Sauk County Library Board

saukcolibraryboard-202205-minutes.pdf (203 KB)

Sauk County Library Board Minutes
Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 3:30pm

Board Members Present: Joan Fordham, Carolyn Kotchi-Aslaksen, Terry Slack, *Tim Teelin, Joel Chrisler

Others Present: Becky Anderson (RKS), Lisa Renier Thompson (SKC), Nick Studnicka (PLA), Cathy Borck (WID), Sue Ann Kucher (REE), Tamara Ramski (SCLS),  Jessica Bergin (BAR), *Lauren White (PDS),    *Attended Remotely

1. Fordham called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Kucher verified compliance with the open meetings law.

2. Slack moved adoption of the agenda.  Kotchi-Aslaksen seconded.  Motion passed.

3. Slack moved minutes with correction to spelling of attendees’ names.  Kotchi-Aslaksen seconded to accept the agenda.  Motion passed.

4. No public comments.

5. Tamara Ramski presented the SCLS report compiled by SCLS consultant staff.

Sauk County Library Board Meeting
SCLS Report –Tamara Ramski
Grants

• SCLS Tech Teams are purchasing and distributing grant funded equipment
  • Distributed RFID tags to members
  • RFID Tagging Stations
  • External Access Points
  • External Lockers for some libraries
• SCLS is focusing on spending the ARPA/LSTA funds. Grant guidelines require funds be spent by June 30, 2022.
• SCLS has $100,000 set aside for 2022 that will be spent by November 2022. 
  • All libraries will get a 2 year movie license
  • Movie kits, outdoor program kits, and hybrid meeting equipment will be purchased for libraries who didn’t receive LSTA/ARPA equipment

Projects

Drupal 9 Migration

• Library websites are being migrated to Drupal 9. The SCLS website will be migrated later this year. This is a year (or more) long project.

Social Work Internship Cohort

• The participating libraries will be interviewing potential social work interns for the 2022-2023 school year. 

Local History Digitization Projects

• Items from SCLS member libraries’ collections in Recollection Wisconsin have had 1,083,960 views.

Summer Library Programs

Shawn Brommer is the contact for summer programming questions. Deb Haeffner is printing flyers and brochures.

SCLS Annual Library Visits

• SCLS Staff will be scheduling visits with library directors. The visits will be conducted approximately one year after the previous visit. Visits are to be completed by the end of October.

New Building Update (2801 Walton Commons Ln., Madison)

• Details are available on the SCLS website: https://www.scls.info/new-building
• The bidding process is ongoing. The groundbreaking planned for July 13 is postponed.

• Anticipated move in date will be after May 2023.

Meetings and Events

(See recent SCLS Top 5 emails for meeting details and registration links)

• Youth Services Check-in (virtual). May 24 at 1 PM
• You Got the Grant - Now What? A Recipe for Grant Writing Success, Part 2 (virtual). May 25 at 1 PM. 
• A two-part Mental Health First Aid CE opportunity will be held virtually June 8th at 9 AM and June 10th at 9 AM Registration required. 
• Becky Spratford - Readers Advisory expert will present RA for All webinars (virtual)
  • June 14th at 10 AM - Booktalking Your Way to the Friendliest Library in Town
  • July 12th at 1 PM - Demystifying Genre

• Trustee Training Week is scheduled for August 22 - 26. Registration opening soon.

2022 All Directors Meeting Dates:

• May 19 from 10 to 12:30 at Olbrich Gardens, Madison
  • Voting will take place on:
    • Advantage 2023
    • Multi-part DVDs Packaging
• July 21 Wintergreen Resort, Wisconsin Dells
• November 17 Waunakee Public Library

Reminder: Watch for Top 5 emails and Online Updates for information on services, upcoming meetings, and CE opportunities. Recent committee meeting notes are available on the SCLS website.

Other: Fees: There will be a 5% increase for Advantage in 2023. Magazine costs went down.

Individual Advantage accounts: Can subscribe at any time. $250 minimum to begin, it will be applied to content. Overdrive will provide training. Still have to contribute to SCLS and SCLS Advantage. Cannot be unique titles.

6. Kucher presented library output performance measures compiled from libraries’ 2021 annual reports.  Kucher presented preliminary county funding numbers.  Full Board will consider the budget request with variables at the July meeting.

7. Librarians’ reports – Directors in attendance

Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library, Baraboo – Jessica Bergin.

• Building expansion project:  We had a great groundbreaking celebration on April 28.  Construction is well underway! We will move into the new addition in about one year, then renovation on the current building will begin.  The whole project is expected to take around 18 months and estimated to be completed in October 2023.
• Summer Library program:  We are doing reading programs for all age groups- children, teens, and adults.  People are excited for the adult program, we haven’t had one in several years.  All our youth programs will be held offsite this summer, many at city parks and at other partner organizations.  Some notable programs for youth/families this summer are: Fishing program at a local pond w/ Parks Dept, water program at local park with dive team, DNR Fisheries, and games, nature scavenger hunt at White Mound County park, cardboard canoe building challenge at public pool.  Teen summer higlights include lawn game competition, clean up at Devils Lake State Park, hiking program, Glow in the Dark scavenger hunt.
• Baraboo Reads- community wide reading program. This year’s book is a graphic novel called Fine: A Comic About Gender by Rhea Ewing.  “Fine is part memoir, part psycho-sociological exploration, based on Ewing’s own odyssey of self-understanding, and interviews they gathered over a 10-year period that describe the many facets of gender expression.”   The author grew up in Baraboo.  We will have group discussions and an author talk May 21.
• YouTube:  We have been posting a number of our adult programs on YouTube, if anyone would like to view them. It includes gardening and conservation related programs, a panel on mental health and law enforcement, circus costuming,  poetry reading, crafts, among many. Search Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library.

La Valle Public Library – Natalie Jones

• We continue with the major weeding project as we RFID tag items in the collection. The Boys and Girls Club of Reedsburg picked up 5 boxes of deleted Youth and Young Adult books. ADRC picked up a box of deleted Large Print books and so far I have delivered 4 boxes to various assisted living/nursing homes. All facilities were very happy to have these books.
• As we are doing this project, we are shifting the location of a few collections. By relocating younger level nonfiction near the Youth nonfiction we could move our Middle Reader collection

to the “other side” of the shelving. Let’s give this age group the feeling of advancing from the

children’s area. Now the Early Readers section which was severely overcrowded can be spread

over a wider area.

• We are beginning to firm up summer programming and reading challenge details.

Ruth Culver Community Library, Prairie du Sac – Lauren White

• Our youth services librarian, Bethany, is working with Prairie Fire Yoga to do Storytime Stretch and Mindfulness, a yoga storytime, Fridays in June. This program is funded by a Healthy Life Initiative Grant from the Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation which had been applied for in 2021.
• We are planning a pampering body products program on June 13^th for adults.
• We are currently in the process of doing a LED retrofit project for the building lighting. 
• We had about 75 people come through Free Comic Book Day May 7, which is a small increase from last year.
• We continue to work with SCLS on the RFID tagging project and the tagging stations and tags have arrived. So, now we’re working on developing a workflow process for staff. 

• In conjunction with the George Culver Community Library, we are in the process of planning another community read for 2022. 
• We are gearing up for the Summer Reading Program, which starts in June.

Kramer Library and Community Center, Plain – Nicholas Studnicka

North Freedom Library  Provided by Raina Roloff; read into record by Kucher

• Our booksale will be June 20-26 from 9am-7pm daily.  this sale is three years in the making, and will be the largest we have ever hosted.
• We are hiring for a library assistant.  The library is currently at only 1 employee.
• Because of staffing, we will be closed on Saturdays until we find a new hire and have them trained

Reedsburg Public Library – Sue Ann Kucher

• Summer planning is underway.  Youth service staff visiting all district schools in anticipation.
• MyRPL on the Go program started with installation of pick up lockers; next phase is small circulating collections in local senior residential facilities.  Next phase will be participation in local community events. 
• Upcoming Friends of the Library booksale. 
• Library recently began work on space needs assessment for library’s future.

Rock Springs Community Library - Becky Anderson

• Rock Springs Library has a new board member/treasurer Tammy Whitney. She has a great deal of experience and interest for our library and is an awesome addition.
• Overall circulation numbers are improving as well as patron numbers.
• A new shelving unit arrived in March as well as a cabinet we ordered in November. We have Beginner Readers/ Youth Non-Fiction (to yet be shelved) on the unit. We hope to fill the cabinet with STEM/STEAM items.
• We had an Orientation from Tamara Ramski for the Digitization project in April. There were 4 in attendance. Using the projector hooked up to the laptop really helped to see the info on the white board better. This helped to refresh those working on this and simply better remember as it has been a couple of years.
• RKS received an RFID tagging grant. We are in line to get set up to do this project.
• We added a new Monday morning program of Coffee and Rolls and also Craft Time following this. We get between 7-10 people. There has been a Geoderma coffee demonstration from an Amish lady Rebecca Miller, who also brings in baked goods for sale every other week. We also had 2 Rock Springs History talks with Paul Wolters from the Sauk County Historical Society with 20-25 in attendance. There has also been area local history and food dehydrating talks. After coffee, the ladies knit or crochet and share ideas. This is our first Adult program and so far it is going very well.
• Our Littles Story Hour and Homeschool group are going well. The Littles group got to make bird nests with paper materials, paper hand bunnies, and Mother’s Day cards. The Homeschool group learned how to make hard-boiled eggs and color them. They also made noodles last month and Mother Day flower cards out of paper plates and paint this month. We will be breaking for summer with this group and finish with a talent show.
• We are still entering donated books/dvds as well as entering new books/dvds.
• We are working on our Summer Programming. If anyone is interested, I have been in contact with Graybeard, or David HB Drake who is a summer performer for the Oceans theme. He is from Milwaukee and plays several instruments like the banjo, guitar, dulicimer, and Native American flute along with Mariner storytelling.
• I finished my first class…YAY!

George Culver Community Library, Sauk City – Lisa Renier Thoomas

 Ongoing Library Events:

• Family Storytimes,
• Community Center Preschool Storytimes
• Passive Programs: Scavenger Hunts, Take-and-Makes
• School Visits: Tower Rock and Merrimac
• Friends of the Library Bingo: Twice per month
• Monthly Book Club
• Tech Skills Series: Monthly classes for beginners in a low-key, supportive environment. April class was Google 101. Upcoming: Computers 101, Your Digital Library, Canva).

Other Events

• February: “Send a Senior Some Love” passive Valentine’s Day card program. Delivered dozens of cards to local assisted living facility.
• Cardmaking Buffet March 16
• WisLUG (Wisconsin Lego Users Group) Lego Event May 5: LEGO displays and building
• Received five new board games for our “Library of Things” from the Spiel Foundation
• New “Music and Movement” storytimes begin June 15

COVID Response

• Pandemic restrictions lifted completely on March 14. Acrylic sneeze guards will remain around circulation desk indefinitely.
• COVID Relief Funds Received three RFID tagging stations and tags. Will be getting Chromebooks (to circulate) and additional mobile hotspots.

Sauk Prairie Social Justice and Equity Initiative Committee (SPSJEI) Community Read

(With Ruth Culver Library and other partners) planning for next event.

Other

• Held a staff in-service April 5, including CPR/First Aid and ALICE training. Received a supply of Narcan from Sauk County Health and Human Services. Large stock available if other libraries would like to carry.
• Staffing changes: One retirement and one resignation. As of June 1 will have three full-time staff (we have two other staff that are close to full-time. Our FTE will remain between 5.5 and 6 FTE). Nicole Cauffman has accepted role of Youth and Family Services Librarian.

Summer Library Program

• Partnering with Ruth Culver Community Library. Events including performers, drop-ins, take-and-makes Read-to-a-Dog, movies, reading incentives. Using Beanstack and paper tracking.

8. Next meeting July 19, 2022, 3:30 p.m. – Rock Springs Library

9. Motion by Slack to adjourn and seconded by Kotshi-Aslaksen. Motion passed.