So I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees on Wednesday,
June 17th, 2026. Start with introductions and include maybe what you read. Not my name. I'm Nancy Van
Allen, and I just started the second half after taking a break.
for a month or two, the House of Sand and Fog, and I don't know why I stopped, because it's really good.
I think that's Sand and Fog, yeah. Okay, I actually just had to pull up my Luby app. Hi, I'm Jennifer
Whitley, and I am listening to Mi Pais Inventado, which translates to My Invented Country by Isabel
Allende. She's one of my favorite authors.
I just started it. I'm reading The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. I'm Greer Carson. I'm
reading auto ranks art and artist and we are playing Planet Coaster 2 in my house. I'm Amy O'Shaughnessy.
I just finished listening to Ann Patchett's new book Whistler.
I'm Chris Hall, and I just finished reading The Frozen River by, let me see if I can go back to that
one, Ariel somebody, and Ariel Lahorn, Han, and I just picked up the silent, let's see if I can find
that one. Until I start reading them, I don't always remember the names, The Silent Retreat by Sally Quinn.
May I get a motion to approve the consent agenda from May 20th, 2026, including meeting minutes, monthly
financial report, monthly bills for payment, personnel report, and board meeting calendar. So moved.
Second. Any opposed? Motion approved. Next, we're going to hear the monthly director's report.
Okay, so Summer Reading started June 1st. It runs through July 31st. The theme this year, if you don't
know already, is Unearth a Story, which of course focuses on dinosaurs. Remember that Summer Reading
is for all ages now, and so we encourage everyone in our community to sign up at any of our locations
or online via our website and enjoy the celebrated annual library program. And as always, thanks to
our Foundation and Friends group for continuing to support this program with their annual financial
gift to the library.
Our collection development team is incorporating more digital records into our catalog. Many hoopla
titles, for example, that we select with permanent licenses are now being integrated alongside physical
titles in our catalog so that patrons can see more results whenever they perform a search online. Cataloging
digital items isn't always as straightforward as cataloging physical items, and we certainly can't catalog every
single digital item we subscribe to across all of our digital platforms. But between the strategic selection
of Hoopla titles and the careful cataloging of digital item records, collection development staff are
making it even easier for patrons to find Hoopla titles straight from the catalog search results.
We're making a change in how we manage digital creativity at the Downtown Library. The Level Up space,
which for the last 10 plus years has been the home to all of our digital creativity suites and programs,
and has been under adult services for the last five years since we did a restructure during the pandemic,
is soon gonna fall under CATS. CATS, of course, which is over 50 years old, started out as the digital
creativity
experts at Monroe County Public Library and looking ahead to what CATCH will be doing in the future
in addition to the public educational and governmental meeting coverage that they provide for the community.
They will also have a public service component that is much more like it was back in the 70s and 80s
where they will help patrons come in and use technology to create their own video and audio and now
we have 3D printing and all kinds of other things in the level up space. So the transition from adult service
running level up to cats running level up will take a little bit of time. We're gonna do sort of a soft
transition over the summer and probably by the fall we'll do that complete handoff. So we're excited
to have cats kind of step out into the public sphere once again and run our level up digital creativity space.
The auto notification system we've talked about a few times for staff is now in effect. We've tested
it with some mock messages to staff to just make sure everyone's gonna get the text notification or
the voicemail the way we've set it up. If and when we have inclement weather and hopefully tonight is
not one of those times, we work with our IT staff and they send those notifications out automatically
to staff. It's very much like the school corporations have.
So we're glad to just finally have that piece in place. I'm guessing we won't have to really utilize
it until the next winter, fingers crossed. And very pleased to share that the Monroe County commissioners
have appointed our latest board member. This is one Rebecca Hill, who will be meeting with myself and
Jamie Burkhardt in the coming weeks to do some new trustee orientation. And I expect will join us for
our July meeting. So we're very glad to have
Becky Hill joined the board starting in July. And happy to answer any questions about the director's
report this month. Just a note to say, I recognize the amount of work that goes into the director's
report that's provided. I don't always take time to comment on it, but it is a really valuable
thing to report to the board. I really appreciate that it's organized underneath your strategic plan,
that it includes patron comments. It makes me feel like I have a good understanding of what all has
happened in the library, even if we're not all commenting on it. So kudos to you and the team that put
this together. It's no small feat to do every month. So. Actually, I would say the director's report
is in a lot of cases, literally an all staff process.
Managers, of course, are supposed to submit monthly updates for their departments, but what a lot of
managers do is ask their staff to submit anecdotes, data, experiences, perspectives that they will then
include and put into the report. So it really starts with staff in each department, and then the managers
kind of put it together and submit it, and then I go in and clean the whole thing up and add things.
And so it's quite a group effort. And yeah, it's a 10- to 12-page report every month, so I appreciate that.
Okay, so the annual report is conducted by the Indiana State Library and it's required of all Indiana
libraries. We prepare this report every January for the previous fiscal year and submit the finished
report to the ISL by March. As you know, this year was a little different.
The vendor who had hosted the annual report for many years, Baker and Taylor, closed up shop. So the
State Library had to work to find a new report through a new vendor, and this delayed the usual timeline
for completing the report by a few months. The report helps the State Library understand how Indiana
libraries are performing and where trends and growth may emerge. This year's report for MCPL is included
in the packet in its entirety. It's lengthy, and a lot of it doesn't really change much from year to
year, but here are some highlights.
Total registered users at the end of 2025 were 56,350. That is up from 55,446 in 2024 and 51,917
in 2023. So we continue to see more registered users by the end of the year over the last few years.
number of paid staff is 167 at the end of 25. That is down from 174 in 2024. We all know part of why
we were doing that and we will have a completed FTE reduction update for everybody in July. But that
number 167 compared to 174 is in part a reflection of the effort that we made there.
Total holdings, so total number of items in our collection in terms of physical items which include
books, movies, music, games.
things from the Library of Things collection, anything physical you check out from MCPL, we have 391,513
physical items at the end of last year. That was down from 437,293 in 2024 and 469,143 in 2023.
And again, following the conversations we've been having about
over the use of digital collections and the increase in use on the part of our patrons. It's not a surprise
that we see the physical holdings continuing to go down a little bit each year. Total circulation of
physical items was 1,373,953 checkouts. That's up from 1,336,947 in 2024. And total circulation of digital
items for 2025 was 923,000
462. That's a significant increase over last year's total digital circulation number which was 667,924
and 617,147 in 2023. So the digital circulation trend which has been semi-gradual really took off this
last year and as you've seen is continuing to do for the first half of this year.
Total programs for 2025 were a remarkable 3,749 in-person or virtual programs. That's up from 2,306
programs in 2024. That's a remarkable increase and speaks to the incredible work and really passion
and energy that our staff put into putting on their programs. For a lot of staff, that really is the
bread and butter of what they do.
Total program attendance was 56,873, and that is up significantly from 2024's number, which was 33,729.
And total annual visits to any and all MCPL locations in 2025 was 629,591. That is up
from 571,438 in 2024 and 583,964 in 2023. So we went down a little bit last year and then we're up quite
a bit in 2025 with almost 630,000 visits. The very end of the report always asks the library director
to share a statement or two about an accomplishment that they're really proud of for their library.
And this year we certainly referenced that we are succeeding in reducing our total compensation costs
relative to the passage of SB1. We had committed to reducing by five FTEs without laying anybody off
and just doing it through attrition. So that continues to be something we're focusing on but also very
proud of because we're doing it and we know we can succeed.
But also we reference the partnership we have with Heading Home of South Central Indiana, and that is
the partnership that's resulted in there being a diversion and prevention case manager stationed at
the downtown library in a specific office helping individuals who might be on the path to homelessness
and helping them get the resources that they need. So we're very proud of that partnership.
Shekay, who is our diversion and prevention case manager, will be giving a presentation to you all along
with Elizabeth Gray as part of the adult services presentation later this year. So we included that.
And then finally, we referenced not only the Bookmobile project, the fact that we have our Bookmobile
uh... being built as we speak and we expected in early fall but also chris jackson our outreach services
manager uh... mentioned something to me uh... and i think he was right he said you know the annual reports
were great and they have a lot of areas to talk about what we do but they don't really put a lot of
effort into what does an outreach services department do in a library like ours and we're far from the
only library that has a robust robust outreach services department. So I said well let's start putting
some of that stuff into the report and some of the notes field and we we use that opportunity in the
accomplishment piece to talk a little bit about everything that outreach services actually does. So
that's what at the very end of the report that paragraph is what you see there.
So the new report is, in many respects, more intuitive from a data entry perspective. We expect that
the state library will make a few changes to the report going forward, because they typically do. But
on the whole, we're kind of glad to see the new interface. It was a little easier to complete for a
lot of us. And we're glad to see so many positive quantitative trends in terms of CPL patron engagement.
Happy to answer any questions about the annual report.
speaks a lot to the services and the staff that you have here, so congratulations. Now I almost feel
a little silly. Is this possible? Is it the 100th year for the bookmobile coming out? It will be in
2029. Okay. Yeah. Because I started saying that, I thought, well, maybe I'm way off, but I thought that's
what I read in there. We're a few years away, so we'll have the new vehicle in time for it, yeah. I'd
like to see a picture of the first one.
Oh, we have it, Downtown Library. And it's on our website, too, under MCPL History. But yeah, it's like
an old Model T or Model A, yeah. At this time, can I get a motion to hear about our ADA compliance and
policy updates from Josh Wolfe?
Thanks, folks. The reason we're looking at this today is because Chris Jackson, my colleague, has served
as our ADA coordinator for well over a decade and has been beyond excellent at that work. But he made
the difficult decision at this point to ask if he could step back from that role so we can really just
focus on outreach services and locations.
It's tied in many ways to bringing on this new bookmobile and the expansion of those services. So we
talked about it for a while. I am going to step into that role and probably
with the transition period and get a lot of help from him. He's already put me in touch with Council
for Community Accessibility and some of his, it's such a supportive community for this. I've already
gone out on a site survey and started to work on my own ADA coordinator certification. But the policies
do need to be updated, primarily just
There are boilerplate policies that we've tailored for MCPL, but one of the things you have to do is
identify the person to reach out to. So on the Americans with Disabilities Act notice itself, we removed
his title and put my own in and my own contact information. You always want to do that. One thing we
also decided to include at the recommendation of our legal counsel,
The sentence, as far in advance as possible when you're making an ADA accommodation request, but no
later than 48 hours prior to a scheduled event. In all reality, in the very moment, our staff will scramble
to make an accommodation. It's just part of our service model and what we do. But we should be covered
by the policy. So they asked us to do that.
and that's substantively the only change in the ADA Act notice that we have. We also had to do pretty
much the same update in the grievance procedure, excuse me, under the Americans with Disability Act,
and really just change his former title, which actually hasn't been his title for a little while, so
we're probably out of date on this, to mine, Director of Public Services, ADA Coordinator.
And that's really it. It's mostly just a name change for who to reach out to if you have questions.
And how many hats do you wear now? I'm sorry? How many hats do you wear now? How many? I have one of
those hats that can change shape. I'm very excited about this. It's been kind of a while since I've
had the opportunity to dig into something that's not only really cool, but that I have a very,
little understanding of. So I'm excited by the runway. I've already met some great folks in the community.
And so that's kind of a gift for me, for sure. Yeah. Any questions? I'm sure you'll do great.
Thank you. All in favor of the described ADA compliance and policy updates, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay.
The ayes have it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And next up, we'll hear from Chris Hossler, the Ellisville
branch manager. Good evening, and thank you for coming out to the Ellisville branch for today's board meeting.
I'm going to be updating the board on a renovation project that we just wrapped up in the last month
here at the branch that has been underway and I'll take any questions at the end about that project
or the branch in general. In 2024, our department discussed possible improvements in several areas of
the branch. These included the public service desks, the staff office spaces and addressing shortages
in storage space.
Then replacing one carpeting around the perimeter of our main public service area as you come in got
added to the scope of the project at a later point. Our department staff identified challenges with
the existing location of our public service desks. If you don't know or you're just thinking about what
you saw as you came in, they used to be out in the main central atrium area and we have just moved them back.
to the edge of that public service area. So these challenges we were talking about included difficulty
hearing ourselves talking to each other and patrons because it's a big atrium area that has an echo
effect. So that was a difficulty in providing quality service to the public and focusing on our work
when we weren't dealing with the public. I also felt that having the public service desks located in
a high traffic
public area was creating situations where patrons were forced to use the space behind us at the desks,
which made keeping patron information that we would be looking at on the computers, keeping that confidential
when you have the public walking behind you. Also, it's disconcerting to have somebody
walk behind you as you're working. So the decision was made to relocate these desks to the edge of the
non-public area. And we've placed them outside the range of the acoustic problems that the atrium has
and removed public access to the space behind that service point. So as part of the relocation of the
desk, we've moved our hold shelves, which had been right behind us, out to just outside the children's room now.
And then the other major component of the renovation project was re-carpeting the staff offices and
workspaces. These were parts of the building that hadn't really been touched in the 2019 major renovation
that Belt the Wing were in right now and did a lot of other changes to the rest of the building.
and then increased usability and volume of storage and program preparation spaces. So we had a fairly
large non-public staff area, but it was a big open space. And it wasn't really conducive to doing a
lot of program prep or focused work where you needed to tune out the noise of everything that was going
around you. So we did focus on those areas in the renovation.
Also adding that storage space to that part of the building frees us up from having to use these closets
that you see behind you, which of course is a challenge when these rooms are in use and you need to
get to something in there. There's a lot of unnecessary planning ahead that we no longer will have to
deal with because of that. So the new carpet was selected and installed this past January of 26.
In February, we essentially created a new work room in the open,
non-public space by putting in two walls. And they have formed a new discrete basically staff work room
that's just separate from our staff office space. So it's a place for our staff when they're programming
and prepping for that, particularly for the craft programs where you have a lot of components you need
to assemble and you don't always get it done in one day. We now have a space that you can spread out
prep your stuff and leave it overnight if needed without having to pack it all up. Then in this March
and April, we added power and data ports to these new walls that would service the new location of the
public service desks. What else do we have here? Oh, so we do have shelving.
identified for both sides of those walls to increase the storage, which was one of our main goals that
will be coming at some point shortly down the road. Then we had our marketing and communications department
create a fantastic mural for this new workspace. So if you ever want to stop by and take a look at it,
just check in at the desk with us and we can show you. I didn't do slides tonight, but we're happy to do tours.
Then a little bit tangential, but during the course of that renovation, we had the opportunity to address
some plumbing issues that had been ongoing for quite a while in the staff break room and restroom. We
had a replacement of a failing mounting hardware in the staff restroom and we got a new sink and cabinetry
in the staff break room and we're able to add a wastewater clean-out access point
in that same space, which is going to save us a lot of work and money on plumbing contracting down the
line. So overall, our staff have been very pleased with this renovation, especially the relocation of
the public service desks and the workspace. Patrons have generally responded so far enthusiastically
to the service desk location and the resulting open space in the atrium.
Uh, it's allowed us to move some high volume collections like new arrivals more front and center. Uh,
and we're, we're thinking about moving our kiosk that we have out in the front lobby with, um, programming
brochures and stuff kind of into that big atrium space. So that is my update for the Alex Hill department
tonight. Thank you again for your time and I'd be happy to take any questions now.
done in the public space area. But tonight when I walked in, I don't know why I especially noticed you
had more room for displays, new fiction, new nonfiction. Like at the downtown library, I always enjoy
looking at those as I'm coming in. So it's a really good feeling. I would have never thought those desks were the
It's not like it was a problem to patrons, but it's a very different feeling coming in now. That was
the focus before and now it's the space itself and the collections that we have. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, I'd love to have a tour maybe right after this meeting to peek around. Yeah, since we are likely
to wrap up early, that would be great to just take a peek.
We've seen some of the proposals and some of the in-progress work, but I didn't really peek around when
I came in today. Sure. I'd be happy to. Great. Do you feel like the storage, the lack of storage space,
which someone told me several years ago, they felt like it would be nice to have more storage space.
So it may have just been an individual's opinion, but you feel like that's
been helped a lot and then the shelves will really- It has, yes. I'll let you in on a secret. Programming
librarians are hoarders. Not just because we want to be good stewards of public funds for the supplies
we buy, but we're going to use it at some point and it's very hard to let go of stuff and you do have
to, of course, deal with the space you have. But yeah, this will give us a lot of leeway and
help us stretch our money, yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Do I have a motion to dismiss? Second. All in favor
say aye. Aye. Okay, we're adjourned.