1998-09-22City of Beverly, Massachusetts
Public Meeting Minutes
Board: Library Trustees
Subcommittee:
Date: September 22, 1998 8:30 P.M.
Place: Beverly Farms Branch Library
Board members present: Diane Costa, Edward Brindle, Lindsay Diehl, Katherine Fanning,
Margaret Goodwin, Neil Olson, Kevin O'Reilly, Helga Senko, and John Young
Board members absent: None
Others present: Thomas Scully, Anna Langstaff
Recorder: Anna Langstaff
Diane Costa presided.
Diane Costa introduced staff members Mary Ryan, Kathy Keeler, and Kate Ingalls.
Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by Kay Fanning, to accept the Personnel Committee
minutes of June 23, 1998 as read. Motion passed.
Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by Kay Fanning, to accept the minutes of the regular
meeting of June 23, 1998 as read. Motion passed.
Public Presentation
This meeting was preceded by Jeff Hoover' s presentation of the Farms Library Architectural
Feasibility Study.
Committee Reports
Personnel: No report.
Administration: No report.
Finance: No report.
Long Range Planning: Long Range Plan will soon be sent to a printer.
ReOort of Library Director
1) Copies of Library Director' s report (on file with these minutes) were mailed to trustees. 2)
Flood Update: Tom Scully reported on meeting held with engineers to solve library' s flooding
problem. A back flow preventer and a high pressure pump will be installed. The City will pay for
flood repairs and equipment. Neil Olson made a special mention to thank the staff for pitching in
to help during the flooding. 3) School Librarians: Tom Scully reported on September 14 meeting
held with Beverly public school librarians.
Communications
1) School-Public Library Task Force: Copies of task force draft were mailed to trustees. 2) State
Aid Increase: Diane Costa received a letter from MBLC notifying libraries of the planning process
to request an increase in state aid for libraries. 3) Library Conference: MLTA conference on
Saturday, November 7. 4) MLTA Newsletter: Diane Costa shared some ideas from the MLTA
newsletter. Tom Scully described library brochure/mailing that is being developed by Larry Berk
and Johanna Bohoy.
Unfinished Business
1 ) New Member Handbook: Lindsay Diehl reported that handbook is almost complete.
New Business
None
The next meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, October 27 at 7:00 P.M. at the Main Library.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05 P.M.
LIBRARY DIRECTOR'S REPORT
September 22, 1998
Staff- Kathleen Keeler, our new Young Adult Librarian began work on July 13th. She is busy getting
to know the kids and planning programs. Mary Ryan, our new Assistant Children' s Librarian started
work August 18th. Mary will also be working some hours in the Reference Dept. and at the Beverly
Farms Branch
Beverly Farms Building- The Library staff and some representatives of the Farms Friends have been
working throughout the summer with architects from Tappe and Assoc. on building plans for the
Farms. Jeff Hoover will present the plans at tonight' s Board meeting.
Flooding- The Department of Public Services discovered that the drainage pipe running down Dane
Street had collapsed at Dane Street Beach, almost completely blocking the flow of rain water and
almost certainly backing up Dane Street to the Library. The pipe was replaced with a new, stronger
pipe within a few days. In addition, the City has an engineering firm designing some underground
retention tanks to be buried under the parking areas along with a high capacity pump. In the interim,
the City has a high capacity portable pump stored in the Library garage and sand bags stored outside
the garage. When heavy rains are predicted, Public Services will come down and connect the pump
and put sand bags across the driveway entrance. They have been provided with a key to the garage
so that they can respond on a 24 hour basis. Unfortunately, we won't know how effective these
measures are until there is another storm.
We have replaced the wiring in the floor and baseboards on the lower floor, we have repaired the
electronic controls for the elevators and the damage control contractor is still drying walls. We have
ordered some replacement furniture for furniture damaged during the repeated flooding. Still to be
repaired are the boilers, the floor in the Bookmobile office and the book theft detection system in the
Children' s Room.
Summer Programs- The Library conducted programs and activities throughout the summer. Once
again, we distributed books for the High School Summer Reading Programs. The school libraries
loaned us their copies of books for the elementary and middle school summer reading programs.
The Story Train Trip to Rockport was another success. We again filled an MBTA commuter train
for a great day of story telling, and other children' s activities in Rockport. Five hundred sixty-eight
people from Noah Shore libraries went on the trip, 120 of those from Beverly.
The Children' s Room sponsored four science programs, Rainforest Reptiles, Wingmasters, Zap,
and Science Isn't Always Pretty, for the summer with total attendance of 445.
Eighty -five people signed up for the Adult Summer Reading Program, 48 of whom read 10 books.
Overall, circulation was down in the Children' s Room and Young Adult Dept.from a year ago and
up in the Adult Dept., Farms and Bookmobile. The Children' s circulation decline is almost certainly
the result of the room being closed so many days because of flooding. The flooding also probably
affected the Young Adult circulation as teenagers tend to come or not come to the library with
younger siblings.
Circulation Increases or Decreases Over Last Summer
DeDartment
Main Library
July Charade
August Chan~e
Bookmobile 45.5% 27.7%
Farms 9.5% 2%
Adult 6% 7.5%
Children's -20% -5.6%
Young Adult -23 % -7.1%
Other Matters- The Governor vetoed funding that would have helped NOBLE pay for an
upgrade of our computer system. Without the state money the upgrade will not take place as
planned in December.
Congress continues to play politics with the telecommunications funding. The telephone
companies are lobbying hard to kill the whole program which would have placed a small
surcharge on each costumers bill to pay for connecting schools and libraries to the Internet. (The
fact that the program may die or be delayed hasn't stopped ATT from already assessing their
customers the surcharge!) The FCC has delayed and reduced the amount of funding in response.
In addition, conservatives in Congress are trying to amend the legislation to require libraries to
provide Internet filters for any recipient of grant money. Anna Langstaff has worked long and
hard on a grant application for us to upgrade our in-house computers. This may all be in
jeopardy.