International Falls Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
April 13, 2022
Present: Diane Adams – Library Director, Paul Nevanen, Darcy Sullivan, Heather Weaver, MaryJo Winkel and Mona Johnson via online.
Meeting was called to order at 4:28 pm.
Minutes – Sullivan moved and Weaver seconded to approve March 2022 minutes. All approved.
Financial Report – Sullivan moved and Winkel seconded to approve April 2022 bills. All approved.
Director’s Report – March circulation was 8% above 2021 numbers and a whopping 18% above February 2022. Storytime attendance has been a very nice 18 – 25 each week and two weeks ago had 3 new kids and their caregivers. Storytime, scavenger hunts and Libratory will take the month of May off.
Summer reading preparation is moving along swiftly with final check of the brochure at the meeting on Wednesday. Weeding of the adult non-fiction material is going well and we are about ¾ of the way done. I’d like to get through the 800’s before I leave, but not sure that will happen.
I had hoped that we would have our new bags for distributing baby books and information about the importance of reading to young children. We are working with Hasbargen Customs and she was hit with shipping/production delays so doesn’t have bags yet, so we will work on getting bags prepped and distributed this summer.
Minnesota Park passes will continue to be available for 1 week checkouts through 2025! I am excited about this program as families finally begin to discover it.
I will be gone from April 29 – May 30. I will check email each morning and evening, but the time difference will complicate matters and I won’t have Internet access much of the day. Staff will do fine, but I’m sure they will appreciate you asking how they are doing if you stop in.
We will not have a May board meeting, but I will need Ashley to stop in and sign claim forms to pay bills that will be approved in June. Ella, Lila, Nora and Ellen will be our student workers this summer with Ella doing some additional programming about career planning for elementary students.
Old Business: Programming will wrap up at the end of April, with none in May. Storytime attendance has been good, Libratory bags are generaly all being taken home and the teen/adult take home activity has been pretty good.
Summer programming will include shifting Libratory back to in-person, storytime and big play. Ella needs to do some work with low-income communities (due to her scholarship at NYU,so we’re going to have her do a monthly career exploration with elementary students). We will do a summer escape ‘room’ in the lobby again for teens, adults and families. Brochure is done and ready to be submitted for printing. The library will be providing the first two concerts of the summer with concerts that had been scheduled for summer 2020. TaikoArts (Japanese Drumming) and Afoutayi Dance, Music and Arts (Haitian culture) on June 8 and 15 in the bandshell.
As noted above, the baby bags won’t be ready until later than originally planned, so we’ll work on them this summer.
New Business: Revised “Lending” and “Emergencies in the Library” policies were presented and Weaver moved and Johnson seconded to approve as presented. All approved.
Presented the Summer Reading Brochure and asked for Weaver and Winkel to read through and see if they saw any glaring errors. It will be submitted to ALS print shop for printing tomorrow.
The library was contacted by the United Way of Northeastern Minnesota and asked if we did a summer reading program. I said yes and they said they had some funds available and would send a donation. A week later we received a check for $2,000. Motion by Winkel with second by Sullivan to accept donation.
Next Friends of the Library book sale will be Monday, June 13th from 3pm – 5pm. The Friends of the Library are holding a membership drive in April, starting during National Library Week, April 3 – 9, 2022.
What are you reading? – Paul is rereading Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes, Darcy just got the light-hearted Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik, Heather is enjoying Sound Worship: a guide to making musical choices in a noisy world by Dr. Scott Aniol, while MaryJo recommended Why Longfellow Lied: the truth about Paul Revere’s Ride by Jeff Lantos for great information and was really enjoying The Great Mrs. Elias by Barbara Chase Ribaud, Mona was reading Tom Clancy’s Target Acquired by Don Bentley and Diane was really enjoying One For All by Lillie Lainoff.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th, 2022 at 4:30 pm.
Meeting ended at 4:58 pm.