TOWN OF GRANBY
Granby Library Board Special Meeting Minutes
March 16, 2011
held at the Police Department Community Room
Call to order: A quorum was present and the meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.
Members present: Chairman Lynn Lochhead, Carol Bressor, Bob Donna, Dick Lydon, Shawn Ball, and Judy Goff
Excused: Judy Guarco and Pam Jones
Staff: Joan Fox
Guests: Jennifer Pizzanello, Duncan Rowles, Carole Bernard, Donna Wix, and Bill Kennedy
The regularly scheduled Library Board meeting is suspended for the month of March. This Special Meeting has been called to discuss the 2013-2018 Long Range Plan for Library Services for the Town of Granby.
Discussion regarding the Long Range Plan 2012-2017 ensued:
- The existing Long Range Plan 2007-2011 has been extended to 2012. This extension will be presented to the Library Board at their April meeting for approval. The new Long Range Plan will be worked on for publication in the first quarter of 2012 and would take effect January 2013.
- There are four areas to focus on. 1) Long Range Plan Survey; 2) Alternate Funding Resources; 3) Facilities; 4) Technology
- Donna Wix will help create the survey and calculate the results. C. Bressor and J. Goff have volunteered to help with the survey. The survey should be a single page. Chairman Lochhead has a sample survey from another town, which may be used as a guideline for the Board’s survey. The questions should be created so that the answers are specific, making putting together the information easier. Snapshot Day is April 12th, from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. at Granby Public Library and April 13th at Cossitt Library. Volunteers are being sought to be at the libraries and speak directly with patrons to fill out the survey. Maybe surveys could be put out at the high school and senior center and a presentation of the survey could be made to civic groups, such as the Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce.
Bill Kennedy spoke regarding the proposed library addition. He stated the Board of Selectmen should be approached to request that money be set aside in the 2012-13 budget for an Architect’s study to be done regarding the library expansion. Also, it isn’t too early to request that this project be included in the Capital Plan. The Board agrees they need to be aggressive regarding plans for an expansion to the existing library.
To get started:
- a paper survey needs to be created and ready for Snapshot Day, April 12th.
- an online survey, with more detail than the paper survey, should be created and placed on the Library section on the Town of Granby website. An expanded survey may draw on people who are technologically savvy. Maybe an article written for the Drummer could encourage people to use the computers at the libraries, if they don’t have one at home, in order to complete a survey.
- It was mentioned that this week there was a library flyer inserted in The Granby News. Carole Bernard stated the cost for that was about $800.
Duncan Rowles commented that five years ago they went to community businesses regarding the benefits of the library and the response was not very good.
The Library Expansion Plan is a long process and it needs to be continuously spoken about, just to keep it “out there”.
P. Jones and J. Goff worked on the Community Assessment Grant. If this grant is approved, it may lead to another grant opportunity the following year to work toward improving areas the survey finds need improvement.
Gaining information and suggestions from other town’s library surveys, by searching online, may be a good idea. All in all, the Board needs to have an idea up front regarding what information they are looking for.
Alternate Funding Resources – this is not a day-to-day funding matter. As an example - expanding Sunday hours costs $250/day. Could a business or a family possibly sponsor a Sunday through a donation specifically earmarked for this purpose? The Board and town will need to discuss this idea. Maybe Granby Library Board could run the donations through their group for this purpose. Concern was noted that there is a possibility this might have an adverse affect on the Library Budget.
Facilities – 1) expansion 2) improvements to what we have - excluding the proposed expansion project. Utilization of space, furniture, and technology (hardware and software).
Technology - this is ever changing. Where we are now, where we’ll be or need to be in five years, is a matter of discussion.
A sub-committee will need to be appointed in order to pull all this information together to create a report.
D. Lydon suggested, that in the extension report, the three pages of goals be cut down to a page and a half.
D. Rowles commented that there is mention in this report that the people counter at the library is broken. He questioned why it hasn’t been repaired. J. Fox said it isn’t repairable and needs to be replaced.
J. Goff left the meeting at 7:25 p.m.
- Better public relations are needed today and for the long term. Maybe someone with public relations background could volunteer to help out with this. C. Bressor suggested a student, either college or high school, with a teacher or advisor as a mentor to work along with the student.
- There was a discussion about the library hosting movies but there is not room at the library for a program like this. Maybe it could be done at the senior center, as a cooperative effort with the library. East Granby has this program and it seems to be quite successful. Pros and cons were mentioned, in particular obtaining a license to show movies and the expense of that. It seems that more programs could be added to get the public to come to the libraries more often.
- Bill Kennedy suggested applying for a grant from the state for 2014, for use towards the library expansion in some way. If the grant is awarded and the money isn’t used right then, it can be held for a period of time (possibly up to two years) and if it’s still not used it gets returned to the state. There are certain things that need to be done and in place prior to applying for the grant – like building plans, etc.
Bill Kennedy left the meeting at 7:45 p.m.
- Technology – D. Lydon and Bob Donna volunteered to work with this category.
- Alternate Funding Resources – D. Rowles and L. Lochhead volunteered to work with this category.
- More volunteers will be recruited. All library groups should have input in the Long Range Plan.
- Public Relations – Carole Bernard volunteered to look into this category further.
Creating the survey is the next step to be done.
Focus groups could be created in the fall. There is no money budgeted for focus groups or the Long Rang Plan.
Chairman Lochhead will email people, looking for volunteers to do the survey on Snapshot Day at Granby Public Library, for two-hour shifts. Donna Wix will conduct the survey at Cossitt Library on April 14th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
The next meeting will be Monday, April 11, 2011 at 6:00 p.m., so that those who wish to attend the Budget Public Hearing at 7:00 p.m. will be able to do so.
There will be a survey group meeting at Granby Public Library on Wednesday, March 30th, 7:00 p.m. The survey will be emailed ahead of time for review before the meeting.
There will be a Long Range Plan meeting on Wednesday, April 27th, 7:00 p.m. at the Police Department Community Room.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Christian
Recording Secretary
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