Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay. So we'll now call the the board meeting to order.

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

For roll call, I think we're all good.

Jason justice case. Jason. What item on our agenda is approval of minutes from previous meeting. We couldn't take any.

Move to to approve.

One second.

Any discussion, questions, corrections to last message.

I will maybe I'll memorize it.

We come to. At each meeting, the library board press these time for members of the public to express their views on items which appear on our agenda. We have one person so we have one person set up to speak. So if you could please state your name and address for the record, Keep your comments concise and to the point. We'll have five minutes for speaking on the topic of community memberships. My

name is Rebecca Zornal. I live at 218 East Lincoln Street in Appleton. Last year, learned three of my books were stolen by a legal pirating website, LibGen, then potentially used by Facebook to train their generative AI, Wama three. Three weeks ago, I left the coworking space after working on a manuscript and saw a visual display promoting the use of generative AI and a lineup of AI focused programming happening here at the library. Last week, I hope you received a letter signed by myself and seven other artists, writers, and art supporters showing how generative AI is impacting the creative field and what it means to us to seek promotion of the technology that steals from us.

AI models were trained on millions of copyrighted materials without consent or compensation. Wisconsin author Andrea Bartz was the lead plaintiff on the class action lawsuit against Nthropin. The tech company now has to pay $1,500,000,000 in settlements to authors. Many more law lawsuits are stalled out, and transparency in how these generative AI programs are created is very low. Even as we're encouraged to adopt AI, we continue to uncover concerns related to the ethics, the environmental impact, and even the shift in our own brains.

In MIT, Media Lab study found that, quote, excessive reliance on AI driven solutions, end quote, can shrink our ability to think critically. But those are national debates. We read, write, and create here in Appleton, Wisconsin. What I would ask of you is to keep human centric programming first, people learning from other people. By my count, our community has had more opportunity to attend programming about AI in the renovated library than about how to write.

And if generative AI impedes our ability to think and create critically, I wonder what end we are trying to reach with AI programming. I believe the growth that happens when you try, the struggle to create that makes an artist, and I hope you prioritize passing those skills on to rising creators. When the library shares about storytelling and art making as in the program, dungeons, dragons, and AI, I hope you turn to people first. Generative AI is a shortcut that skips the very qualities that make art meaningful, and what users create is not copyrightable and limited for use in the future. As for the AI display, it made note of the ethical concerns in a sidebar stating that we should credit, seek to compensate, and create, and can get consent from artists, but the board did not do so for the generated work it showed.

It feels like AI is an onslaught these days, one launched by big tech, capitalism, and disdain for the arts, for people. But as fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson said, the machines can spit out manuscript after manuscript after manuscript. They can pile them up to the pillars of heaven itself, but all we have to do is say no. If we do, they lose.

Thank you. We have another item for her. Yep. Public hearing appearances section.

Yes. I just wanted to pass around a card that we got just opened up this afternoon. This is recognizing the staff that did work for our meeting room bookings. We hosted a certified peer specialist class here for Outagamie County last week, and so so they passed the rest around for you guys to see the the gratitude. And then we'll hand it off to Mike because Mike and his team were the ones that are deserve the gratitude directly.

So next up, we'll establish the order of the day. We have four action items listed. Will the penny that the board wanted to assess this effect? And, Janelle, I'll put the motion to propose to our act on the consent agenda.

Nancy Sherman, I move to put those items on a consent agenda agenda. There's four of them. Second.

Any discussion about putting those items on the consent agenda? Next. All in favor of approving the creation of the consent agenda of those four items, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Alright. The next step will be a motion to go ahead and approve consent agenda.

John Keller will move.

Brian Bargus second. Oh. Okay. Next. Uh-oh.

Yes. So I have quite a few hiring processes to mention to you. So we'll take them in order. We have the administrative support specialist position. We have a candidate selected and are moving forward with that specific candidate.

Technical services page clerk, that's the person who puts all the stickers on your books so that you can see the call numbers and things like that, the jackets on top. We have completed interviews, and we'll be moving forward with Canada through that as well. Materials management assistant supervisor, we have interviews on April 23 for that position. Library assistant in acquisitions is currently open, and we have interviews scheduled for early May for that position. That does not, need a master's degree in library science, so that's just a bachelor's degree.

So if you know somebody who is very detail oriented, that is what we're looking for. They do all of the ordering of books and all of the invoicing and that sort of thing. Missy used to do this role for us. Children's library assistant subposition, we've completed interviews for that position. And then we have two openings for halftime page clerks, and we are just starting that process. So lots of hiring happening. Probably one of the longest lists I think I've read to you in years. So very busy.

There to go. So

this is going to be a security report for the sorts of incidents we have in the library for our first year open. Do you see it broken down by month? And then just one of the months is in 2026, that January at the end, and then our incident count per month. So we have a total number of incidents in the first year that we were open, a 158. And then restrictions are what we call our bans.

So if we if you're restricted from the library, you're not allowed to come back to the library for a specific period of time. And we did 29 of those in our first year open, and then we had 34 calls to the police department in that time.

And then

you can see at the bottom our most frequent issues include disruption, alcohol and drug use, harassing language and behavior, refusal to follow staff instructions, and sleeping remains one of our most problematic behaviors here. One of the reasons we don't allow adults sleeping in the library is that we don't know if you're asleep or if you're passed out or if you're having a medical emergency. Those all look really similar on the surface. So we simply don't allow sleep sleep of that, unless you're a toddler or baby. So I'm happy to answer any questions. This is just a really high view of kind of our first year and the security incidents that we've had.

So I would have expected the summer numbers to be less, maybe the colder months to be higher. But I'm really intrigued May '25. You know, that was right after the library opened. Maybe people were learn was there anything unique about that month other than it was just is what it is?

It is what it is is what I would say. Okay. I don't know how

back and looking at the specific incidents. Okay. Probably was just maybe one or two individuals that took a really hard time to a long time to fully understand the rules. It could be rare for her. Yeah. Okay.

My question was along the same way. Okay. Okay.

It seems like 34 total calls over the year is pretty good.

I don't know

if you guys have historical data with the old library. You know, we've we've talked about generally the system, how we keep it safe and try to avoid just APD right after that.

Right.

But I am curious if it's higher, lower, about the same compared to the old library.

We are seeing some I don't know about the calls to APD, but we are seeing very similar numbers to the old library when we were here on this site. So when we were in the temporary locations, we didn't see nearly the the problematic behavior that we do on this site. But my guess would be that they're close, but I'll take a look

and check into that for you. One other thing I I would be curious to know is the level of I mean, you have the categories, but we don't have any indication of what level of disruption are we talking about. Yeah. Is that ever tracked in terms of

For it to be counted in this and entered into our incident system, it has to be very disruptive. Okay. So it's not teens being just vaguely disruptive as teens tend to be just generally or tweens being disrupted. It tends to be people really making

a

nuisance behavior to be to be in this, something that would be surprising for most people. And maybe sustained for a while too. Sometimes it's that. Sometimes it's the language used. Okay. The volume that they're speaking at, how emotional and hostile they are. Yeah. That sort of thing.

Are the restrictions 29 separate individuals, or could somebody show up twice something like restricted Yes. You know, a a month, a week? Yes. What's that what does that look like?

So people can definitely show up multiple times on that. So we we have a policy to start with a smaller restriction, see if they can fix their behavior, come back, and try again. And then we will for that individual, if they continue the disruptive behavior or problematic behavior, we would do another restriction, sometimes multiples. So that's not necessarily individuals. That's just restrictions that are counted.

Great questions. Any other questions about this? National Library.

So April is National Library Week, so very excited for that. The theme this year is find your joy, and you will find the out by the kind of the restroom wall, there's a display case there that right now contains the awards that we have received over the past year, WLA Library of the Year Award, AIA Chicago Award, the Martin Luther King Junior Award. So please take an opportunity to look at that. We will do some special stuff for staff next week, which we won't go into detail here because it's a surprise for the staff, and we don't wanna ruin it. And then the mayor did declare April next week, National Library Week as well.

So there is a mayoral proclamation as well that I will add up there to the display. So it's just a fun time of year that we get to celebrate all things libraries and all the various ways that libraries support their communities of all kinds, school, public, academic, special, medical.

That display case is relatively recent?

Yes. Oh,

good. Just

I saw it, and I

was like, oh god. I'm being observant. Well, sometimes

it's fed up by the gallery.

Not since the place opened up again.

It's been in that location previously.

There were some flip side artists displayed in there.

There was. Yeah. I forget it was the the award that were Yeah.

The API the the few glass things. Mhmm.

Yeah. It is. Yes. The API work. Thank

you. Next

up is an ILS update. Okay. So hello. I thought I'd start off by explaining what an ILS even is. So ILS stands for integrated library system.

Essentially, that is the database that holds all of the patron item and transaction records that we need to operate as a library as well as the software that's needed to interact with that database. So on the staff side, that looks like, you know, the software clients we use to check out patrons and manage patron accounts, also acquisitions, cataloging. And then on the patron side, that includes the catalog and also the connections to third party services that interact or authenticate using library data. So this is a very important piece of software for the library, kind of what makes all of the checkouts tick in the library. We've been on our current system since 2020.

And in '24 2024 when it was time for renewal, consortium library, all of our library consortium, voted to explore other options rather including continuing on with our current option. And just to note, this isn't something that Appleton Public Library directly has a contract in. This is this is the contract is between our consortium and the vendor. So we set up

That's a good what do you define as a consortium? Just OWLs? So

this is owlsnet. So it's OWLs and Nephew.

And okay. Alright. Thank you, man.

Just Yeah. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Any questions interrupt me? I can get really far. I'm trying to keep it pretty high level, but I can get really far into the. You can be back in if I go off. So at the time we voted to explore other options, set up a committee. Nicole and I represented Appleton office committee where we reviewed proposals from other vendors.

In the fall, we made a recommendation to OwlsNet, and that was approved unanimously and moved it for last year. So considering that the integrated library system really touches so many different aspects of the library work. Moving to a new system is is simply a huge endeavor. Nicole's team and my team have been already started a lot of the work of cleaning up the data before we migrate it to the new system. We wanna get rid of all kind of the extraneous data or old data that we don't really need to hold on to.

So that's a pretty big job that we're, we have lots of staff involved in that right now. We're kind of at the phase where we have a training database, and we're just now starting to pull data from the old system, see how it works in the new system. Getting kind of our trainers trained, and then we'll train the rest of the staff. So in terms of kind of what that means for users and what you all can as users of the library can expect. We're currently on change for this new system to switch to this new system in mid August.

Probably the most notable change that users will see is that there will be a new catalog, so the catalog will change. We actually last changed catalogs in not in 2020, but 2021, so it's that's a pretty short amount of time to change catalogs again. So that can be kind of disruptive. But there, you know, there are notable improvements such as searchable reading history, the ability to place hold on any edition of a book rather than just specific editions that we're looking forward to. You'll but you'll also notice things like small things might change, like notices might look different.

Your hold slip will likely look different and be a different under a different pattern, and also that there will be a brief outage when we switch over. We have to shut kind of everything down so we're not making new data while we switch over, and that will be in mid August. You can expect kind of public communication about this to start in May with more detailed communications, kind of letting people know what's happening in June and July.

Any questions?

Will this make your life easier or not? And the reason I ask is because I've been through many systems conversions in the banking side, and it never seems to get easier.

So the process of migration is not easy. Okay. And designing new workflows is a lot of work. I'm confident that the new system will be more functional for staff than the system will put me on. But, again, it's a lot of work to get there.

Thank you. Yeah. Questions about the Alice? We'll be getting done up when

you're your live. Oh, it's all definitely. Oh my god. Yeah.

More questions, and it's time for the friends report.

Great to see all of you again. The friends roll now. I've enjoyed the last few months, and I'm excited to share a few updates of what we've been working on. The first item is related to our book sales. So in the November, the friends held our first book sale in this building. So it is very different from what the book sales looked like and how they functioned in the prep work and implementation in the other building and in the previous library. And it opens up flexibility for us to try things like a pop up sale. So in March, we did a one evening pop up book sale. It was three hours long, and we had 139 people come through the space.

If you haven't been in

the space yet, you can check it out this week. We do have another book sale. And just remember that number. Picture that volume going through the space in three hours. So the volunteers were fantastic in helping people move through.

The library staff were really helpful helpful in supporting our transition from November to March and moving some items out into the hallway and having staff move a little bit differently in the back area. It worked really well, from the friend's side. We have a dedicated team of volunteers who meet every two weeks to maintain the donations that come in from the public. And any, we did materials from the library, processing them for the book sales. And they have talked about their connections that they have in that space, getting to know one another, and making an impact on the friends and, ultimately, the library.

So this week, we have a three day book sale. The first evening is for Friends members only, and that will be April, three to 07:30PM. And people can become Friends members before that day and day out. And then the next two days, Friday and Saturday, the seventeenth and eighteenth, all day, 9AM to 04:30PM, open to all. So we look forward to seeing more community members.

And just watching people leave with with a stack of books has been really heartwarming. We saw a child who arrived with a $10 bill, left with a stack of books. And as they were walking out, they had $1 left, and they donated it to the friends of the line of grandeur. So excited about this week. Can I move through the next two items? Okay. Speed puzzle contest. This is the third time that the friends have hosted a speed puzzle contest. It is a friend raiser for us. So an opportunity to connect with friends and share information about what the library does.

And in the this is the first time that they'll be in the library space. Oops. No. Second time. Last year was also.

So we have 25 teams of up to four members that are coming together to do the same puzzle and compete to finish first. So, we have sponsorship from Spine and Orthopedic Therapy and, will allow will offer prizes to the top three teams. So some of the team names are sort by color, picking up the pieces, some assembly require, getting jiggy with it, peace out, and peace in unity. So people are having fun with it, and that's the point to have fun. I think there is some friendly competition, and it gets pretty intense, I hear.

So I'm excited to experience it. That's this Saturday also. So we're kicking off National Library Week a little early with the book sale and speed puzzle contest. If you're curious to observe what it's like, 9AM to twelve on Saturday. And we're again looking forward to our annual banquet.

So it's the event formerly known as I love my library, and it is now our celebration of stories that is held in June. So save the date for Sunday, June 7. We will be at North Shore Golf Club. It is a ticketed event, and it is an opportunity for people to come together, celebrate the library. It's a social hour with entertainment, a dinner, and a brief program, and it's always a fun time.

Any questions about events? Anyone on the team for the speed puddle contest? Not this year. Not this year.

First year, was on. We didn't do very well.

Thank you. Little staff updates during the program. Thanks.

Hello, everyone. So I'm going to talk to about two things that are done and a couple of things that are coming up. So Saturday, April 4, we had a special Houdini birthday celebration on the boat learning stairs with the magicians of the IBM Ring three ninety eight. So they did some tricks, and then they told some facts about Houdini, and they rubbed her. They take both chocolate and vanilla. And everybody had a wonderful time. So we had about a 115 people come through for that and have cake and magics. And then this past weekend was the kids expo. I don't know if anybody was downtown. So that's where they have a sensory friendly night on Friday, and then they have the big event on Saturday.

So we did attend both, and we kinda partner with local libraries because so many people come from all over. So we had about 95 come through Friday night, which was nice for that they've opened that up a bit. And it was still very spread out for the attendees, and we had over 800 folks stop by our table on Saturday, which was good too. And we had information from six local libraries this year, which was wonderful. So we were able to spread a lot of of library joy and connect people with their their libraries.

And then I wanted to talk a little bit about Flight Path. This is something that we started doing. We were awarded it last fall, and it is, as a partner library. So Flight Path was the first campaign in something called the spark of science at my library initiative, and the goal was, the science of birds and bird migration. So we did some bird programs throughout last year, but we wanted to wait and do a couple in the spring. So our final two were gonna be this this month. So Thursday, April 23 at 4PM, there is a family nature event at Heckrod Wetland Reserve. So attendees will have an opportunity to feel real feathers and wings and to go on a birding hike through the preserve. And then we also have a story walk. Is that has everybody been to a story walk?

It's out at Shy. There's kind of an unpaved trail there, and the story walk program is where we purchase picture books. We kinda take them apart, we put some activities along with the pages, and you spread it out along the trail. So that's their year round. You can brave it in all seasons. It's it's pretty fun. And so the book for April is Feathers Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Sarah S. Brannan. And so that one celebrates all the things that feathers do for birds in addition to helping with flight, and that will wrap up our flight path initiative.

I see.

I remember Storyblocks still on. So we do one

at a time. So every month, there's a new book out there. So that one will be through April.

And then one that was in Bird Park back in Oh, yeah.

And we had one downtown for a bit too with ADI. Yeah. So right now, there's only that one at Shag. Yeah.

Questions about the. Alright. The last thing we have on

the agenda is community partnership. Great. Like Anne, I will share about some programs past, future, and also present. No doubt while you walked in, you noticed our team resource there. Emily Smith, our teen services librarian, organized that.

We have seven outside organizations in the library sharing both the services they offer for teens. Also, Emily and our volunteer coordinator, Colleen Holes, are there sharing what teens can do with them both programming, but also volunteer opportunities. They can give back right here. On, let's see, March 24, Scouting America was in the library for an inReach event. So they were in the library and learning about, again, library resources.

They were earning their reading badge, and so Emily Smith led them through an activity using the catalog to explore how to find their favorite books or movies or music CDs, whatever they want. Let's see. For adults, on March 26, we had a partnership with Heirloom Kitchen in Little Shoots and Fox Cities PAC to present a program called Blue Zone Dinner where participants learned how to incorporate the practices of the Blue Zone regions within the world using local ingredients. So there was some food for people to taste and then some takeaways on how to incorporate that in their daily life.

On

April 21, so this is a program coming up. So if you get your calendar out, you can mark the date if you want. Appleton poet laureate, Catherine Kofel will be in the library for a program called fall in love with poetry. She will present some practical steps to turn some of the fears and misconceptions that people might have about poetry into confidence and love for the art form. And a final program I wanna pitch to you is on Wednesday, April 29 at 6PM until 7PM. Ashley Mitag of Fox Valley Paranormal will be in the library

Mhmm.

To share a program called history and hauntings inside paranormal investigation. So it explores kind of the overlap between history and some unexplained events that have happened within Appleton. So definitely check that one out. Again, I'll say the date's April 29, 6PM until 7PM.

That's a cool idea. You can engage with local. Yeah. Yeah.

Any questions about the community partnerships?

Is there with Rebecca Zornow's comments about generative AI, is there something we can do collaborative with the artists in the community to let them know that we support them, not generative AI? Well, I don't even know what generative AI is. I'm guessing it makes images.

So, Darren, I guess I'm gonna propose that we put an agenda item on so we can talk about this more intentionally at a future meeting and where we can talk about how things like access to resources like AI tools and technology education fit within a library, in addition to acknowledging Rebecca's concerns and the importance of supporting human made content. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

Nancy Shaven. Motion to adjourn. Mark Humane, second. Please say aye.

Aye. Aye.