Minutes 09-26-18 MINUTES OF THE LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
HELD ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018, AT 6 P.M.
AT THE INTRACOASTAL PARK CLUBHOUSE
2240 N. FEDERAL HIGHWAY, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA
PRESENT:
Chris Montague, Chair Craig Clark, Library Director
John Welter Jeannie Taylor, Division Head Librarian
Bethanie Gorny, Alternate
Robyn Boucd, Alternate
ABSENT:
Dr. Stephanie Hayden-Adeyemo
Deborah Hoban
Chris Simon
Tracy Tebo
Alice Warren
1. Call to Order
Chair Montague called the meeting to order at 6 p.m.
II. Approval of Minutes —August 22, 2018
The minutes were tabled.
Ill. Correspondence and Communications
Mr. Clark advised Dr. Hayden-Adeyemo and Ms. Hoban contacted him they would not
be present.
IV. Public Audience (individual Speakers Will Be Limited to 3 Minute
Presentations)
None.
V. Chair's Report
Chair Montague saw a criticism on Boynton each Raw about the Library and thought
there would be more comments. He asked if anyone from the Library would respond.
Mr. Clark responded since it was not directly posed to the Library, he would not
respond. If the criticism was directed to the City he would respond.
Meeting Minutes
Library Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
Chair Montague asked if staff has to go to storage often and learned Ms. Taylor goes to
the storage unit every day to pull items patrons want. Mr. Clark tells patrons the book
will be available in two days.
I. Unfinished Business:
Library Construction Update
The move was a lot of work and all staff worked tremendously hard. The move went
very well, the company they used through the books was excellent, and he hoped they
could use then again. He did not think there was one item damaged.
Chair Montague asked how the portable units were going and learned they are finished.
Mr. Clark invited all to stop by. There is a quad trailer for the computers, tech services,
cataloguing and administrative services. There are 13 people that can work there. The
double wide has 16 or 17 computers for adults with printing stations. There are also four
offices there: the IT Manager, Library Technology Specialists to share, one for
AmeriCorp people to share and the last is storage.
Career Online High School (COHS) Update
Ms. Taylor reported two students are taking the prerequisite for the COHS program and
some students are completing the course. There are two who are close to graduation,
that are over 50% finished. It was hoped there would be another graduation soon. Mr.
Clark was working with Rotary Club of Boynton/Lantana who offered a $1,200
scholarship for online graduates to pay for college courses. He sent the application to
all four graduates and one responded who would receive the award. Mr. Clark will
accept the scholarship tomorrow at a luncheon on behalf of the student who could not
be present. The student will get $600 upfront and when finished with the course
present her report card of B or higher and receive the remaining $600. Mr. Clark was
taking the Marketing Manager with him to the lunch for public relations for the program
and the Rotary. The Library is offering the program again so social media and press
releases or a live Facebook post will help spread the word. The Rotary will do
advertising and use social media and posts as well. Mr. Clark was very happy about
the program.
AmeriCorps Update
Ms. Taylor advised the Library has two AmeriCorps programs, which was the After
School Homework help and Adult Literacy Teacher for English as a Second Language
(ESL). The After School Help is always busy. Ms. Taylor will post training in October
for the other AmeriCorp individuals who are interested in helping with either program.
Many AmeriCorps volunteers that work in school environments and cannot get their full
hours can get extra hours at the Library. The Library provides the volunteer with full
training and AmeriCorp has to be committed to doing the work. Normally the Library
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Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
has three volunteers, one for teens. AmeriCorp is still recruiting and advised they will
send another tutor when they find an appropriate volunteer.
VIII. New Business:
Read Together Palm each County — Best State Ever. A Florida Man
Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry
Mr. Clark has belonged to the Read Together Palm Beach County since 2012, which is
sponsored by the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, and now the Read Together
event will be an annual celebration as opposed to a biannual event. The reading
selection this year, Best State Ever. A Florida Man Defends his Homeland by Dave
Barry is a short and quick read. The Library has about 12 copies and all but one were
checked out. Dave Barry lives in Miami and he will go to the Harriet Himmel Theater in
November for a live program grand finale. Mr. Clark will advise the members when they
begin to accept RSVP. He advised it is a nice program and is in a cool historic theater
redone in City Place. Libraries and the Literacy Coalition will promote the program.
Starbucks, Park Avenue BBQ were formerly involved. The event is to promote a love of
reading. Some Libraries are having programs and trying to get in touch with Judy Levy
for a book discussion group at the Boynton Library, but has not yet been able to contact
her.
Ms. Boucard asked if the event was a book for youth and learned October 25 is Read
for the Record. This year the book is Something Beautiful. There was a big challenge
amoung the local municipalities to win first place for the most readers. Boynton each
has won it several times, but came in second place last year. The Mayor, City
Commissioners and many employees go out into the community and read to youth.
There was is a Mayors' challenge between Boynton each, West Palm Beach and
Wellington to see who gets the most readers. It is a fun, friendly competition.
New Resources: Value Line — Stocks/investment Information; RB Digital
Audiobooks; Ancestry.com — Genealogy Database; Novelist —
Author/Books Series Information (Coming in October)
Currently Recruiting — Assistant Library Director, Librarian/Archivist,
Library Aide PT, Library Page PT
Chair Montague recalled the last meeting and advised staff is trimming down its print
material and beefing up its digital collection due to space constraints. Mr. Clark
explained the new resources will be purchased or leased after October. The digital
audio books are already at the temporary location, but the Value Line, Ancestry.com
and Novelist will be purchased after October first. Mr. Clark emphasized the Library
does not have a license to use Ancestry.com outside of the Library. It must be used in
the Library, but the other programs could be used from home.
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Library Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
Mr. Clark explained staff is currently interviewing for an Assistant Library Director next
week. The part-time Library Aide position was posted, but the Archivist position and
Library page will be posted in the next few weeks. He clarified the Library Aide will be
stationed at the customer service desk or be a greeter. The Library Page position is
strictly shelving books. The position will have a guaranteed minimum of 20 hours a
week, but often works more hours. The maximum amount of hours they can work is
29.75 hours. The Archivist position is a very specialized position. Mr. Clark
commented he will advertise the position in both Librarian World and The Archivist
World.
Mr. Clark commented the City Clerk's office gave the Library several items for the
City's archives. The Development Department also got about 150 rolls of microfilm.
He saw some building plans for Motorola on the microfilm and he was working with the
Development Director what to use it for in the future, how often it will be used, will the
Department pay for digitizing it and if not, staff can index the microfilm so it could be
searched to see what roll an item is on. Mr. Clark started on that project yesterday and
a volunteer archivist was working on the project and doing an excellent job. She was
creating a metadata spreadsheet on excel so staff can record and indexing what is on
the microfilm. Some of the microfilm dates back to the 70's. He noted there are a lot
of other items the Library needs to go through, inventory, put in protective acid free
covers and eventually make then discoverable to the public
VIII. Library Director's Report/Statistics
Monthly Report for August 2018 — N/A
Mr. Clark announced the Library Statistician was on vacation, but the security gate was
installed so they are now getting a daily gate count and staff will see what traffic is like.
Ms. Taylor thought attendance was about half. Before the move, the Library would get
1,200 to 1,500 people Monday through Thursday. Presently, the Library is receiving
about 700. He noted patrons were still finding the Library. He thought the Library
would get busier when the snowbirds arrived. Chair Montague asked about maximum
capacity, because the temporary Library is a much smaller building and the public area
is so much smaller. Staff was trying to promote, the Library is a temporary site and staff
wants to give the best service possible. He noted patrons are not staying as long
because there are no seats. Mr. Clark was greeting patrons the first day and most
people were looking for study rooms and computers. Ms. Taylor reassures patrons
they will have those amenities in the new space. Mr. Clark and Ms. Taylor have been
working with the architect and City Administration on the floor plan. There will be six
individual study rooms and three good-sized multi-people study rooms with cool
technology planned. The new Library study rooms will be a little different because
groups like to meet there.
Mr. Welter asked about the design review process. Mr. Clark explained when the City
schedules the architect to meet with City Officials, Library staff is invited to the meeting.
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Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
He noted the architect discusses the entire City Hall, not just the Library. The Library
portion lasts about 20 minutes. They review the plans the day before to have their
comments ready. They have met three times and the drawings are at 60%. Working
on the footprints. The archive area will be 30% larger because they were maxed out
and for future growth.
Mr. Clark did a lot of work with the Library architectural firm hired and they did a lot of
floor planning. They are supposed to come back on the job to help place the shelving
and furniture. The first floor is kids and teens and they will have a sound-proof virtual
zone and a few meeting rooms for the Kids and Teen AmeriCorp. Their initial thought
was to have some computers setup for young kids and get a lap top cart for the teens
and they can go into another room or a lounge chair and spread out and use the
computers. Mr. Clark planned to get two laptops carts of 20 laptops each and have
one in the adult area and one in the teen area. The laptop carts will be mobile and they
can be used to teach classes in the other meeting room spaces that are shared by City
Hall and the Library.
Chair Montague asked if they could see the most recent drawing, which he thought
were different than what was originally presented. He noted the building went from a
giant glass building to a very typical-styled building. He asked if Mr. Clark was happy
with what was occurring. Mr. Clark commented there are a lot of windows in the new
Library and more than what they had, so there was more natural light on the second
floor. Mr. Clark explained staff has no control over the plans and things change over
time based on the budget. Mr. Clark clarified the library consultant firm was brought in
at the beginning by Baker Barrios, the architect for the building, and the Library
consultant will be brought back in to finalize the floor plans and determine where the
cables, furniture and all else will go and determine maximum capacity. Those elements
have not been finalized.
Chair Montague asked if the budget shrunk. Mr. Clark explained he never gets the
budget numbers. It is like a tennis game. If one item costs more, another item may
need to be reduced. Mr. Welter inquired if the Library would be funded in a way for it to
be progressive or is there a loss of revenue. Mr. Clark did not feel the Library was in a
bad situation. There is other funding to do some other fun things like the Friends of the
Library. Some other former Friends of the Library individuals died and left money to
the Library and Mr. Clark is saving up State Aid to Library money. The final product, as
far as construction is in the construction budget is unknown, but he will push and push
for what the Library needs.
Chair Montague commented he was concerned the developer would offer something
great and cheap out on the public projects. Mr. Clark disagreed and explained there
was a maximum cost to the building and both parties have to adhere to the budget.
Next month, Mr. Clark set up an afternoon trip to Miami Dade County Public Library
with other staff and they have a co-working space at the South Kendall Branch they will
view in action. They have a technology area, arts and crafts area and a business area
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Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
where people and entrepreneurs can hold meetings and they will see how it works. The
Economic Development Director is interested in seeing how it operates and what they
are doing so the City can start planning. It is still in the planning phase and staff has a
lot to say how it is driven.
Chair Montague asked if they could view where the Library is now in the project and
was referred to the Town Square website. The drawings should be on the website as
they were approved last Thursday and they are uploading new conceptual drawings.
Mr. Welter thought it was good to have the spaces but thought it would be fascinating if
there was a presentation that gives a theme or sense of what the space means. Mr.
Clark agreed to put the item on the next agenda and try to get updated drawings. Mr.
Welter commented as a member of the community and the advisory board, he wants to
see the community grow in positive ways. Mr. Clark commented, as it pertained to
economic development, staff has to figure out what it looks like, how it works and who
will operate it. He invited the members to attend the meeting on October 25th at 2:30
p.m. Mr. Clark went to a SEFLIN Conference in North Miami and they have sessions.
Two staff members hosted a session and talked about what they were doing. Mr. Clark
thought it was cool and contacted the Director who invited him down. Chair Montague
requested Mr. Clark email the members with information. Mr. Clark was excited about
the possibilities.
Ms. Boucard asked if staff promoted the library cards for young children and learned
Mr. Clark has not had time with the move. She hoped the program would be promoted
by the end of 2019 and noted the children cannot come to the Library without the
parents. Mr. Clark explained staff would be able to push it more next year. It was
hoped the Library would be done in two years, but Mr. Clark noted it took five years to
build the last one. The new Library is a 110,000 square-foot building. It will be the first
building constructed in the Town Square and it is a high priority. The City pays a lot of
money to lease the temporary space so the sooner the building is completed, the
better,
News/Media Coverage.
Chair Montague commented he saw one tiny article that had very little information about
the Library.
IX Announcements
Next Library Board Meeting — October 24, 2018 at Intracoastal Park
Chair Montague announced the next meeting. He suggested when the members attend
the meeting, they go around the back of the building to gain entrance. He hope the
members received the email regarding the October 17th City Advisory Board
Appreciation Dinner at Benvenuto. Mr. Clark advised he will be out of town. Ms. Taylor
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Boynton Beach, Florida September 26, 2018
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will attend and advised it is a very nice dinner. Mr. Clark commented he appreciated
the Board's work and all their ideas.
X. Adjournment
Motion
Chair Montague moved to adjourn. Ms. Boucard seconded the motion that
unanimously passed. The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.
I /
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da (I"U'li
Catherine Cherry
Minutes Specialist
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