WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.940 - I'd like to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for April 16, 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:07.000 - 2025. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000 - Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.000 - All in favor say aye. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:23.000 - And now we're going to hear from Greer in the director's monthly report. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:30.540 - Okay, some highlights. March saw record use of two of our e-library platforms. We saw our highest 00:00:30.540 --> 00:00:36.000 - ever monthly use report for Overdrive, which is Libby, with over 51,000 total checkouts in March. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.220 - A little over 2,500 of those checkouts were made via Sora, and that's the app that area schools use 00:00:42.220 --> 00:00:47.540 - to access e-books and e-content by grade level rather than having access to the entire MCPL Overdrive 00:00:47.540 --> 00:00:48.000 - catalog. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:55.240 - Hoopla also saw record use in March with over 12,000 total checkouts, and we continue to see strong 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:59.000 - use of the new Flex collection that we launched back in August. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.980 - We held a mock Caldecott event last month, which found children's and collection development staff 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:10.240 - collaborating to determine which of the past decade's worth of Caldecott winners was the ultimate 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:11.000 - standout. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.370 - The winner was "Big" by Vashti Harrison. The activity was a fun way to highlight award-winning 00:01:16.370 --> 00:01:21.150 - books and to have children's staff engage with our Children's Collection Development Librarian in 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:26.000 - discussions about the merits of picture books in youth literature in general. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.140 - We have our Southwest Seed Library up and running thanks to the great work of Southwest Librarian 00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:32.000 - Becky Craft. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.900 - We had a line at the door the day we launched this collection, and many Southwest patrons who've 00:01:37.900 --> 00:01:42.000 - taken seed packets are now participating in a Make Your Own Salsa project. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.950 - We're holding our fourth annual Youth Art Month contest and received over 200 entries from patrons 00:01:47.950 --> 00:01:51.000 - across all branches and outreach service points. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:55.860 - The theme is "Color Our World," which anticipates this year's summer reading program theme, soon to 00:01:55.860 --> 00:01:57.000 - launch next month. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.230 - Eight winners will be chosen to have their artwork turned into a library bookmark, which will be 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:04.000 - one of many summer reading prizes. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.000 - Our CATS website now offers captioning for all of our government meeting recordings. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:14.090 - This project has been in the works for some time, and it's important from both the compliance and 00:02:14.090 --> 00:02:16.000 - an accessibility standpoint. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:22.370 - We added three new bookmobile stops in March. That's one for Beeline Heights Apartments, one for 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:26.000 - Garden Hill Mobile Home Park, and one for Marlin Elementary School. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.640 - Outreach Services Manager Chris Jackson reports that it usually takes anywhere from six to 12 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:35.390 - months for a new stop to generate regular patronage, but we're already seeing activity in a couple 00:02:35.390 --> 00:02:36.000 - of those stops. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.090 - And as expected, Senate Bill 1 did pass the Indiana State Senate and was signed by Governor Braun 00:02:42.090 --> 00:02:43.000 - yesterday. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.670 - The impact of the property tax relief bill on MCPL's operating budget is less severe than what was 00:02:48.670 --> 00:02:55.440 - originally proposed and what we subsequently have been working on in planning for our 2026 and 2027 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:56.000 - budgets. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.310 - However, we're still talking about a reduction of approximately $350,000 in our annual revenue 00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:03.000 - growth. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.560 - This means we'll still need to make some operational adjustments and we'll bring those proposed 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:12.000 - adjustments to you all in June or July as part of our draft fiscal year 26 budget. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.560 - Right now we're considering which potential adjustments will save us the most money while having 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.000 - the least negative impact on patrons. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 - Happy to answer any questions about the Director's report. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:38.290 - Can you explain in the final version of SB 1 that did pass what the do you have any more sort of 00:03:38.290 --> 00:03:41.000 - takeaways that you'd like to share that are relevant for the board? 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:47.000 - Not that it's relevant to MCPL specifically in our budget. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.000 - I am just sort of following the news and understanding the final version of the bill. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.580 - There are a lot of municipalities that are going to be considering increasing local income tax to 00:03:55.580 --> 00:03:57.000 - make up for the revenue shortage. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:03.320 - So there's still going to be some potentially significant impacts on social services in other 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:05.000 - communities and our own. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:12.020 - But as we were really worried about the significant shortage in revenue growth for MCPL's budget 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:16.000 - going forward is a bit of a relief to see it's a manageable amount of money. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.000 - But that still is going to require some adjustment. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:23.070 - So when we bring those forward to you all, we'll talk through why we're going to make those 00:04:23.070 --> 00:04:26.000 - recommendations, how much money we expect it to save for us. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:35.110 - And again, ultimately why we would choose that, because our goal is always to minimize impact on 00:04:35.110 --> 00:04:38.000 - patrons above all else. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.980 - And thankfully we have news of this and enough time to adjust what we're going to do for next year's 00:04:42.980 --> 00:04:44.000 - fiscal budget. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.000 - Absolutely. Yeah, we're still at sort of like the early stages of our budget season. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:59.000 - So we have ample time to make plans and bring forward some proposals for you all in July. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.000 - Anyone else have any questions, comments? 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:17.110 - Okay. Well, we are in a rare position where we do not have old business or new business to discuss 00:05:17.110 --> 00:05:19.710 - tonight. So we're going to move on to presentations and we have Josh Wolf to present for public 00:05:19.710 --> 00:05:20.000 - services and programming. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.000 - Thank you. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:26.000 - Yeah, my name is Josh Wolf. I'm the director of public services. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:31.820 - I just want to talk to you a little bit about how public services and programming have evolved and 00:05:31.820 --> 00:05:35.000 - led us to where we are, just as an introduction. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:42.000 - I've been a librarian since 1999, which I realize sounds like a Prince song. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 - I've been in the library since 1999. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 - That's been in my head all day since I thought of that. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:54.000 - You're all going to be cursing me tomorrow when that song is stuck in your head. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.000 - We did have public computers and internet when I started, but yes, a lot has changed. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:03.000 - I won't regale you with a list of those things because it'll make me feel very old. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:09.480 - Obvious things have gone away, records, cassettes, tapes, circulating artwork that you can hang on 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:12.000 - your wall for three weeks. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:18.000 - My speaking notes are now in 17-point font because that's what I need to see them. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:24.530 - But apart from this race through formats, we continue to evolve library services, library 00:06:24.530 --> 00:06:27.000 - programming at a pretty rapid clip. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:34.000 - I would have never predicted back then that we would hold book clubs in bars and coffee shops, 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:40.000 - that we would have nature walks off-site deep into the woods with our patrons, and not just adults, 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:41.000 - but children as well, 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.470 - toy swaps during the holidays, after hours when the libraries closed dances and festivals for all 00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:49.000 - ages. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:55.000 - These are obvious, they're very visible changes that you can see by looking at our marketing. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:02.920 - But we've also, a little bit less visibly, divided public services initiatives into more discreet 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:03.000 - ages 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:08.680 - so that we can better sort of focus down on our patrons at different stages of life and through 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:10.000 - their development. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.000 - Children's services and its programming efforts were somewhat monolithic when I started out, 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:23.460 - but now we really, we focus our resources and our staffing on prenatal patrons and, well, the 00:07:23.460 --> 00:07:25.000 - caregivers. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:31.210 - But they make music on their bellies, babies, toddlers, preschool, these are all divided, preschool 00:07:31.210 --> 00:07:34.000 - through K tweens, teen services. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:40.000 - Sam, the teen service manager spoke at length last month, so I won't go into much detail about that. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:46.150 - But it's instructive, as I was thinking about this, that 10 years ago last March, we didn't have a 00:07:46.150 --> 00:07:49.000 - teen services department at all. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:55.440 - And it was always kind of slapped on very clumsily in many cases, although the people who did it 00:07:55.440 --> 00:07:57.000 - were quite talented. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:01.430 - And going back to Dana, who was Librarian of the Year at the time, it was hard, though, and it was 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:03.000 - sort of a constant battle to do. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:11.000 - Now, we wouldn't consider any kind of restructuring of services or any new spaces without giving 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:17.000 - our teen patrons the same attention and care and focus that we give every other age. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.000 - And, you know, it wasn't always the case. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:33.000 - Even adult services now specializes in new adults, workforce development, the arts, seniors. We try 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:33.000 - to look at every stage. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:39.070 - Across these departments, we're looking at how to provide services for our patrons from before they're 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:42.000 - born all the way until the last stages of their life. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.000 - The net has grown very wide for us. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:51.640 - We've also begun to partner across departments. So we really try to look at what programs can work 00:08:51.640 --> 00:08:58.000 - for children and teens together, what programs can work for teens and adults together. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:04.630 - How can we have an intergenerational focus that will once more sort of help move our patrons 00:09:04.630 --> 00:09:08.000 - through the services that we want to provide. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:13.230 - And now that we're a three-branch system and we're still learning how to do that, we really are 00:09:13.230 --> 00:09:16.000 - partnering more and more across locations. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:21.110 - Really, I think of this as a four-branch system because our outreach services are really robust in 00:09:21.110 --> 00:09:27.000 - the bookmobile, the assisted living facilities with the van service, the jail service. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:34.000 - It's, I think, more appropriate to think of it as kind of a four-branch system. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:40.920 - So that's mostly where I come in. I coordinate with all the public services managers to help ensure 00:09:40.920 --> 00:09:48.000 - that system-wide procedures, programs, services, that they're going to work everywhere. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.880 - Although we strive for a certain level of consistency across because we are one system, these 00:09:54.880 --> 00:10:01.520 - places evolve to serve patron groups that are diverse and sometimes unique to the neighborhoods 00:10:01.520 --> 00:10:05.000 - around them or the people who can come there. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:11.190 - It's a really exciting job, and I know it's natural to feel like things speed up faster and faster 00:10:11.190 --> 00:10:17.600 - and change speeds faster and faster, but I think it's just always been kind of quick. It's like we 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:23.000 - got on a train a long time ago, and it's sort of moving at the same pace. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:29.110 - I was a programming librarian for 15 years. I still do a tiny bit of it, and I had a pretty big ego, 00:10:29.110 --> 00:10:32.000 - actually. I'll just be honest about what I did. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:38.000 - But what they're doing now and the kind of ideas the programmers are coming up with is humbling. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:43.570 - Things we never would have thought of back in the day. The floor is lava. The seed library that you 00:10:43.570 --> 00:10:45.000 - were talking about. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:50.690 - Having teams run their own role playing games. That is really hard to ask a team to hold a group of 00:10:50.690 --> 00:10:58.000 - peers together in a cooperative enterprise that's basically storytelling in an improvisational way. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:05.090 - They're doing that. It's impressive. The CHOP challenge. These things that fill up as soon as they 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:06.000 - go live. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:14.470 - We've always said that we like to surprise and delight, and this group now continually surprises me 00:11:14.470 --> 00:11:16.000 - and delights. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:22.200 - And I'm sharing today with Dana Duffy, our program coordinator, who I will now introduce to come up 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:28.000 - and talk a little bit about some of our newer sort of cross-audience and cross-departmental 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.000 - outreach initiatives that we're doing. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:38.000 - Thanks. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:47.950 - Hello. I am Dana Duffy. I am the program coordinator here, so I play a support role for public 00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:49.000 - services. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:57.380 - But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what we do that one of the aspects of my job is to 00:11:57.380 --> 00:12:02.000 - coordinate the staff to go out and do outreach events. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:09.950 - So we have an outreach department, so it's a little bit confusing. This is not part of the outreach 00:12:09.950 --> 00:12:14.610 - department. This is going out and doing community outreach, so we go to different events around 00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:16.000 - Monroe County. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:23.000 - And I just wanted to talk a little bit about some of our efforts and what we do for that. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:35.000 - They usually involve multiple organizations in town, but they're really concentrated pretty heavily 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.000 - with IU because IU does so many community events. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:47.850 - So we do find that we do a lot of work with IU, and generally what we do is when we go out to these 00:12:47.850 --> 00:12:55.000 - events, we bring a table, and we have a branded tablecloth that we have. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:03.910 - And we bring brochures, we bring library cards, sometimes we bring some books or some leftover 00:13:03.910 --> 00:13:10.000 - summer reading program prizes that people like to take with them. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:16.170 - But the thing that by and large they love the most are the stickers. They love our stickers. Our 00:13:16.170 --> 00:13:19.000 - marketing department does this great job with these stickers. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:24.120 - And one sticker that we have that whenever we go to an event at IU that all of the students want, 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:29.600 - it's a sticker that has like a little fist in the air, and it says, "What is more punk than a 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:31.000 - public library?" 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:36.090 - So they all love that sticker. So we always have to make sure that we have a supply of those 00:13:36.090 --> 00:13:40.000 - whenever somebody is going to go out and do one of these outreach events. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:48.570 - It's really simple to do. We take our laptops, and we tell people that they can go to our website 00:13:48.570 --> 00:13:54.000 - on their phone, and they can apply for a library card right on their phone. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:59.250 - And then we find that information on our laptop, and we make sure that they're a Monroe County 00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:02.000 - citizen, that they filled it out all right. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.690 - And then we hand them a library card that they are good to go, that they can use. And the whole 00:14:06.690 --> 00:14:09.000 - interaction takes about three minutes. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:17.420 - So it's really a successful event. People don't get frustrated. I think it really kind of shows 00:14:17.420 --> 00:14:23.000 - that we know what we're doing, and we really, really want you to have a library card. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:31.000 - Some of our biggest events, like I said, at IU, the biggest one there that we do is First Thursdays. 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.000 - So we always do First Thursdays. We have a booth. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:40.490 - And this year we're going to, well, we always collaborate with them, with Grand Faloon. But this 00:14:40.490 --> 00:14:46.000 - year with Grand Faloon, they're going to have all of these little mini golf courses that they're 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.000 - going to build around town. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:53.000 - And the library is going to have one of these little mini golf courses. And so it's just one hole. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.000 - But we'll have it right out there on the plaza. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:02.470 - And ours is Ice Nine from the book Cat's Cradle. And so they set up the little mini golf course 00:15:02.470 --> 00:15:06.000 - right next to us during First Thursday. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:12.070 - So we had a lot of students come over for that. We estimate we probably talk to about 200 people. A 00:15:12.070 --> 00:15:17.000 - lot of times people just want to come over and tell us that they love the library. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:24.050 - But we signed up, and usually we sign up, around 50 people for library cards when we go to First 00:15:24.050 --> 00:15:28.000 - Thursday. So that's a really good and successful event for us. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:35.530 - We also participated in the first Bloomington Book Festival. That was at Morgensterns. And it was 00:15:35.530 --> 00:15:40.730 - great. We were outside. It was in November and the weather was beautiful. So we were very happy 00:15:40.730 --> 00:15:42.000 - about that. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:48.020 - We had people who did sign up for library cards, but we also shared that booth with the Friends. 00:15:48.020 --> 00:15:52.000 - And the Friends were able to tell people about what the Friends of the Public Library do. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:57.600 - And they were able to let people know how they could become involved with the Friends. So that was 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.000 - kind of a nice collaboration that we did with the Friends. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:05.090 - We also just kind of a list of some of the other things that we've done. We went to the IU Asian 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:08.000 - Fest this year for the first time. That was fun. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:14.680 - The Graduate Resource Fest. We went to the Bloomington High School North Healthapalooza. That was 00:16:14.680 --> 00:16:17.000 - our teen librarians went to that. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:24.740 - Fairview Elementary Open House. The Monroe County Transition Fair. And that provides resources for 00:16:24.740 --> 00:16:30.000 - caregivers and parents who are working with children on the autism spectrum. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:37.000 - And one of our children's librarians went to a piece of Latin America at Switchyard Park. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:42.000 - We've been to the Lotus Art in the park, and then also the Bloomington Volunteer Fair. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:48.000 - And so some of these events are specifically linked to particular ages. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:56.230 - So when the children's librarians went to the Lotus Art event, they brought some crafts with them 00:16:56.230 --> 00:17:00.000 - and so that they could work with children and do crafts. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:08.060 - And of course, with the Bloomington Volunteer Fair, Bethany Turrentine from Vital, she went to try 00:17:08.060 --> 00:17:12.000 - to recruit people to become volunteers for Vital. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.510 - So we always have a really good time whenever we go to these events, and we get really good 00:17:17.510 --> 00:17:21.000 - feedback from the community when we're at the event. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.000 - So it's kind of just like a feel-good thing for the staff to do. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.000 - Thank you. Unless you have any questions. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:42.000 - That is a difficult one, but do you know what percentage of county citizens have a library card? 00:17:42.000 --> 00:18:02.000 - I have seen it before, but your initiatives of signing people up are just great. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:09.980 - Do you take kind of like suggestions, maybe like if someone knows of an event coming up, like with 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:13.000 - Monroe County Schools or anything? 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:22.000 - What's the best way to, is it just email type of a situation and let somebody know that? 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:32.000 - Generally it's easiest if you email the office. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:39.680 - Yeah, through patron comments. Yeah, because those get forwarded to me and then I can kind of 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:44.000 - decide who it is that would be the best person to go. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:56.000 - Sometimes it's me, so that's fun. Alright, thank you. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.000 - Any other questions or comments? 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:21.000 - Anyone online? 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:35.000 - Okay, great. Motion to adjourn. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:20:01.000 - Motion to adjourn. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:29.000 - Motion to adjourn. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:34.000 - Motion to adjourn.