Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 4:00pm Princess Anne Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Janet Smith, Jennifer Timmons; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Caprice Harris, Crisfield Library Services Manager; Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator; Nora Hoffman, Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant
Absent: Karen Riggin, Board Member; Danielle Craige, Princess Anne Library Services Manager
Call Meeting to Order
President Ann Smith called the meeting to order at 4:00pm.
Consent Agenda
Approve minutes from the regular meeting of August 9, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – August 31, 2023 Approve financial reports for the period from July 1, 2022 – September 30, 2023
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Branch Highlights
Crisfield: Presented by Caprice Harris, Library Services Manager
In August, our student worker from the Shoreway to College program completed her hours of service. She helped with material maintenance, inventory, and the overall organization of the library. Staff members were busy preparing patrons for the upcoming back to school season by informing them about their student cards, creating back to school themed displays, and providing them with additional educational resources provided by the library. In September, we participated in the annual Crab Derby Parade and won "Best Overall Presentation." During the months of August and September, multiple staff members participated in various outreach events around the community such as National Night Out and the Somerset County Public Schools Open House events. Various in-house displays were created in August and September for America Adventures Month, Book Lovers Day, Back to School, Library Card Sign Up Month, and Alzheimer's Awareness Month in the adult and children's sections.
Staff Development: In August and September, staff participated in various trainings on topics such as Customer Behavior and Leadership Training. Staff participated in the Fall 2023 MD State Circulation Conference.
Community Partnerships: We still had our Navigator provided by the Lower Shore Health Alliance
Program coming weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays to provide the public with insurance assistance.
The Somerset County Health Department continued to provide free COVID-19 test kits and fresh produce for the community. The Community Food Pantry was restocked as needed.
Future Happenings: Staff members were excited to participate in upcoming outreach and fall events such as the Friday the 13th Trunk or Treat at the Health Department, the Crisfield Chamber's Halloween Parade, and our 2nd Fall Festival.
Princess Anne: Presented by Jaime Bradshaw on behalf of Danielle Craige, Library Services Manager
At the beginning of August, we closed out Summer Reading with snow cones and had a decent turnout from the community. Staff members continued to improve their skills through taking Niche Academy courses. Shelf reading had consistently improved staff-wide with fewer and fewer mistakes being found in each section. Some members of staff attended the State Library Resource Center Circulation Conference on August 23rd.
Community Partnerships: The Somerset County Health Department continued to provide the branch with COVID test kits on a weekly basis. They also continued to bring fresh vegetables in every
Wednesday much to our patrons' delight.
Future Happenings: Halloween was fast approaching! We were looking forward to having our annual Trunk or Treat event on October 31st. We were planning on having snow cones, popcorn, and carnival games in addition to our Trunk or Treat.
Administrative Report
Presented by: Ed Goyda, Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Karen Earp, Children's Services Coordinator
Core Services
Adult Programming: September was the first month we dropped Senior Moments as a program. We tried to offer Friday bingo as it had been extremely popular at the Crisfield branch. However, we had decided to add it back into the calendar of events starting in November. After several cycles of Knits & Knots, it was being dropped to make room in the schedule for crafting and yoga.
Databases: ESRL had added Udemy, for larger scale business and IT professional development, to the Gale package.
Inventory: Annual inventory at both mainland branches was complete. Ewell was mostly completed on the larger scale July staff trip, with DVDs remaining.
Jennings Evans Collection: Work continued on the metadata before transferring the files to Digital Maryland.
Polaris: There were two known compatibility issues between Polaris and the latest Chrome update. We reported to ESRL that receipts were printing with miniscule fonts; there were also reports of the Search tool in the staff client not working. Firefox had been installed on the front desks to avoid the former issue; office staff had been advised that they would need to switch to Firefox if/when the latter issue comes up.
Wowbrary: Gabe and Jaime had been making customizations to our Wowbrary. Our newsletter now included direct links to Libby, Hoopla & Facebook. Banners & text colors were customized for the season. Patrons also had the option to customize their newsletter according to their preferences regarding genres and material types. It was still a work-in-progress, but we were continually making improvements.
Community Outreach
Laptop Grants: The City of Crisfield had a request in for a third batch of laptops, for City residents only.
New Teacher Orientation: In August, Ashley attended the new teacher orientation as a resource vendor. She distributed library promotional materials and giveaways. She also attended open houses for SIS and CHS.
Quilt Square: Both quilt squares were now installed, with Lorna's in Crisfield and Anna & Kamryn Corbin's in Princess Anne.
Stars of Somerset: The library was awarded Best Community Outreach and received the plaque at the celebration on August 10.
Outreach Events: A list of community outreach events was provided.
Community Partnership
Jana Rehak: Jana would have students from the University of Maryland on Smith Island the weekend of October 7 & 8 and would be stopping by for a brief discussion the morning of October 9.
Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture: We were assisting MCAAHC with a collection point for a drive to collect 5,000 newly purchased books with a focus on culture and perspectives from across the African Diaspora, running through February 29, 2024.
Maryland Food Bank: On September 28, the Crisfield branch hosted the Mobile Maryland Food Bank again along with a mobile unit for free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds provided by the Pregnancy Care Clinic of the Eastern Shore.
Internal Development
Alarm Engineering: Alarm Engineering had completed the installation in Crisfield.
Email: We were nearly complete on the transition to Google Workspace. All staff except Anita had their data on the new server. An issue with the routing of scan-to-emails from the Xeroxes had been resolved, as had an issue with ESRL mailing lists still being delivered to the old server. We had two outstanding items. The timeclock was hosted on ESRL's server and routed emails from employees to managers and vice versa for leave time requests and missed punch reports. Google was blocking these as impersonation attempts, which was technically correct. It was going to take a sizable code rewrite to authenticate these through Gmail's servers. In the interim, staff had been told to email requests directly. Due to ESRL's restrictions on generic accounts, all circ desk computers were running off of one profile in Chrome. Now that the restriction was no longer relevant, separate profiles were in process so that there can be some differentiation. (Of note, the additional security cameras in Crisfield were managed through a web browser.)
Ewell: Ewell was mostly operational, with the main phone line switched over to VOIP and the Verizon connections canceled. Ed would be traveling to the island on October 10 to install a new printer, address possible connection issues with the VOIP, and transition Anita to the new server.
Maryland Association of Public Library Administrators Strategic Plan: The final MAPLA strategic planning session was scheduled for October 11.
Microsoft Products: ESRL was currently working on a transition to Office 365 for staff, followed by transitioning the patron computers, and then moving into a Windows 11 install by 2025.
Professional Development Needs Assessment: We had met with Alicia Blake from ESRL to help set professional development priorities for the next year.
State Library Resource Center Circulation Conference: Caprice, Dani, & Jaime presented "Unlocking the Secrets of Customer Service Basics" at the SLRC Circulation Conference on August 23 with approximately 50 in attendance. The presentation went well and many attendees gave compliments throughout the duration of the conference. Ashley, Gabe, Holly, Noah, and Tabi attended the conference.
Marketing Committee: Jaime was now a member of the MLA Marketing Committee. The first meeting was held in September. During this meeting, policies were discussed for social media. We did not have one, but we had one ready for review.
Maryland Blueprint: The report from the Statewide Futures Blueprint meetings was included in the packet.
Performance Evaluations: All performance evaluations for FY23 had been completed.
SLRC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Conference: SLRC's DEI Conference had been scheduled for October 24 and 25.
Teen Connect Conference: Ashley served as a committee member for the 2023 Teen Connect Conference. She was active in the planning process and served as the only committee member from the Eastern Shore. She attended the in-person conference on September 29 in Howard County.
Professional Development: A list of professional development was provided.
Youth Services
Building Equity Based Summers: Karen started BEBS training. This was the second Maryland pilot. This project was grant-funded and we would be receiving a $500 stipend for participating. It was being managed by the state youth services coordinator, Carrie Sanders.
LSTA Grant: We had received the $10,810 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Maryland State Library Agency to support further expansion of homeschool/afterschool STEM, including school outreach, as "Let's Collaborate," with funds from this grant supporting acquisition of classroom packs to scale up to expected class sizes of 30 per session. The Notice of Grant Award was issued August 1; Karen was ordering the equipment.
Outreach: We had regularly scheduled storytime at Crisfield Head Start and one Princess Anne daycare center, with other daycare centers to be scheduled in the next month. Classroom visits and field trips for pre-K and kindergarten classes would be scheduled after the holidays. We also still needed to schedule after-school programs at Garland Hayward and Deal Island. They would be limited to once a month this year.
Partnerships: We were officially in the first cohort of MPT's ELMA (early learning media ambassadors) counties in the state. We were still waiting for word on the SELAC (Somerset Early Learning Advisory Council) grant. They were planning to use a large portion of the grant money to purchase materials for new daycare storytime bins. These would replace the old daycare bins that the Judy Center distributed for us.
Presentations: Karen had two articles in the next CSD (Children's Services Division of MLA) newsletter: one about summer STEM program and one that introduces the Maryland Performers App that Karen created as part of the statewide Summer Reading Advisory Council was live. Karen was writing the November blog post for ALSC Children and Technology. The theme was using the PBS Kids show Work it Out Wombats to teach computational thinking to early learners in the library. Presentation proposals for the 2024 Kids were Customers, Too and MLA conferences were underway.
Programs: We were currently offering two pre-school and two school-aged programs in both branches each week which were Mother Goose on the Loose, story time specifically for daycares, Homeschool STEM, and Creation Station (an after-school program).
Project ENABLE: Karen started Project ENABLE training - educator training to learn how to deliver "effective, inclusive library and information services and programs to students of all abilities." This was an MSLA initiative and we were in the first cohort.
Summer Reading: We had significantly more registrations, attributable to better school outreach and kickoff parties, than in 2022. There were significantly lower completions. In previous years, participants could complete without reading. This year they could only complete by reading. We also went to a Bingo card model this year. (Registration and completion diagrams were provided.)
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Administrative Report. Motion was made by Lynn Lang, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Advisory - Audit: UHY was nearing completion of the audit, following a small delay getting OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits) data from the County. They would present at the December Board meeting. The audit was due to MSLA by November 1; they had been informally advised about the delay and we would request additional time if necessary.
Advisory - Board Term - Karen Riggin: The County Commissioners had reappointed Karen Riggin to another five-year term.
Advisory - Citizens for Maryland Libraries: On October 21, CML would hold their annual conference for Friends, Trustees and Library Supporters with the winner of the 2023 Maryland Author Award and a panel discussion with the topic "Preparing for Library Book Challenges." This event would be held at the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System. Registration was required.
Advisory - David Fisher Trust: We were in receipt of the funds from PNC and in the process of setting the account up with the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
Advisory - Legislative: The legislative priorities for this year were increasing SLRC's statutory funding and Freedom to Read legislation, as well as relatively simple corrections to the Regional Libraries Bill and the Building Lifelong Learners Act. MAPLA was holding off on collective bargaining legislation at the request of the libraries most likely to be affected.
Advisory - Regional Library Board: The ESRL Board had officially transitioned to eight Library Board representatives and three representatives of the public at the fall meeting.
Advisory - Strategic Plan: Data collection had been completed and was included. Interviews would be underway shortly.
Advisory - Time to Care Act: The library directors met with the consultant who was managing the MACO (Maryland Association of Counties) consortium to pursue private alternatives to the Time to Care Act. The smallest tier in the MACO consortium was "less than 200 employees," and it carried an annual fee of $3,000 simply to be a member of the consortium and buy in to whatever insurance policy they negotiate. They also wanted a commitment by October 1, which was the same date that the State was set to announce the tax rate. The tax rate had since been announced - 0.9% split between the employer side and the employee side, which leaves us with an anticipated burden of less than $3,000, with the same amount coming in payroll deductions. The guidelines for self-administration or private insurance would not be announced until early 2024. Our remaining options were:
- Default into State plan. Make our medical leave policies less generous so that we're not paying the State for a benefit and then also paying the benefit directly.
- Make our medical leave policies more generous so that we can self-administer without the tax. There would still be some cost involved in proving that we're in compliance, including possibly dealing with an audit from Dept. of Labor. Cost of a single claim for the full twelve weeks for the average employee was around $9,000.
- Individually pursue insurance coverage that replaces the plan. Nationwide and the Hartford were advertising that they'd be offering plans shortly after the Act was passed. They hadn't done so yet, but it was understandable since the State still hadn't announced the regulations. MACO was planning on requesting bids due March 2024 in time to opt out of the State Plan in June 2024. Hopefully, this would work out to be cheaper than option #1 without taking the gamble in option #2.
Director's Performance Review - Lynn Lang: We would be conducting a 360-degree review for the performance evaluation this year.
Policy Review Committee
Complaints Resolution Policy: There were two minor changes. The existing version had a 7-day window to file a complaint, which nominally excluded most complaints that start with "the last time I was here..." if it involves anything related to circulation or circulation staff. We had also struck a line under communication stating that "any action taken" would be communicated to the patron, as, if corrective action was involved, it can't be disclosed.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Complaints Resolution Policy. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Computer & Internet Use Policy: This was largely a replacement policy. The existing policy, for the most part, only addressed use of the library-provided desktops, repeated behavioral matters (food, drink, volume) from the Code of Conduct, and still had remnants of the original policy explaining what the Internet was to patrons. The revision streamlined the policies regarding the use of library computers and brought the library's other hardware (the laptops, STEM tablets, and Early Literacy Stations) and the Wi- Fi network into the policy.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Computer & Internet Use Policy. Motion was made by Jennifer Timmons, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Library Card & Borrowing Policy: Most of the policy was as existing, with some wordsmithing. The new revision added the information about the student cards, an explanation of interlibrary loan options, documentation of the existing practice on materials returned damaged, and a note on data retention because it was a matter of state law. It also moved the fee for out-of-state residents from $15 to $40 to keep it inline with what in-state residents were paying through taxes.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Library Card & Borrowing Policy. Motion was made by Lynn Lang, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Payroll Processing: A minor edit, as requested by UHY, changed the director's review of payroll from a matter of hours worked to a matter of dollars paid.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Computer & Internet Use Policy. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Privacy & Confidentiality Policy: Two minor edits here. One changed the social media section from "maintains a Facebook page" to "maintains a social media presence," and one removed a prohibition on device-to-device traffic over the Wi-Fi network as unnecessary.
President Smith made a motion to accept the changes to the Privacy & Confidentiality Policy. Motion was seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Rules of Conduct: A sizable rewrite based on Washington County's rules that laid out the sizable themes behind the rules and got very specific about prohibited behavior. This also modified the Safe Child Policy to require the caregiver to be with children ages 10 and under. The existing policy was for them to be with children under 8 and on the property for children 8 - 10, but "on library property" allowed for some fairly sizable distances that weren't working in practice. It also added staff guidelines for dealing with an abandoned child, either 10 years or younger during open hours or 11 years or older at closing. And it modified the Behavior Management Matrix to require logging (a quick entry in an Excel spreadsheet) for any incident to get a handle on repeat, if mild, disruptive behavior that might otherwise creep along by not rising to the level of a full Incident Report.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Rules of Conduct. Motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Tim Spillane, and unanimously approved.
Social Media Policy: A sizable rewrite to replace an existing "policy" that was largely comprised of purpose and procedure, not so much policy.
President Smith made a motion to accept the changes to the Social Media Policy. Motion was seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Volunteer and Intern Policy: Also a sizable rewrite to remove a lot of procedure from the policy. The minimum age had been lowered from 16 to 14; it was legal for employment and we had requests coming in from the early high school age range.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the changes to the Rules of Conduct. Motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Schedules
2024 Board Meeting Schedule: A proposed 2024 Board Meeting Schedule was included in the packet.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the 2024 Board Meeting Schedule. Motion was made by Janet Smith, seconded by Ann Smith, and unanimously approved.
2024 Holiday Schedule: A proposed 2024 Holiday Schedule was included in the packet.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the 2024 Holiday Schedule. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Anne Smith, and unanimously approved.
Executive Session
President Smith asked for a roll call to enter executive session at 4:59pm, and roll call was taken.
Advisory - Rose Cottman, Library Assistant: Rose was switching over to a substitute-only schedule for personal reasons.
Resignation of Sherri Richardson & Zainab Jabeen, Library Assistant: Both Sherri Richardson & Zainab Jabeen had resigned from Library Assistant positions at the Princess Anne Library.
Appointment of Jenna Bell, Library Page: We requested approval of the hiring of Jenna Bell to a Library Page position in Princess Anne.
Appointment of Laurie Strang, Library Assistant: We requested approval of the hiring of Laurie
Strang to a Library Assistant position in Princess Anne.
President Smith asked for a roll call to exit executive session at 5:01pm, and roll call was taken.
President Smith made a motion to approve the resignations and appointments. Motion was seconded by Tim Spillane and unanimously approved.
Adjournment
President Smith asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Lynn Lang and unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 5:02pm.
Respectfully submitted, Nora Hoffman Somerset County Library Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant