WEBVTT 00:00:00.354 --> 00:00:10.472 - to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for March 25th, 2026. Can 00:00:10.472 --> 00:00:20.491 - I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? Oh, sorry. Oh, right, I forgot we moved public comment 00:00:20.491 --> 00:00:27.038 - to the front. Do we have anybody online? Do we have anybody here? 00:00:30.178 --> 00:00:36.930 - Thank you so much. May I get motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. It includes the minutes from 00:00:36.930 --> 00:00:43.422 - February 18th, monthly financial report, monthly bills for payment, personnel report, and the board 00:00:43.422 --> 00:00:49.980 - meeting calendar. All in favor of approval say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion approved. And 00:00:49.980 --> 00:00:54.654 - next we're going to hear from the director's monthly report from Greer. 00:00:55.906 --> 00:01:01.354 - Okay so the positive trends in overall circulation continued in February. This includes the highest 00:01:01.354 --> 00:01:06.802 - use of our digital collections for the month of February since 2021. So that means looking at every 00:01:06.802 --> 00:01:12.686 - February going back year after year. That's of course when daily limits for hoopla and canopy in particular 00:01:12.686 --> 00:01:18.134 - were increased in response to the pandemic. And it also included the highest overall collection use 00:01:18.134 --> 00:01:19.550 - for the month of February 00:01:19.714 --> 00:01:25.441 - since before the pandemic. So that's overall collection use. I know the big success story for us has 00:01:25.441 --> 00:01:31.281 - not surprisingly been our digital collection use, but overall collection use is also as strong as it's 00:01:31.281 --> 00:01:37.349 - been since the pandemic. So those are great, great trends. We launched a new seed library at the Southwest 00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:42.622 - branch last month. The seed library started here at our downtown library and I believe 2019. 00:01:42.722 --> 00:01:47.959 - And it's steadily developed into one of the most popular non-traditional collections that we offer. 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:53.510 - We have received numerous requests from Southwest patrons over the last year or so to have a seed library 00:01:53.510 --> 00:01:58.851 - at our new branch. So we're excited to get this one off the ground. We remain open to the possibility 00:01:58.851 --> 00:02:04.140 - of doing one at Ellisville as well, but there's not as much call for that. So we'll just wait and be 00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:07.806 - responsive as far as that one's concerned. Katz has taken a big step. 00:02:08.162 --> 00:02:15.465 - This last month, we began sending archival local meeting tapes to our digitization vendor. That's Memnon 00:02:15.465 --> 00:02:22.629 - here in town. They will be digitizing the first batch of approximately 1,000 tapes. The entire project 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:29.653 - for digitization entails over 7,800 individual tapes dating back to the mid-'80s and will take about 00:02:29.653 --> 00:02:34.174 - two years to complete. Now, these are just for community meeting 00:02:34.626 --> 00:02:40.451 - recordings going back to about 1985. So these are all the government and local community meetings that 00:02:40.451 --> 00:02:46.107 - we have archived. It does not include all the locally produced content like shows and documentaries 00:02:46.107 --> 00:02:51.762 - and everything else. We do have a plan for digitizing those as well, but we're going to get through 00:02:51.762 --> 00:02:57.418 - the local meeting coverage archives first, and then we'll take a look at that. The locally produced 00:02:57.418 --> 00:02:59.454 - content dates back to the late 70s. 00:02:59.842 --> 00:03:07.138 - And it's probably close to the same number of actual tapes to digitize. So it'll be a similar cost and 00:03:07.138 --> 00:03:14.363 - we'll kind of take the same amount of time. So it's a big deal for us, big deal for CATS. The Indiana 00:03:14.363 --> 00:03:18.046 - State Library Annual Report is finally back online. 00:03:18.242 --> 00:03:23.485 - and with a due date of May 4th. Our team did get an early start last month in compiling numbers and 00:03:23.485 --> 00:03:28.832 - answers to what the report would eventually ask. As I had shared, I think there was a question of how 00:03:28.832 --> 00:03:34.232 - much can we prep now before having the report. A lot of things change in the report from year to year. 00:03:34.232 --> 00:03:39.527 - And this year, it's a whole new vendor, a whole new website. The report looks totally different. But 00:03:39.527 --> 00:03:44.822 - of course, some of our basic stats are always going to be asked. And so we've compiled all those and 00:03:44.822 --> 00:03:46.238 - we've gotten a good start. 00:03:46.370 --> 00:03:51.986 - on the report, we'll have it done well before May 4th, which means we'll be able to share the summary 00:03:51.986 --> 00:03:57.712 - of that with you all probably at the June meeting. And then finally, the big spring book sale is almost 00:03:57.712 --> 00:04:03.493 - here. Our friends at the library will once again host a huge book sale in this very room beginning April 00:04:03.493 --> 00:04:08.999 - 16th and running through that weekend. It's a wonderful opportunity for the community, particularly 00:04:08.999 --> 00:04:12.798 - for those who are interested in identifying one or two really worthy 00:04:12.930 --> 00:04:18.763 - keepsakes in book form and coming here and getting a great, great price for it. Related to that, the 00:04:18.763 --> 00:04:24.769 - IDS did an article somewhat recently about local bookstores and included the Friends Bookstore in there 00:04:24.769 --> 00:04:28.350 - as one of the best in town. So that's worth taking a look at. 00:04:28.482 --> 00:04:35.922 - But the big book sale takes place April 16th through that weekend. You can check our website for details 00:04:35.922 --> 00:04:43.290 - in terms of start time and price and everything else, but we're excited to have that happen next month. 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:50.588 - It is also the reason our April meeting will take place next door in the auditorium instead of in this 00:04:50.588 --> 00:04:56.894 - room. Happy to answer any questions about the director's report. Can you remind me after 00:04:57.666 --> 00:05:03.274 - Katz is having the tapes digitized. What is happening to the physical tapes? That's a good question, 00:05:03.274 --> 00:05:09.048 - and I don't have a full answer, but I'm happy to get that from Martin and Adam. We've talked about that 00:05:09.048 --> 00:05:14.711 - many times in planning this project, and I can't recall if we decided we're going to keep all of them 00:05:14.711 --> 00:05:20.319 - for now, or if we're going to ask Memnon to help us decide what is worth keeping and what isn't. And 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:25.982 - some of that might have to do with condition, but I will get an answer. OK. I also just wondered what 00:05:26.626 --> 00:05:32.069 - if any of those materials could be recycled or if they had a recycling program. And we used to do that 00:05:32.069 --> 00:05:37.617 - with the government meetings from the late 70s up to about 85 as we would just keep them for a few years 00:05:37.617 --> 00:05:42.901 - and then get rid of them. And we stopped doing that about the mid 80s, hence the large archive that 00:05:42.901 --> 00:05:47.710 - we have. But that's a good question. Yeah. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions? 00:05:53.826 --> 00:06:00.132 - And next up we're going to hear about the strategic planning committee and what participation for that 00:06:00.132 --> 00:06:06.377 - process. So about every three years we work on a new strategic plan and the current strategic plan is 00:06:06.377 --> 00:06:12.254 - in its final year so that means we're going to form our strategic planning committee this year. 00:06:12.482 --> 00:06:18.851 - to start work on the plan that will probably be another three year plan beginning in 2027. So it's just 00:06:18.851 --> 00:06:25.097 - a heads up to you all that we always like to have at least one board representative on our committee. 00:06:25.097 --> 00:06:28.894 - It's a committee that will probably meet once a month online. 00:06:28.994 --> 00:06:35.250 - to talk about everything from what we identify internally as our priorities and goals, but also planning 00:06:35.250 --> 00:06:41.625 - for community discussions, surveys, staff discussions and surveys, working with our foundation and friends 00:06:41.625 --> 00:06:48.059 - group for input, all the steps that we want to take in order to get as much comprehensive input as possible 00:06:48.059 --> 00:06:51.038 - before we commit to a new set of strategic goals. 00:06:51.170 --> 00:06:56.535 - So that work is going to start pretty quickly. I'm going to send invitations out to team members next 00:06:56.535 --> 00:07:01.794 - week. So just think about if that's something you might want to participate in. And if I can answer 00:07:01.794 --> 00:07:07.159 - any questions about it, I'm happy to do so. And I'll probably reach out via email and say, all right, 00:07:07.159 --> 00:07:08.158 - this individual is 00:07:08.322 --> 00:07:13.012 - volunteered from the board. They're going to be on the committee along with the following other folks. 00:07:13.012 --> 00:07:17.701 - And if you look at the current plan, which is in the packet and, of course, on our website, one of the 00:07:17.701 --> 00:07:22.437 - first few pages lists who the board of trustees is at the time and then who's on the strategic planning 00:07:22.437 --> 00:07:27.126 - committee. So you can get a sense that it's a pretty small team. So it's not completely representative 00:07:27.126 --> 00:07:31.679 - of every department in the library or anything like that. But a small working team obviously can do 00:07:31.679 --> 00:07:33.182 - things that a larger team can't. 00:07:33.314 --> 00:07:39.073 - And this is our formal commitment to strategic goals for a three-year period. So we're going to keep 00:07:39.073 --> 00:07:44.776 - it a relatively small team. We're going to work pretty quickly. And then the end result of the work 00:07:44.776 --> 00:07:50.535 - will be to bring a draft version of the plan to you all in November, discuss it, refine it, and then 00:07:50.535 --> 00:07:56.466 - commit to it in December. And then I send it off to the state library right after the December meeting. 00:07:56.466 --> 00:08:01.598 - And that goes into effect in January. Yeah. And it's usually a lot of fun, I have to say. 00:08:01.762 --> 00:08:07.186 - Strategic planning doesn't sound like fun, but we have really good committees and great expertise and 00:08:07.186 --> 00:08:12.556 - experience on the committee always. And so we feel like we're confident we know what we're doing. We 00:08:12.556 --> 00:08:17.342 - know what our goals are for designing the plan. And it's typically fun. It's not arduous. 00:08:18.946 --> 00:08:25.304 - I have appreciated as a board member the director's reports being organized under your strategic priorities. 00:08:25.304 --> 00:08:31.195 - It just makes the library's work feel really intentional. It feels like from hearing from staff that 00:08:31.195 --> 00:08:37.028 - the strategic goals came together not as an edict from above, but it is a collective process. So as 00:08:37.028 --> 00:08:43.036 - someone who's hearing the reports every month, it's been nice to just have that kind of organizational 00:08:43.036 --> 00:08:43.678 - structure. 00:08:44.098 --> 00:08:49.794 - Absolutely. And I don't see changing that. I do think there's some things we might want to consider 00:08:49.794 --> 00:08:55.546 - changing in terms of the format of the director's report and maybe the packet in general. If we want 00:08:55.546 --> 00:09:01.469 - to sort of condense it and get it down to specific metrics along with the anecdotal info that we share, 00:09:01.469 --> 00:09:07.279 - there's some things we might want to look at there. But I think ultimately framing the monthly report 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:11.038 - in terms of the actual strategic plan just makes very good sense. 00:09:16.802 --> 00:09:26.898 - Any other questions or comments for Pierre? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the surplus equipment 00:09:26.898 --> 00:09:36.993 - and items? I move to approve them. Okay, we're gonna hear from Gary Ledler. So we have had a request 00:09:36.993 --> 00:09:44.990 - to surplus some computer tables in the level up area. They wanna replace those. 00:09:45.154 --> 00:09:55.659 - And we also have a refrigerator and freezer at Southwest that they wanna replace. And so we're gonna 00:09:55.659 --> 00:10:06.477 - surplus that equipment. Any questions? Great. All in favor of approving the surplus items and equipment 00:10:06.477 --> 00:10:14.174 - list, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it, motion approved. 00:10:17.282 --> 00:10:23.914 - Next up, we're going to hear the update on Indiana law and public library budget impact. So this is 00:10:23.914 --> 00:10:30.546 - just kind of an informational piece. I know some of you have probably followed this, but there have 00:10:30.546 --> 00:10:37.443 - been a number of bills in the Indiana State House specific to libraries and library budgets. Two, we've 00:10:37.443 --> 00:10:44.141 - been watching very closely. One started out as Senate Bill 4 or Senate Bill 8 and became Senate Bill 00:10:44.141 --> 00:10:46.462 - 4 and so on. And the other is 283. 00:10:47.042 --> 00:10:53.437 - Senate Bill 4 was passed and is now Public Law 102. And what it does is it forces a public library to 00:10:53.437 --> 00:10:59.770 - seek approval from its fiscal body, so for us that would be a county council, for anything more than 00:10:59.770 --> 00:11:06.102 - 49% of the maximum levy growth quotient every year. And that's important because the growth quotient 00:11:06.102 --> 00:11:12.497 - determines how much we can grow our budget from year to year. We literally bake it into our budgeting 00:11:12.497 --> 00:11:16.510 - process, so it's almost like a given when it comes to the math. 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:22.597 - This new law means we need to go to county council to ask for 50 percent or more of that growth quotient. 00:11:22.597 --> 00:11:28.415 - It's unique to public libraries. Other taxable units do not have the same threshold. I think it's more 00:11:28.415 --> 00:11:34.232 - like 80 percent. So in the packet I included kind of a critical summary provided by the Indian Library 00:11:34.232 --> 00:11:34.910 - Federation. 00:11:36.066 --> 00:11:41.688 - There's plenty of stuff out there about this. The worry a lot of public libraries rightly have is that 00:11:41.688 --> 00:11:47.255 - you're putting the budgeting process in the hands of elected officials and thereby potentially making 00:11:47.255 --> 00:11:52.822 - it a very political issue, whereas traditionally the library board, like with us, has been autonomous 00:11:52.822 --> 00:11:58.335 - when it comes to reviewing and approving the annual budget. We have reached out to county council to 00:11:58.335 --> 00:12:03.793 - talk about can we put our heads together and make sure we're all on the same page and following the 00:12:03.793 --> 00:12:05.758 - law and all of that and we're going 00:12:05.922 --> 00:12:11.829 - schedule a meeting with them very, very soon. So they're aware that this is going to fall on their shoulders 00:12:11.829 --> 00:12:17.248 - to that degree. But it's just an update for you all. It does not mean we're not bringing our budget 00:12:17.248 --> 00:12:22.722 - to the board. We're not going to change anything about the way we prepare, review, approve, and hold 00:12:22.722 --> 00:12:28.249 - public hearings for our budget every year with you all. But it's an extra step we're going to take in 00:12:28.249 --> 00:12:33.994 - working directly with county council. So that did get passed, and that will be our new reality for annual 00:12:33.994 --> 00:12:34.590 - budgeting. 00:12:37.346 --> 00:12:46.852 - Gary, did I leave anything out that's worth? No, I think you covered it well. OK. I do have questions. 00:12:46.852 --> 00:12:56.080 - Yeah. With this new law and these new procedures to be followed, can there ever be restrictions put 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:05.494 - on what money is allowed by county council as far as spending at the library? Oh, like on a line item 00:13:05.494 --> 00:13:06.878 - level? Mm-hmm. 00:13:07.074 --> 00:13:12.760 - Theoretically, yes. The other bill we're watching, I think Senate Bill 283, that one is about 00:13:12.760 --> 00:13:18.870 - that specifically. It is the entire review process of the library's budget falls in the hands of the 00:13:18.870 --> 00:13:24.980 - fiscal body rather than its board. So that would find us going to county council and saying, this is 00:13:24.980 --> 00:13:28.126 - why we spend this much on wages and benefits versus 00:13:28.226 --> 00:13:34.159 - programming versus utilities and contracted services, and then that discussion would happen there in 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:40.268 - a much more political sphere than it does here. That bill has not seen any traction since late January. 00:13:40.268 --> 00:13:46.260 - This one is just about, if your maximum levy growth quotient is like for us 4%, and you want to claim 00:13:46.260 --> 00:13:50.078 - 2% or more, you're going to have to go to county council and ask 00:13:58.786 --> 00:14:09.438 - Does anyone else have any questions? Okay. Next up we have a department update from teen services and CMO. 00:14:32.354 --> 00:14:36.701 - OK. It's all there. Perfect. Hello everyone. I'm Sam. I run the teen services department here downtown. 00:14:36.701 --> 00:14:41.047 - I'm just going to share some updates on what we've been working on over the last year. But first I want 00:14:41.047 --> 00:14:45.269 - to make sure you can see my staff. Two of my staff weren't here when I took this photo so I included 00:14:45.269 --> 00:14:49.448 - their staff photos there instead. But without them none of the work would be possible. They do such 00:14:49.448 --> 00:14:53.753 - phenomenal stuff for the community the teens and everybody else that I want to make sure you know that 00:14:53.753 --> 00:14:55.550 - they're the ones to do many of the events. 00:14:57.346 --> 00:15:01.972 - So fewer highlights than last year because last year we did so many furniture upgrades shelving upgrades 00:15:01.972 --> 00:15:03.998 - and things like that but we did have one big. 00:15:04.098 --> 00:15:08.698 - space edition that I wanted to make sure I highlighted, which is this arcade cabinet. We had the shell 00:15:08.698 --> 00:15:13.297 - donated by an IU professor who had had it for years sitting in his garage and just couldn't figure out 00:15:13.297 --> 00:15:17.808 - what to do with it. And I was able to partner with our IT department and our marketing department to 00:15:17.808 --> 00:15:22.452 - redo the whole thing and our facilities department, who he was able to get a whole bunch of specialized 00:15:22.452 --> 00:15:27.454 - wood and cut all of it to be exactly the size, which was great. Without Tom, this would not have been possible. 00:15:27.906 --> 00:15:32.709 - But the wrap that you see on that and the team space arcade, that was designed by our marketing department. 00:15:32.709 --> 00:15:37.246 - So it was all done in house, which was great. And the cabinet has a hundred games on it that the kids 00:15:37.246 --> 00:15:42.138 - can scroll through and it's all free, which is great as well. And we started doing arcade cabinet tournaments 00:15:42.138 --> 00:15:46.585 - once a month with the kids and the winners get gift cards and little trophies that are printed with 00:15:46.585 --> 00:15:51.255 - their names on it and stuff like that. But it's been really cool to be able to provide older retro games 00:15:51.255 --> 00:15:55.880 - for them to play. A lot of them complain that the controls are laggy or don't work right. And I'm like, 00:15:55.880 --> 00:15:56.414 - no, that's, 00:15:56.738 --> 00:16:02.513 - This is accurate. It's not like a modern system. But that's been really fun. We have expanded our collections 00:16:02.513 --> 00:16:07.763 - again. Manga has proven to be just incredibly popular with our teens. And we were able to work with 00:16:07.763 --> 00:16:13.014 - Martha Odier up on the third floor to condense our graphic novels down and add a whole extra bay of 00:16:13.014 --> 00:16:18.789 - manga. And that's already full. And we already could try to add more. And we've even condensed our collection 00:16:18.789 --> 00:16:20.574 - so that we provide just the first 00:16:20.674 --> 00:16:25.568 - five or 10 volumes of a lot of series, so we can provide more different series options and have less 00:16:25.568 --> 00:16:30.851 - depth, but then that also encourages the kids to go up to the second floor, where the whole manga collection 00:16:30.851 --> 00:16:35.745 - is, so hopefully they can make that connection, because a lot of them have no idea that there's more 00:16:35.745 --> 00:16:40.930 - up there. And I think, Grier, do we have 8,000 manga? Something like that in the collection? Yeah, there's 00:16:40.930 --> 00:16:45.534 - a lot. There's way more than we have down there. Again, space upgrades for the arcade cabinet. 00:16:45.634 --> 00:16:50.625 - Greer worked with me to get new seats for the video game area because the seats had been there for 10 00:16:50.625 --> 00:16:55.812 - years and we're very much showing a lot of love is probably the best way to say that. After school snacks 00:16:55.812 --> 00:17:00.705 - have still proven to be very popular and we've been able to work with Lorraine because she runs the 00:17:00.705 --> 00:17:05.598 - Sam's Club membership there so we've been able to get a bunch of stuff shipped in. I probably spend 00:17:05.826 --> 00:17:11.007 - a quarter of my monthly budget on snacks because they're so popular every day and it's just amazing 00:17:11.007 --> 00:17:16.342 - to be able to provide that but it's something we're committed to and been really happy to see the kids 00:17:16.342 --> 00:17:21.730 - utilize every day. We refill all of them like three times in an afternoon because it's just so popular. 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:27.014 - Staff fix book list you might have seen this I think in October of last year but Fern did an analysis 00:17:27.014 --> 00:17:32.195 - of all of our book lists and found that if you type in YA followed by like National Native American 00:17:32.195 --> 00:17:35.614 - Heritage Month or some of our other cultural lists we are the top 00:17:35.714 --> 00:17:40.535 - one through three results in Google search for those lists. And some of our lists like YA novels and 00:17:40.535 --> 00:17:45.403 - verse have actually had close to 6,000 hits in one year, which is great. So we're really excited that 00:17:45.403 --> 00:17:50.224 - our lists are that popular and are reaching so many people. But it also shows that the curation that 00:17:50.224 --> 00:17:55.427 - we do, we worked with Paula to figure out why. And she said one reason might be that because we consistently 00:17:55.427 --> 00:18:00.296 - update them, like every year to two years, the secret Google metric realizes that it's actually being 00:18:00.296 --> 00:18:04.830 - worked on and isn't just stagnant. But we're really excited that it's reaching so many people. 00:18:05.250 --> 00:18:10.671 - And then Ali Fletcher, the new teen librarian, just put together a new life after high school list and 00:18:10.671 --> 00:18:15.987 - pivoted away from being more of a like school and collegiate focus list to be just really focused on 00:18:15.987 --> 00:18:21.566 - life skills like car maintenance, how you do budgeting, how you do cooking, can you sew your own clothes, 00:18:21.566 --> 00:18:26.934 - stuff like that. So there's a lot more resources for the kids instead of just assuming that everybody 00:18:26.934 --> 00:18:29.566 - is going to go on to do post-secondary education. 00:18:30.658 --> 00:18:36.411 - And then last year, it was actually our most successful teen summer reading game ever at MCPL. We distributed 00:18:36.411 --> 00:18:41.328 - 665 guides and we're hoping to break that record this year because it's dinosaurs and I mean, 00:18:41.328 --> 00:18:46.611 - that's all. Yeah, it's dinosaurs. I pity the children's department. They are going to be so, so busy 00:18:46.611 --> 00:18:51.998 - for the first two or three weeks over there because the guides are amazing. Marketing did a great job. 00:18:51.998 --> 00:18:56.862 - I'm so excited for the Jurassic Park theme stuff that we're getting. It's going to be great. 00:18:57.410 --> 00:19:01.975 - Programs, I normally don't include photos but these were too cute not to. We found that our kids over 00:19:01.975 --> 00:19:06.451 - the last year really enjoy plushy making events and so they're very simple to do where you just cut 00:19:06.451 --> 00:19:11.016 - out the design from felt and you hot glue around the edge and you stuff the material in, you hot glue 00:19:11.016 --> 00:19:15.581 - around so it doesn't require any type of sewing skill. But we do one of those about every quarter and 00:19:15.581 --> 00:19:20.235 - we've also started running them on some of our outreach visits as well because you don't need that much 00:19:20.235 --> 00:19:20.862 - setup for it. 00:19:21.410 --> 00:19:26.523 - Role-playing games continue to be incredibly popular. This year, we were able to partner with the Children's 00:19:26.523 --> 00:19:31.213 - Department and Adult Services Department on helping hands, which is where we assembled dignity kits 00:19:31.213 --> 00:19:36.138 - to give to Beacon in town. We made over 200 as part of that event, which was great, particularly because 00:19:36.138 --> 00:19:40.875 - we were able to really expand the amount of stuff that was offered in every kit. So it also included 00:19:40.875 --> 00:19:44.862 - thermal blankets, sanitary supplies, and everything else like that, which was great. 00:19:45.314 --> 00:19:49.591 - Teen Social Club has been a really cool event that we were able to start in November of last year by 00:19:49.591 --> 00:19:53.827 - partnering with two local historical costuming experts and YouTubers in town where they come in and 00:19:53.827 --> 00:19:58.104 - actually lead events for the teens and talk to them about how they can grow their own skills. And it 00:19:58.104 --> 00:20:02.339 - just happened because she reached out to donate something to us and then it ended up, I brought the 00:20:02.339 --> 00:20:06.616 - sewing machine. Yeah, she's the person that donated the sewing machine last year that I trundled in. 00:20:06.616 --> 00:20:08.734 - But it's been great to be able to work with them. 00:20:09.058 --> 00:20:14.098 - And then circus week was a themed week of programming just around like circus events and other things. 00:20:14.098 --> 00:20:19.137 - And Josh Wolf actually came and did like a juggling workshop and other things like that. And the teens 00:20:19.137 --> 00:20:24.274 - really enjoyed those events. Community partnerships is something we're really trying to expand. We still 00:20:24.274 --> 00:20:29.314 - go to MCCSE schools every month and then we participate in many of these larger scale fairs. But we've 00:20:29.314 --> 00:20:34.305 - also seen our special education class visit program double since last year where now we also have the 00:20:34.305 --> 00:20:36.702 - North classrooms coming twice a month and that's 00:20:36.866 --> 00:20:42.064 - all three of their special education classes. So it's somewhere between 20 and 30 kids every visit plus 00:20:42.064 --> 00:20:47.312 - eight to 10 adults, which has been great to see. So we host both Try North twice a month and North twice 00:20:47.312 --> 00:20:50.910 - a month. And then in the fall of last year, we had a staff turnover and 00:20:51.202 --> 00:20:56.073 - I worked with Greer and Josh to retool one of the teen library positions to focus specifically on school 00:20:56.073 --> 00:21:01.083 - outreach and to serve youth serving organizations. And so she's really hit the ground running this semester 00:21:01.083 --> 00:21:05.907 - and is trying to reach out to as many schools as possible and just had a meeting today with the Academy 00:21:05.907 --> 00:21:10.871 - of Science and Entrepreneurship to help figure out how we can assist them with one of the projects they're 00:21:10.871 --> 00:21:12.958 - working on where the students are looking at 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:17.843 - Immigration through Ellis Island and trying to turn that into a board game. I'm not sure how that is 00:21:17.843 --> 00:21:22.482 - going to work, but we've had some really successful meetings and we've already reached out to several 00:21:22.482 --> 00:21:27.257 - people internally to try to set that up. But we're really hoping that we can like get to the point where 00:21:27.257 --> 00:21:31.986 - we're instead of doing like four visits every month we're doing closer to 10 to 12 every month, because 00:21:31.986 --> 00:21:34.078 - there's so many places that we can work with. 00:21:34.242 --> 00:21:39.586 - But it's been really cool to see the response from the community to that and how excited people are, 00:21:39.586 --> 00:21:45.037 - especially considering how busy teachers are this time of year and how difficult it is to get into the 00:21:45.037 --> 00:21:50.434 - schedule when you're already partway through the spring. So we're hoping to continue to see growth as 00:21:50.434 --> 00:21:55.779 - we move into the fall. And that's all I have. What questions do you have for me? Awesome. Thank you. 00:21:55.779 --> 00:22:00.594 - Thank you. Thanks for your report and for your work. Please send thanks to your team, too. 00:22:00.594 --> 00:22:03.134 - I'll let them know. I appreciate it. Thank you. 00:22:04.162 --> 00:22:14.170 - wish for a successful summer reading program again this year. Any other questions or concerns before 00:22:14.170 --> 00:22:21.502 - we dismiss? All in favor of adjournment, say aye. Aye. Meeting adjourned.