Minutes 06-27-12Unfinished Business:
CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH
Boynton Beach City Library
Library Advisory Board Minutes
June 27, 2012
The Library Advisory Board meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m. by Chair Jeannie Taylor. All board
members were present. Assistant Library Director, Anne Watts stood in for Library Director, Craig Clark.
The minutes of the May23, 2012 meeting were approved as distributed.
Correspondence: None.
Chair's Report: Chair Jeannie Taylor distributed a Time.com article by Elizabeth Dias titled "Why
Libraries are a Smart Investment for the Country's Future." The board endorsed a quote by Anthony Marx,
President of the NY Public Library, "Libraries are not frills or a luxury, but instead a sacred component of
American education and American democracy."
Archivist, Janet DeVries, demonstrated the new Historical Newspaper lookup software to the board. Early
Boynton newspapers, including the Star and News, and City Directories, have been digitized and are
available to the public to use at the library. Copyright laws prevent allowing Internet access to the collection.
Anne distributed the circulation statistics for the OverDrive eBooks system. Boynton has the largest
circulation of the participating libraries. The new focus is on encouraging readers to return the eBook when
finished reading it instead of waiting for the book to time out, which will increase availability.
The Unique Management Collection Services report for May 2012 was distributed to the board.
Approximately three dollars in material or fines is eventually recovered for every one dollar spent on
collection fees. Already almost $5,000 of overdue materials and fines owed have been recovered.
The Summer Reading Program is in full swing with over 700 children already registered. The Starforce
Magic Show had about 150 attendees. The children will receive prizes ranging from backpacks to jump
drives for completing their reading goals.
Anne also discussed the AmeriCorps Literacy Program volunteers and the extra hours they are volunteering
for the Adult GED tutoring program. Boynton Highschool Honor Society students are also donating
community service hours to literacy as they have younger students read to them. Demand for homework
help and literacy training is very high and staff will request two AmeriCorps volunteers next year.
New Business — Anne reported briefly on the Viva Florida 500 program, which is a state project to celebrate
and highlight Florida's 500 years of history and cultural diversity. The state library division distributed a
time capsule to each Public Library to create unique collections for future generations. City libraries are
encouraged to participate in the project.
The Library Board discussed the meeting calendar and voted to cancel the August 2012 meeting and to
merge the November and December meetings to December 5
Library Director's Report - Anne distributed the monthly report for May 2012 and noted that both
circulation and visits are up over the same month last year. Craig will bring two years of data for
comparison to the July meeting. Anne also distributed recent articles and attributed increased statistics to an
increase in recent publicity and relevant programming such as the Job Seeker Program.
8C :il 11 00
The next Library Board Meeting is July 25, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. The meeting was adjourned 'at 5:'1f1 p.m.
Valerie Pleasanton, Secretary H3 V 31 :1 r11 1 ,i 1,6E] 0