Board of Somerset County Library Trustees
Regular Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 4:00pm Princess Anne Library & Zoom
Present: Ann Smith, President; Beth Holmes-Mayson, Vice President; Tim Spillane, Treasurer; Board Members: Lynn Lang, Karen Riggin, Janet Smith, Jennifer Timmons; Ed Goyda, Library Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Danielle Craige, Princess Anne Library Services Manager; Adrianna Warfield, Children's Services Coordinator; Nora Hoffm an, Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant
Call Meeting to Order
President Ann Smith called the meeting to order at 4:00pm.
Consent Agenda
Approve minutes from the regular meeting of April 9, 2025 Approve financial report for the period from July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025 Approve financial report for the period from July 1, 2024 - July 31, 2025
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Janet Smith, and unanimously approved.
Branch Highlights
Crisfield: Written report by Ashley Gilson, Library Services Manager
Branch Highlights: In April, staff dressed up for Autism Acceptance Day and National Pajama Day. During the month of May, staff attended the MLA and SLRC conferences. We also celebrated Children's Book Week May 5th- 11th by posting our favorite children's books on our social media. Over the past few months, we had seen an increase in teen program attendance. Various decorations and in-house displays went up for National Poetry Month, Gardening, Earth Day, Spring Vibes, Star Wars Day, Cinco De
Mayo, Mother's Day, Mental Health Awareness Month, BBQ Ideas, and Memorial Day and were placed in the Adult, Teen, and Children's sections. The end of May had been all about decorating for Summer Reading. We were really excited about this year's theme, which was Color Our World.
Staff Development: In April and May, staff participated in a range of professional development such as Cultivating an Inclusive Workplace, Navigating and Communicating Change in Libraries, Retraining Your Busy Mindset to Focus on Library Needs, Manga Book Buzz, and Growing Up Online. In May, all staff members attended the Annual 2025 MLA Conference. Additionally, Jaime, Dani, Gabe and I participated in the Spring 2025 SLRC Conference.
Community Partnerships: We visited with residents at the Tawes Nursing home, attended the Shorebirds' Hit the Books night and the Senior Resource Market, and hosted tables at Somerset Intermediate School and Woodson Elementary during their parent/teacher conferences. We had been heavily promoting our Summer Reading Program. We also had an ad this year in the Shorebirds' Fan Advantage booklet, which was handed out at every home game. The little free library at Janes Island State
Park had been a big hit as we deliver books and craft kits each month to keep it stocked.
Future Happenings: We were incredibly excited about Summer Reading 2025! We were also looking forward to all the upcoming summer outreach opportunities.
Princess Anne: Presented by Danielle Craige, Library Services Manager
Branch Highlights: In April and May, the library featured book displays on Poetry, Arab American Heritage, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage, and ALS. Staff finished up the inventory process in early May. Most of our staff attended the Maryland Library Association Conference on May 8th. Staff members had said that they enjoyed their sessions and felt like they took something valuable from at least one session they attended. Staff members attended a variety of outreach events throughout the course of May including Hit the Books at the Shorebirds Stadium and Princess Anne Elementary's Spring Fling. We had been decorating for Summer Reading! Many of the windows in our branch now featured "stained glass" to show off how we can color our world here at the library. Between programming picking up and frequent meeting room bookings we continued to use our Maryland Room as a secondary meeting space.
Community Partnerships: The Community Pantry was frequently visited by members of the community. Patrons and members from the Seton Center donated to the Community Pantry regularly. The Somerset County Arts Council was still hosting a gallery in our meeting room.
Future Happenings: Summer Reading was fast approaching! Our kickoff party would be on June 28th at 11:00 a.m. at both branches. Staff were looking forward to our summer full of programs and performances.
Administrative Report
Presented by: Ed Goyda, Director; Jaime Bradshaw, Assistant Director; Adrianna Warfield, Children's Services Coordinator
Collections
Fit Kits: We had new kits, "Fit Kits." Like our Brain Boosters, we had new tote bags that included exercise equipment, books, and more. Each kit was in a zippered bag with a laminated page of contents with photos and it had a labeled tag on the handle with a barcode on it.
Hoopla: After some pushback, ESRL elected to keep Hoopla in FY 2026, with the caveat that the monthly limit per patron was being reduced from 8 to 6, and there was a $200,000 hard cap on Hoopla expenditures, which was implemented as a $548 per day limit before Hoopla shuts down. Through the first five days of June, this cap had been hit at 4:11 p.m., 12:48 p.m., 10:38 a.m., 1:58 p.m., and 1:10 p.m.
Newspapers Database: The newspaper database was fully operational. We were working on scanning the more recent issues.
Statewide Databases: The State's database renewal had been completed, and the revised list would take effect on June 25.
Programs
Physical Activity Grant: Equipment had been ordered and received for several physical activity classes.
Classes would begin mid-June and patrons would be surveyed.
Spring Resource Fair: The Crisfield branch hosted the Spring Resource Fair with LSHIAP & other local partners on Saturday, May 3rd. We had 14 organizations in attendance. Patron attendance was lower than anticipated, but the event went well.
Teen Programs: We had seen a good increase in attendance at teen programs. There had been a consistency in numbers extending to 15 teens in some program sessions. A variety of sessions were offered in April & May including Gaming, Face Painting & Henna, Pizza Party & Switch Gaming, Exploring Drones, Pop Art Bags, and 4H Cooking.
True Crime Book Club: This program would be discontinued after June's session due to lack of participation. Interest had been there, but the small group had decided to disband.
Community Outreach
Community Resilience Day: A "Community Resilience Day" as part of the Crisfield Resilience Academy was held in the Crisfield Library's meeting room on Saturday, April 26th. The Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment had a few presentations and tables/booths with local organizations providing information about environmental and nature-based solutions to flooding in the area. They asked the library to also host a table with some selected publications relevant to the topic for browsing/potential check-out at the event.
Hit the Books: Andrea, Ashley, Dani, and Jaime attended the Delmarva Shorebirds Hit the Books Night on May 17. They interacted with over 500 people, promoting Summer Reading and library services. The Fan Advantage was published with a Summer Reading ad designed by Lorna and was hosted on their website 24/7. National Library Week: We celebrated National Library Week via our social media April 6- 12, announcing the theme/history, explaining Right to Read Day, highlighting National Library Workers Day, National Library Outreach Day, Take Action for Libraries Day, and this year's Honorary Chairs.
Stars of Somerset: Voting for Stars of Somerset was open through June 27. We were nominated for:
- Event Venue: Crisfield Library
- Favorite Place to Take the Kids: Somerset County Library & Crisfield Library
- Best Company Under 20 Employees: Somerset County Library
- Best Company 21-50 Employees: Somerset County Library
- Community Outreach: Somerset County Library
Children Services
Current Programs: Attendance in Mother Goose had started picking up. We had new families at both branches that were attending STEAM regularly. Lego Club was more well attended at the Princess Anne Library. Family Paint Night, Crafternoons, and Toddler Art Class had been consistent with attendance.
Ladybugs: In May we began growing 26 Pink Spotted Ladybugs. All the children's programs for that month were ladybug themed. They learned about the stages of their life in STEAM and were able to see them grow each week. Some of the children were even able to take some home and release them in their own gardens.
Outreach: We had five outreach events in May at the various elementary schools and at the Shorebirds Stadium. Jaime, Ashley, Dani and Andrea attended the Shorebirds Hit the Books Night and shared Summer Reading and program information to over 200 families. Adrianna, Meagen, Jenna, Ashley, and Gabe attended the various school events to share our information and averaged about 60 families. Meagen and Adrianna visited the Garland Hayward Youth Center in April where they had storytime and a craft. Meagen continued to visit every 2 weeks with different activities that the kids enjoy. Adrianna continued to visit 3 local daycares each month for Storytimes.
Upcoming Events: A Stuffed Animal Hospital program was coming up on June 14th at both branches. Kids would bring their stuffed animals to get a checkup, make crafts, and eat yummy snacks. We had been preparing for our Summer Reading Program, Color Our World, that would begin with a kickoff party on June 28th at 11am. We were currently decorating our branches and were looking forward to the end of June.
Facilities
Crisfield LEDs: Lighting in Crisfield had been replaced with motion-activated LEDs.
Ewell AED: The AED had been installed in Ewell.
HVAC: The units in the Princess Anne Children's Room and Office had been replaced.
Financial
Auditor Selection: The State Library Agency had approved the auditor selection for FY 25.
LSTA Funding: The State Library Agency had resumed taking reimbursement requests for FY 25 LSTA grants - in our case, only the staff development funding this year. We had no official word on federal grant funds for FY 26, although the State was seeming optimistic.
Open Enrollment: Landmark was hosting an Open Enrollment event at the Princess Anne Library on June 10 because of some "mandatory" components in this year's insurance renewal.
Staffing
Professional Development: A list of professional development was provided.
Technology
ESRL Budget: Given the reduction (albeit not elimination) of Hoopla expenditures, ESRL would continue to fund the Constant Contact and Wowbrary newsletters. They were eliminating CollectionHQ, a backend tool that we rarely use, and CreativeBug, which was a subsidiary of JoAnn Fabrics.
Patron PCs: We were having infrequent, but recurring, issues with Deep Freeze in Crisfield and the Print Release Stations in both mainland libraries. ESRL was monitoring.
Zoom: The Zoom subscription was being financed by the State Library with federal funds and had therefore been cancelled. Given that we had access to both Google Meet, through our GSuite subscription, and Microsoft Teams, through ESRL's Office365 subscription, it was largely a redundancy, although one that kept everyone in Maryland libraries on the same platform.
President Smith asked for a motion to accept the Administrative Report. Motion was made by Beth Holmes-Mayson, seconded by Lynn Lang, and unanimously approved.
Governance
Financial Policies & Procedures Update : The credit card policy was updated to reflect our current positions and spending limits.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the updated credit card policy. Motion was made by Tim Spillane, seconded by Jennifer Timmons, and unanimously approved.
Advisory - Non-Profit Status: Nora provided an update on Maryland & federal fees related to setting up the Friends group.
Budget: The County essentially met our request, aside from small tweaks to correct an estimated 7% increase in the cost of health insurance to an actual 3.04% increase and remove the FAMLI tax (again). The state funding was up 2.9% due to population growth.
As usual, we were mirroring the County with a 2.5% step increase and a 2.5% COLA, and had a small increase and rebalancing in the operational lines, specifically to deal with increasing utility and insurance costs.
Collection costs had been rebalanced based on patron usage patterns, specifically declining usage in the audiovisual collections, steady usage in most print collections, and a small increase in large print readership.
We were shifting some ESRL funding from collections to programs to balance out an on-paper decrease in Delmarva Education Foundation funding. (In actuality, the end result of a spenddown of accumulated funds last year.) Likewise, there's an on -paper increase in th e ESRL grant: they're removing $4,000 of free printing and adding $4,000 in relatively unrestricted funds to the grant, which we're going to continue to spend printing the program booklets under Service Enhancements.
While the State was seeming increasingly confident that the federal grants to the State Libraries would be stable in FY 2026, we had no formal confirmation of this, so Ed had left the LSTA Staff Development funds out for now.
President Smith asked for a motion to approve the budget. Motion was made by Karen Riggin, seconded by Beth Holmes-Mayson, and unanimously approved.
Adjournment
President Smith asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was made by Janet Smith, seconded by Ann Smith, and unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:34pm.
Respectfully submitted, Nora Hoffman Somerset County Library Bookkeeper/Admin. Assistant