Hennepin County Library - Library Board Meeting Minutes 10-27-99

MINUTES OF
HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY BOARD MEETING
OF OCTOBER 27, 1999

The Hennepin County Library Board met on Wednesday, October 27, 1999, at the Ridgedale Area Library.

PRESENT:	Jack Cole, President John Gibbs Marilyn Jackson Dick Mueller Carol Walsh
LIBRARY STAFF ATTENDING:	C.Brown, D.Cramer, N.Perron, S. Louis, C. DeGraff, M. Bell, G. Wronka, C.Ahrens, & B. Berg.
GUESTS:	K. Youngblood (Foundation), J. Harris (OBF)

WELCOME & PUBLIC COMMENT
President Cole called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.

Public Comment: Mr. Eric Uzoegbu, resident of Brooklyn Center, uses the Brookdale Library and expressed concerns about the technology equipment. Specific concerns with Internet browsers (too slow), software (no PowerPoint), zip drive that does not require floppy disks. C. Brown recommended Mr. Uzoegbu visit the Ridgedale Learning Lab that will temporarily fulfill his needs. Brown relayed concerns to Sharon Charles for response from technology staff.

Ridgedale Library Update: Sandy Louis welcomed everyone back to the Ridgedale Library and the Board's first meeting in the Robert Rohlf meeting room. Highlights: Governor's visit to Library, approximately 72,000 circulation in 3-1/2 weeks, and 1,400 new library cards issued. She also gave an update on the automated materials handling and coffee shop progress. Two wheelchairs have been ordered for visitors to the library; M. Jackson requested feedback on why not motorized wheelchairs.

Motion made for request in next Hard Hat Report giving Library Board's sincere appreciation to everyone responsible for the success of the Ridgedale project, moved by P. Kelly, seconded by M. Jackson and passed unanimously.

APPROVAL
The minutes of the Oct. 6, 1999 meeting had been mailed to Library Board members. Motion to approve the minutes was made by C. Walsh; seconded by P. Kelly; motion passed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Policy Committee: C. Walsh presented the report.
Programming Policy: currently under development by staff and scheduled for draft in March 2000.

Information Services Policy: request for grammatical consistency--"library users" vs "library patrons." Add to page 3, 3rd paragraph, "...information services also are available through Outreach services" -- add Internet and Hennepin County e-libraries -- for consistency. This policy is up for review every two years, policies referenced in the policy to be changed to same review cycle or is there a reason for the difference. M. Bell reported that this policy was new when adopted in 1997, and decision was made then to review every 2 years because information services change quickly; policy can be changed to 3 year review. Staff will go through policy to change to "library users." Recommendation was made to reduce duplicity: page 4, point 11 (2nd sentence) seems to duplicate point 15; page 5, point 3 duplicates point 14; is there a need to repeat library vision and mission on page 1. Point 9 issues about personal safety--can staff refuse to identify themselves to users? M. Bell explained the reason for this and options for staff. Point 22 on page 5--inquiry to public access to telephones; this refers to public phones available for users to use to call other libraries or to locate resources. Motion to adopt the policy based on changes recommended and edits to be made by M. Bell, seconded by D. Mueller, motion passed.

Library Bill of Rights: J. Morgan has checked with ALA and this statement is still valid. Concerns were expressed over a couple of specific items in the Bill of Rights; however, the Library Board is adopting the ALA Library Bill of Rights, so changes would make the document no longer the Library Bill of Rights. D. Mueller moved adoption of the entire policy as distributed with no changes; P. Kelly seconded; motion passed with one dissenting vote.

Friends of the Library Policy: small revision recommended for the policy. Question raised if policy was shared with Friends groups before Library Board review--M. Schuster and managers have reviewed, but not the 26 Friends groups. Change relates to the Gift Policy changes recommended by County Attorney's Office; legal opinion from Mary Johnson, County Attorney's Office, regarding gifts was read. Suggestion to add the same language in County Resolution 96-11-695 that the gifts be to enrich the HCL system but not replace public tax support, prohibit co-mingling of public and private funds, etc. J. Cole moved adoption of revised policy as sent to Library Board, with hope that it will be shared with all the Friends groups and based upon the County Attorney's recommendation. No second to motion. Further discussion requested prior to motion. Additional suggestions: policy doesn't get into the Friends role in collection development and other forms such as staff travel, staff benefits, memberships, or used book sales and feel there is a need to cover these items. N. Perron addressed some of the concerns discussed--need to keep issues separate. This Friends policy is the Library's policy about its Friends organizations and what the library is willing to say is acceptable for gifts to the library from the Friends; Friends fundraising activities are their responsibility because they are separately incorporated. It was repeated again that last paragraph of policy needs clarification with the Resolution 96-11-695 language and address areas of gifts that are not included among the few mentioned in policy (a listing of "examples"). Incorporate some of the County Attorney's opinion into the policy. J. Cole amended his motion to affirm the Friends of the Library Policy with the understanding that the decision and judgement of the County Attorney be included, specifically concerning the co-mingling of public and private funds; seconded by P. Kelly; motion passed.

Expense Policy: J. Cole moved acceptance of policy; P. Kelly seconded. Discussion: Suggestion made to use a different system than automatically awarding shares to members regardless of whether they are planning to use any of the monies or not and regardless of their actual need. Suggestion that members submit requests for training opportunities that they chair would review and actual expenses be reimbursed up to a limit using the same guidelines as would apply to staff or other county employees. Rationale: 1) funds left un-used that ultimately do get used by the library; 2) policy suggests that almost anything is OK (last paragraph on first page)--no restrictions on what is appropriate or not appropriate; 3) finally, administratively, the policy doesn't refer to the reimbursement form or the procedures for reimbursement which are consistent with county policy. Two issues were expressed: one is the policy that defines how much each board member gets and the second issue is the budget amount. Policy is currently adequate to meet all the travel needs, however the $1,000 allocated for each share is inadequate to cover travel expenses to two ALA meetings and stay for 4-5 nights. Recommend discussing the policy as presented, and discuss within Ways & Means the annual budget amount. This item was tabled and referred to the 11/10/99 Ways & Means Committee meeting for continued discussion--to come before the Dec. 1 Library Board meeting.

PROGRAM
Library Foundation: K. Youngblood, President of Library Foundation Board, gave a report on Foundation activities and made a formal presentation of the Tom Rose Story Garden artwork to the Hennepin County Library. M. Jackson moved acceptance of the art, seconded by full board, and approved unanimously with appreciation. Suggested Funding Needs list was reviewed by C. Brown -- the list reflects a compilation from staff suggestions. Library Board members were asked to "vote" for their top 5 which will be discussed at the Dec. 1 meeting.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Building Updates: C. Brown updated on various library projects at Edina, Wayzata, Eden Prairie and Maple Grove.

2000 Budget Update: D. Cramer reviewed current budget status regarding the addbacks. D. Cramer will have more details at the Dec. 1 meeting.

County Board Meeting: Follow up from 10/6/99 Library Board meeting. M. Jackson distributed a wheel chart "Capturing Local Institutions for Community Building". More material to come in February and March, 2000.

NEW BUSINESS
Gift Acceptance Delegation: C. Brown reported that the document was a proposed method to handle gifts made to the Library; with a report to the Library Board on non-monetary, significant gifts. Motivation for this proposal was related to the County Attorney's Opinion on cleaning up the gifts policies. Motion to recommend resolution was made by D. Mueller, seconded by P. Kelly; motion passed.

DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Nothing additional.

BOARD MEMBER REPORTS
C. Walsh: Reported that the MELSA trustee event was cancelled; looking at scheduling another workshop for the spring of 2000.
J. Cole: announced that B. Zaragoza will be the chair of the Nominating Committee and Committee members are P. Kelly & J. Gibbs. Committee will report at the January Board meeting.

OTHER
Grants: C. Brown had nothing to report.

Gift Acceptance: There were no gifts for this meeting.

Internet Filtering: D. Mueller noted there is a lot of information about Internet Filtering so when policy is reviewed will need to consider current issues. The Dec. 1 meeting is scheduled for federal issues regarding the Internet Policy by J. Morgan. C. Brown noted that the Library Board may want to schedule a special meeting to discuss Internet Policy and at Dec. 1 meeting could review strategy for review of this policy prior to approval in spring 2000. Request for staff input on concerns about the policy which could guide the process for review of this policy. Need time for public input -- a list has been developed of users requesting to be notified of open forum on this policy.

ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned.

Marilyn Jackson, Secretary

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