- I would like to call to order the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting for August
- 20th, 2025. If you would, we're going to go around and introduce yourselves and you can share what you're
- reading if you'd like. Let's start. My name is Chris Pohl and I am listening to 1984 Julia by Sandra
- Newman. As usual, I don't have my book pulled up. I'm Amy O'Shaughnessy and I just finished How Not
- to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz.
- I'm Greer Carson. I'm rereading Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dan Dennett. And I'm watching my kids play
- Tiny Bookshop, which I recommend for anyone who thinks that video games are just one type of thing,
- violent, fast-paced, anti-literate, not so. This is a really cool indie game. That's really cool. I'm
- Jamie Burkhart. And I just read The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, which was a kid's book. And it was
- adorable. I recommend it for everyone.
- and I can't remember what I'm reading. I've just got stacks everywhere. I'm Whitney Eads and right now
- I am reading a graphic novel called Cardboard. Okay, I move that we have a motion for the consent agenda
- from last time for July 16th board meeting, monthly financial report, monthly bills and payment, personnel
- report and board meeting calendar.
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Motion approved. And now we're going to hear from Greer
- for the Director's Monthly Report. Okay, we've made some improvements to our vital collection. Those
- improvements include subject headings, summaries, pagination, and reading levels. These books previously
- had very little metadata to aid vital users in finding materials to fit their needs and interests.
- So these changes really do enhance the accessibility and usability for our vital print collection. Thank
- you to our vital circulation services and collection development teams for coordinating on this project.
- And a special thank you to our cataloguer and metadata librarian, TD, for updating all of the mark records
- and spine labels associated with this project.
- Construction of the Gordon Pike roundabout was completed earlier this month after a challenging few
- months of dicey one-way traffic in and out of the southwest branch While the Gordon Fullerton connection
- is still under construction Southwest patrons can now more easily access our branch We'd like to thank
- all of our southwest patrons and visitors for their patience these past few months as we know it's been
- a challenge
- Our Read to Me program saw a significant uptick in participation last month. We'd like to thank our
- friends at New Leaf New Life for their renewed emphasis and promotion of this program and on literacy
- in general, which we believe is behind that uptick. There's also a remarkable anecdote under goal three
- in the report concerning one of our outreach associates, Dan.
- which is almost too touching to read aloud, so I encourage everyone to take another look at the report
- and to read that particular anecdote. It involves a young Bookmobile patron, a forthcoming move out
- of the country, and Hug. This was shared with all staff by outreach manager Chris Jackson, and it has
- had an emotional impact on us. On July 4th, we suffered a ransomware attack that compromised parts of
- our network, including several servers and workstations.
- The breach was discovered on July 6, and our IT team swiftly took action to contain the threat. Attackers
- exploited access through our firewall using VPN. We have since disabled the affected VPN access, changed
- administrator passwords, and restored critical systems from our July 3 backup specifically. Affected
- servers and workstations, including some staff computers, were evaluated to determine if they'd been
- compromised, and where appropriate, have been wiped and or replaced. The aim of the attack appears to have been
- to encrypt data rather than to steal data.
- We reached out to Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who in turn passed
- our report to the Multistate Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is part of the State Center
- for Internet Security. We also contacted the FBI to report the incident. We have since reviewed all
- staff computers and addressed all machines that had files encrypted by the attack. We are currently
- reviewing our security policies to see if there are other precautions we can take to prevent future
- attacks. We are also continuing to monitor
- network and workstations for any residual risks. Thank you to Ned Baugh and our IT department for moving
- rapidly to stop this attack and to remediate the impact. And finally, we are very proud to be sending
- multiple MTPL staff this
- year to the ILF or Indiana Library Federation annual conference to give presentations. These respective
- presentations will focus on readers' advisory as a means to expanding readers' horizons and on how MCPL
- manages the challenges associated with pest infestations, including policy, procedure, and
- patron communication. And yes, that does include bed bugs, a threat which more and more public libraries
- face every day. We, of course, developed a very robust mitigation program and are eager to share our success
- story with peer libraries at ILF this year. Happy to answer any questions about the director's report.
- But not to read the anecdote, because it choked some of us up. It is very sweet. Yes. I had a quick
- question. Yeah. Just for clarification, and it's just one of those things personally interests me. So
- back up to where one of the first things you talked about
- reading levels, like coding the books in a certain way. What does that look like here? So helping readers
- find materials at their reading level. And I can read this, but with the teacher background, we talk
- a lot about lexiles and things like that, so. If Lisa Ciampelli wouldn't mind coming up to the mic early,
- she's going to be presenting a little bit later, but she is one of our resident experts, perhaps our
- our resident expert, and she can talk about that. Thanks. Yeah, it's a really good question. We don't
- categorize or shelve materials by reading level in
- uh... normally uh... in the children's department for example uh... publishers different uh... you know
- different publishers series uh... we we purchased leveled readers and so they'll have the leveling there
- you can also find in the records uh... oftentimes there's uh... AR listings and things like that with
- the vital project it was particularly uh...
- needed for their area because they're working so closely with, you know, very beginner readers and ordering
- from a lot of different sources that would have their own kind of leveling system. So it was really
- confusing to come in, you know, for a reader to be able to find just recreational reading material that
- would be at their level. So Mick is here actually also from the vital department and they worked on
- kind of coming up with their own leveling system so that they're going to continue to look
- at the new materials as they come in and kind of assess, okay, this item is really matching at a level
- zero, this one's at a level one, so that it'll be able to bring, you know, different kinds of materials
- together into a consistent leveling system. Yeah. Correct me if I missed anything there. All right. Thanks.
- A lot of great summer programming that was in the report, but wasn't necessarily talked about. So it's
- an impressive month of July report. Summer is when we shine, for sure. OK. I move now that we hear the
- operational budget and adjustments per Indiana Senate Bill 1 and vote on the hours for adjustment for
- our downtown library. Do I have a second to hear more? So moved. Second.
- Do you want to summarize? Sure, yeah. Before we put this matter to a vote, I'll try to briefly summarize
- the proposal and some of the discussion we've had to date. So Indiana Senate Bill 1 will result in MCPL
- receiving between $350,000 and $400,000 less in property tax revenue each year over the next three years.
- Beyond that, we don't yet have projected revenue numbers. We began looking at options for absorbing
- this revenue reduction early in the year.
- From the start, our goal has been to adopt a strategy that which would have the least negative impact
- on the least number of library patrons and library staff. Those options included a reduction in the
- overall number of staff, a reduction in operating hours across the system, a reduction in collection
- spending, postponing facilities maintenance and improvement projects, and reducing overall staff compensation
- and benefits. And looking at our current staffing model, we recognize that we could reduce overall staffing
- by the equivalent of five full-time positions over the next two years,
- which would achieve the goal of absorbing the revenue reduction. We also realized we could do this by
- way of attrition rather than having to implement layoffs. While it saves us money in payroll expenses,
- a reduction of five full-time positions has a direct impact on the way we staff our public service desks,
- how we provide online and over-the-phone assistance, and how we plan and deliver programs and many other
- internal operations which
- contribute to the positive experience patrons expect to have when they use the library. In other words,
- a reduction in staff has an impact on our staff scheduling. At the same time, we looked at our various
- hours of operations across the system, knowing that closing a single location for an entire day would
- negatively impact a large number of patrons in numerous ways with regard to resource and space use.
- We considered how the downtown library was underutilized during the last two hours of the day, Monday
- through Thursday.
- Our door count, computer use, and room reservation data all suggested a downward trend for those hours
- over the past few years. But perhaps more importantly, our own daily observations of how and how often
- the downtown library is utilized during those evening hours suggested that closing this facility at 7 p.m.
- Monday through Thursday as we do at our branch locations would make good financial and operational sense.
- It would allow us to adjust staff schedules so that the reduction in staffing does not necessarily result
- in a reduction in staff
- who are available to assist patrons at any given point in time, and it would satisfy our goal of having
- the least negative impact on the least number of patrons. Finally, it would make library hours consistent
- across all three MCPL locations every day of the week.
- We shared some possible strategies at our winter and spring board meetings prior to the eventual passage
- of SB 1. Following the bill's passage and confirmation on total revenue reduction, we began discussing
- this in detail at the June board meeting and continue the conversation at the July board meeting.
- We've done a handful of interviews with local media outlets on this proposal since the July meeting,
- and many of our programming librarians who host weekday evening programs have discussed the proposal
- with their regular attendees to gauge potential impact of such a change in hours on their ability to
- attend those programs. We've also received some public comments asking us to reconsider this proposal
- and offering alternative ideas. Six individuals and or groups have reached out to us with thoughts on
- how this change in hours would impact their ability to use our reservable spaces.
- These have been very constructive and supportive comments and we're grateful for them because
- they demonstrate how valuable this library is to these individuals and groups. It also gives us another
- opportunity to explain our reasoning and to consider how we might approach our after hours event management
- with flexibility in the future.
- In summary, we feel that changing the downtown library's hours to match the hours of our Elladsville
- and Southwest branches will help us adjust to the reduction in total library staff and is an appropriate
- response to the patterns of use we've observed over the past few years. Above all, it impacts the least
- number of patrons in a minimal way, but that's not to say that it impacts no one. And we do understand
- that some patrons will be inconvenienced, particularly those who rely on the library for free meeting
- room space after 7 p.m.
- Our administrative team has been working with local businesses and nonprofits to update and expand our
- current list of alternative meeting spaces. We will continue to help any group or individual who needs
- assistance in finding a space during those evening hours. If passed, the new hours would go into effect
- beginning Monday, November 24th.
- We chose the state so as to be at least 90 days out from any current space reservations we have so that
- our patrons and staff would have ample time to adjust and in order to make hours changes outside of
- the middle of the coldest or hottest days of the year. So with that, tonight we put the proposal to
- a vote. Any additional questions before we vote? Can I ask you to talk about
- the frontline librarian staff, like what their opinions of this are. I really have valued hearing from
- administration, from you, from seeing a lot of data as we consider this. Can you talk about what staff
- feelings are about this change? Sure. Being careful not to presume to speak for all staff, I would say
- the strong consensus at this point is that this is a really good move, not only because
- I think staff understand we have to find a way to absorb the reduction in staff, but because that schedule
- adjustment that's going to be required, if we make this change, will hit staff immediately. And so if
- we make this change and we close at 7, like we do with our branches, it makes those
- two schedules across the day, much easier for us to manage for staff. I think there are some other reasons
- why most of our staff are in support of this. And it has to do with, again, the observations of folks
- downtown saying, we just don't see a lot of people coming through the door after 7 o'clock. Does it
- make sense for us to stay open?
- little bit of consciousness about we're stewards of taxpayer dollars and we should have the right hours
- and all of those kinds of things but a lot of it really is like if we're reducing by that many full-time
- equivalents
- it's going to have an impact on how we can schedule people on the desk. And if we follow the data and
- our observations and mirror downtown hours against Southwest and Ellitsville, it'll make it a lot easier
- to adjust staff schedules at the same time. And I think that is right now, I said consensus, maybe it's
- sort of like the prevailing notion. I don't know for sure. And we haven't talked to every staff member
- about whether or not they like the idea.
- I look over at my colleagues and I don't know if they want to smile and go, yeah, it's safe
- to say everybody's in support of this, but that's the sense that I have. At least understands the reasoning
- behind it. Yes. Again, we've done our best to make the rounds and talk to every department and explain
- the reasoning for all of this, including the reduction of the total number of staff.
- And I can certainly say that we haven't had a lot of staff come to us and say I really don't think we
- should close the library at 7 o'clock. That's not across the board and there are some people who I know
- feel that way, but by and large I think the feeling across the library is this makes good sense. I just
- want to share that I appreciate the idea that other businesses might be stepping up.
- help some of these groups and well actually help them as well if they take on groups of people maybe
- they'll be some yeah I'm gonna point to Lorraine Martin her and her team in in our administrative offices
- they've been working really hard on taking that list that currently exists on our website and we refer
- patrons to a lot and updating that and trying to expand it so we can say there really are a lot of other
- places in town that will give you either a free meeting space or a reasonably priced meeting space it's
- not the same as saying
- that's the equivalent of meeting at the library and we understand that for sure, but we are trying to
- do our best to not just leave these groups hanging. And helpful to understand that staff are wanting
- to make sure that when the library is open that they're able to
- staff the pickup window and staff children's services and all the spaces that the downtown library provides.
- Exactly, yeah. We really don't like when we're in a crunch situation with staffing and this can happen
- sometimes with call-ins or other sort of emergencies but when you're like, you know, we might have to
- close that area for the next hour or so or early for the night in order to pull staff to cover other
- places. This will help with that as we continue to reduce by five FTEs. So, yeah. I just want to say
- that I think that it's commendable
- that we want to move toward a decision that doesn't lay off people because I think that we are a good
- employer and I think we put that first because that equals good service to the patrons as well. So I
- think it's the best option for us right now. Thank you. I know we often like to point out goal number
- five in our current strategic plan because it's
- kind of new for us to include sort of an inward-looking goal in our strategic planning, but that's what
- you just said, Kathy, is exactly what that goal is about. So yeah, we take that pretty seriously. So
- I'd rather have people providing salaries to the homes than having meeting rooms open for an hour or
- two. Yeah. Okay. So the motion before us is to vote on the hours adjustment for the downtown library.
- All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Motion approved. May I have a motion to hear from Gary
- and the 2026 budget and approval of public advertising. So moved. Second. So.
- Last month, we went over the first draft of the 2026 budget. An updated version of the budget is included
- in the board packet. The public notice for the budget is on the first page of the August budget report,
- and it's on page 56 in the packet. We went over the budget numbers last month, so I'll mainly focus
- on the public notice approval tonight.
- But if there are any questions on the details of the 2026 budget report, I'd be happy to discuss them.
- If the budget notice is approved tonight, the next step in the budget process is to post the budget
- notice to taxpayers in Gateway, which is the state budget information website. The budget notice provides
- the public hearing date
- and time, which will be at the September 17th board meeting and it'll be at the southwest branch. The
- public notice also provides the adoption meeting information. The budget adoption will occur at the
- October 15th board meeting here at the main branch. Column two on the budget notice shows the total
- spending budget.
- The total spending budget for next year is about $13.8 million. This includes the allocation for spending
- in the operating fund, along with the debt fund and rainy day fund. Column three on the budget notice
- shows the maximum estimated funds to be raised from the 2026 property tax levy.
- The total revenue from the property tax levy is estimated to be $8,917,819 split between the operating
- fund and the debt fund. This budget notice does not include library revenue from other sources like
- investment income or local income tax. It just shows revenue from the tax levy.
- We received the assessed value for the county after this board report was completed. This is the first
- time in 15 years that assessed value has decreased. The operating surplus report on page 70 shows assessed
- value and the library tax rate since 2021.
- In 2021, the library tax rate was 9.42 cents per $100 of assessed value. And assessed value at that
- time was $7.8 billion. Assessed value goes up each year to its peak in 2025 of 11.185 billion.
- Then for 2026, assessed value decreases
- to about 11.09 billion. So that's a decrease of about $100 million. But when we look at the trend in
- assessed value, we can see that we've had a couple of years since 2021 where the assessed value has
- gone up by over a billion dollars in one year. So $100 million decrease is
- is relatively small. The library tax rate will be 8.04 cents per $100 of assessed value in 2026. That's
- a slight increase from last year. Last year, it was just under 8 cents. And two years ago,
- The rate was 8.53 cents. So we're down from two years ago. Are there any questions before we vote on
- this notice to the taxpayers? I'm going to ask you something, not so much about this, but just a generalized
- question. The goal, if I'm remembering correctly, is to try to stay under that 9-cent mark.
- Is that correct? I guess the goal is to receive our maximum revenue each year. But as far as a rate
- target, we want that rate to be low.
- Assessed value plays such a big part that it's sort of like out of our control. And so we don't really
- have a set target that we can work towards since we can't control assessed value. But I can just say
- that when I got here in 2011, the rate at that time was
- 10.97, so it was almost 11 cents. So over the years, even though the levy goes up by three or 4% every
- year, assessed value has gone up in most cases by more than that. So that's why we keep coming down
- from 11 cents down to eight cents now.
- who knows what will happen with assessed value as we go forward. That's right. Okay. Any other questions
- about the public advertising notice? Okay. All in favor of the motion to approve the fiscal year 2026
- budget for public advertising notice, say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.
- Do I have a motion to approve the labor management agreement? So moved. Second.
- So the labor management agreement is in the packet. It's 20 pages long. I'm not going to read the whole
- thing to you. But I wanted to give you a little bit of an overview of what the Labor Management Committee
- is, as well as introduce the folks that were on that committee. So our Labor Management Committee,
- or LMC, is a formal group which serves to facilitate goodwill and partnership between the library and
- our staff union, AFSCME.
- We recognize that this partnership benefits from regular ongoing discussions, and to that end, we meet
- at least quarterly to address any new issues that have arisen within the scope of the board resolution.
- There are three members from each party who represent the union and the library. So currently for the
- LMC, it is Josh Wolf, Sam Ott, and myself who represent the library, and Mick Breeze, Avalon Snell,
- and Paula Gray-Overtum, who represent the union.
- Every three years, the LMC comes together to review and update the collective bargaining agreement,
- which is what's in the packet. The committee for this one consisted of Josh Wolf, Sam Ott, and myself
- on the library, representing the library, and then Mick Breeze, Avalon Snell, and Lauren Anderjack,
- representing the union. All of those folks are in the audience. I won't make them stand up.
- So we began by meeting in the spring and are pleased to present several updates to the agreement. The
- agreement itself was included. The changes that were made are relatively minor, so I'll just go over
- those for you. The changes include we changed amendment-wide language to remove any gendered pronouns.
- So she, he, her, his were updated with they, them, their, the employee, the manager.
- Article five, section five was updated to list the union officers who received the reports every six
- months and codified the method of communication and the confidential nature of the information. Do you
- guys want me to read each of these sections to go through the updates or just the summary? Okay. Article
- seven, sections five or four, five and six were added regarding training for new LMC members and an
- annotated version of the agreement with plain language.
- And Article 11, Section 5 was revised to better represent department sizes for union representation
- during our agreement negotiations and added wording about the library representatives being shared with
- union representation in the same manner that union representatives are shared with the library. And
- then Article 14, Section 6,
- was added to outline the process for scheduling a special meeting in the case of layoffs or recalls.
- So if approved by the board, this new agreement that we present tonight would remain in effect from
- August 20th, 2025 through August 16th of 2028. Are there any questions on the changes to the agreement?
- No. Pardon me? Yes. Okay. Sorry. No, that's okay. Yes, I'm just thinking, okay? I'm thinking. Thinking.
- No other questions or concerns? Comments? Okay. All in favor of approving the labor management agreement,
- say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Motion approved. Do I have a motion to hear the acceptance of
- in-kind gift? So moved. Second.
- Okay, we are grateful to have received a proposed in-kind gift in the form of a sewing machine for our
- downtown teen space. Yes, Sam is gonna demonstrate it. He's an expert in sewing machines as I understand.
- So per our gift policy, any in-kind gift like this needs to be reviewed by the board in consultation
- with myself before we formally accept it. The benefits of this gift are that it makes it easier to host
- sewing programs by having more than one machine in-house. Holding machine sewing programs right now
- has involved a lot of waiting around for each team to take turn on the machine and having a second machine
- greatly reduces the wait times and will make it more feasible for staff to lead these programs. It also
- draws attention to the craft itself
- which in turn helps spawn curiosity and experimentation. And this is a higher quality machine with better
- safety features than the one we currently have. So we're seeking a vote to accept this in-kind gift
- for use in our teen space. Can I ask about what kind of training you have received for this machine? So...
- I know nothing about this. This is all being done by the teen librarian Claire Spence. They're in charge
- of all these events. But the person who donated this, Abby Cox, is actually a historical costuming YouTuber
- that lives in Bloomington. And when she donated, she came and did a training for Claire on how to use
- it. And we're actually going to be partnering with her and one of her friends, Nicole Rudolph, as well
- to do programs in the teen space for kids on sewing. So they're going to be around regularly to help
- us with that. Great. That's awesome.
- I'm just thinking about longevity of that machine. Yes. Claire is going to be very protective of it
- and make sure everybody goes through training. We're probably going to institute a policy where if a
- kid wants to use it, they have to sit down with Claire to go through everything on their own to make
- sure of that. But this machine is also, Claire wanted me to emphasize, much safer for the teens to use.
- And it's got a lot more built-in features to prevent it getting snagged or messed up, whereas our current
- one, that happens a lot. Great. What's the brand? Janome, I think. OK.
- Fantastic gift. Yeah, I know I was blown away. It was very generous and we're really excited to be working
- with them as well Any other questions All in favor of accepting this gift say aye aye those opposed
- say nay aye
- Can't wait to see what comes out of this in a future report class. They've already made something with
- this. They're doing a jester collar program. And they made that already. And it took them half the time
- it would have taken normally. Oh, wow. That's great. That's great. Thank you. Winter sign-ups for the
- class. And next, we have department update from Lisa Ciampelli.
- Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to share an update with you about the work that collection
- development team does to provide a wide variety of materials to members of our community. I'll briefly
- touch on some of the questions that we've been wrestling with as the publishing industry continues to
- evolve at a rapid pace. And please do ask any questions that you have of me.
- I support a terrific group of ten dedicated colleagues who handle different aspects of the work that
- goes into collection development. The work begins with our collection development librarians who are
- continually learning about new and forthcoming titles, deciding on both physical and digital materials,
- which things to add to our collections. And they also look at what should be weeded based on lack of
- use or lack of space or need for updated content.
- Our acquisitions and processing duo submit orders to vendors, handle invoicing and receiving all of
- the materials that come into the library, and they prepare these materials for cataloging, which is
- handled by both our cataloging and metadata librarian and our copy cataloging assistant. And once our
- catalogers have ensured that our collection codes and spine labels are correctly listed in our catalog,
- they route items over to our materials processor.
- who handles adding any kind of supplementary labels or identifying stickers or sometimes jacket covers
- as needed. We also have a collections maintenance assistant who helps keep our weeding schedule on track
- by regularly running reports on collection usage, supplying lists of items for selectors to consider
- for weeding based on the criteria that we use. He also supports the actual weeding process
- and our digitization projects.
- While collection development involves a lot of decision making about what materials to add
- to the collections, it also includes some logistical where and how questions such as from where should
- we order our materials and how are they going to be processed in order to be shelled properly and listed
- in our catalog. For years, MCPL has used Baker and Taylor, one of the largest suppliers of books for
- public and academic libraries in the nation. We've used them as our primary vendor.
- Baker and Taylor has multiple warehouses. We can order books at a discounted price and have them arrive
- with barcodes and often spine labels already attached. In previous years, it was common for Baker and
- Taylor to have hundreds of copies on hand in their warehouses in order to easily fulfill orders from
- libraries across the country.
- But as more and more businesses have streamlined their operations and looked for ways to meet known
- demand rather than anticipated demand, we are finding that Baker and Taylor does not always have enough
- items in stock to meet our need and sometimes there's no titles available. They've gone to kind of an
- alert system of pending or
- you know, will update accordingly, so it is a way to kind of message selectors and give them a chance
- to think about whether they should proceed with ordering from Baker and Taylor or whether they should
- look to other options, such as Ingram, which is the secondary book vendor that we use. Yet, often, the
- titles that we seek
- are in stock with Amazon, and patrons eagerly awaiting new titles can see that it's readily available
- for Amazon and wonder why we don't already have it on order.
- So this poses a little bit of a dilemma for us as we want to provide our community members with the
- titles they're seeking as quickly as we can, but we also want to order as economically as we can and
- have those materials arrive to us with some of that pre-processing already in place so that it's a little
- faster for us then to get it to the shelves and ready for borrowing. So if we order from Amazon, it
- may get delivered to us quickly, but it's a more cumbersome ordering and receiving
- process for us that can sometimes slow the overall time that it would take for the item to become available
- for borrowing.
- We also continue to see a shift in usage of our collection with a growing interest in borrowing digital
- e-books and audiobooks and a slight decline in the amount of physical materials that are borrowed from
- the library. This impacts collection development in a couple of ways. First, e-books and digital audiobooks
- are generally more expensive than print materials. So that's stretching our budget a little bit there.
- When fewer physical materials are checked out from the library, that means that a smaller percentage
- of our total collection, a smaller percentage is residing outside of the library. You know, we count
- on people borrowing our materials so that they live in their homes and their classrooms for a little
- while. So if there's not as much going out, then we just have to make sure that we've got space on our
- shelves to accommodate
- our existing collections and factor in being able to have space for new items and look at how quickly
- are we moving through some of the lists of things to consider for discard.
- Let's see, another issue that impacts collection development is just the way that people search for
- and discover library resources. Are patrons coming into the library to browse the shelves? Do they start
- their searching in our library catalog or on our website or as a general Google search? If people are
- increasingly satisfied with that AI
- AI overview that summarizes your Google search results, does that mean that fewer people are going to
- be seeking out library resources and some of the online reference databases that we subscribe to? So
- learning how people search for information and reading material
- understanding what devices they use to access our resources and what formats they prefer, in addition
- to the authors and subjects they're most interested in, all inform what we choose to add to our collections
- and how it's organized and made available for borrowing. And we're always keeping in mind the who of
- collection development. Who are we developing this collection for? We serve a Monroe County community
- of 140,000 residents who each can call this library their own.
- And as we strive to meet the needs and interests of people in our community, we want to learn what community
- members would like to find at their library. Every MCPL card holder is welcome to submit a suggestion
- for purchase and collection development librarians consider each one carefully. So our community is
- part of our collection, is an integral essential part of our collection development process.
- And if a community member informs us of an objection that they have to a particular item in the library,
- we also give that careful review. We note and follow up on any concerns that patrons may mention just
- in conversation with staff, but when a community member submits a formal request for reconsideration
- to us, that completed form initiates an official review process.
- And this process begins with the library director who acknowledges receipt of the request for reconsideration
- and alerts the individual submitting the form of our timeline for review and response. The director
- convenes a review committee of staff members from collection development and other departments. And
- the review committee may also include a non-staff member. Someone from our community is sometimes invited
- to join that as well. All members of the review committee read
- or watch the item in question in its entirety. And committee members then meet to discuss the item,
- the objection to the item, and also consider how our collection development policy guides our decision
- making for what items are added to our collections and did this item meet the criteria that we have
- as part of our selection criteria. Committee members then draft a recommended response to the request
- for reconsideration and submit that to the director to consider.
- and then the library director informs the patron and our board of trustees of MCPL's response. MCPL
- then logs and shares the results of that request for reconsideration review with MCPL staff as a whole
- via our intranet. We also notify the American Library Association of the request for reconsideration
- and the outcome of our review. While we hope that we don't need to undertake this type of review very often,
- The request for reconsideration process really gets to the core of what a public library is all about.
- It's an opportunity for us to reflect with the people that we serve about the decision making that goes
- into collection development, and it's a chance for us to discuss how we best uphold the principles of
- intellectual freedom that are embedded in our values and our collection development policy.
- And ultimately, that review process helps us determine whether we are indeed, as our collection development
- policy stipulates, affirming the rights of individuals in our community to form their own opinions about
- the materials they choose to use. That's what I have to share with you today. Do you have any questions
- for me? I just applaud how you guys do everything. One question I did wonder about when you said Google
- Search versus the computer.
- They still have to figure out where it is here, though. I mean, they might be searching to see what
- the summary is of it, but not necessarily when they come here. They're still going to have to find if
- they don't know how to use a library. Right, yeah. So you'd still need your appliances. I mean, your
- computer's here, right? Yes, yes. So what it gets us thinking about is that that AI summary, if you're
- reading that, sometimes you're like, OK,
- I got an overview of what diabetes is all about. I'm good to go. Some people. So to speak. I got it.
- Yeah. One paragraph. I'm good to go. But the shift in kind of the Google searching is that you don't
- necessarily see that link that might follow you to, you know, lead you to additional resources. So it just
- you know, has us wondering a little bit about how is it that people, what motivates people to seek out,
- you know, kind of additional resources from the library. And, you know, we think it's incredibly important
- to provide authoritative resources on health and history and everything in between. But how do we help
- our community members know
- of the benefit of coming to the library or seeking out library resources for their information.
- Thank you. I appreciate your point about the challenge of slightly lower circulation of physical materials.
- That isn't something that I would have thought about, is the library needing to find space for having
- more items checked in
- than maybe you have ever in the past. So it's an interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing that. Certainly,
- yeah. And Steph, coming up next, can really speak to how that impacts circulation services, for sure.
- Thank you. Thank you. Steph, you want to step up and tell us more about circulation? We would love to hear it.
- Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm Stephanie Meyer, the Circulation Services Manager, and I'm happy to
- meet those of you that I haven't met yet. It's a couple of you. To first introduce Circulation Services,
- and some of you may not know the size, I have 29 staff in total. There are two full-time circulation
- technicians, six, three that are full-time for circulation leads, and three that are part-time, and
- then 21 in total materials handlers, seven of which work 25 hours a week, and the rest of them
- The remaining 14 work 15 hours a week. So we're a large department, quite varied. It's a good time up
- there. But in today's update, I'll go over some processes that we've developed to maintain item displays,
- some general organization and tidiness in all of our collections. I'll highlight our 2025 interlibrary
- loan statistics, and I'll end with a summer reading overview. Since January, the Circulation Leads and
- I have developed and finalized a system that we call the Shelf Maintenance Team Project.
- On the surface, it was started as a way to systematically engage the whole department in tidying the
- shelves and ensuring the items are spaced correctly, have appropriate displays, and just generally look
- good. Sort of as a follow-up to Lisa's mention that we have more items on the shelf, so it's harder
- to keep them all looking good all the time.
- So each lead is responsible for specific sections of each collection. And with all six leads, we cover
- nearly every item in the downtown library. Materials handlers have been assigned to each lead's team
- to help out with specific projects when they have some downtime and for variety in their days. Through
- this project, we've added a whole lot of space to display items both on our shelves and on our end caps.
- So we've added displays to the tops of the low adult nonfiction shelves. We've moved the hanging slat
- wall displays from facing the computers to facing the inner aisles of our adult nonfiction area. We've
- added shelf end displays to all of our children's collections, as well as continuing to make sure there
- are plenty of on shelf displays throughout most of the collections down there.
- And we've also updated the shelving that our zine collection is on. So it's on different magazine shelving,
- which has allowed us to better face the items out. So they're not only looking better, but we can display
- many more of them so that they get used way more now than they did before. This project has also allowed
- us to keep a much closer eye on the fullness of each collection so that we're more quickly able to address
- space issues, which helps to better showcase our collections.
- It's enhanced the communication between CERC and collection development, as the leads have learned more
- about the flow of item movement within MCPL. The project was first imagined to offer the leads more
- oversight, responsibility, and ownership of the collections, but the impact that it's had on all of
- the circulation staff has been really great. Most more staff, rather, feel ownership about the collections
- and the library and have developed different skills with regard to how to display,
- and organize materials. It's also providing each circulation lead with different opportunities to be
- a leader for their colleagues and to continue to develop those skills. So it's been a really fun project
- to get to start and help watch grow, or to help start and watch grow.
- An interlibrary loan is a very popular and yet somewhat hidden part of circulation services. I'd like
- to shout out my circulation technicians, who are Alicia and Erica, who among many other things, handle
- all of our interlibrary loan requests. Our public services staff do play a major role in triaging the
- MCPL patron requests. So they handle the requests that come in to make sure that we can actually get
- the items. And then once it's deemed that we can, they're sent to circulation to fulfill those.
- lost my place. There we are. So MCPL has always been a popular lender among the Indiana and out-of-state
- libraries, and we're on track to beat our 2024 numbers for both lending and borrowing. So in 2024, MCPL
- patrons borrowed 312 items from other libraries, so about six a week all year. In 2025, from January
- to July, so 31 weeks, MCPL patrons have already borrowed 210 items from other libraries, so about seven a week.
- And then in 2024, we loaned out 3,212 items to other libraries, which is about 62 a week. And so far
- in 2025, from January to July, we've loaned out 3,069 items, so about 99 items a week. The reason for
- this increase is in part because the number of requests has increased in the last few years, but we're
- also able to process more requests
- And that's due to stable staffing in that position, the fact that Eric and Alicia are awesome at their
- jobs, and the changes that we began making to circulation services back in 2022 have allowed FirstSARC
- to continue to stabilize and has encouraged us to reflect on processes, fine-tune the responsibilities
- and priorities of each position. So I'll complete by bragging a little bit more about circulation services
- because we have had a really great summer.
- And that's a little rare. We're all always a little anxious and excited about summer reading as it's
- our busiest time of year. We had the most organized and chill summer reading of my six-year tenure here.
- According to our monthly statistics, we had similar physical item use compared to last year, but very
- much unlike last year, this summer we were able to keep up with checking in each day's returns.
- We were able to shelve all the carts that we had ready within a 48-hour and sometimes a 24-hour turnaround
- time. There had been multiple days where we had zero carts to shelve. I had to find things for my staff
- to do this summer, and that's really rare. So this sounds simple, but when we fall behind on shelving,
- it makes everyone else's life harder. There were times last year when we had to stop processing returns
- because we literally didn't have an empty cart to put items on.
- This summer, we were also able to continuously shelf read, so that's systematically checking each item
- in the whole library to make sure that it is where it should be on the shelf, which is unheard of in
- my history here, continuing that process. We pause shelf reading first whenever we start to fall behind
- on shelving and processing returns, as it just opens up space to do that. And we have always had to
- do that in previous years and in previous summer readings in particular.
- We were also able to continuously check and adjust our collections and shelves through our shelf maintenance
- team project to ensure that both new materials and returns continue to fit well as they come in. So
- no space became too cramped. So I specifically highlight this summer reading year as an indicator because
- I believe that in the same way that we're now able to fulfill
- more interlibrary loan requests. We were able to do our work this efficiently because we're now a really
- stable and strong department. My staff turnover rate has reduced significantly in the last couple of
- years. My newest staff have been here for a year now, and having more staff who are experienced make
- things just go so much smoother. We've also done a lot of reflection, learning, preparing. We've adjusted
- things when necessary, which has cultivated a lot of communication.
- And this has made a significant impact on the efficiency of our work and the culture of our department
- and our ability to provide excellent service to our community. So I'm really proud of where Circulation
- Services is as a department, and I'm grateful for a supportive administration and board who have trusted
- all of my requests. That's all the update that I have for you today. Any questions? You must be a good
- leader if they want to say thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
- Now we have public comment. Lorraine, do we have anybody online? No public comment? Okay. Is there anyone
- here for public? Please step up if you wouldn't mind telling us your name and try to keep your comments
- to three to five minutes. No, come on, come on up. I will give you a, how about a three minute warning.
- Does that sound good?
- say. My name is Lauren under Jack. I'm a library assistant in adult services here at NCPL and I want
- to express my gratitude to both administration and the board for working so quickly together to protect
- our library from harm caused by Indiana Senate Bill one and keeping disruptions to our services to a minimum.
- Every service that we offer here at the library is vital to our mission, and deciding where to make
- financial cuts is a nearly impossible task. While it's disappointing to see access to community resources
- reduced, remaining open seven days a week helps us consistently serve Monroe County. As a staff member,
- I'm also grateful that there were no layoffs, no reduction in personnel hours, and no loss of pay or
- benefits. SB1's impacts have been detrimental to libraries and schools across Indiana.
- And so I'm thankful that MCPL can continue serving our wonderful community. Thank you. Thank you for
- your comments. Do we have anyone else? OK. I move to adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Meeting adjourned.