Board Capsule
April 18, 2000

EXECUTIVE SESSION 

The regular meeting of the Des Plaines Public Library Board of Trustees was held in the Large (#1) meeting room on Tuesday, April 18, 2000. President Eldon Burk called the meeting to order at 7:34 PM. 

President Burk introduced Robert Gilman, president of the VietNam Veterans of America Des Plaines Chapter #311. Mr. Gilman, who explained his role in the VVA, presented a subscription to the VVA Veteran magazine to the library. President Eldon Burk and Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin, accepted the donation on behalf of the Des Plaines Public Library.

Sandra Norlin introduced Jim Weiss and Adolph Link of Executive Service Corps who facilitated focus groups for the library. Mr. Weiss distributed copies of the focus group responses by the residents interviewed and explained that participants responded positively to the library and the services provided to the community, especially the Mobile Library. Mr. Link reported that the last focus groups were held five years ago and there has been excellent progress in library services in that time. 

PUBLIC COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS. 

Robert Suriano of the Des Plaines Cable Commission asked Board members if they had been contacted by the Cable Commission to have the new library serve as a point of origination for public access cable programming. President Burk responded that the library is not able to fund this project, but asked that Robert return to clarify what the responsibility of the library would be if funds became available. 

CITY COUNCIL COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE - Alderman Petersen. 

Alderman Peterson questioned the need to order new books when they will have to be moved to the new library. Sandra Norlin, Library Administrator, explained that publishers do not keep a backlog of books and patrons anticipate the arrival of new books when they are released. 

Sandra Norlin introduced Susan Farid, Head of Circulation Services and Kathy Kyrouac, Webmaster in Public Information Services as new employees to the Des Plaines Public Library. 

BUILDING AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE - Betty Ritter, Chairman. 

Ken Hutson of Owner Services Group, Inc. distributed Project Status Reports dated April 2000. The base construction project will be completed mid-June with the installation of furniture being completed in July. 

Library tours of the new building continue to be held on the first and third Thursday of each month. 

Eldon Burk asked the Board to make a decision on the Heritage Room if sufficient donations are not received to complete the room as planned. 

MOTION by Rhys Read, seconded by Susan Burrows, to complete the Heritage Room as a usable room if donations to complete the room as planned are not received within two weeks. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

Sandra Norlin reminded the Board that furniture for the Heritage Room has already been ordered. 

MOTION by Ellen Yearwood, seconded by Susan Burrows, to authorize Ken Hutson, Owner Services Group, Inc. to proceed with CT/It poke throughs at a cost not to exceed $76,344, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Brubaker, Burk, Burke, Burrows, Ciborowski, Read, Ritter, Yearwood. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

Betty Ritter reported on current building maintenance. Betty also reported that the shelving mock-up has been assembled in the large meeting room. 

Sandra reported that Lohan Associates has recommended ASI as the provider for signage, since no other company manufactures the custom signage the library has selected. Sandra also reported that Raymond Bartel, Assistant City Attorney, has reviewed and approved this decision as in the best interest of the library. 

Sandra also reported that 3M was selected for materials securing and circulation workstations since the library currently uses their product and this will prevent the cost of changing to a new system. 

MOTION by Betty Ritter, seconded by Susan Burrows, to authorize Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin, to proceed with the request for proposal from the dealer, ASI, as the sole provider of the proprietary signage systems, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

MOTION by Betty Ritter, seconded by Susan Burrows, to authorize Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin, to proceed with RFP to obtain 3M materials security, hardware, software and circulation workstations from 3M authorized vendors, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOYION CARRIED. 

Hector Marino, Head of Computer and Technical Services, distributed a spreadsheet on the bid tabulations for the Nortel telephone system. Hector’s recommendation was Convergent Communications as the lowest responsible bidder. Sandra distributed a bid comparison sheet that listed documents received at the bid opening on April 14, 2000. 

MOTION by Rhys Read, seconded by John Ciborowski, to authorize Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin, to award the Northern Telecom Norstar Digital Communication System contract bid to Convergent, as the lowest responsible bidder who submitted a conforming bid in the amount of $43,572.00, which is in the best interest of the Des Plaines Public Library. ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Brubaker, Burk, Burke, Burrows, Ciborowski, Read, Ritter, Yearwood. 

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE - Ellen Yearwood, Chairman. 

Ellen scheduled a Management Committee meeting for Monday, May 8, 2000 at 5:30 PM to discuss personnel issues. 

Sandra introduced Leslie Steiner, Head of Public Information Services, who reported on recent activities in the Public Information Department. A short video clip produced by Library Cable Network, titled "Did You Know?" was part of Leslie’s presentation. 

Sandra Norlin and Eldon Burk complimented Leslie on her excellent service to the library. Betty Ritter agreed that Leslie does a wonderful job. 

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY - Inara Brubaker 

Inara reported that the next Friends meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 25. The Friends annual meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 23 at 7:00 PM and Inara encouraged the Board to attend. 

ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT 

Susan Farid began work as Head of the Circulation Services Department on April 3. 

Two part-time reference librarians for the Adult Services Department were hired. Karen Widi began March 18 and Nancy Madsen Rowley began April 1. 

Joyce Piagari, Library Assistant I, Circulation Services, retired, effective April 1. 

We are in the final stages of hiring (and creating an eligibility list for) a new Librarian I for the Adult Services Department and are screening applicants for the Library Assistant II positions for the Adult Services Department. 

The first Orientation Meeting was held on April 5, 2000. Five new employees attended, along with members of the Orientation Team. Eldon Burk attended to welcome the new employees. We will hold these meetings once a month if we have employees who have not yet received this part of the orientation program. 

Six staff members attended the bi-annual conference of the Public Library Association in Charlotte, NC. The following are reports received from five of the attendees. 

Martha Sloan. The session on "Electronic Books: the Next Big Thing" challenged librarians to think about new ways to deliver books to our patrons. Presentation from a futurist firm, Coates and Jarret, Glassbook, a software development company that has created reading software and applications that automate the e-book "supply chain," Baltimore County Public Library, and netLibrary, a vendor that has a growing library of e-books for downloading, explored the role electronic books will play in the future. Among the many questions posed in the session was the central one of delivery. Will libraries lend the entire e-book reader with downloaded books? Or, will we be a portal from which patrons can download books directly to their computer or personal reader? The BCPL presenter suggested that we read April 15 Library Journal to see what a small suburban Chicago library has been doing, for the director has been of great assistance in their discussion about lending Rocket Books. 

Holly Sorensen. As always, PLA was excellent. I went to several programs on staff training for technology. Most interesting to me was the program on "Core Competencies" given by the Kansas City Public Library. They assessed all staff, from the director to the parking lot attendant, to determine what level of computer competency staff was operating at. Why determine core competencies? KCPL felt that all staff must be able to serve both external and internal customers and all staff must know how to find materials in the library catalog. By assessing staff knowledge they could assure minimum standards, develop training needs and evaluate its effectiveness. This would be a useful tool for us to assess the level of staff computer knowledge and skills so we can better plan how to train. 

Karen Wallace. This was the first time I have ever attended PLA and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were at least two programs I wanted to attend every session. I learned a great deal from talking to colleagues and vendors from around the nation. The single best program I attended was about the Richmond Public Library in British Columbia, a popular materials branch that has been open for about a year now. It has a collection of 65,000 items and circulated 750,000 items last year. They have made a concerted effort to use technology in ways that free up staff members to have more meaningful interactions with patrons. For example, they allow patrons to pay fines on the Internet or over the phone using a credit card. Eighty-five percent of their circulation is done from self-checkout machines. One way they promote these is by calling the "Express Checkout" rather than self-checkout; I think that we could use this expression, too, in the new building, to make self-checkout more enticing. Encouraging this kind of patron self-reliance has enabled staff to provide a drop-in storytime every day, do more readers advisory work, and provide other kinds of value-added patron interactions. The presentation was inspiring in part because it illustrated the power of having a clear vision and concentrated efforts on achieving it. Our library may not identify the same goals as Richmond, but we can still take heart from their example. 

Mary Ann Brown. A conference like this one is good in many ways. It validates the good things we are already doing, and it inspires us to do new and better things as well. After the conference we were talking about all the good ideas we heard, and what one thing we would implement if we were limited to only one. I believe the session on preschool programs had far reaching philosophical ideas about best practices and age appropriate activities. PLA is now developing, along with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, an Effective Practices Initiative to distribute the latest research on how children develop language skills that translate into reading skills. Something as simple as eliminating our storytime coloring sheets, which are considered developmentally inappropriate for two, three and four year olds, would be a beginning toward using best practices research in our programs for preschoolers. 

Hector Marino. PLA 2000 was an excellent opportunity to gather information and resources for my current job. Programs such as: Managing for Results: Allocating Public Library Resources and Current Issues in Technology: Ask the Consultants were superb and rich with information. Another program is also worth mentioning" Staff Intranets: The New Communication Tool". 

In addition to PLA, two Youth Services staff members attended the Children’s Literature Conference at Northern Illinois University on March 17 and 18. The conference brings in well-known children’s authors and illustrators who give presentations. New authors and illustrators are also introduced through their books. According to Veronica Schwartz, the recurrent theme this year was that for children to be successful in life, they must read. They need libraries where the staff makes them feel safe, respected and welcome. "As I listened to these speeches I was proud because we are that kind of library. We are what these children need." 

You will notice that the patron count is up by ten percent from last year to date, but down from March 1999. Interlibrary Loan records show that we lent nearly four times as many items as we borrowed. The use by our library patrons of Night Owl Reference service continues to be healthy. Circulation figures, when compared to last year, show a small increase, but it is important to remember that last year was down from 1998. It is equally as important to keep in mind that our recording of electronic database usage is nearly 16,000 per month, which correlates to the decrease in print periodical and nonfiction use. 

Kelli Phillips took her perennially popular babysitting clinic on the road on March 21. At the request of Chippewa Middle School, she held one session as an after-school activity for ten students. 

Sam’s Club has donated multiple copies of children’s books as part of their "Get Caught Reading" campaign. 

We held a party for our volunteers with an attendance of around fifty adults and children. Margie Borris organized this Volunteer Week appreciation as part of her new duties. 

Sandra attended meetings of the CCS Governing Board (3/22), the Extension Services Advisory Council (3/23), the Chamber/City Advisory Council and Ceremonial Moving Committee (3/28), Preview Party and Grand Opening Committee meetings (3/30), a follow-up meeting with Executive Service Corps concerning the results of the Focus Group sessions (3/31), the City Holiday Decorations Committee (4/5), with Anne Johnson of the North Suburban Library Foundation and Library Site Tour (4/6), a reception at the Rolling Meadows Library welcoming the new Library Director, David Ruff and the Socrates Rand Awards Dinner (4/7). 

Sandra also attended the workshop at North Suburban Library System "Numbers Into Statistics: A Short Course for Librarians" during which she learned how to interpret reports using percentages and relative numbers; how to present numbers that have significance and relevance; how to present these numbers and trends accurately and effectively. 

NEW BUSINESS 

President Burk reported on the progress made by Committee members at the Grand Opening Advisory Committee Meeting which met on March 30, 2000. The Grand Opening celebration will be held on Sunday, September 24 between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Betty Ritter reported that Library Cable Network will film the Grand Opening celebration. 

The Moving Committee met on March 28, 2000 and the Fund Raising Event Committee met on March 28, 2000. Eldon reported that the Preview Party is scheduled for Thursday, July 27 between 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM. Eldon asked the Board to vote on a ticket price to the Preview Party in the amount of $75.00. 

MOTION by Ellen Yearwood, seconded by Inara Brubaker to authorize the Fund Raising Event Committee to charge $75.00 per person for the Preview Party to be held on July 27, 2000. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

MOTION by Inara Brubaker, seconded by Ellen Yearwood, to accept Illinois Public Library Annual Report as written or revised by Friday, April 21, 2000. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

John Burke agreed to attend the May 1 City Council Meeting, John Ciborowski the May 15 meeting, Ellen Yearwood the June 5 meeting and Rhys Read the June 19 meeting. 

Susan Burrows reported on the Art Committee meeting and presented examples of the proposed artist’s work. to the Board. 

The Art Committee’s recommendations were Michael Hayden and Christina Lucas for the atrium sculpture, Robert Jessup for the mural in the Children’s Department, Pae White for the third floor computer generated artwork, and Fred Nagelback for the fourth floor sculptural wall forms. 

The Board agreed with recommendations for the atrium, second and third floors, but questioned the fourth floor concept. Several Board members felt the fourth floor concept would not work uniformly with the other floors and that there were too many unrelated themes. 

Betty Ritter reported that the character of each floor was considered for the artwork. John Ciborowski asked for another artist presentation. Rhys Read questioned funding for the artwork. President Burk stated that part of the money for the artwork is in the budget, but not all of the funding for these projects. 

MOTION by Ellen Yearwood, seconded by Inara Brubaker, to authorize Patti Gilford of Patti Gilford Fine Arts to proceed with plans for the atrium, second and third floors. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED. 

The Board was divided on the sculpture for the fourth floor and will possibly view the artists work at other locations.

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