the-compact
Public Library Board Thursday, June 18, 2026 · 40 min

Bloomfield Township Public Library Trustees Meeting on June 16, 2026

Transcript

Click any timestamp to jump the video to that moment. Auto-transcribed; expect occasional errors on proper nouns.

  1. All the meeting to order then. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda? I'm getting a motion to approve the order of items for the regular and the consent. So my report I got you know there's this um mailer that we all get that I was like do we really need to mail this to people and the answer apparently is yes but I was looking at it I don't know how closely you saw it this month but there's a really nice summary from Tara of the design project which I thought was great yeah I like keeping everyone informed but what really I got me excited about it was the programming is so good the just hatched dinosaur puppet show I have a five-year-old nephew I'm like he's coming make your own dino garden like that's right up his alley and then there's one more oh the garden tour of course Judy's not here but like I got both those dates on my calendar I don't know if I'm going to make it okay yeah that one fills up it does Judy's not it's Jim Slizinski from Goulder Walsh that leads that okay I'll invite her to come because that would be more fun to watch the two of them watch oh my gosh but that is always a very very popular program event yeah but the dinosaur stuff is in conjunction with summer reading you got it a part of the theme yes honor the story yeah yeah so I just thought it's bigger too and that's great I think indicative of all the program Yes. Is that why? Yes. Terrific. Good. You may see an inflatable dinosaur costume. Mmm! Around you? No. I will do many things for this library and wear a costume is not one of them. Is there a name for it? Craley is going to wear it. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Of course Laura's wearing it. I will mop up the basement for Laura before. Yeah, great. I understand. That'll turn it back to you. All right. Well, yes. Summer reading. I just want to do one more plug and shout out for the big event happening Thursday the 18th, 5 to 8 p.m. Hi, John. Sorry. It's okay. The Adult and Teen Services and Youth Services staff have been working really hard to plan a really great slate of programs, as you just noticed. We've been promoting the kickoff really heavily, so we expect a big turnout. I've alerted the police department that there might be traffic and it should be a great night.

  2. oh my gosh but that is always a very very popular program event yeah but the dinosaur stuff is in conjunction with summer reading you got it a part of the theme yes honor the story yeah yeah so I just thought it's bigger too and that's great I think indicative of all the program Yes. Is that why? Yes. Terrific. Good. You may see an inflatable dinosaur costume. Mmm! Around you? No. I will do many things for this library and wear a costume is not one of them. Is there a name for it? Craley is going to wear it. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Of course Laura's wearing it. I will mop up the basement for Laura before. Yeah, great. I understand. That'll turn it back to you. All right. Well, yes. Summer reading. I just want to do one more plug and shout out for the big event happening Thursday the 18th, 5 to 8 p.m. Hi, John. Sorry. It's okay. The Adult and Teen Services and Youth Services staff have been working really hard to plan a really great slate of programs, as you just noticed. We've been promoting the kickoff really heavily, so we expect a big turnout. I've alerted the police department that there might be traffic and it should be a great night. Is there a plan for overflow parking? We're doing overflow parking at the church across the street with the shuttle and staff will put no parking signs along Timberlake to keep people from there. Right. I also got a cold call solicitation email from a security company a few months ago and it turns out that there's a security company that works for Woodlands on Gilbert Lake. And so I told, I said, oh, hey, you know, there are times when we wanted to reach out to that condo association. Yen-hee, were looking atault incorporated in engin. At the heavy duty, we noticed it being anti- bracelet essentially in a magazine. You're going to pull off thelaim of cardiovascular behaviour like this. And I told, I guess, well you're just going to have an eyeopia down the lowkey patient We need support impulsive JOSHIjos and increase obesity. for big events like that so I I reached out to them too. Is that Woodlands Downs there? They have a like a security firm I don't know if they sit in there they have a like a box a gate yeah so yeah I mentioned in my written report that the friends approved all the items on the latest wish list and that was really great and they pledged a little bit more support in the form of a book voucher this was an idea hatched by Shanna Connelly who's one of our adult teen services librarians because kids when they sign up for the summer reading challenge they get to pick a free book from a selection that the youth staff

  3. Is there a plan for overflow parking? We're doing overflow parking at the church across the street with the shuttle and staff will put no parking signs along Timberlake to keep people from there. Right. I also got a cold call solicitation email from a security company a few months ago and it turns out that there's a security company that works for Woodlands on Gilbert Lake. And so I told, I said, oh, hey, you know, there are times when we wanted to reach out to that condo association. Yen-hee, were looking atault incorporated in engin. At the heavy duty, we noticed it being anti- bracelet essentially in a magazine. You're going to pull off thelaim of cardiovascular behaviour like this. And I told, I guess, well you're just going to have an eyeopia down the lowkey patient We need support impulsive JOSHIjos and increase obesity. for big events like that so I I reached out to them too. Is that Woodlands Downs there? They have a like a security firm I don't know if they sit in there they have a like a box a gate yeah so yeah I mentioned in my written report that the friends approved all the items on the latest wish list and that was really great and they pledged a little bit more support in the form of a book voucher this was an idea hatched by Shanna Connelly who's one of our adult teen services librarians because kids when they sign up for the summer reading challenge they get to pick a free book from a selection that the youth staff has they've tried this with adults over the years but the adults don't really you know they have more refined reading tastes so Shanna had the idea of coming of having this voucher or a gift certificate that people can take to the sales and the library shop yeah my friends approve that so when when everybody signs up for summer reading they get a book voucher it's up good for a one book up to five dollar value there will be two sales during this year and then the library shop so either at the shop or at one of the sales what a great idea yeah I know I think that it was too it's one of the friends on the design project yesterday a walkthrough for contractors was held. It started at 1 p.m. Aaron Phillips, who you met last week, was on site. We had about like 25 to 30 people here for that. This is not mandatory. They don't make it mandatory. But Aaron was very pleased with the turnout, pleased with the participation. He knew a lot of the contractors. It was kind of like a reunion for people. Catherine and I spent, we spent about an hour talking about the process, and then we walked some people around. The

  4. challenge they get to pick a free book from a selection that the youth staff has they've tried this with adults over the years but the adults don't really you know they have more refined reading tastes so Shanna had the idea of coming of having this voucher or a gift certificate that people can take to the sales and the library shop yeah my friends approve that so when when everybody signs up for summer reading they get a book voucher it's up good for a one book up to five dollar value there will be two sales during this year and then the library shop so either at the shop or at one of the sales what a great idea yeah I know I think that it was too it's one of the friends on the design project yesterday a walkthrough for contractors was held. It started at 1 p.m. Aaron Phillips, who you met last week, was on site. We had about like 25 to 30 people here for that. This is not mandatory. They don't make it mandatory. But Aaron was very pleased with the turnout, pleased with the participation. He knew a lot of the contractors. It was kind of like a reunion for people. Catherine and I spent, we spent about an hour talking about the process, and then we walked some people around. The electricians were interested in seeing the mechanical rooms and electrical panels, so we were able to take them into areas that weren't accessible to the public. It was good. Every one of these steps makes it feel more and more real. Moving forward. I have scheduled some meetings with staff the last week in June to review the plans and talk about the project more in depth. Things are just kind of falling into place, which feels really good. And then we're using our July 18th used equipment sale as kind of a kickoff for our external communications. So we'll be starting to put more word out. Working with C2AE on getting some renderings of some places to help people visualize the changes that are coming. As I mentioned, we had a small flood last Tuesday, June 9th, around 6 30 p.m. um it was one of many building malfunctions last week really many that toxic fumes i emailed you all about that little mini flood some fire alarms were going off um and now i'm going to forget the there was another thing that happened yeah the air conditioning wasn't working on thursday morning

  5. we spent about an hour talking about the process, and then we walked some people around. The electricians were interested in seeing the mechanical rooms and electrical panels, so we were able to take them into areas that weren't accessible to the public. It was good. Every one of these steps makes it feel more and more real. Moving forward. I have scheduled some meetings with staff the last week in June to review the plans and talk about the project more in depth. Things are just kind of falling into place, which feels really good. And then we're using our July 18th used equipment sale as kind of a kickoff for our external communications. So we'll be starting to put more word out. Working with C2AE on getting some renderings of some places to help people visualize the changes that are coming. As I mentioned, we had a small flood last Tuesday, June 9th, around 6 30 p.m. um it was one of many building malfunctions last week really many that toxic fumes i emailed you all about that little mini flood some fire alarms were going off um and now i'm going to forget the there was another thing that happened yeah the air conditioning wasn't working on thursday morning when we had our building grounds committee meeting um do any seem to kick off one or they won't completely unrelated um yeah and then michael said the elevator was acting a little funny on friday afternoon which would have been the day before a sale but it worked it was fine um so i just wanted to shout out to tom corliss who's on top of everything he's got great communication he does such a good job with um i don't know patting me on the head and and coming up in the middle of the night and coming up in the middle of the night that's right and staff of course for rolling with all those ups and downs and that's my report i'm sorry i'm just trying to get the date on my calendar for that that's thursday this thursday this thursday the 18th it starts at we've been saying 5 to 8 p.m but it starts in artist at 5 30. we two trucks will be here I'm probably not.

  6. there was another thing that happened yeah the air conditioning wasn't working on thursday morning when we had our building grounds committee meeting um do any seem to kick off one or they won't completely unrelated um yeah and then michael said the elevator was acting a little funny on friday afternoon which would have been the day before a sale but it worked it was fine um so i just wanted to shout out to tom corliss who's on top of everything he's got great communication he does such a good job with um i don't know patting me on the head and and coming up in the middle of the night and coming up in the middle of the night that's right and staff of course for rolling with all those ups and downs and that's my report i'm sorry i'm just trying to get the date on my calendar for that that's thursday this thursday this thursday the 18th it starts at we've been saying 5 to 8 p.m but it starts in artist at 5 30. we two trucks will be here I'm probably not. wonderful thank you very much okay then as always we'll go through the budget does anybody have any comments on the expenses i got a few uh if you look at page four you've got all surface restoration for the papers like is that the front walk or is that everything it's everything it's the four terraces and the front did we seal them too yep and so was that were the fumes really only coming they were only like upsetting the youth terrace yeah because it was being sucked in it was actually the adult terrace oh but the the vents for the hvac system are like right next to the adult terrace and that pulls air in from the outside and then it that those air handler units pumping into the services it was pretty bad we used a new company they must have used some different um solvent than they but it was fine by the next day it was fine yeah so i got a quote on my papers that was more than that oh and believe me it's not as big as the libraries oh maybe you should be looking them up yeah okay that's great on the next page can you remind me what is music sas well that's a new

  7. wonderful thank you very much okay then as always we'll go through the budget does anybody have any comments on the expenses i got a few uh if you look at page four you've got all surface restoration for the papers like is that the front walk or is that everything it's everything it's the four terraces and the front did we seal them too yep and so was that were the fumes really only coming they were only like upsetting the youth terrace yeah because it was being sucked in it was actually the adult terrace oh but the the vents for the hvac system are like right next to the adult terrace and that pulls air in from the outside and then it that those air handler units pumping into the services it was pretty bad we used a new company they must have used some different um solvent than they but it was fine by the next day it was fine yeah so i got a quote on my papers that was more than that oh and believe me it's not as big as the libraries oh maybe you should be looking them up yeah okay that's great on the next page can you remind me what is music sas well that's a new vendor so it's a it's i'm not surprised that you were um questioning that one that is where we're getting this new online streaming service called medici.tv it's an online streaming service that focuses on opera jazz ballet on like highbrow cultural performances we thought that would be a great thing to offer when we're under construction mm-hmm I suspect it's pronounced Medici but I don't know and then sentinel what's that one again oh the phone system what do we do again we had to upgrade it you know it's all hardware or software no we didn't get new phones just the software on the budget itself page eight thank you for your explanation on the change in asset value who knew that was a thing that's incredible we knew all about it if you look at the expenses you'll see we're 16% of the way through the year but we've only spent 8% of the budget so that's really good news the only variance that concerned me was that in their

  8. them up yeah okay that's great on the next page can you remind me what is music sas well that's a new vendor so it's a it's i'm not surprised that you were um questioning that one that is where we're getting this new online streaming service called medici.tv it's an online streaming service that focuses on opera jazz ballet on like highbrow cultural performances we thought that would be a great thing to offer when we're under construction mm-hmm I suspect it's pronounced Medici but I don't know and then sentinel what's that one again oh the phone system what do we do again we had to upgrade it you know it's all hardware or software no we didn't get new phones just the software on the budget itself page eight thank you for your explanation on the change in asset value who knew that was a thing that's incredible we knew all about it if you look at the expenses you'll see we're 16% of the way through the year but we've only spent 8% of the budget so that's really good news the only variance that concerned me was that in their facilities and equipment it looks like we're overspending a little bit on building maintenance and equipment maintenance what is that um well building maintenance is there building maintenance is a big bucket that includes all kinds of things I'm like the terrace pavers I'm not sure yeah I think it's just timing I did a bunch of projects at the beginning of the year okay on page 10 I see we still got our 3.64% I know the war isn't now over quote but interest rates seem that we're still going to get an ample return so that's great news I don't have anything else on that section anybody else I may do the honor of reading this resolution page 11 I move to approve a monthly cash disperse in the form of the check numbers noted for a grand total of seven hundred thirty six thousand seven hundred sixty four dollars and seventy five cents with subcategories noted thank you thank you so much okay there's no remaining consent agenda items so we have our favorite time over here well I am here on behalf of our SOC group and we are we're really busy most recently

  9. really good news the only variance that concerned me was that in their facilities and equipment it looks like we're overspending a little bit on building maintenance and equipment maintenance what is that um well building maintenance is there building maintenance is a big bucket that includes all kinds of things I'm like the terrace pavers I'm not sure yeah I think it's just timing I did a bunch of projects at the beginning of the year okay on page 10 I see we still got our 3.64% I know the war isn't now over quote but interest rates seem that we're still going to get an ample return so that's great news I don't have anything else on that section anybody else I may do the honor of reading this resolution page 11 I move to approve a monthly cash disperse in the form of the check numbers noted for a grand total of seven hundred thirty six thousand seven hundred sixty four dollars and seventy five cents with subcategories noted thank you thank you so much okay there's no remaining consent agenda items so we have our favorite time over here well I am here on behalf of our SOC group and we are we're really busy most recently Kathy came up with this wonderful idea of having in the staff lounge a bulletin board for staff news so and then maybe just some fun staff stuff and you guys heard about the pet of the month yeah that's where we're gonna put the pet of money I know it's something we get an email and everything and it goes in their newsletter and I think everybody really really likes it and we've gotten a lot of people makes me want to go out and get a pet we're also celebrating tomorrow one of our youth pages is graduating wish I could tell you with what degree but I cannot but from Oakland University Oakland University yes and we are also in the process of starting to work on the staff party in September our hope is that it will be at Palazzo de Bocci before it is so yes we're keeping our fingers crossed that they've got the date we want and the price is right because the first time we did it went

  10. here on behalf of our SOC group and we are we're really busy most recently Kathy came up with this wonderful idea of having in the staff lounge a bulletin board for staff news so and then maybe just some fun staff stuff and you guys heard about the pet of the month yeah that's where we're gonna put the pet of money I know it's something we get an email and everything and it goes in their newsletter and I think everybody really really likes it and we've gotten a lot of people makes me want to go out and get a pet we're also celebrating tomorrow one of our youth pages is graduating wish I could tell you with what degree but I cannot but from Oakland University Oakland University yes and we are also in the process of starting to work on the staff party in September our hope is that it will be at Palazzo de Bocci before it is so yes we're keeping our fingers crossed that they've got the date we want and the price is right because the first time we did it went over really really well so great good idea so that's that's the is there a non cat or dog pet winner so far not yet not yet yeah it's been a dog and a cat oh but you know what it will happen because Deb has two guinea pigs yeah so we're waiting she'll be in a month soon well thank you so much yeah is there any unfinished business I'm aware of mm-hmm okay so subscriptions yeah so Katherine is those are just there those are the three proposals we received and they're there for your information if you want to look at them but Katherine can't be with us tonight so I am going to review the serial subscription services bid with you all and the annual report so this is one of the services that we bid out every three years it's over the $25,000 threshold And it's just a good business practice to make sure we're getting the best service and getting the best price. Serial Subscription Services is a company that manages all of our magazine and newspaper subscriptions, or as many as they possibly can.

  11. date we want and the price is right because the first time we did it went over really really well so great good idea so that's that's the is there a non cat or dog pet winner so far not yet not yet yeah it's been a dog and a cat oh but you know what it will happen because Deb has two guinea pigs yeah so we're waiting she'll be in a month soon well thank you so much yeah is there any unfinished business I'm aware of mm-hmm okay so subscriptions yeah so Katherine is those are just there those are the three proposals we received and they're there for your information if you want to look at them but Katherine can't be with us tonight so I am going to review the serial subscription services bid with you all and the annual report so this is one of the services that we bid out every three years it's over the $25,000 threshold And it's just a good business practice to make sure we're getting the best service and getting the best price. Serial Subscription Services is a company that manages all of our magazine and newspaper subscriptions, or as many as they possibly can. And we have about 320-ish magazine and newspaper subscriptions, so it's a lot. So this is only paper or this is online paper? It's only paper, yeah. There's some weird overlap between digital and paper, but this is mostly print, yes. So on March 30th, we released an RFP. We did this through BidNet, as we've been doing with all of our RFPs. 23 companies downloaded the RFP from BidNet Direct. The deadline was May 6th, and when that deadline passed, we had three proposals, which are there in front of you if you want to look at them. Me and Catherine and Brooke Hoskins reviewed all of these proposals. Brooke is an Adult and Teen Services Assistant Department Head, and she has primary responsibility for magazines and newspapers. She also works with the Youth Services Department because they subscribe to a handful of magazines as well, and that's included in this bid. We got three proposals, one from Magazine Subscription Service Agency, which was not as complete as we would like. It was missing some key information about some of their business practices that we like to hear about. So... Um...

  12. Serial Subscription Services is a company that manages all of our magazine and newspaper subscriptions, or as many as they possibly can. And we have about 320-ish magazine and newspaper subscriptions, so it's a lot. So this is only paper or this is online paper? It's only paper, yeah. There's some weird overlap between digital and paper, but this is mostly print, yes. So on March 30th, we released an RFP. We did this through BidNet, as we've been doing with all of our RFPs. 23 companies downloaded the RFP from BidNet Direct. The deadline was May 6th, and when that deadline passed, we had three proposals, which are there in front of you if you want to look at them. Me and Catherine and Brooke Hoskins reviewed all of these proposals. Brooke is an Adult and Teen Services Assistant Department Head, and she has primary responsibility for magazines and newspapers. She also works with the Youth Services Department because they subscribe to a handful of magazines as well, and that's included in this bid. We got three proposals, one from Magazine Subscription Service Agency, which was not as complete as we would like. It was missing some key information about some of their business practices that we like to hear about. So... Um... They were a mid-price bid, but we did not pursue them any further. Magazine Subscriptions, PTP, provided a decent proposal, but they can't, and theirs was the lowest bid, but they cannot provide 20 of their requested 280 titles, so that's why their bid was low. W&T Cops Information Services is our current serials vendor, and they have been for 20 years. They provided a good proposal, very thorough with all the information we needed, and they can provide nearly all of their requested titles. The ones that they couldn't provide have either ceased publication or you have to order direct, which there are a handful that you just have to order direct. So, because of those things, Administration and Adult and Teen Services recommends awarding this RFP to W.T. Cox Information Services, and this is for Serial Subscription Services that would start January of 2027. You've got to do this one far in advance. And how long is this? Three years. We're billed annually, though? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, if you have any other questions?

  13. They were a mid-price bid, but we did not pursue them any further. Magazine Subscriptions, PTP, provided a decent proposal, but they can't, and theirs was the lowest bid, but they cannot provide 20 of their requested 280 titles, so that's why their bid was low. W&T Cops Information Services is our current serials vendor, and they have been for 20 years. They provided a good proposal, very thorough with all the information we needed, and they can provide nearly all of their requested titles. The ones that they couldn't provide have either ceased publication or you have to order direct, which there are a handful that you just have to order direct. So, because of those things, Administration and Adult and Teen Services recommends awarding this RFP to W.T. Cox Information Services, and this is for Serial Subscription Services that would start January of 2027. You've got to do this one far in advance. And how long is this? Three years. We're billed annually, though? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, if you have any other questions? What do you think about the three proposals? It's less than we would normally get up, isn't it? Well, this is a pretty niche industry, so I think that's fine. Usually we get one from EBSCO. They're another big player in this industry. We want to work, but we're and they didn't bid even though they they emailed us earlier in the year and asked us about it that's very unusual and they didn't bid what surprised me is the tight range of bid price of quotes I know they can come in here and see this online if they're interested after the fact but you know the range was so narrow my senses it's up to the discretion of whatever render you guys yeah we like WT this is really one of those service things like anybody can provide the magazines what we want good service and we want somebody who can provide all of the titles we want because you use these services to save staff time and resources and if they can't provide all the titles then and they're reliable you have yes history yep okay any other questions would somebody

  14. So, if you have any other questions? What do you think about the three proposals? It's less than we would normally get up, isn't it? Well, this is a pretty niche industry, so I think that's fine. Usually we get one from EBSCO. They're another big player in this industry. We want to work, but we're and they didn't bid even though they they emailed us earlier in the year and asked us about it that's very unusual and they didn't bid what surprised me is the tight range of bid price of quotes I know they can come in here and see this online if they're interested after the fact but you know the range was so narrow my senses it's up to the discretion of whatever render you guys yeah we like WT this is really one of those service things like anybody can provide the magazines what we want good service and we want somebody who can provide all of the titles we want because you use these services to save staff time and resources and if they can't provide all the titles then and they're reliable you have yes history yep okay any other questions would somebody like to read their resolution on page 27 oh that's what I was looking for I'm trying to find it's just not it's not bold it didn't bold it I mean what these no oh I see after it's not here the whole thing stuff works I'll go ahead and read it I moved to approve awarding the 2027 serial subscription service bid to WT Cox information services 201 Village Road Charlotte North Carolina 28470 second favor aye thank you very much thanks for going through that yep oh yeah my pleasure all right um well moving on um um talk about the annual report for the 25 26 fiscal year which already seems very far in the rear view mirror but we're going to talk about it um so a couple of caveats katherine was planning to prepare a powerpoint presentation and that big binder that we normally have and she was going to use this afternoon to do that and since she was ill today um neither linden nor i had it in us to get that together so you're getting the budget version of

  15. they're reliable you have yes history yep okay any other questions would somebody like to read their resolution on page 27 oh that's what I was looking for I'm trying to find it's just not it's not bold it didn't bold it I mean what these no oh I see after it's not here the whole thing stuff works I'll go ahead and read it I moved to approve awarding the 2027 serial subscription service bid to WT Cox information services 201 Village Road Charlotte North Carolina 28470 second favor aye thank you very much thanks for going through that yep oh yeah my pleasure all right um well moving on um um talk about the annual report for the 25 26 fiscal year which already seems very far in the rear view mirror but we're going to talk about it um so a couple of caveats katherine was planning to prepare a powerpoint presentation and that big binder that we normally have and she was going to use this afternoon to do that and since she was ill today um neither linden nor i had it in us to get that together so you're getting the budget version of this you do have a copy of the um annual report in your pass around folder and of course it's in the packet as well but let's just go through this because we did a lot in the 25 26 year every time we do the annual report i just think um i'm always surprised at how much that we got done um oh another thing to note is normally we do this presentation in july but we moved it up a month which is partly why it was such a crunch to get it together um because the july meeting is going to include the audit presentation and then the bid package presentation which i thought might be sort of intense and i didn't want to then like bog it down with daniel report as well so um i am looking at page 36 in the packet and it's pretty much the same as this just formatted differently let me just go through some of these items and take a walk down the theme as katherine was prepared putting this together because we asked all the department heads to write their own annual report it gets submitted to katherine and then she combs through that and board meeting minutes and other things and puts it all together in this narrative um she was struck

  16. um neither linden nor i had it in us to get that together so you're getting the budget version of this you do have a copy of the um annual report in your pass around folder and of course it's in the packet as well but let's just go through this because we did a lot in the 25 26 year every time we do the annual report i just think um i'm always surprised at how much that we got done um oh another thing to note is normally we do this presentation in july but we moved it up a month which is partly why it was such a crunch to get it together um because the july meeting is going to include the audit presentation and then the bid package presentation which i thought might be sort of intense and i didn't want to then like bog it down with daniel report as well so um i am looking at page 36 in the packet and it's pretty much the same as this just formatted differently let me just go through some of these items and take a walk down the theme as katherine was prepared putting this together because we asked all the department heads to write their own annual report it gets submitted to katherine and then she combs through that and board meeting minutes and other things and puts it all together in this narrative um she was struck by the fact that a lot of what kept us busy in this last year library staff anyway was behind the scenes stuff um you know the last couple years we had you know we're coming out of the pandemic and it's our 60th anniversary and this year it was like we got a lot of work to do behind the scenes such as our major book vendor going out of business um so let me just go through this and and mention some highlights we had another great photo contest there was our ninth photo contest with the theme of nature in the modern world and we've included all the winning photographs here for your enjoyment um we had summer and winter reading challenge programs as we do every year and reached hundreds of people who read thousands of minutes worth of books um i just i love reading these numbers and seeing how many people were encouraging to read books Some of my favorite programs that happened last year was the Crayon to Crochet event. I don't know if you guys remember that, but kids were invited to draw a creature, and then the librarians chose a creature to bring to life through crochet, which I just thought

  17. board meeting minutes and other things and puts it all together in this narrative um she was struck by the fact that a lot of what kept us busy in this last year library staff anyway was behind the scenes stuff um you know the last couple years we had you know we're coming out of the pandemic and it's our 60th anniversary and this year it was like we got a lot of work to do behind the scenes such as our major book vendor going out of business um so let me just go through this and and mention some highlights we had another great photo contest there was our ninth photo contest with the theme of nature in the modern world and we've included all the winning photographs here for your enjoyment um we had summer and winter reading challenge programs as we do every year and reached hundreds of people who read thousands of minutes worth of books um i just i love reading these numbers and seeing how many people were encouraging to read books Some of my favorite programs that happened last year was the Crayon to Crochet event. I don't know if you guys remember that, but kids were invited to draw a creature, and then the librarians chose a creature to bring to life through crochet, which I just thought was incredible. Our October Trick or Treat event brought nearly 800 people into the library, so we are really reaching a lot of people at these events. We did, in adult services, lots and lots of lectures and programs, and if I meet adults out in the world who use this library, one of the first things they say to me is, I love all the lectures. I love the concerts. So those continue to be really popular things that we provide. We had, it was our 15th season of the Chamber Music Concerts. We did the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival again, and then many, many other, a wide variety of other musical performances were offered for people. The IT department hosted 62 programs on many different technology topics, and they added AI and ChatGPT to their roster, also a beginner coding for kids, intro to making websites, and iPhone tips, tricks, tricks, and answers were added. In our community collaborations department, we assigned . . . .

  18. then the librarians chose a creature to bring to life through crochet, which I just thought was incredible. Our October Trick or Treat event brought nearly 800 people into the library, so we are really reaching a lot of people at these events. We did, in adult services, lots and lots of lectures and programs, and if I meet adults out in the world who use this library, one of the first things they say to me is, I love all the lectures. I love the concerts. So those continue to be really popular things that we provide. We had, it was our 15th season of the Chamber Music Concerts. We did the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival again, and then many, many other, a wide variety of other musical performances were offered for people. The IT department hosted 62 programs on many different technology topics, and they added AI and ChatGPT to their roster, also a beginner coding for kids, intro to making websites, and iPhone tips, tricks, tricks, and answers were added. In our community collaborations department, we assigned . . . . And the youth services staff assigns a librarian to each one of the Blue Hill Hills Elementary Schools so they have a good line of communication back and forth about what's going on at the school, what's going on at the library. That partnership, that liaison, made the One District One Book Program possible, which again is just reaching hundreds and hundreds of kids and families. Our Early Childhood Specialist, Amy Naser, visited 140 preschool students over the year, each month actually. So we're reaching kids when they're very young. Adult and Teen Services has a relationship with some of the schools, Laura Craley was invited to be a guest speaker for their local history unit, and of course we have a strong relationship with the Senior Center, and this year developed a relationship with the Zuckelman Holocaust Center to support the CAPPY Family Art and Writing Competition. And of course we work with the DAR on many programs and the Bloomfield Historical Society, Johnson Nature Center, the schools, just we're always looking for our community partners to do programs with.

  19. And the youth services staff assigns a librarian to each one of the Blue Hill Hills Elementary Schools so they have a good line of communication back and forth about what's going on at the school, what's going on at the library. That partnership, that liaison, made the One District One Book Program possible, which again is just reaching hundreds and hundreds of kids and families. Our Early Childhood Specialist, Amy Naser, visited 140 preschool students over the year, each month actually. So we're reaching kids when they're very young. Adult and Teen Services has a relationship with some of the schools, Laura Craley was invited to be a guest speaker for their local history unit, and of course we have a strong relationship with the Senior Center, and this year developed a relationship with the Zuckelman Holocaust Center to support the CAPPY Family Art and Writing Competition. And of course we work with the DAR on many programs and the Bloomfield Historical Society, Johnson Nature Center, the schools, just we're always looking for our community partners to do programs with. I was surprised to remember that last year was the year that we decided to be a regular precinct location. It seems like we always have. But so now we're doing early voting and we're a regular precinct location and we're gearing up for elections. questions. in August and November of this year really yeah July yeah I mean early voting will start in July yep for the August one yeah good point I think it's August 4th is the election primary okay as I mentioned Baker and Taylor who had been our longtime library materials vendor unexpectedly closed its doors in the fall forcing us to make some quick changes this work really fell on material services staff as they had to change all their procedures set up accounts for everybody and we really had to work through a lot of change during that time but it happened from my point of view very smoothly and now we're up and running with Ingram and everything's good we rebranded and relaunched our history collection as you heard Laura really talked about last month at our meeting so we we acquired the online platform recollect and our plans of expanding our

  20. I was surprised to remember that last year was the year that we decided to be a regular precinct location. It seems like we always have. But so now we're doing early voting and we're a regular precinct location and we're gearing up for elections. questions. in August and November of this year really yeah July yeah I mean early voting will start in July yep for the August one yeah good point I think it's August 4th is the election primary okay as I mentioned Baker and Taylor who had been our longtime library materials vendor unexpectedly closed its doors in the fall forcing us to make some quick changes this work really fell on material services staff as they had to change all their procedures set up accounts for everybody and we really had to work through a lot of change during that time but it happened from my point of view very smoothly and now we're up and running with Ingram and everything's good we rebranded and relaunched our history collection as you heard Laura really talked about last month at our meeting so we we acquired the online platform recollect and our plans of expanding our history collection even one of course we spent lots and lots of time working on the library design project which we're calling the library renovation project now because it's out of the design phase that the design committee which was me Catherine Brooke Lauren and joy worked spent many hours working with the design architecture firm and our interior designer Jenna Walker taking field trips and just having lots and lots of meetings hosting meetings trying to get as much community feedback and input as possible we moved through the conceptual schematic and the design development phases in the last fiscal year I would just close out the construction documents phase we chose an American interiors as our furniture vendor we chose finished pallets and we hired McCarthy and Smith as a construction management firm so by the end of the fiscal year the project had entered the construction documents phase and yeah we're just barreling toward the renovation to start even though we have

  21. so we we acquired the online platform recollect and our plans of expanding our history collection even one of course we spent lots and lots of time working on the library design project which we're calling the library renovation project now because it's out of the design phase that the design committee which was me Catherine Brooke Lauren and joy worked spent many hours working with the design architecture firm and our interior designer Jenna Walker taking field trips and just having lots and lots of meetings hosting meetings trying to get as much community feedback and input as possible we moved through the conceptual schematic and the design development phases in the last fiscal year I would just close out the construction documents phase we chose an American interiors as our furniture vendor we chose finished pallets and we hired McCarthy and Smith as a construction management firm so by the end of the fiscal year the project had entered the construction documents phase and yeah we're just barreling toward the renovation to start even though we have that big renovation planned we needed to do some smaller maintenance around the building facility services staff prepared and painted walls in the book return room the staff hallway that's back here and many of our study rooms so that work got done just to spruce the library up we did some repairs to concrete and some parking that repairs and some outdoor we're improving drainage around the outdoor HVAC unit we removed the north end landscaping and I just talked to Jim Szynski today and he's working on plans for reimagining that landscaping we replaced computers for all staff we did some Wang לד Cocesso who updates to our backup server. We did some security enhancements to our IT network and email. The community room got its AV upgrade, which you all approved. So that was kind of our facility and building work that we did. Of course, our friends continued to hold sales and ended up approving over $88,000 in gifts. That's crazy. It is. For a variety of things. So they continue to be a

  22. we're just barreling toward the renovation to start even though we have that big renovation planned we needed to do some smaller maintenance around the building facility services staff prepared and painted walls in the book return room the staff hallway that's back here and many of our study rooms so that work got done just to spruce the library up we did some repairs to concrete and some parking that repairs and some outdoor we're improving drainage around the outdoor HVAC unit we removed the north end landscaping and I just talked to Jim Szynski today and he's working on plans for reimagining that landscaping we replaced computers for all staff we did some Wang לד Cocesso who updates to our backup server. We did some security enhancements to our IT network and email. The community room got its AV upgrade, which you all approved. So that was kind of our facility and building work that we did. Of course, our friends continued to hold sales and ended up approving over $88,000 in gifts. That's crazy. It is. For a variety of things. So they continue to be a great support to the library for great programming. We awarded the Meyer Scholarship to students last year as well. We held our staff development day on November 11th as we had the, I think that was our first one on November 11th. And we did, we focused the library design project. Jenna and Chloe led our presentation on the big changes to the project. And then we had a round table that allowed people to ask questions and have a good conversation about the changes that were coming. And then we did some house cleaning that day as well. We've had many active committees throughout the year. We have the, we have the libraries of design project committee, a marketing committee, a web team, a committee called pack rats, which is, um, librarians and material services and circulation folks who talk about our online catalog and just ways that it can be better. Staff organization committee and of course our Artificial Intelligence Committee that did a lot of work last year. Our many librarians were active in professional development in terms of presenting. I presented at an MLA conference, librarians Killian Weston and Jaya Johnson presented,

  23. approving over $88,000 in gifts. That's crazy. It is. For a variety of things. So they continue to be a great support to the library for great programming. We awarded the Meyer Scholarship to students last year as well. We held our staff development day on November 11th as we had the, I think that was our first one on November 11th. And we did, we focused the library design project. Jenna and Chloe led our presentation on the big changes to the project. And then we had a round table that allowed people to ask questions and have a good conversation about the changes that were coming. And then we did some house cleaning that day as well. We've had many active committees throughout the year. We have the, we have the libraries of design project committee, a marketing committee, a web team, a committee called pack rats, which is, um, librarians and material services and circulation folks who talk about our online catalog and just ways that it can be better. Staff organization committee and of course our Artificial Intelligence Committee that did a lot of work last year. Our many librarians were active in professional development in terms of presenting. I presented at an MLA conference, librarians Killian Weston and Jaya Johnson presented, and Catherine represented the library at the Library Advocacy Day. And you all did the hard work of meeting every month, reviewing all of our budget, asking hard questions, making sure the library is running well, and together we do a great job. And we recycled last year's board picture. Yep. Nonetheless, if you want a photo shoot, say the word. I think that's a great idea. A new picture? Yes. Oh. Okay. Great. The pictures are great. Oh, good. Everything is very nice. Good. Also included in the board packet, but not included in this, is our annual investment report. This is a requirement of PA 20, which stipulates how we can invest our money. So we're required to do this every year, which we dutifully do. And then we always include the CFSEM endowment. Thank you. Look, my рай-

  24. I presented at an MLA conference, librarians Killian Weston and Jaya Johnson presented, and Catherine represented the library at the Library Advocacy Day. And you all did the hard work of meeting every month, reviewing all of our budget, asking hard questions, making sure the library is running well, and together we do a great job. And we recycled last year's board picture. Yep. Nonetheless, if you want a photo shoot, say the word. I think that's a great idea. A new picture? Yes. Oh. Okay. Great. The pictures are great. Oh, good. Everything is very nice. Good. Also included in the board packet, but not included in this, is our annual investment report. This is a requirement of PA 20, which stipulates how we can invest our money. So we're required to do this every year, which we dutifully do. And then we always include the CFSEM endowment. Thank you. Look, my рай- fund report as well. So we can go over that again. What is the point of page 45? The investment report? Well, I had to look this up myself because I didn't know exactly why we included this, but PA-20 just requires that we're supposed to report out about our investments to the public. So here it is. Okay. Next year, maybe we don't undo the underlines. I don't get those incredibly low interest rates. I understand it's a checking account, but it sounds like we're morons from getting a 25 basis point return. I would just want to revise this, given the opportunity next time. Okay. I also note, I mean, we were incredibly transparent for the people that care to look, but the fund balance is on the next page, which is a big number. I can't imagine anyone cares about these bank credit ratings. I've never even seen that before. Oh, really? Because I was noticing that Flagstar is like C minus and that's where, that's the bank we use the most. Well, Bank of America is a C minus. I mean, are you joking? Yeah. Jimmy Diamond, does he know that? I bet he doesn't. But okay. The report itself I thought was fantastic. I agree. The pictures are great. I like that too. This

  25. fund report as well. So we can go over that again. What is the point of page 45? The investment report? Well, I had to look this up myself because I didn't know exactly why we included this, but PA-20 just requires that we're supposed to report out about our investments to the public. So here it is. Okay. Next year, maybe we don't undo the underlines. I don't get those incredibly low interest rates. I understand it's a checking account, but it sounds like we're morons from getting a 25 basis point return. I would just want to revise this, given the opportunity next time. Okay. I also note, I mean, we were incredibly transparent for the people that care to look, but the fund balance is on the next page, which is a big number. I can't imagine anyone cares about these bank credit ratings. I've never even seen that before. Oh, really? Because I was noticing that Flagstar is like C minus and that's where, that's the bank we use the most. Well, Bank of America is a C minus. I mean, are you joking? Yeah. Jimmy Diamond, does he know that? I bet he doesn't. But okay. The report itself I thought was fantastic. I agree. The pictures are great. I like that too. This situation, you see how this pie chart at the back looks next year with the facilities project. Okay. So we might have to like... A little explanation in the context. How is this... kind of... you... it's... you... disseminated? Is it just here in the library? This doesn't get mailed or anything? No. Part of it is online? Yeah, we do put it on our website. This part is online? It's formatted more like what you see in your packet because that reads better electronically. So it will be interesting to Jane's point. It would be very interesting to see what people say. Yeah. Did we hear anything from folks about any part of the newsletter? I've had some comments about the design project. You saw one that was in the comments, a very long one. I did hear back from that person after I responded. About the loss of their Lashon space? I thought it was incredibly well written and I like this too. Tara, what was the topic of your presentation?

  26. report itself I thought was fantastic. I agree. The pictures are great. I like that too. This situation, you see how this pie chart at the back looks next year with the facilities project. Okay. So we might have to like... A little explanation in the context. How is this... kind of... you... it's... you... disseminated? Is it just here in the library? This doesn't get mailed or anything? No. Part of it is online? Yeah, we do put it on our website. This part is online? It's formatted more like what you see in your packet because that reads better electronically. So it will be interesting to Jane's point. It would be very interesting to see what people say. Yeah. Did we hear anything from folks about any part of the newsletter? I've had some comments about the design project. You saw one that was in the comments, a very long one. I did hear back from that person after I responded. About the loss of their Lashon space? I thought it was incredibly well written and I like this too. Tara, what was the topic of your presentation? It was about the design project. It was about the inclusive design process that we went through with Jenna and Chloe. And the importance of bringing in lots of voices and talking to staff in detail about things. Do you feel it would be an overreach to see this before it's printed? Um... Yeah. Um... Um... Like you guys want to review it before it's printed? I don't know if everybody does, but I wouldn't mind seeing it. I could do that. Yeah. Do it. We can, like, look at the picture beforehand. Some people look great in this picture. Well, I remember that was taken. We were just coming out of the pandemic. Right. We could do another photo. We just have to coordinate it because everybody... And to make sure everybody's here. To make sure everybody's here, to make sure people are wearing what they want to wear, and have their hair and makeup done. Right. So if you guys want to, we can work on that. Do you want Linda? Why don't we see when there's a unanimous... When we think everybody will be here, and then we'll say, hey, do you want to do the picture? Maybe that's a better way to do it. We can do that. Some of my favorite pictures from years gone by have been outdoors.

  27. Tara, what was the topic of your presentation? It was about the design project. It was about the inclusive design process that we went through with Jenna and Chloe. And the importance of bringing in lots of voices and talking to staff in detail about things. Do you feel it would be an overreach to see this before it's printed? Um... Yeah. Um... Um... Like you guys want to review it before it's printed? I don't know if everybody does, but I wouldn't mind seeing it. I could do that. Yeah. Do it. We can, like, look at the picture beforehand. Some people look great in this picture. Well, I remember that was taken. We were just coming out of the pandemic. Right. We could do another photo. We just have to coordinate it because everybody... And to make sure everybody's here. To make sure everybody's here, to make sure people are wearing what they want to wear, and have their hair and makeup done. Right. So if you guys want to, we can work on that. Do you want Linda? Why don't we see when there's a unanimous... When we think everybody will be here, and then we'll say, hey, do you want to do the picture? Maybe that's a better way to do it. We can do that. Some of my favorite pictures from years gone by have been outdoors. Mm-hmm. Mmm. That's a good idea. August is a good time. Yeah. September. So there is an approval on page 35, if anybody cares to read it. Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. Whoever gets her first. Scroll 35. I move to approve... I move to accept the Library Annual Report and Annual Investment Report for Fiscal Year 2526. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Very nice. Anything else? I still have that. Two. quite a year something that uh all the staff should really be proud of especially with the distraction of the remodel program is a big deal imagine when it's over like and we're not doing that i know like having a cold and then not having a cold yeah right yeah yeah yeah yeah well it's really going to be a distraction this fall the construction because so far it's touched not as many people you know a small number of staff have really been focusing on it and i i hope that the

  28. Some of my favorite pictures from years gone by have been outdoors. Mm-hmm. Mmm. That's a good idea. August is a good time. Yeah. September. So there is an approval on page 35, if anybody cares to read it. Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. Whoever gets her first. Scroll 35. I move to approve... I move to accept the Library Annual Report and Annual Investment Report for Fiscal Year 2526. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Very nice. Anything else? I still have that. Two. quite a year something that uh all the staff should really be proud of especially with the distraction of the remodel program is a big deal imagine when it's over like and we're not doing that i know like having a cold and then not having a cold yeah right yeah yeah yeah yeah well it's really going to be a distraction this fall the construction because so far it's touched not as many people you know a small number of staff have really been focusing on it and i i hope that the um i hope that people are respectful of our staff when they feel disrupted themselves yeah yeah good point we'll communicate as much as possible and just send the mean people to me all right come on incitation yourself i'm just very like intimidating looking it's like i've never thought of you as that but okay she speaks a mean game it's the size exactly small and mighty anyone have any other i have a few just on the construction project generally we just had our building and grounds meeting and i thought we did a really nice job of going through anything any updates since then obviously well I told you about the walkthrough it's been opening I didn't get the furniture I'm gonna send that and I'm gonna send you guys the link to the it opening which is on June 24th yeah yes I will send you that I think there were

  29. many people you know a small number of staff have really been focusing on it and i i hope that the um i hope that people are respectful of our staff when they feel disrupted themselves yeah yeah good point we'll communicate as much as possible and just send the mean people to me all right come on incitation yourself i'm just very like intimidating looking it's like i've never thought of you as that but okay she speaks a mean game it's the size exactly small and mighty anyone have any other i have a few just on the construction project generally we just had our building and grounds meeting and i thought we did a really nice job of going through anything any updates since then obviously well I told you about the walkthrough it's been opening I didn't get the furniture I'm gonna send that and I'm gonna send you guys the link to the it opening which is on June 24th yeah yes I will send you that I think there were two of the comments I wanted to raise one was you need to clean the toys we clean the toys all the time okay and then the other one was the Wi-Fi is terrible what is the is there a plan for the Wi-Fi as part of the construction project um yes there is a plan we know that we're gonna need to review like where equipment is gonna go and we want to boost it a bit I think the frustration that people feel better Wi-Fi is that if you're here for more than like four or five hours it boots you off and then you have to get back on it it might be part of what it is once you're on it it's great you know I'm on it right now I don't have a problem but I've never had a problem I didn't realize I've not been here like for four hours so maybe that's what it is I think that's what it is do we just time people out like a gentle reminder no it's because there's only so many IP addresses to go around and so after you're here for so long hit

  30. opening which is on June 24th yeah yes I will send you that I think there were two of the comments I wanted to raise one was you need to clean the toys we clean the toys all the time okay and then the other one was the Wi-Fi is terrible what is the is there a plan for the Wi-Fi as part of the construction project um yes there is a plan we know that we're gonna need to review like where equipment is gonna go and we want to boost it a bit I think the frustration that people feel better Wi-Fi is that if you're here for more than like four or five hours it boots you off and then you have to get back on it it might be part of what it is once you're on it it's great you know I'm on it right now I don't have a problem but I've never had a problem I didn't realize I've not been here like for four hours so maybe that's what it is I think that's what it is do we just time people out like a gentle reminder no it's because there's only so many IP addresses to go around and so after you're here for so long hit even if you're done and then it's not crowded and not that many people are using interesting so we did we did upgrade for Wi-Fi last year didn't we what did we we put head boosters or something yeah most of the cells all right that was the cells you can't get a cell signal in the basement we did boost some of the equipment for the Wi-Fi nobody and no one in Bloomfield Township yes or stand at the window yes I mean this is something that I hear all over Bloomfield Township I mean I think that it's something that the Township itself is also looking into aren't I've heard that there aren't enough towers in this area yes people didn't want them correct correct you want the fake trees yeah and that's an issue they're laying the fiber yes I'm not partaking of that right now yeah I don't know if that will help I feel like I saw it on like a Township agenda yeah I think that they they have heard yeah

  31. even if you're done and then it's not crowded and not that many people are using interesting so we did we did upgrade for Wi-Fi last year didn't we what did we we put head boosters or something yeah most of the cells all right that was the cells you can't get a cell signal in the basement we did boost some of the equipment for the Wi-Fi nobody and no one in Bloomfield Township yes or stand at the window yes I mean this is something that I hear all over Bloomfield Township I mean I think that it's something that the Township itself is also looking into aren't I've heard that there aren't enough towers in this area yes people didn't want them correct correct you want the fake trees yeah and that's an issue they're laying the fiber yes I'm not partaking of that right now yeah I don't know if that will help I feel like I saw it on like a Township agenda yeah I think that they they have heard yeah they've been hearing from residents I mean as we become more and more reliant on it yeah so Wi-Fi is it's on our radar yeah I really like seeing all of the different partnerships and the ways I mean especially bringing it up in the annual report all the different partnerships between you know the senior center and the the township and just everybody kind of working together I really like to see some of that anyway anybody else got anything no anything else for me nope all right move we adjourn great great thanks for a great meeting