Minutes 05-27-15 CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH
Boynton Beach City Library
Library Advisory Board Minutes
May 27, 2015
The Library Advisory Board meeting was called to order at 4:03 p.m. by Chair Jeannie Taylor. All board members
were present except for Valerie Pleasanton, Deborah Hoban, and Barbara Wineberg. The meeting minutes from
March and April 2015 were tabled.
Kathy Estime, Part-time Library Aide was introduced to the Board. Kathy is a new staff member at the Customer
Service Desk.
Correspondence: None.
Public Audience:None.
Chair's Report: Ms. Taylor attended the Florida Library Association Conference (FLA) along with Craig Clark,
Library Director. The theme was Inspiring Innovation this year. Jeannie attended some good sessions. She
handed out to board members the 2015 Legislative Platform for Florida libraries. The Legislature did not come up
with a budget so they must go back to the table on June 1 to create a balanced budget and hopefully keep library
money in budget. Ms. Taylor encouraged board members to go to FLA website and click on Engage tab. You can
email your legislatures to request they keep library dollars at current year funding in the budget. It is simple and
easy. Another sheet Ms. Taylor handed out gives a list of websites for national, state, and regional library
organizations websites. SEFLIN is not listed but offers free workshops and webinars. Board members can take
advantage of free webinars through Craig as BBCL is a member. Jeannie also discovered library link of the day.
This provides interesting library information.
Unfinished Business:
Craig Clark, Library Director, stated the job description for Librarian is being rewritten. The three year required
experience is being placed under preferred qualifications due to the cataloging position. It is difficult to find a part-
time cataloger that has three years professional librarian experience. Mr. Clark distributed the Over Drive e-Books
report for April 2015. The report shows that Boynton's Overdrive patrons had 444 checkouts, and we signed up 20
new users. The Unique Management Collection Services report was also distributed to the board. The collection
service has submitted $107,000 in accounts (1,344 accounts). In addition, the program has recovered over $32,000
in materials and cash. We pay $8.92 to submit an account and charge a$10 administrative fee to the patron. This
is a budget neutral program.
Ms. Matthews inquired about the use of eBooks compared to print books. Mr. Clark stated that many people still
like reading print,but both types of books are popular. There has been some decline in print but not much.
Transparent Languages stats since its inception 923 patrons accessed the database. English for French speakers is
the number one language being sought out. Also, Spanish and Italian are very popular. The library has marketed
the product very well and we are getting good usage.
Zinio (electronic magazines) there were 88 checkouts throughout the consortium for the month of April 2015.
Better Homes and Gardens is the most popular title. Most use of the database was by BBCL patrons.
Freegal music downloads included 52 patrons download 673 songs and videos. Pop Rock and Country were very
popular.
New Business: Craig discussed some new statistics. All Data stats are emailed to the library each month. In April
the database was used 40 times. The library has had this database for a number of years. You simply type in the
year and make of your car. The database gives auto repair detail.
Learning Express offers college prep tests, nursing exams, GED, eBooks and more. The total number of resources
used since Octoberl through April was 320. In April 2015 there were 79 resources used.
In April there were 5,500 hits to the library's website Boyntonlibrary.org. 4,208 were from a computer, 776 from
mobile devices and 515 from tablets. There were 39,290 website hits since October 1,2014.
eSequels is a database that patrons can look up author series titles. There were four logons in April. The cost to
the library is$30 per year.
Library administration is working on capturing how many people use wireless access.
An AmeriCorps application for three volunteers has been submitted to the Literacy Coalition. Alexis Luis and
Irijah Konoynton will be returning to the Library for the next AmeriCorps work cycle for kids' homework help and
teen college prep. We will hopefully be expecting a new person to teach ESL to adults beginning in September.
The cost to the library is approximately$18,000 for all three members.
Library Director's Report: Craig will distribute the monthly report for April 2015 at the next meeting. Ms.
Watts reported that the library has received a $1,000 YALSA/Dollar General Grant to help pay for comic books
and graphic novels for young adults. The theme this year is Super Heroes. Tates at the Boynton Beach Mall has
been a great partner with this program.
Ms. Sulzer stated that she attended her nephew's college graduation. The speaker at the event was Levar Burton.
He founded reading rainbow and stated reading should be a life-long pursuit.
Ms. Watts stated 829 kids have read off their fines averaging 40-50 pages each or approximately$4,000 in fines.
Mr. Clark reported that the Friends raised about$5,000 with their mailing requesting public donations.
Ms. Watts reported that Elaine Viets authored a new book and held a book signing at J. McLaughlin's, a clothing
store in Palm Beach Gardens. The store donated 15% of their proceeds during the book signing program. Classic
Books donated 10% of books sales from the program. Donations totaled about$650.00.
180 people registered for the Adult Reading Club with 150 completing the program.
Ms. Taylor reminded the Board of the Budget Hearings that will be held here in the library program room on July
20 from 2-6,July 21 from 10-6, and July 22 from 2-6 (if needed). She stated you can email your commissioner and
mayor to request they support the library's budget. You may also speak at the hearing. Also, please reach out to
community groups about the library and its services.
The next Library Board meeting is June 25,2015 at 4:00 p.m. in Conference Room A.
The meeting adjourned at 5:03 p.m.
Craig Clark,Library Director for Valerie Pleasanton, Secretary