International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
December 11th, 2024
Present: Diane Adams – Library Director, Will Frank, Dick Peterson, Heather Weaver, Sasha Moss, MaryJo Winkel, Maggie Horning
Meeting was called to order at 4:30 pm by Frank.
Minutes – Peterson moved and Horning seconded to approve the November 2024 minutes. All approved.
Bills – Frank moved and Winkel seconded to approve the December 2024 bills. All approved.
Director’s Report – November circulation was less than October and less than November 2023 even when we add in digital usage. We are still on track to slightly exceed 2023 total circulation. Storytime and Elementary Fun continue with ok attendance although I only had 5 at storytime on Thursday. We had 8 at the Cary Griffith presentation, which was a very good program. I highly recommend his books Gunflint Burning and Gunflint Falling and I learned he also writes a mystery series set in Minnesota, so we are working on purchasing those.
The last month a significant amount of time has been devoted to training. And mid-November we had a major computer failure that we are still trying to recover from. We had two of the four public computers fail when we attempted to update them and then a third failed when Small Town Tech was helping us reboot them. We are back up to three public machines, with only one printing at the time I printed this report.
I have also finally ordered additional kits for loaning out to community members on learning new crafts. Crochet, Knitting, calligraphy, embroidery and soldering kits have been received. The goal is to get them cataloged before I leave to visit my granddaughter.
Old Business: Elementary Fun will continue until December 18, and then restart in January and continue until the end of April. If we haven’t built up attendance after a year, we will try something else next fall. Crafter’s Café continues every other week with an average of six attendees. Silent Book Club on Monday, December 9th had 4. Storytime will continue until December 19 and then break until January 16th. We will continue Saturday storytime during the school year as attendance for that has been steady and better than Thursday storytime some weeks.
The library budget is as presented to the board back in August.
Knudson grant newspaper archive computer is here but doesn’t have files loaded yet as we were dealing with the crashed computers first.
New Business: No donations in the last month. We brainstormed board member possibilities in November as both Dick Peterson and MaryJo Winkel have each served three consecutive three year terms which is all that is allowed by state law. We requested applications from Katie Winkel and Michelle Misner and will ask the city council to appoint them to the library board at their organizational meeting on Monday, January 6, 2025.
The board approved the agreed upon pay raises for staff beginning January 1, 2025 with a letter signed by Will Frank to be sent to Betty Bergstrom, city administrator to that effect. The director will be out of town from December 25 – January 9, 2025.
Friends of the Library book sale is Saturday, January 18th from 11am – 1pm.
What are you reading? Dick picked up Book and Dagger by Elyce Graham on Diane’s recommendation and is really enjoying it and a lively discussion was had about Operation Mincemeat (which included recommendations to watch the movie too. Dick also read Daniel Silva’s latest book A Death in Cornwall while Heather is really enjoying Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Diane just picked up Faithful Spy by John Hendrix about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and is hoping How to Inhabit Time by James Smith might enable her to get a handle on time. Sasha just discovered Louise Penny when she read Madness of Crowds while Mary Jo got herself in the holiday spirit with The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans, while Maggie is tackling the very heavy Yellow Bird: oil, murder and a woman’s search for justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch and Will is trying Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn a Star Wars novel.
Profuse thanks to Dick Peterson and Mary Jo Winkel for their 9 + years of service to the local library community as board members.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15th, 4:30 pm
Meeting adjourned at 5:15pm.