The regular meeting of the Des Plaines Public Library Board of Trustees was held in the second floor conference room on Tuesday, April 17, 2001. President Eldon Burk called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM.

PLANNING COMMITTEE – John Burke

John Burke asked Board members for their suggestions for the Strategic Plan and read each goal and the objectives. The Board proposed several changes to the Strategic Plan and will review for approval at the May 15, 2001 Board meeting.

Susan Burrows reported that Anne Johnson of the North Suburban Library Foundation, Des Plaines Public Library Fund, will process all donations to the Buy A Brick fundraiser and send the confirmation/thank you letters to all contributors.

Charlotte Storer, President of the Friends of the Library, asked if the Foundation would work with the brick company and Susan Burrows responded no.

Eldon Burk asked when the brick program was scheduled to begin and Susan Burrows responded either August or September to coincide with the one year anniversary of the grand opening of the library. Charlotte Storer requested that the Friends be provided the dates for the fundraiser.

Sandra Norlin reported that the library has contracted with Community Banner Services, Inc. to provide eight 2’ x 4’ banners with the library logo. The banners will be printed on both sides and are the same color and style as the current banners the City of Des Plaines uses. The total cost for the banners is $1,200.00. The banners will be installed by the Public Works Department.

Sandra Norlin reported that she has received three proposals for plant service for the library. The services were asked to provide prices for 3 ficus and bromeliad’s for the first floor of the building. Prices for the plant services are between $1,500 and $2,000 per year. The Board consensus was for Sandra Norlin to proceed with the plant service. Susan Burrows will ask for donations of plants for the other three floors from local florists.

Sandra asked for Board approval for InfoTrac, the online magazine index in the amount of $13,371 for one year.

MOTION by Susan Burrows, seconded by Ellen Yearwood, to approve the purchase of InfoTrac, the online magazine index in the amount of $13,371 for one year. ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Brubaker, Burk, Burke, Burrows, Ciborowski, Grice, Read, Yearwood. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

Sandra Norlin reported that the cost of heating the 841 Graceland Avenue building for the 2000/2001 heating season through February 15, 2001 was $25,805.22. Ellen Yearwood asked Sandra for the dates of the Nicor bill for January/February. Sandra Norlin responded the Nicor bill was for service from January 15, 2001 through February 15, 2001. Ellen also asked if the library had contacted Nicor to obtain a final meter reading. Sandra Norlin responded that she would ask Gary Valente, Head of Building & Maintenance, if a final reading had been requested. Eldon Burk reported that the 841 building was transferred to the City of Des Plaines on January 4, 2001. Sandra will contact Jim Egeberg, Director of Finance, to ask for credit for the City’s portion of the Jan/Feb bill.

Sandra Norlin asked for Board approval for expenditures for staff In-Service Day on Thursday, May 10, 2001 in an amount not to exceed $2,500.00. Sandra stated that this expenditure was included in the 2001 budget.

MOTION by Inara Brubaker, seconded by Inara Brubaker, to authorize Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin to expend funds for staff In-Service day in an amount not to exceed $2,500.00. ROLL CALL VOTE: AYES: Brubaker, Burk, Burke, Burrows, Ciborowski, Grice, Read, Yearwood. NAYS: None. MOTION CARRIED.

Sandra Norlin asked for Board approval to require a Bid Bond of 5% for the Computer & Monitors bid and the Servers and Firewall bid.

MOTION by Susan Burrows, seconded by William Grice to authorize Library Administrator, Sandra Norlin, to require a 5% bid bond for the Computers & Monitors bid and the Servers and Firewall bid. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED.

BUILDING AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE

Sandra Norlin distributed a revised six-month feedback report. The report listed categories, issues and proposed solutions to employee concerns, as well as target dates for completion. Sandra reported that the outcome for many of the issues was positive, with issues being addressed and completed. Changes to the report were typed in italics.

Eldon Burk asked about the progress for the installation of a handicap accessible side door and Sandra Norlin responded that the library was awaiting approval from the City of Des Plaines before proceeding.

Sandra reported that five decorative mounting fixtures would be installed on the north face of the library.

Sandra Norlin reported that there is an ongoing problem with the first floor restrooms floor drains and sewage backup. Gary Valente has contacted Leopardo, Michael D’Onofrio and Ewing Doherty Plumbing to try and resolve this problem. Sandra also reported that the interior set of sliding automatic doors do not break away in the event of an emergency. John Ciborowski asked if the doors were installed incorrectly or if the defect was a manufacturing problem. Sandra Norlin responded that Gary Valente stated the installation was incorrect.

Patti Gilford of Patti Gilford Fine Arts has recommended a lighting designer that bills hourly for the design of the lighting for the atrium sculpture.

John Ciborowski asked if there had been a resolution to the problem of the gas smell on the fourth floor located by the restrooms and Sandra Norlin reported that Gary Valente investigated the situation and Gary reported that there is no natural gas in that section of the building. It is possible that outside odors were pulled into the ventilation system.

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE – Ellen Yearwood, Chairman.

Ellen Yearwood asked for Board approval on the revisions to Library Policies B and D.

MOTION by Committee to approve revisions to Library Policies B and D as amended. Vote: Ayes: All. Nays: None. MOTION CARRIED.

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY – Inara Brubaker.

Inara Brubaker introduced Friends of the Library president, Charlotte Storer, who reported that library meeting rooms B and C have been dedicated to the Friends and that the Friends are organizing a celebration for May 22, 2001.

Charlotte Storer also reported that the Friends will have an ongoing book sale at the library and preparations are underway.

Charlotte Storer asked that the Friends be provided with dates for the Buy A Brick sale and the Board advised that the dates would be from October 1, 2001 through December 31, 2001.

ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT

New employees for March/April 2001 are Kevin Newman, Ankit Patel, Elinor Pea, Lolita Sayadian, and Deval Shah, all Pages in the Circulation Department.

Several hirings are pending. The hiring process for the Librarian I position in Adult Services has been completed. Michelle Meyer-Edley is scheduled to begin May 7. The eligibility list has been developed for the position of Library Assistant in Circulation and we are awaiting the decision of the candidate who has been offered the position. We are in the process of conducting interviews for the Librarian I position for Youth Services.

Thanks go to Martha Sloan, Holly Sorensen, Susan Farid, Veronica Schwartz and Arlene Merriman and her staff in the Human Resources Department for expediting the hiring processes.

Library staff members have been given the opportunity to participate in two exciting projects through the auspices of the North Suburban Library System. The Work Analysis Team (Bob Blanchard, Mei-Na Chen, Kathy Kyrouac, Vee Luz, Chris Posinger, Pauline Simo, and David Whittingham) has begun their work in describing the work that we do. The next steps will include analyzing these functions by process and designing a plan to improve processes to improve customer service.

The "Lighting the Fire" project is a grant from the State Library to develop creative grants from the system member libraries. We have the opportunity to apply for a small grant of $5,000 for a project of our choosing. Margie Borris is the staff person in charge of facilitating the process for our library. The grant idea the Department Heads group is endorsing is a cataloging/digitization project for our circulating art collection.

Please note that our collection is growing gradually, with the book collection over 200,000. Our voluntary limit on DVDs is working well. We have received one written complaint, but several verbal positive comments. The DVD circulation continues to increase. Our registered borrowers are nearly 70% of our population and our attendance continues to rise. Year to date, the attendance has increased 43% over last year at this time. Our circulation has increased by 10% year to date over 2000 and March’s rate is 14% higher than last March. Children’s materials make up 39% of our circulation year to date. Self-check use continues to be substantially higher than last year. In March the self-check circulation was 19% of the total circulation.

Meeting Room use remains very high. In March 97 library programs were offered and 46 community groups used our facilities for meetings or programs. The total attendance at all programs in March was 3,675.

Eldon Burk raised the issue of ongoing complaints about the new system of eliminating date stamps in each item checked out. This topic bears further discussion by the full board.

Sandra Norlin met with John Burke, Walter Roth and other ESC consultants to plan the Board Retreat, the City Holiday Decorations Committee to plan this winter’s Holiday Lighting Ceremony, attended the mayoral candidate’s forum, the CCS Governing Board meeting, participated in the Work Design team training workshop, the Live And Learn Innovation Grant training, the Socrates Rand Dinner, and modeled for the third year in the Des Plaines Junior Women’s Club Fashion Show. Sandra also attended the Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours reception at the Police Neighborhood Resource Center, the Community Education breakfast for District 62, a seminar on fundraising at North Suburban Library System, and the Literary Circle dinner and program with author Sherman Alexie.

NEW BUSINESS

Sandra Norlin reported that the City Council will meet on May 7, 2001 to discuss the library lease for the 1501 Ellinwood building.

Sandra reported that she received three citizen opinion forms. Eldon Burk asked what procedure is followed when the forms are received. Sandra Norlin responded that she reviews the complaints and then forwards them to the library Committee responsible for ordering the materials. The Committee decides if the material in question is within the collection development policy guidelines. Sandra reported that the materials in question were within the collection development policy guidelines.

The Board discussed reintroducing the date due slips for all library materials. Inara Brubaker asked Sandra how other libraries have adjusted to the lack of date due slips on their materials and Sandra Norlin responded that some people may never adjust to the lack of the slips, but that self check has increased at the library, the books returned can be shelved faster and patrons can go to the library website to find out when their books are due. William Grice stated that if patrons want their materials due date stamped by the staff, the library should comply. Eldon Burk stated that he wants all materials to have the date due strip attached. Ellen Yearwood stated that the patrons would adjust to the lack of the date due slip. The Board concurred that the date due strip should be on all library materials. Sandra Norlin will proceed with this.