Monterey Board of Library Trustees Meeting - February 26, 2026
Monterey Board of Library Trustees Meeting - February 26, 2026
The Board of Library Trustees met on February 26, 2026, to discuss the Memory Lab project, fund development trends, the FY2027 trust fund budget, and advocacy messaging. All trustees were present. The meeting included a presentation on the new Memory Lab, a detailed review of library fundraising and trust fund balances, and approval of the upcoming budget.
Consent Calendar
- The consent agenda was approved unanimously. Items included routine approvals; the minutes from the previous meeting were not yet available and will be carried over to the next meeting.
Discussion Items
- Memory Lab Presentation: Assistant Library Director Brian Edwards presented plans for a facilitated Memory Lab to allow patrons to digitize home media (VHS, 8mm film, slides, photos, etc.). The lab will be named the Copeland Memory Lab in honor of the recently deceased Dennis Copeland, a longtime local history volunteer. The service will be by appointment, staff- or volunteer-assisted, and will require a waiver to avoid copyright issues. The equipment was purchased with MC Gibbs funds from the prior fiscal year.
- Fund Development Trends: Edwards presented a multi-year overview of library fundraising, showing that the MC Gibbs campaign raised $85,764 in 2025, with a $12,537 match from the Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC), totaling $98,301. The library trust fund balance stands at $806,143, and the CFMC endowment is at $486,453. Interest income from the trust fund was $17,000 this fiscal year. The library has seen a steady increase in donations and grants, though state and federal grants are becoming more constrained.
- Trust Fund Budget for FY2027: Edwards proposed a trust fund budget with $2,200 in revenue and $2,200 in expenditures, including $25,000 for staff support, $30,000 for library materials, $30,000 for equipment outlay, and $100,000 for special projects (MC Gibbs funds). He requested board approval with the ability to increase certain line items (e.g., contractual services, programs, materials) if the general fund is reduced by 5-10% due to the city's structural deficit. The board discussed the need for evening hours and the difficulty of funding them from the trust fund, but agreed to support the budget as presented.
- Advocacy Talking Points: Trustees Janey and Marsha presented a draft of advocacy messaging to communicate the library's needs and achievements. The discussion focused on condensing the content, including quotes from patrons, and making it accessible for different audiences. The board agreed to have a smaller working group (Chair Delorme, Trustee Silvera, Edwards, and McGee) refine the talking points and bring them back for further review at the next meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Approved: The FY2027 trust fund budget was approved unanimously, with the understanding that Edwards may adjust certain line items if needed based on general fund reductions.
- Next Steps: The advocacy talking points will be refined by a working group and presented for further discussion at the March meeting. The Memory Lab is expected to launch in the coming months, with a naming recognition for Dennis Copeland to be formalized at a future meeting.
- Other: The board welcomed intern Ariana from Middlebury College. The library will host a memorial for Dennis Copeland on Sunday, March 2, 2026, in the library community room.
Meeting Transcript
This meeting of the Board of Library Trustees. And uh we may see you run through roll call. Chair Delorier. Trustee Silvera. Here. Vice Chair Petty. Present. Trustee Moreau. Trustee Joshi present. All of our trustees are present. And from the staff side, and myself, Brian Edwards, assistant library director, Melissa McGee. We have our intern Ariana. And Julie and Neil here. So table today. Well, I'm sorry, do you say Ariana? We can come with it. I think all I need to do are. Well, I'm not going to go to our our bad first name is Ariana. So Ariana in English, yeah. Are you from one of those? Yes, I do. Yeah. Well, welcome. We're lucky to have you. Thank you. Okay. So there is so public presence. And no. I meant to start, so we would begin with the presentations. Right. We'll start with the presentation, but I don't have one in there. Yeah, yeah. So I just wanted to go over. I don't have the physical items in here, but just wanted to let you guys know. I don't want to screen. But if you guys want me to share or talk more about this, but essentially our plan for what we call the memory, and this was part of what was in our MC Gibbs proposal for last fiscal year. Last year, yeah. And so last fiscal year, we I got a program called Memories of Monterey. And with that uh raised funding and we received our new microfilm reader. And one of the things for the background of that is that when we went to Windows 11, the last microfilm reader only worked up to Windows 10. It didn't wasn't going to work with Windows 11. And so this city was updating all that, so we had to get a new microfilm reader for all of that. Um we then have gotten into agreements with MC Weekly to scan all of their old digital, all of their bound copies of Coast Weekly, coasting Monterey County weekly and have those hosted on our newspaper site. And then the Monterey Peninsula Herald will be digitizing those as well. But one of the projects we talked about in the MC GIFs proposal was to do a memory lab. Now memory labs um started off with different public libraries up and across the state, the state of California. Oftentimes these are what we call like a DIY memory lab where you just go into the library and there's equipment there for you to use. But um we are looking at having it somewhat facilitated because what happens with technology and different devices right there is that often people get frustrated and get locked up. We even have that with our public computers, public computers is pretty often printers, all of that copiers. So, and it takes time to do this.
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