Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library Board of Trustees meeting highlights 10-17-2022

OCTOBER 17, 2022

• Board resolutions
• Personnel report
• Director’s report
• Public service report highlights

Present were President Gabe Crenshaw, Vice President Max Gerboc, Patti Carlyle, Dana Fluellen, Annette Iwamoto, Tyler McTigue, and Secretary Vika Turakhia.

Board resolutions

The board:

• Authorized an agreement with Independence Construction for pre-construction services for the Noble Branch Project. 
• Authorized an agreement with MacMillan and Co. for peer services for the mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, and fire protection services for the Noble Neighborhood Branch Project. 
• Approved changes to three Service and Administration Policies, including Photography, Use of Credit Cards by Staff, and Support of People Experiencing Homelessness. These policies are available on the Heights Libraries website. 
• Granted permission to the fiscal officer to purchase a storage area network [SAN] device (live back-up for current computer system).

Personnel report

The library is back to normal turnover and staffing, having recently hired two persons. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Taskforce and Plan are well underway. Initiatives include reviewing employee demographics and the Employee Resource Council member poll for DEI initiatives in the workplace as compared with Heights Libraries’ progress. Having subscribed to Collection HQ, a library collection management software, the staff are able to run diversity audits of the holdings by subject matter, library branch, title, etc. After reviewing the DEI collections report it was discovered that approximately 20 percent of the fiction and nonfiction books contain diverse characters or subject matter. The Collection HQ software also can provide a trend view of how the current month compares to numbers and percentages for January over the last three years. There has been a steady growth with the number of DEI books in the Heights Libraries’ collection, increasing by 14,000 since January 2020.

Director’s report

Library Director Nancy Levin thanked all the staff and community members who participated in the Library Homecoming event.

More than 35 attendees participated in the public meeting regarding the latest plans for the interior and exterior of the planned Noble Neighborhood Branch project.

An engineer has been hired to pinpoint the source of the water leak at the University Heights Branch. Camera reports found no leaks. Rebuilding will be delayed until the source of the leak can be found. The branch was reopened October 3 with reduced youth services space. Many accolades were given to the staff for their work in moving the collections from the basement decreasing the amount of damage.

A new partnership with Centers for Families and Children was made to provide a community resource specialist at the Lee Road Branch at least one day a month to serve the community and help in accessing available services. Promotion will be done to alert the community to this new service.

Community fundraising activities will begin soon for the Peace Park playground project. Signage will be posted at the park regarding the project to alert the community to the upcoming repairs and improvements that will increase safety in the park.

Friends of the Heights Libraries will be donating $100,000 over the next three years to the Coventry Peace Park playground project.

Communications

A new service, ComicPlus, an online comic service, is now available to the community and is being promoted.

The redesign of the staff intranet has begun to better serve staff needs and ease communications.

Public service highlights

Peter Potamus’ Birthday Party was a big success. Children dropped off their stuffed animals to enjoy an after-hours party with Peter. Pictures are on the library website showing the fun that the stuffed animals and Peter had at the party.

Circulation has increased by 1,876 and visitors by 2,744 since September 2021.

The next regular meeting of the library board will be Nov. 21, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lee Road Branch.

LWV Observers, Judith Beeler and Elizabeth Tracy. 

Information about the board, board meeting minutes and audio recordings of board meetings can be found at https://heightslibrary.org/locations/heights-libraries-board/