Shoreline Regional Park Community - Regular Meeting

Morning? Mhmm. Oh, hold on. Okay. For recording. Recording. Okay. Great.

So I'm going to call the meeting to order. Welcome to the board trustees meeting, Monday, February 23. I now call this meeting to order at 07:03PM. All votes will be taken by a roll call vote, and I will now ask the library director to proceed with roll call.

Ambassador, vice chair.

Deep Ambassador chair is present.

Or chair or sorry.

It's alright.

Let me start over. Chair called Deep Ambassador. Present. Ahead of myself. Board member Kristin Higaki. Present. Board member Eric Nerlik.

Present.

Board member Sharon Tzu. Present. And board member Barbara Wiesenbare. Present.

Great. Thank you. We are going to move to approval of minutes. The minutes for the 01/26/2026 meeting have been delivered to board members. If there are no corrections or additions, a motion is in order to approve these minutes. Does anybody in the room have comments, feedback?

There's no one online. No.

And okay. No one online. Anyone in the room? Any suggestions or move to approve? I moved to approve. Move. Okay. We have Barbara who has moved to approve. And One second. Second. Sharon Sue has, seconded. So motion is in order to approve.

Okay.

Chair Ambosta? Approved. Board member Higaki? Okay. Board member Nerlik?

Approved.

Board member Sue? Approved. Board member Lisa Baer? Approved.

Section four, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the board on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes during this section. There appears to be a large number of speakers. Speaking time may be reduced to no less than one point five minutes. State law prohibits the board from acting on non engine items. No guests in the room, but is there anyone online? No. Alright. So since there's no one in the room and nobody online, we can proceed to section five where it is said there are no donations.

Section six, there are no presentations this time around. Section seven, in terms of unfinished business, we need to elect a vice chairman, the chair selected last time around. Thoughts in terms of the vice chair nomination? Anyone?

I move to nominate Barbara Weissen there for vice chair.

I second it.

Okay. Great.

I think she have does she have to accept the nomination?

Great idea.

I accept the nomination. Thank you.

Any public comments? No one on the line? K. No one on the line. So now we can do a vote.

K. Chair Ambassador? Yay. Board member Higaki? Mhmm. Board member Nirzlik?

Yes.

Board member Sue? Yes. Board member now becoming vice chair, Weissen Bear? Yes. K.

Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you. Section eight, new business.

Yeah.

Aside from this, we have 8.1, a line item about fiscal year 2025, '26 midyear library performance and workload measures. It's a nonaction item, but we will be reviewing and discussing relevant content, and director Gray will be navigating what's seen on the screen here.

Okay. My apologies. I meant to send you all last year's to compare. So I brought my notes for comparison. Wanted to point out we won't go through all of it, but a couple things to note. The total number of visits were at six months, which is a 189,000.

So

that's, last year's total was 355,000. So we're on par to pass that. So our visits so far in the first six months are up are up six and a half percent. So that's quite a bit increase of usage in the library. And then the total circulation is about similar to last year with, last year, we had over a million checkouts, in circulation, so it's pretty comparable, to last year.

And then number of library programs, were expected to be pretty much the same. The attending attendance record, last year, we had a total of 36 or 34,000. So it looks like we'll probably, have a little higher total average or total of program attendees. And then one note, the early childhood literacy and youth programs, last year, our total was 18,000, so we are already at 12,000 attendees of our youth program. So that's up quite a bit already.

And those were the most significant.

And then

on the other You have a lot of new programs. Right? Is that why they Yeah. Because they didn't have it from our

Right. Maybe an increase in the children's programming as well on top

of that. And just a lot of the we can accommodate more outside when we do the outside event, So that's a big a big one as well. Looks like you've heard the the marketing presentation that we received. I think that could really increase participation. Yeah. Definitely. We've been boosting on social media. You can do boosts to bump your programs. And for instance, the hip hop program last, I think it was Wednesday night or Thursday night. Wednesday night, there were 17 registrants, and then we did a social media boost, and it jumped three times.

So Wow. Okay. Yeah. So just with that boost, it went from, like, 13 to 40 some registrants. So Mhmm. That's helping for sure getting the word out about the programs. And do you know why the visits are up so much? Like, is

it because of the programs? Or

You know, our checkout is similar. Programs seem to be you know, with youth programs, definitely, our study room usage is up about 3%. And then just anecdotally, using the use of our seating seems to be going up, which is why we're planning to add additional seating Right.

To I think people are

doing more for studying. I think so. Yeah. Just talking study rooms. The study rooms are going up, and it just or they could be coming in and checking out about the same because our library card folders keep adding new cardholders. So it's hard to say without it's hard to say they're coming in, but the checkout is about the same. So is it more people just checking out less on average too? So that's hard to say. But I think it's for everything, really, programs, the Wi Fi services.

Yeah. And the visits, I think we've covered this before. The visits is just the total broad number. It's not unique that, okay, if one person visited five times, that would be five visits. Right?

Right. Okay. Yeah. The door count, the gates count the door count, so both the entrances will count Right. When people come in.

Yeah. Do you have any ideas how many of these are remote in your residence versus outside of

We don't. The only thing we could get is cardholders, but visitors. Yeah. And just, you know, sometimes I'll stand in the lobby when I have a chance and talk to folks, and some people are coming from other cities to use the study rooms. Oh, wow. Because we have the most Interesting.

It's nicer than, like, Los Altos. Space. Yeah.

And and with the study rooms in particular, do you see certain trends like after work or after school? So, like, after school would be around, like, 03:30, 03:15. Mhmm. After work, like, six, seven. Yeah.

That's weird. The after school and evening, and then all day Saturday and Sunday Mhmm.

The

study rooms are busy. And then, yeah, down to the study rooms, the other page.

You see, I had a question. The top top on the second page. Oh, second page. Okay. There you only had one number, which I assume was the patron served, not a number of visits. Oh. Oh, it it it's on the first one on the second page. First top line. Oh, right here. Right. It it said number of visits, and then patrons served, but just one number in there. So I don't know if you assuming that's the patrons,

not visits. Right. It's the yeah. For some reason, this wasn't added to the number of tours and classes. It's just the total number. And the total number.

Mhmm.

And then this number of new items that reach the shelves or reach circulation within ten days, it's been lower. And this is I've talked about this in a a couple previous meetings. It has to do with our book vendor and one of the book vendors closing. And so we've had sporadic Some weeks, we'll get a couple boxes, and then other weeks, we'll get 20. So it's we're not getting an even distribution of our materials, so that's why that number skewed.

Because they could be caught up, and then all of a sudden we get twenty, twenty five boxes. It'll take a while. And we get behind for a while. But we know that, know, you our staff is continually meeting with our vendor, and they had indicated that they're getting more cut caught up in hiring. So as long as they can stay, get that more steady, this may even help.

They haven't had any complaints about it at all, so which is good. And then the study rooms, as I mentioned, 70% times that it's booked, and last

year's was

69%. So it's up a little more, but the usage last year total was about 21,000. So we're about the same, the high high usage. And as I mentioned, I think people are I've seen just when I'm walking the floor, there were two people the other night. They had asked for study room.

All of them were full, so they got on a wait a wait list, and then they went and were studying at one of the tables and, you know, just kept going back to ask if there were some of the Yeah. So, yeah, so the nights are definitely the most busy. And then number nine, our regular bookmobile stops is up because we've added a day service from last year. So last year, we have total number is 286. About probably gonna, exceed that a little.

So those were the things that yeah. Subscribers submit an email newsletter. So that's kind of everything in a nutshell with yeah. Those were the biggest highlights. So just to reiterate, our visits are up about six and a half percent.

Our new cardholders is up about two and a half percent. The study room usage is up about 3%, and then the regular stops for the bookmobile is up about 3% because we added a day. And then we've been hiring. So all of our currently, knock on wood, all of our librarian positions are filled. We have K.

The assistant director position is in recruitment. We have a library manager vacant and a library assistant. But yeah. So, hopefully, that has some good effects as well. Definitely makes a difference. Any other questions with the statistics?

It's pretty consistent with last year. Is there anything that surprises you or anything that, like, jumps out at you besides what you already mentioned?

What

not surprises me, but I'm keeping my eye out is the visits. It's just, you know, we're the busiest building in the city, so over 800 visits a day. It's you know? And, you know, just keeping up with the building supplies and just the staffing needs. You know, that's just a lot of people to be in here Mhmm. At one time or throughout the day. So Are

you seeing any impact on the staff? Any are they reporting feeling busier or stressed or nervous amount? No. I think

the staff are doing well with programs. We've also opened the history center an additional day, and then we have the full time security and the hourly security. So that's helpful just having them around, making sure everything's everybody's using it, using the building how they're supposed to. So that's it's yeah. It's just me keeping an eye on.

But I think once we add the seating and tables, that will be helpful. And then as you know, we've talked in the past about finals week opening our program rooms when they're available for seating. And, hopefully, the team the we'll do that for the teams for finals. And then, yeah, just and the and, thankfully, I know it's supposed to ring tomorrow, but last week, our power stayed on because we were listed as, you know, a a a place to go for emergencies for service, you know, the rainstorm and windstorm. So

Akin to the summers where it could be, like, a heat concern. The opposite in this case.

Yeah. I think it was last year when Powell went out in Mountain View, a a big chunk of Mountain View, everyone came here, it seemed like. So so far, we've got, I think, a a little bit more rain left. But

And the assistant director role, how long has that been posted online in her recruitment today?

Yeah. It posted it closed Sunday night, so there's a recruiting firm that's helping us and our human resources department work on that recruitment.

Is the library keeping track of the numbers during the as a

warming or cooling center? You know, we're it's hard to tell. We've looked at those days. And, definitely, last year when we well, during the power outage, we knew those days the door count was up. We had a list.

But this year, we haven't gone back because we did notice a a huge surge. Because one of the things I always check is the PG and E outage. And, luckily, Mountain View and the neighboring areas seemed okay during these storms, but I usually have that on my that window open as I'm looking, you know, refresh, refresh. Because as soon as it changes, then it's time to notify staff. Be be ready.

Power's out. We're gonna exceed a surge. What can we do? So we at the beginning of last week, we had a stand up meeting in the morning to talk about, yeah, the just make sure everyone's flashlights are charged and be ready. So those are the things that so nothing in the performance measures that I'm surprised about, but the the usage just keeps me Yeah.

Need to make sure that everyone who comes in is having a a good experience. Have you had to it's probably a great question. Increase the the cleaning scheduled, like, with with more patrons? Yeah. So we we have the custodian comes Monday through Friday throughout the day with the restrooms mostly.

And we have a designated a dedicated custodian all day Saturday. So there there's one person in this building, so they're continuing upkeep. And then they have other cleaning duties while and then Sunday in last year's or the year before budget, we asked for a Sunday. So now on Sunday, we have a dedicated custodian here all day. Saturday and Sunday are our busiest days, and so they're cleaning the restrooms every couple hours, filling supplies, anything that happens, and then just cleaning the the doors and things, the high surface areas.

So that's been a huge help on the weekend.

Just yeah. And the nursing pod is relatively new, but is there anything there that's been gone fine? It's been relatively clean. People aren't Yeah. Messes.

Yeah. That's been going great. The custodians do clean that. We got a new chair for it. I guess the first chair we ordered wasn't very comfortable, so we did get feedback on that. And the new chair is much more comfortable from what our users of the pod have said. So we're we're we're glad because we wanted them to be as comfortable as possible. But, yeah, all good responses from that besides the chair. But now Mhmm. Yeah. Everything else. About the new chair. Great.

I'm glad to hear that. Yeah. Anybody else have comments in the room? Comments, feedback? Is there any member of the public on the line who would like to provide comment on this item on online? If you would like to offer comment, please hit the raise hand button in Zoom or press 9 on your phone. Library director will display a timer on the screen. Okay. Section nine, we will turn again to director Gray for the library director's report, to review and discuss. And, again, this is a nonaction item.

So a lot of great stuff happening. The friends just have their book sale and a successful book sale. Is it January? February. It was last month. And

that

was successful. And then Silicon Valley wreaths is still happening. There's events going on with that. And the River New Year celebration. And then the state library had a survey amongst public libraries they're trying to compile.

We didn't get a huge amount of people that that participated, but the the ones that we did get were really great responses and so forth. So we included that in the report. And then the one of the best programs was our program at Foothill College. We brought the bookmobile, and that was a huge attendance. As you saw, there were surprise guests, the owl that appeared.

And so the staff that that went there. A great a great time. And the toddler drive in, I hear may come back because that was a very popular event where the kids made their cars and watched, just the movie and. So a lot of great, events coming up. We're still doing new amplify programs, getting new teens to do programs with that.

That's the teen programs. So new things coming. And, yeah, all's been good. And then I did wanna let the board know that tomorrow night, the city council meeting, one of the agenda items is the midyear budget update. And believe, I've talked before that the city council had asked what it would cost to expand hours on the weekend.

So myself and the staff did some research and compiled and made a recommendation to the city manager who it's in the memo for city council tomorrow night, and the recommendation is to open two additional hours on Sundays, and we would need two additional staff. So one librarian to be an in charge and an additional lead security services guard. So an additional because right now, our lead security works a Tuesday through Saturday schedule. And because we're only open four hours, it's a kind of a a very small crew on Sundays, and we don't have the full time security. We have our hourlies or the contracted security company.

So we've we've said having an additional will not only help Sundays, but would help Monday and during the week because that We probably work a Sunday through Thursday schedule. So that's been implemented in part of the budget memo tomorrow night. So if city council approves that, then we will work on the recruitment. We won't be able to open the hours until we hire. So it could be by sometime this summer or depending on how old, you know, HR's capacity, you know, resources to recruit for these positions.

But so yeah. So after tomorrow night, we'll know and start working on that.

Will will they vote on it tomorrow?

Yeah. They'll they'll they'll approve the midyear budget memo tomorrow night. They'll vote for that. So we'll know tomorrow night I'll be at the meeting in case they ask me any questions, and we can email you all and let you know. That's exciting. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think that are you hoping that the hours would be an earlier opening or a later closure?

Right. So Twelve to five. Right? Twelve to six. Or We did poll the staff to get their input on and mostly the Sunday the folks who work Sundays and what they've heard, what they think that would be helpful for the users.

And I think the consensus was twelve to six because so it'd be one hour on both ends. And then it would be easier for people to remember that we would have two different closing hours, 09:00 Monday through Thursday, and then 06:00 Yeah. Friday, Saturday, Monday. To make it easier to remember as another reason. But Otherwise, you're constantly Right. What day yeah. What time do you close? That kind of thing.

Tracy, does all staff rotate through Saturdays and Sundays?

It varies by division. Some staff division in some divisions, they do a rotation, and then some staff do a set schedule, a Tuesday through Saturday or a Sunday through or two Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday through Thursday. So it varies in the different divisions.

I'll have to keep track of it.

Yes. Yes. We let the divisions decide to to What works? What works for them and get the staffs in. We did have

that flexibility. We used to rotate through you had every third Saturday and every tenth Sunday. Mhmm. It was it was the rotation. Sometimes they lined up, and then you have a long stretch. Yeah. Yeah.

So we'll, yeah, we'll probably have that on a future agenda item. Update as as this rolls out. But like I mentioned, it'll probably take a little while to recruit. So, possibly by summer since Sunday is March 1 already.

True. Any other items to discuss as part of this?

That's it. Unless there's any

I just wanted to say I when I was reading about the Imagination Library, we are signed up, and I wondered if the if the children's department is advertising it because this is the most recent one that came to our house. It's just such a joyful surprise.

Bless

you. And this I think it's once a month. It always

It's once a month.

Yes. Yeah. So it's just

I I don't know if I wanted to I kinda wanted to, like, show everybody, but it's the Imagination Library that was in the director's report. Mhmm. It's a program. I think it's based on your child's age that they send these books. Mhmm. And it I think

Once a month until they turn five, apparently.

Yeah.

Wow. Which is unfortunate because my daughter turned five next month. Oh.

Awesome. It's

really nice. It's a very popular program from

what I've heard. It it's on an all ZIP code, so we're really lucky. Yeah. I wonder, does it is it partnering with our library or Santa Clara County? So

Santa Clara County. Yes. So they've had partners who have held funding in, so they've opened it up to all the neighboring libraries. So yeah. And we I believe there's flyers in the children's room and then on our regular information board. And I believe we've included on our monthly e newsletter before when it first started.

Have they added it to the parenting in the to make sure with the hospital?

That's a good question. I'll have to find out if they did add it. I believe so, but I'll check.

I thought she'd have it through the Mountain View Moffs where No such. Has been we've seen a

lot of the library.

I've been seeing all the social media about it. That's why I saw the blind date with the book, which is

so Right. Blind date with the book?

No. You need to go check it out. It's wrapped. It's like I have a super Valentine's Day.

It's it's a Kind of hard experience on a blind date with a book, and the cover is covered. So you get to pick, and it's your date with this book, and it's a surprise of what the title is. Yeah.

Very nice. Any other feedback? Would any member of public online like to provide any comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press 9 on your phone. Library director will then then display the timer on the screen.

Okay.

Great. Then unless there's any other feedback in the room. Just checking. Nothing else. We move to adjournment. The meeting is adjourned at 07:36PM, and the next board of library trustees meeting will be April Monday, April 20 at 7PM. Thank you all.