OHIO COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Members Present:
Mr. Ted Hess, Mr. Mike Baker, Sr. Mary Jude Jochum
Members Absent: Mr. Charles Monfradi, Leslie Nutting.
Also Present: Dottie Thomas, Louis Horacek,
Call to order:
Mr. Hess called the meeting to order at 3:00 P.M
Minutes
Mr. Baker moved that the minutes of the September meeting be approved as distributed. Sr. Mary Jude seconded.
Vote:
| Mr. Hess | yes |
| Sr. Mary Jude | yes |
| Mr. Baker | yes |
| Mr. Monfradi | absent |
| Mrs. Nutting | absent |
Financial Report:
The Financial Report for September was been distributed with the board package.
INVOICES AND WARRANTS
Sr. Mary Jude moved to approve the Financial Report and approve payment of invoices and warrants; Mr. Baker seconded the motion.
Vote:
| Mr. Hess | yes |
| Sr. Mary Jude | yes |
| Mr. Baker | yes |
| Mr. Monfradi | absent |
| Mrs. Nutting | absent |
DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Ms. Thomas reported that the new bi-level handicapped accessible water fountain had proved to be too wide for the upstairs location, so further plans had to be developed. The two water fountains at two heights in the basement level of the library had been installed as planned. She said that the boiler had been winterized but had not been turned on yet, but the air conditioning equipment was checked, winterized and turned off.
She reported that she had spoken with David Javersak and Margaret Brennan about future plans for the Wheeling Room and would be coordinating with other individuals and groups involved with local history for the purpose of determining if it was feasible to develop and overarching plan for preserving Wheeling history that encompasses all entities involved in local history.
Ms. Thomas said that she planned to begin interviewing candidates for the Outreach Services position. A new Toyota van was purchased from Jim Robinson and plans have been made to have the library name and logo put on it.
Announcements
Ms. Thomas reported that Workforce WV Career Development Center located in the old Rite-Aid building in the Warwood Shopping Plaza was charging groups $75.00 a day for use of their meeting room. She noted that this provided some information about the economic impact of OCPL's services to the county since OCPL's meeting rooms are free of charge.
Mr. Hess said that he had received a letter from Pete Radakovich's secretary indicating that plans were in the works to close off the steps to Chapline Street.
Mr. Hess reported that he had been notified that the library was among the beneficiaries of the estate of Gertrude C. Martin. Ms. Thomas commented that her calculations put the amount at approximately $500.
Ms. Thomas distributed a revised expenditure report. She said that a purchase of t-shirts had been charged to the Children's Programming line twice. The new report corrects the mistake. OLD BUSINESS
Landscaping Plans
Ms. Thomas said that Mr. Barger had recommended that Able Concrete be hired to do the curb work along Eoff Street for $3,120. He said that this should be coordinated with the landscaping project, for which he had three bids of:
| Beckett Landscaping | $29,451.00 |
| Ponzani Landscaping | $22.395.37 |
| Top Notch | $24,546.00 |
| Mr. Hess | yes |
| Sr. Mary Jude | yes |
| Mr. Baker | yes |
| Mr. Monfradi | absent |
| Mrs. Nutting | absent |
Long-Range Planning
Ms. Thomas distributed a true-false test about the public perception of public libraries developed by Russ Crabtree of Holy Cow! Consulting which he had given during his workshop at the WVLA Meeting in Huntington.
She recommended contracting with Holy Cow! to do a Patron Assessment Survey, which would cost $2,700 or for $3,200 including a Staff Assessment Survey would also be completed. She said Mr. Crabtree would come to a board meeting to make a presentation. She will distribute copies of his survey materials to the Board before the next meeting.
Ms. Thomas then had Reference Assistant Dawn Andlinger come to the meeting to discuss patron incidents in the evenings and Saturdays. She reported on disruptive behavior of teens using the computers.
Ms. Thomas reported on a visit to Cabell County Public Library by OCPL staff during the WVLA conference. She noted that they have their local history room near the reference desk. She said that the library has about the same number of public access internet computers in the adult area, but also a similar number in the children's area. She said that Kanawha County Public Library also has divided the computers between the adult and children's areas. Ms. Thomas reported that she met with Mike Meyer, Editor of The Intelligencer, concerning the National Federation for the Blind's Newsline service. This service converts newspapers to a phone database so that patrons can call the toll-free service and listen to their local newspapers being read to them over the phone. The West Virginia Library Commission obtained funding from the state legislature this year for five local newspapers throughout West Virginia to be added to this phone service that currently includes only Charleston and Huntington. Local newspapers must provide a digital copy of their daily editions to the National Federation for the Blind to be converted to an audio version for the phone service.
In relation to the National Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Mr. Baker asked Ms. Thomas about the on-going WVLC evaluation of OCPL's Subregional BPH library service for the five northernmost counties in West Virginia. Ms. Thomas said that in her recent discussion of the evaluation with J. D. Waggoner, Secretary of the Library Commission, he stated that he believes patrons are best served on the local level, which means maintaining various Subregional BPH libraries rather than concentrating service in Charleston. Ms. Donna Calvert, Head of the Blind and Physically Handicapped Service at the WVLC, agreed with Mr. Waggoner's assessment, but also added that the other Subregional libraries in the state are headed by paraprofessionals (college graduates) rather than clerical level personnel, as OCPL's department is directed. Ms. Calvert indicated that the Reader's Advisory portion of the BPH service is best done by a paraprofessional. ms. Thomas said she was investigating ways to incorporate the library's Reference staff into the Reader's Advisory portion of OCPL's BPH service.
Consideration of Landscaping Bids
Mr. Baker moved that the board accept the recommendation from Andy Barger to hire Ponzani to do the landscaping on the Eoff Street side of the building, the work to be completed by December 1 2006. Sr. Mary Jude seconded.
Vote:
| Mr. Hess | yes |
| Sr. Mary Jude | yes |
| Mr. Baker | yes |
| Mr. Monfradi | absent |
| Mrs. Nutting | absent |
Mr. Baker moved to accept the bid from Abel Concrete for curb work along the Eoff Street sidewalk as recommended by Mr. Barger. Sr. Mary Jude seconded.
Vote:
| Mr. Hess | yes |
| Sr. Mary Jude | yes |
| Mr. Baker | yes |
| Mr. Monfradi | absent |
| Mrs. Nutting | absent |
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 PM