Library Advisory Board Minutes - 02/26/2002LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES
February 26, 2002
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Dr. James Snowden, Chair
Andrea Williams
Irene Lambert
Dr. James Semoe
Shirley Harris
Jim Brackett
Gracie Gregg
EX- OFFICIO MEMBERS PRESENT:
Arthur Bea Williams, Council Liaison
Matthew Benoit, Assistant City Manager
Linda Hughes, Library Administrator
GAO. i i6a 3 t'l,
CITY CLERK'S OFFICE
Date
By 1�' Time
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Patsy Klein
Ruth Jones
Dr. Snowden called the meeting to order at 4:20 P.M. Mr. Benoit and Councilor Williams passed
out star pens to the Board Members who could not attend the Boards Appreciation Breakfast hosted by the
City Council. Dr. Snowden welcomed Mr. Benoit. Ms. Hughes introduced Monica Lewis, Library
Assistant. Ms. Lewis was hired in December and works the Circulation Desk and Computer Lab. Ms.
Hughes said that patrons compliment Monica's smile and caring attitude. Her ability to learn the job
quickly enabled the Library to reopen the Computer Lab much earlier than expected.
Dr. Snowden declared a duorum to be present. The minutes of the January 22, 2001 meeting were
approved as submitted with the co ection of a typographical error. Ms. Hughes presented the Librarian's
Report. Ms. Hughes said that both the paper and the local television stations had contacted her to see if
there had been any challenges to the Harry Potter books; there have not. Ms. Hughes, Ms. Morrison, and
Ms. Humphris will attend the Public Library Association Conference in Phoenix in March. The conference
is held every two years and focuses solely on issues confronting public libraries. The Library has recently
opened a corporate purchase order account with amazon.com While most purchases will still be made with
Baker & Taylor because of the better discount, the amazon.com and Barnes & Noble purchase order
accounts allow the library to secure popular titles quickly, especially in the area of audiovisual materials.
The new TIF grant computers have been deployed. Ms. Hughes also announced that she is currently
planning to retire in 2004.
Under New Business, Ms. Hughes said that the Library had received its first large check toward
the purchase of the sculpture. Ms. Gregg remarked that some individuals had declared the fundraiser to be
for a frivolous purpose. Councilor Williams replied that in her opinion, an art object such as a sculpture
had enduring worth, and that Wichita Falls need more sculpture and art objects for the citizens to enjoy, and
that a bronze sculpture lasted through generations of citizens. She felt that it was another way to beautify
the City. The sculptor, Garland Weeks, will present a special program on March 22 from 2 to 4 in Room
202 on his life and work.
The Board continued its consideration of Library Policies with the Collection Development Policy.
Dr. Semoe gave Ms. Hughes several corrections of typographical errors and grammatical usage. Ms.
Williams queried why the policy specifically mentioned not collecting textbooks. Ms. Hughes said that it
would be prohibitively expensive to purchase all textbooks used by the local schools. There have been
requests for them, usually by students who have an assignment and left the book at school, or have lost their
book. Home school parents have also requested them Ms. Williams remarked that Moffatt Library
receives copies of the current adopted textbooks as part of their depository collection, courtesy of Region
IX Educational Center. She agreed that it would be too expensive and an unnecessary duplication of
resources for the public library to purchase them She thought it might be appropriate to insert a statement
to that effect into the policy. Dr. Semoe asked why the policy on rebinding states that the local company
Empire would not be used. Ms. Hughes replied that Empire had been used in the past with major problems
each time. Books were lost, books were bound with part of the pages upside down, and on one occasion,
three volumes were evidently dropped after being removed from the bindings, the pages were scrambled
together and then bound in three volumes. Since the books in question were out of print classics, the loss of
content was much greater than the price of the books, which Empire later paid. The senior staff decided at
that point that, while supporting local business was important, loss of valuable materials through sheer
negligence was totally unacceptable. The Library now uses Library Binding in Waco. Ms. Hughes said
that she would like to outline the Board's role in the reconsideration of materials /patron complaint process.
Dr. Sernoe said it would be helpful to have it spelled out in the policy. The Board decided to table approval
of the Collection Policy until all suggestions and corrections were completed. The Board will consider the
policy again in May.
Ms. Gregg reported that the Friends Bookstore had netted $6949 in 2001. The working agreement
with the Library is that the Friends give half of its earnings to the Library for the Donation Account and pay
expenses and taxes out of the Friends half. With the exception of a volunteer appreciation dinner and
purchases relative to operating the bookstore, the Friends' funds are spent to support various Library
services, events, and programming.
The next meeting of the Library Advisory Board will be March 26, 2002 in the Conference Room
at 4:15 PM. The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
' ?nda Hughes, Library Administrator