Library Advisory Board Minutes - 09/19/2015LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES
September 19, 2015
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Donna Jane McGough
Carolyn Watt
Arthur Bea Williams
Kimberley Latham
Ex- Officio Members Present:
Tom Quintero, Council Liaison
Lesley Daly, Library Administrator
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Kay Story
James Ball
Librarian's report:
We need Board members! Please forward any names of candidates to the City Clerk's office:
Tracy.Norr @wichitafaIlstx.gov --- 761-7409
www.wichitafalistx.gov - - Government tab, then Boards & Commissions
Summer Recap:
Pictures:
1. Sarah and Colby modeling superhero cut -outs -- this was really as popular with adults as it was with youngsters!
2. Kathy, Danielle and Sarah helping to wrangle 'Wildlife on the Move'
3. Brett Roberts magic tricks
4. David Chicken and his band of audience 'volunteers'
5. Fire Chief Jon Reese conducted a celebrity storytime and was nice enough to bring a truck and crew along —
attendees got to climb around the truck and were invited to try on uniforms....
6. We hosted a tea party for a dozen young ladies — which gave us an excuse to glam up the Activity Room
7. Minions invaded in early July —they were so popular we eventually held an impromptu drawing for them
Reading participation was slightly down from last year across the board, but we received some very positive comments
regarding the incentives and program in general from those who completed the online pieces.
Our total program attendance over 11 paid programs was 2,781
Those 11 programs cost us an average of $288 to put on, which came out to an expenditure of approximately $1.24 per
head.
The non -paid programs continue to attract regular audiences: we offered weekly crafts and gaming activities, and also
had regular visits from various therapy dogs who patiently listened to youngsters as they read to them.
We enjoyed a first -time collaboration with the Animal Services Center in August and sponsored a Pet adoption day at
the library. Animal Services staff and other rescue agencies such as Miss Fannies Friends, Paws to Greatness and the Pit
Crew brought in various animals, and library patrons (and staff) were able to meet prospective pets face -to -face. We
actually had 2 successful placements following that afternoon, and we plan to repeat the event before the end of the
year.
September is Library Card Sign Up Month and we will be giving away small incentives for each person who registers for a
new library card during the month.
We also participated in the Outside the Lines event sponsored by ALA that ran Sep 14 -20. We left books at medical
facilities around town with bookmarks in them and stickers on them mentioning the library. Several books contained
'golden tickets' inviting people to either visit the library to get a card and a prize, or to check out a book within the next
few weeks and get a surprise freebie.
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Also in September, the library was the recipient of the Pay it Forward cash donation. A long -time patron, Barbara Scales,
- gave the $300 cash to us to buy books for all ages — and actually donated an extra $100 of her own money too.
Upcoming events include:
Our annual Storytime parades October 27 & 28
A Halloween ComicFest on October 31 featuring free comics from Collector's Den, MSU students offering a tweens and
teens goth make -up workshop, face - painting for young attendees courtesy of Funny Faces, and of course, candy.
A blood drive on November 12
A celebration of dinosaurs as November becomes Dino- vember. ...... ...
Grant updates:
The library hosted a site visit by the Priddy Foundation on October 20 in order to discuss the Amo Leer grant application.
Since being awarded Amo Leer funds by the Priddy Trust, the library has partnered with Zavala and Midwestern State
University in orderto keep this program alive, and has hosted several literacy events. We were happy to be able to
report to the Foundation that during the past year we have seen a 17.3% increase in the number of checkouts in the
youth Spanish collection (from the prior year), and a 12,2% increase in the number of Hispanic cardholders during the
same timeframe. During 2014 -15, Hispanics accounted for 16% of our new card holders — or, 1 in 7 new patrons. We
should hear the results of this effort in mid - December.
Unfortunately, we were not successful in the Curiosity Creates grant application — but we hope to pursue other avenues
in order to keep diversifying our programming.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:50 pm
Next meeting is November 17, 2015 at 5:00 pm
t.. Donna Jane McGougI, Cbair