Library Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Okay, let me just um get Anna in here really quick. I got a letter in and the Zoom. Let's see.

Okay, so Anna's in here. We're recording. We're ready. All right. So, I will call the meeting to order for the October um library board agenda. All right. So, we are called to order. So, I'll take a quick roll here. Barb present. Jen here. Anna here. Hard for me to see you up there. Oh, no. I see Jandy. And Jandy is here. come here

and um and Michael will not be here. Um so we are we are a quorum. So we have a a meeting. All right. So um at this point in time I'll take a u a motion to approve uh the minutes and the and the agenda unless there is change to the There is a change. Okay. I'll take to the minutes. If you drop down to it says business quarterly report council, it says Barb. Yeah. Oh, says what? It says Barb. Oh, okay. Well, that could be a Yeah, that might need to be adjusted.

I do not know how that happened. I swear I looked up that name four times. That That is funny. Okay, that that the rest of it. Okay. So, that change is noted. So, uh take a motion to approve now. So, move that change. Okay. Uh all those in favor of approving the minutes and the agenda say I. I. I. I.

Thank you. Okay. And uh Jandy, I'll ask uh well I'll just say we're now at citizen comments. Do we have anybody online? If we don't, you can still give us the the rundown on what the procedure is. Um we have citizen comment at the beginning and the end of each meeting. You can have up to three minutes to speak on any topic for the board. And if we have need to get um we're able to get back with you if we have any questions or answers. Um but I don't have anyone in chambers or online at this time. and we'll see if there's anyone at the end of the meeting.

Okay, great. Thank you. All right, so we're moving along quickly and so now we are to the city administrator report and that is Mark Hacko. So I think later in the meeting Janie's going to walk you through some of the budget related items. So I'm let her uh guide that. I think the only thing I would have to update the group on is just a reminder um and we've talked about this at a couple of previous council meetings. We are uh getting ready to launch a new resident request system. This would be similar to a 311 system that you may be familiar with in other communities. It's just for non-emergency work related kinds of things. And so there will be at least three categories of things that are library related um in this system. So if uh you are interested in um getting information about reserving a room uh or any of those kinds of things and then maybe some maintenance related items for the facility itself, those will be available to make requests on once this launches. Um, and it'll be accompanied by some highlevel, what I would call training material, like little video vignette kinds of things on how to use this. Um, and so probably mid next week, this will hit the airways and and people will be able to start logging requests and and that'll give us much better uh not only ability to manage workflows, but see who's requesting what when. Uh so we can see trends and make sure that we're responding in a timely way uh with the right fix at the right time. So this will be a fundamental improvement to the way that we do it now. Do do um do you get back to people? Yes.

Once it's fixed. So you can uh there's like a 24 48 or 72hour response for each of the items. So if one comes to the library it's going to go to Michaela and so you can request information on the meeting room um getting added to like a program for kids. And then there's like a more general category where basically people can text us questions and then it'll go to our email so we can respond to them. This is not a system though for them to register for events and stuff at the library.

No. So like we pro we would not go in there and like oh can I get your name and phone number to register you for a program. um we would send them a link to where they need to go to or give them you know general information on oh this is how you go about reserving a meeting room if they have a specific question we can answer that. So so Barb to zoom out on your question a little bit taking it out of the context of the library um say you make a request because you uh see a pothole in the street or something was broken.

Yeah something like that. So, so you would put the information with the details of that in there and it would start what is called a workflow in the system that has automatic things that happen. It notifies the right people. But it part of that workflow includes messaging back to the requester that we've received it and then when whatever action is taken to correct it, you would receive a notice saying it's been corrected. Perfect. Yeah. Nice.

Okay. That's it. That's it. Okay. Thank you, Mark. All right. So, now we are on to the friends group. And um since Barbara and I attend the friends group, I'll I'll have her weigh in on anything I might have left out. Um okay. Well, then I let I'll leave out a lot of stuff then.

You won't have as an idea. Anyway, so the friends um they're at that point of the year where they are um working on establishing um officers for the new year. Uh and that'll be brought up at the next meeting and voted on in November. They're also working hard on their next fundraiser which is the um book sale and there are a bunch of books and that'll also be in November. I believe it's the Friday before um Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving. I don't have you have

good question for you, Brad. Did you say working on establishing office roles? Is that what you said? Officers. Officers. Okay. So, I I didn't hear. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Um so, so that's what they're 21st. It could be. Let's see. I'm not I guess I could look it up. November 21st and 22nd, Friday and Saturday. Yeah. So, that would be the uh the book sale. Yes.

And uh again, they have tons of books they're going through and preparing and getting ready for that. Um other than that, they are just busy um working on a new fundraiser. Um, instead of it being a fundraiser, they're calling it a fundraiser, FU N, which a trivia night that will occur in January, and it'll be a Liberty Lake trivia night challenge championship. So, whoever wins the trivia night will be um anointed as the Liberty Lake Trivia Champions. So, uh, should be a fun night. It'll be at the trail head. Uh, Chevolas will be, uh, will be providing the food. And if you haven't experienced their food yet, I I encourage you to do so. It's excellent. Uh, and they've done a great job of uh, preparing that space. So, that's what's going on with the prints.

Yeah. The kind of the idea behind the fundraiser was that it would be marketed towards families instead of the suare which is like an adults only event. Thank you. Yes. It's going to be really fun. Can I add one thing about the friends? Of course.

In your packet today, you have a black magazine. And this is something I wanted to show you. And this is something that the friends sponsored and purchased for the library. It is a magazine of all the new titles that have come out or will come out during the month of October. So, we have a subscription to book page and they send us to these to the library every month and it's something we've been handing out at the front desk and we have it on our new bookshelf and people have been taking these. They've been going really well and it just gives people more ideas of new books that they might be interested in reading. Um, it is marketed more towards adults, but it does have kids books in here as well. And so, it's just something fun that I wanted to show you guys that the friends have been sponsoring um, for us, and it's been going really well as far as patrons taking it. We've been tracking how many of them go each month so that we know how well it's doing. Janie, could you also share a little bit of some of the other programs that the friends have uh helped with and provided for the library to to

Yes. offer to our community?

Yes. So, the friends sponsor the Mobius Museum pass um which is the kids children's museum. The North Museum Arts and Culture pass which is for families as well to go to the MAC. Um and then they sponsor um our summer reading program, our big program where we bring in a performer um for the kids at the beginning of the summer. Um this last year it was the reptile man. Um so they sponsor that for us. And then they usually sponsor the library Halloween party um which is big. That's coming up in October. Um the theme this year is wicked. So, they usually sponsor um like purchase the activities and the candy and that sort of thing. And then they usually volunteer at that event. Um and that's another big one. And then they'll usually sponsor a lot of Michaela's artists that she brings in or different speakers. Um so it kind of changes each year, but um that's the big main things that they sponsor for the library, which is wonderful. So I am working with them this month in October. I'll meet with the spreads budget committee at the end of the month to um request my amount for the next year um and get that approved with them.

Great. Yeah, they provide a lot of lot of opportunities for um especially children in our community. Yes. I think did you say symphony already? Symphony. That's the one I forgot. Yes. A huge one. Um in that was great. They sponsor three different symphony nights. um where and the symphony matches it. So we get 20 tickets and then they match it with another 20 tickets. So residents are able to sign up for I think up to four tickets for the symphony. So that's a big one that I forgot.

Well, I forgot most of those anyway. But yeah, so yeah, it's great. All those opportunities are there for our citizens to take advantage of. So that is the friends. Uh, and now we're on to Jandy's report.

Okay. So, I'm going to go through a few things that I have here in your packet and then we'll move on to the budget. So, I just did the book page magazine. The next one is this um Inland Share Library Group little bookmark that I brought for you guys to see. So, as of October 1st, we have officially launched the Inland Share Library Group. If you turn it over on the back, it has a picture of the logo and you see it says Inland Share, a library of libraries and it has a little bunny with a book and uh librarians love puns. And so if you notice it has a bunny because we're inland share like a hair. So that's where Christopher came up with our little mascot which is a a bunny rabbit hair. So, um,

yes, we love puns as librarians. So, if you turn it over, it shows all of the libraries that we are incorporated with. Um, so there's several of them there. Um, the two that are missing are Community Library Network and Benawa, which are the two systems that chose not to continue with inland share. So, we've been passing these out at the front desk. Um, and then, um, the logo, our little bunny rabbit. Um, we've been putting little stickers on everyone's library cards when they come in that have the new little logo on them. Um, of course, we do have new library cards that have like this full logo and it kind of has this green and brown background with it and I didn't want to give out like 8,000 of those to all of our residents. So, we're starting with a sticker and then as people come in for new library cards, they'll get a new inland share library card. Um, what we've done in the past is when people's cards expire after two years, we'll switch them out with the new card. So, it'll be kind of more of a hello roll out. And of course, if people want to keep the library card that they have, they can. Um, but yeah, that's the Inland Shared Library Group stuff. So, we were closed on Monday and Tuesday last week for um so that we could kind of move all of the software over. Our checkouts and that sort of thing weren't working. Um, so the end of this last week was really busy. Um, everything's going really well with our cohost software and that sort of thing. We're just still having to go through all of our different subscriptions that we have to various databases. We have to kind of change the numbering with the library cards to make sure um it'll authenticate for everyone. Um, so that's something that we still are working on um with our IT and inland share, but everything is going pretty smoothly so far.

Um, Jandy. Yes. Back to the this. Yes, Libby. Yes, that's that's the next Oh, okay.

So, as part of um Inland Share, we have a subscription to Libby. Um our residents have access to two different libraries. So they have access to Washington anytime libraries because we have that from the state library and then they have access to our CIN I guess now our inland share library group um Libby page um with with Idaho um during COVID Idaho libraries formed this idea contract where basically anyone who wanted to could join this group and give people access to for Libby libraries. Um, and so this is something that we've started promoting. So basically these are um several libraries that have joined the idea network. And so basically patrons can go in and add these libraries to their Libby accounts. And so basically the more libraries you add, the more books you're able to search and the more books you're able to access. So this is something we've just started promoting recently since we are a part of inland share. We do have access to the these Idaho libraries. So it basically just gives you access to more digital resources and um when you search on Libby it will search automatically all these other libraries which is really nice. It used to you had to individually search them which is can be really annoying if you're like searching Harry Potter in like 12 different libraries. So, they have upgraded it now so you can search all of these libraries. So, it's not something that I think every patron is going to want to do, go in and add their library card 12 times. But for those people who really enjoy Libby and maybe that's all they read is ebooks or audio books, they can add these individual libraries and just have access to more digital resources.

Does that make sense? Yeah, that's great. Cool. I use it. Yes. All the time. Yes. Um, and they were telling me they the wait list is incredible for some popular things. So, it' be nice to be able to add a few other libraries. I mean, they probably have long wait lists, too. But, yeah, it's definitely surprising how many people assume because it's digital that they have that, you know, you have a limited copies and that's not the case. We have a limited number of copies because, you know, they're so expensive to purchase. So, it's nicer when there's more libraries to kind of spread spread the wealth with.

Um, so that's something that we've just been recently promoting. Um, we have these up at the front desk for people to take and we've been promoting it with some of our patrons that we know use Libby a lot as well. Cool. So, that's the stuff that I had in your packet other than Oh, our bookmarks. Um, this week is banned book week at the library and so we have bookmarks and then displays with different titles of books that have been banned. Um, and that's something of course that we're celebrating this week at the library is intellectual freedom and access to material. And just to clarify, that's a national week. Yes. Yes. So, normally it's in September. This year it's in October and it's a national week um the week of October 7th.

Right.

So, yes. Okay, the next thing I have for you guys is the budget. I'm going to pull it up on my screen, but I think I did give you guys a copy of that to look at with tiny font. So, there are two pieces to this. Um, and I meant to pull up the other one first. So, give me one second. Okay, it's loading. Okay. So on your screen you see you're going to see resource X and this is part of the city's priority based budgeting which is kind of budgeting more broadly and not getting so into the line items. So with the library we have three programs. Um you'll see them up here. We have library circulation which is everything circulation related from books that we check out um ordering of our materials. It includes things like reader advisory um our computer checkouts um everything circulation related that we do at the library and the cost associated with that. So, as you can see, because it's, you know, our primary function at the library, it's our highest um cost program. And so, this includes, you know, how much we spend on books, how much we spend on upgrading our computers, and then how much we

spend also on staff time. So, obviously, circulation is a huge part of our budget, and so that's what our staff spends the most time doing. So, we're giving we wanted to give the council and the community a bigger picture of where their money is going and not get so down into the weeds of like this is how much we're spending on, you know, works or whatever it is. Um, or the library, how much we're spending on glitter, you know, it gives them a broader view of where their money's going. So, with the library, we have three programs. Um, our second program is of course called library programs. How many times can you say the word program? And this is how much money we spend putting on programs at the library. So, like I said, this is including staff time. Um, we're not spending $108,000 on story time specifically. Um, but this includes all of our storytime programs, our teen programs, our after school programs for kids, our summer reading program, um, everything like that.

So, does that figure represent the staff? Yes. And their time? Yes. that they spend with those programs. Yes. Got it.

Yes. So, it's our staff and their time. Um, and then obviously our materials are incorporated into that as well. But the prim the primary expense with that is staff time. You know, you're paying Michaela and Aaron basically their full salary for to put on our programs. And then the last program is our library meeting space. Um, obviously reserving meeting rooms is like a huge part of what we do at the library, providing those resources to our community. We're providing them with free meeting spaces where they can meet. Um, and so that is things like building maintenance, um, staff time. Um, obviously that isn't a program that costs us a lot of time to put on. Um, it's just the software to facilitate it. Obviously having kind of a little bit of staff in the building to, you know, make sure everything's good and golden. Um, but those are our three main programs that we have for the library. If you notice, there are some other tallies down here. And these are other ways that staff spend time throughout their day. So, obviously, we have some accounts payable, receivable with ordering materials, um, invoices, that sort of thing. Records management, professional development, going to conferences. So, our travel budget and our training budget are roped into there. and then you know it and building maintenance. So

So is Jen is that 13,000 is that for all employees for professional development? Um so what that has is it has my training budget in there. Um it has our travel budget in there and then it has yes any additional trainings that we do as a staff. So, like I have a software that I provide um and the name is escaping me, but yeah, that's professional development for all of my staff. Um we'll do trainings at the library a couple times a year and then we do have like conferences and trainings that some of my staff go to as well. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious if that's enough for training.

It has been so far. Um you'll notice I did up our training budget for next year. Um, so you'll see that in a minute in my other um, spreadsheet that I'll be showing you guys. Okay. One last question. Yes. I noticed when you click on there, I see something. It says least align, most aligned. Yes. Could you, uh, kind of Yeah. help us understand what that what it's aligned with. So basic

basically um we went through all of the programs for all of the city staff and then we went through our strategic plan and what our strategic priorities are for the year for the city as a whole and then we rated each program on how aligned it was with the strate strategic plan all the way to the least aligned. Okay. And this is the strategic plan for the city or just for the library? For the city. Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Yes. So, we looked at what the demand is for these programs. We looked at, you know, is it mandated, which the library is, it's a self-mandate by the city to have a library. Um, how much of the population is served? Um, obviously the library has really good statistics on how many patrons we have and that sort of thing. So, that's something we're really aligned with. Um, quality of life and connectedness. Obviously, that's something that the library aligns really well with. um public safety, um economic growth and vibrancy, plan growth and infrastructure, and then public service I think is the last one, public service excellence. So, basically, we rated how well each of our programs align with the city strategic priorities.

So, what's the bar indicate? How far out? What does that indicate? So, I think it's does it align? Is it how well aligned there Mark because I'm just curious public service very short bar I'm kind of wondering I mean oh I think it's public safety oh and then public service has something to do with the governance yeah so so one thing to keep in mind um when you're looking particularly at this view these are uh relative uh numbers so Jamie if you would hover over the portion of the are on uh planned grow infrastructure. Yes.

And so Brad, if you see those numbers. Yes. Sorry, Mark's trying to look at it. Little teeny tiny screen. Am I hovering over the wrong spot? No. No. So, what you would see there is those uh nonminor some strong extreme

and that particular strategic priority. the the entire budget of the library is allocated across programs and you see that the some alignment it's aligned as so in other words $636,000 of the library budget is at least somewhat aligned with planned growth and infrastructure uh Jandy if you go to quality of life you'll see the breakdown against is strong 650 $58,000 is strongly aligned with the library's commitment to be uh improving quality of life.

So So in other words, what this is telling you is that uh 658,000 if that's the number is is strongly aligned with our priority of quality of life. And so you would just you would figure out what that split is for each of those priorities. public service excellence is a a governance priority instead of a community priority. And really all that means is that it's an internally focused priority. And so the budget that you're going to see there is going to be mostly the um accounts payable, payroll, uh it kind of stuff that you saw in that previous view.

Doesn't really affect the public, but obviously as a staff person, you want those those are strongly aligned with you. Yes, that makes sense. Thanks. Thank you.

So, this is something we talked about a little bit with council last year on because it was a new program that we were piloting and so this is something that's going to be incorporated a little bit more into the budget this year. So, I wanted to give you guys a peek at that as well. So, moving on to um our line item budget. Um, I wanted to give you guys a view of this as well. I have it in front of you so you can see it's in your packet behind the strategic plan so you can see it in more detail. Um, and it just shows, you know, the amount of money that we're spending on salaries for the year. Um, moving on down to the library supplies, how much we're spending in office supplies. um children's and adult program supplies. So, how much we're spending on the programming, our programming is heavily supplemented by the Friends of the Library Group. They usually give me about $7,500 a year. So, if you look at that number, it is closer to $20,000 a year on what we're spending for those um professional services. So, this includes um anything professional that we're doing like our coffee machine. Um it also includes our um courier who brings our books from the other libraries twice a week. So that's a huge part of that budget. Um software maintenance and databases. This is something I wanted to mention to you guys a little bit more detailed. So this includes all of our databases um like Canopy Streaming, Mango Languages. Um those were two new databases that we purchased last year and the results that we're getting from those databases has been phenomenal. um we are quadrupling our database participation each month and it's from those two databases specifically. So that's something I'm going to be continuing next year. There isn't an increase in those like it won't cost us more to do it for another year, but that's something I've been really

pleased with. Um the thing that I'm looking at adding for next year is an email newsletter platform. So right now for our newsletter, we don't send it out to people. we just post it on our website and we post it on our Facebook page. I wanted to have a way that we could formally email newsletters out or other information about the library. So, I'm looking at purchasing a email newsletter platform

which would host obviously everyone's email in it. Um, some people also use Substack, which is something you could just subscribe to. Um, it will be something that patrons can opt into. We won't just like start spamming them. It'll be something they can opt into if they want to sign up for it. But that would give us the ability to send out information about the library on a more regular basis and reach more of our users. Um, so that's something I'm looking at for next year. Um, the other thought I had with that is Michael had brought up um, letting patrons know when we've updated our library policies.

And so I thought that's a way we could do that as well easily is, you know, you'll usually get emails from Google or anywhere that's like, hey, we updated our terms and service. This is a way that we could do that really easily. is letting them know these are the policies that we've recently updated. If you want to learn more information, you can click here to this. So, that's another easy way that we could do that.

Um, let's see. Um, [Music] so, um, we don't really have any increases to our, you know, internet postage. Um, I did a small increase to our travel budget for next year. um books and other materials down here on the bottom. Um our Washington Anytime subscription went up about $1,500, so there is an increase for that. Um as you guys know, digital materials cost a lot of money and they just keep going up each year. So it didn't go up extensively for us. It's only $1,500. Um but that is why I increased our book budget for next year. Um we did a lot larger increase last year in 2025. um our book budget went up like $12,000. So I'm comfortable on where it is for books right now. It's just our digital subscriptions that we needed to do a small increase for that budget. Um and then I am putting a little bit more money into our library trainings budget for next year. Um we recently um last year we purchased the Ry endowed um library trainings and it includes information on like homelessness training, mental health training as well as things like customer service. Um and it's been really wonderful. Um so we're going to be purchasing that again for next year. Um, I've been having staff do quarterly trainings with that and I think that's something that's really helped and they are really wonderful on updating their trainings and adding new trainings all the time. Um, I just like it because it's specifically to libraries. It's not just like customer service for anybody. It's all the trainings are specific to libraries which I think is really helpful for our staff and the people that are putting on the trainings are aware of what's going on in libraries.

Is it on demand? Yes. So, so you don't have to schedule only when somebody on the east coast or No. Yes. So, they do do um I think it's once a month they do do like a live training that you can sign in for and then they record that so you can go back and watch it later, but the majority of it is on demand. Um and they have really great handouts and worksheets with it.

Um which has been really helpful. So, if you remember in April we did a staff training day. Um, and we were able to do it like all as a group and then stop and talk about different things that we noticed from the training. My staff really enjoyed that. So, that's something I'm planning to do again hopefully in December. Um, but yes, it has really helpful kind of worksheets um with little tips and tricks and stuff that is helpful. I don't know about you, but for me it's like helpful to watch something and then have something to refer back to.

So, I've been really impressed with it. Um the last thing I wanted to go over is just our capital expenditures. So this is for um things within the library, not larger like a building. This is just stuff within the physical library. I just wanted to make that distinction

just so you didn't look at the number and say it only has 19,000. I should have a different number. So this um is my big things that I'm requesting for next year. So, one of the things I'm looking at is a um Chromebooks and a lap laptop charging cart. So, as you know, we only have four computers in the library right now. And we've been struggling with having enough machines for people throughout the day. Um we are also looking at um limiting our uh reducing our time limit. So, right now patrons can log onto the computer for two hours and we're going to be reducing that down to one hour with the possibility to extend um but we've been really struggling with having way more people that want to use the computer than there's time and people will come in and it's like oh when is the next machine available and you have to say like an hour and a half like nobody wants to wait an hour and a half.

So we thought if we reduce it to one hour it's more likely that we can say hey a computer will be available in 15 minutes. Um, so that's one way we want to combat that. Another way is by getting a all of my educators will know a laptop cart. So a small kind of desks sized one that'll have five Chromebooks in it and it's something where we could hand a patron a Chromebook and they could go sit somewhere in the library and use a laptop um if that's something that they're interested in using. So that's another way we're just trying to combat having enough um machines to go around. prosperity. Um, and then, um, yes.

Why did you choose Chromebooks? Is that what Central Valley uses for their kids? I think that is what they use for their kids. Yeah. Not not exclusively, but but most of our onetoone in Central Valley are Chromebooks. They're pretty affordable, pretty um studentfriendly. Um and then they have a a little bit of a shorter shelf life than a laptop, but they are also a little bit easier um to get up and running than a laptop. So, it's pretty cost effective way to get technology, useful technology to people. Okay. I I was just curious at

I just thought it was like an affordable ready to go kind of laptop. Well, at WSU, yes, we hate Chromebooks. No, when we started the medical school, we looked at everything and decided to use um iPads and um they last a really long time and we so we ended up just selecting that and then we worked with Apple. They gave us a screaming deal on one so we could buy one for every student. And um so I I was just curious partly because of my experience of all this, you know, research we had to do.

Yes. The main feedback I got when I brought this up to staff was making sure that we have um mouse like mouses for them as well because a lot of patrons, particularly older patrons, don't like the touch. Oh yeah. So that was the big thing that staff said was if we're going to do this, we need to have like a mouse as well and not just depend on keyboard. So yeah, seems like one more thing to break. I know. Very inexpensive or less. I don't know. It was just I'm sure you've done your research. I was just curious and it seems to me like the smart thing to do would be to use whatever central uses for most of their students because I'm guessing people are more familiar with it.

People um are used to that.

Yes. The other thing that we're looking at um as far as computers is um as you guys know like right outside my office we have two um catalog machines where people can look up books on the library catalog. Um we are looking at turning one of those catalog machines into a 30 minute print station. So we have a lot of patrons that come in and they just need to print something. Um, we do have a mobile app that people can print from. Um, but that's one of the other frustrations is that they'll come up and they're like, "Hey, I need to use the computer." And we're like, "Okay, well, it's an hour and a half." And they'll say, "I just need to print the UPS label." So, a lot of the times what we'll say is like, "Hey, if you want, you can email it to me and I'll print it off right here on our library computer." Or we'll offer them the app. But some people just don't want to deal with that. They're just like, I want to be able to just log on, print it myself, and go. So, that's something that we're looking at is turning one of our catalog machines into like a 30 minute station where people can just do something really quick like, oh, I just need to really quickly check my email or I just need to quickly print something and then they're not waiting in a line of two hours. So, that's something else that we're looking at. Um, as you guys know, we just have limited space where we can add more desktops because I think ideally that would be the response is just add more desktops because like I'm saying, there's a lot of people who are like, I don't want to have to deal with a a touch pad. I want to just have the machine set up and ready to go. So, that's one of the drawbacks that we're seeing with laptops.

Um, but we're just trying to figure out creative ways to give more access and not have such long wait times for people. Um, thanks. Oh, no. You're totally fine. Um, so I don't, but that's fine. We're just trying to consider basically all the avenues because a lot of the people that are using our machines don't have a machine at home. So, they're not as familiar with technology and they want everything set up to go and easy. So, we'll see how it goes. Um, that's basically what I had to share about the budget. Do you guys have any other questions or concerns?

Nice work, Jan. That's a lot of work to put that all together. Yes. And yeah, Mark. So, uh I'll I'll pitch in uh just to use the opportunity to uh provide some additional context because we're going to count on all of our commission members in some way uh to help us kind of um communitize this information. So, yeah. So, uh, and Jenny knows this, but, uh, sometimes I have trouble pronouncing words and other times I have trouble remembering the word I'm looking for. So, I just make up borders on the spot. That's a great one. That's a good one.

Yeah. Um, and so what you're seeing is the line item budget for the library. And it's fairly concise, right? So, if you were talking with someone, it may not be all that difficult to kind of visualize what the library is trying to accomplish by by using this line item budget. But when you then expand that uh throughout the rest of the city and you have thousands of line items over, you know, a dozen uh funds that are active in seven or eight departments, you get these permutations of things. really becomes ununderstandable in in a short period of time. You just can't have a conversation with somebody at a coffee shop and then walk out with an understanding, right? Um and so Jenny, if you go back to the visual from resource X that you had

um with the priorities listed, one of the main advantages of using this organization um is that for example, each each one of these priorities um that we're tying or allocating some of these funds to have we we now have the ability to say from a library perspective. Okay,

Jamie, and if you would go back to the library specific programs that you showed earlier with the allocations there, for example, library circulation has X dollars allocated to it. Um, which is a pretty high percentage of the overall bottom line budget, but regardless, you've got this amount of uh dollars allocated to it. We now say from a performance perspective or from a return on investment perspective, the result we expect to produce with that level of investment are these results. And the results that we have for this particular program are things like um circulation materials are trending upward over time. Uh patron uh uh issuance of issuance of cards is trending upward over time. That kind of thing. visitors at the library treading up.

Yes. Those kinds of things. And so then the the measures behind those that we show in our reporting uh proves whether that result is being borne out or not. So then that gives us some insight as to whether we need to change this level of investment or do different things to execute so that we are affecting those results. And so then over time the community gets to see for this level of investment, these are the results that the city produced. Do I like that or not? Do I want to ask for a different outcome or not? Um and so we end up having discussions about value versus what am I getting for $750 of paid family and medical leave, right? Nobody can answer that question, right? Um but here we get to have actual um results-based evidence supported value conversations about services and return on investment. So that's that's one of the biggest advantages of using a system like this.

Yeah. Agree with that. All right, Jen, is there anything else on the budget? I don't have anything else on the budget for you guys. Um they um I know budget discussions with the city will start at the beginning of November. [Music]

All right. So now we are on to the strategic cleaning. I'll let you uh tell us what your intent that I have a couple things I'd like to bring up, but go ahead. So basically um you have in front of you a copy of the library strategic plan and you will notice at the top it has the dates and I have the dates for 2020 to 2025 and they are 2020 to 2024. So the teacher plan is um needing an update and I thought it was needing an update now but it was needing an update a little bit earlier. So, I'm hoping to solicit some help from the board. Um, maybe two members who can work on this a little bit in detail, more in detail with me and Michaela. And then obviously we would bring it back to the larger group to adopt. I'm hoping um next year maybe in March, April time frame um is something for the whole board to adopt. Um thankfully we have done two different surveys out to our community. We did one in August 2024 and then this year in August 2025. So we have some really recent feedback that I think will be extremely valuable as we go through and develop what our strategic plan is for the next nine years.

So Jandy, when would you like to start um uh working on the plan? Um later this month. I was hoping to have a meeting um with the board members and then myself and Michaela um and then kind of identify um some other maybe community groups that might um want to play a part in this as well. Um did the friends help last time?

Yes. So um last time we did this process with our um what was it called? Our our consultant um who went through and did the community assessment. So this was a part of that project. So, we we did have members of the we did a working group with some members of the friends, um some community members, the library board, um some staff because I know I was involved with it last time. So, we don't want to be get too big. No, of course not. We don't want because then then you have Yes. too much. But yes, too many cooks in the kitchen.

Yeah. I'd like to be involved in this one, but I would be happy to do it as well. Okay. And if something happens, if if I can't do it or you want another set of ice, I'll be happy. Yeah. Same. The other way to do it is uh this I don't know if Janny wants to do this or not, but we could have a um everybody calls it a retreat. doesn't have to be a retreat, but a board uh special gathering. We'd have to call a meeting. Yes. Uh and we could have this as the only item of discussion and um so that it's either maybe down the road.

Down the road maybe after we have after [Music] Okay, got it. I think that's a good idea if we put something together and then we talk about it as a larger group. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, I'll reach out to Brad and Jim. Jennifer um about scheduling a time that we can all sit down and go through this. Come up with a day that works for you. Yes. The best because you've got lots of things going on. And I've talked with I I can fit probably most everything in there and Jen also has some things she has to work around too. So, if you guys work on a date, I'll fit myself in. Okay. Okay.

Sounds great. All right. So, we we got that. We're good. And then the last thing that does not have to do with the strategic plan, um remember last meeting, Lisa came for a visit to talk about the capital facilities um 20-year capital facilities plan, right? And she's looking for two volunteers from the board who might be interested in serving on that committee. you guys remember what's the time? Um, she said a meeting before Thanksgiving and then a meeting in January is what they have on the docket so far. Um, you guys don't have to give me an answer now. Um, I can forward you out the email that she sent with the details. You guys can take a look over it and let me know if you're interested in

um, helping out with that. That would be good. Yeah. So, I'll send you her email to have all the details on it. Did you Did you Did you hear that, Anna? Yes, I did. Yes. Okay, good. I don't I feel like I'm leaving you out a lot because you're up there. So, I know. And I'm even further. I'm in Kansas City. So, not only am I not there, I am physically not there. Well, then you're out there. I am in the middle of nowhere. [Music]

Okay. Well, I appreciate you uh you getting here, even if it's through a bunch of well air microwaves to get here. All right. So, Jandy, do we have anything else about the strategic plan? No, that's that's everything I have for today. Okay, great. Does anybody have any questions for Jandy? Okay. Anybody have anything here of the order? No.

And I have no one um in chambers or on Zoom. So, we don't have any citizen comments to ask for. So, I will say we are a jured. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Thank you. Bye everyone. Bye. Five.