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Search Subcommittee Minutes February 18 2020City of Beverly, Massachusetts Public Meeting Minutes Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 Place: Beverly Public Library, 32 Essex Street, Beverly, Barnet Gallery, First Floor Time: 6:00 P.M. Board: Library Trustees Subcommittee: Search committee Date: Monday, February 18, 2020 6:OOPM Committee members present: Mary Behrle, Bruce Doig, Meghan Karasin. Thalia Lewandowski, Colleen Michaels, Joanne Panunzio, Myron Schirer -Suter Others present: Ray Ahern, Mayor Michael Cahill, Dorthea Lam, Anna Langstaff, Katie Marsh, Matthew Martens, Katie Nelson, Lisa Ryan, Janice Shaw Recorder: Joanne Panunzio Joanne Panunzio presided. A. Call to Order /Roll call of members B. Ratify, validate and confirm action taken at Meeting of Search Committee, February 3, 2020 at the Beverly Public Library, including interview of Jenny Benedict for employment or appointment as the Director of Beverly Public Library; and to add minutes of the February 3, 2020 meeting to minutes of February 18, 2020 meeting. So motioned: Bruce Doig Second: Thalia Lewandowski Motion passed C. Interview Cindy Grove for employment as the Director of the Beverly Public Library. Introduction Question: What appealed to you about this position when you saw it advertised? Why do you want to be the director of a much larger library, with a branch and a bookmobile? Response: Grew up in Beverly in an unsafe subsidized housing project. The bookmobile was the saving grace to realize that there is a way out, simply by reading. The opportunity to return to Beverly is a way to honor that and inspire the community the way the library inspired her. Question: What do you feel distinguishes you as a candidate for Director of the Beverly Public Library? Response: Has a history and love for the community and different demographics. The library serves them all. The library is who she is. When not working, she is involved in professional aspects of the field. Has both a history and great outside experience working with academics, small libraries, social service agencies. Deep interest in a community focus and immersion in the community. A love for strategic planning and statistics and getting the input and providing output. Love working with patrons in crisis and being part of their success to get out of that situation. Question What do you consider your most significant professional accomplishment? Why? Response: The Tewksbury Public library is on the grounds of a state hospital. The patrons that visit are a very mixed group: group home patrons with intellectual disabilities, physical impairments, detox rehab, sex offender rehab, & anger management who visit on a daily basis. Tewskbury did not have a strategic plan, As a reference librarian she developed her own plan to target substance abuse. Met with police department, public safety officers and developed relationships with outside organizations and created a collective group. With the public safety officer, sought and was awarded grants for programs and materials which provided a level of service that they could see the change in people. Through discussion programs with patrons in crisis they were able to personally help people get into detox facilities. Was approached by ALA (American Library Association) to do webinars on mental health issues and substance abuse disorders and how libraries can help. ALA asked her to write a book which will be out in April. Question: What are three of the most important issues facing public libraries today? Response: Librarians do not advocate enough for ourselves. We do not advocate for our profession or how critical we are to our communities. She is active in contacting legislators to advocate for libraries. Sad to see the lack of turnout when advocacy is needed. Second, the influx of information that people are trying to wade through. We need to help people to get the right information and not get taken advantage of. Concerned about the 2020 census being taken online. Working closely in Rockport with police and census takers, council on aging to make sure that citizens can use the library as a safe place to make sure they're accessing the right website to not give someone else this private information. Leadership Question: As the library evolves into a key player of the community, what do you see as the primary role for the main library, the Beverly Farms branch and the bookmobile? How do you accomplish this (encourage the trend toward libraries as a center for community learning), while not sacrificing core customer services? How would you proceed to develop a vision and mission for the future and then communicate that vision? Response: Loves the fact that Beverly is out there in the community. In Rockport she goes to the local beaches, town dump, Laundromat and train station to share information and programs being offered. A strategic plan question was 'where would you like the library to be ?" and "What are the barriers to accessing library services ? ". Worked with town clerk to give out an information packet of library services for children along with the birth certificates Question: Co- operation in library organizations, such as our NOBLE is very important to the health of our library. What professional relationships have you built? Are you a member of any community organizations? How do you maintain these relationships? Response: The consortiums are critical to the sharing of resources that we can do things together that we couldn't do individually. Was on the executive committee for the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium and is a past president. Is chair of various committees. Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners has programs that are usually held in Western Mass. So she invited the Director to visit with MVLC to express the detachment of MLS with Northeast libraries. The MBLC advisers are amazing resource to use when taking on a new project. Question: is there an organization that you have an especially close relationship with? Response: The town departments (Department of Recreation, Police department and non profits like Bootstraps) can be a big help in doing things together. Looking at level of need in the community, but if you start sharing ideas and resources and listening, the greatest things can come out of it. Worked with Gloucester Public Library and created the "Cape Ann Reads" program to celebrate the history and importance of the picture book. Towns on Cape Ann collaborated with Cape Ann Museum, Chamber of Commerce, local arts communities and created a contest for anyone who lived on Cape Ann to create a picture book that would be published. Had programs in 4 communities to teach the importance of picture books, importance of early literacy, the art of picture books, the style of writing in picture books. Then had meet -ups of writers and illustrators who collaborated on the books. Finally, samples were submitted and a winner announced. The books from the project are displayed in various libraries in the Cape Ann area. This was a project that none of us could have done on our own Question: Please give an example of a situation when you've created an environment where others could contribute their ideas. What was the outcome? Response: Rockport never had a strategic plan. A 13 person committee was created of a diverse group from the public (trustee, teacher, town official, small business owner, friends) and did 16 focus groups (teen center, general public, senior center, town hall, park, laundromat, etc.) that asked open -ended questions to find out what was working for them and what wasn't. These comments were displayed at the library so others can add to the list. It was 100% community focus. Every year a report goes to the public saying what on the strategic plan was implemented. With the staff, she pulls on the strengths and passions of those who can have enthusiasm for a project. Staff members who are introverted can be paired with someone they feel comfortable with and that can help them through it. "Confidence comes through action ". Not into micro - managing: meet with department heads weekly. Quarterly brainstorming sheets for all staff has them list barriers and 'hopes and dreams ". This is then brought forth at full staff meetings. Some are easy to fix, others need collaboration and planning and we come up with ideas to accomplish them. I want the staff to know this is their library as much as everyone's else and they should be able to have what they need to serve the patrons. Staff /Patron Question: How would you deal with an irate customer that comes to you complaining about poor service her /she received? What if the staff member was simply following policy? If you heard a staff member giving out incorrect information to a patron, what would you do? How would you facilitate collaboration and communication amongst staff and branches? Response: Has a complete open -door policy. Get input from patron and say she'll get back to them in 24hours, talk to staff and document everything. Ask patron why that became a stopping point for them? When did it become one? Perhaps a policy revision needs to be looked at. I'd tell the patron that I'll bring it up at the next trustee meeting and invite them to come and contribute to that. "The patron is the top priority. Lost or broken items are replaceable. Patrons are not." Communication can be difficult with 20 volunteers and 20 staff members working anywhere from 4 to 20 hours a week. It was a trial and error as to how to communicate. Weekly meetings help. She does rounds every couple of hours to check on the staff and public to know what's going on in the building. Every other month there's a full staff meeting. Minutes are kept for those that cannot attend. Email becomes key to that. Some staff members like email, others like phone call. My job is to work with their communication needs. Beverly has Niche Academy which Rockport is beginning to use. Question: How would you cope with the problem of being short - staffed for a few days? Response: Rockport has substitutes. She will go wherever needed. The children's room has never had to close because of staff shortage. She has been able to give everyone time off when requested. She doesn't have a regular shift on the floor because union contract people would come first. When I'm doing my rounds and things are busy, I'll stay and help out. Question: Tell us about what you did to bring the staff, and perhaps the community together after the sudden death of the director. Response: The library staff is like a family, so they planned her services and were actively grieving. She worked with hospice for many years and understood the grieving process, and knew that things could trigger their grief and to accommodate them and listen to them. Finding ways within the library and community to honor and remember her helped the healing. Community engagement Question: What are some of the unique service populations that the library can serve and how can that service be provided? Response: Beverly has an energetic up and coming youthful generation that are excited about programs and opportunities to learn fundamental things that they're not taught, like sewing classes, balancing a checkbook, gardening. There are places popping up to provide art activities and the library could be key to capture the interest of that generation. With the colleges and schools, Beverly is a perfect location to collect that active mind, which a lot of communities don't have. We should be able to capture the tourist aspect with the library as a destination to combine with the arts and culture and history. Finance Question: You stated that you worked to document and correct building concerns. Can you give us an example of one. How was it resolved? Response: She's the building go -to person in the consortium. Had a major sewage problem when she came on board. Archives had to be protected. The boiler caught on fire, windows were exploding, flooding issues. A fun building project was fixing the ramp, as it had a step! Wheelchair patrons still couldn't even use it. This was fixed. Worked with DPW, conservation commission, historic commission, green committees, as well as getting things done on her own. Question: Our trust funds allow us to spend $20 -25K a year. Think about how would you spend roughly $15,000 of that to make a big splash that would show the public what an endowment or donation to the library could do. Response: Rockport's problem is the small amount of hours. When a donation comes in, a thank you note will go out telling what the donation will be used for, but also tell them what else they are hoping to do. This led to a patron asking how to fund the library to be open in the mornings. She is working with him, and she is working on a proposal to have the town start picking up one morning a week as the years go by. This goes with the strategic plan. She would love to do a survey asking all citizens what they would like to see in the community, not necessarily just the library. Ideas could be passed on to departments that have the wherewithal to do it. Question: What is your thought process when faced with the unexpected. For example, our operating budget is 2 million dollars. If we were told to cut the budget by $100,000, What would you be looking at to cut? What is your thought process for problem solving? On the other hand, what would you do with a windfall of an additional $100,000? Response: Rockport had unexpectedly not calculated the town's revenue correctly and was half a million dollars short. Not enough money to pay bills. Complete freeze on spending, except for labor and utilities and what was needed to maintain certification. Called vendors to try to negotiate a better deal for the fiscal year. Staff development was then done online, brainstormed as a staff and volunteers to save money. Even went to local businesses and asked for donations money and supplies. We were honest with the community, and it became a bonding experience. In Beverly I've looked at the budget and I would look how it would have the least impact on the community. I know in Beverly when accreditation was lost it had a major impact on the community. To use windfall money, I'd go out to the staff and community and ask what would you like to see? What are barriors in the community? Rockport passed a ban on single use water bottles. I'd like to put bottle filling stations in the library so anyone can come in and fill their bottles. This is especially important with the tourists that visit. Technology Question: Please describe a situation in which you drove the implementation of a new technology. What ideas do you have for using new technology to further increase staff efficiency and improve service to patrons? What was the impact on the staff or community? Response: Rockport was still in the dark ages when she arrived. Since coming on board, time management software for computers have been added, boosted up wireless so it can be used in garden area, printing from home option. Two ipads used for mobile circulation units. Circulating Hotspots. We're looking at ways to adapt the space because less people are coming in looking for the physical PC's having more mobile units that can circulate. Working on upgrades to large meeting room to get headsets to those that are hard of hearing when movies are being shown. Looking at adaptive technologies so those with a disability can access all of the services we provide. Question: MLS is an open- source of which we're involved in the development of it and ongoing improvement. What is your experience with that? What do you see as a way to use technology to improve staff communications or public consumption. (if yes) How would you leverage that? Response: Evergreen was not working for the MVLC. It was great to have ownership and control over the database and steer the needs without that third party involvement. We left Evergreen because there didn't seem to be enough people to do the development work on open- source to keep it secure and growing in the speed we wanted. Open- source is great, but it creates a barrier to ensure the confidentiality and it's going forward to meet the demands of growing technology. She struggles with open- source with the reality of what people want, there's hope they converge. Participating in Mass Link but MVLC did not feel a as though they were being heard as they would like to have been. Evergreen was not meeting patron needs. Libraries should be more involved in opensource products rather than prefabricated programs that we don't have as much control over, but our hands are tied as we don't want to lose the patron focus on our mission. Question: How do you stay abreast of current technology trends that are applicable to the library field? What do you use? What do you do? Response: Subscribes to listsery of technology user groups, actively reads professional journals and subscribes to library groups on social media to find out what they're trying out and what is working and what doesn't. Going to conferences and seeing what vendors are showing is exciting to test out and wonder if it's actually going to happen. closing Question: What would you like to tell us that we have not asked? Response: Greatest love of libraries is the people, and that includes the staff. If a potential service or resource is brought up, the staff is asked, "How is this going to enhance services or solve our problem ?" and "Who is the benefit ?" The priorities for me are first the community, then the staff and then others, and if it fits, yes, let's do it. I'm not afraid to fail if a program or service is not as popular as we hoped. Even failing is a learning experience. Through the experience at Tewksbury, she has a thick skin. Motto is all people are welcome here, not all behaviors are welcome. Has zero tolerance for staff abuse and will ban people for that behavior. Everyone deserves to work in a place that is safe and comfortable in. Amazed at Beverly's growth in the downtown area, in the best possible way. D. Public Presentation Staff input: Seemed very community and staff oriented, and community outreach. One staff member was involved with the Cape Ann Reads project and stated that it was a phenomenal success. It really brought the libraries of Cape Ann together. Liked that she brought Rockport's technology forward. The fact that she wants to work at the public desk, and tours the building, and steps in and wants to provide what the community wants is very important. Very pro staff. Meeting was adjourned at 8PM