2000-10-24City of Beverly, Massachusetts
Public Meeting Minutes
Board:
Library Trustees
Subcommittee:
Date:
Tuesday, October 24, 2000 7:00 P.M.
Place:
Beverly Public Library
Board members present:
Diane Costa, Edward Brindle, Lindsay Diehl, Katherine Fanning, Neil
Olson, Kevin O’Reilly, Joanne Panunzio, Helga Senko, and John Young
Board members absent:
Others present:
Thomas Scully, Anna Langstaff
Recorder:
Anna Langstaff
John Young presided.
Lindsay Diehl made the motion, seconded by Neil Olson, to accept the minutes of September 26,
2000 as read. Motion passed.
Public Presentation
None
Committee Reports
Personnel: Lindsay Diehl reported that John Young and Lindsay Diehl met with Tom Scully to
review his evaluation. Lindsay Diehl also reported that the Personnel Committee will be
discussing ways to improve the evaluation process.
Administration: No report.
Finance: No report.
Long Range Planning: Diane Costa reported that the Long Range Planning Committee met on
October 24 to review the FY2000, 2001, and 2002 long range goals. After reviewing and
revising the goals, the Long Range Planning Committee voted to forward its recommendation to
the Committee of the Whole for its approval. Kay Fanning made the motion, seconded by
Edward Brindle, to:
Accept the approved goals as forwarded to the Committee of the Whole by the
Long Range Planning Committee. Motion passed.
Report of the Library Director
1) Filtering: Tom Scully reported that some conservative groups that initially advocated internet
filtering have become victims of their own policy. Some of their own sites are being filtered.
Communications
1) John Young reported on Touch-A-Truck Day.
Unfinished Business
None
New Business
None
The next regular meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, November 28, 2000 at 7:00 P.M. at the
Main Library.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:50 P.M.
LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT
October 24, 2000
Bookmobile
- The Bookmobile participated in the Recreation Department Touch-A-Truck day at
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the Cummings Center on October15. This is an event that allows children of all ages to explore lots
of different trucks.It is our chance to showcase the Bookmobile for peoplewho have never been on
board.
Beverly Farms Building Campaign
- Dr. and Mrs. Robert Seamans will be hosting a cocktail party
at their home for the Farms Building Fund.
The Library on Web
- The Library has created a site on the Internet that will put minutes of all
public meetings in Beverly on the Web, making them available from any computer with a connection
to the Internet. Citizens will be able to search minutes of all public meetings, from the Library, from
schools, from home or from their offices. We are still working out bugs in the search function, so
it is not yet ready for prime time, but you can use it to look up and print out a copy of minutes. So
far, the database contains all minutes for all city boards from 1997 on, all Library Board minutes from
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1855 to date, about twenty five years of Town Meeting minutes from the 19 century, and about 10
years worth of Board of Health minutes. We anticipate that this will be a tremendous resource for
people doing historical research. We will be continuing to add to the historical records.
http://134.241.17.94/cgi-bin2/lfweblink.exe/weblink/browser.html
Web address:
We are working with City Clerk’s Office to also put on the Internet, vital records from 1850 to
1900. We hope to have the data entry done by senior citizen volunteers.
USGenWeb Project
The Library is also maintaining the Essex County site for the . Rhonda Dean,
Assistant Reference Librarian will be our coordinator.
http://ci.beverly.ma.us/library/usgenweb/beverlyma.html
Web Address:
USGenWeb Project
What is The ?
USGenWeb Project
The consists of a group of volunteers working together to provide
Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The
Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free access for everyone.
Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the state
websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The USGenWeb Project also sponsors
important Special Projects at the national level and this website provides an entry point to all of those
pages, as well.
USGenWebProject
Although the basic unit of organization for The is at the county level,
State Web sites include very important information as well, including such resources for postings of
unknown county queries, family reunion bulletin boards, state histories, and maps showing the
changing county boundaries, among others. Many states also have ongoing projects as diverse as the
transcription of Civil War regiments or the reuniting of families with lost photos, bibles, etc.
As you explore the state and county web sites, you will see considerable variation as each page
or database is the creation, property and responsibility of an individual volunteer. But, you will also
find that all of the counties will provide links for you to post queries, access the state's home page and
USGenWebProject
access the archives. All of the volunteers who make up The are very proud of
this endeavor and hope that you will find their hard work both beneficial and rewarding.
School Libraries
- We had our first meeting of the school year with the school librarians. Our
project for this year is a school library/public library master plan for Library development in Beverly.
The School librarians are also developing a city wide library instruction curriculum.
The Hannah School is now the third elementary school to have a brand new library/media center and
full time librarian.
Childrens Room
- The Childrens Room has created a Web page which is part of the Library’s web
site. The site called Kidlink is based on our Young Adult webpage, Teenlink. The Kidlink site has
been created by Assistant Childrens Librarian Mary Ryan and Young Adult Librarian Kathy Keeler.
http://ci.beverly.ma.us/library/kidlink.html
Web address:
Friends of the Library
- The Friends of the Library have voted to give to the Trustees a Trust Fund
in memory of Nancy Robinson, long time member of the Friends Executive Board. The annual
income from the fund is to be used to purchase books and other library materials. The Friends intend
to make an annual contribution increasing the principle of the fund. The initial gift will be $5000.