Minutes 10-26-22 Minutes of the Library Board Meeting Held on
Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at 6:00 PM at
City Hall Commission Chambers, 100 E. Ocean Avenue
Boynton Beach, Florida
Present:
George Feldman, Chair Craig Clark, Library Director
Ace Tilton Ratcliff, Vice Chair Jeannie Taylor, Assistant Director
Lindsay Karten
Nicole Prado
Marcia Levine
Thomas Devlin
Margaret Newton (Arrived 6:05 p.m.)
I. Call to Order— George Feldman, Board Chair
Chair Feldman called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Self-introductions were made.
Introduce Margaret Newton, New Library Advisory Board Member
Ms. Newton introduced herself explaining that she has lived in Boynton for 40 years and
her children attended school here. She has served on a few Boards and she applied to
the Board because she did work with the Library in a creative way and she wants to
keep it up. The members welcomed and introduced themselves to Ms. Newton.
II. Approval of Minutes —July 27, 2022
Motion
Ms. Levine moved to approve the minutes. Mr. Devlin seconded the motion. The motion
passed unanimously.
III. Correspondence and Communications
Mr. Devlin stated he was a volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol. They have a program for
the Board to consider, which will be discussed next month.
IV. Public Audience (Individual Speakers Will Be Limited to 3 Minute Presentations)
None.
V. Chair's Report— George Feldman, Board Chair.
Mr. Clark stated the Board voted to merge the November and December meetings due
to Thanksgiving and date was set for December 7t". Mr. Clark commented that he will be
Meeting Minutes
Library Board
Boynton Beach, Florida October 26, 2022
in Tallahassee. He is requested moving the meeting date to December 14th
Motion
Ms. Levine moved to change the meeting date to December 14th. Mx. Ratcliff seconded
the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Vt. New Business (Heard out of order.)
Christina Graves stated she runs the Creative Studio Makers Space in the Library and
oversees crafty public programs the Library holds. Ms. Graves explained that Creative
Bug is a new data base of professionally done art and craft videos taught by experts.
Creative Bug is in the digital library under Online Learning under crafting and creativity
online classes. Users must have a Library card, create a user name and password, and
the programs allows videos to be saved to be viewed at a later time.
Instructional videos can be played in craft classes on smart boards. Most videos are six
to 10 minutes, but some are more detailed and 25 minutes. This has been online for
three months and there are usage statistics in the report. Staff evaluates the videos in a
year to see if the return on investment is worth it. They also have children's classes in
STEAM. Non-Boynton residents can register with the Library and have access.
Anyone in Delray/Boca can get a free Library card in Boynton and Boca residents in
some areas of Boca can pay $30 and get a card. It was explained Boynton has
reciprocal agreements with other libraries, but Boca does not reciprocate so they would
have to pay.
Mx. Ratcliff stated the Creative Edge Studio is incredible and she urged the members to
check it out.
VII. Unfinished Business:
ARPA Grant Update — Craig Clark
Mr. Clark stated he submitted the Library's final report and they are finished with the
$93,084 grant. It was an amazing, one-time grant through which they hired the Public
Technology Trainer full-time to create a curriculum and teach the public. The traininer
has taught more than 90 classes with 265 participants. Mr. Clark was able to talk about
the success of the program and City Commission allowed the position to become full-time
permanent and Brianna Tabil is now full time and doing an excellent job. Mr. Clark added
that he has been receiving excellent feedback from the public.
FY22/23 Budget Update — Craig Clark
Mr. Clark had provided a copy of the final approved budget, which included Ms. Tabil as
a full-time employee, but they gave up two part-time positions to accommodate Ms. Tabil.
2
Meeting Minutes
Library Board
Boynton Beach, Florida October 26, 2022
Part of the grant that was received paid for Ms. Tabil to be hired in February and purchase
25 laptops, 16 iPads, a $5K Smart Board, a printer and office furniture. Ms. Tabil
conducted 90 one-on-on individual sessions and some of the people she assisted with
resumes got the job, which is life changing. The Library's total budget had a 1.91%
increase from last year. It was noted the City supports the Schoolhouse Children's
Museum, which is part of the Library's budget.
Staffing Update — Craig Clark
Mr. Clark announced that they had three vacancies, with two of them vacant for quite a
while. Staff just hired the Supervisor of Customer Services/Relations who will start mid-
November. Staff also offered a candidate the Research Librarian position and hoped she
will start in December. Staff also made a contingent offer to someone for the Marketing
and Outreach position vacated by Madison Kjosa. Mr. Clark advised the candidate has
a lot of experience in a large library system and he hoped all three will be onboarded in
November and December.
Career Online High School Program Update— Jeannie Taylor
Ms. Taylor stated that they had two more graduates receive their diploma, having a total
of 14 people whose lives were changed by helping them to get a high school diploma.
There are 11 students in the scholarship program and two of them are over 90%
complete. There is one person in the prerequisite program.
Mr. Clark clarified this program was funded by the State Department of Education and is
run by the State Library system. The Governor vetoed the program this past year so they
do not have funding to continue the program into next year, but staff will consider
purchasing some scholarships for Boynton residents and hopefully, the State will fund it
again next year.
AmeriCorps Program Update —Jeannie Taylor
M. Taylor commented that detailed reports about the AmeriCorp program were included
in the backup. The program was doing very well. The volunteer handling afterschool
help has a lot of regular students. They already built a bond of trust and the students
come regularly. The volunteer has help from other AmeriCorp volunteers that come
afterschool to the Library for additional hours as it helps to have more students tutored.
She has used teen volunteers to schedule and register students so she can keep things
organized, otherwise kids want to come for tutoring all at once. The City also has an ESL
AmeriCorp beginner class that is about three quarters of the way through the workbook,
so next month they can move to the intermediate class and then they will start a new
beginner class. There is already a lot of interest and word travels by word of mouth. The
volunteer also has individual appointments and one person comes just to work on
pronunciation. She has diverse cultures of students.
3
Meeting Minutes
Library Board
Boynton Beach, Florida October 26, 2022
IV. New Business
Creative Bug — Introduce New Database — Christina Graves, Librarian —
Creative Edge Studio
This item was heard earlier in the meeting.
Palm Beach County Bar Association Meeting RE: Banned Books— Lindsay
Karten, Board Member
Ms. Karten explained she received an email letter from the Palm Beach County Bar
Association inviting her to attend an educational class regarding banned books. She
signed up to attend and Mr. Clark attended as well. She thought it would be more legally
based, but she learned a lot. She announced that the top three reasons why people are
challenging books in libraries and school are: critical race theories/racism, sexuality, and
gender identity. The Legislature now has reporting requirements, so at the end of the
year, all challenges and their outcomes have to be reported to the State. So far this year
in Palm Beach County, there were zero challenges to the county library. The Palm Beach
County schools had two challenges in elementary schools and the challenges were both
abandoned.
One speaker at the class was an attorney for the school board and the other worked for
the Palm Beach County Library who was in charge of collection development and
intellectual freedom. It seemed like with school challenges, they would move things by
age appropriateness. The American Library Association has a Bill of Rights, with the
main point being public libraries should have material on all ideologies so patrons can all
become knowledgeable and make their own choices.
Ms. Karten explained libraries are pretty emphatic, they will not allow pornography or
books teaching people how to commit a crime. They did not really discuss school, only
that school materials be age appropriate.
Mr. Clark explained that school districts have committees that evaluate books used in
classrooms. Mr. Clark stated that during his 18 years with the City, he was approached
about concerns, but nothing formal.A library provides information and people disseminate
it as they see fit. He recalled this occurred a long time ago, but the patron never submitted
form
Another incident was about song lyrics. Mr. Clark stated that he purchases the music
unedited. Mr. Clark explained that they use professional reviewing sources and many
pop titles are professionally and peer reviewed and not all books get a good review. Ms.
Taylor purchases fiction and Mr. Clark purchases non-fiction and together they purchase
80% of collection, excluding youth and teens as other librarians make those selections.
That is their main source of reading review, and nearly everything is reviewed. Mr. Clark
responded locally, statewide and nationally, they talk about materials that are challenged.
4
Meeting Minutes
Library Board
Boynton Beach, Florida October 26, 2022
Mr. Clark commented that Citrus County Florida had a gay pride display and it was
challenged, so it is displays, as well as materials that are being challenged. There is a big
backlash from people who do not agree with some ideologies and are trying to stand in
its way. There are also a lot more challenges on LGBTQ library materials. Mr. Clark
explained that staff tries to purchase materials to accommodate everyone in Boynton
Beach.
Discussion followed about areas having less challenges and that it may be political
ideology versus core beliefs, but there is a correlation. Ms. Karten pointed out that there
was a clarification between banning and challenging books.
Ms. Taylor pointed out staff had previously brought to the Board the updated collection
policy, which the Board approved and the Library Bill of Rights. It was pointed out the
Library staff does not censor. Mr. Clark stated that he would never select books that
would be detrimental to one's person.
November/December Library Advisory Board Date of 12/7/22 — Staff
Requests to change to 12/14/22
This item was previously addressed.
VIII. Library Director's Report/Statistics
July, August & September 2022 Monthly Reports
IX. Announcements
Next Library Board Meeting —TBD
X. Adjournment
Motion
There being no further business to discuss, Mx. Ratcliff moved to adjourn. Ms. Karten
seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at
6:45 p.m.
atujz� aL"+
Catherine Cherry
Minutes Specialist
5