11-05-2001Roll Call
Reading and Approval of the Minutes of the October Meeting
Approval of Bills
Old Business
1. Report of Blair Library Foundation.
2. Report on new computer, virus protection.
3. Go over year -end reports.
New Business
1. Discuss new budget.
2. Discuss review of policies.
3. Announce meetings to be held by Eastern System at Blair Library
4. Discuss heating problems.
5. Get approval for Children's Grant.
6. Comments by patrons.
7. Gifts and memorials.
Gifts and Memorials
Blair Public Library Board Agenda
Monday, November 5, 2001
Blair Library Meeting Room, 210 south 17 St.
Trees of North America given by Reynold and Patricia Kubie in memory of Gene
Solomon.
Cats and Dogs video given by Carole and Ray Dickson
Chocolate for Everyone and Everyday Cooking given by Carole and Ray Dickson in
memory of Dorothy Mencke.
$50.00 has been given in memory of Gene Solomon and Jim and Rae Taylor from Lloyd
and Jeannie Scheve.
Circulation
2000 -2001 Innovations and Accomplishments
Videos- Patrons may check out 2 videos. Our circulation of videos for the year has
almost doubled. Fines for late videos have been set at $1.00 per day.
Hours- We are open four more hours per week. Monday through Thursday we a now
open 10:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Reviewed and updated our circulation policy.
We received two grants from the Eastern Library System. We received a grant for
reference material and one for young adult books. ($1,500.00 funding).
We established a young adult section and eliminated our junior high section. This section
will now better serve a wider age range of students. New books for this new section were
purchased with grant money and money from our budget. Books that were still popular
or of literary merit were taken from the junior high section and put into the new YA
section
CatExpress- We have gotten approval from the board and Rod Storm to sign up for
CatExpress as of January 2002 so that we will be able to begin using their cataloging,
loan books to other libraries, and request our own interlibrary loan books which we wish
to borrow. The Nebraska Library Commission is promoting this program and they will
pay our first year membership.
We are cataloging materials that have not been previously cataloged, so, that they will be
more accessible to patrons. Paperback books are now being catalogued so that we can
keep better track of their circulation and status.
In 2000 -2001 we checked out 4,781 more items than last year.
The Dana College Library Director has been contacted about reciprocal library use, but
no agreement has been reached.
Technology
The library received a donated computer that can be used for word - processing by the
public. This computer also has an improved version of the program that has been
developed to index the local newspaper. Volunteers are working on this project. One
new computer was purchased to use as an internet workstation, making a total of three
internet stations available to the public.
We have updated to the 4.2 version of Follett and have installed updated virus protection
on the network.
We have received a donated laser printer. This will make it possible to print replacement
barcodes, making better use of unused barcode numbers. It also prints much faster than
our inkjet printer does.
The internet policy was changed to allow visitors to be able to use the internet computers,
so that people who do not have library cards are allowed to have internet access when the
computers are not in use by library card holders. According to the 2000 -2001 statistics
2,628 patrons used the internet.
Library Programs
We have added more story times to our schedule
We are sponsoring a book discussion group that meets once a month in the library
meeting room.
A library foundation is in the process of being established.
Additional Education
We sponsored an Internet Class for staff and interested city workers.
All full time staff members have attended training and meetings this year. One library
board member attended workshop in Lincoln.