International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
April 12th, 2023
Present: Diane Adams – Library Director, Mona Johnson, Ashley Kostiuk, Dick Peterson and Mary Jo Winkel
Meeting was called to order at 4:31 pm by Kostiuk.
Minutes – Johnson moved and Peterson seconded to approve the March 2023 minutes. All approved.
Financial Report – Peterson moved and Winkel seconded to approve April 2023 bills. All approved.
Director’s Report – March circulation was down slightly from last March, but up quite a bit from February. We are currently down 2% year to date from last year. We have either been very busy or very slow, not much in between. Storytime attendance has been up a bit, libratory bags are still going out slowly. Winter Reading concluded with eighty students at the elementary school recorded reading at least 60 days between December 21 – the end of February. Yeti cookies were purchased from Sweet Living Bake Shop and delivered to the school on April 3. Ms. Staples first hour sixth grade class won the pizza party which they had on March 15.
We tried to close early on Tuesday evening April 4th, but couldn’t get into the network that allows us to control the doors. We contacted city hall, Todd has come to look and says he will work on getting us access again. He doesn’t know why we lost access or when. We only log in to the control site when we need to lock or unlock doors off the schedule, so haven’t logged in a couple of months.
Summer Reading brochure has been sent to the printer. I will be trying to set up class visits at Falls Elementary during the week of May 15 – 19. I haven’t done class visits since May 2019, so hopefully this will help revive summer reading.
I only have 108 shelves of fiction left to weed and hope to be done by the board meeting. We will need to do some spot weeding of small collections. The next task will be to week the junior room again, but we’ll not tackle that until at least fall. Hopefully in May, but may not be ready until June, I’ll have a new annual plan available for board approval.
Old Business: Most programming will end in April, no Libratory or Storytime in May. Summer reading preparation is in full-swing. Flier has been sent to printer, beginning to work on programming specifics and initial contact has been made to set up class visits.
Policy Manual – The disaster plan was presented for approval. Winkel moved to accept the plan with Peterson seconding, all approved. Kostiuk mentioned that her husband, a border agent is qualified to train staff in disaster scenarios if staff want further training.
New Business: Juneteenth – MN Governor has signed law making Juneteenth an official holiday beginning in 2024 (have since learned, there is legislation to make this year official as well, not through legislature yet). The library will add Juneteenth to the staff holidays in 2024 and return to only 3 Personal Leave days (instead of current 4 due to staff not getting day after Thanksgiving off). We will plan on doing a display about the holiday for the first several years.
Donations: The library received the following donations in the last month: $200 from Northern Lights Quilt Guild for purchase of additional Walker Display equipment for hanging artwork including quilts, $2,000 from Richard and Judy Soger for the purchase of non-fiction materials and $2,000 from United Way of NE Minnesota for summer reading books and supplies. Johnson moved to accept donation, Peterson seconded, all approved.
No Friends of the Library book sale in May. Summer sales on 7th of month & Friday of Bass Tourney.
What are you reading? – Diane is reading The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labruskes, about WWII and multiple countries attempts to ban (and more) books. Mona just borrowed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, Ashley loved The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden and is doing lots of school reading, Dick recommends Wings of War by David Fairbank White and Margaret Stanback White about the WWII fighter plane and is enjoying the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo and is currently on the fourth title Nemesis while MaryJo recommended Thy Father’s Will by Kristin Jacobsen Stasney, a historical novel based on true events set in Iowa.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10th, 4:30 pm
Meeting adjourned at 5:20 pm.