Rochester MN Library Board Meeting - March 18, 2026
Rochester MN Library Board Meeting - March 18, 2026
Board members present: Brian, Emily, Laura, Connie, Adam, Nick, Ryan, Mary Best. The meeting covered updates from Friends of the Library and the Library Foundation, approval of the consent agenda and annual report, detailed discussion and amendment of a parking pilot, and final approval of the strategic plan.
Consent Calendar
- Agenda approved as presented (motion by Laura Lascani, second by Connie).
- Consent agenda approved (motion by Nick, second by Ryan).
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made. The chair asked for community members to address the board, and none responded.
Updates and Reports
- Friends of the Library: Val Kalaswski, President, reported that the Friends donated $80,000 from the bookstore and a total of $384,000 in value from book sales and partnerships. They saved the library $140,000 last year by offering quality donated books for the collection.
- Library Foundation: Brenda Kardok, Executive Director, reported raising over $30,000 in sponsorships from their annual fundraiser. They obtained $5,000 grants for a new multi-sensory play area and $12,000 in other grants. They are adding ad hoc committees to explore staff health care and will adopt a strategic plan aligned with the library's goals. Two new board members were found, but one or two more are still needed.
- Policy Committee: Presented on four policies, noting a sentence about equity was removed from one policy (consistent with other policies). The changes will be available for records and identification next month.
- Circulation/Statistics update: The library director noted that circulation is down for physical and digital items, possibly because the collection has 41,000 fewer titles. However, foot traffic and program attendance are up significantly, partly due to the February opening of the C Library (last year opened March 1). There was discussion about the need for deeper analysis and the correlation between collection size and circulation.
Discussion Items
- Annual Report: The library director presented the state-mandated annual report used to compile statistics. Approved by motion (moved by Mary Best).
- Parking Pilot: The pilot is funded by Friends and Foundation money and runs June 1 to August 31, 2026. It proposes free validation for a second hour of parking (up to $3) in the Civic Center ramp, requiring a library card checkout. An amendment was made to remove the proposed addition of bus passes to avoid confounding data (the pilot's original question was about parking). The survey questions were deferred for future finalization. Discussion included marketing strategies (school flyers, city channels, downtown alliance) and concerns about comparing data due to downtown construction. The pilot also includes investigating a potential API to show ramp space availability on the library website.
- Strategic Plan: Final draft presented with minor changes: separating satellite establishment from downtown modernization, and adding multicultural programming to the goal under Operations ("expand multilingual services and multicultural programming and co-create solutions/programming with partners to dismantle barriers to access"). A board member noted the importance of inclusive language for future branches and satellites. Approved with amendments.
Key Outcomes
- Annual report adopted unanimously.
- Parking pilot approved with an amendment to remove bus passes (motion passed, all in favor). Survey questions will be finalized at a future date.
- Strategic plan approved as amended (including multicultural programming).
- The meeting adjourned (motion by Laura, second by Ryan).
Meeting Transcript
The city's website. Okay, members are invited to address the board during this time. Is there anyone from the community looking to address the board? Seeing that, we will call the meeting to order and roll call. Brian. Rolling. Emily. Present. Oh present. Laura here. Here. Very bad. Here. Connie here. And Adam is here as well. Do I have a motion to approve of the agenda as presented? So most by Laura Lascani. Do we have a second? I have a question. Second by Connie. I'm sorry, all those in favor. Opposed. The agenda is so adopted. We'll start with updates and reports, starting with the friends. Sorry. So last month we gave last month we presented our bookstore check for $80,000. I'm Val Kalaswski, president of Friends. And last month we presented our $80,000 check from the bookstore. And a lot of times people think that that $80,000 check from the bookstore is the totality of what Friends gives to the library in a year. And I know we're limited on time, so I'm going to try and keep this to a five-minute elephant pitch. So I want to prove that we're more than just the bookstore. So in our elephant ecosystem, we feed our elephant five to six hundred books per day. And we have a sorting team that scans all of those books, whether they're donating from the community or their library discards. And any books that are what I call barns and noble quality, we offer to the librarian to see if they want to add up to their collection. And last year they saved $140,000 by adding, now I forgot the number, how many books they added using CDs, DVDs. And then books that the library doesn't keep. So those green booklets I gave you on the back side is a list of about 20 different community partners that get books from us. And we don't track the dollar amount for that. We generated $384,000 worth of value out of all these books that get donated from the community, as well as library discards. Any questions on my elephant? Oh, you've wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry, I have to put down here. I'm Brenda Kardok. I'm the executive director of the Library Foundation, and it's nice to see the new members. We had a fundraiser, our annual fundraiser is one of our big 10 post events. We raised over $30,000 in sponsorship. We have this whole room full of people as you can see, and an excellent speaker. That's just one of our fundraisers in the air.
openpublica.com