- like to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for February 18, 2026.
- We chose to move public comment to the beginning of our meetings, so we're going to at this time see
- if anyone is here from the public to speak or online.
- Hi, Paula. Oh, maybe. Did she chat? I see something down there.
- I can't read it. Okay, okay, we'll move forward. I would like to make a note that in the minutes from
- our last meeting, Jennifer Whitley was in attendance and was excluded, so we have that addition to the
- meeting notes. Other than that, may I get the motion to approve then the consent agenda from last? Okay,
- all in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay.
- and next we're gonna hear the director's monthly report from Greer. Okay, January saw record use of
- Overdrive, which is our incredibly popular ebook platform. This is the second month in a row that we've
- seen record use of Overdrive, so that's very exciting. We also saw record use of Freegal, which is a
- music streaming service we've offered for years, but it provides access to the Sony music catalog
- specifically, and it actually allows
- Up to five free downloads per week for patrons, which they get to keep. So they're DRM free files. Uh,
- it's a, it's, I'd say sort of a little known resource, but we've seen a jump in frugal use, which is
- really great. January also saw record Instagram engagement. And this is thanks largely to our heated
- rivalry inspired real, which became our highest performing post of all time. So that's very exciting.
- Our partnership with Health Net resumed in January. You may recall a couple of years ago we started
- that partnership when we had some folks from Health Net come and speak to you all about what
- their partnership and what their work is all about. That started in January after a brief hiatus. We're
- glad to be able to work with the group again. They provide space and opportunities to support patrons
- who are experiencing homelessness who have some basic health needs and they provide referrals to those
- folks for more serious needs.
- We did have to close to the public during the winter storm of January twenty fifth and twenty six. We've
- taken those closures as an opportunity to review our own internal inclement weather communication protocols
- for library staff and we're soon going to be adopting an automated messaging system for future hours
- adjustments and closures. Our public communication protocols will remain the same and they of course focus on
- website banner update as the closures or hours changes. Our mainline voicemail provides that update,
- and then we do social media posts as well. So that won't change, but the way we communicate internally
- with staff and departments will change pretty soon. One operational exception to the January 26 closure
- is CATS. Our team is contractually obligated to cover local government meetings, including those that
- are held during inclement weather.
- So our sincere thanks to Martin, Adam, and the entire CATS team for braving the bad weather in order
- to cover those meetings during those winter storms. We also work closely with city parking during the
- storm to ensure that our staff had adequate parking options for working here at the downtown library.
- The lot over there we call lot five on Lincoln. We have a number of those spots reserved for our staff.
- We also give out parking passes to staff for what we call zone four in the surrounding blocks.
- Both of those were pretty much off limits because of snow accumulation. So Becky Throckmorton and our
- HR team worked very closely with city parking to make sure that we had temporary alternative parking
- solutions for staff that did not cost them anything. That's a tough thing to do in the middle of an
- inclement weather crisis. So thanks not only to HR but also city parking for working closely with us on that.
- At the start of our new budget year, I'd like to thank our foundation and Friends of the Library group
- for their continued financial, volunteerism, and advocacy support. The Friends and Foundation received
- donations from the public to support library services and the Friends annual gift to the library of
- over $110,000.
- covers the vast majority of our programming costs. This is a critical partnership which makes so much
- of our work here at the library possible. And also a big thank you to all in our community who make
- donations to the foundation, either in financial form or through volunteerism. Happy to answer any questions
- about the director's report.
- We are gonna move on. Do I have a motion to hear about the CATS annual contracts from Martin O'Neill?
- Second. Yeah, these are four contracts this evening. One from the city, the county, town of Ellitsville,
- and a memorandum of understanding with WFHB. The city contract is a 1% increase over last year. County
- is a 3% increase.
- Ellisville is a 2% and our agreement with WFHB, that is the continuation of our weekly government roundup
- show called Cats Week that we do every Friday. And that's basically it. No questions. I know we usually
- take care of this earlier, so thank you for... Oh, no, thank you. ...to have it all wrapped up. Yeah,
- it was just a weird time. You know, everything was just getting later and later.
- All in favor say aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion approved. Next up, motion to hear the Code of Conduct
- Policy update from Tory Lohan.
- Hi, this is just one line in the code of conduct policy. So the code of conduct policy was updated just
- before the new media relations policy. So it's the line in regards to photographing and recording activities
- within the library. So currently the code of conduct says patrons who wish to photograph or record activities
- at the library must obtain permission
- from the individuals involved. And then it says, please see the library's media relations policy for
- details. That refers to our old media relations policy. So it was pulled from that into the new code
- of conduct. And then we're proposing that we take it from the updated media relations policy. So we're
- proposing it changes to, in general, photography and recording is permitted in public spaces on MCPL
- property, provided it does not interfere with MCPL staff and patrons
- do not wish to be recorded, including minors whose caregiver has not given consent, please see the library's
- media relations policy for details. And all of that comes verbatim from the media relations policy.
- So we're trying to give some general guidelines while also keeping it open for interpretation as well
- to help staff. So does that mean that if somebody sees you take pictures of somebody, that they would
- just go over and share that they don't want their child's picture taken?
- When I read this, how do they know if their child is going to be given their picture if they are not
- around to see the pictures taken? The way we approach it is because this is a public space. The way
- we approach it is
- you know, you're out in public, so chances are you're gonna be recorded. The way we approach it is if
- either a staff member or a patron, especially one who is a caregiver of a minor says, hey, I don't wish
- for my child to be recorded, then that should be respected. And if it does not, then it kind of goes
- into maybe a violation of the code of conduct policy, and then we approach it from there.
- So if a child doesn't have a caregiver present, that is just something that the caregiver would be proactive
- about communicating. Yes. Any other questions? All in favor of approving the change to the code of conduct
- policy, say aye. All opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion approved. Thank you.
- Next up, we are going to move to formally adopt the remote work policy motion to hear Becky on the remote
- work policy.
- So I know I presented last month with some information on the room at work policy. What we've seen from
- use didn't want to offer the opportunity to answer any questions that might be lingering from last time
- or anything that we didn't go over that you all were hoping to cover. The policy that's in the board
- packet, the only two things that we've updated from the initial pilot program
- Are we added some clarity around what happens if there is an emergency closing for a particular branch?
- That came out of some feedback and questions that we had from staff and managers. Just to clarify, if
- a particular branch is closed and the staff member is working remotely that day, they would still need
- to clock in and work. If it's something that's like a utility outage or something like that that's specific
- to one branch versus like a weather, inclement weather that
- you know, impacts all three branches where everyone is out. Obviously that would be an emergency time
- as well because that probably includes that employees place of residence. Um, and then the other change
- that we made is just formalizing to remove names. Um, so we put in positions for, um, who to contact
- and who makes approvals on things so that it's a little bit more formal and less, um, tied to particular
- names. So any questions?
- Appreciate you doing that so that we don't have to continue to approve changes when there are name changes.
- Any other questions? All in favor of approving the remote work policy as presented, say aye. Those opposed
- say nay. Ayes have it, motion approved. Thank you. Can I get a motion to hear the resolution for the
- surplus equipment?
- Gary, tell us all about it. This resolution for surplusing equipment is the result of a request from
- our IT department. We had another employee who wanted to purchase their retired computer through the
- bookstore. So that's what this is about.
- I really like that that is an option. So thank you. Any questions? All in favor of the resolution for
- the surplus equipment say aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Motion approved. And next we're
- going to continue to hear from Gary Letler about the annual financial report.
- Yes. So this is the annual financial report that is done for the Department of Local Government Finance
- and it's uploaded to Gateway and it's open to the public. And this is the first time that we've had
- this annual report in the packet. And the reason we are doing it now is because in our last audit the
- auditors ask us if the
- annual report was being reviewed, and in the past, I've just filed it because it always gets, as we
- get an audit, that is the focus. It's those reports that are uploaded to Gateway. And so I thought,
- well, that's the review. But anyway, they said, you really should have your director and your board
- review it. So it's in there.
- just in case you have questions, but it's gonna be thoroughly tested later. And the other annual report
- that you have seen in the past, which is usually in the packet in March is for the State Library, and
- I think Greer knows more about this than me, but they're having a lot of problems, and we're probably
- not gonna have that in the March packet.
- Annual report Gary's referring to is sort of the state library's public library annual report where
- we focus on everything from operating costs to total staff to types of services we provide, data points
- supporting those services and all of that. And we usually do it in January. The due date is March 1st
- and then we give you all sort of a PDF version of it and then we summarize the highlights. So you may
- recall that Baker and Taylor closed once and for all late last year.
- Baker and Taylor actually owned and operated the web portal that we use for doing the annual report.
- So the State Library has been working to find a new vendor. They have found a new vendor, but establishing
- the new portal has taken a little bit of time. So we heard from the State Library representative just
- last week that we still plan to do the annual report. We don't have a date yet for when it
- will be distributed. Obviously, once it is, we'll probably get about three months to get it done.
- If I had to guess, I'd say we'll give you all the PDF version of the report that we complete probably
- around July, and we'll go through it like we do every year. It's just going to be a little later than
- usual. I do have questions about that. Understand the pickup with tech and vendors. Why is the timeline
- changing though for completion?
- The data's there. The data changes from year to year. The questions that they ask is changed year to
- year. So some of the data gathering we're gonna do in a preliminary fashion because we always have to
- have certain data points entered and that's pretty like boilerplate. But the way they ask questions
- about particularly programming, digital collections use and things like that do change from year to
- year enough that it's hard for us to. Even this year. Yeah. You think so? Yes. So it's hard for us to
- anticipate
- what numbers they're gonna ask for when it comes to those things. So some of the report we can get started
- on early and just have the numbers ready, and some of it is we're just gonna have to wait and see how
- they ask those questions. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Thank you. This is just for
- Information for the board the conflict of interest form is available in the packet If you feel there
- is something that you would like to disclose if you would like to talk to career about it If you have
- a question or fill it out and turn that in if you feel that you do not have conflict of interest Then
- you do not need to worry about that Does anyone have questions about it Okay In a previous meeting we
- had talked about our election a board of officers so I'm going to have
- Motion to do that now and we will vote individually on each person. Can I get a motion to vote for the
- election board of officers? Okay, I am gonna start with Amy O'Shaughnessy as the treasurer. All in favor
- of Amy as treasurer, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Amy is treasurer. Aye. Like,
- A vote in aye if you support Chris Hall remaining as secretary. All in favor say aye. Those opposed
- say nay. Chris, thanks for continuing to be secretary. And stepping into the role of VP for approval
- from everyone is Whitney Eads for vice president. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.
- Thank you Whitney. And continuing in the role as president, myself, Jamie Burkhart. All in favor say aye.
- Those opposed say nay. Thank you guys very much. Anybody else have any other comments before we adjourn?
- Oh, sorry, not on my list. Sorry, Tory. We have a department update date from Tory, so come on down.
- I'm back and this time I have pictures. I'm sorry, I have a Mac.
- Anyone? Anyone? Okay. Down there? All the way over? One more? Okay. Can I do it without my notes? Nope.
- Okay. There we go. Nope.
- Man, I'm sorry, guys. All right. Is this view okay? Okay. All right, well, okay. All right, so my name
- is Tori Lawhorn, and I am the Communications and Marketing Director for MCPL.
- I'll give you a little department update. So our purpose, so the CNM team aims to support the library's
- mission of strengthening and enriching the lives of Monroe County residents to support equitable and
- impartial access to read, learn, connect, and create. And we play a crucial role in promoting library
- services, events, resources, as well as engaging with the community to build awareness and strengthen
- relationships.
- And our team's purpose is to make sure that MCPL's message is heard, understood, and appreciated, fostering
- a deeper connection between the library and our Monroe County community. We use a variety of media platforms,
- strategies, tactics, and communication efforts to build awareness, increase engagement, and generate
- support for MCPL's mission, vision, and values. We are an award-winning team.
- So we won best in division under the booklet or brochure category at the Great Lakes Graphics Association
- Graphic Excellence Awards in 2024 for our summer reading game boards. And then in 2025, we won a promotion
- award from Downtown Bloomington, Inc. We are also stewards of accessibility and inclusion. We're very
- proud of that. We ensure that all of our fonts, colors, and copy are dyslexia friendly.
- We also test for additional accessibility, such as color blindness. We truly aim to strike a balance
- between an art and a science behind everything we do. We also make sure that our imagery, if we choose
- to show people, accurately reflect the diverse population that MCPL serves. And we make sure that all
- of our materials, both digital and print, are ADA compliant. Nope. All right, so who we are and what
- we do. So we are a team of four.
- So Keller and I started at MCPL in July of 2022. So we're about to hit our four year anniversary. Christie
- started in October of that year. And then Aubrey has been with MCPL in a variety of roles for more than 25 years.
- We are both a proactive and a responsive department. So proactively, we seek to initiate creative campaigns
- throughout the year, including Library Lovers Month, which is this month, National Library Week in April,
- Library Card Sign-up Month in September, and Band Books Week in October, among a variety of other things.
- Responsively, we have a form that any MCPL staff member can fill out should they have a request.
- On average, we get about 50 a month. That request is sent directly to me, evaluated, and then put into
- our project management system. We typically turn these around within five weekdays. For those projects
- that require a little more back and forth and creative brainstorming, we generally meet with a requester
- and get a sense of their idea. This is a great opportunity for collaboration among subject matter experts,
- particularly through the public service lens of MCPL, who regularly interact with the public.
- We also look for opportunities in which projects who may originate at one location can be adapted to
- other locations to help create a universal patron experience. So currently, we're using our 2024-2026
- strategic plan as our guidelines, specifically strategic goal number one and strategic goal number two.
- At the start of 2024, we took a hard look at our 2024-2026
- 2026 strategic plan goals, and we decided that every decision we make moving forward should relate back
- to one or hopefully both of these strategic goals. As we begin planning for the 2027-2029 strategic
- plan, the CNM team will take a close data-informed look at how we effectively support these goals through
- our messaging, branding, and engagement. We'll evaluate what resonated with the community, which campaigns
- increased awareness and participation,
- and where our storytelling around intellectual freedom, literacy, and digital equity can be stronger
- or more inclusive. Community feedback through surveys, engagement metrics, direct conversations, and
- anecdotes will play a central role in shaping our next steps. This reflective process will help us refine
- our strategies so our communications can continue to amplify library values, respond to community needs,
- and support the library's mission with clarity and impact.
- So these are a couple of recent examples that we did last year. So this is National Library Week. This
- was the week of April 6th through 12th. The national theme was drawn to the library. So we decided on
- a campaign that encouraged patrons to visit all MCPL locations to get them to check out what the various
- library locations had to offer, including different collections, unique physical spaces, and conversations
- with different staff members.
- Our promotional copy was National Library Week is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role
- libraries and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities. So staff
- members provided input to us for their mascots over on the left. Each location had a special sticker
- that patrons could get and each mascot was special to each location through various characteristics.
- And we encourage patrons to collect them all
- And many did. And we still have some today. We also had postcards over on the right. And on the back,
- the copy said, tell your representatives why you're drawn to the library. Learn how to take action by
- scanning the QR code. And the QR code went to a blog post on our website about intellectual freedom
- and resources provided by the American Library Association.
- This was our campaign for Library Card Sign Up Month this past September. What we normally get feedback
- wise is, I love the library, but I don't know how to support it. And so we took that feedback, and we
- decided that we really wanted solid call to actions for our Library Card Sign Up Month.
- This is particularly important because not only do we want people to be introduced to the library, but
- we also want to give them solid action if they choose to support the library. So we decided on three
- particular actions. So join, discover, and support.
- So how to sign up for your library card, materials that you can access with your library card, because
- that's supporting your library simply by checking out materials. And then additional support being get
- a library card, join the friends of the library, attend programs. So we wanted to make it pretty simple
- for our audiences on here's how you can tangibly support the library. Band books a week.
- So the campaign from ALA was actually very similar to this. Normally we look at the campaign and we
- decide if we want to kind of mirror it or if we want to do our own. This one we actually really liked.
- Their national campaign was Read for Your Rights Censorship Episode 1984. We really liked that. So we
- did kind of our own spin on it, but very similar. So it's kind of red, white, and blue, which we really
- don't do. So we did that.
- We did kind of quotes on banned books and intellectual freedom. We did the top 10 most challenged books
- and why to kind of educate our audience on that. We also were able to reserve half of the glass case
- in City Hall for September, which is something we haven't been able to do before. So that was another
- way to kind of get our message out in the community.
- We also always have a blog post that talks about statistics for book challenges and intellectual freedom,
- especially throughout the country. ALA always releases those numbers right before National Library Week.
- So we try to make sure that our posts and our content are always data-driven to inform our audiences
- as well. And those always do really well.
- after you've educated the people on these books that they say, well, let's put them back in the library
- and let's not ban them anymore? Or is there any comments as far as that we can do things differently
- than other areas just because we're more educated on those books? We're very lucky where most of the
- time our comments are very supportive, where most of the time it's, I can't believe these are banned
- in other places. I wish people would
- have more empathy and read characters that are not about them or would have a different perspective.
- We haven't had really a lot of comments where they're very negative. So a lot of them are in support
- or a lot of the comments are, thank you for reminding me, I need to check these out because I haven't
- read them since high school. And so we really see a lot of circulation with that.
- A lot of them are actually thanking us for reminding them, or, you know, I want to read about that.
- I want you to check this out. So we get a lot of supportive comments. So literacy learning and digital
- equity. ADA, DEI, and accessibility truly guide everything that we do.
- for providing accessible and digital content. So that includes websites, emails, and social media posts.
- We make sure that they are screen reader friendly and follow accessibility standards like the web content
- accessibility guidelines. And we work with our web administrator to make sure that our content follows
- those guidelines. With our physical content, we make sure our language does not surpass a certain reading
- level. And all of our fonts and designs are accessible as much as possible.
- In terms of culturally relevant marketing, messaging and programming, we make sure that they reflect
- the diverse communities that the library serves. This includes ensuring that promotions are not biased
- toward a particular group, but instead cater to all backgrounds and experiences. Although we tend not
- to show people in our marketing, we follow these guidelines if and when we do show people equitable
- access when we promote our services.
- We ensure people from underserved or marginalized groups are aware of and have the same access to library
- resources such as language services, support for non-English speakers, or outreach to lower
- income communities. We continue to work heavily with vital and outreach services on these initiatives.
- Inclusive language, using language that is welcoming to all such as avoiding stereotypes and being mindful
- of terms that promote inclusivity.
- especially using gender neutral language, for instance. So for example, we use caregiver instead of
- parent. Ultimately, communication and marketing in a public library setting must aim to build awareness,
- inclusivity, and community engagement while making sure that all individuals, regardless of ability,
- background, or identity, can fully access benefit from our library's resources,
- And these guidelines ensure that MCPL not only fulfills our role as community hubs and beloved third
- spaces, but also serve as equitable and welcoming spaces for all of our patrons. To help evaluate our
- efforts, we were the client last semester and we are also the client this semester of a public relations
- campaign for this semester at the IU Media School.
- So in small teams, PR students are taking a specific part of MCPL as their client in the hopes of doing
- an unbiased third-party evaluation, as well as ways that we can improve our marketing and branding.
- So each of their efforts are guided by one of our strategic plan goals, and we are excited to see the
- culmination of their semester-long work this April. Yeah?
- to like the small group or is it going to be more of a, I just wondered. Yeah, yeah, so they have client
- presentations so it will be just to the CNM team right now and then we try to take that information
- and see what tangibly that we can do on our end.
- Last year, we took some of their marketing tactics specifically for IU students. And we used those in
- August. And we actually got triple the amount of IU students signing up for library cards. So they're
- very insightful, very helpful, especially because it's our target audience doing work about themselves,
- which is great insight. So generally, we get all of their data, all of their research. But I am happy
- to present that to you all as well. Yeah.
- Yeah. Or something like just insights that they came up with. Yeah. No, absolutely. No, it's semester
- long, and they work incredibly hard on it. So no, I would be happy to present that to you all. Yeah,
- no, thank you. So just a final note that the CNM team provides essential support to MCPL staff and our
- patrons by promoting library news, programs, and resources.
- which helps build stronger relationships with our community. And this support helps MCPL staff focus
- on their core mission, which is of course to serve patrons and enrich the lives of our Monroe County
- residents. And I would be happy to take questions. Great job. Yeah. Do you find that you're in a position
- right now where you're dealing with any kind of challenges where you feel like you could use a little
- more support to get you to meet
- that your strategic goals, because this is really important work. Yeah, thank you so much. Actually,
- we are very privileged right now. I don't think so. We have an incredibly supportive community. Even
- when we had to close for a couple of days, I know that can be incredibly challenging for a lot of our
- patrons, but we had nothing but support of stay safe, we understand. So we're very lucky to be in that
- position. So I don't think so right now, but thank you.
- Any other questions or comments? Thanks, Tori. All right, thank you all. You make us look good. Any
- other board comments before we adjourn? Motion to adjourn. All in favor say aye. We are adjourned.