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2002-05-28City of Beverly, Massachusetts Public Meeting Minutes Board: Library Trustees Subcommittee: Date: May, 28, 2002 7:40 P.M. Place: Beverly Public Library Board members present: Todd Balf, Lindsay Diehl, Neil Olson, Kevin O’Reilly, Joanne Panunzio Board members absent: John Young, Helga Senko, Joanne Avallon, Edward Brindle Others present: Thomas Scully, Anna Langstaff Recorder: Anna Langstaff Lindsay Diehl presided. Neil Olson made the motion, seconded by Kevin O’Reilly, to accept the minutes of the regular meeting of April 23, 2002 as read. Motion passed. Public Presentation None Committee Reports Personnel: Lindsay Diehl reminded everyone to submit their director’s evaluation to Helga Senko. Administration: No report. Finance: No report. Long Range Planning: No report. Report of the Library Director 1) Tom Scully distributed the director’s report (on file with these minutes). 2) Budget: Part of this year’s budget has been rescinded. $34, 000 was taken out of the part-time salary budget. FY2003 budget will be presented to the City Council next week, but the finance director has not informed Tom Scully what he is going to recommend. 3) Farms Project: Tom Scully reported that he met with the Mayor and the finance director to discuss the Farms Library project. The finance director will review the Farms construction budget figures. 4) Computer Additions: The library is sponsoring an online municipal calendar. Photo images have been added to the online catalog. 5) Summer Reading: Summer reading list is done and will be distributed to students. Young adult and children’s librarians are doing book talks in the elementary and middle schools. 6) Meeting: The Library and the Collections Committee of the Beverly Historical Society co-sponsored a meeting to explore preservation of historical church records. 7) Beverly Cemetery Index: The Library is producing an index to Beverly Cemetery lot ownership from 1626 to approximately 1900. Communications None Unfinished Business None New Business None The next regular meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 7:00 P.M. at the Main Library. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M. LIBRARY DIRECTOR’S REPORT May 28, 2002 Beverly Farms Branch Library - Bids have been opened for the Farms Library Renovation Project. They low bid was approximately $400,000 higher than expected. We met with the Mayor, Chief of Staff and Finance Director last Thursday to urge their approval of the project. We gave them a complete review of the project finances. The Finance Director is supposed to review the figures and make a recommendation to the Mayor this week. Preparations for the closing of the building are on hold until the City commits to doing the project. Budget - The Mayor is scheduled to present his FY2003 budget to the City Council next Monday night. We do not know what will be recommended for the Library yet. The Mayor has rescinded about $36,000 from this year’s budget, almost all from the part time salary account. This should not be a problem barring any unforseen circumstances. Computers - The Library is sponsoring a Municipal Calendar on line which will list all City sponsored events. The calendar can be accessed from the Library’s web page at or from the City web page at We have also begun entering photo images into the catalog. To view a test image, go to the library Hetmere catalog at and do a keyword search on the word. Click on the thumbnail image to see the full size. Programs - We have prepared our annual summer reading list and distributed it to the schools. We are now giving end of the year book talks in the elementary and middle schools. Miscellaneous - The Library and the Collections Committee of the Beverly Historical Society co- sponsored a meeting to explore the preservation of historical church records. In early Massachusetts, churches maintained many of the vital records that are now maintained as public records. These records are often stored in uncontrolled environments and are uncatalogued and inaccessible. Several Beverly churches attended or expressed interest and we are forming a working group to explore cooperative funding. We are also producing an index to Beverly Cemetery lot ownership from 1626 to approximately 1900. When finished, this will be added to the Library’s web server and will become a major resource for genealogists. Information on grave sites is one of the questions the library is frequently asked, for which we have no ready resource. This index will resolve that problem.