Sangamon Sun

Sherman Public Library Board of Trustees met January 17.

Here is the minutes provided by the Board:

The regular monthly meeting of the Sherman Public Library Board convened at 5:00 p.m. Present were Library Director Rachel Kocis and Board members Julie Horton, Dave Grimm, Brian Manci, and Elizabeth Heubner.

Items for Consideration Not on the Agenda:

Secretary’s Report: Rachel noted some corrections in the circulation statistics from the December minutes. Overdrive e-books should have been reported at 62 and e audio-books at 30. Julie Horton made a motion to accept the Secretary’s report from the December 2017 regular meeting with these corrections. Dave Grimm seconded the motion, and all were in favor.

Treasurers/Financial Report: Rachel reported that the Library received at TIF payment from on December 19. She also worked closely with Frontier Communications to evaluate our phone bill. Several errors were found, and the Library will receive a $500 credit from Frontier. Liz Heubner made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report and to pay the bills. Brain Manci seconded the motion, and the motion carried by a unanimous voice vote. Liz Heubner made a motion to pay the mortgage payment from the Special Reserves account. Julie Horton seconded the motion and a unanimous voice vote in favor was taken.

Librarian’s Report: We had a 1,961 patron count in month of January. 1,979 items were circulated 2,589 times at our library, up 13.5% from last year. Resident borrowing was at 1,935 checkouts while non-resident borrowing was 654 checkouts. Reciprocal borrowing had 182 checkouts. 3M Cloud netted 88 e-books. 14 e-audio books were loaned. Overdrive had 148 checkouts and 20 e-audiobook checkouts.

Brain Manci made a motion to approve the Annual Financial Report. Dave Grimm seconded the motion and all were in favor.

Julie Horton made a motion to approve the FY2017 Levy Report. Liz Heubner seconded the motion and all were in favor.

Library Events and Issues: A FOIA request was submitted to SmartProcure on 1/4/2018. The PerCapita Grant and FY 16 Expenditures report was submitted to IL State Library on December 28, 2017. Receipts and Disbursements was filed at County Clerk’s office on 12/18/17 and printed in Sherman Sun Times. The Illinois State Library annual certification was submitted on 1/12/18. The Library Director will submit a monthly article about library services, materials, programs, etc. for the Village Newsletter in 2018. A non-emergency police call was made in December, and Active Shooter training was held in December. The cardboard recycling seems to be under control. Our Villa Outreach services will increase to twice a month in 2018. The director met with community members, students, and educators on January 9th for a STEAM community dialogue at the Williamsville Public Library. 155 people came into the library on December 14th to look for Willie the Frog; several new library cards were issued that night. The library did not have any unscheduled closings due to weather in December. The Study rooms were heavily used in December and beginning of January. The “Blind Date with a Book” program will be featured in February. Safe Families IL AmericCorps courses from Red Cross will be scheduled this year including First Aid for Little People, Home Alone course for the beginning of summer, and First Aid and CPR Certification. The Association for Rural and Small Libraries Conferences is September 13-15, and will be held in Springfield, IL.

Library Programs and Meetings: Children’s programming in December included Felt Ornament Night on 12/14. Children’s program attendance for December was 33. Passive programs in December were Find Mistletoe (111 in attendance), Willie the Frog (155 in attendance), Decorate an Ornament (66 in attendance). Passive program total attendance for December was 332. Adult programs for December included Voter Registration on 12/5. Teen programs included Open Late for Finals Study on 12/18-19 and Third Thursday Reading 12/21. Teen program attendance for December was 44. Groups meeting at the Library were the Quilters, Mother’s Group, Sangamon County 4H, Daisies, and Boy Scouts. The total meeting room use was 50.

Library Outreach: Rachel visited the elementary school on 12/7-8 and All His Children on 12/1. Total monthly outreach for November was 370. Total study room use was 91.

Upcoming Programs include the following:

1. Craft Night: Olympic Flags Painted Rock on January 30th from 6-7:30 p.m.

2. Blood Drive on January 15th from3:30-6 p.m.

3. Story-times resuming January 15th 2018

4. Ins and Outs of Medicare on January 22nd from 11-12.

5. Illinois History: Celebrating the State Bicentennial with Tom Emery on January 25th from 6-7 p.m.

6. Restoring the Illinois State Executive Mansion with Justin Blandford of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Historic Preservation department on February 19th from 6:30 p.m.

Library Meetings and Training: January 26th will be the Small Pubs Meeting at Barclay Public Library in Warrensburg. January 30th will be the Medium Pubs Meeting in Monticello. Dawn sick leave December 12nd-January 8th and Rachel will be on vacation February 1-12th The library will be open on MLK Jr. Day and President’s Day

New Business: Rachel presented a new amendment to the Open Meetings Act stating that special meetings should not be scheduled on recognized holidays. The Board reviewed reports on some of the current shelving in the Library from Embury Inc. The Board also discussed parameters for when a snow removal service should be called for the parking lot.

Rachel requested permission to hold a Food for Fines Program in March. During this campaign, patrons would be allowed to have current fines, up to $5, forgiven upon the donation of canned goods for a local food pantry. Collection would take place at the Library. The Board encouraged Rachel to implement the program.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned by Julie Horton at 5:45 p.m.

http://www.shermanlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Board-Minutes-January-17-2018.pdf