I'd like to call to order the public hearing for the library budget for 2026 for the Monroe County Public Library if at this time we can hear from Gary Letler about the 2026 budget. I'd like to welcome members of the community to the meeting tonight. The public hearing for the 2026 budget is the library's opportunity to share information about its financial plans for the next calendar year. This hearing is also required by law and must be held at least 10 days before the library board of trustees adopts the budget. The adoption of the 2026 budget will take place at the October 15th board meeting. So in August, we received the county's total assessed value figure for calculating the 2026 library property tax rate. The total assessed value for 2026 is about $11.1 billion. That's a decrease of about $95 million from last year. It's slightly less than a 1% decrease. The assessed value figure not only includes residential property, it also includes commercial property, business inventory, and equipment. Assessed value changes have been up and down the last few years. Looking at 2023 on the chart, the increase for that year was over $1.5 billion, which was nearly an 18% increase. For library revenue from the property tax levy, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the tax levy will increase by 4%, but that's before the impact of the tax cap credit. The bad news is the tax cap credit will go up to about $420,000 next year due to Senate Bill 1. With a slight decrease in the net assessed value of the taxable property and a smaller increase in the amount of tax revenue to be collected, the library tax rate will go from the current rate of 7.93 cents per $100 of assessed value to 8.04 cents in 2026. This slide shows the trend in assessed value and the library tax rate over the past several years. It's interesting to see that 13 years ago the library tax rate was over 9 cents and assessed value was at about 6.3 billion. For the next year, the AV will be a little over 11 billion compared to the 6.3 billion 13 years ago. This slide is a summary of the 2026 budget compared to last year's budget. If it's hard to see, it's also in the packet. The first section is the revenue section, and so this is the operating revenue. The total projected revenue from the operating fund in 2026 is about $11.6 million. The property tax levy, which makes up most of the operating fund revenue, will increase to about $8.3 million, an increase of about $318,000 from the previous year. The big change for 2026 is that the tax cap credit will be around $420,000. Last year, the tax cap credit was about $53,000. The Senate Bill 1 changes have caused the tax cap credit to increase for 2026. Moving down the page to total revenue, the estimated increase for 2026 is only about $110,000. And moving down to the operating fund spending, the budget for total operating fund spending for 2026 is about $12.8 million. The increase from the 2025 operating budget is about $622,000. The DLGF sets a limit on what the total spending budget can be. We've increased the operating fund budget as much as possible, knowing that we will need to spend less than is budgeted. We've made operational changes, which will allow for some staff reductions. So for 2026, the goal will be to keep total spending in the operating fund under the amount of operating revenue received next year. And some wage and benefit assumptions for the 2026 budget, we're using an estimated wage increase of 2.75% or 75 cents an hour, whichever is greater. When we get to year end and we know what health care related costs will be for 2026, then we can make a final decision on wage adjustments. Before moving to the next slide, are there any questions about this report showing next year's budget estimates? >> Can you clarify, if you don't mind scrolling back up, you mentioned a figure and I think it was around 410 or 406,000. So the tax cap adjustment, can you -- I think I understand it, but the standard tax cap adjustment that we have been -- the library has been incurring without SB1 is a standard percentage. Can you explain what that 49 to 69 is, figure for this 2026? >> Yeah. So in the past, there's been one line for tax cap credit, and that was based on when assessed value goes over a certain -- or the tax rate goes over a certain percent, then there's a credit. So it's not a fixed percent, but it varies. And that's what the tax cap adjustment line was, the traditional tax cap adjustment. And then the SB1 impact works in a similar way, but those credits are related to changes in the Senate Bill 1 laws. And so really, the total tax cap credit is the combination of the two. So this is the operating surplus analysis slide, and for 2020 -- the last report in this binder shows actual operating fund revenue and expense starting in 2021 through 2024, and it also includes projections for years 2025 through 2027. For 2025, I'm estimating that operating expense will end up being very close to the operating revenue. There was an operating surplus of about $800,000 last year. For 2025, I'm estimating that operating expenses will be very close to operating revenue. If we have a surplus, it will probably be less than $100,000. For 2026, as the SB1 impact takes effect, I'm estimating that operating expense will again come in very close to revenue. The reports show an estimated surplus in 2026 of $100,000. For 2027, I'm estimating that operating expense will be slightly more than the operating revenue. The projected operating cost is expected to exceed operating revenue in 2027 by about $150,000. And that's it for the information I have to provide, and happy to answer any questions. I do have a question about the 2027 estimate. When figuring those, the operating revenue, is that taking into consideration what we have done to mitigate SB1 with staffing? Yes, the salaries and benefits line is where that is included in there as an estimate. Any other questions for Gary? Do we have any public comment? Okay. Then this meeting is adjourned. Board of Trustees meeting for September 17, 2005 for the Monroe County Public Library. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. All in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. No, nay. Ayes have it. And now we're ready for the Director's Month Report from Greer. All right. A couple of highlights. First, once upon a time, our annual summer reading program was primarily for our youngest patrons and focused on the importance of early literacy, and while that remains the cornerstone of our annual program, it has since grown to include all ages and audiences. Preliminary summer reading numbers for 2025 suggest that we had our highest ever teen participation with 665 summer reading program guides distributed to Monroe County teens. We'll hear more about this year's summer reading program from Angelica as part of her children's services update here in a bit, but it's really great to see more and more MCPL teens getting into summer reading. Also in teen services, our special education classroom visits will soon include Bloomington High School North on a biweekly basis. Last year we began hosting similar scheduled visits from Tri-North Middle School, so we're happy to have VHSS join in this program. We have replaced the Ellitsville fire door, and this is something we've had on our list for a long time. You probably don't ever see this door unless you're in the building when there's a fire alarm or a power outage, but it's recessed in the bulkhead, which used to be dark purple, that hangs over the threshold as you move into the Ellitsville children's area. So we had that work done recently as kind of connected to some of our other Ellitsville renovation work, we're glad to have that finally finished. When we first shared our strategy for absorbing the budget impact of Senate Bill 1 to reduce the total library staffing by the equivalent of five full-time employees, we shared that we would provide an update on our progress in early fall. So last week, we shared with our staff that we are currently at the halfway point. As of today, we have reduced by two and a half full-time employee or equivalents. All of this course done by way of attrition. So we will continue with this strategy until we reach the five full-time equivalent reduction mark again by looking at each voluntary departure and subsequent vacancy on its own terms. Then we will provide another update on our progress at the start of the new year. And we still expect to achieve this overall staff reduction by the end of 2026. Our annual Staff Day event was held yesterday. It was another successful and meaningful day for us. Staff Day offers a unique opportunity for MCPL employees to gather in one place and share experiences in the workplace, attend workshops and presentations for us to celebrate staff who have hit milestone years and for all of us to take time to reflect on who we are as an organization. So thank you to our Staff Day committee for doing all of the hard work in organizing and running this event. To our friends group for helping to fund various parts of the event. And to our trustees and our foundation board members who attended. Happy to answer any questions about the director's report. I'll just say I was grateful to attend part of the Staff Day yesterday and it really is a testament to the culture that the library has created that so many people, I was really honored to be a part of the or to attend the staff awards, the number of people who are achieving 5 and 10 and 15 and 20 and maybe I think 30. Yeah, years of service to the library really speaks to what a quality organization it is. So thanks for extending that invitation, I was glad to come. Absolutely. Yeah, this year we had 19 staff hit milestone years. And I can't remember the count for last year, but I do know that we had one staff member last year hit 40 years. Yeah, it's, I think, a sign of a pretty healthy organization when we have that kind of tenure. So, and yeah, thank you for coming, it's a cool day. Just add to that, I went also and every business wants to say they're like a family, but you could really tell the vibe, especially during the, I don't know what you'd want to call that. I'm sorry, the years of service. The milestone. Ceremony. Yes, I was going to say the awards. But there were even comments from the department heads would get up and talk about, use all these quotes from their colleagues, and there were even like, I love you, man, and I mean, it was very touching. At schools, I know at our school, we have a recognition of people for their experience, and it's a bigger ceremony, a bit larger number of people, you can't quite get personal in those, but this was really well done, and just the format of it was personal and just uplifting, and I went home and told my husband about it, and he said it was a really nice thing. Thank you, that's wonderful. Everyone who was honored had plenty of great things said about them by their colleagues, and it was really nice. Well extra thanks go to two of my colleagues behind me, that would be Josh Wolfe and Lorraine Martin who were part of the staff day committee and really led this process from when we first get together, which is what, spring more or less, February, up until staff day. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of work, and they really pulled through, so thank you. Thanks for attending. You don't have any business today, so may I get a motion to approve hearing about the media relations policy update from Tori. Hi everyone. So unlike my updates in February, this will not have my usual pizzazz and fanfare, unfortunately. So I believe you have the old policy and the new policy before you. So my job is going to be to walk you through some of the changes as well as contextualize some of the decisions we made with the media relations policy team. So at the Monroe County Public Library, we are committed to transparency, consistency, and professionalism in how we communicate with the community and the media. In today's digitally driven world, public expectations around communication have changed, and so have the tools and platforms we use to share information. The decision to update our media relations policy was made to strengthen the way our library communicates with the public, the media, and our community partners. As a publicly funded institution, it is critical that our messaging is clear, consistent, and reflective of our values and responsibilities. Updating our media relations policy was essential for several key reasons, including reflecting modern communication channels, ensuring consistent messaging and clear expectations, designating specific spokespeople, aligning with legal and ethical standards, and to protect patron privacy and staff. With these reasons in mind, we put together a team of MCPL staff to provide a variety of experiences and viewpoints to see how we could best make these updates. The team included Library Assistant Claire Clark, Children's Services Librarian Ginny Hassler, Social Media Specialist Aubrey Dunnick, and myself. So I will go consecutively through, or just top down, of the policy changes. So we added a general paragraph at the beginning of the media relations policy to set the intention of the policy and to provide context for why it exists. We simply didn't want to start off the policy with here's everything you can't do, and in our research, a lot of our peer libraries also had kind of a general overview to give context for anyone who were to see the policy, so we took that as a best practice as well. By including this introductory section, we clarify the purpose of the policy, establish the tone, provide context, and enhance accessibility, specifically for individuals who are unfamiliar with technical aspects of media relations. It helps them understand the why before diving into the how. This can be particularly helpful for new IU students in classes that require them to interact with local organizations, which we have seen in the past couple years. We also added a First Amendment rights paragraph to the top of the policy. We also saw this within peer libraries and took this as a best practice as well. First Amendment audits are activities where individuals, usually self-identified as auditors or independent journalists, film or record in public spaces to test and assert their constitutional rights, specifically under the First Amendment. These audits often focus on government buildings and spaces, including public libraries, to see if staff, security, or law enforcement can properly restrict their right to record in public spaces, exercise free speech, and access publicly funded facilities. As a public library, we must uphold and respect the First Amendment rights of individuals. However, we also have a legal and operational duty to provide a safe, welcoming, and functional environment where all patrons can access library services without disruption. This section was included in the policy to clarify the balance between free speech and library operations, reinforce the library's mission under Indiana law, provide legal and policy clarity for MCPL staff and the public, and support consistent decision making. So in our previous policy, it was stated that permission for recording had to be obtained. However, this was in direct opposition to our First Amendment policy. With this update, we are now consistent across the board in terms of our recording procedures. Because this is a public space, people do not have to obtain permission. However, our policy now states that if a patron requests not to be filmed, not complying with this request may violate our newly updated code of conduct policy. We also updated the library representation paragraph to provide clear expectations and reporting lines for anyone wishing to gather news and information on the property or from MCPL staff. This section helps the library maintain control over its public image, protect the rights and experiences of patrons and staff, and foster professional relationships with the media, all while ensuring that day-to-day operations and the library's mission are not compromised. Updates include requiring all media inquiries, including student work inquiries from IU students, to go through the communications and marketing director, prevent unauthorized filming or interviewing of patrons and staff, ensuring consistent information is given when individuals are involved in newsgathering, and to prevent disruption to library operations, including helping the library coordinate logistics to avoid interfering with programs, services, or general use of the facilities. This section also reinforces the library's commitment to timely and transparent communication with the media while also setting clear expectations. It communicates that we welcome media interest and cooperation, we are responsive and professional in our communications, and we have procedures in place to manage requests efficiently. We also added a library branding section. The library's name, logo, and visual identity are more than just design elements. They represent the integrity, mission, and public service role of the institution. This section was added to protect the library's reputation as unauthorized use of the library's name or logo can create confusion about official partnerships or endorsements, as well as lead to misrepresentation of the library's values or positions. This section ensures that the library is not inadvertently associated with third-party activities or messaging without prior approval, and it sets clear guidelines on branding to also help maintain consistency and more importantly, accessibility in how the library presents itself across various platforms, including print, digital, and in the media. We also updated at the very bottom the library social media rights and responsibilities section to include a disclaimer about sharing content not produced by us, as well as potential collaborations with individuals or other organizations. This section addresses how the library interacts with user-generated content and collaborates on social media, while also clarifying the boundaries of responsibility and endorsement. It provides clarity on what the library can and does share, support regarding strategic social communications, social media communications, including enabling the library to intentionally collaborate with staff members, patrons, and other stakeholders. By formalizing this, the policy supports proactive storytelling while maintaining professionalism and coordination through the communications and marketing department. Clear boundaries of endorsement, protecting the library's neutrality and public trust by clarifying that the library does not endorse any content from its followers outside of specific collaborative efforts. It also reflects transparency and professionalism. The library demonstrates that it has a thoughtful, ethical approach to social media and that MCPL values community engagement without compromising its neutrality or responsibilities as a public institution. This section allows the library to engage with the community on social media in a responsible, strategic, and legally sound way, amplifying voices and activities that support its mission while clearly distancing itself from unendorsed content. Thank you for your time, attention, and thoughtful consideration on the updated media relations policy. Your support ensures that the library continues to communicate with clarity, professionalism, and integrity while protecting our patrons, staff, and overall institutional mission. This policy reflects our shared commitment to transparency, accountability, and the responsible stewardship of MCPL's public presence. We appreciate your role in helping us uphold these standards as we continue to serve and engage our Monroe County community. Any questions? Do you have a question that couples this, not about the verbiage particularly, but is there a media relations intake form or a place on the website then where they could put in what type of request and give information that would then be directed to you or do they just contact you directly? That is a great question and that did come up in our policy review team. Right now as it stands, it would just be emailing me directly through either the community email, the general email, or my direct email. We did explore some options for forms. Some of our peer libraries are using third party technologies to do that outside of say our Google workspace, so that's something we are continuing to consider and we would like some buy in from most likely our IT team and our public services team, but that is something we are considering in the future. Thank you. Does anybody else have questions or comments? I guess about something, if you don't mind. Sure. When was the previous one last updated, and I don't need to know a year, but like approximately like I like the way you started, I hadn't thought about that. If I'm understanding you correctly, one of the things you updated was people are now in our everyday life, people are recording things in public, and I hadn't thought about that when I read these. I was like, oh, this is very well organized, easy to read. I think you had a specific example or two in here, a little more than the previous one. When did that kind of change where, and maybe that's why you felt like you needed to update, where we can't ask, require patrons to get permission. Did I hear you right, that one of the updates is kind of like just accepting that people will be taking photographs and videos and kind of fine tuning what our expectations are? Is that right? We found in our review that our general policy was that you needed to obtain permission before recording patrons or staff, and then we found that that was kind of in direct opposition to what we had best practices for in terms of First Amendment audits, and because this is a public space, and so we thought it would be best to align all of that with, you know, you're in public, it is a public space, so changes are you might be recorded, but also to respect patron and staff privacy and personal space, and we also thought it was a good time to include that because of our new behavioral rules policy as well, our code of conduct. I believe the last time the media relations policy was updated in 2021? The last substantive update was 2021, and we weren't talking a lot about First Amendment audits. Yeah. Yeah. So we have found, I started my role here in July of 2022, so since then we've had a number of examples that kind of inspired us to revisit our policy as well, so particularly with the media school being right down the street in Franklin Hall now, so we have a lot of very passionate IU students that come in wanting to interview staff, and so we have a process for that so we don't disrupt library operations, and we have a lot of user-generated content as well with short-form video content platforms like TikTok, so it's just a lot of, we're in the age of user-generated content, especially short-form, so we thought it was a really good time to revisit this. You did a great job. Yes. And they need to let you know if they are not interested in being photographed. Yes, yes. We ask that anyone who is actively recording in the library, if a patron is uncomfortable, they can either talk to staff or they can talk to the person directly and that that be respected. I think that's better. This is really, really good, really well done. Somebody who doesn't know much about the media part of it. I read it, understood it, and for the average person, it's easy to understand, so. Great. Well, that is great feedback. But very thorough. Thank you. All right. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Tori. Thank you. All in favor of approving the media relations policy update, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion approved. And now we're going to hear some department updates. First we're going to hear from Children's Services. All right. Hello, everyone. I'm sure to do our updated for downtown Children's Services just to let you all know the amazing things that we are doing throughout the year and also summer reading. So we're really fine tuning our board now. We've stepped into the module version and we still adhere to these two points right here where they are split by age and we do that purposely because zero to six, it's really creating that habit of reading, not so much the time level. And so then when they go to tween, it's extending that habit, but also reinforcing what they do in school so they don't slip during the summer. And here's a picture of our board on the side. We do have four activities and they're split down to our actual activities that they do in the community or with their family and then to our reading. Some kids don't want to read that much in summer, but we do want them to engage with reading in some way. So they're required to do three out of the four activities, which forces them to do some kind of reading in the summer. And we always tell families, you know, you can make it 90 minutes, you can make it 100. You can tell them they have to do all four activities. We just want them to engage with us and participate. We are not hard and fast. We don't ask them to give proof, anything like that. We just want them to have fun during the summer with literature and the library. We did do a little bit of tweaks. If you see on the side it says minutes read, for the children it says books read, and then the books are indicated going up for that 90 minute goal that they have. We work very closely with Tori and her crew to make sure that these are pleasantly appealing to the eyes. The kids want to open it and engage with it, but also to be as simple as possible so we don't give more tasks to the parents to have to sit down and have a whole class of what summer reading is. The activities are very flexible like I said. We are seeing which activities are the favorites and that is create some kind of art and show it to the staff. So we get lots of, this year was Color Our World so we did a self portrait and kids just ran away with it. We saw so many kinds of art designs and they were so happy to show it to us which we really enjoy. This year we did ask for a recommendation from the staff and we love that kids breaking that barrier thinking that we're an authority, we're more of a third spot so we want them to see us a little bit more engaging not as an authority figure. And so next year we're thinking of trying instead of us giving them a recommendation but having the kids give us a recommendation so that gives them more of a platform to be a partner in the library and things like that and just so we can engage with them more. And so I did bring some, we did jokes as well to tell one of the staff members jokes so I have three of the top ones here. What does a cloud wear under its raincoat? Does anybody know? It's thunder wear. How does a zipper feel? It has its ups and downs. And why are scientists afraid of atoms? Because they make up everything. So the kids really like coming up and we laugh, we have a whole sheet of all the ones we get from them. They really like interacting in that way. Everybody laughs, say good job and stuff like that and also helps our collection move. So you know, books on portraits or different kinds of expression, the joke books tend to go a little bit more when we have these types of activities. And everybody likes statistics. I love statistics. We had almost 3,000 sign ups. For each module we collect how many reach that point and get a prize. So for the first module we had a 50% completion rate, then 46 for module two, module three had 43 and then module four had 40. Then I broke it down into tween and children's and it's about evenish. So it goes with the total sign ups and coming from other libraries, both I worked at Denver and then a rural library in Maryland, this is a very high, a very high success rate. Usually it doesn't even break into double digits or even 20%. So our community is very, very engaged with us. So we're really excited and also these strong numbers also do feed into teen. So we are making sure that from zero to 12, they know summer reading is every summer. You want to participate. That's the thing you do. The boards are going to be gorgeous. And so we're hoping that we can help teen through that way by just getting that routinely that they know. So they're expected when they hit 12 or 13, you do the same thing in your teenage years. And then I was able to get statistics from the last four years. 2022, they didn't have a module system, so that's why it's just game boards and then game prizes. As you can see, our numbers have, our completion rates have fallen a little bit, but our board and our overall participation has increased over time. So we are doing very well, especially after 2020, the 10 year year. Kids still want to come in, do summer reading. And that is partly of our staff, our children's staff is so awesome, and also our communications and marketing that makes the game so gorgeous to look at. All right, and we had two big programs that I want to highlight, especially Battle of the Books. Our librarian, Reagan, and our LA Paul did this one, and there's a story behind it. So there was a fourth grader who came in and wanted to do Battle of the Books because they did it at school, but you can only do it in fourth grade. And so she was disappointed, she loved it, she wanted to do it so much. So Reagan told her, fill out a comic card, we read those, we want you to fill them out. She's like, nothing is going to come of it, I'll do it. And so Battle of the Books ensued. So this highlights that our staff really wants to interact with our patrons, we want to hear what you want to do, especially from tweens. And so Battle of the Books is a trivia, kind of like a pub trivia. They have to read 10 books over the course of about five to six months, and then they come together as a team, and we have questions for them, and they have to fill it out. We got 21 teams, 80 participants, we had 175 people in total. So that's the audience, and also the tweens, and if anybody knows a tween, I was hoping for 10, 10 people, two teams at least. So we were overwhelmed, as you can see, it was in our conference rooms, it's jam-packed. We did partner, this is a great example of how our team goes out and tries to partner with the community. We partner with the Book Corner, Morgensterns for gift prizes, the mayor gave us an inspirational video that we showed at the program, Katz filmed it, so if you want to see it, it is on the Katz website. The Friends of the Library, Mike Burns especially, gave us items as well for their gifts, and then the Indiana Fever, we had some swag from them as well. And then Dirt Fest was kind of our ending program, and it is what it sounds like. It was dirt, and kids love dirt. But of course we're the library and we want you to learn also while you're there. We had the Muddy Sporks Bakery exploring the science of soil and expressing creativity through art using mud paint. So if you can see the pictures here, it was on the corner, kind of where the library bears are behind it, and kids were just ecstatic. They were digging, digging each other, as you can see in the one in the middle, one's getting some dirt put on them, but it was an awesome way of bringing the community into nature right outside the library. And we also did partner with Good Earth for the soil, the city of Bloomington Utilities Department. The educational programs specialist came and tabled with us. Bloomington Parks and Rec also tabled, and Indiana Geological and Water Survey also tabled. So trying to bring in those partners that kids normally don't think are kid-friendly and saying you can learn too about geology and soil and all that good stuff in a very fun way. So this I believe we got over 300 people. It was a very long, busy day. And a credit to the children during this, none of that dirt went into the library. So our facilities, very happy about that, very happy. And just to point out some of the other things we do do in the library, we do junior explorers which is from 0 to 7, and that's where two librarians take those children into parks, they went to the goat conspiracy, they went to the recycling center, again showing kids how things happen in their community, recycling, Mother Earth, just nature in general, kind of pulling them away from those iPads, TVs, being on social media and touching grass. So that's what junior explorer is. To read to a dog is a recent one we did, and kids read to a dog. Dogs get socialized, kids don't feel pressured that they're reading wrong or too slow, dogs don't care. Story time on a bus, we partnered with transit, Bloomington Transit where kids did a story time about buses and then went on a bus and went about a couple of blocks, kids love buses. So they're just excited, they got tickets, they handed it, it was a whole thing for them and as you can see the child is just happy to look out the window of the bus. And then pre-k math and science which was one of our big pre-k and that's where they learn high concepts in math or science but it's broken down in activities that they can learn. So they're playing and learning at the same time. And then bingo bonanza, bingo is just hot right now, kids love bingo. So that's a real favorite. Art Supply Petting Zoo, we partnered with Bloomington Art Supply and we just had a huge amount of mediums that they gave to us and kids were able to get messy, paint with it. You know parents, it's expensive so you're like I don't think we want acrylics for you, you know you're just gonna not want it. So parents really appreciated that we're giving access to things that may be outside the budget that they can play with and then just discard and not have to recoup that in a family budget. And also right now we are doing Wonder Totes and I will pass this along, it's a comment from one of our participants and it's where they fill out a form and we do a reader's advisory specifically for them and it's themed on a certain holiday or season. And so each person gets one or two kids, we pull books for them and then it goes into a sack with you know anything that's seasonal. I think we're doing fall right now so it's fall themed pumpkin spice, you know put some plushies and a little art supply. And so we are asking for feedback and that's one of the feedback that we got appreciating that they were able to say what they wanted and they got exactly what they wanted. And of course we love you know enriching kids but we also like traumatizing them a little bit and we do that by taste testers which we just did on Sunday and that's where kids blind taste snacks. And we did Pringles this last Sunday and kids were not happy with some of their forms that they fill out. They do everything very very classy. They have saltine chips that they can eat in between the flavors. They can smell coffee to cleanse their pellet and then they tell us what they think of it and it was not very good. We try and you know expose them to different flavors. We've done pop tarts, kisses, Oreos and parents like those as well again because kids want the newest Oreo. They want the newest pop tart. You know if it's lemonade they want it because their friends have it and so we are allowing them to taste it and be like "that's disgusting" like we don't want that anymore and so parents are happy you know they get to taste things, push against their boundaries, express themselves. It's really nice to see kids talk to each other and you know have that interaction with their peers over something and so we try and do the balance of teaching them stuff but also having that social interaction of you know commiserating over a chip that tastes like seaweed, which was one of the flavors we had. There's many. There's chili cheese fries, ketchup, seaweed, what else, butter caramel, hummus, red chili and hummus. So it does make a difference when you don't know what it is and kids when we were going into so it kind of escalates the first one is like you know cheddar, very mild and it ups the ante for everyone. By the fourth one the kids were just like you're torturing us, we can't do this anymore, don't do it, but they always come back so they enjoy that drama of you know escalating all that stuff. And then just some yearly statistics from January to August. So far we have done a 304 programs and then it's just broken down from birth to five children six to nine and tween and then total participants we will probably reach 10,000 by the end of the year the way we're going right now. So you can see we do a lot of programs but they are also very well attended and as you can see you can see why with taste testers, Wondertoads, Dirt Fest we are always trying to push kind of the boundaries of what a library is known for but also to kind of blanket also partners that you might not know would partner with the library. So we're always doing that as well. That way both staff can do what they want but not shoulder all of that weight. So there's all of that. Does anybody have any questions? No question but I'm really excited about your battle of the books because the MCCSC used to have a program that the sixth graders they would be teams and then they would get together and it was competition though and that's why we had to stop it but they had the different schools that were against each other to see how well they read the stories and I just think that's a fabulous program. The kids kind of missed it after it was taken away so that's really wonderful and it looks like also with their tween things that it's going to just be the gateway for them to continue with the teen activities too so congratulations. Thank you. I can say that a lot of these the parents often come to us begrudgingly and say well where's the adult version of this? Where's Dirt Fest for kids, you know for adults and we are in the process we got a lot of adults who would like to do Battle of the Books with you know as an adult one and as I was thinking about in talking to my staff we thought it'd be really nice to do a family Battle of the Books where you come together with families and read it together and then do the trivia as well to do that intergenerational programming so that way it's not so excluded by age. So thank you yeah we've got kids coming that same day saying so when's the next one? And I do know the second place winner was four people one was siblings and I talked that older boy into doing it so when he came out I was like see I told you it'd be worth it you won something. All right thank you. Thank you. Just wanted to say too this is I mean really wonderful work kudos to you and your team. The creativity that it takes to put these programs on and the energy coupled with these kind of statistics is really something like it's sort of a holistic skill set that you're bringing to be able to like look and continuously improve based on data which is difficult to collect when there are hundreds of children in the room or playing in a dirt pile. So just want to say thank you for this presentation it's clear that the work and like the creativity of service is really there but it's really impressive to the staffs that you're able to provide and look at to continuously get better. Thank you I think it's a nice balance where I'm more statistic based and my staff is more visual and I always tell them get a you know 300 was a roundabout there might have been more there probably was more just because we need to show both statistically and visually that the library is needed especially now so I always push get as much statistics even if you have to round park if you're at 200 and you're like I can't count anymore that's still going to make an impact for the library. Okay next we're going to hear about the Southwest branch. All right so thank you for this opportunity to talk about Southwest I'm really happy to share a little bit about the year and really what I'm going to try and recreate is the story of us who we are and what we do and it's a lot like the elephant where I can tell you just little bits and everybody's going to walk away with a different impression but I'm going to try and get you the impression that's closest to what we experience on a daily basis. So the first one I was in use services for almost 20 years and I used a pig puppet and when I came to Southwest I thought oh there's going to be so much of what I used to use at Southwest. No no had to reinvent the wheel I could use a lot of my experience but I was like nope toss the pig puppet because that's not where we are anymore and then I was like hmm turtle? No we do not move slowly at Southwest we are not guarded we are very open to the public oh I so wanted to be the bunny so cute so fluffy oh my gosh you could do so much with this expressive little face but bunnies they startle easily and that is not us oh my gosh alright you guys this was so unexpected and yeah really unexpected I thought I know what Southwest is gonna be like I know libraries I know what's gonna happen this started with me moving to Bloomington and I am trying to cram everything into a one bedroom apartment and I'm shoving my kayak into my sister's garage and she waltzes up to me my sister who is also a children's librarian smiles at me and sticks 50 possum stickers in my pocket and I'm like Chris what are you doing I've got to get this kayak into your garage and she passed my pocket she goes you're gonna need them and that became part of the Southwest lore because when I was on the third floor and everyone was so kind when I started and staff started coming in or introducing themselves and they said we heard you have possum stickers where are ours and I was like oh my gosh I think these are my people and possums quirky unexpected but oh so needed in their habitat doesn't always look pretty but oh so useful so if you can picture what I'm about to say and the quirkiest most unexpected fashion that is us and I'm gonna put you up right the other way is a little too worrisome so upright moving quickly so Southwest we are a staff of 10 public service and we have four material handlers they are the unsung heroes and when my sister was a material handler in Bloomington almost 20 years ago she said never forget your material handlers they are the ones who get your core reason back on the shelf and the reason why everything keeps moving smoothly never underestimate your material handlers so I want to give a shout out to our four material handlers my goodness they keep us going we have two security officers and we have three custodians so that's just sort of the numbers but now we're gonna talk about who we are I hope you got to see our teaching kitchen that is one of the more unusual pieces of Southwest and oh it was one of those quirky bits really quirky bits because as I said last year and this is our expansion I spent 20 years trying to keep everyone safe and I was watching for hazards and I was like and now we've got fire and we've got knives and we're gonna throw kids into the mix all right so we need to talk to somebody who's done this what not a lot of people have done this we're gonna make it up ourselves we're gonna do some brainstorming okay so we spent the past year expanding our programming ideas and I'm gonna talk about one of my favorite ones our equipment and that was a lot based on the public saying hey what do you want to see in the teaching kitchen what do we need to invest in equipment wise that we can continue to use over and over and then I don't know about you but I know I can cook at home can I cook with 12 other people and tell them what I'm doing and keep it organized and keep my eye on everyone so we had to work on our development of how do we teach in this new space that's not traditionally in libraries and then at the same time the teaching kitchen is like this meeting room public like organizations throughout the county they can reserve it and use it just like the meeting rooms and we had to figure out how does that work best with what we're seeing and can we adapt and pivot and that is one of my things I was like ooh that's unexpected how are we gonna pivot I think I thought about that a lot throughout the year and I really want to talk now about the children's staff we have one children's librarian Jenny and we've got two children's librarian assistants Krista and Jessica and they came up with something ingenious they do preschool cooks and books I was like oh three to six year olds they're gonna cook okay okay okay with their caregiver all right all right all right I was like how are we gonna do this and they took some of the key components of story time specifically music and they worked that in and they said we want to do not traditional cooking I mean we could do if you give a mouse a cookie and then we make cookies but what if we made wontons I was like okay and we're gonna make a song up so our three-year-olds can figure out the motion of putting the filling in putting the water on the edges and fold to fold to fold and they came up with a song and I walked by because I love to walk by during some of these programs and I see all the kids singing as they do this and I was like oh yeah we knew that worked and children's story time you sing you break the words down phonologically they're learning vocabulary but they're also doing motor skills that are designed for that three through six and they're trying something new and we weren't going to be like you got to eat it all just be like hey it's a new flavor let's try it and then into this learning we also added smell so there's a lot of like we got the ingredients out in the little bowls and then you smell it and you're like what does it smell like because it might be something new and that added sensory bit in that learning it's really sticking with them oh the songs are very cute and I often like when I'm going by and I hear a ukulele going and I hear Krista trying to work the syllables out to see can I get the instructions into a song I love those moments because I was like oh that's so clever and what do you do when you try something new what have we just taught parents and caregivers that we have expanded out the possibilities of what children are capable of and hopefully modeled something that you go home and keep doing oh they're capable of wontons what else are they capable of what should we be trying at home to keep doing this sort of expansion and I was like yeah because we got a comment card saying I know like you know I love my kid I think they're capable of great things but the possibilities of what they are capable of at this age I have branched out on what we're going to try at home that's our goal so if you want to come to a cooking program I highly recommend it and if you have a three through six year old yeah come so teen space what we focused on this past year was we got a lot of seventh and eighth graders this is maybe their first time being independent in a public space so while we're spending a lot of time saying hey this is the behavior that's expected in a public space we also want you to feel like you have ownership in this public space that when you have comments we're listening and we're trying to integrate what you're telling us so we worked on a teen advisory board and they gave us feedback and we got art up in the teen space that reflects their interests and worked in their ideas we also heard them that sometimes you know like I would like this board game I would like this material that's very traditional but we also worked on how are we arranging some of the small pieces of furniture so it feels very cozy and then we also went and we added some frosting to the study room walls and the outer space so that their space is where they feel very comfortable and we can say hey the library is for everyone but when we also say and I hear you and we integrate what you're asking for we're reinforcing it and we're watching how it goes and there is between 20 to 60 teens who come over after school once bachelor lets out we're also seeing some of our older used to be bachelor now at high school coming over and we're loving that mix and we're seeing more the ones who are hanging out in the all ages space coming into the team space and interacting with our team staff so we're going to continue to be like are we listening closely to this audience and can we mesh with what they're asking for adults so we went very green this year we launched two different things one of them sorry at downtown library the seed library we started our own seed library but we knew we couldn't duplicate downtown so we thought how can we go small and we want to tie it into the teaching kitchen so we decided this year we would do a salsa library and we would have limited amount of seeds but the goal was take this grow it at home come back and we're going to try and wrap it into programs that we have at the teaching kitchen so oh at the very beginning like maybe you don't have a green thumb let's do like how to get going in your garden with Purdue extension and then we're getting into the summer and your peppers are going so can we do some dehydration of peppers because your tomatoes aren't ready yet and then we did a salsa program so we're like this works for us we're going small we tied into the teaching kitchen we handed out two thousand three hundred and twenty two packets of seeds and next year we've already decided we're going to do a chili garden because then we can keep going on like hey that stuff you learned with tomatoes last year let's build on it and then if you like your chili a little spicy you know that those peppers that you knew how to grow and then also something that can be vegetarian and also then something possibly vegan and then also you know like we're trying to keep going and then and then and then so we also launched a living plant library this one was very different we had the seeds there in their packets they're all nice and contained and then they're like let's do a living plant library and I was like aha water in the library I was like talk to me about this so we ended up handing it out 438 cuttings reaching about 250 people we had 48 plant libraries they had it down to a science and you know what I should have mentioned I skipped over teen services staff Kate long and we have two part are two full time teen services library or library assistance Danny and Joe and then an adult Becky craft is the adult librarian and then Sophia and Julie and I should have known with Becky because I was like I unleashed Becky on the kitchen on the organization so I was like water plants cuttings Becky ill work so what I heard the other day at the desk was we love using the library but the plant living plant library was something very unexpected because you know everything we take from the library it's like information it's intangible or it's a program and it's a relationship that's also sort of intangible the materials we borrow we return but the seed cuttings we took home and I love that green that is now in my home and it reminds me of the library and serve an unexpected way on a daily basis and they brought back the tubes and they said if we bring turn these will you do the program again next year and I was like yeah yeah we will so oh and then they were also like and we'd like to donate this time too so a little bit unexpected and all the age groups but it wouldn't be this year if I didn't say something about the road construction and the piece I really want to talk about the road construction there was a lot but what we found was as the road construction changed on a daily basis what it really did was tightened up our internal message because it was like what's happening out there and sometimes I would run out and take a look it would change hourly I'd run back in I'd be like here's the update and we would pivot on these talking points sometimes you know twice a day but what was really interesting is it became not quite a weather conversation with the public but a really interesting way to connect because they're like oh you know like yeah that was that was wild getting in and then we'd start talking about it and it was something in common no matter who walked through the door whether it was little kids who loved all the construction or it was adults who are like I can't wait until this is done or it would be people who are like I can't wait till we can walk here or people who came on such a regular basis they would give us an update so then we could add it to our update but it was something in common that we were all experiencing as we were using this community place and that's really what we look for a lot of times can I find a way to connect with you and then share some resource that you need or would like to hear about or tell you about a program and we try and start that with like a hello welcome to Southwest welcome in so we've got that first but construction gave us an unexpected second and it also brought a lot of kindness from our community because we thought we'd get a lot of complaints but what we got a lot of was oh hey and then it gave us something to talk about and it was easy then to transition into what can we do for you here at the library and that will be something we will continue to think about as we ask for feedback from the public as we continue to watch what is needed from our community and the south side and I have no doubt that we will continue to be rather quirky because it has worked for us. Anybody have any questions? You guys have really weathered quite a few things recently. So kudos to being able to still have a smile on your face and doing a great job. Humor has saved us. I would love to come in and be very serious but really since humor carries us along, I'm going to grab possum puppet and come in and hope no one has a terror or fear of possums or puppets and just tell you this is what we're trying to do and we are supported by so many different departments to make it possible because we're not operating out here in isolation. We've got so much support from the system and that's been incredibly important to us. I just think it's wonderful to see a full spectrum of engagements and enthusiasm. So I think that's to your leadership. Thank you. Thanks. We try and really work that because even though everyone's got their specialty, everyone works all three of the service points because then we're heavily invested in promoting all the programs and we also know about them. And it's interesting because I have a completely different experience with summer reading at the information desk than I will in teen or children and I think that just helps me on all of them. And also then I'll be like, I catch the parents and I'll be like, hey, you want to join the summer reading club, don't you? And I grin at them until they take the board. And I'm like, yeah, you do. It's like, let's do this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, do we have any public comment? Okay, all in favor of adjourning, say aye. Aye. Meeting adjourned. ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar) ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar) ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar) ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar) ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar) ("Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar)