Alright, I'm gonna call to order the Alameda Free Library Board meeting for March 11th at uh 6 p.m.

on this two uh Wednesday um and let's begin with the roll call.

President Amara Siri Wardinet present vice president gives present board member battle board member conji and board member strippers absent or present great um before I move on to item number two I just want to begin a big thanks to you Mike you have been in your short period here you have set a professional high level tone for this this library stabilizing how the organization works making our decisions but also setting this up for the future and while we are saddened to see you move on to different pastures um you've set us up for a a really strong position and so thank you from on behalf of the board but on behalf of the city I think everyone as we saw in the the survey results are very happy with what this library does for them and it's a lot to do with you and the the vision we set thank you thank you very much yeah yes we call so glad that with the strategy plan that would be traumatic that's all for this remotely set us up as um our president for moving forward um thoughtful decisions that um I really appreciate all this talk about you know you have been recording what we took in perspective as well as being um in charge of the governments and the finance thank you thank you it's um no it's been a pleasure and um I I will just say that it's a great organization with incredibly dedicated employees and um they are excited to keep the future going forward and it is certainly not reliant upon my presence for them to keep doing good things.

Well thank you again um we really appreciate it and and just so you know we always have free books here at the free library just in case you can it's in the name um I will move on to more more serious uh items which is the number two non-agenda public comment um anyone may speak for three minutes regarding any matter that's not on the agenda comments are limited to in person only in remote public comment is not available for this section and there are no uh people present beyond uh the board and uh city staff so we will move on to the consent calendar number two um do you the consent calendar there's um some things on there we just if you have any questions we can answer those questions otherwise a motion to approve all of the items that are on there motion to approve second all in favor aye all in favor of that uh so that's yes so in pass so that's 3A 3b and 3c and we're gonna move on to number four regular agenda items um let's move to 4A which is the director's board yes um so I have a few things to to share with you um you know we had a a very successful black history month um set of programs we were really excited to have Janae Brownwood come um and talk about her her new book she's local ish from the Sacramento area and um one of the things you know I appreciate about my colleagues is they were always trying to improve and get better and with um Janet's author visit traditionally how we would do those author visits is that we would ask um classes from AUSC to come to the library that would always present challenges so we're taking a new approach with these and we're taking the author on the road taking them to the school and doing it that way that allows us to reach schools that are maybe a little too far um to easily travel here and the schools that are reliant on some sort of outside transportation to get here we're just gonna take that out of the equation so we're we're really excited to do that and so one of the photos in here was um of her visits one of her visits to um I'm not sure if that's love or paid me but we were excited to kind of shift it into that direction rather than trying to get everybody here how many more schools were able to do that one.

Um so it used to be I think they did two sessions before, um, but we can reach a lot more kids that way because we can hold more classrooms in and they can fit more people into what we can fit into the to the um uh Stanford Stafford room, and then um we also received a lot of favorable press, and we had uh 80 people show up for the um the black um banjo reclamation project, and we got a lot of nice press and all me to post about that, and it was a very well attended Friday afternoon program, so we're very excited.

Um that that was embraced by the community.

Um we had a few lunar new year programs that we were excited about, and now we're shifted into women's history month.

Just yesterday we had um firefighter McKenzie Carrie at Bay Farm Island Library, and we had 70 folks come for for that program, and she talked about being firefighter, she's one of two female firefighters at Alameda Fire Department, and um she's an inspiration, and we were really thankful that she could participate in that.

And there's some other programs here that I'll mention, and then just a few things that didn't make it into the report because we weren't quite sure about the deadlines for for things.

Um, our new event calendar will launch April 1st, and so you'll see that that new calendar will be available, it's a bit more user-friendly than than the one we are currently using, and it's more designed for public libraries as I've mentioned before, and that we will also at that same time launch the room reservation software for the study rooms.

So people now starting then will be able to book a study room.

There are four five study rooms at the main library, um, four upstairs and then one downstairs.

They'll be able to book those a week in advance for up to two hours.

Um just think this is a much better and uh more effective use of those rooms so the people don't they when they come, they know they've got the room where they can see if the room is available rather than coming to the library how it works now and just think, oh, I'm sorry, we don't have a room for the next four hours.

Um sometimes you you you need to know that you can do this.

Folks, importantly, from an equity standpoint, folks don't need to have a library card to make a reservation.

We don't want to limit it in that way, and people who don't want to do the reservations themselves, they can call us and we'll make the reservation for them.

Um, so the and they can still do that a week in advance as well.

I just think it's a uh it's much better process all around, and we're we're taking the what used to be called the family study room, because this is the room on the first floor, and between the cafe and the staff area for the children's team works.

Um, that room we're gonna make that open and available to people for reservations so that there's just one more room because quite honestly, we could have eight rooms and they would all be booked all the time.

Um, and so we're pulling that room into the reservation process just to offer more space to folks.

And I'm also excited to report, we just found this out today, um, that the um new furniture for the teen room will be delivered next Thursday.

And so we're really excited to have some new furniture in there.

This was part of the city strategic plan, and um, we're using some unspent bond funds and a little bit of another capital improvement project to get some some furniture in there that's uh uh just some nice updated furniture in there, some things that the the teens will enjoy, and then eventually I think we will also get a large monitor to put on the wall so that they can use that.

Um we could use it for gaming programs or other things, so this is more of an interactive space for that.

And then just in terms of statistics, one thing I would like to highlight uh for you is um in December, January, and February.

Um, we had a lot of people come to the library, uh, which is great.

In December, we had 23,219 people visit the library.

In January, it was 23,811, and in February it was 22,800.

Previous those previous months in the last year, it was 16,000 in December, 18,000 in January and 17,000 in February.

So we've seen a real sizable increase in the people coming to the library that has um I think we see that in the program statistics, we see that in circulation, all of those numbers are up.

And um, I think folks have gotten used to the adjusted hours.

They're kind of, it seems that they're embracing those hours because we're seeing a lot more people in the building.

And we haven't seen these uh this high of a number consistently since before the pandemic.

So it's great.

Yeah.

I just I think it's we're it's just really exciting to see all of the the numbers and kind of the excitement seeming to show that um we're we're open when folks want us to be open and they're happy with what we're offering.

Right.

Um and so obviously we continue to to do that and work on that, but um very encouraging like checkouts are up like practically 15% or so and it's not just digital, yeah, it's physical Circ as well, which is also quite remarkable considering that for a few months we weren't getting any books because of the meltdown with Baker and Taylor.

Yeah, um you know we've mostly course corrected that we are still seeing some delays, but um people are still finding good stuff on the shelf and it's physical stuff, which I think is really exciting.

Any questions?

Regarding the uh the booking, um I forgot we talked about this earlier.

Are we gonna have like placards or like digital placards on the doors that say hey, this is booked between like a show the hours?

We're working on a process that will be more lo-fi than that, okay.

Um but so that people know that it is booked.

Um it will be readily available on the website, and we can show people there because you it'll show up as um color-coded, if it's free or if it's not free.

Okay, so lo-fi is print out something every day and put in on it, is it?

I don't know if it's I don't think we're gonna print it.

I think it's more of a just kind of a like this room is booked, so sort of like some sort of something that's like people know that this is coming, and then there's obviously be an internal process for how long we wait.

I don't know the exact timing before we get the room to somebody else who might be waiting that if they don't show up.

When we think long term, should we be doing that kind of building out spaces at the branches too?

Is that a need?

Um it's certainly a need.

There's just no room in those locations.

Um West End library, there's no room to grow.

So it's surrounded by homes, and there's just no room for it.

But they they they struggle to have programs there.

Um we recently with some assistance from the friends, purchased uh TV and a laptop and a pretty sturdy cart, so that now they have a way for presenters to present because before they had nothing, and so if they wanted to have something on a screen or wanted to do some instruction, they weren't able to do that.

So we have that now.

But storing that is a challenge, even in that building, and so it's kind of in the back room in the staff area, but now there's like room for that.