- This is a call to order for the public library meeting. Board of trustees at the Monroe County Public
- Library. I need somebody to approve the consent agenda. Okay. And now we have the director's report.
- Just a couple of highlights this time around. First, some of you may be aware, but the largest and longest
- standing book vendor for libraries, Baker and Taylor, is Closing Shop. We've been kind of following
- this for better half of this year. It has a huge impact on us in terms of it being our primary vendor
- for selecting print materials.
- We've anticipated something like this for a while, as have all other public libraries we're aware of.
- We shifted our ordering plans a while back because of the Baker and Taylor buyout situation. When the
- buyout fell through last month, we were already in a situation with Ingram, who is a competitor of Baker
- and Taylor's. And of course, we use Amazon for all kinds of one-off purchases. So we've already been
- adjusting our
- are selecting and are ordering process but Baker and Taylor going down is a big moment in the world
- of public libraries so it's worth acknowledging that just to honor the history of that company. Also
- for MCPL it has caused a few hiccups for us in terms of acquisition rates the impact on collection
- development workflows and as the report indicates we've taken this opportunity this brief lull in acquisition
- to focus on some other cataloging and maintenance projects and we'll continue
- to do that until the orders start to come in. We do expect to get all of our back-ordered items, if
- not by the end of the year, certainly next year if we switch them over to Ingram. So that's kind of
- what's been going on with Baker and Taylor. And farewell to the company that began in 1818, I think.
- So kind of a big deal.
- Just a quick update on the Bookmobile. We've been in pretty constant communication with TechOps, who
- is the company who's building the vehicle. Remember, this is a custom vehicle. That's why it takes so
- long and costs so much money. They've been great at communicating with us, particularly about some of
- the details, the dimensions of the vehicle, some of the finer pieces that we have to consider include
- the short ramp.
- that goes in and out of the downtown garage where the bookmobile lives. We have to make sure we have
- enough clearance. So when we're talking about the chassis and exactly how we want it designed, there's
- a lot of communication that goes into all of that. All of this is in advance of the physical assembly
- of the vehicle, which we expect to happen in the second quarter of next year, which is right on track
- with our projected timeline. So we are in good shape with the new bookmobile order.
- Last month the downtown drive up window had a mechanical failure and we were down for I think just under
- a week. So here's a little background.
- When COVID hit in March of 2020, one of the first things we realized was we're not going to want to
- have anything but a contactless drive up window solution going forward. And we had a lot of what was
- called COVID money coming in through state and local government. And it allowed us to upgrade the drive
- up window and create sort of an automatic window, like you would have a drawer rather, like you would
- have at a bank or something like that. And it's worked very well for us. It does go down from time to time.
- year or so we've seen it go down increasingly and while we work with a good company to supply the parts
- to replace the failure this time we got a little anxious and decided we need to create our own solution
- and that would be a manual override for any time the drive-up window goes down and our building services
- team got really creative and figured it out and
- in about 24 hour period. And so now we have a manual override for that drawer. We also have a surplus
- of replacement parts so that when it goes down next time we can take a stab at
- working on it ourselves before we call the vendor down. But regardless, we can do it manually. So we
- don't expect to have to close the drive up again in the future because when it fails, we'll just shift
- to manual. And as I understand it from Elizabeth Gray's team in adult services, they kind of prefer
- the manual anyway. So that's what we might be doing for a while. We have put together as part of strategic
- goal number three,
- review team to look at our incident report writing system and procedures. So, a little background on
- this. Any incident we have occur at the library ranging from a patron behavior issue to an accident
- or an emergency or any need to call EMS, anything like that, we document through an incident report.
- Some of those incident reports result in bans of anywhere from a day to a month to three months depends
- on the severity of the behavior. Sometimes Bloomington police are called in to assist us particularly
- here downtown. We are reviewing the process that we use for writing those reports the system we use for
- managing the reports and distributing the information and then figuring out who on staff should receive
- those reports. Right now it's a very limited number of people. It's confidential staff only. That includes
- leadership and security staff. The problem is it leaves a lot of our public services staff with the
- knowledge gap because if they don't know enough about what happened in a given incident, say two hours
- ago, certainly 24 hours ago, they don't have all the information they need to provide the right kind
- of service.
- So we're reviewing all of this with a team as we do comprised of staff from every department in the
- library and soon they're going to give us a proposal for new software and a new set of procedures which
- we will review. We'll consider it in the context of strategic goal number five and we'll turn around
- with a recommendation and put an implementation plan in place to begin in January of next year. So that
- team's work is almost wrapped up.
- Hats off to CATS in September. They did a tremendous amount of work covering 54 government meetings,
- 21 new local events, and Lotus on top of everything. So very impressive. Thank you all and CATS. Yeah,
- so happy to answer any questions about the director's report. Are there any questions or comments?
- I'm so sorry. Let's backtrack. Let's vote on accepting the consent agenda. My bad. All those in favor
- say aye. Aye. Opposed. Approved. Thank you Tom. Thanks Tom. Okay we have some old business which is
- an action item. Gary.
- is going to present and we're going to have a resolution to adopt the 2026 library budget. So last month
- at the public hearing we went over the 2026 budget numbers in some detail and tonight we have the final
- step of the budget process
- which is approval of the adoption form. The budget adoption resolution is on page 52 in the packet.
- So the resolution reads, be it resolved by the MCPL Board of Trustees that the expenses of Monroe County
- Public Library for the year ending December 31, 2026,
- The sums herein specified are hereby appropriated and ordered set apart out of the several funds herein
- named and for the purposes herein specified, subject to the laws governing the same. Such sums herein
- appropriated shall be held to include all expenditures authorized to be made
- during the year unless otherwise expressly stipulated and provided for by law. In addition, for the
- purposes of raising revenue to meet the necessary expenses of Monroe County Public Library, the property
- tax levies and property tax rates are herein specified, are included herein. Budget
- Form 4B for all funds must be completed and submitted in the manner prescribed by the Department of
- Local Government Finance. This resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage
- and approval by the MCPL Board of Trustees. So on the form, the first column on the form
- shows the adopted spending budget for each of the library's funds. The total spending budget for all
- the funds is $13,792,419. The second column on the form is the budgeted revenue from the operating fund
- tax levy and the debt fund levy.
- The operating tax fund levy is $8,284,932 and the debt fund levy is $632,887. The third column on the
- form is the tax rate. The combined operating fund and debt fund tax rate for 2026 is 8.04 cents per
- hundred dollars of assessed value.
- Are there any questions on the budget or this form? Pardon? For the adopted tax rate, because on here
- it says .08. So is it eight point? Oh, oh. Well, it's, yeah, it's kind of strange. So this is .0804,
- which is the rate
- And they also, when talking about the rate, they use the figure per $100 of assessed value. So that's
- what makes it 8.04. Okay, thank you. And I will start the form around for everyone.
- Any more questions or comments the budget. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Those opposed.
- The motion carries for the action carries. Sorry. Action. Old business.
- has been taken care of, new business. There are no action items, but we do have some presenters from
- the JA Benefits. If you'd step forward, please. I'm not from JA. Oh, OK. All right. So Alyssa Prince
- is our JA Benefits. I don't remember what your title is.
- Account executive. We are fortunate enough to get to work with JA Benefits year round. They do a fantastic
- job for us on our open enrollment renewals and also do a wonderful job supporting our staff and helping
- with questions that folks have in order to use their benefits. So I get the joy of working with Alyssa
- on a regular basis, but she is going to present on our renewal. And I will struggle here to get this open.
- Yeah. Go ahead and turn it over. All right. Well, thank you all for having us tonight. We appreciate
- it. Again, my name is Alyssa Prince with JA Benefits. We have worked with the library, I think, for
- a little over 15 years now. It's been a great partnership and we really appreciate working with you
- all. Becky is phenomenal. I'm just going to throw that out there. She does a great job working for your
- people and we love working with her.
- We're going to just start out by going over some of the benefit offerings that you have, I'm sure you're
- probably pretty familiar with them but just wanted to do a brief overview of that. For those full time
- folks you are offering a medical plan you have three different options for them to enroll in.
- have access to the Marathon Health Clinic, which is a local clinic that is for employees specifically.
- Different employers across Bloomington utilize that resource, but it's really great for employees because
- they can get in quickly, they can get their primary care, also get acute care that they need, and get
- it in a timely manner. And they have great doctors there too. Oh, I think it switched on me.
- Okay, you also have dental and vision, a flexible spending account. Those flexible spending accounts
- are just an opportunity for employees to put money in, have money kind of up fronted for them to help
- pay for their benefits or as they have things that occur. There's an employee assistance program, voluntary
- life and basic life. Basic life is something that the library pays for on behalf of employees and they
- have that benefit.
- And then short-term and long-term disability. Long-term disability is another one that is paid for by
- the library, a great benefit for your people. What's great with the library, you also offer benefits
- to some of the part-time people too. We don't necessarily see that everywhere, so I think that's a really
- competitive advantage for you all. For the 20- to 25-hour employees, mostly they have access to everything
- besides the basic life and the LTD that are
- paid for by the library and then the medical plan. All of the other benefits they still have access
- to, which is great. And then your 15 to 18 hour employees, they still have access to the Marathon Clinic
- too. So if they maybe don't have medical somewhere else, they still have access to that clinic, which
- is again, is a really great resource. And then they also have the Employee Assistance Program, which
- is available for people if they have something personally going on and they need somebody to talk to,
- you can get some limited sessions through that program.
- This is just a lot of information, but it's the renewal history since the time that JA started working
- with the library. Initially, I think it was the first few years we worked with the library, it was with
- Anthem, and then switched to SciHo, and we were with SciHo for about eight years, I believe, and then
- in the past few years switched over to Anthem.
- What we see in the fully insured market a lot of the time is that there's a lot more movement than that.
- And a lot of that has to do with just the carrier will say, we don't like this risk anymore. We're gonna
- increase your rates by a whole, whole lot. And then you have to move carriers. Luckily, the library
- has been pretty stable and we've not had to do that a whole lot, which is really nice for your people
- to be able to stay with the same carrier for quite some time. So as you can see in the past couple of
- years, we moved over to Anthem in 2023.
- We initially had an 18% increase from SciHo and then we were able to move to Anthem. They wanted to
- buy your business. We were able to get a bit of a decrease. And then over the past couple of years have
- been able to do pretty well maintaining where we started with them at that time. What we are seeing
- in the market is typically about a 10% increase to a 15% increase annually for groups that are running
- well. So that means a group that
- they're making money on. What they look at is like a loss ratio. So say you have like a 70% loss ratio
- where you are paying in more premium than your expenses that are going out. Those are typically the
- ones we're still seeing around a 10 to 15%. So the fact that you guys have been able to keep the trend
- you have for a while is really great. I was hoping to have more information by this meeting to share
- on your actual renewal for this year.
- Anthem has been, and really the whole market has just been much slower at getting those renewals out
- this year and also even marketing new business. So we have been pushing them hard. They've heard from
- us a lot. I expect us to have a good update on that by next week. So by the next time you all meet,
- we will definitely have an update for you all. I'm sorry. Is there a maternity in this? Yes. Okay. Yep.
- Yep. Maternity is included in the medical plan. Yep.
- Just depending on the plan that you're enrolled in, it would be covered a little bit differently as
- far as deductibles and out of pocket and that kind of thing. And this last slide is just a timeline.
- As you can see over there in September, typically we have that Anthem renewal around the end of September.
- Again, like I said, this year we're just a little bit later than we hope to be, but hoping to have some
- good news on that soon.
- Renewal meeting, we will be setting that with the team here soon with Greer and Becky and everyone else
- in the very new future, hoping by next week if possible, as soon as we have that renewal in. Board meeting,
- again, we'll have everything prepped for you all by the November board meeting. And then when we go
- into right after Thanksgiving, whoop, timed out on me, right after Thanksgiving, we will start open
- enrollment. And our team helps support that in whatever way is best for the HR team.
- Sometimes we've come on site to do those presentations and then other times we've done one-on-one virtual
- with everyone or anyone that wants individual calls. And then we also have videos that we record which
- can kind of help support throughout the year as well. Do we have any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
- Now we have a department update from Adult Services, Elizabeth Gray.
- Well, let's see if we can get this going.
- Good evening. Thank you for allowing me time this evening to speak with you about what's gone on in
- adult services this past year. I'll be discussing some of our newer and more popular programs and services.
- But please remember that along with doing all of this important work, we also staff three desks every
- day. So we staff the second floor information desk, we staff the drive up window, and we also staff
- our level up space. So this isn't all we're doing. We're doing a whole bunch of other stuff too.
- So this year we continued our popular book clubs. Green Peeps is one of our book clubs which focuses
- on books about nature and the environment. It's facilitated by adult librarian Maggie Hutt. And this
- book club meets in parks and nature preserves when the weather cooperates and allows us to do that.
- And frequently they have guest speakers that are related to the topic of the current book that they're
- reading. We also have the Short Attention Span book club. It's one of our newer ones.
- It's led by librarian Emily Bedwell and it's a group that reads short stories and novellas. They read
- them across genre. The book club has become increasingly popular as people have found out about it and
- they have had authors that have zoomed into their meetings to discuss the books.
- Emily has also discussed the format of this book club with several other libraries who have contacted
- her because they're interested in the concept. So that's been great, I think, for people who are busy
- and maybe can't commit to a full-size book. So people have really enjoyed that. We also have Books on
- Tap. This is a longstanding one that we've had. It's a book club that's currently led by Maggie Hutt.
- It meets outside of the library. So they meet at either a restaurant or a coffee shop. And they discuss
- a wide range of books from
- fiction to nonfiction to science fiction. This group has become so popular that we had to add a second
- group. So the second one will start, I believe it starts next month. It's either this month or next
- month. And it's called Books on Tap Last Call. So what they're doing is they're reading like the previous
- month's book. And Emily Bedwell is going to lead that one. They're also going to meet out in the community.
- The first meeting that we have scheduled for it has already filled up.
- When you're doing book clubs, especially when you're out in the community, you can't have 30 people
- show up. So we've had to kind of figure out a better way to do that. And I'm happy that that's worked
- out really well so far. I'm sorry? What is the cap? I think the cap is 15. Honestly, 15 is a little
- bit, if you've been to book club meetings, sometimes 15 can be a little bit unwieldy. That can be a
- little bit too many people.
- That Books on Tap, the original one, because it's been around so long, there's really a core group of
- original people who come that take up almost every spot. And then we provide the books as well. So that's
- why we had to figure out another way to get all the people that are interested in coming to come to
- it. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it'll work out really well. How do the businesses respond
- in terms of the number of people or the night, or what's the response from them? So yeah, so when Maggie,
- she talks to them before,
- you know, she agrees to do this wherever it's going to be. And then she talks to them about the size,
- like the most people that it can be. Generally, I don't think she's had anywhere that hasn't wanted
- to work with us. Obviously for them, you know, it's a good thing. What she'll do is she'll usually buy
- like some kind of a little snack so that everybody can share it and then people buy their own drinks
- and things. But now it's been, you know, it's been a great response. And some places are just easier
- to hold it.
- than other places, so that's, you know, sometimes we've run into a problem there. But so far it's been
- a good response. They like having us. In an attempt to create more programming for people who don't
- always make it into the library, our librarian, Emily Bedwell, led three initiatives where people could
- participate virtually. Over 400 people participated in two writing contests that she held. One was a
- haiku contest, and the other one
- was the two sentence horror story contest. That's back up again for October because she does it in October
- every year. People seem to love it. So people have had a good time with that. She also did a virtual
- winter reading challenge in February of last year. So everything was done virtually and she had over
- 900 participants in that. Yeah, which was a lot. This year I had the opportunity to provide a tour for
- a group from Stone Belt.
- After a tour of the adult services spaces, I spoke with a group about my job. And then we had representatives
- from collection services, circulation services, and outreach talk about their jobs as well. I also spoke
- with a group about non-traditional library jobs. So I talked to them about we have accounting people
- here. We have human resources folks here. We have administrative people here. So I talked to them about
- the different job opportunities at libraries that everybody that works here isn't just a librarian.
- After we did the presentation, every attendee, they were very happy with this. They got an MCPL lunch
- box, or lunch bag, the insulated kind. So they enjoyed that. Led by librarian Emily Bedwell, we are
- gearing up for our annual self-care kits for the unhoused in our community in November. These kits contain
- hygiene items like soap and shampoo, a blanket, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a number of other items.
- Each year we give out more than 150 of these kits. And very recently,
- Several of our adult librarians and I have spoken with several different groups of law students from
- IU's Maurer School of Law. They wanted to talk to the library about ways that we help patrons who are
- in need of legal assistance. The groups are also looking at how people interact with the justice system
- and what impediments people have to accessing help when they are involved with the legal system.
- just as a background so that you know the library, we do assist people, generally there are people who
- are unable to afford the services of an attorney and we cannot provide legal advice to anybody and sometimes
- you know when people need
- legal help. They want to, they really want us to give them the advice, but we can't do that. What we
- can do is help them with legal research. We can help them find legal forms if they can do their own
- type of legal work. Sometimes that works out really well. And we can also refer folks to low cost legal
- services in the area so that if they do need the services of an attorney, that is a place where they
- can go to find it. So are you suggesting that IU law is
- going to collaborate somehow? Well, they're looking at it. We have had them come for different things
- to do programs and things. But what they're doing right now, it's for a class. It's the first year law
- students and it's for a class and they're looking at, so it is really interesting the group that I talked
- with in person. I ended up talking with them for like an hour and they just were shocked when I started
- telling them about people that don't have the resources. You don't think about the fact that
- Well, if I just come to the library, then people can come here and I can help them here. But there are
- people that don't have transportation. Just the things like that, the everyday struggles that they don't
- think about, that other people have in their lives. So it's a really good conversation. I really enjoy
- talking to them. And I think part of their project, because one of the women was talking to me later,
- is for them to propose ways that they can reach folks who are not getting access to legal help as well.
- That's wonderful. Thank you.
- In Level Up, our technologies professional, Becky Rice, led a program that taught patrons how to 3D
- print accessibility devices. Patrons could print umbrella holders for wheelchairs, bottle openers, a
- Braille Rubik's Cube, a seatbelt pole, or tactile art for those that have low vision. Other programs
- in Level Up have focused on ways that participants could use technology to create their own crafts,
- including quilting patterns,
- diamond painting patterns, and cross stitch projects from their own photos. Level Up also added a vinyl
- cutter to its services. We just added that very recently. And this is going to allow patrons to create
- their own designs. And then they can have a vinyl sticker cut out of whatever it is that they create.
- Staff just got trained on that. And to kick it off for patrons, Becky is going to have a program with
- a small group of patrons who sign up for it so that they can learn how to do it at the beginning.
- But that's up and going now, so people are looking forward to that as well. Librarian Christine Friesel
- is leading a project called Who's Your Character for staff to drop pins on a digital map that provides
- historical information. Because addresses were not used until the late 19th century, finding out where
- things happened before the use of addresses takes a lot of time. Thanks to GIS, we have a tool in place
- to capture information, or a field note as we call it,
- and pin it down until more information comes along. This allows us to visualize our local, regional,
- and state history in a new way with more context. Now anyone can type in an address and possibly find
- out who lived there or owned property there in the 19th century. Together with Monroe County History
- Center and Monroe County GIS Division, MCPL has built Hoosier Character just in time for 2026 when our
- nation celebrates America 250. And I looked up my
- An ancestor of mine, John Kerr, who I knew had been here in Bloomington. So I popped that in just to
- see what I could find. And I just took a screenshot of it so you could see kind of what folks will see
- when they. You can see all the pens here, like how many different pens there are in different places.
- There's been a lot of work. She's been working on this for a while. Is this accessible through the?
- I'm sorry? Is this accessible through the library web page? Yes. Yes, it is. Yep.
- So she's been working on this for a while, and there have been a lot of staff that have helped her.
- They've done a great job. And there's been a lot of work that's been put into it. What kind of fact
- checking do you know is done? So yeah, anything that's there has to come from a primary source. So that's
- what they have been making sure. Everything that we use is something that we have from the newspaper
- or whatever it's been that they've used. So it has to be from a primary source so that we know that
- it's correct.
- She kind of started getting interested in this. There has been, I don't know if you've heard about this,
- I don't know why you would if you're not a library person. There's been some discussion and interest
- and people have been digging to find that there was an underground railroad stop here in Bloomington.
- And so she was working on that and I think that kind of led her into, we can't find anything because
- They didn't have addresses. So it was really difficult to find things. So that kind of led to this.
- She's still working with a group that has been trying to prove for certain that there was an Underground
- Railroad stop here in Bloomington. They didn't advertise. They didn't advertise. No, no. That's, yeah.
- So you can't find that on the paper, right? No. Wow. Nonprofits Central continues to support the nonprofits
- in our community, with librarian Jack Kovaleski leading the initiative.
- The two biggest events, Meet the Media in February and Meet the Funders in October, continue to draw
- large crowds. Meet the Media attendees present for one minute on the value of their nonprofit by sharing
- a story, idea, purpose, event, or success related to their organization. Media panel representatives
- provide feedback on each pitch and meet with nonprofit representatives in small groups for more in-depth
- questions and conversation.
- Meet the Funders allows attendees a chance to network with funders and other nonprofit representatives
- and learn about grant and funding advice that can help them become more successful at obtaining funding.
- Nonprofit Central also provides a collection of materials focused on all aspects of nonprofit work and
- funding, including the candid grant database. And Jack provides one-on-one assistance for anyone starting
- or building a nonprofit organization as well.
- Librarian Josh Caswell continues to focus programming on what we call emerging adults. Those are folks
- who are aging out of our teen space and need to make the jump to adult services. Josh reported that
- over the course of our fiber arts club program, which is led by Josh and library assistant Ian Hoagland,
- we have had great luck with engagement among participants, both with us as hosts and with one another.
- There is regularly an active and energetic conversation going on for the duration of the program.
- Josh says, this program to me is what we are here to do as a library, connecting people to a community,
- building connections and friendships. One glowing example of this is that ESL patrons from Vital regularly
- show up to take part. This group, whether regulars or newcomers, has really gone above and beyond to
- chat with and aid those people in whatever fiber arts they were engaged in. One participant recently
- shared with Josh that they plan to visit one of the ESL learners in Turkey.
- So that has been going very well. It's been a slow build, but he has been working on building that as
- well. And I'm going to go ahead. So these are all of our library assistants in adult services currently.
- And I just heard Greer talking to you about how our drive-up window wasn't working. And I wanted to
- share with you an experience that came out of that, which actually turned out to be a good experience.
- Recently, our drive-up window was inoperable, which meant patrons had to park and come into the library
- to retrieve their holds.
- Staff members were still scheduled at that service point because we had to continue to check in and
- shelf holds. One day I stepped into the space to see how things were going. Long time library employee,
- library assistant, Burl Cooper was there and he had challenged himself to keep watch out the window
- and tried to identify the patrons driving through attempting to get their holds. That's him right there.
- That's so funny. I'm talking about him and he walked in. We didn't plan this. This is awesome.
- If he could identify them, he grabbed their holds, checked them out to them, and met them with their
- items as they came into the door. I watched him do this several times, and the surprise and delight
- on our patrons' faces was priceless. That was very, I was shocked when I saw him doing that, and that's
- funny that you came in right when I was talking about you. Thank you, Burl, that was excellent service.
- And finally, I would like to share a few patron comments with you that we have received over this past
- year. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy you as my destination.
- I have been using MCPL since the late 1960s and I plan on continuing to visit long into the future.
- I really enjoy participating in several adult programs and have joined two different book clubs. The
- programs are fun and give me a break from everyday stress. The book clubs have exposed me to books that
- I might not have chosen to read on my own. And when the group discusses the book, it is wonderful to
- hear all the different perspectives of the readers.
- I would like to take this opportunity to recognize staff Burl and Ian. At the digital lab last winter,
- a friend and I decided we wanted to learn 3D printing. We found the digital lab and Burl and Ian have
- helped us all along the way. Because of their support, we are now competent users of Thingiverse, which
- is a program designed to design your own 3D prints. And with their continued support, we are learning
- more advanced programs. Wherever I go in Bloomington or other cities, I tell friends about what a gift
- the digital lab is and how helpful Ian and Burl are.
- Living in B-town the last 15 years, I've experienced this branch, and they're talking about the main
- library, every way, in every mobility, even as a newly amputated wheelchair person. This branch exceeds
- my expectations in accommodating all my needs. All staff are incredibly amazing. I am so thankful for
- you. It's been a safe space getting through into my new life and world. Southwest is my newest love,
- while downtown remains a faithful mainstay. My Saturday visits are a library ritual. Thank you for everything
- over the years.
- And finally, this is an interaction that I recorded. When we have interactions with folks on the desk
- or phone, a lot of times we'll put them in a comment card to share with everybody and staff. And this
- is one that I had that came at just the right time. It really kind of spiced my day up. I just had a
- patron stop at the desk and ask how she can support the library at this time. She's aware of the funding
- cuts and is very concerned about how it will affect the library.
- She raved about bringing her children and grandchildren over the years and about all the experiences
- she has had here. She's even telling other folks why these funding cuts are so impactful in our community.
- She asked that I pass her comments along as she hopes it helps library staff feel valued by the community
- and it does. Those comments really mean a lot to us. So that is in a very brief summation kind of our
- year. If you have any other questions I'm happy to answer them. Anything at all. My only question would be the
- for your book club. Do you then allow the rest of the community to take those books or what do you do
- with those books after you've? Oh, that's a really good question. I'm glad you asked it actually. So
- we have a fund just for buying books for our book clubs. So it's separate, it comes from friends money,
- so it's completely separate from the rest of the collections. So many times we will have
- One that's just for staff. And then there's also, because we have book club kits that folks can check
- out. So there may be the same title that's a book club kit, if it's a really popular book, that members
- of the public can check out as well. So yeah, nothing's pulled from the shelves for these. But you wouldn't
- know that. As soon as you ask that, I'm like, oh, you wouldn't know how we were able to do it. Yeah.
- Looks like you've done a beautiful job. Thank you. Thank you so much.
- Well, thank you all. I appreciate you giving me time. Yeah, I really appreciate you doing this every
- year. And stop by the desk anytime you need anything. We're there for you. Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth.
- Now we're moving on to public comment. Is there anything, anybody online for public comment? Anybody
- in the audience?
- Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. All those in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned.