don't know if early voting will affect where we're at. I remember when we discussed this when we made the calendar and I had asked the same question in the 2025 election, we got booted. But what I understand is that they use the county council chambers for early voting.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- The Lord for the larger oh yeah but i'm going to verify that.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Did it happen like as a staging area for equipment.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- yeah yeah yeah I will double check well in advance of the next meeting it's a quick turnaround time, given that this meeting is later in the month, but I will verify that and, if not, will make other.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- If it's the last minute thing I mean I can always have everybody in here. Oh, we have a large table, not for everybody. So just let me know.

Thank you. And that it would be okay for the public to come in if they should. Yeah.

Yeah. We have our reading room, which is so like the actual archive is shut off. So I can just make sure everything is closed. And so if the public, if someone needed to come. Wonderful.

Just, yeah, just like, you know, appreciate that.

Yeah. I like to like, like show. I just wanted to make a comment.

Atomicon was awesome. It was so much fun. My 12-year-old loved it.

She was there for probably the entire time. And I had a lot of fun here. So good job. Thanks. So we will adjourn at 6.51.