Minutes from September 7, 2011
The Board Meeting for the Trustees of Brown Memorial Library was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
Attendance: Patty Furness, Garry Kalajian, Bea Howe, Connie Scheffy, Rod Jones, Meg Fearnley, Nola Jordan
1. The second to last sentence under item 6 of the minutes of the August meeting was corrected to read “The Bradford Fire Chief” instead of “Concord Fire Department”. The Secretary’s Report was accepted as corrected.
2. A motion was made and passed to accept gifts and donations to Brown Memorial Library in August in the amount of $480.75. $100 of that was a gift from Alan Rogers who provided the music at the fund-raising dinner – he returned half of his fee as a gift to the library. The Treasurer also reported that the September book sale brought in $360.00.
3. The Librarian’s Report was presented and discussed. As often seems to be the case, August was a banner month – circulation of adult materials and the overall number of patrons were up dramatically. Downloaded e-books and audio books are holding steady. Our numbers for the month were up in spite of the library having been closed on August 28 for Hurricane Irene.
4. Under Old Business, the Trustees continued their postponed discussion of the copier issue. Garry reported that there is a great variation in how other libraries handle the situation – Henniker charges as much as we do and even more for color. Other libraries charge less and Newbury charges nothing. Some are self-service, some are not. At this point patrons are not making anywhere near as many copies as the library does itself though it is almost impossible to determine the exact number and hence how much those copies are costing us. After considerable discussion, a motion was passed lowering the cost of copies to $.10 a page. We will continue to operate on the honor system.
5. Copies of our current Library policies were passed out. Trustees will review them before the October meeting at which time we will decide what changes need to be made to bring them up to date.
6. Bea reported that because of power outages related to the hurricane, Electronic Security Protection was not able to install our new system before August 28, the date on which we needed to renew our contract with the Concord Fire Department. She contacted Concord and they agreed to continue to cover us until such time as ESP can get here and to charge us on a pro-rated basis. ESP says they will come on Friday. After the system is in place, we will be able to cancel our second line with TDS.
7. Under New Business, Trustees discussed the idea of installing an hours of operation sign at the doorway. Because most people approach the library from the church parking lot side, they do not necessarily see the sign that hangs near Main Street. When Bea has been working at the library, people have come to the door assuming the building was open. The suggestion was made that we might put a sign underneath the existing sign to the right of the front door. Garry offered to check out some possibilities with a sign maker he knows in Concord.
8. Meg informed the Trustees that she keeps a file of program possibilities in her office. If anyone is interested in organizing a program at the library they are welcome to go through the file for ideas.
9. The Trustees discussed the possibility of a plan to encourage patrons to donate a favorite book or to perhaps sponsor a periodical but agreed with Meg that it’s best to leave the selection of materials in the hands of the librarian. But a new donation jar would be most welcome!
10. Andrew Pinard’s wonderful magic show on August 24 was the perfect way to wrap up a very successful Summer Reading Program. The children – and the adults with them – were enthralled for over an hour and everyone enjoyed pizza and ice cream on the front lawn afterwards
The next meeting will be Wednesday, October 5, at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nola Jordan
Secretary