Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay. Great. So if you'll call these libraries before, and then you can decide to go with us.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have Marty and Denise absent. This is to our first action item, which is the approval of minutes of our previous meeting. We can start with a motion, please.

Make a motion to approve Nancy Scheirman. Second, Jason Rozik.

Any questions or discussion corrections for the notice? Please say aye. Aye. Then opposed. Next up, public participation. Oh, we can get to a point of public participation where we ask you to stay to a

topic from the agenda. We have no one signed up. Thank you.

Yeah. We don't have a

new sign up. Actually, that was really quick. I think I covered all that. That's right. That's right. We haven't had anyone signed up for public participation. Thank you. But we do have some introductions. Yes. So we are welcoming in our hearts today our newest alderperson appointee, trustee Denise Fenton.

She has been on city council for numerous years, and so this is going to be her first time being appointed to the library board. She did inform me, and I think she would be fine with me sharing, that she has put as one of her priority committees every year the library board, and she was never given it. And so she was thrilled this year when she was appointed in the library. So she had a last minute situation, and she could not be here. So you'll meet her in person if you don't know her already at the next meeting.

And then do you want

me to Please. Because our lists are in different orders.

Oh. Yeah. How is that happening? I don't know.

I swear I had Brianna earlier, but it's January 20.

Oh, you have January? Have their all.

Was panicking something. Oh, how long am I doing?

Okay. So our next introduction is our new administrative support specialist, Jade Poon Salazar. And this is Jade's first meeting observing, learning from Nitzi. But, Jade, do you wanna say a little bit about yourself? Sure.

My name is Jade, and I just moved to the area just a couple months ago. So I'm very excited to be here. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

We already we already know Kevin.

Yes. Kevin was reappointed for a three year term by the county about two months ago, so just noting that reappointment.

But we do not know Kevin's cast.

After I served

a

grueling and long term the first time around.

Yeah. That The second one.

Yes. Yes. So best excuse to be virtual ever.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So we'll move

on to establish the order of the day. Looking at the action items, is there anything anyone has these questions on things they wanted to stop? Pricing. Okay. In that case, now we could take a motion to put all three of the action items onto a consent.

Some move. John Keller. Any discussion about putting these things on the consent agenda? Any last minute, like, oh, no. I wanted to talk about nominating committee. Okay. My favorite that. If approving the consent the items creating the consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. Aye.

Opposed then. We can move on to approving all of the items on the consent agenda starting with a motion.

So moved. Jason Brozick. Second, Brian Vargas.

Great. Any questions, discussion now for

weeks. All in favor of approving the items on the consent agenda. Please stay. Aye. Aye. To the nominee.

Although, it was January. You may still be looking at it. Okay.

So you changed to a library recruitment status report, which we received directly from HR. So I will probably we're gonna figure out how this flows. I will probably have a few updates to what you see because we may have to pull from the the week before rather than the existing week, which is what we had to do this time around. So for our library assistant community partnership subposition, which you'll remember way back, we had approved making that position. We had to reopen it and have a new deadline for that one, which is May 25 for applications.

The library assistant supervisor, that one is correct. We have a start date of 05/26 on that. So next week, we get a new library assistant supervisor in materials management. Library assistant materials management acquisitions, we have a start date. It had said to be determined on that one, and it is the start date of June 8. And then we have interviews for library page today and tomorrow. Those are the only updates I had from the.

Can I ask you a question? You mentioned reopening the subposition. Yes. Is can you say a little bit more about why it had to be reopened?

I'm going to look over at

Peter to explain that. Yeah. Yeah. We had several well qualified applicants, some that were finishing up their master's in library information science and took positions elsewhere.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. Thanks.

Any questions on the recruitment? Okay. Next item is piano availability this summer.

So I just wanted to give people a heads up that the piano is going to be unavailable for a stretch of time this summer. We we had a key come off. Key top. Key top come off. So, Mike, do you remember what the key was?

Key 7. It was a G7. Very fine one. So, luckily, we've been proceeding with the existing piano recitals that are on the schedule for the remainder of of the year, and this is actually a big time for piano recitals at the library. But the good news is actually somebody from Hyde, where the piano was purchased from many years ago by Fox Valley Music teachers who donated the piano to us, Somebody from high was at the concert and said that she was aware that there was an issue with something similar to this with certain models of Yamaha Graham pianos.

And she looked into it, and it's covered by warmth. Wow. So the entire set of keys is going back to be reclued.

Oh, wow. Yeah.

However, that means no piano this summer unless if somebody would want to provide us with an electric piano. It's needed. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll just we'll only opt into that if needed.

Any questions? Weren't any plans, luckily, you know, concerts going on during the summer?

So the schedule was

So the last performance that it was reserved for was June 2. Hyde is gonna be coming, I believe, the third or fourth. Uh-huh. And it's got about a six week roughly repair time.

It's been

We have about eight to ten weeks before the Lawrence music performance on his first. It's a tight window. Probably should be good. I think goes well. Good.

The next item on the agenda then is the strategic planning update, focus groups, strategic capacity assessment.

Yes. So we are making progress on the strategic planning process. So you may have seen the public survey is out for the community, so please encourage people to fill that out. There will be a separate survey for both trustees and staff, So that will be later next week probably emailed to you. We have focus groups going on yesterday and today, so there's one going on right now.

And I think there were seven teams in this focus group, which is an amazing turnout for teams. So, really, kudos to Emily, our team librarian, who has done an amazing job recruiting for that focus group. And then the strategic capacity assessment, that is the the survey that will be going out to you. So another component of this will be a trustee's retreat with the consultant. So we'll be sending out some information about your availability for windows of time in the summer that is fitted with that part of the process.

So we're we're happy with how things are going so far, and we'll be coming back to you next month because we did receive grant funding to do Spanish language survey as well. So friends helped us write that, submit that grant, and we were friends were awarded a community vision fund grant to increase engagement in areas like Spanish language and other other areas where we do tend to have challenges getting turnouts for for feedback. So we'll bring that back to you next month.

With the friends, board members involved in any other, like, focus groups or anything?

So they will be part of the survey development, and then there were I forgot one piece. There were a series of of interviews, one on one interviews. So the consultants did about nine one on one interviews, and so the friends' ED was included in those one on one interviews. Any other questions?

It was discussion. Okay. Maybe I maybe I did look at the wrong thing. I don't recognize that at all. I'm I'm talking a weird day. I don't know.

Oh, I won't give you the test.

Well, this will be exciting. Yeah.

So I included, as part of the discussion topic, report that comes out every year on national during National Library Week. It's the American Library Association State of America's Libraries report and had it just kind of as, first of all, to kind of bring some context as to what is happening across the country in libraries. So keep in mind that this is more than just public libraries, which is where we focus pretty strictly in here. But you will see references to things like school libraries because there's a lot of activity happening in school libraries as well. And I thought it'd be a good opportunity for for you to see kind of the big picture landscape, see what maybe is happening across the country that that maybe we're a little isolated from in some cases, but also see about some of the things that we have talked about.

Because it turns out that a whole lot happened in 2025. When I was reading this, I was like, oh oh, yeah. That was 2025. So there was really kind of an unprecedented level of political kind of turmoil. There was an attempt to completely dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

There was a huge advocacy response to that and and lawsuits by dozens of state attorney generals. And in the end, the museum and library services still stands. So it was very stressful because, as we've talked about in this room for the state of Wisconsin, while we as a library aren't getting money on any regular basis from IMLS, the bulk of the state of Wisconsin's division that supports libraries in the state has, like, 19 of their 21 staff are funded with funds. So that would have had a huge impact statewide. There was we didn't talk much about this, if at all, but that there was a termination of digital equity funding as well, and that really impacted a lot of smaller and rural communities that were counting movements in their broadband Internet service.

There was literally the termination of the librarian of congress, which was shocking in that the librarian of congress is appointed by congress. They they work for congress, yet they were terminated not by congress. Other things that happened last year was nearly record high censorship continued. What's especially interesting is what the data shows as to who's doing the censorship attempts. It isn't individuals, and it isn't parents.

It is organized groups or or governmental bodies in power. And that, by and large, like, 90 plus percent. And as we've seen in recent years, it's stories of people from a nondominant culture, communities that are historically marginalized, reference, you know, any inclusion of IA plus representation, topics of racism and race, and even topics of, like, biblical or religious beliefs that somebody disagrees with that's in a position of power. So it's that has been particularly best of thing across the country. We are we have not experienced book bans or coordinated book bans here in Appleton.

So I just wanna make that clear, especially for people who watch the video and for people who who observe our meetings that we have been fortunate in that we have a community that has supported the First Amendment role that the public library has. So that's a very important thing. So But know that there's a lot of places around the country that are experiencing a lot of strife around those areas. There are some really interesting legal and court cases. So you'll see referenced in there the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and that's Little versus Llano County.

So in Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Texas, I believe if that's the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, They currently don't have the same First Amendment rights to access in their public libraries in their libraries anymore because of a ruling that happened in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It was appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court's support said, we're not gonna hear that. So there's kind of a patchwork of rights right now essentially saying that that the library collection in those in that area is not First Amendment covered speech. It's government speech. So kind of so I'm sure more is gonna come of this.

There'll be other court cases, but I think there had been hope that this would go to the Supreme Court, and there'd be clarity that we keep, you know, actually, the First Amendment decisions around public life. So that's probably one of the things that has not made major headlines, but it's one of the biggest impact things that will that has happened last year into this year. But good things have happened too. There's a lot of coalitions working together that wanna stand for First Amendment, freedom to read. There's been legal victories around the country.

And a joint thing that I thought stood out in there was a reference to reframing public libraries as centers of civic resilience. So those are kind of the the things that I thought really related to us, but also wanted to see what things stood out to you, what areas you might have had questions on that you may wanna learn about more.

Yeah. I had a question about statewide. So I know Iowa because I've got family down there and it's brought up in the materials we got. So I know Iowa and Florida both have had some issues and now whether it's not whether or not it's constitutional, but is there any rumblings in the state, like, for Wisconsin, or are you aware?

So over time, there have sometimes been attempts to put forward legislation in in a similar vein. However, in most of those cases, either conversations about what that would really mean have caused the individuals trying to pursue that to withdraw it, or they were attempts at messaging bills knowing that they weren't going to go anywhere with the current constitution of the state government. Okay. Good. Colleen, you brought up the a librarian of congress who was released.

So has anything come of that? Because it wasn't it wasn't released of her duties by congress. Is there a court case or anything? I have not heard of a court case around that. I did see Doctor. Hayden speak at a conference last summer, and she was not pursuing a message of vindication. Was trying to really encourage libraries to continue to do the good work that we do, and so I'm not sure that I see that happening. And Okay. She's fine. She'll continue.

Continue to do her work. Somewhere else. So, yes, she is with somewhere big like the Knight Foundation. That might be wrong, but one of the major kind of think tanks. But the the there is somebody who has been appointed by well, put in place by the president, but I don't know that it was has been yet In that position? Yes. Congress. Yes. And then I had another question, and I'm not sure. I I just found it interesting, the library increasing services to incarcerated people.

Where does that stand in Wisconsin with our prisons or even our county jail? What are we aware of? Yeah. That is actually something that is on the agenda for the Council of Library and Network Development. We we have a there is a subcommittee looking into that because there are a lot of barriers resources to incarcerated populations.

So I can I can find out more about that and come back at a future meeting? It just seemed like there's a lot of situations where access to to materials is really limited and restricted, and so, therefore, people who are incarcerated really can't continue their journey. Right. Format, topic, language, a lot of barriers, also, you know, just the security of bringing materials into a vehicle.

So

there are there are a lot of barriers to providing the service, but also a huge need and I think a a true payoff for the human beings that are And I don't know the stats anymore, but I know that in education field, we were often told that a certain percentage of those that are incarcerated never completed beyond a third grade reading or whatever. That you know, it's just now you're trying to balance something where people have not had the services before and no

one have the access now. That's why I asked.

And I I like I said, I know there is a subcommittee at the state level that's looking into it more. Okay. Ten years ago, we had a volunteer that was doing creative writing in the jail and was able to kind of comb through our booksell books and bring materials into the jail. I don't know if that approach would even be allowed today just

because With

the way the restrictions are? Things have changed. Jail versus prison, also two totally different things. Mhmm. I can I can learn more and bring that back? Your update. Well, I can certainly the one thing that stood out to me, I really appreciated the article on evolving literacy hubs and about how they broke down and organized the

strategies that libraries use, conveners, their conveners, their venues of instruction, and their service providers. That made sense on

how my person have evolved and continue to evolve.

Basically, second, second question. We

are getting ready for the summer library program, which will officially begin June 7 and then through August 15. And this is a course and fabulous program across the library all built to help us. In children's, it runs through twelve, and we do a lot of outreach in May, trying to reach as many kiddos in the community as we possibly can. So we focus heavily on the elementary schools, the private, charter, public, everything. So we're very excited because, basically, we've managed to connect with 28 out of the 35 ish in the area, which has been very fun.

So we do kind of a combination of folks. If they're interested, library staff will go out. We often connect with the school media specialists. And we'll see individual classes, or we'll see a big group if they would like. And we also have a slideshow presentation and a video, and we will also send that out. So some of the school media specialists will show that within the the classrooms themselves. And so that's been a lot of fun. And then we also try and hit as many end of school activities as we can. So sometimes there are carnivals or color rounders or whatever the school is putting on. If we can make it, we do. And then we also promote summer library program there. So that's been a lot of fun.

Thank you. And we have Common Sense Media team program.

Yeah. So since October, APL has participated in a library workshop pilot program with Common Sense Media, which is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and prepare children in the digital era. The pilot program invites libraries to facilitate five predesigned workshops that supports digital literacy skills among teens specifically. Of the 10 available predesigned workshops, APL chose five to implement in the library here. I'll highlight two of those programs that we've had.

The first is AI Gets Me, which we had all the way back in January on the thirteenth. It explored technology and how it changes the way teens make and keep things. In that program, teens discussed the emotional connections they might have or could have with chatbots as well as what human connection means and why it's so special and different from those AI chatbot connections they might have. And then later in May, on the twenty sixth, we will hold our final of these workshops. It's called big brother is watching.

It'll invite teens to think critically about how AI is impacting their online experience. So the the conversations on that one will include how algorithms create and filter bubbles and bias and limit choices online as well as how AI can limit future creativity and creative opportunities. APL is one of seven participating libraries in the country. Other participating libraries include the Brooklyn me. Brooklyn Public Library and the Philly Freebie Library. So we're in good company with this. Mhmm.

Questions or comments about that or with some library program?

I'm curious for the the Common Sense Media program. Seven is such a small number. Were we selected as did we apply? How did

we how did we end

up one of seven?

Yeah. That's so it

is in the transition period between community partnerships and advisor positions. So I don't know if that's pretty much, but I believe it wasn't application process. Okay. That's great. Well, congrats.

I think I think, which

I shouldn't speculate, but my recollection was ALA maybe invited us to apply because of the experience with Libraries Built Business, which was a grant that they funded that we did during the pandemic and for a few years later after the pandemic. So That's wonderful. Congrats.

So this is then we could take a motion to adjourn.

So move me a photo. Mhmm. One second. Nancy Scheirman.

Please say hi. Hi. Hi.

Thanks.