Yeah, yeah All righty. Um, it's now 1211 so we now we do have a quorum.
So, I'm going to call this regular meeting of the public library board of trustees to order.
So, uh, 1st, item approval of the agenda, um, if there are no changes to the agenda.
Can I get a motion to approve it as published so moved.
2nd, all right all in favor.
Hi, hi.
Great. Um, thank you. Um, next item, public comment. Um, we are public her currently.
Excepting public comment via email that is published on the agenda. Was there any public comment? Any.
No, there's no public comment this month. Okay.
Thank you, um, so we do have a few items that we're in the packet, um, for the consent agenda with our meeting minutes.
And the finance reports.
If there are no changes to those.
Uh, I would love to hear a motion to approve that can send agenda.
I feel like, sorry, tell I feel like I should abstain from voting on the June 21st minutes cause I was not there but otherwise I'm happy to approve the other 2 documents.
Hmm.
Well, do we, um, you should make the motion and do you feel comfortable seconding jasmine.
Sure. Okay.
So move to accept the agenda.
2nd right all in favor of accepting consent agenda as published.
Hi. Hi. Great. Thank you. Guys.
Um, so onto the chief librarian report, Tom, you have a couple of things for us.
Do let me pull this back up here.
All right 1 of the 1st items on my report is the.
Detailing out that I had an opportunity to attend a cabinet retreat. Um.
At the very end of July was a really good opportunity for me to have some time with all the other cabinet members. The mayor's office team.
As well, so the deputy and other key.
Uh, folks on the cabinet, uh, many of the people that were there, um, were new. Um, in some cases, not even yet starting, but starting, uh, this month. Um, the new director being, uh, 1 of those.
1 of them had been on maybe 2 weeks, prior to that and several others just a month or 2 as well. So a good opportunity to meet a lot of other department directors start to understand the mayor's priorities.
I believe he will be presenting more of that as we get to that state of the city when they announce the budget as well. So, I think we'll see and hear more here in the next month or so, as we get to the end of September.
But it really was a well facilitated retreat. We had we worked through a bunch of team building exercises, looking at a lot of the elements that the mayor was looking at for his priorities.
So, I think that was a positive of note. Um, we, um, in this, there were some restructuring, as they tried to balance the load.
Um, with the various deputy mares and some of the other key, um, cabinet members who, um.
We're working with the mayor. We were reporting to deputy mayor, Tiffany, Washington. We are not.
Now we were reporting to deputy mayor and of course, I'd like to thank deputy mayor, Washington for all of our work with the library over the last 6 months. Really?
Enjoyed working with her most certainly person who's willing to.
You're the good the bad and also work through issues and I really appreciate that.
Had a chance to speak with deputy at the retreat and kind of get some grounding as to how how he was looking to work with his various, um.
Um, departments in his portfolio, both Rick, and I were able to meet with him, Rick shared and and I were able to meet with him.
just about a week and a half ago and give him a basic orientation to library operations the structure and especially with the board and obviously the fact that the library is not an executive department working through all of those
complexities with him and we've established now a regular one on one for me we also will have an opportunity for all of the departments in his portfolio
To have, uh, once every few months of meetings so that we can actually talk together work together and see where there is synergy. I think that's a positive. So, looking forward to those as well.
We, as I mentioned, I think the last month we were in the process of working through our, um.
Determining our consultant for the foresight project. We have actually arrived at our consultant who is the Houston foresight group.
We've had a preliminary meeting with them, and we have had a couple of meetings with our core group, and starting to work through some of the basic outline that we will need as we proceed over the next few months.
The board of trustees will be brought into this whole process, both to be interviewed and which is part of this process, but also be in some of the workshops I'm going to encourage, um.
All of the board of trustees to actually participate fully. It would be ultimately a 2 day commitment. Um.
To work through this entire process, but I think it will be a fruitful 1 that better grounds everyone in the foresight process and also grounds you as we.
Um, move through the entire process.
The library did host, uh, the house administration, um, the committee on house administration about our federal Depository status um.
Daniel, when our adult services librarian, who oversees that portion, um, did a great presentation.
About our federal Depository at and Kirsten Nelson who's our partnerships and government relations manager really did a great job in coordinating all of that and Marianne who's our assistant
managing librarian at Central.
Also help put all of that together and has a long standing history with the federal Depository as well.
So, a great chance to highlight, uh, work that people don't always think about, or save at very important work in hosting those federal documents.
And as we were just chatting before we started the meeting, we held our 1st community conversation.
The chief library at high point on August 4th, we just finished 1 at Rainier beach branch yesterday.
High points saw about a dozen people there that I think, what was a really good conversation. Um, the nice thing about the format is, it really can move as a conversation.
We can take time and and maybe go off a little bit on a tangent and bring it back around and get some of the information that we of course are looking for.
But it's a great opportunity to present a lot of the services, um, programs or materials. That are available at the library as well.
So that's always a great opportunity for me to share some of the other resources that maybe people don't know that we have. We will have another 1 on October 1st at Greenwood branch.
We'll send out more details to board members if they wish to attend.
It's on a Saturday, so that might free up some of you to be able to attend.
Also, I'm still continuing to get out to branches, um.
Without a queen and branch, um, last week, I think it was last week. Um, and also high point, as I mentioned, queen is undergoing a, uh, complete um.
Uh, roofing project, so, a little noisy out there for staff, as we, uh, hopefully wrap that up by the end of September.
Before we get to the rainy season, but, uh, yeah, really good to see the team out there. Um, see the progress on the roof as well.
The other big piece that we'll be working on next week is that we've selected 2 finalists for the library programs and services director. My former position we're slated for those final interviews next week and hope to have a decision.
I would hope by the time we return from Labor day.
Um, Labor Day break and then we actually Carmen, and I, along with Amy Lawson, provide an orientation to our newest trustee. Um.
So, we were able to spend a few hours there and I know we've got some follow up work there.
And I also had an opportunity to meet the new president and see CEO of the urban libraries Council. Um, Seattle, public library is a member of the urban library's Council.
And Brooks is the new president CEO who joined, I believe, in June, had an opportunity to meet with him and chat with him.
While in, uh, Washington D. C for the American Library Association and, um, he has actually been following up to meet.
With every single library director or chief brand, um.
In the next few weeks, and the next month he's really got to about 160 people to talk to. So he will be very busy on those in those sessions, but good a good chat. And a lot I think he's going to bring a lot to, um.
lot to um
Libraries counsel, and kind of a new, um, maybe a new way of doing business, which I think it'd be good to and reenergize.
The group and that is it for that part of the report I do want to mention a couple of other things, though that weren't on the report.
Um, we did, um, if you'll notice in the reports that we attached.
I'm moving down through them now we have our our usual, um, reports that either come from our public services team, or some of our other divisions this month.
Uh, the human resources department, um, provided in overview.
Of our talent acquisition and and of 2022 I really encourage you if you haven't had an opportunity to fully review that to take a look at that work. I think that, you know, as we look to to have more, um, diversity, um.
more um diversity um
And our hiring, I think that you will see that there's been some good work done here.
Most certainly, we always as an organization to have more work to do.
Um, and our teams are always working at, uh, we're looking at ways to do better in every regard through every level of the organization.
So, I do encourage you to take a look at that and then, of course, we have a great report from our youth and family learning services team. We have a new service manager over that group.
Sariah, Silverman, Montana.
Who is again bringing new energy new views to the work that we're doing here? Work side.
Let me take a look at that. I'll pause for any questions. Folks might have.
It looks like you have a question go ahead and actually have several questions. So, um, just say if this isn't there.
Best moment, um, I'm I'm curious I did really appreciate the, um, talent acquisition report in particular, um, 1 of the things that.
Would be interesting to me is to understand, um, which of these positions require higher graduate degrees, versus which ones are maybe just a college degree, and which don't require any, um,
upper schooling if you will. Um.
And then I I know that, um.
You know, having getting the master's degree, that sort of nation wide I think the is working on how to create more opportunities for bypass folks to get those advanced MLS,
degrees and degrees. So I'm, I'm wondering if at some point.
There would be any materials that the library associations might provide about what they're doing around that because I'm, I'm just curious about it.
Yeah, and we're I know that work is underway and we keep an eye on that. So is more information comes out on that we'll note that make sure that you have it from the American Library Association.
Uh, we can most certainly work with highlighting which positions require degrees or advanced degrees.
Um, we can maybe add that to this report as we look at and, uh, shawna who's our HR generalist who's also on the line? Um, in case there's questions I can't answer. We'll note this.
Um, so that we can, um.
Make sure that we consider that in the next 1, the 1 thing we've been looking at as an organization, too, is when we're looking at any.
Any new postings, and they could be internal, um, or they could be both internal and external.
Is really looking at those, um, job descriptions and looking at those requirements.
You know, are those degrees absolutely necessary? Um, are they a barrier when, in fact, you know.
Lived or work experience might provide a better sort of skillset. So our teams, I think not only just HR, but our teams in the field doing the work are also looking at that.
In some cases, even in some internal, uh, positions that we've had.
To more to better maximize opportunity and to see who might have an interest we have, you know, we have actually.
Taking some of those requirements out, and I think that's also, you know, given us more opportunity to see where people have interest in career development. So we will continue to do that as an organization. But yes.
We'll also be looking at.
American Library Association as they do that work we're fortunate in that.
The University of Washington, um, obviously we do get students from there as you might imagine, become brands here, but they also have an indigenous.
People's focus in the in the, which is the library and degree.
As well, so we have been working, uh, HR has been working with that particular group over at to also see how we can look at. Um.
Students who might also come in to not what do we call it,
the directed field work force and how we might be able to have them and I think Liddy presented on this also have them paid that's 1 of the things we've been looking at,
for direct field work to make sure that as we look at recruiting in those areas, and especially people of color that we're taking care of, the cost of that directed field work. People usually don't realize.
There's an actual cost.
As a student to take that, and if we can eliminate and eliminate that, um, we obviously would get more opportunity to see a diverse set of candidates. And our foundation technically stepped up.
And has been, and we'll be providing that, um.
Funding to support that and China has joined us if you wondered who is with us this is shawna dinner. She is our 1 of our well, she was our HR generalist and I can tell you everything she does, but that might take a few minutes.
Wow, that's great. It's good to meet you. shawna. Thanks for joining. Um, this is a really helpful report. I appreciate you. Putting that together. Um, I'll just ask 1 more question, Tom and it's about, because this is a somewhat new to me issue.
But this idea that E, books are metered. Um, I just have 1 quick question, which is.
Once we have hit whatever the meter, uh, threshold is, do we then lose that book from the collection and have to buy it again?
Yes, I think I have Andrew on here. Uh, maybe Amy can bring Andrew in so that I get we give a fuller answer to you on this. Um.
Than just yes. Okay, cool.
And, shawna, thank you, thank you.
Hey, Andrew. Hi. Hello. Can you hear me.
Yes, yeah so, uh, great to meet you yasmine and thank you for, uh, the question but the short answer is yes, a lot of our E, books and E, audio books are metered access meaning that.
We only have them licensed for a limited number of checkouts and once those checkouts do get used up.
We either buy an additional copy or or the item, um, goes away from the collection, but we do have tools in place to monitor that.
Um, and so we can kind of manage and respond to it accordingly.
Okay, thank you for that. This uh, I know this is a big issue, um, for libraries so I will try to, um, educate myself a bit more about how this works. Um.
Um, the other thing that I was noticing is obviously, in this report, it says that ebook and audio book demand has risen.
Um, I know that on the heels of the pandemic, and I wish, I could actually, I shouldn't say heels cause it's still with us, but I'm curious, like, have we ever have,
we thought about doing programming where we encourage people to come in and use the tangible versions of books, check them out. I'm sure we have and I'm just curious.
Yes.
Because of the pandemic, we haven't been able to do that lately. If we have a plan to bring those kinds of programs back on.
So, Andrew, do you want to I can dive into it, or? You can sure I can start. Um, I think this is kind of a 2 fold question. Um, but we are planning to restart in person programming, more.
And as we've increased our operating hours over the last year, we have seen a corresponding, um.
Uptick and the use of the physical collection, and we do expect that to follow as we continue to expand and add hours as well as reintroduce public programming with regard to encouraging different,
uh, use of different formats. We, we really want to be, uh, encouraging people to use formats that they prefer. Mm. Hmm. Um, and, uh, and in some cases, not only.
But need to use in which cases, you know, E, books are sometimes better for people, there's ways to manage, uh, type size and those sorts of things and read at different pieces and having other features.
And so, I think 1 of the things that we're trying to do, and have done over the last few years since E book, and the audio book costs have become a pretty big issue is educate about people about those costs.
Um, such that they.
Understand the landscape and and can and perhaps use the collection and maybe a more responsible way meaning, you know, returning things once you're done with them. Um, you know, not placing holds on items.
If you don't intend to check those items out, uh, those sorts of things are really helpful, just kind of best practices that help us, kind of manage the, the cost implications associated with these formats.
That makes sense, thank you, Andrew. Yeah, and we'd, we'd be happy to present them more in depth overview, uh, on this topic it's 1 that we, we feel pretty strongly about and are working as diligently and creatively as we can to kind of manage the, the costs.
Awesome Thank you. Welcome to.
All right, um, the other item I just want to note, um, before we move on to the system's report is that, um.
The foundation executive board.
Uh, had their, um, I guess summer, um.
In person, kind of celebration and or meet and greet. Um, it was really nice again to be able to be in person with everyone and re path. Um.
Graciously donated her home for the event, uh, beautiful day. Um, we were able to have, um.
Andrew, who you all just saw met, um.
And along with Rick shared, and and my were able to attend.
J. rich also attended as as the board as a board member from the trustees, but just really nice to see everyone also a chance to thank everyone for their service and their continued work on our behalf.
And really good to hear their continued commitment to the work that we're doing. So, I just wanted to note that.
And, of course, There'll be additional events coming up that you all see and hear about. So we'll make sure that, you know about it and with that, if there's no other questions, I can move this onto the systems report. Carmen just have 1 quick question. Tom.
And Holly, I didn't know if you did or not cause I'm not sure if we can raise your hand on that.
Phone connection, um, did you have anything Holly I just have 1.
I believe he said, no okay. Hearing none.
Um, just a quick 1, Tom, on the, um, on the recruitment, um, the talent acquisition report.
Is it possible? And this might be make for a complicated table.
Um, to kind of see some trend lines.
Um, just to see if we're actually improving.
And where we're improving, if it's a position.
Specific thing, or if it's a really specific thing, or, um, I just would be.
Curious, um, if we have the data, maybe to look over, you know.
Quarter 1 of this year, compared to a quarter, and I know the last couple of years with the recruitment and hiring has been an anomaly. So.
Whatever you guys think is best, but I think it would be nice to be able to compare or something.
Yeah, we have a little more, um, of that in our annual report that we do. Um, there's 1 that we, we submit every year, every 2 years, depending upon the.
Um, the city, but yes, I believe we can make sure that we, we have that as well. And I know Sean is still listening. So well.
Make sure we note that when we get to either the final report, or if it's something that's.
Actually possible, and actually will show it in this. This is really about talent acquisition within the year. So this 1 might not quite avenue for it, but we'll figure out a best way to get it out to there. There is a way likely that annual.
Report okay. Okay. That's that's great. I think we've got all our questions. All right well, there's that you can always send me more later and we'll, we'll definitely work through those. Um.
Let's see, I'll move this over then to our systems report and this at this time I'd like Valerie Garrett, Turner and 1, Rubio to join us.
This is going to be about our.
Uh, Institute of museums and library services, funded team, mental health project and let me see if I've got Valerie on here.
Valerie Valerie is our assistant director over equity learning and engagement services and I'm going to have her introduce a 1 in the work.
Sure, good good afternoon. Everyone as Tom said, I'm Valerie, your attorney, the assistant director for equity and learning engagement services.
And I am thrilled to introduce you to Juan Rubio who, for the last 7 years has served as our digital media and learning program manager.
1 has really taken us into some fantastic directions,
including a new MLS grant that was awarded to the library about a month ago and I want to be sure that I have the correct title.
Because actually, this is our 2nd grant that Juan has been a very, very significant, pretty significant role in our receiving. Our new grant is creating space for.
Mental health.
And amongst our partners are the University of Washington, the meridian library district in Idaho, the Charles County public library in Maryland, and the American Library Association.
This grant is a spear grant for approximately 250,000 dollars. And from this point on, I will let 1 take the, take the wheel and tell you about this exciting news. about this exciting news
Thank you, Valerie, I'm really happy to be here. I always tell Valerie and also Tom that without their support this could not be possible.
So they've been my my big support in moving this projects forward. So we were really thrilled to receive the news of the MLS.
Um, I gave the funding for the proposal that we sent, because it just recognize the need of the.
This issue that is really relevant, and that was exacerbated with the corporate 19 pandemic, but they also recognized our previous work.
The previous work we were doing in the previous grant was around mental health also using virtual reality.
And I think that the other thing is that they recognize that we could, like, lead the charge nationwide because we had work already with libraries before with the DCP.
High priority in the library in Texas, so it was like this continuation of our work.
We are approaching the work through participatory design in order to break power dynamics between kids and adults, and democratize the learning in there.
And then to really create something, whether you use a voice at the at the centers, like, what is it that they need.
From their perspective, so we're creating not for them, but with them through this core design and participatory design approach,
we're also focused in that work through connected learning in, which we are interested in the interest of the youth,
and then providing the opportunities for them to based on those interest in fine opportunity.
It is, we also are basing on a very relational base approach right? Which is part of the connected learning framework.
And lastly we're also coming with the racial equity framework. We know from research that marginalized used.
Suffered tremendously from the impacts of social economic conditions, for example, under mental health right? Related to lots of dignity problems at home, et cetera.
So,
we're really moving away from a person's center approach where the focus is on that person and then be critical about it and thinking about how structures and systems have an impact
on the mental health.
Of teams, or or everyone really, um.
Uh, we are actually, uh, like Valerie mentioned before we're working with 2 libraries.
Um, we discover from the previous granted,
there was like a need for libraries to have flexible tools that would adapt to different communities and contexts to
provide the support mental health. And with that in mind.
We brought these different libraries that are working with different communities to create that that framework.
So what what we're gonna do for the next 3 years is we're going to create a mental health.
Teen support framework we are thinking about being in the form of a deck of cards that we're going to mix and match to provide to find elements
that you anyone and libraries specifically can incorporate in from programs that are already in existence. We are bringing these elements with a focus also.
Space because a space plays a big role, and the wellbeing of all of us as we navigate space constantly. Um, but it's especially important for teams.
We saw that they were all working on creating spaces in virtual reality.
It's like very interested for them and based on that, we propose this this program we are interested in, eh, for them to explore.
Spaces and physical spaces, and how they can provide, um, support for their for the wellbeing.
And also, through the process of CO design, we're also elevating their emotional wellbeing, their physical encouraging their wellbeing physically and socially through the creativity,
et cetera. Um, so we're gonna create that framework and with that framework, we're going.
To create programs, we're going to have this approach where, like, we're coaching 1st, librarians here in, with a group of kids in Seattle beginning in January,
and they are going to learn how we plan in design design sessions with the framework already in place.
And then they will do their programs on their own at their prospective.
Libraries and in the 2nd, year, we're rolling 6 additional libraries who are going to use the same model. They're going to receive a stipend of 6,000 dollars to participate in the program.
So that's a general overview. What's gonna happen we're working with. Terrific people. Not only at the live priorities, but also with the University of Washington, we'll be working with 2 professors there.
there
With expertise in participatory design and the other 1 in mental health. We also going to bring mental health experts. I'm talking with rather so organization that works with youth and mental health here in Seattle.
So it's a comprehensive program. We're really thrilled to have I. MLS supported, and also with the help of the library staff and the Seattle public library.
This is possible, so we're really excited to to continue to work.
Tom, you're muted do we have any questions? Uh, 1 in the work that he and the team are doing.
Yeah, um, thank you.
I am curious about this idea of moving away from a person centric approach. Can you? I have an idea of what that means, but could you, maybe elaborate a bit yeah.
So, W, what happens normally would use work by is that you, it tends to blame the conditions on the persons like, you don't want it to do this.
You are, and then it's not taking into.
How the system structure the systems have an impact on that person, so it's beyond the personal. Right?
So if I don't have a stable home, right it is not really up to me that are conditions that are greater than that.
Right and then so how society in general, and especially oppression or conditions that.
Marginalized youth encounter, have that be impact in there. There will be in in their, their development.
And so, uh, uh, what kinds of things like.
I know this is weird because you're saying that it's a participatory design process, so you can't really tell me what it's going to be because you haven't created it yet. Mm. Hmm. I'm I'm just curious if you could give.
examples of what might be part of the framework and what what kind of program might result from that
Mm, hmm. Mm. Hmm. So see, for example, um.
How rest right?
Place a role in your wellbeing, and then your your mental health, so you can explore how a space can be conductive,
or can help you to obtain rest. What is a place that can allow you to feel that you can take a break right?
For example, and then this is just an example, we're gonna we're gonna discuss.
With with the teams, but that's just an example. So then we'll have that framework where we say, okay, if you gonna run a program with teams, um.
Allow for grace periods, or encourage wrestling to happen in this space. Uh, and then we're going to pair that with participatory design a strategies.
And you can say if you want to do that, think about using there's like,
big paper to design a space that allows you to encourage this practice.
Thank you tally I see you have your hand.
yeah i was just going to add to that because ironically i'm a part of a university based research project in colombia and we are using participatory design
Work with communities, um.
In the, so I'm just returning from that, so that's.
Very, similarly, the, what I'm hearing you say is that the, um.
Framework will take into consideration how we can send her.
Um, young people around both the design and the delivery of services. Um, and that the.
The outcomes will be, I should say the impact of that will.
You are hoping will serve your intended goals of this.
Mm, hmm. And, uh, I think the.
Interesting part about this much like some of the other work that 1 referenced is that, uh.
This will also be more than just.
2 other library systems, so again, advancing this at different scales.
And throughout the country to really.
Move this work, so it's not just sbl specific most certainly outcomes for our patrons, but.
Something that develops this in more than 1 library system.
Yes, and I think also dissemination is a key factor here how we disseminate the, um, the results of the program and we're working with the American Library Association,
um, to in the office of public services. They're part of the grant to make this available and promote the, the resources that we create.
Any other questions, right? Well, thank you so much. And Valerie. Thanks for attending today. Okay.
All right over to you, Carmen, I think, a rupt or next agenda.
All right thanks, Tom. Thanks for all the reports.
We don't have any old business, so we're moving into the new business items. Um, our usual reports from the foundation and friends of the library updates. Neither of them met in August.
So I don't think there are any updates there.
Um, sorry, just had a tickle in my throat.
Um, so and are there any updates from library board members, Holly, or jasmine?
Oh, yeah, go ahead.
I'm getting the hang of this, uh, not really sure what 1 would say here other than, um, I do think it was enlightening to attend that high point information session.
Um, and I really look forward to doing more of those. What other kind of updates do we give? Otherwise.
they're usually it's kind of the miscellaneous area if we have um
Exciting maybe professional or personal updates, but also this was the space a couple months ago when tally and Ron went to the conference, and they kind of gave a little bit of a report back.
So that was a nice space to have, um.
1 thing actually, I wanted to mention this month. I'm going to spoken for a conference for work next week, and I'm actually going to make time to drop by their new downtown library.
So, I'm super excited. I'm excited about the conference. I'm gonna present. It's going to be amazing, but also like to see the new building too.
So, yeah, that's how it go with. Jasmine just random.
And we try to keep it, you know, contain. Oh, did you have something.
I do not.
Okay, um, so I think we can move on to the 2nd, quarter of report and I'm assuming Jan, we'll be coming on to, um.
Correct okay. Okay.
Our Levy administrater will be joining us and just a reminder to the trustees that this is an item that we'll need to have a vote of approval to move it forward.
Jan, are you with us? Can you hear me? We can barely hear you. Can you just try again?
Can you hear me now fairly well there's a lot of static and.
I can let me see, this will work better try again.
Now, yes, that's great. Okay. Good. Um.
So, I'm pleased to present the 2nd quarter letter report. You should have a revised version that you received today, which updates? Financial tables? Um.
This is getting an echo on, which is what is now page 13, and I'll explain the change when we get to that part of the report. So we're in the 3rd year of our 7 year Levy.
Um, that was passed in 2019 and we do quarterly reports. The board which the board reviews and approves before they're posted on the, um. on the um
The website, um.
During the 2nd, quarter of this year, we continue to adapt to our new operating environment to meet the needs of Seattle residents in the Levy categories of hours and access collections, technology and online services,
children's programming and maintenance. And I'm going to go over each of those. Very briefly, they're laid out in detail in the report all though the Levy provides 35% of the libraries, total revised budget of. budget of
121.2000022 and through the 2nd, quarter, we spent 11.5Million or 27% of the revised Levy budget and this big bag is largely due to delays associated with the capital improvement program.
And many of those delays are related to the pandemic. Those funds will carry over each year until the projects are completed in terms of the hours and access category an area 1 of our.
are completed in terms of the hours and access category an area one of our
Promises was to fly principle when patrons needed them and, of course, that has been a challenge since pandemic.
And while we've been making great progress in reopening our branches and restoring, ours is not.
Linear as we have experienced successive waves of code and now that we're the 3rd quarter, it's a little bit like a past.
But in May, and June, over 97, we had 97 positive cases of covid amongst our staff,
and even a higher number of cases amongst their families and those had impacts on our ability to staff at the level we would have liked. And so while we were able to. able to
and operating hours in the spring we had to retract our scheduled hours in july and we're still not quite at pre pandemic levels but we've also made other progress we
in terms of restoring services we continue to offer many virtual programs but we also beginning of the spring began to offer in person programs in terms of author events and other events in the system in terms of
We are promise was to have a robust collection of books and materials, and we continue to make significant investments in both digital and physical materials in May we celebrated the 5th anniversary peak picks. And this is our popular.
No, hold no weight collection of high interest titles. And this is a collection that brings people into the library, because different titles are available every day, depending on what is returned. And there are a lot of.
Books that people are very interested in and otherwise would have long waits if they weren't able to get them through peak picks. Um, the 2nd, quarter also saw the completion of our collection diversity audits with our 2 print vendors Ingram and Baker.
Taylor, we did overdrive in the 1st quarter, and we purchased over a 1000 copies of print books to make our collection more representative.
And the thing to note of this is all 3 vendors who participated with us in the diversity are noted that even before our additional purchases.
Our collections were among the most diverse amongst libraries.
In terms of technology we promised to improve computer and online services. We, um.
one of our key programs in that is our hotspot program and we continue to provide hotspots through our general collection and through outreach and um through through our outreach program we added a new
partner in second quarter lampard house which is a community center working to improve health outcomes for plus youth in terms of social children's programming we promised to
add more programming for children ages zero to five in terms of being able to provide physical programming we still are not offering programming for children in our facilities for that age group uh we do offer a robust selection of
virtual programs we added six new story times in and including two in mandarin and we are working toward
Being able to bring back in person play and learns for for the fall in terms of maintenance. Uh.
We promised to maintain our buildings for the next generation, as I mentioned this is 1 of the areas where we have experienced some, some delays in, in terms of our capital program. We.
also publicly bid the green light project in june and we received bids that were substantially higher than we expected and as a result we're going out for bid again in so the construction and construction spending will be delayed but one
accomplishment in which i'd like to note is the re installation of the sole pole which went through a successful conservation project in two thousand and twenty one and we it was reinstalled at the douglas truth branch to a lot of community
An interest, and, you know, in terms of regular maintenance, we are still dealing with.
Trying to make a facilities safe and, um.
clean in a coping environment and in addition we've had to deal with some additional vandals and specifically in terms of window repairs throughout the system and i want to just do address the financial tables that were changed from
the original draft that's in the package to the revised report and the change was there were some errors in the funds available column in both tables those tables those numbers have been replaced
Should add it correctly all the other numbers didn't change. We have any questions.
yasmine and i first of all hi jan nice to see you again although i'm not actually seeing you um
My question is about, uh.
At what point do we decide that rebuilding a capital project is worth the increased costs that come with delaying a project? Like, how do you decide.
When to do that.
Pardon me Jan do you want to jump in or you want to go ahead and take a time.
Or, um, so it really is going to depend on the scale of the project. Right? I mean, in some cases.
You may look at something that, for example, the roof project, and, you know, it might be a 100,000 dollars or so over what you may be estimated. Sometimes a couple 100,000.
Projects like, that you likely wouldn't read it, because by the time you delayed, it postponed it or whatever you did and then we let the bed, there's a good chance. You'd already be catching that up. Right.
You'd already be in place and when it caught you in cases, for example, our green like project that we are that we postpone and what we bid.
And up in October, the number was, um.
Incredibly different and we believe that there were market conditions.
At the time that had that happen, you know, that's talking to engineers architects, others in the field, other government entities bidding, or the, um, letting projects.
And so our teams do a lot of work there to make sure. Okay. Yeah. That seems to be a good investment in time and obviously delay.
Doing that, because if it's a few 1Million dollars over on a project, and we can bring that back in to alignment with the budget, then we're in a better place.
So, a lot of work goes into that, but they're very conscious always of keeping projects moving forward. So that we don't have the inflationary impacts.
We know obviously that the Kobe delays created a lot of deferred projects due to lack of the ability to do construction. So.
That's also.
Bloated the market with projects, which means there's not as many contractors and subcontractors available.
Which, also if your timing's not right can make it very difficult to get competitive bids.
Did you have any other questions you asked him, or?
Jan, Jan, I just wanted to point out. It's another question, but, uh, um.
Appreciation for that last page of the report the week of the hours comparison.
Branch by branch was really helpful.
Cause we've, we've gone, we've made steps forward and then we've had a roll back and then.
So, it's good to kind of have a comparison. So thank you.
I, I wouldn't disagree with that. It's good to see this that trendline. Yeah, thank you.
yeah and i i will say also that i appreciate it because we have those hours are very complicated to continue to track and jan does a great job of that and we need that as we report out on this it's very
important as we move closer to that new
When this 1 expires that we have the story, and we have the data as to what we did during that time of Kobe. And, um, I know when we talked about this before I was in the interim role or.
Or even the chief brand, um, that was 1 of the things, Jen, and I talked about and the senior management team talked about is how do we make sure that the story.
And the data are there to, to justify the changes we have to make sure.
Mm, hmm. And so I want to note before you, um.
Ask for a vote that what we will do, um, Jan identified the items that were revised in the information, sent out to you this morning.
So, as you make that, then please make sure to note that there is a revision on those numbers. What we will do technically is we will provide.
That revised report, um, in old business, it will not require, um.
Action per se, and next next month, but you will see it next month. So the publicly documented.
Okay, so I would entertain a motion to approve the revised.
Uh, Levy reports moved.
2nd, all those in favor.
All right. Hi. Great.
By just to be official. Um, so most recent.
Library report, um, as revised.
Is approved, um.
And I believe that is our last item of new business.
It is so.
Um, and we don't have an executive session.
We do not so, uh, we can adjourn. We will meet again on.
September 29th, and if there's nothing else.
Um, 1, quick question. Sorry we are not going to dates for the foresight 2 day workshop that you mentioned earlier.
I'm sorry can you ask that again? The foresight workshop that 2 day thing that you mentioned? We don't have dates for that yet. Yeah, we're working on that so we'll have that as soon as we can for, you.
Okay, thank you. Great. Thanks, Tom. And everyone. Um, I appreciate the conversation and all the reports. We'll see you soon.
All right Thank you. All bye. Bye. Bye.