Library Committee Report 12-8-2005

Gustavus Public Library Committee Report

December 8, 2005

Library Board:  We welcome two new board members, Janet Lassiter and Julie Vathke.  They join Chris Spute (chair), Davita Marchbanks (secretary), George Jensen and our two alternates Mary Hervin and Lynne Morrow.  We have resumed the practice of holding board meetings monthly, the first Saturday of the month at 8:30 am at the library.  Everyone is welcome to attend these meetings. 

Aja Razumny visit.  Aja Razumny of the Alaska State Library in Juneau visited the library a few weeks ago and met with staff, board and volunteers.  Aja offered many inspirational ideas for improving the services we provide in our community.  A lively debate about ways to rejuvenate and “re-invent” the Gustavus library is now underway.  We need input from the larger community and are developing a survey to try and find out why people come (or don’t come) to the library and what we can do to draw more people in. 

Fundraising.  We have already reached our fundraising goal for FY2006 of $5,000.  About $2000 was raised at the 7th annual Ladies’ Golf Tournament in June and about $2500 at the 4th of July dinner.  We are grateful to Mary Hervin and Lynne Morrow for their instrumental roles in these events.  A Book Sale on October 22nd raised $115 for the library and a lasagna dinner on November 12th  earned about $700.  Many thanks to Lynne and Phil for donating the use of the Bear’s Nest for the dinner. 

Library Programs.  The summer reading program was a great success this year (report available at the library) and it is already time to start thinking about next year’s program.  We have had several children’s story hours and a performance by visiting artist Adam Miller, folksinger and storyteller.  Pre-school story hour is now happening regularly on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

Kim Ney and Sean Neilson have organized Tuesday night computer classes which hopefully will continue through the winter.  Sean has also started a network gaming session for youth on Saturday afternoons.  Nate is proposing a computer club.

Volunteers and hours of operation.  The library is now open 18 hours per week, with the addition of Wednesday afternoon hours staffed by high school students under Sylvia’s supervision.  This has been very successful and we thank Sylvia for promoting this idea for getting young people more involved in the library.  Volunteers have been weeding outdated materials.  A work party was held Nov. 29th to spruce up the library before the holidays.

The library staff has proposed the idea of keeping the library open every day from 1:30-4:30 in order for students to have an alternative place to go after school for homework, research, personal reading and computer time.  This would also provide consistent hours every day for the community, a long standing request from our patrons.  The library board would therefore like to request 5 additional paid hours to cover these proposed schedule changes. A printed proposal for these schedule changes will be presented at the Dec. 8th council meeting.

The library and school staff plan to recruit volunteers to provide homework help and other activities for students utilizing the proposed after school library hours.  As always, the success of our library programs depends on all of our wonderful dedicated volunteers.  We wouldn’t be a library without them.

AKLA Conference.  The AKLA conference will be held in Anchorage this year; $1100 was budgeted for travel in FY06, which is enough to fund Sylvia’s travel; Carolyn applied for a Continuing Education Grant for her travel, which has been approved.  Lynne Jensen and Chris Spute also plan to go.  They will pay their own travel and share rooms with Sylvia and Carolyn. 

Automation.  Aja Razumny offered information on the advantages and disadvantages of automating our library collection.  The board is still considering whether to go forward with this.

Sylvia and Carolyn travel.  Sylvia will be gone Dec. 16th – Jan. 10th.  Carolyn will be gone December 10th –January 10th.  Lynne Jensen has volunteered to cover phone, mail and e-mail during their absence.

Capital Project Matching Grant funds.  We still have $2768.85 left from 2003 to spend.  This money was intended for various shelving purposes. The board is currently discussing plans for shelving changes throughout the library.

Financial report.  The Friends of Library account was closed and $7550.05 transferred to the city.  This money has been placed in an asset account.  The City has provided a fuel subsidy which is paying our electric and fuel bills this year.  We are very appreciative of this help!  A financial report has been submitted to the city council.