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.