Thursday, September 11, 2008

Present:  Amy Hughes, Don Durfee, Karen Hubbard, Eloise Haller, Faith Morrison, Patricia Van Pelt, Dee Vincent, Dana Richter , Sue DesRochers, Dick Rupley, Mary Marchaterre, Terry Reynolds, Sandy Lewin, Christa Walck

 Absent:  George Love

Also Present: Rhianna Williams

Co-Chairman Faith Morrison called the meeting to order at 4:01 pm. 

The minutes of the May 8, 2008 meeting were reviewed and approved.

Terry Reynolds handed out the latest FVPL financial report.  The FVPL had $17,755.87 as of September 1, 2008 ($1,000 open encumbrance for P. Fredendall is excluded from this amount). The treasurer’s report was reviewed and approved.

 
A.        Interim Library Director Christa Walck - introduction and vision

            Christa Walck shared with us some of the things that have been happening in the library, and ideas which are being considered for the library.     

•           “Service at the point of need”

•           Information Technology services for the library have been outsourced to Aux Tech and SAS

•           Goal: to get more faculty and students into the library

•           Bill Kennedy and crew will be moving into the library

•           Patti Lins has moved into the library

•           New personal computers are being purchased to replace the existing ones to reduce the resources which have been required to maintain aging equipment.  A plan will be established for replacing the computers on a regular basis.

•           Install glass doors on the third floor of the library between the maps and reading area to expand the 24 hour use of space

•           Use two of the twenty-two study rooms as special purpose rooms.  One might be used as a student leadership learning center, and another might be used for the honors institute.

•           Dave Brule, Board of Control member, generously donated funds to purchase a fancy coffee machine for the library.  A coffee bar area will be built to house the coffee machine – perhaps on the first floor of the library in the windowed corner.  The coffee bar would serve coffee as well as some snack items.  It would be managed and staffed by the Memorial Union.

•           Julie Blair, who works in the library archives, is now employed full time.

 
            (Note that the above list is not exhaustive)

             Faith suggested that the library consider more outreach to the community to encourage their use of the library.  Faith also mentioned that parking for community members is often a challenge, and we should pursue some solutions for community parking.   

            Patricia suggested that the library could be made more user friendly.  The addition of tours, better signage, sharing of usage information, and the like could make the library easier for a community member to utilize library services.

            Dee volunteered to put together a list of all the donations the FVPL have made to the library.  Dee will email the list to the FVPL members.

B.        Visit of Jessamyn West 26 September 2008

            Faith provided us with some information about Jessamyn West and her planned visit to the area on September 26, 2008.  Jessamyn travels to library conferences to talk to colleagues about computing and social responsibility.  Faith will email the agenda for the visit to the FVPL list when the agenda is available.

C.        Request from archives for travel grant money

            We discussed Erik Nordberg’s request for $1,500 for the 2009 MTU Archives Research Travel Awards.  Dana moved that we provide $1,500 for this request.  The motion was seconded by Karen.  The motion passed.

D.        Schedule Annual Meeting in October 2008

            The annual FVPL meeting will be held on Thursday, October 30, 2008 from 4:00 – 5:30 pm in the library archives.  We will ask Phyllis Fredendall to be our speaker and to discuss her art creation process with us.  We would also plan to feature the fiber piece which Phyllis created for the library.

E.         Old Business

           a) Fiber-art project for Library Reading Room

            Patricia told us that she has seen the piece and that it is delightful.  Phyllis plans to have the piece completed within several weeks.

            b) Book Cart

            Karen told us that a work bee is needed soon.  More books for the book cart could then be identified.  Sales from the book cart this summer are lower than last summer.  We should consider better advertising and placement of the book cart.  Karen suggested that Sharron Paris be invited to be a FVPL board member.

            c) Econo slips

            Mary recently sent the FVPL list information about the Econo Foods slips.

F.         New Business

            Dana told us that Make a Difference day will be Saturday, October 18, 2008, from 10 am – 2 pm.  We will have a book pricing and boxing bee on that day.      

The meeting adjourned at 5:02 pm.

The next meeting will be Thursday, October 9, 2008  at 4:00 pm.

Submitted by Amy Hughes, Friday, September 12, 2008.