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Home My WebLink About04-26-1995 Library Commission Minutes Saratoga Library Commission Meeting Saratoga Community Library April 26, 1995 7:30 p.m. Action Minutes I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:32 p.m. II. Roll Call Commbaloners Present: Ceppos, Foscato, Grantham, McLaughlin, Sessler Commissioners Absent: Skew, Towse Others Present: Dolly Barnes, Susan Fuller, Carolyn King III. Report on Posting of Commission Agenda Pursuant to Government Code 54954.2, the agenda was properly posted on April 20, 1995. IV. Approval of Minutes of March 22, 1995, Meeting Commissioner Grantham made a motion to adopt the minutes as written, Commissioner Sessler seconded the motion. The vote to approve the minutes was unanimous. A. Status of Foundation Nothing to report B. · Saratoaa Parade: Barb0cale w Commissioner Towse said it is cancelled. The Chamber of Commerce is to sell food at the same site as we planned, so Library Commission yielded to them. VI. New Business Discussion of Joint Powers Authority_ First Meeting S. Fuller reports they met last Tuesday (a grand affair, lunch for commissioners, Syntex underwrote costs), and the meeting went smoothly. D. McKenna elected chair. The ' meeting also approved the bylaws for the JPA, and agreed to meet quarterly. They will also plan some study sessions. Next meeting set for June 22, 1995 to be used for orientation. Authority is two members from Board of Supervisors for county, one member each for the nine cities. County L~rary Commission was disbanded, June 5 will be their last meeting. There will be a JPA Commission - Each city will make appoint/nent (Morgan Hill and Alum Rock have no commission, but will make appointments). The JPA also visited the library headquarters building, and were polite, but saw how the building was. The June 22 meeting is open to City Library Commissioners to sit in and also get oriented if we wish, They will cover history of the county library, sources of funds, organiTational support, how libraries work, etc. A. Discussion oflPA Report on Restructuring. Commissioner Ceppos said that the Commission cannot support the study as written. The concept is fight, but it has serious flaws. There is no good definition of terms, and no · source cited for statistics. There are assertions with no basis for support. This report needs to be authoritative, as it will be used by the state legislature for possible restructuring and/or refunding. Otherwise, the recommendations in it are good and reasonable. S. Fuller said the report is the result of compromise of many points of view. There were problems even defining "Basic Services". S. Fuller said it is a good beginning, but there is no magic bullet. 'Our situation~ is not discussed in that paper. The league and CSAC at least know about libraries as a result. The finished product is due out lune 1, 1995. S. Fuller said there are two mechanisms for funding librades by the state: The public library fund, and the transaction-based reimbursement (for people from out of the area who use libraries). Full funding of both of these would mean $600-700,000 to Santa Clara County -- we have a long way to go. B. Joint Meeting with Ciw Council, June 27. 1995. Carolyn King explained idea behind scheduling of these meetings: commissioners want to meet with city council annually, and still meet with the chair of commission and city council more ot~en. The planned meeting is Tue~ay night, June 27, approximately 7:30 p.m. We should ask to meet earlier in the year next year. We agreed in our 2/22 meeting this year to drat~ a letter to the city council to request funding for Sunday hours, but no one knew the status (S. Towse was to write it). After discussion, we agreed not to press now for Sunday hours (missed our chance). We agree to wait until next meeting to discuss new topic. VII Reports. S. Fuller. County_ Librarian --Noted an article in last Sunday'sS.J. Mercury News (front page) about Library fees. Says Rob Elder will write an editorial about it. Fuller discussed the issue of deciding what to charge fees for -- it's tempting to look only to new things, but maybe these are "Basic Services". For example, just because movies and database searches are new, does this mean that they are not now basic? Movies are used by H. S. Classes studying something about or in the movie. Searches are used to find material that cannot be located any other way. We need to consider what we as commissioners think about this issue as well. Articles and town meeting on selected topics are to begin tomorrow night. Posters in libraries tell the agenda. Papers have been good and have made the point strongly about libraries remaining neutral. There will be a meeting of big city newspapers (15 of them) in Sacramento in June, to promote more of this idea. Dolly Barnes, Community_ L~rasian - Discussed IAC 0nformation Access Co - INFOTRAK), a periodical database newly available. Can be searched on regular terminals. A week from Tuesday the library will have INFOTRAK on line for patrons. They will be able to search by keyword for topics, also can get full text on lots of articles. This database is also available from homes. Library users can get a PIN number for checking their own account for check-out status, reserves, etc. Internet access will be launched in July. The library has no Internet address just yet. Volunteers are raising money through the Book-Go-Round. Mary Jean is fantastic. She's been honored through the Junior League (last Saturday luncheon). Today, the library held a lunch for in-house volunteers at the library. The Friends of The Saratoga Library gave a book to the library in honor of each' volunteer, with a certificate in the book, citing that person, and also gave a copy of the book to the volunteer. Lots of the staff showed up, bringing food and offering help. Carolyn King, Staff Representative -- Minutes from last meeting had notes on Saratogan article..She received I. Grantham's contribution regarding "2020 Vision" for the library, but not others. J. Grantham suggested that since others might not be ready yet, perhaps we could proceed with the material at hand, and plan to do another article just before the tax bills go out in the Fall. May 4th is the last day of work for Carolyn King. We will have no replacement for our next two meetings. WE need to get our Agenda to Carolyn King's replacement a week before our next meeting. Karen Ceppos. Chair -- No additional report or information from Sally Towse. IX. Ad_ioumment Cathy Foscato moved Adjournment. Edward Sessler seconded. Adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Prepared By: Jack Grantham Library Commissioner Coremunify i!!1!!!11!1!!j i Jiiiii ii ......... I ..... i ............ i m i i t Friends of the Library installs board of directors Recently installed board members for the Friends of the Saratoga Libraries and outgoing board members pictured are (back row from left) Judy Johnstone, secretary; Peggy Corr; Cathy Foscato; Jim Givens, treasurer; Jessie McGuire; Olivia Gera; Shirley Luebben ; Louise Ii'~bb, historian/publicity chair; and Betty Hunter, hospitalit3, co-chair; (front row) Vicki Feigelson; Sally Towse, vice-president; Bernice Giansir. acusa; president; Margaret McCartney, vice-president; Feticia Pollock, hospitali.ty co-chair; and Virginia Kerr, membership co-chair. The 24:vear-old orgam~ation has more than 180 volunteers ~'ho work at the communi~ library and Saratoga school libraries. Each vohmteer was recognized by. having his or her name appear inside the cover of a new booth purchased by the libraries. The Friends contributed $60,000 to the community library. last year.