Library Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

like to call the meeting to order of the library sboro library Board of Trustees at 12:14 on Tuesday January 21st 2025 um so uh little mistake it's 2025 now Ryan not 2024 on the agenda but um uh so let's go um to the minutes from the December meeting did anyone have any edits or corrections I don't know if I got that but anyway I'll go along with anybody else uh I don't think I got it did the minutes get sent I I don't I don't I don't remember seeing that I got Ryan's three documents that he sent uh would the minutes have been a separate email from that I actually didn't see them myself yes may not have sent them okay okay for next time if you guys if you guys want me to pull up the minutes they're actually very quick because that was the inperson one from um the December meeting oh um you want to do that would that be okay Jane if I just get things done in time going yeah go ahead please okay yeah I don't think I got her either it was it was a rough month in my defense not an excuse though so I I do apologize to all of you

I'm really really sorry to hold you guys up I really apologize D it happens yeah stuff happens right and blame it on the Trump Administration how's that no don't go don't go there we all be doing a lot of that yeah that can't talk about it my sister wore black yesterday my favorite quote from yesterday from our new president was quote I was sent by God to make America great okay no more no can't hear anymore I hear some minutes okay Amy we're reading the minutes now since they didn't come to us via email if you're there Amy sorry for being late I had to deal with something unexpected is the dog okay and she's dying so no Amy I'm sorry that's okay it's um 10 and a half kidney disease brought on two really bad lime disease this summer I've got a 15-year-old who keep chugging and it's just waiting for it to just Keel over one day but she doesn't we yeah we had a lab that made it to almost 16 so I thought oh this is a much smaller dog she'll last much longer but a lab y this one's just little one so I thought I saw this let's see I don't think I sent it Amy okay I didn't I was looking while I

was waiting to be promoted to panelist I didn't see it D what are D and programs will be promoted by friends funded by friends yeah what are those d and d uh Dungeons and Dragons and Dragons we'll put that we should explicitly state it we shouldn't abbreviate there's also if you look if I'm G to go back for a second because there is a question mark it said Ryan might make an exception at the end of the fiscal year that should just be a per period not a question mark I can actually live edit for you guys for the first very slowly D wait the oh I see yes oh I read that we talked about that yes okay there you go thank you I'm not with it so hosting a grant gr reception it should stay possibly sorry and just for clarification in this first sentence of that friends do you want to capitalize that or say the friends will everyone know that it's no you should capiz that by the by the friends yes better yes yes okay we're ready let me know when I'll go into the second page for the 420 [Music] ready okay sorry it's moving while you're trying to read

yeah P log something's funny about that second offer through CW Mars let's patrons should be yeah okay is one word yeah yeah okay oh yeah Heritage Quest I forgot that name okay everybody good yeah yeah okay wait all right sorry uh go back up no just the is it the mbcp or is it MP so I have the acronym down finally after all this time it's the m PCP the Massachusetts Public Library construction program oh finally learned it when I no longer need to right I kept saying mbcp so okay and but the grant itself is from the mblc so the so okay got it yeah so they it's it's the mCP Grant distributed by the mblc which is the Massachusetts Board of board of Library commissioner okay maybe we should say that we'll say mlc grant let me put

distributed by the mblc there you go there we get all our acronyms in Mary okay just the adjournment go back a little did I go too fast can it yeah back up just a little I will okay actually I was okay I I just didn't know if you skip something all right do you feel comfortable approving yes okay then someone can make a motion and you guys can vote if you'd like no move I I move to accept the minutes as edited David second it all those in favor Janet man hi yon Hi I timy hi and Davis I so the minutes are accepted as amended thank you okay let's move on to the director's report budget spending is continuing that's good uh the news Bank access Brian why don't you Brian to Ryan why don't you talk about this yeah so this is more sort of because I like to give you guys heads up and know things when I know things um basically we were we've been part of my entire tenure here a group of libraries that has kind of shared a newspaper access point through a company called newsbank so that gives us access to over 200 Massachusetts

Publications um usage only really peaked during covid as it did for all of our databases I'm happy to share with you guys the database um spreadsheet at the next meeting that gives you the statistics but our statistics in the not good currently um we there's been kind of a change newsbank would like to charge more and to give access to Publications outside of Massachusetts which is not something most of the libraries want to do they wanted it specific to Massachusetts that's why we pay them um H so they're going to continue it for one more year this was something that was organized by a library director named Ellen Dolan who was the previous director of Shrewsberry she retired this became the responsibility of the assistant director Michael Zeller who has now accepted a job as the Director of the Auburn library so there's an electronic resources librarian at shb her name is heta she's great I've talked a lot with her and Michael about this I shury most likely is going to continue paying for this um for essentially forever but we may not help anymore after this year because we can't pay more than what they're going to ask we're already over it's I think it's be close to $2,800 next year so it's becoming to be blunt too rich for our blood especially when people are not utilizing it so I did promise you guys we'd look at databases year to year and this is one of those ones where I don't think we can justify the expense okay I don't have a problem with that what about the rest of you

anybody no problem makes sense so this we we're not going to be put in a situation like this only because we don't do sort of um a resource sharing agreement with any other library and this was something that Jane Kane had undertaken when she was Library director so to be honest it's just sort of dissolving we had to recruit libraries to join a couple years ago because so many other libraries had left and then because there's new directors at Malboro and Westboro those were kind of the big libraries in the local consortia they are now leaving this year so that kind of is also G to prevent us from having that buying power the databases we subscribe to other than this all independently pay for so that we can more make that this is kind of being made for us is what I can tell you whereas we can make the decision about resources in the future I will also say this is helpful not we're not doing this because of this but it's a little bit more expensive than the library speaker Consortium platform that we just got Grant funded for a year we didn't budget for that resource because we thought maybe there'd be a six-month drop off between trying to get it and then renew it but this would give us the flexibility next year to renew that if it's um popular which already we've gotten a lot of interest from patrons so um that sounds like a good outcome yeah we're trying to make lemonade out of lemons yeah okay let's keep going the computer issue are really boring but I summarized it for you guys so that you could see

what's going on I am happy to report I have breaking news for all of you if you had tried to access our and you were seeing a delay and the load time for the site that was because if still the reason for most of my pain in the last six months um the Plymouth rocket people who did the Museum passes that went out of business we had integrated code in order to have their events on our site that code needed to be removed from the vendor end so that has taken place now and there is no more lag time on the website that got resolved today so I always like giving you good news on the meeting live but that the amount of time I had to spend on the website taking 30 seconds extra to load I'm just going to tell you what significant so you know these are sometimes the things I have to work on and it was it it Jay was very responsive from it as was our website vendor so okay well that that was a positive resolution sorry it took you away from other things R but it's all good now right yep and we've had very little transition headache between alab the move has been for events and for Museum passes we were hopeful that people could reserve Museum passes through the catalog and this kind of interesting they can do it from the catalog machine upstairs but they can't do it from the children's room and to be honest I wanted it more in the children's room than upstairs so we don't understand if this is like some sort of coding error the computer upstairs is newer so that might be a factor but a lot of people are finding this to be very easy to do

it from their phones Plymouth rocket required the PIN to be entered as well as the library card number asip it does not but it does confirm your information when you're on the next screen so if you guys try to book a museum pass you have any questions feel free to reach out to me or the staff and we will be happy to explain what's going on okay sounds good um and you had to replace lights on the main floor yeah that all got done thankfully they did have to bring in it is a little bit of a pain for them when something goes down in the front room in the Judy Williams reading room or in the circulation area only because they have to bring in a pretty substantially High ladder and then we do try to Target those when it's really really quiet here or in the morning before we open but on Friday they were up put in the afternoon it was not crowded so we're able to get it done pretty quick I saw them with that Big L yes okay good um we already know about the grant but if you want to talk about it some more it's just you know a notification to the public because you're aware our friends group is aware as our town officials and select board members but we were not one of the communities accepted into the MPL LCP grant program District by the nblc so um you know I'm smiling but this was this is obviously um sad news for us um I think we my intention is to try to do some interim work and to identify maybe some furniture updates we could do in the next few years as we get ready to reapply and then we really do have a

great Foundation I mean we probably have 80 to 85 % of the application done the next time we go to do it one of the I would say big Financial breakouts that I would have to come back and talk to you all is I'd like to work with a consultant whether or not that consultant ultimately becomes me because that might happen but um if we go to an outside consultant I'd like to have somebody come and do a space assessment for the building where they go around and take photographs of things and then write up little descriptions so that person could work with me I have just reached out in a preliminary way to the people who assist assisted us with the CPA project because we did do like a building assessment that got included with the grant package this time and neither of them I think are able to help us in the next couple years one I think is essentially retiring from the Architecture Firm and then the other one now has a different role where they're a municipal official so they're not involved in um a consulting company anymore so I'm trying to find names of other people we could work with but I could also take time out take pictures and write up the strip descriptions and then have it reviewed by you guys so if we have to go that route we could um it'll just take me a little bit longer I would say than it if we hire somebody so okay could I say a couple things first of all the fact that we were not a recipient um what is the message as a group that we're sending out to the town I think you know why didn't we get it what what was wrong with South bro I I think we have to have just a a United statement don't you I mean my my take on it is that we we didn't get it

because the mean income here is too high and we did not look like a town that was as needy as other recipients and it seems to me if we reapply that's still going to be it's not going to change right well the metrics on this if I remember correctly uh Ryan were that uh the Z of 0 to 20 the towns that got the uh the towns that got the award were in the range of 11 to 16 and South bro was 2.2 or 2.4 so were so every community that applied was assessed a needs rating I don't have data on how this needs rating was um calculated um but that's something people can reach out to the MBC mblc about if they have questions right I'm getting my acronyms up if I say too fast um we so we received a two point it was out of 20 so you could get up to 20 points we get a 2.44 yeah understanding is that most of the communities were that were accepted into the program got somewhere between 11 to 16 that that their needs rating was assessed there I don't think anybody was Z and anybody was a 20 um there were just to give you metrics on this in case I I didn't because I have more data now is uh because I the nblc meeting happened I think after I spoke to most of you um there were 22 total applicants into this program 15 of them are getting some level of funding some of them not right away some of them were weight listed for a year or two or I think in in one case one of the communities still needs to

comply with the communities act the M MBTA communities act um so there were seven we were one of the seven that received no funding at all so we weren't the only Community that's the first thing if if the board is concerned about this and I don't think you have to make a decision right now but you can we do not need to pursue reapplying but to me I I think it would be worth one more shot um I do think if we know how many communities are applying that's definitely going to be a and managing our own expectations but if we are I I will say this if there were 15 communities that received funding and there were only 15 applicants we would have gotten funded most likely okay but yeah but I think we need to go deeper into the reason we got a three you know what why did we not we did not seem to meet the Criterion that we really needed to expand the library or our town was not representative in the way that many of these other towns were that they they were more needy um so I think before we say oh we're just going to try it again no we need to go into this and see what my my thinking is that it was because the you know sou was a wealthy Town not everybody but if you lump everyone together the needle is pretty high is that not true that's true and is this the reason we didn't get it I want to just bring up something else and it's a question for Ryan because I want to make sure I'm speaking

accurately here while I think that this two rating and the level of wealth in the town is and the potential possibility of towns people to somehow fundraise for this outside of a state Grant is the largest portion of why we didn't receive it Ryan am I remembering correctly that at a friends meeting you might have also mentioned that something about the public surveys might also have worked to our disadvantage I think that was part of it too they people were very happy with the library because and and that that I think that backfired because they weren't complaining you know and I just sorry I'm interrupting but I think it's the nature of our town again there's no there's no meeting point there's no uh it works as the town sort of that's the wrong word but a place where people get together because there's no other Town Center so of course people like it because that's all there is yeah and they're using it in that way yeah I call it Town living room or a town Den for that reason yeah so I just want to throw this out there too because as we think about this I think this will be a factor and it's exactly kind of what you're talking about is um okay so with the discussions about the potential renovation at Neri if that goes through there's also the potential of what gets done at Finn and if that becomes some sort of Community centeres Place which of course would take lots of money and years to do there is a chance that that then also um sort of shifts some of where people are coming together for and I don't want

that messaging or that sort of fundraising to happen at the expense of the library getting what it's what it needs in the future too so I don't know how that all comes together here but I think it's important to consider as we're trying to figure out whether to apply for something else and and how to get what the library still still very much needs even though it might not be happening in the next year or two so so just if it's okay Jane I'll just respond to a couple people kind of I think in order to questions and then just generally to your point Jane too but Amy I do think if they had accepted a limited number of funding requests we would have been funded it would they wanted I think it was important for them to set a tone that it was going to be competitive because they didn't want to accept people and then H not have construction occur until six seven years later that is sort of what happened with Westboro and it ended up being that they didn't con get a a grant because it ultimately got rejected by the town when the construction PR prices ballooned so I I think the idea was if you weren't accepted into this hopefully you would reapply at the nblc meeting they did encourage the communities us included to reapply in the next time I can try to engage with the Consultants whether or not this is a valuable use of our time I can ask that question I'm happy to because I think that that is feedback I'm getting from the board from more than one person and I think that's fair um so I did ask the consultant that I spoke with repeatedly if there was something

we could have done differently on the application if our um you know our space assessment was two out of date because I was concerned about that because it was from 2017 um I was concerned about something I had done wrong like in the application in this in the building program because it has a lot of pictures there's about 30 pages of narrative was that just not completed correctly right and I was told that the application was fully complete there wasn't any feedback from the Independent review team on things in the Grant application I had to change that it really came down to the needs rating being added on to people's scores which might not be a factor in a in a second round in the future oh I I sorry rating what that needs rating is new yes this was this is the first time they've done a competitive round of the grant wow they've they've so basically you subed yeah if you if you submitted a completed application in previous Grant rounds what they would do is just weight list people depending on their need so the need was still assessed it was just you were put down a pipeline does that make sense and again I'm paraphrasing I don't work for the mblc so I just followed this process over the years and I'm trying to explain it to the best of my ability so I just want to say if anybody from the MB LC is um watching I I'm trying to explain it but this is the the Consulting our construction specialists at mblc are new they've both they're both former Library directors that worked with the mlcp program in the past

and they've sort of worked with the mblc to kind of reimagine it in a way I think that works better on managing expectations and trying to get the funding dispersed quicker but again I think I think there was a misconception for previous people like Westboro who went through this process got a grant approved and then by the time they had to go to their town to ask for money the town didn't want to fund the library anymore that's how long it took so they didn't want libraries in that same situation and that was the idea of what for For Better or For Worse I think that was what the intention was okay I I I am happy not to to I think it's a little raw too because we just found out about this and we don't have to we don't even have to make any decisions about this until the grant round opens up again I still think it's worth doing a space assessment because if we end up staying in this building I think we should work with a consultant on how best to maximize the space here and I think having recommendations on that only kind of strengthens a future application if we do reapply or it helps us if we don't because then we're best maximizing the space here yeah but again so just to I was just going to say just to also connect that with the other projects that people are thinking about in town the more sort of concrete data you can have collected about the library's current status space and needs allow more things to be concretely communicated rather than in the abstract which I think is also very important in relation to the larger conversations of moving Parts in town

[Music] agreed okay I think that's a good point does anyone else have any so so what I said it was we need to have a United message I guess that that's just what Ryan said what what I I don't I guess I don't put as much stock in the numbers think that there were 22 and you know that there wasn't enough to go around I that's that's like gambling almost see how many you know how many applicants and let's hope that it's better next time H we don't have any control over that yeah but I think I think if they're always going to use A needs assessment as part of it we are not going to get a grant right remember years ago where I was writing a whole bunch of there were all these organizations offering literacy grants and I worked I was working with the teachers and all this stuff we got a a ton of these things and finally somebody was kind enough to tell me you're never going to get one this is you are not the target audience for literacy grants you town is too affluent it's never going to happen well yes so let's let's step back and I think the idea my opinion of the doing a an an assessment is good but I don't know that it should be shared by you Ryan I think we need someone in independent too much too much on your plate this is crazy crazy town you need we need to have some some outside person that's my opinion yeah that's fair okay so I'll I'll continue um trying to ask around see try to get some referrals from people who have provided reports to other libraries and I'll bring back some information hopefully in February okay is that everyone else on board with go yeah yes just so you don't

misunderstand Ryan I'm I'm very much in favor favor of of taking a second bite at the Apple when whenever that might be appropriate but I think the the reality is this needs assessment uh you know of all the of all the cities and towns in Worcester County uh based on an average family income and on on assessed value of homes only the town of Harvard is higher than the town of Southboro so we're going to you know we're we're in effect we're sort of a victim here of our socioeconomic status um if I'm not sure if that's the right way to put it and that probably isn't going to change um so uh I I sound contradictory but uh I think we need to smell the coffee on the on the realities of of the rating the needs assessment uh balanced against you know what our uh what our chances are I mean you invested a tremendous amount of effort and time uh and should be very proud of yourself uh for uh for the for the application that went in but um you know we're we're sort of swimming up Upstream I think uh with respect to um how we class how we are classified as as a socioeconomically as a town we encountered that in Girl Scouts too so I I don't think it's just you know I don't think it's going to change um well okay one go ahead I just say the one thing that could change is they may not do the grand round the same way when we reapply that the consultant noted that this was their initial attempt at doing this I do not think that they were happy that they had to tell people they didn't get the grant that was my sense is that she was aware of how much time and energy not

only I put into it but other Municipal officials all of you our friends group there was multiple there's many many many hours days spent on this so I think that they're aware of that and I think that they're trying to think about ways to engage with people in the future differently so I would just say let's stay tuned let's see what it's like and then we do have some more informed questions if a grant round opens up next time okay that sounds like a good plan um where else are we on here the art cultural console gate we received two different grants which is wonderful yeah um so are we have we covered the director's report I have to tell you I really have a hard stop in about 15 minutes so if someone else can carry on after me no I we can go really quick after this Kane I promise so if you want to go we needed we needed to talk about this we we haven't seen each other since this all um you know this information became available so no this is important so go ahead Ryan what were you going to say so yeah that's it for the director's report um expense report things are moving along I don't know if you have any questions um so did you we talked about you're doing it um the expenses as of the end of the prior month so we'd have full month to full month comparison that's not what this is right because you said seven month which would be yeah I'm sorry I did update it to the new month and then I but all the data in it is from December so the percentages are all going to be off so what I'll do um I'll resend a corrected Report with the six entered that will have the corrected

um stuff you're right Janet I'm I'm so used to updating it that I didn't do it correctly so I will will amend yeah okay I'll send you guys the amended minutes too so you have a copy of it but I'll do that with the amended expense report so just the totals are correct for December the percentages are not so I apologize any other comments about the expense report uh it says budget draft did we get that yeah we already did it it was from La sorry that was a carryover I just wanted to give a quick update we usually do a around Robin where we sometimes have to I I go and I invite you guys to come with me to go to select board to go to advisory Brian Ballentine and I have spoken about the budget draft since our our current total is at a 4.5% increase and most budgets um if they're under 5% are not being kind of flagged for advisory conversations that's my current understanding we may not have to go and speak with advisory I always say I like to go as a courtesy because I don't often get to talk to them margarite and I went to this meeting last year and we they didn't have a lot of questions for us I can tell you so I'll just keep you guys posted on this but there isn't we haven't gotten any push back negative feedback about the budget proposal at all so that is the 4.5 is where we stand right now well maybe we're not asking for enough I like I yeah I agree why are we being so Cooperative okay let's keep going Child Safe policy

Safe child policy so I didn't get any yeah no I didn't get any feedback from anybody last last time what I what I would like to do is the next step is just kind of Polish the policy so it's a little it's formatted a little bit better and then run it by the police chief and then by Town Council during office hours so if that's okay with everybody as a as a next step I will do that I was kind of waiting on board feedback before I took those next actions okay I think everything looked good and Kim and your staff are comfortable with what you got and that's the most important thing so yeah yeah yeah it's very brief now so there's not a lot better yeah it's nothing wrong with that um and then you sent us the library submission for the annual Town report yes I would like to thank the truste who helped provide edits um big thanks to Mariana who did update a lot of the information I'll give myself credit too I had to update a lot too and then we did submit some pictures that hopefully go in the annual Town report but there were some summer reading program photos and then uh you know a couple pictures from the book sale so you see them tiny but we gave larger versions to the town with the submission so so I have some edits do you want to hear those now or can you send them can you send them to me Janet and then I will so it was due last Friday but let me double check because I think Melanie did say that today was like the final day to do any sort of last minute stuff can you send it to me today yeah is that okay all right I'm sorry sorry about the condensed time frame but um if

you have edits just send them on over and I can I'll double check with Melanie after this could I just ask a question you mention overdrive but you don't mention Libby is Libby not is it liby so yeah overdrive is the app I'm sorry overdrive is the company Libby is the app that that's a fair point maybe we we really should be putting the Libby App instead of overdrive there I can since Janet sending me updates anyway that's a very easy thing to update on our rent yeah I agree that yeah yeah all right um yes send your edits okay um um um um the library director contract have we worked on that since no but I'm going to come with you guys with stuff next month that's my goal because now that we are behind now that construction is not happening I got more time to work in this so there's always a silver lining right yeah okay sounds good any uh other I can't tell if there any other people here or can you public comment no we are we're alone right now okay so does anybody does anybody does anybody have any other business to bring the board schedule the next meeting schedule next meeting good point um I'd be happy to talk to you guys about a date just let me pull up holidays as I always like to do President's Day it's gonna yeah so that would again because we're kind of sticking to the third week we'd run into it if we did Monday so we could do do you guys want to stick with the Monday yay or

nay doesn't matter fine doesn't matter okay what about 24th oh yeah we could no J that's fine let's start there Jane Jane says 24th can does that work for people I can't I can't do any of that week not best not good for me either okay so the week of the 17th is school vacation week I don't know whether yes are you around married that either um I yes I I the 18th if we did that week I am around after the 17th or I should say I'm available after the 17th I have something I have to be at on the 17th 18 can you do the 18th J can and Mary and Amy and David yes yes yep David I'm okay okay well let's try for the 18 um at 11 okay does that work for you right that would be that would matter yes okay next meeting Fe Tuesday February 18th at 11 o'clock on Zoom okay all right so um did someone please move to adjourn the meeting I move to adjourn the meeting second Janet seconds all in favor I Janet I I I okay c i a ey Eber ey okay Davis ey all right the meeting's adjourned at 1258 thank you Jane thanks Jane hi everyone again I apologize for my lateness D stop apologizing it's fine um I didn't send I didn't send you guys the minutes from last time I I I clearly I think if somebody's in error here it might be me so I I promise February will

be better month of love love your library so we'll do better okay have a nice week bye bye