WEBVTT 00:00:00.098 --> 00:00:09.385 - I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees for April 00:00:09.385 --> 00:00:18.398 - 15th, 2026. Do we have anyone here for public comment? And no one online, public comment, correct? 00:00:21.634 --> 00:00:28.176 - Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda from March 25th, 2026, the monthly financial report, 00:00:28.176 --> 00:00:34.717 - the monthly bills for payment, the personnel report, and the board meeting calendar? All in favor say 00:00:34.717 --> 00:00:41.387 - aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Ayes have it. Next we're gonna hear the director's monthly report from 00:00:41.387 --> 00:00:47.993 - Greer. Okay, I'll start with a quick note. The program numbers at the top of the report are incorrect. 00:00:47.993 --> 00:00:50.238 - The real numbers for March of 2026 00:00:50.402 --> 00:00:58.177 - are we had 217 programs last month with 3,235 attendees. We saw a huge increase in the use of Loat for 00:00:58.177 --> 00:01:06.406 - Kids, which is our newest children's ebook platform, with a total of 238 stories viewed. That's a remarkable 00:01:06.406 --> 00:01:13.502 - monthly statistic given that the total number of stories viewed for all of last year was 258. 00:01:13.698 --> 00:01:19.118 - We introduced this resource in January of this year, and it was the e-library resource of the month 00:01:19.118 --> 00:01:24.593 - in March, so it's likely that the web highlight was the driver for such a sharp increase in use, and 00:01:24.593 --> 00:01:28.062 - that's often the case. Mango languages also saw significant use 00:01:28.226 --> 00:01:34.075 - increase in use last month, nearly doubling the numbers that we saw in March of 2025. We believe this 00:01:34.075 --> 00:01:40.211 - was due at least in part to the temporary loss of Rosetta Stone. So Rosetta Stone, which is a very popular 00:01:40.211 --> 00:01:46.175 - language tool, has been a part of the Indiana State Library's Inspire suite of resources for some time. 00:01:46.175 --> 00:01:52.254 - It was dropped in July of last year during the State Library's renewal with EBSCO, which is the provider. 00:01:52.322 --> 00:01:57.711 - And partly due to the cost saving measures they took associated with the discontinuation of the IMLS 00:01:57.711 --> 00:02:03.473 - funding. Once that funding was restored, Rosetta Stone was added back to the Inspire collection in February 00:02:03.473 --> 00:02:09.075 - of this year. And it is very popular, so it's quite possible that Mango Languages sort of took the place 00:02:09.075 --> 00:02:11.102 - for Rosetta Stone for a little while. 00:02:12.226 --> 00:02:19.614 - And Freegal once again saw a record month in March with 14,043 streams, 2,054 downloads. This tops the 00:02:19.614 --> 00:02:27.003 - previous record of 14,412 streams set just a few months ago, and actually I have that number incorrect 00:02:27.003 --> 00:02:34.391 - because 14,043 is less than 14,412. But we set another record that was set a couple of months ago, and 00:02:34.391 --> 00:02:38.910 - then I think back in December we had a Freegal record as well. 00:02:39.010 --> 00:02:44.499 - Freegold has been a quiet resource for us for a long time, so this kind of came out of nowhere and it's 00:02:44.499 --> 00:02:49.883 - gaining in popularity right now. We're looking into why this is the case, but we are very thrilled to 00:02:49.883 --> 00:02:54.686 - see our patrons making great use of what was previously an underutilized music collection. 00:02:54.882 --> 00:03:00.682 - We introduced blu-ray discs to our branches in March. The popularity of our downtown blu-ray collection 00:03:00.682 --> 00:03:06.260 - has grown over the two years that we've offered this, and now we're starting to order branch copies 00:03:06.260 --> 00:03:11.614 - of some blu-ray titles so that Ellisville and Southwest both have browsing blu-ray collections. 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:17.847 - For some context, we often pilot a new physical collection at the downtown library before expanding 00:03:17.847 --> 00:03:24.247 - it to the branches. This allows us to gauge demand for browsing collection before investing and expanding 00:03:24.247 --> 00:03:30.465 - its holdings across the system, which, of course, can be quite expensive. While we pilot a collection, 00:03:30.465 --> 00:03:36.804 - we watch the patron holds queues for downtown materials to see how many branch patrons request the title 00:03:36.804 --> 00:03:39.038 - to be sent to the branch for pickup. 00:03:39.234 --> 00:03:45.324 - And this gives us a sense for when it's appropriate to go ahead and invest in expanding a physical collection 00:03:45.324 --> 00:03:50.972 - to the branches. Our new collection and circulation analytics tool, which is called Library IQ, makes 00:03:50.972 --> 00:03:56.620 - it a lot easier for us to track circulation trends across locations and then to decide when it's time 00:03:56.620 --> 00:04:00.606 - to expand something like the Blu-ray collection to one of the branches. 00:04:01.506 --> 00:04:07.498 - There are a number of lovely patron comments and thank yous included in this month's report. Rather 00:04:07.498 --> 00:04:13.490 - than single any one of them out, I'll just say that each and every one of these comments we receive 00:04:13.490 --> 00:04:19.602 - is read by us, shared with our staff, and so we want to thank our patrons and some of our out of town 00:04:19.602 --> 00:04:25.534 - visitors for taking the time to reach out and compliment and thank the library for all that we do. 00:04:25.794 --> 00:04:31.264 - And finally, we encourage everyone in our community to come and check out the Big Spring Book Sale. 00:04:31.264 --> 00:04:36.843 - This semi-annual book sale is organized and run by our Friends of the Library group, and it's a great 00:04:36.843 --> 00:04:42.313 - way for the community to support MCPL through browsing and hopefully purchasing some books from one 00:04:42.313 --> 00:04:48.056 - of the very best book collections in town. The sale starts tomorrow for Friends members and runs through 00:04:48.056 --> 00:04:53.854 - next Monday, and information can be found on our website, our social media accounts, and our newsletters. 00:04:53.854 --> 00:04:55.550 - Happy to answer any questions. 00:04:58.018 --> 00:05:04.232 - Maybe for members. That was a question. Starts tomorrow. It starts tomorrow for Friends members. They 00:05:04.232 --> 00:05:10.750 - get sort of early access. And then it opens up to the public Friday. And it runs through Monday. I believe 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:17.268 - Monday is when they do grab a box and help us get rid of the stock kind of stuff. So we've had successive, 00:05:17.268 --> 00:05:23.420 - incredibly successful book sales. I think the last three in a row have just gotten better and better 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:25.918 - and better. So yeah, it's a great thing. 00:05:26.818 --> 00:05:33.830 - And the reason why we are in this space tonight, because they're setting up next door. I don't think 00:05:33.830 --> 00:05:41.327 - people realize how many books go in that book sale. There is a lot to choose from. So I have been promoting 00:05:41.327 --> 00:05:48.339 - that a lot with my students. They're very excited. And they became very excited when I said that the 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:52.574 - flyer said maybe one of the cheaper prices was around $0.50. 00:05:52.834 --> 00:05:59.381 - And one of the higher prices would be around $2. Yeah, and I think they may have adjusted their prices 00:05:59.381 --> 00:06:05.738 - this year. But regardless, it's like $3 max or there about for hardcovers. It's an incredible deal. 00:06:05.738 --> 00:06:12.603 - There was this really cool article in the IDS a month or so back that went through what the local bookstore 00:06:12.603 --> 00:06:19.214 - culture was like here in town. And the Friends of the Library bookstore was listed as one of the really 00:06:19.214 --> 00:06:21.566 - great bookstores we have. And it is. 00:06:21.826 --> 00:06:31.536 - and incredible value for the materials. That's great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. 00:06:31.536 --> 00:06:40.965 - We do not have any old business tonight. Do I have a motion to hear about the resolution to transfer 00:06:40.965 --> 00:06:51.422 - funds to Lerf? Second. And next up, we were going to hear from Gary. The library has received the third payment 00:06:51.906 --> 00:07:02.945 - of a pledge for $215,000 that was used to build the Hain amphitheater by the woods at the southwest 00:07:02.945 --> 00:07:14.315 - branch. The payment of $53,750 is currently in the restricted gift fund. So this resolution will allow 00:07:14.315 --> 00:07:21.822 - the funds to be transferred to the Library Improvement Reserve Fund 00:07:22.594 --> 00:07:34.235 - The original construction cost came out of the LERF fund knowing that it would be repaid over four years. 00:07:34.235 --> 00:07:45.216 - Are there any questions? Nope. No one has questions? Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed 00:07:45.216 --> 00:07:47.742 - say nay. Ayes have it. 00:07:51.490 --> 00:08:07.744 - Next up, we're gonna hear from Josh Wolf, the Department for Public Services and Programming. Oh, and 00:08:07.744 --> 00:08:16.030 - I'm sorry, and Dana Duffy. Thank you, my apologies. 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:24.433 - Hello, my name is Dana Duffy. I'm the program coordinator for the library. And the 2025 program stats 00:08:24.433 --> 00:08:31.546 - are not available right now. We switched over to a new programming platform called Communico. And it 00:08:31.546 --> 00:08:38.799 - records things a little differently than we had before. And so the numbers are a little bit different. 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:45.982 - And so we have to kind of look at them and interpret them so that we get the correct kind of numbers. 00:08:46.082 --> 00:08:53.901 - So we are working on that. So as a program coordinator, a good portion of what I do is I arrange for 00:08:53.901 --> 00:09:01.642 - staff to participate in outreach events. So I am separate from the outreach department. So outreach 00:09:01.642 --> 00:09:09.383 - events are a little bit different than what the outreach department does. So basically what happens 00:09:09.383 --> 00:09:10.622 - is we'll have a 00:09:10.818 --> 00:09:16.917 - Oh and also the other thing that I do is I work coordinating with the partners who get a hold of the 00:09:16.917 --> 00:09:23.077 - library and they want to do system wide programs. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that first. 00:09:23.077 --> 00:09:29.176 - So basically what happens is we'll have a partner that will reach out to us and they will want to do 00:09:29.176 --> 00:09:33.886 - a program at the library and my job is to make sure that they understand what 00:09:34.146 --> 00:09:41.151 - what partnering with the library means. And so, for instance, we don't take money. I'm gonna stop you 00:09:41.151 --> 00:09:48.019 - just a second. I think our audio cut out. I wanna make sure that everyone can hear you. Okay. Okay, 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:54.886 - so people online and for et cetera can hear. Okay, I'm sorry, thank you. Can you hear me all right? 00:09:54.886 --> 00:09:58.526 - Yes, we can hear you. Okay, all right. So basically, 00:09:58.722 --> 00:10:05.771 - We try to explain to them that we don't take money, we don't partner on partisan programming. So it's 00:10:05.771 --> 00:10:12.751 - just things like that to help people understand what the public library is. And then I basically try 00:10:12.751 --> 00:10:19.730 - to move it through the system after that. So I work with the library staff to make sure that if it's 00:10:19.730 --> 00:10:25.950 - a system-wide program, that we have all of our dates set and that the partner understands 00:10:26.178 --> 00:10:30.654 - each of these different locations and how different the setups are there. 00:10:30.754 --> 00:10:37.570 - Then also, I try to make sure that people understand that these are partnerships. So a partnership is 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:44.386 - a little bit different than if you just want to use the library space as a room reservation, which is 00:10:44.386 --> 00:10:51.269 - completely fine. So if you want to just do something where you want to do your own thing and you don't 00:10:51.269 --> 00:10:58.686 - want the library involved, that's really more of a room reservation. So I do help people through that as well. 00:10:59.810 --> 00:11:07.301 - And then the other thing that I do is that I work helping to do outreach events. And so not only do 00:11:07.301 --> 00:11:14.793 - we have partners contacting us because they want to do programs here at the library, they also want 00:11:14.793 --> 00:11:22.359 - us to go out and table at events. So that's a lot of fun for us. We've had a lot of different places 00:11:22.359 --> 00:11:27.678 - that we partner with or that we have gone out to do these events with. 00:11:28.034 --> 00:11:34.589 - IU is probably our biggest tabling event. And we do first Thursdays. We see a lot of students there. 00:11:34.589 --> 00:11:41.144 - And basically when we table, we're doing a few different things. We're promoting our services. We're 00:11:41.144 --> 00:11:47.893 - promoting our resources. And we're promoting our programs. But we're also signing people up for library 00:11:47.893 --> 00:11:50.814 - cards. So we take our library cards with us. 00:11:50.882 --> 00:11:58.237 - and we sign people up and that goes very well. A lot of times, sometimes at first Thursdays, we might 00:11:58.237 --> 00:12:05.520 - sign up 50 people for a library card. So yeah, it's really great. We've had some other partners that 00:12:05.520 --> 00:12:13.020 - have done programs here as well as us doing outreach events and Lotus is one of them. We just did Lotus 00:12:13.020 --> 00:12:19.870 - Blossoms where we go over to Fairview School and we stay there for two days. And we basically, 00:12:20.066 --> 00:12:27.355 - have set up a printing press for the kids and they made little bookmarks and we explain to them what 00:12:27.355 --> 00:12:35.004 - the summer reading program is. So it's a lot of fun and then the next day the families come and we really 00:12:35.004 --> 00:12:42.292 - try to promote our summer reading program and to explain that it is not just for children it is also 00:12:42.292 --> 00:12:50.014 - for children teens and adults. Then also our partners that we've had this year we've really reached out to 00:12:50.146 --> 00:12:57.939 - work on some of our health and wellness. We've done a health net is a partner for us. We've done some 00:12:57.939 --> 00:13:06.344 - partnering with them to help people in the homeless community to get resources, especially medical resources. 00:13:06.344 --> 00:13:08.254 - We have also worked with 00:13:08.386 --> 00:13:15.965 - Tandem, and they have come to our baby programs, Tandem Birthing Center, and they've partnered with 00:13:15.965 --> 00:13:23.999 - us as well. We've had the state health insurance assistant program that has come to give free information 00:13:23.999 --> 00:13:31.578 - for people who are going to sign up for Medicare. And then we've also partnered with Wonder Lab and 00:13:31.578 --> 00:13:37.566 - Wild Care for science-related programs. So that has been a lot of fun as well. 00:13:40.354 --> 00:13:47.269 - So we have done a lot over the years to try to get our name out there, but to also work with our community 00:13:47.269 --> 00:13:54.120 - partners so that they can better understand what it is that we do, that we're not just books and reading. 00:13:54.120 --> 00:14:00.583 - However, we have partnered with that as well, where we did have Ashley Hope Perez came back and she 00:14:00.583 --> 00:14:07.175 - did a program with us about censorship. And so that was pretty special for us. We had worked with the 00:14:07.175 --> 00:14:09.502 - Friends of the Public Library to do 00:14:10.274 --> 00:14:16.717 - of power of words and Ashley had come and talked as well and then she mentioned that to IU when she 00:14:16.717 --> 00:14:23.224 - was going to IU to talk to them and she said that we were a good partner and so she came back and it 00:14:23.224 --> 00:14:28.958 - was great. We really enjoyed it. So that's all I have. Do you have any questions for me? 00:14:33.794 --> 00:14:40.254 - on their phones, their residence hall, or their address, and then that's how they get the... Yeah, so 00:14:40.254 --> 00:14:46.650 - it's really easy now because they... And our marketing department made this fantastic little sticker 00:14:46.650 --> 00:14:53.173 - with a QR code, so they just hit that QR code with their phone. It takes them straight to applying for 00:14:53.173 --> 00:14:55.390 - a library card, and then they have 00:14:55.554 --> 00:15:00.926 - all of that stuff on their phone. They'll have a lease. They'll have something that was delivered to 00:15:00.926 --> 00:15:06.298 - them from Amazon. So it makes it really quick and easy. It takes about three minutes for them to get 00:15:06.298 --> 00:15:11.776 - their library card. It's great. Every now and then though, we will disappoint somebody because they'll 00:15:11.776 --> 00:15:17.414 - say they commute from like Green County or Lawrence County. So we feel bad, but we can't help them unless 00:15:17.414 --> 00:15:22.839 - they want a plaque card. And usually students don't want that. It's a little bit too much for them to 00:15:22.839 --> 00:15:24.062 - afford. Anything else? 00:15:24.706 --> 00:15:35.055 - Thank you so much for connecting our community. This is someone you want to partner with. It feels good. 00:15:35.055 --> 00:15:44.911 - It's effective. The staff make it very easy to do and make it tailored to an event. So kudos to you 00:15:44.911 --> 00:15:50.430 - and your team. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:56.971 - I got to run tech for the Ashley Hope Perez gig, and it was very inspiring. I don't know if anybody 00:15:56.971 --> 00:16:03.643 - or any of our audience got to see that, but it was really something. So I'm the director of public services. 00:16:03.643 --> 00:16:09.764 - Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining Greer and a couple of my colleagues for a meeting with the 00:16:09.764 --> 00:16:16.314 - superintendent of MCCSC, Dr. Winston. She asked what I do at the library. When I told her I'm the director 00:16:16.314 --> 00:16:19.742 - of public services, she responded very politely because 00:16:20.002 --> 00:16:26.387 - That's a title which always needs a little defining. I realized that enough of you are newer to the 00:16:26.387 --> 00:16:33.154 - board that I probably owe you an explanation as well. So I threw out all my planned anecdotes for tonight 00:16:33.154 --> 00:16:39.667 - and I decided to talk a little bit about our structure and my place in it. I've been in this position 00:16:39.667 --> 00:16:46.179 - for almost five years. In brief, I supervise the public services managers, children's, teens, adults, 00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:48.158 - two branch managers, outreach. 00:16:48.898 --> 00:16:54.566 - Also the managers of collection development, CATS, and circulation. If that sounds like a lot, I can 00:16:54.566 --> 00:17:00.458 - say it's much easier than you would think, because they're all incredibly strong leaders of their staff, 00:17:00.458 --> 00:17:06.293 - they're passionate about their audiences, and endlessly creative in their approach. In practice, I meet 00:17:06.293 --> 00:17:12.129 - with each of them regularly. I help with many aspects of their work, from developing new services, like 00:17:12.129 --> 00:17:18.302 - our new circulating Adobe licenses, to developing their staff with new training and mentorship opportunities, 00:17:18.466 --> 00:17:24.459 - to coordinating with other managers and administration on system-wide projects and partnerships with 00:17:24.459 --> 00:17:30.749 - the help of folks like Dana and some of our other operational directors. I'm not the expert or the driver 00:17:30.749 --> 00:17:36.802 - for most of these initiatives, I just support them. But I was a department manager for about 13 years 00:17:36.802 --> 00:17:42.973 - and I'm intimately aware of the unique position they're in. Somewhere between frontline staff, who they 00:17:42.973 --> 00:17:48.254 - work alongside of half their time in administration, who they work for and with as well, 00:17:49.090 --> 00:17:56.227 - The middle managers are the central conduit for all of our initiatives that we have here. They're really 00:17:56.227 --> 00:18:03.092 - part of our big picture goals. But I'm also incredibly fortunate that when Greer and his predecessor 00:18:03.092 --> 00:18:09.889 - stepped me into this position, they allowed me to continue to take on frontline shifts as needed. I 00:18:09.889 --> 00:18:17.502 - fill holes on evenings and weekends on the desk. Sometimes I even get to do a program when a presenter is sick. 00:18:17.858 --> 00:18:24.371 - This was not the practice for MCPL admin for a long time. And I've been able to keep at it even as our 00:18:24.371 --> 00:18:30.947 - system has expanded. It's important and instructive because we in administration regularly have to make 00:18:30.947 --> 00:18:37.270 - decisions that impact the entire system. And at the local level in a single department on the desk, 00:18:37.270 --> 00:18:43.657 - those decisions can feel very remote. I've been there. In those situations, it always falls on those 00:18:43.657 --> 00:18:47.198 - department managers to explain the system-wide context, 00:18:47.490 --> 00:18:54.249 - of any of our tough decisions. But it helps, too. If I can say to folks, while I'm on the desk, I work 00:18:54.249 --> 00:19:01.073 - with you here, I know on Saturdays what it's like. I also know what it's like over there and over there 00:19:01.073 --> 00:19:07.634 - and over there. And my understanding is really based on those touch points, not the halcyon days of 00:19:07.634 --> 00:19:14.262 - my children's librarianship. When I used to do pratfalls off of this stage, actually. I could finish 00:19:14.262 --> 00:19:15.902 - with one, if that would. 00:19:16.162 --> 00:19:21.489 - Probably not a good idea at my age. So that's why, even though I spend most of my time in meetings or 00:19:21.489 --> 00:19:27.181 - drafting proposals, you still might run into me on the desk sometimes, or writing shotgun on the bookmobile, 00:19:27.181 --> 00:19:32.664 - or even once in a while doing a story time. I'm grateful for that, partly because I love it, and I don't 00:19:32.664 --> 00:19:37.991 - think this type of structure could have come about in any of the other libraries that I've worked in. 00:19:37.991 --> 00:19:43.265 - MCPL is somewhere along the continuum between a small library and a large library. We've experienced 00:19:43.265 --> 00:19:45.406 - tremendous change in the last six years. 00:19:45.570 --> 00:19:53.642 - And our tendency is always to experiment. We tinker a lot just to see if things will work. Our current 00:19:53.642 --> 00:20:01.635 - structure that we have now is a reflection of that. We spend a lot of time trying things out, and I'm 00:20:01.635 --> 00:20:09.785 - really grateful to be part of that. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. 00:20:09.785 --> 00:20:14.174 - Thanks. Any other questions or comments from the board? 00:20:19.074 --> 00:20:20.030 - to dismiss.