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AADL Board of Trustees Meeting - September 18th, 2017

Wed, 09/27/2017 - 3:28pm

When: September 18, 2017 at Downtown Library Multipurpose Room

Watch the September 2017 Meeting of the AADL Board of Trustees. Select an agenda item below to jump to that point in the transcript. For more information, please see the Board Packet for this meeting.

17-136 I. CALL TO ORDER
17-137 II. ATTENDANCE
17-138 III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA (Item of action)
17-139 IV. CONSENT AGENDA (Item of action)
CA-1 Approval of Minutes of July 17, 2017
CA-2 Approval of July and August 2017 Disbursements
17-140 V. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
17-141 VI. FINANCIAL REPORTS - Bill Cooper, Finance Manager
17-142 VII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT - Josie B. Parker, Director
17-143 VIII. OLD BUSINESS
16-154 A. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 3.3: REIMAGINE THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY’S DOWNTOWN PRESENCE (Item of discussion)
16-201 B. UPDATE ON TRAVERWOOD BRANCH LIBRARY CAPITAL PROJECT - Len Lemorie, Facilities Manager
16-154C. AADL STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL 4.3: IMPLEMENT THE NEW WEB PRESENCE - UPDATE - Eli Neiburger, Deputy Director
17-144 IX. NEW BUSINESS
17-145 A. PFM FINANCIAL ADVISORS LLC PRESENTATION Paul Stauder
17-146 B. BRIDGEPORT CONSULTING, LLC - Sarah Raful Whinston
17-147 C. RESOLUTION TO AWARD CONTRACT FOR JANITORIAL SERVICE FOR THREE YEARS (Item of action)
17-148 D. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO KEN RAYNOR UPON HIS RETIREMENT (Item of action)
17-149 X. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
17-150 XI. ADJOURNMENT

Transcript

[00:00:11.13] JAMIE: Hi, everyone. So let's call this meeting to order. Good evening, everyone. It's been a long time since we've seen each other and been in this space together. And thanks to the heroic efforts of the staff of the library, we are here tonight.
[00:00:27.13] [CLAPPING]
[00:00:28.55] I'm sure you all are aware of--
[00:00:30.19] [CLAPPING]
[00:00:31.52] JAN: I even stopped in the restroom on my way here.
[00:00:34.56] [LAUGHING]
[00:00:35.53] JAMIE: And can you report that it is back in functioning order?
[00:00:37.81] JAN: It seemed to be.
[00:00:38.71] JAMIE: OK.
[00:00:39.21] [LAUGHING]
[00:00:41.17] Well, thank you, Josie and staff. Oh my gosh. Especially-- is [INAUDIBLE] here?
[00:00:46.24] JOSIE: I don't think so.
[00:00:46.95] JAMIE: OK. Well, he's probably sleeping. He must need it.
[00:00:49.42] JOSIE: Yes.

[00:00:51.20] JAMIE: So Karen, do you have attendance?
[00:00:52.92] KAREN: Yes, I do.

[00:00:53.50] JAMIE: OK, great. So can we start with the approval of the agenda?
[00:01:00.13] COLLEEN: I move to approve the agenda.
[00:01:02.04] JIM: I second.
[00:01:03.29] JAMIE: All those in favor?
[00:01:04.93] MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Aye.

[00:01:05.81] JAMIE: Opposed? OK. So now we have a consent agenda, approval of minutes from back in July, and then we have to vote on both the July and August disbursements. Is there a motion?
[00:01:19.85] JIM: I move to approve the consent agenda.
[00:01:24.36] LINH: I second.
[00:01:25.77] JAMIE: In favor?
[00:01:27.12] MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Aye.

[00:01:28.20] JAMIE: Opposed? Any citizen's comments tonight? OK. Well, there will be a chance at the end, if-- I don't think I see anyone who could [INAUDIBLE]. So shall we move on to the financial reports?

[00:01:52.51] BILL COOPER: Good evening, everyone. You have my reports in front of you. I've included the report for as of July 1st, 2017 and August 31st, 2017.
[00:02:04.36] Bottom line on the July report, we are under budget for the year by $371,493. When we look at August's report, we do have a few line items that are over budget. Those include salary and wages, employee benefits, employment taxes, custodial services, software licenses and maintenance, and building rental, grant memorial expenses.
[00:02:35.81] The salaries and wages are over budget because the pay period ending on 8/26-- even though the pay date was 9/1, the money is transferred the day before the pay date, so it had to be reconciled in August. So that is causing a two weeks' worth of pay to be showing up in August. It's really paid in September.
[00:02:56.30] Our building rental-- we accrued the next month's rent, so this has three months' rent in two months is showing in for the August. And plus, we have a slight increase in our cam charges for the archive on location.
[00:03:19.69] Our grant memorial expenses-- those are over due to the expense for the Summer Games. Of course, the Summer Games has concluded, so those expenses will come back in line as the year goes along. But bottom line is, our total expenditures for year to date-- we're still under budget by $249,584. Any questions?
[00:03:49.16] JAMIE: Everyone looks very serious. Any questions?
[00:03:51.10] [LAUGHING]
[00:03:51.75] Not that you shouldn't. I think we might be OK. Thank you very much--
[00:04:02.96] BILL COOPER: Thank you.
[00:04:03.10] JAMIE: --for presenting that. Len, we just want to say thank you for cleaning up everything this weekend and making the building work again. Dealing with the city and everything that you did. I'm sorry-- it's confusing, because you both have very similar names.
[00:04:19.77] LEN LEMORIE: This was all hands on deck, so everyone took part in it.
[00:04:22.75] JAMIE: Very good.
[00:04:23.30] LEN LEMORIE: I don't deserve all the credit [INAUDIBLE].
[00:04:25.93] JAMIE: Well, you did leave a U of M football game early, so that's a pretty big deal.
[00:04:30.01] LEN LEMORIE: [INAUDIBLE] football [INAUDIBLE].
[00:04:30.93] JAMIE: Yeah, that's true. Well, we are very appreciative of everyone's work.
[00:04:36.83] LEN LEMORIE: Thank you.
[00:04:37.02] COLLEEN: And pass on the thanks to-- like you said, to everyone.

[00:04:41.53] JAMIE: Yes. So let's see-- that brings us to Josie's report.
[00:04:46.75] JOSIE: Thank you. The slides are going to be at the top. You all have probably read-- and I apologize in advance. I have a head cold, so I sound a little hoarse. You've read about the MeLCat, the suspension.
[00:05:05.85] What this is about is that no holds can be placed for MeLCat items October 2nd forward. Anything currently on hold will come in. People can still renew after October 2nd-- simply cannot request anything else.
[00:05:24.23] We have to clear all that out before we can migrate over, because these items are not actually on our system. They're on a separate system. You can't carry over what isn't yours.
[00:05:37.79] The timeframe for how this works is one that is imposed by MCLS, the organization that manages the MeLCat program. So we have to come off MeLCat, and then to go back to MeLCat is a three-month process, and that is their process. So once we launch the website, once we have our new ILS system in place, then we can re-launch and start the process of being able to place holds in MeLCat. But not before that. So that's why it's going to be spring before this is active again.
[00:06:10.55] It's interesting, the feedback on this from the public. The excitement of having so many things happen with the new ILS system that works better for them is offsetting any disappointment about MeLCat. Also, we're standing ready to give them options with what I call traditional ILL, which we can do. It just takes longer. And it's more work for them, and it's more work for us, but we can still get them their material.
[00:06:42.44] VICTORIA: Josie, do you expect an appreciable impact on staff time in terms of doing ILL instead of MLS, which I assume it's more labor intensive per transaction?
[00:06:50.73] JOSIE: It's more labor intensive, but we have a number of people now whose time is dedicated to MeLCat. Because since we are a net lender, net borrower in the state, it takes a number of people full-time to do it here. Those people will be freed up to support the ILL side of what we're doing.
[00:07:09.08] So yes, it will be more intensive in the task itself. It takes more to do. But we have people who are going to be able to do it.
[00:07:19.38] JAMIE: I would also imagine that because it's a little bit more effort to request it, that perhaps you wouldn't just-- a quick click a button. So maybe that might weed out some requests.
[00:07:30.93] JOSIE: I think people will choose against ILL when they realize how much work it is on their side. And then they'll just wait until they can get those materials again.
[00:07:42.15] ED: They might even buy a book.
[00:07:43.83] JOSIE: They might. A lot of-- well, I won't go into that. A lot of what people get across the state is out of print genre fiction. So they might can buy it somewhere used, but they can't just go the Literati or somewhere like that and buy that book.
[00:07:59.03] This is the landscaping, a photograph of the Traverwood Wall that was. And the landscaping project is complete, and on schedule, and under budget. We're happy about that.
[00:08:11.21] The Summer Game was amazing. Some of the numbers I shared with you already. And the website-- Andrew MacLaren did a great job talking about the numbers from the Summer Game. But we had a 16.8% increase in our online players, and we had a 10.2% increase in our badges earned, which is really good.
[00:08:32.65] The Walker is about my walking horse, so you have to know the lingo. But my code in my office was one of my horses. And it was so fun this year.
[00:08:43.94] We had a 45% increase in the number of people who came into my office to get that code. And so when you're in-- they talk to me, and I hear all kinds of things about what people think about the library. And it's from people from little toddlers to seniors who were playing the game and coming in just to see me.
[00:09:04.01] This Super Summer Reader badge-- it's 20% increase. And the Track TheRide badge, which was the collaboration we did with AAATA-- we had 153% increase over doing that last year, so it was a very successful game. And I'd just like to say thanks-- Melanie Ballen is sitting in here.
[00:09:22.59] She manages the bookshop for the Friends. And we really appreciate the donation the Friends make to support Summer Game. And the game in the shop, so it's really great.
[00:09:34.40] First strategic plan goal update, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a little while. I wanted to let you know, you tasked me at the last board meeting, and I have contracted with O'Neal Construction. They have begun the physical assessment of this downtown library building, and we'll expect a report from them in October at this board meeting. Mr. Stauder-- Paul Stauder, the managing director of PFM Financial Advisors-- is here this evening. And that was also part of what the library board was interested in, is understanding the process for which an elected board of [INAUDIBLE] bonds, particularly for a facilities project.
[00:10:13.97] And then goal 4.1-- we have also worked out an agreement with EPIC-MRA to do the next survey. Every other year, even years, we've been doing surveys with EPIC-MRA. And that will occur in February. And we'll be talking later about how we'll be developing the questions for that survey.
[00:10:39.79] And then this was a summary of public and staff comments. This is around the downtown library sewer backup, and so we had different responses. People asked me if we need a new building.
[00:10:55.01] JAMIE: I know that guy.
[00:10:56.93] JOSIE: So people are saying it's great to have an alternative location. The family's gone to Westgate. And so it was a different variety of comments about that.
[00:11:10.16] Here's more about the library in terms of being closed. And then it's so interesting how you close a building for sewer backup, and then someone asks you if there's any chance the Lego Spinner activity will be rescheduled, because we had to cancel everything. So you find out what matters to people, and then we have to look and see when we can do that again.
[00:11:35.03] So this is something I think we should all be happy about and proud of-- the Westgate branch renovation has an AIA honor work for interior architecture from Huron Valley Architects. I know that [? Hobs ?] Black is delighted. We're delighted. So I wanted to say congratulations to the board for that project, and I feel good about it. Very good about it.
[00:12:04.94] This young-- this woman came to program here on the letterpress. And then she created a film about how to decorate on a budget, featuring letterpress art from the library. And she has tagged it #madeatAADL and the Secret Lab. So thought you should-- it's interesting how people take what they know from here, create, and then spread that word. And we're very, very happy about that.
[00:12:37.27] This is one of those things that just goes off. This is what, 3,000 impressions from this? 16,000 impressions from this. So "Jim Harbrick" was at the Lego contest. And someone made the photo, and it's just gone. It's amazing.
[00:12:57.13] And another one is the eclipse crowd. So you saw in the notes we had varying opinions about this. So most of them have been very positive. But one you saw wasn't.
[00:13:10.89] So this was the crowd, and this was the crowd trying to get glasses. And once this was passed and done, and the glasses were passed out, everybody was happy. It was all fine.
[00:13:21.79] Everybody was sharing the glasses, passing them around. It was totally interesting what happened in the beginning, and then it calmed right down. That's my report. Anybody has any questions about anything, I'd be happy to answer. If there are others you'd like to know.
[00:13:39.45] JAN: I was away during this. So there weren't enough glasses, but people shared them?
[00:13:43.73] JOSIE: Oh, there were never going to be enough glasses. We had 400 pair, and the National Science Foundation had a program where they were giving eclipse glasses out to public libraries around the country. The problem was the National Science Foundation underestimated how many glasses would be needed for programming around the country. So they portioned them out.
[00:14:07.98] ED: They were watching their budget.
[00:14:09.58] JOSIE: Yup. And we weren't able to order more. We tried, and we couldn't. And had we ordered more, even if we had double the order, we would not have had enough.
[00:14:18.78] So what happened is we handed out what we had. People came with some they bought from museum shops. People made eclipse glasses from boxes and also from radiograph material and film.
[00:14:36.90] So it was really interesting. So once this rush was over for a pair of glasses, everyone settled into being there together and sharing glasses, passing them around. Because you're not going to stand there for two hours and look up.
[00:14:49.86] So people were sharing their glasses. There was a lot of smiling and happiness. It was very friendly, very fun. That's where you got all the positive feedback.
[00:14:59.16] And we had no way to anticipate how people might behave. But there was no shoving. Nothing like that. Just a rush for it. It was tense for a little while, and then it calmed down.
[00:15:16.18] But it was thousands of people, and they were all over downtown. It was pretty amazing. And the [INAUDIBLE] as well.
[00:15:23.61] JAMIE: Oh, yes.
[00:15:24.03] JOSIE: Yeah. But this is not an everyday thing, so it was really quite wonderful.
[00:15:29.67] LINH: Josie, can you talk about the Summer Games party at the end? Was it-- Was that the crowd that you--
[00:15:35.95] JOSIE: It was big. It was in this building, of course, downtown. And we had-- I don't know the number--
[00:15:43.44] ELI: About 600.
[00:15:43.84] JOSIE: About 600 people attended.
[00:15:44.89] JAMIE: Wow.
[00:15:45.88] JOSIE: And so it's like, come to celebrate. And before that, we had our volunteer recognition earlier that day a couple hours ahead of time. And so we had quite a few people came to that.
[00:15:59.71] That's been a very successful effort now that [? Shoshana's ?] here, so I'll say that. I'm very happy about that. Good feedback from all the people involved in that.
[00:16:07.64] And then down for the party, people like talking about the game with each other. People were still doing their friend code, because it wasn't over until midnight. So we had people getting their friends codes.
[00:16:21.67] We had codes in the building for being at the party. So it just built, and built, and built. So very pleasant, very fun experience.
[00:16:32.50] JAMIE: Any the other questions or comments for Josie? All right. Well, thank you very much.
[00:16:40.48] JOSIE: Thank you.

[00:16:40.91] JAMIE: What an exciting summer it's been, in a lot of ways. So we move on to old business. The first item is the strategic plan goal 3.3, which by now you're probably familiar with hearing that on our agenda.

[00:16:56.31] So we've put this on every agenda going forward so we don't lose track of our reexamining, re-envisioning, reimagining the downtown library's presence. And most of what I have to share with you tonight you've already heard from Josie just a moment ago. So as you heard, Josie has worked with PFM to arrange a presentation that we'll hear later tonight. So that should be very educational and help us really understand the financial aspects of the situation.

[00:17:25.98] And then she's also contracted with O'Neal to evaluate the downtown library holistically. So when we have that report, we're going to get a really helpful piece of the puzzle in terms of figuring out what we're actually dealing with. I know that's something that we all wanted a lot.

[00:17:44.22] And then over the course of this fall, we'll have the opportunity to design the next set of questions we ask via EPIC-MRA. So that's something, of course, that was tied to this communications agenda originally. But now we have the opportunity to use that to complete the piece of the puzzle and understand how people feel about the options that we will have by that point set out in front of us. Like what are we going to do about downtown? How does the community feel about that?

[00:18:13.54] So the executive committee has met twice in the last two months, and we've talked about getting started with the process of coming up with those questions. And previously, the communications committee was the group that was charged with coming up with the questions that we asked in that survey. But that committee doesn't exist anymore. So it makes sense to me, and it makes sense to the others on the executive committee, that we would work on a set of questions that we would then bring to the larger group for evaluation before they go forward to EPIC-MRA.

[00:18:49.47] But with that, and then also just any other questions or concerns you might have about where we are in this process, I wanted to turn things over to I think the four of you to see where you're feeling right now. If you have questions that are at the top of your mind, if you have issues with where we are in this process, and what you expect to see moving forward.

[00:19:13.83] JAN: Where are we in this process? What you just said.

[00:19:17.42] JAMIE: Yes.

[00:19:17.70] JAN: You've met a couple of times. Have you come up with questions?

[00:19:21.00] JAMIE: No. That's where we are in the process. So that'll be the next step.

[00:19:24.14] JAN: Mm-hm.

[00:19:25.52] COLLEEN: And we need them by early January?

[00:19:27.76] JAMIE: Yeah, it goes out in February. So basically fall is the time to come up with the questions. So I would say that we are within the timeline and expectations that we set in July.

[00:19:43.15] JAN: How different do you think the questions should be from what they have been in the past?

[00:19:49.08] JAMIE: Well, Jim, you worked on the last questions. So how do you think--

[00:19:55.75] JIM: I think the intention, as we discussed last time, was to focus the survey around questions of downtown and this building in particular, which in the last time around-- it was not focused really on facilities at all. I can't remember if we asked any facilities questions--

[00:20:14.61] JOSIE: Very few.

[00:20:15.37] JIM: There were very few.

[00:20:15.91] JOSIE: It was more about meeting rooms, which people--

[00:20:17.53] JIM: Services.

[00:20:18.09] JOSIE: Yeah, right, services.

[00:20:19.33] JIM: Primarily about service and--

[00:20:21.49] JAN: [? Utilage. ?]

[00:20:22.86] JIM: Yeah.

[00:20:23.31] JAN: How do people use it, and what--

[00:20:24.79] JIM: Exactly. So I think that we will all determine what the way forward is with this survey. But given what we discussed last time, I think the idea is to organize a survey around how the community is feeling about this location and this presence both conceptually and physically.

[00:20:44.45] JAN: And we'll know something about cost projections even at that point, of what it would take to do what--

[00:20:49.78] JIM: We should, because the O'Neal report will come back in October, and that will be presented to the full board. So I think sometime around February, March, we'll have all the information in terms of the assessment. And then all of the information in terms of the survey, which will then open up--

[00:21:09.40] JAN: Will that be evaluating--

[00:21:10.73] JIM: --the next set of decisions.

[00:21:11.64] JAN: --what the building [INAUDIBLE] does now? What the condition of the building is now, what it needs? Or will it be-- what we did in the past was talk about what it would take to tear this building down and build new, and what it would take to rent an operational space during the meantime. Would we do all that same stuff all over again?

[00:21:34.91] JIM: That's my understanding. Right, Josie?

[00:21:36.92] JOSIE: Yeah, we have to.

[00:21:37.77] JAN: Do we have a dollar amount, concrete?

[00:21:40.08] JIM: Mm-hm.

[00:21:40.36] JOSIE: Yeah, but numbers will change now.

[00:21:43.21] JAN: Sure. Be more, big-time.

[00:21:45.31] JOSIE: Right, it will be.

[00:21:45.79] LINH: Yeah. It's been 10 years, right? So.

[00:21:48.36] JAMIE: I can't believe that. Since the original work.

[00:21:51.03] JOSIE: Since the original work, right.

[00:21:53.02] JIM: And I think it's just important to say, of course, we're having these conversations, but all possible scenarios are--

[00:22:01.26] JAMIE: On the table.

[00:22:01.77] JIM: --on the table. We haven't made any decisions about what--

[00:22:06.78] JAN: Well, once we know cost, we can talk about, maybe we don't have a downtown library. Maybe we move out somewhere else. We can do the whole thing.

[00:22:15.32] JIM: That would be one scenario, yes. Exactly.

[00:22:19.11] COLLEEN: When we think of a survey question design and the kind of data-- because it's quantitatively. We can deduce things from the data. It's a lot of yes and no and number ratings, right? So we want questions that are qualitative in nature and give us that rather than qualitative--

[00:22:37.39] JIM: There's a mix. There are some--

[00:22:39.59] COLLEEN: You can mix it?

[00:22:40.60] JIM: I think the last time we did it, there were a few generally open-ended questions that were then coded. But EPIC is-- we have nothing to worry about, just in terms of what they'll probably put forth and how we think about it. That was my experience the last time we went through the process.

[00:22:58.48] JOSIE: Yeah, that part I don't think you have to be concerned about.

[00:23:00.36] JIM: Yeah, and the analysis is just off the chain, so-- --we'll get everything you could possibly imagine. And all kinds of crosstabs, and you can drill down.

[00:23:10.54] COLLEEN: Oh, really?

[00:23:11.44] JIM: Yeah, we can know what every 14-year-old in the community wants--

[00:23:14.43] COLLEEN: Yay!

[00:23:15.80] JIM: It'll be that kind of thing. It'll be very--

[00:23:17.61] JOSIE: It's why we use EPIC-MRA.

[00:23:19.24] COLLEEN: With question design, it seems to me that we want to build on the conversation we started at the retreat, inviting public debate into it-- "debate's" the wrong word-- public opinion into. So the questions have to be designed around getting a sense of-- it's not usage, it's vision, right? So asking visioning questions.

[00:23:43.77] JIM: Yeah, it's a good point.

[00:23:46.79] COLLEEN: That's going to be something we-- if we do it well, the results we get will be really helpful.

[00:23:53.50] VICTORIA: But to follow up on what you've said, Colleen, we definitely want to ask questions about downtown and facility. But the real point is, what services could we offer? What services could we offer the public with the space?

[00:24:05.71] COLLEEN: That we can't offer now.

[00:24:08.21] VICTORIA: Right.

[00:24:10.42] JAMIE: Right. So what I'm hearing from the three of you is that if we just ask people how they use the library, or ask them in the wrong way how they want to use the library, we won't get the information that we need.

[00:24:20.62] VICTORIA: Right.

[00:24:22.62] JIM: I do think-- if I remember last time, it might be interesting, actually, because we do have a lot of new board members since that survey, to consider actually looking at the results of last time at the next meeting.

[00:24:41.15] JOSIE: Oh, sure.

[00:24:42.99] JIM: Because we actually did query on a lot of service, and we did leave open ends. And we were surprised, because there wasn't a lot being expressed, if I'm remembering correctly. You guys work with that--

[00:24:55.44] ELI: Very little differentiation.

[00:24:56.19] JIM: Right, between what we were offering and what people could imagine that they wanted.

[00:25:01.79] JAN: Because we're ahead of the game.

[00:25:03.41] JIM: Exactly. That's the way we like to interpret it. That we're meeting many, if not most or all of the major needs in the community. So it is also a good way to test, if we're thinking about something specific, to put that forth. And so we can also do it in that way.

[00:25:27.53] I also think we learned a lot about the media appetite, or the media diets that people have, the last time around, which reinforced the move towards email newsletter, and the building out of the website project, and the communication strategy as embedded in the strategic plan. So that's all based on that research. It's been a while since I've thought about the specifics of it, but I'm now realizing that we integrated all of it into our work.

[00:25:54.29] JOSIE: We did. We took it. We took the information and used it. Yes, we did.

[00:25:57.83] VICTORIA: Is that data available publicly? Can we just find it on the website if we look?

[00:26:01.22] JOSIE: Yes, it is.

[00:26:02.04] COLLEEN: [INAUDIBLE]

[00:26:03.33] JAMIE: Though I think some sort of guided discussion-- if you all read it between now and the next time, I think that could be a very productive use of our 3.3 time next time.

[00:26:13.10] JIM: Yeah. Would you want to invite someone to talk on the survey, or would you just want to walk us through top-level, or you and Eli could do it.

[00:26:19.59] JOSIE: No. I think we can do it.

[00:26:22.79] ELI: [INAUDIBLE] executive summary [INAUDIBLE].

[00:26:24.28] JIM: Yeah.

[00:26:26.99] LINH: I think it would be interesting to see what are people's reactions post-Westgate, too. So we have another standard. And then we can also look at people's expectations between using the neighborhood branches and downtown, and how that's a distinctively different experience. And how necessary, or, if some people feel, unnecessary it is.

[00:26:51.75] VICTORIA: Do we always say "neighborhood branches" and "downtown"? Because downtown is my neighborhood branch.

[00:26:56.44] LINH: Oh, right. That's a really good point.

[00:26:59.48] VICTORIA: It's interesting. I think sometimes earlier, the board and the library have a kind of all equal branches. And I think we've moved away from that language a little bit, is that right? That we do talk about downtown differently.

[00:27:11.21] JOSIE: We say downtown. We don't say central or main, which was on purpose. So the switch to "downtown" from "main" happened in my time here. And so to do that, to make sure that it was more equitable and acknowledging that it's a neighborhood branch for the people who live around here.

[00:27:31.01] VICTORIA: But I think your point still does hold, Linh. This is absolutely the branch that's most accessible by public transportation, for example. And has the most stuff in the collection. So plenty of folks will come here for particular reasons. But some of us also go to Westgate for particular reasons.

[00:27:47.32] JAMIE: Absolutely.

[00:27:48.38] JIM: Like coffee.

[00:27:48.83] [LAUGHING]

[00:27:50.82] JAMIE: Not that we couldn't have that here.

[00:27:52.32] JIM: Yeah, it's true. I'd also just say, too, as we go, part of the reason to go through the EPIC survey first in committee is that the survey is a very, very finite document. And so we have to be ultra selective about how it's structured.

[00:28:12.54] And I think that's often frustrating. But it is a phone survey, and so it's time-based. And EPIC-MRA will do a demographic cross-cut in terms of who they actually choose to survey. So there are certain demographics so that they make sure that we actually get a demographically diverse cut of the community.

[00:28:40.30] JAN: How did we work with cell phones before?

[00:28:43.16] JIM: I don't think we could before, but now we can--

[00:28:45.12] JOSIE: We did last time.

[00:28:45.52] JIM: Yeah, we did.

[00:28:46.38] JOSIE: And they'll increase the number--

[00:28:47.12] JAN: But how did we do it? How did we get the--

[00:28:50.37] JOSIE: I don't--

[00:28:52.14] JAN: That's what we pay EPIC-MRA for.

[00:28:53.54] ELI: That's their business.

[00:28:54.44] JIM: That's their job, yeah.

[00:28:55.32] ELI: They have developed multiple sources of how they get cell phones that are known to exist in the specific region. And of course, the first question they ask is if they are where they--

[00:29:05.96] JIM: Where their phone is, right.

[00:29:07.68] ELI: So each time, I believe the first time we did it was 25% cell phones or 30% cell phones. Last time, I think it was 40%.

[00:29:13.40] JOSIE: And they're hoping to increase it this time.

[00:29:19.44] JAMIE: Any other-- besides EPIC-MRA? Obviously, tonight, we're going to move on to the PFM presentation, so I think questions there will be welcome and useful. But what we'll get from O'Neal-- any questions or comments there? Anything else?

[00:29:40.59] It sounds like we will talk about the last EPIC-MRA survey at the next meeting. And the executive committee is meeting regularly this fall. We'll start working on the questions. And I'm sure we'll have more things to bring you next month. So I think we move on now to the Traverwood capital project.

[00:30:10.67] LEN LEMORIE: Good evening. So we have completed the Traverwood project. We do have, I think, one or two payouts left. But all the big-ticket items are done and addressed, and the project went very well. Do you guys have any questions?

[00:30:25.12] VICTORIA: I've got one, then. So I think this project is we're less dependent on the vegetation for the solution, right?

[00:30:32.12] LEN LEMORIE: Absolutely. The big reason to eliminate the wall was we would never have to revisit it, and--

[00:30:38.73] VICTORIA: All that grass could die, and we still wouldn't have a big bill coming to us.

[00:30:42.41] LEN LEMORIE: Absolutely. And once it grows in, it'll be good, hardy vegetation. We won't have to mow that but once or twice a year. It meets, or is consistent with, the design when we opened the building. So it's just a lot less maintenance than dealing with the wall.

[00:31:02.95] LINH: It looks great. I visited the site. That's my branch. Now I'm afraid to say neighborhood.

[00:31:08.95] [LAUGHING]

[00:31:09.91] VICTORIA: I'm sorry, Linh.

[00:31:11.35] JIM: Your preferred branch?

[00:31:12.31] LINH: Yes. That's my closest to my house branch.

[00:31:14.95] [LAUGHING]

[00:31:15.82] And it looks great. Thank you.

[00:31:17.50] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah, we're very pleased. For a project that size, everything went very well. Of course, O'Neal managed the project for us and did a superb job, as usual. So it was nice to work with them again.

[00:31:30.35] JAMIE: Great. Thank you.

[00:31:31.29] LEN LEMORIE: Very good. Thank you guys so much.

[00:31:34.22] JAMIE: Next up, we have Eli to talk about our very exciting, long-awaited new website.

[00:31:52.11] ELI: So we just want to give you an update on the timeline. We're moving along. Many of the things are slight variations of what we presented back in July as we've made progress. Feel free to interrupt, of course, as we have questions as we go.

[00:32:05.17] So just to remind you of the timeline. So the MeLCat freeze is coming up on October 2nd, as we talked about. That went out in the AADL newsletter, the email newsletter on Labor Day, and it was a post on the front page of AADL.org at the same time.

[00:32:22.65] So far, experimental data confirms that most MeLCat users are aware of this, because we're starting to hear questions about it from them in a very positive way. Just asking how it's going to work, and things like that. We had one interaction on Facebook over the weekend about someone had come to pick up their MeLCat, and I made sure that they had heard this, and they had. And they had heard that this was going to be happening, and they were preparing for it. So so far so good, as far as that goes.

[00:32:48.24] JAN: Eli, let me just--

[00:32:49.04] ELI: Yes.

[00:32:49.34] JAN: --ask you this quick question. How frequently do our MeLCat users use MeLCat?

[00:32:56.17] ELI: Well, some users are extremely intense users of MeLCat, as in tens or hundreds of outstanding requests at a time. However, only about 10% of library patrons had ever used MeLCat. So that's part of it, is it's a super-user thing for the most part.

[00:33:12.54] So there are a lot of users who have only used a few things here or there, but most of our users have never used MeLCat. So a lot of people saw the notice, was like, what on earth is MeLCat. Which is fine.

[00:33:25.08] We get a little bit of confusion about, wait, you mean I'm not going to be able to request things? It's like, no, no, no. This is only this other thing. So that's been going fine so far.

[00:33:32.91] JAN: Good.

[00:33:34.26] ELI: So then we have what's called acquisitions freeze coming up on December 1st. Acquisitions is a slow-moving process between adding things to the collection, placing them on order. They come in, and they get barcoded. That needs a lot of time to spin down.

[00:33:48.25] So as of December 1st, new items being added to the old system will start grinding to a halt. Around that time, they'll start adding items to the new system so that when the new system comes up, they'll already be there. But the month of December will be a different pace of new items being added to collection to what people are used to. However, December is typically a slow month for us, so it's a good time for that as well.

[00:34:12.60] VICTORIA: Eli, is there any really big book coming out that we think people are going to be--

[00:34:15.66] ELI: We're looking at that. We haven't found one yet, mostly because they try to get that stuff out generally November so they make the holiday shopping. But we can do individual titles.

[00:34:27.21] If there's individuals that we need to get on there, especially for things that have not yet been released, we can still add them to the catalog and let people place holds. It's more the routine things that nobody's waiting for will be slowing down during that period. Does that answer your question?

[00:34:40.23] VICTORIA: Mm-hm.

[00:34:42.36] ELI: Then on December 15th, we will stop filling holds. People will still be able to place holds. The trick is, we need to clear out the hold shelves, because the status of hold shelf is a very tricky one to migrate from the old system to the new system. So when we cut over, the hold shelves need to be empty.

[00:35:00.12] Because people have six days to pick them up, and we're cutting that basically so that right as we get to Christmas Eve, the hold shelves should be mostly emptied. We're adding a few comfort days in there so that we'll be able to make exceptions for people who can't get in during the holidays. But as of December 15th, we will stop filling holds and putting them on the hold shelf.

[00:35:20.81] You will still be able to place holds all the way up until December 29th. Those holds won't be filled. And this will probably be the most confusing thing, I think, for patrons in the closing weeks. Because while we think a lot about the holds that are on outstanding items where you have to get in line for them, the majority is 60% to 70% of our holds are filled in two days, meaning that they're placed on things that are available. Meaning, please get this off the shelf for me and hold it for me.

[00:35:48.51] So we'll have things that are actually available, and people will still be able to place holds, but we won't be filling them. So the box that confirms that your hold has been placed will say, as we're migrating to the new system, we will not be pulling items from the shelf. So we'll get that in front of them as much as we can, but I think that that will be something that there's a little--

[00:36:12.66] It's during that 15th to the 29th is that period where people will still want to get in line for big titles. And that's the thing that we don't want to cut off completely. So that will be tricky messaging as of that point to make it clear that you can still place requests, but we're not going to be pulling things off the shelf the way that you're used to during that two-week period between the 15th and the 29th.

[00:36:34.77] VICTORIA: And those items on the shelf then become first-come, first-serve, right?

[00:36:38.37] ELI: Yes, correct.

[00:36:40.70] COLLEEN: So get your Christmas movies if you're a Christmas person. So some people do that-- oh, we've got to get Christmas movies, put them on hold. You can't put them on hold, OK. Then that begs the question, what's the open rate been on the newsletter?

[00:36:54.81] ELI: Typically-- let's see, we're sending out about 45,000 of them. It's been between 15,000 to 20,000 opens. So we're pretty happy about that for the most part. It oscillates a little bit. Clickthrough rates are pretty low for the most part, but we'll bring some more detail about that next month when we have a little bit more data behind it.

[00:37:11.03] LINH: What's the last day of public schools before the holidays?

[00:37:13.38] ELI: It's the 22nd. It's the Friday before Christmas.

[00:37:16.71] LINH: So do you see a rush that coordinates with schools?

[00:37:19.26] ELI: We see a rush of event attendance during that week, but it's a slow week for the collection for the most part. Mostly because people are trying to empty things out of their house and into ours in anticipation of company and that sort of thing.

[00:37:32.87] LINH: Or travel.

[00:37:33.32] ELI: Or travel. So it's typically a time when the shelves are choked with stuff. So they'll be even more choked.

[00:37:40.57] JOSIE: Especially with MeLCat, the switch.

[00:37:44.72] COLLEEN: For clarification, Josie, you said that there's some messaging points for people who have concerns about MeLCat? I've actually had some friends say, oh my gosh, no MeLCat? Wait, what's the messaging?

[00:37:56.46] JOSIE: On the website, I had a post on the front page of the website at the top for a week. I think most of the questions people are probably asking you, I've been asked, and I've answered on that post. And it's still published--

[00:38:12.11] COLLEEN: Great, I'll find it.

[00:38:13.05] JOSIE: --on the front page. It's not at the top now, but it's still there. So if you look at that, and if the questions you're getting are not those questions, just text me or email me.

[00:38:22.81] COLLEEN: It's just-- it's the super users who are used to one way of doing things. And the minute I say, yeah, but there's going to be a brand new website, it's going to be awesome, they get excited about [INAUDIBLE].

[00:38:34.12] ELI: And it seems like a really long time for an avid MeLCat user, but part of it is, that's only the date when they can't place requests anymore. It can take up to a month for your requests to come in, then you get it for a month, then you get a renewal. All that's still happening.

[00:38:47.85] The goal is that come the end of the year, we can't have any MeLCats borrowed or lent. So also on October 2nd, we will stop lending items to other libraries through MeLCat. Then, as Josie said, once we get past the migration, it is a three-month process to rejoin MeLCat, because everything has to be recatalogued in the MeLCat system.

[00:39:08.67] JOSIE: And that's not our protocol. That belongs on the MeLCat side.

[00:39:13.26] COLLEEN: Yeah, and it's what it is.

[00:39:14.60] JOSIE: It is. It is what it is.

[00:39:15.96] ELI: And other libraries have done this, and it has been a six-month process for them as well.

[00:39:21.10] JOSIE: You should also know, just for the bigger picture, to have AADL go offline for MeLCat is not a small thing in the MeLCat system, because we are a net lender. So it's going to change that for the whole state, where people are using and getting our material.

[00:39:44.16] COLLEEN: Probably small libraries in other parts of the state.

[00:39:46.28] JOSIE: Yes, rely on it. So while it hurts us, we're not the only ones with pain here.

[00:39:51.90] ED: Do you know approximately how many books go out annually through MeLCat?

[00:39:56.68] JOSIE: Yes.

[00:39:57.06] ELI: It's about 36,000 in and out. The system tries to keep that ratio within 10%-- like however many your users borrow, it's how many go out.

[00:40:05.79] JAN: You mean they can turn you down?

[00:40:06.63] ELI: But it's roughly 3,000 a month.

[00:40:07.56] JAN: They can turn you down if you aren't--

[00:40:09.90] ELI: The way that it works is that the system decides what library loans the copy to try to match the ratio.

[00:40:16.03] JOSIE: Balance things.

[00:40:16.56] ELI: Yup.

[00:40:17.76] JOSIE: But we still-- because we're bigger, we still are a net lender.

[00:40:21.18] ELI: So it's roughly 3,000 titles out a month and roughly 3,000 titles in per month.

[00:40:25.80] ED: They're primarily genre fiction?

[00:40:29.97] ELI: It's a lot of genre fiction, especially out-of-print genre fiction, but it's also a number of out-of-print nonfiction books as well. A lot of it is stuff that got used up and fell apart here a long time ago.

[00:40:42.49] JOSIE: That we're borrowing.

[00:40:43.35] ELI: That we're borrowing, yeah.

[00:40:46.08] JAMIE: You have an excellent collection, so I can see why--

[00:40:48.30] JOSIE: We loan a lot of nonfiction.

[00:40:52.26] ED: Do we have a replacement program for used up and fell apart?

[00:40:57.69] ELI: Yes, when the titles are available. Whenever something is withdrawn because of condition, there's a report that's generated to see if it's still available and if there's still demand for it. And then we'll replace the title generally.

[00:41:08.31] JAMIE: I used to do that.

[00:41:10.56] ED: That's a fun job. Can I have it?

[00:41:12.08] [LAUGHING]

[00:41:14.76] VICTORIA: So based on the six-month time period, it sounds to me like the October 2nd is our date by which we want to be very sure that we can do the transfers we expect, right?

[00:41:24.27] ELI: Yes.

[00:41:24.69] VICTORIA: Because that's when our six months will kick off.

[00:41:26.43] ELI: Yup.

[00:41:26.93] VICTORIA: And do you think we're likely to see a shift in that October 2nd date?

[00:41:30.10] ELI: I don't know.

[00:41:30.63] VICTORIA: We've announced it.

[00:41:30.92] ELI: No. We've committed to that at this point. And I think that we're past that sort of uncertainty. And we'll keep going on the timeline here. There's some time built-in.

[00:41:41.31] So closure and cutover. We will be closing the library system on December 30th. So we'll be closed the 30th, the 31st, and the 1st. Typically, we've closed at 6:00 PM on the 31st anyway.

[00:41:56.72] This year, that's a Sunday, so it doesn't make much of a difference. But with the 29th being a Friday, we're closed New Year's Eve weekend. It's a very good time for us to be closing the libraries as far as that goes.

[00:42:07.16] The challenge is mostly we cannot migrate while people are actively using the system. And we want to have time for the migration of the checkouts and the holds to need to be redone during that period in case there's something wrong. So we're building in to that period, taking advantage of the closure, taking advantage of the days when we'd already be closed, to make sure we have as much comfort as possible about being able to get the trickiest parts of the migration that you cannot be operating to do, done during that period.

[00:42:40.17] ED: Can I get back to the used up--

[00:42:43.89] ELI: Sure.

[00:42:44.66] ED: Do we have an active wants list?

[00:42:49.69] ELI: Not particularly. Mostly, that's the selectors' jobs, and they purchase as much material as they can. The other piece of it is that we receive between 30 and 50 requests for material that we don't have per week. And generally, if that material is available on the open market, we try to obtain it.

[00:43:11.03] We generally do not purchase used material. Occasionally, we do if it's something that is out-of-print, and is very hard to get, and is required. But most of our material as a public library is new material. Not necessarily newly printed, but not used.

[00:43:30.61] So then we reopen on the 2nd. You can resume placing requests, everything takes off again, and we're back in action with a working system. And then we start dealing through all the issues, which we will be expecting in terms of things that are just not testable outside of scale.

[00:43:48.71] We'll have lots of performance tests. I have a testing slide coming up here in a minute. But there will be a lot of things that we'll be working through that week, between things that weren't predicted ramifications of the way that material is moving to people's expectations. There will be a lot of stuff that we're working through that week. Just from experience, that first week is always a busy one.

[00:44:10.78] So again, the kids are still off that week, the week of the 2nd. So again, it's a good week for us to be sorting through, because it's still typically a slow week for the library before the kids go back to school. Then we will resume filling requests by the 8th, perhaps sooner, if things are going well.

[00:44:27.91] It depends on what problems we're tracking, and when we can start using the hold system again. But we're anticipating that week, we'll be sorting things out, and then we'll start filling holds again. Again, possibly sooner if things are going well.

[00:44:39.40] On that same day, we start resuming acquisitions, start adding things to the catalog again. As I said, there will be things that are in the new system that aren't in the old system. So when it comes up on the 2nd, there will be new stuff in there that hadn't shown up in the old system.

[00:44:53.11] And then due dates resume January 8th. One of the tricks that we can do here from our experience with this is we can tell the old system that the library is actually closed from the 15th of December through the 8th of January, which means there will be no due dates during that period. Now, stuff still comes back as people are cleaning out their houses and things like that. But by pushing all due dates out of the migration window, we help deal with the fact that we'll have more material on the shelves than we're accustomed to while it's less stuff coming through. So we just are able to push a lot of due dates off past the holidays so that things aren't coming due until after we're up on the new system.

[00:45:32.24] And then MeLCat will resume in spring 2018. We will get rolling on that as soon as we get past the launch window. Any questions so far?

[00:45:40.88] LINH: Eli, is this timeline available anywhere, or is it going to be--

[00:45:44.99] ELI: It's right here. It's not something we're likely to do a lot of messaging about until we get within a few days of these-- typically, we want to give a month's notice for major service interruptions, so a lot of this won't start going out to the public through our official communications until November. Because there's not another change to service until December 15th, after the MeLCat change.

[00:46:07.56] So just really quickly, this is our testing timeline. The migration data quality testing is ongoing. We continue to do test migrations and making sure that the data is coming over as we go. We'll be doing that through the closure and making sure that everything that we're taking out of the old system is showing up in the new system, and everything's showing up the way we expect. That will be ongoing.

[00:46:26.73] On Staff Day, we're having what we call a staff interface shakedown, where we will have the new staff interface available during breakouts in the Staff Day afternoon. And it'll basically be here, come play with it, see if you can break it. See if weird questions come up. Get people's hands on it way in advance and see if people can find problems or raise questions that we hadn't yet seen.

[00:46:45.80] JAMIE: Eli, when's Staff Day?

[00:46:47.20] ELI: It is October 9th.

[00:46:48.73] JAMIE: Oh, wow, so it's really soon.

[00:46:50.05] ELI: Yup, coming up.

[00:46:51.06] JAMIE: Jan, you went to Staff Day last year, right?

[00:46:53.43] JAN: What?

[00:46:53.85] JAMIE: You went to Staff Day last year?

[00:46:55.32] JAN: Mm-hm.

[00:46:56.67] JOSIE: You're all invited. For all or part of the day, whatever you would like or can do.

[00:47:02.44] JAN: I didn't do the going out to the other entities, but I came for the morning part.

[00:47:07.53] JAMIE: OK.

[00:47:07.86] JIM: Do you have the schedule yet?

[00:47:10.10] JOSIE: Not finished. But when we get it, we'll get it out to you.

[00:47:12.46] JIM: Great, thank you.

[00:47:13.11] JAMIE: Thank you.

[00:47:14.42] ELI: Performance testing will begin once our final hardware arrives. The final hardware-- we're just in the final process of finalizing that order right now. Once that arrives and gets set up, we'll start doing performance testing on it as far as making sure that it can handle the throughput of what we expect.

[00:47:28.05] There's a number of ways to simulate load and try to get it bearing the amount of traffic that we expect from it. And we have, as is our habit, overbought as far as capacity to make sure that we have enough power on the hardware. We've gone above the vendors' recommendations for what sort of hardware you throw at it to make sure that there's enough power in the [INAUDIBLE] to run the system very [INAUDIBLE] high performance.

[00:47:53.22] In November, we'll be doing public usability A/B testing, which means we'll be basically taking screenshots and sending them, where would you click to do this, where would you click to do that? It's not actually interactive. It's more seeing if people guess the right place to click, and comparing two different versions of it to see if our assumptions are holding true about what words people are expecting and where they see things-- those kinds of things. Staff user testing, then. As staff logging into the system in November, we'll have them logging into our test system, and trying out their own accounts, and looking at seeing placing requests, and doing those kinds of things, and giving the skilled user feedback.

[00:48:31.62] Then in December, we plan to try the first half of December, a closed beta where we invite members of the public who we have gotten quality feedback from in the past, and who we know are highly skilled users, to be on it and see if they can find things that we've been missing. Then the last two weeks, we'll have an open beta that won't have live data in it. So it'll basically be, the new website is coming, go over here and take a look at it, and let us know what you think. We want to avoid confusion where people think that they're placing a request and it's not a request. So they won't be able to log into their own accounts on the open beta.

[00:49:09.21] JIM: So is closed beta still a test system, or is it--

[00:49:12.83] ELI: That'll be on the production hardware. That'll be the actual implementation that we plan to deploy. And it'll be basically, here's the website, come beat up on it and see how it goes. Any questions about testing timeline?

[00:49:27.51] VICTORIA: I have one question.

[00:49:28.59] ELI: Sure.

[00:49:29.01] VICTORIA: Well, I have two questions. The first one is dumb. Where is our hardware? Where do we keep our servers?

[00:49:33.33] ELI: The data center's here in the downtown library.

[00:49:35.64] JIM: By the crocs.

[00:49:37.05] ELI: Yes, it is right next to the crocs.

[00:49:38.71] [LAUGHING]

[00:49:39.27] VICTORIA: No, stop!

[00:49:39.55] ELI: No it totally is.

[00:49:40.46] JIM: It is!

[00:49:41.19] VICTORIA: No!

[00:49:41.37] ELI: They're lower.

[00:49:43.81] JIM: [INAUDIBLE]

[00:49:44.86] ELI: They'd have to be in it pretty deep.

[00:49:46.48] JAMIE: [INAUDIBLE] crocs, just for anyone watching--

[00:49:48.09] JIM: The sewage crocs.

[00:49:48.90] VICTORIA: My second question is, do all libraries run their own hardware? Does anyone run their system in the cloud?

[00:49:54.24] ELI: There are some libraries that do that. We want to be able to continue to operate when our internet connection is cut off. So we are not believers in this system being operated on the cloud.

[00:50:04.80] The other thing is that no vendor is providing the set of functionality that we're looking for. We've done a lot of stuff with the system already-- I'm going to show you in just a minute-- that no other users of the system have done. And we generally are not well served for library software being operated on remote mainframes.

[00:50:25.11] We use a lot of cloud services. Our email's hosted in the cloud. Our payroll system is hosted in the cloud. Things where we don't have unique requirements are good candidates for that type of service.

[00:50:34.44] But in this case, we have a lot of unique requirements. Does that answer your question? It's also, ultimately, with the way that the software's a service, products are. This is much less expensive, because we're able to operate it on commodity hardware and in a controlled environment.

[00:50:52.77] VICTORIA: Next to the sewage crocs.

[00:50:53.94] ELI: That's right. Well, they're very high up. They're on the top part of the rack.

[00:50:59.55] [LAUGHING]

[00:51:01.45] [INTERPOSING VOICES]

[00:51:04.41] ELI: So just to review project status, the new information architecture was completed in May of 2016. The theme graphic design was completed in April 2017. The iOS migration round trip was completed in August, basically meaning each type of data that we're getting out of the old system and bringing into the new system has successfully been migrated. We haven't done the entire set of data, but each type of data, like titles, and items, and patrons, and holds, and checkouts, we've been able to migrate.

[00:51:33.83] Theme implementation is in process. I'm going to show you some more of that in just a moment. Milestone development-- that was setting up what our milestones are. This is basically what you see here.

[00:51:43.65] Module redevelopment continues. This is through using the Drupal modules, the ones that the community has produced, and then migrating the ones that nobody else is using. Data cleanup is in process. We're starting to get our volunteers involved with data cleanup as well as desk staff, when they're looking for extra work to do.

[00:52:01.03] Node migration is in process. That is migration of all of the historic newspaper articles, and the photographs, and all that kind of stuff. Making sure that's all ready to be moved over. Workflow redevelopment-- the meetings are continuing to look at how we're going to do all the things that we're accustomed to doing with the new system, with the old system on the new system.

[00:52:18.71] And then feature development is also in process, and I'll show you a few of those here in just a second. So just to remind you what the new features are. Freezing your requests-- that is the biggest one, the number one thing that patrons have been asking for.

[00:52:30.65] We have settled on the word "freeze" as opposed to "suspend." It's much more specific about what's actually happening. And then you can unfreeze them.

[00:52:39.68] I don't think we'll be so cute as to call it "thaw." But you will freeze your requests and unfreeze your requests. And you can freeze all of your requests or freeze specific requests.

[00:52:49.46] One thing that we plan to change is to go back to a seven-day hold pickup. This is not library policy, this is procedure. It went down to six days some years ago to try to move things off the hold shelf more quickly. But it really doesn't make a lot of difference, because the primary thing that affects how long people wait for their materials is how long it sits on the hold shelf when it's not going to be picked up.

[00:53:10.28] But the big thing that we keep hearing about this is people who like to visit the library on the same day every week are no longer able to do that with a six-day hold. So it doesn't make a lot of difference for us to extend that from six to seven days. But for people's habits, it makes a really big impact.

[00:53:26.46] The other thing about that is that we will have now in the hold pick up notice that says your item is ready, a link to cancel that hold if you don't want it. So we're hoping to be able to get from people more "never mind, I don't want this," and we can get it onto the next person fast.

[00:53:41.13] JAMIE: That'll be good for people, I think.

[00:53:42.41] LINH: I think I still have a hold on Little House on the Prairie. So that's amazing.

[00:53:46.92] ELI: Excellent.

[00:53:47.13] LINH: That's great.

[00:53:49.10] ELI: Custom notices, alerts, and reminders. We're solidifying the terminology on this. Notices are things that you cannot turn off, like this is overdue, you have been billed for this, this is your account balance-- those kinds of things. You cannot turn those off.

[00:54:03.28] Alerts and reminders are things that you set up for yourself. For example, everyone will have default reminders that an item is coming due. That will be the default setting.

[00:54:12.56] They can then modify that. Because it's something we hear a lot from patrons, especially right now, it has to be the same for all material types. Which is why you get warned that your DVD is due two days after you checked it out, is because it has to be the same number of days before the due date for everything, whether it's a month-long book or a week-long DVD. So reminders will become custom with a default setting for what we call courtesy notices, which will now be called date due reminders to make it more clear.

[00:54:40.31] We will be adding more bookable rooms and tools, expanding the Westgate-style booking, which has been working really well. Adding some rooms like that. As well as this is the big thing that we've discovered we simply must have is making it possible to book a tool for a specific date.

[00:54:55.69] We never expected the role that giant chess would play in people's weddings, but it is huge. It's constant. And it's not just in the summer anymore either.

[00:55:05.03] A few years ago, all this stuff dried up come September. This year, we're still waiting for the demand to dry up. So we need to develop a way.

[00:55:12.17] And the new system, actually, because it also serves academic libraries, where there's course reserves and things like that where you can specify a date-- there's some infrastructure that we'll be able to use to allow people to say, I would like to reserve this item for this week. And that'll be a huge increase in convenience. However, for that to work, it's going to have to require some sort of a fine structure if you don't bring it back on time that is different from the regular materials. That is a policy change, and what we'll be doing is we'll be bringing some proposed policy changes to the October board meeting and then for voting on in the November board meeting. So that sort of thing, we'll talk more about that next month.

[00:55:52.73] Improved events engine-- we've talked a little bit about that, including your ability to set reminders on an event level. Improved lists and reviews-- get a lot of requests about that. Site-wide mobile theme as opposed to the specific mobile app. The new music archive, which is focused around local bands and local music to stream. And search integration, meaning, including, you'll be able to see the overdrive titles and the status of overdrive titles in the regular catalog with everything else.

[00:56:17.00] With that, I want to take just a minute and show you some very early stuff here. This is actually working. This is the website that is actually working against our Evergreen install.

[00:56:28.47] So this is not how it's going to look for final, but we want to show you some functions that are actually working. So for example, down here, The Days of the Rainbow-- this is the words that come out of the system-- "Waiting for Capture." We'll be applying our own language for that that's more clear. It means basically, you're waiting in line.

[00:56:44.90] [LAUGHING]

[00:56:45.92] JAMIE: Yeah, we should definitely change that.

[00:56:47.15] ELI: Yeah, exactly. We're waiting to capture you. So for example, we'll freeze this, and that has just frozen the hold live against the real server. So not the real hardware, but a real implementation of Evergreen.

[00:57:00.71] Similarly, these are all items that exist on our test server. So you can click through to one of them, see the item, see what the page is roughly going to look like. There's still lots of design work to be finalized here, lots of "TO DO THIS THING."

[00:57:13.80] But this shows you, for example, how you request a title. I'm going to request this for pick up at Pittsfield. And unable to request in this case, because I already have a hold of this one. So you'll get better messages that tell you why you're unable to do that. But that was a live request attempt and a live response from the server about that.

[00:57:29.61] So just to show we got the pieces connected together. Yes, one user. One--

[00:57:33.49] VICTORIA: One click.

[00:57:34.64] ELI: Yes, one click. And then this stuff up at the top-- this is just the admin bar, so this is what the top of the website looks like. But I just wanted to give you a quick taste of what's going on with some of these things.

[00:57:45.98] Other things under My Account-- here's your current checkouts. Again, you'll be able-- this is a big thing that you can't currently do, is change your pickup location of a hold that currently exists. That's something that currently you have to call staff to do this. You'll be able to do this for each title.

[00:58:02.42] Now, when you won't be able to do this is once it's already on the hold shelf. You can only do this for outstanding requests. And that's about it. Let me see-- I think that was all the slides. Let me see if there's anything else.

[00:58:18.32] JAMIE: Great. You're pretty much perfectly at half an hour.

[00:58:20.12] ELI: That's it. Any questions?

[00:58:21.86] JAN: Wow.

[00:58:22.35] [LAUGHING]

[00:58:23.64] ELI: We've got a long way to go yet.

[00:58:25.75] JIM: This is exciting. I'm going to make a suggestion.

[00:58:31.06] ELI: OK, please.

[00:58:31.84] JIM: And it is a suggestion. I would enjoy being invited to the closed beta.

[00:58:38.32] ELI: I would imagine we'd invite the whole board.

[00:58:39.48] JIM: And I think the board might like that as a whole.

[00:58:41.96] ELI: Yeah.

[00:58:42.07] JIM: OK, great.

[00:58:43.18] ELI: You guys are in the in club.

[00:58:44.47] COLLEEN: I assumed I was going to be invited, because I'm a high-end-- I use it all the time.

[00:58:51.76] JIM: We're also a very good crosscut of different user types. So it's a good thing. All right, thank you.

[00:58:58.18] ELI: Thank you very much.

[00:59:01.78] JAMIE: Great.

[00:59:02.10] COLLEEN: And we'll break it, too. We're going to break it so bad.

[00:59:05.05] JIM: That's what they want.

[00:59:07.10] JAMIE: So we'll move on to PFM financial advisor's presentation. Paul Stauder.

[00:59:13.98] JOSIE: Hello. And I'll welcome Paul.

[00:59:16.63] JAMIE: Yes, please.

[00:59:17.68] JOSIE: Paul's helped the library in the past, so I asked him if he would come to see me and talk to you about the library and bonds and how that works. in the event that you choose to pursue a millage to renovate or build a new library. It's information you wanted, so now-- he also provided a handout, which I've placed in front of you. Welcome, Mr. Staudard. Thank you, and welcome.

[00:59:43.82] PAUL: Thanks, Josie. I'm a financial advisor, and I help libraries do financial planning work and financing of library facilities. I personally have worked on Saline and Ypsilanti. I've done some work with the Ann Arbor District Library, Chelsea, Dexter, Brighton, Cowell, Salem, South Lyon, Plymouth-- lots of them around the area. And have helped them in their planning, understanding what projects and financing options mean to the taxpayer, and ultimately, helping the libraries actually finance-- go out and borrow the money.

[01:00:35.29] So I did prepare a few slides that I wanted to chat about. Possible funding sources for libraries may include fund equity. So if you do have a capital improvement reserves, or general fund reserves that you wish to apply, we can take that into account as we look at the overall picture.

[01:00:57.46] Capital fundraising-- some libraries have done a lot with gifts in terms of helping them finance their library projects, which can also be taken into account. Borrowing through the issuance of municipal bonds is the primary tool or mechanism for financing library facilities, either renovations or major construction projects. And interest earnings on bond proceeds as you go through the process are also taken into account and can be applied to the overall cost of the project.

[01:01:41.17] Your authority to borrow for library financing is Public Act 265 of 1988. And here are just a quick list of things that can be financed-- library construction and renovation, building acquisitions, site acquisitions, and improvements of sites, the planning and design cost can be included in the financing, furnishings and equipment for the facilities, as well as financing costs and contingencies. Generally, temporary space for library operations during the construction project are not financeable with tax-exempt bonds. There are some exceptions, but generally, that is not done.

[01:02:34.93] The library can issue bonds on its own with a vote of the board without a separate voter authorization. Or it may request a direct voter approval to issue bonds to finance a project. And I say that about non-voted types of projects because if you have an already existing revenue stream that you don't necessarily have to dedicate to operations, you are permitted to issue bonds at your choosing in order to finance those projects.

[01:03:17.20] But there are limits. In this case, it's not limits that probably hinder you in any way. So non-voted general obligation bonds are limited to 5% of your SEV, your State Equalized Valuation. Now, Ann Arbor District Library has a State Equalized Valuation currently of $10.8 billion, which equates to over $500 million worth of statutory bonding capacity.

[01:03:56.30] Now, if you were to do non-voted bonds, of course, that provides a source of funding, but it does not give you a source of repayment. So you can issue bonds all day long, but you'd have to first have that repayment source understood and available. And again, it's payable from either existing resources or voted millages. District libraries are-- and I'm not certain of the nature of your millages. The library levies 1.9?

[01:04:33.50] JOSIE: We don't now. We levy 1.89? I think about 0.89. [INAUDIBLE] has pushed it down to 1.89.

[01:04:42.67] PAUL: And is that more than one voter authorization? Or a single ballot question?

[01:04:48.78] JOSIE: It's a single ballot quesiton

[01:04:51.52] PAUL: So does that millage in perpetuity?

[01:04:53.10] JOSIE: Yes.

[01:04:53.89] PAUL: OK. So you can do up to 2 mills in perpetuity. You can do up to 2 mills special voted in addition, but limited to a period of not to exceed 20 years.

[01:05:07.62] JAN: Say that again?

[01:05:09.49] PAUL: So you can vote 2 mills in perpetuity, and 2 mills additional that is limited as to term, not to exceed 20 years.

[01:05:21.16] JOSIE: So the library has a voted millage of 2 mills, which is now pushed down to [INAUDIBLE].

[01:05:30.48] PAUL: And one of the issues that you have with voted millages is just that. It is voted at a particular level, but depending on what [? Headley ?] limitation does, it may reduce the millage available in future years. And until that authorization is renewed or revoted, it will remain at that lower level, and it doesn't flow back up. It only floats down.

[01:06:07.17] So generally, the process that we go through and you go through is you lay out the overall timeline for project planning and getting something on the ballot. You're going through that strategic planning process now, understanding what your options are, understanding what the costs of those options are. And it's at that point that somebody like me comes in, and takes that information, and helps you understand it in terms of what it means to the community in terms of taxpayer impact.

[01:06:46.95] You can do bonds anywhere from two years in duration up to 30 years in duration. So you'll want to understand what a particular borrowing amount means to you in terms of a 15-year financing, or a 20-year financing, or a 30-year financing. When you're doing a new facility, new project, or complete renovation, you might opt for a longer amortization period, say, for instance, than if you were just doing some general renovation projects. So we would run a set of scenarios that help you understand the millage impact for various financing terms in various project configurations that are likely to be presented to you next month. It is often the case-- depending on the tax impact, it may cause you to take a step back and re-prioritize and look at things in a different way if the answer is that the tax impact is too great.

[01:08:11.71] When you put a question on the ballot, there's a number of things that have to be included. Number one, what is the purpose of the borrowing, and what is the amount that you intend to borrow? As well as some of the millage statistics. It's going to have you put an estimate of the first-year millage, what the average millage is over the term, and the exact number of years that you anticipate the borrowing to occur over.

[01:08:47.57] JAN: Does the interest stay fixed?

[01:08:52.12] PAUL: Municipal bonds can be issued in a number of ways, but I would say 25% to a greater percent are done as fixed-rate, fixed-term bonds. And in the current market environment, you could expect bonds up to 30 years for an interest rate as low as 4%. 20 years, 3%. So the long-term borrowing cost today continues to be very low.

[01:09:24.73] When you do the planning estimates, we would tend to use a higher, more conservative rate for a financing that's not going to occur for some time. If you were to put something on the ballot, say, in November of '18, it's going to be the spring of '19 before you'd actually be hitting the market with bonds. So because of that, in the initial planning stage, you want to plan for some increase in interest rates over time. So what we do throughout the process is prepare-- and this is post-election-- we prepare the financial parameters for legal counsel to put into the resolution authorizing the bonds, prepare a timeline for the sale and delivery of the bonds. Some of the things that have to occur is production of preliminary and final official statements.

[01:10:30.64] Now, here's a snapshot of the transaction that you would offer to the marketplace, but it's also a financial profile, economic and financial profile of the library, the community. Includes budgets, and audit materials, and those sorts of things. And that document is primarily used to obtain credit ratings for the bonds, which will have a lot to do with where your interest rates ultimately are set. I think that's about all I have on the process, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that anybody has.

[01:11:14.14] VICTORIA: So you mentioned credit ratings and the impact they have on the interest rate that the library would receive on any bonds. Do we know where we fall there? Does anybody in the room-- what sort of things are you looking for, and do we meet those criteria?

[01:11:32.27] PAUL: I haven't pulled out the library's audit reports, but I know that you're very well-run. But they look at finances. They look at fund equity very, very closely.

[01:11:45.95] But they also look at the economy of the area, the institutional presence of the schools, the county, the University of Michigan, the hospitals. And all those things help really produce a stable economic base for the community. Washtenaw County is rated AAA, the city of Ann Arbor is rated at the highest AA standing that you can possibly get. And it's because of your economic circumstances, the value of your properties, the income levels of the community-- all of those factors go into setting what that credit rating would be. We would expect the Ann Arbor District Library would have a very attractive credit rating in the market.

[01:12:48.58] JAMIE: Other questions?

[01:12:51.51] JAN: And what's the timeframe usually that is required?

[01:12:58.47] PAUL: Timeframe for putting an issue before the voters?

[01:13:02.22] JAN: We have to have all of our dollars and cents accounted for, what our projections are. But once we get that, and assuming it's approved, we have to get that before we put it up to vote.

[01:13:17.25] PAUL: Right.

[01:13:18.84] JIM: Are you talking about the time from approval to actually--

[01:13:23.37] JAN: I'm talking about how long it takes for him to do his work to get our bond ready to present to the voters.

[01:13:33.12] COLLEEN: The parameters, right?

[01:13:36.66] PAUL: We can work in whatever timeframe you need. For the board, you are going to be in a position where you're going to be voting on a ballot question, or voting to put a ballot question on at least three months before the election occurs, and probably sooner than that. So within probably a six or seven-month timeframe in advance of the election, we would want to be completing our work.

[01:14:12.31] JAN: And if we decided to not go through the elective process, any difference there? Then we can just say, OK, we're ready anytime if we're not going to go for a bond?

[01:14:28.76] PAUL: Would you issue bonds to finance a project?

[01:14:33.53] JAN: If we don't go for voter approval, how does it differ in terms of preparation time?

[01:14:41.39] PAUL: Well, from the point you say go to the point when bonds are issued and funds are in the bank, it would be about a three-month process total.

[01:14:56.42] JOSIE: Can you speak about what's required if that were the case and several years out, there was a big dip in the economy, and the library owed this bond note, but it did not have the money coming in from its millage to pay it? What would happen? What would most libraries be finding themselves doing in your experience?

[01:15:26.65] PAUL: They would be closing branches and laying off staff.

[01:15:29.89] JOSIE: That's right. Thank you.

[01:15:31.72] JAN: Have you seen that? How frequently is that approach taken by public entities?

[01:15:41.95] PAUL: We have assisted libraries in doing projects both ways. In fact, we've done projects where a single library issued both non-voted bonds and voted bonds to finance the same project.

[01:15:58.81] JAN: Not at the same time.

[01:16:00.37] PAUL: At the same time.

[01:16:01.63] JAN: Really?

[01:16:02.08] PAUL: Yes, they did it because they knew that they had a revenue stream that they could very much rely on, but it would only finance half of the project. And they wanted to do that for the community. They didn't want to go out and request the whole thing when they knew they could manage a good chunk of it on their own. So they opted to only put the piece that they knew they couldn't reasonably rely upon to the voters. And the rest of it, they funded themselves.

[01:16:39.41] JAN: But they did it at the same time.

[01:16:41.45] PAUL: They did it at the same time.

[01:16:42.86] JAMIE: That's really interesting. I'm glad you asked that question.

[01:16:45.64] COLLEEN: You spoke briefly about capital campaigns and gift revenue from community members. That just comes off the top of the project. That has nothing to do with how we think about how we finance, because then we have the cash in the bank to get started, right?

[01:17:01.07] PAUL: Well, possibly. But typically, when capital campaigns are run--

[01:17:07.71] COLLEEN: It's pledged out.

[01:17:08.86] PAUL: It's pledged out over some period of time. So you have to figure out what those cash flows will produce over time, and you may need to include that in your borrowing. But use those receipts to repay the borrowing as opposed to tax revenue.

[01:17:25.43] COLLEEN: So again, it goes into the if we have a solid revenue stream, and if we have philanthropic dollars, we can put together a puzzle piece where it might be OK, we're going to ask for xyz from the taxpayers. And then it becomes like a piece of pie.

[01:17:43.87] PAUL: Right. We've done financings where, say, you had pledged dollars of $1 million a year coming in over five years-- $5 million. But you need to build your project now. So you could issue non-voted bonds in that amount to advance the funds, and then put the balance of the request on the ballot.

[01:18:12.43] COLLEEN: OK, got it.

[01:18:15.99] PAUL: Different ways to configure it, depending on what the mix is of revenue cost.

[01:18:22.30] JAMIE: This is all really helpful. I don't know why, but before, I was just thinking of it as needing to be A, B, or C option, and you just pick one of them and are all in. So it's nice to think about more tailored options.

[01:18:38.21] JIM: And besides philanthropy, what are some of the other sources of revenue that people are using to support non-voted bonds?

[01:18:55.11] PAUL: Really just voted millages. So instead of putting a bond issue as a ballot request, maybe you ask for 1.5 mills over 20 years, whatever the number might be. And then use that revenue stream that's not likely to impair your already existing operating receipts, but provides a separate pot of money for the building project.

[01:19:31.50] It's one way of doing it. It's a little bit more risky, because you do have the potential of the millage being reduced over time. And so it's not quite as reliable as a bond request. Because a bond request provides authorization for the library to levy a millage whatever is necessary to make your annual payment.

[01:19:59.52] Now, we can estimate with pretty good precision as to what that millage rate is going to need to be. But in the event you had a catastrophic event that took out your tax base, or some kind of an economic issue that drove your tax base down over time, you do have the ability to levy whatever is necessary. And that doesn't cut in your operating revenue stream at all.

[01:20:35.44] JAN: But I don't understand when you said, what kind of bond is it that will not allow you to use it for repayable funds-- what do you mean by that? If you're in debt, you can't pay your debts?

[01:20:50.70] PAUL: No, just that a bond that is authorized at the board level-- you can authorize bonds at this table. We can go out in marketplace and borrow those funds for you. But that doesn't give you a specific revenue stream to repay it.

[01:21:14.70] JAN: You've got to have that in mind, OK.

[01:21:17.48] PAUL: You've got to have that already in place.

[01:21:19.83] COLLEEN: Or you can't do your job. Or what happens? So let's say--

[01:21:25.53] VICTORIA: We have to sell a branch.

[01:21:30.10] COLLEEN: So he can do it. He can sell the bonds. But then if we don't have the money because we have no plan, which would be irresponsible--

[01:21:38.34] JAN: Right.

[01:21:40.17] VICTORIA: Yes.

[01:21:42.52] JAN: Don't count on winning your next election.

[01:21:44.65] COLLEEN: Right.

[01:21:47.03] JAMIE: So Jim asked about revenue, and you said most of that's millages. Because of the type of institution we are, we can't really go looking for something that would give us more revenue, correct? They mentioned the sale of a branch in order to bring in funds to provide for projects. So what sorts of limitations do we have because we're not a for-profit entity?

[01:22:12.75] PAUL: So sale of assets is certainly one way of generating funds. Gifts, capital campaigns is another. But beyond that, you're right. You're pretty limited. You probably don't want to have naming rights or anything like that for a facility to bring in additional revenue.

[01:22:32.97] JAMIE: Is there any particular reason why we wouldn't want to do naming rights? Could you say more about that?

[01:22:40.97] PAUL: No, I don't know. I say it in jest a little bit. It's something that you would have to discuss at the table. So your revenue sources are rather limited-- property tax, your fines, and fees, and those kinds of things-- your penal fines. That's about it.

[01:23:05.09] So beyond those revenue sources, for capital projects, it's really the capital campaign, and the bonds, and potentially, sale of assets. I mean, if you had a facility you wanted to close and sell and move into another one, you might take those receipts. We've done that before for some projects. But that doesn't typically bring in a lot of dollars for a new building project.

[01:23:34.90] LINH: We need cash.

[01:23:36.24] JAMIE: Yeah. We need some cash.

[01:23:38.51] LINH: We do.

[01:23:38.88] JAMIE: We're going to need some cash to do whatever we're going to do.

[01:23:41.02] COLLEEN: There are some models where non-profits start for-profits. So there's that. So say we start a record label, and we make a bunch of money off of our record label, and then we can funnel the money tax-free back into the non-profit side of the business.

[01:23:54.83] But that's such a stretch. We're not going to-- that's really unrealistic. We can find examples of that being done. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

[01:24:05.91] PAUL: Yeah, and those kinds of things can be looked at over time, but they're difficult to--

[01:24:10.87] COLLEEN: Get up and running.

[01:24:11.73] PAUL: --to utilize to repay a borrowing for a facility.

[01:24:19.57] JAMIE: Well, this has been very helpful for me. Any other questions? Anything else?

[01:24:26.72] PAUL: Thank you.

[01:24:27.20] JAMIE: Thank you.

[01:24:27.68] JOSIE: Thank you very much. [INAUDIBLE].

[01:24:33.29] JAMIE: OK, everyone. We're coming to the last big chunk of our agenda tonight. So Sarah [INAUDIBLE] is here this evening. She's new to many of you. She's new to Ann Arbor.

[01:24:47.38] But she is here with us, because we are working with her to help us redesign Josie's evaluation process. So we talked about this multiple times, but we want to formalize that process, and Sarah's helping us do that. So she has a presentation about where things are and where they're going. Want to join us at the podium?

[01:25:08.09] SARAH: Sure.

[01:25:13.51] JAMIE: Oh, and you have given us materials.

[01:25:20.94] SARAH: I'm sorry I didn't email for the slides. I apologize. I should have made more copies.

[01:25:26.46] Thank you so much for having me tonight. It is such an honor and a pleasure to be here with you at the the Ann Arbor District Libraries. My family and I moved here about a year ago for my husband's job, and we have three small children. And so when Kerry reached out to me to work with the Ann Arbor District Library, I jumped at the chance, not only because the actual work is work that I am truly passionate about, and I love to do, but because we love the library.

[01:26:00.46] And we are here a lot, and we have a couple books that I have to return right there. And we play with everything up there, and so I just-- I really want to thank all of you for putting your time, and heart, and soul into this, because there's at least one family-- and I know many-- that benefit from everything upstairs. It's the best.

[01:26:23.33] And I should say that my parents, even from Long Island, when they came, they were like, that's the greatest library. So, I just-- kudos. And we love Ann Arbor, and we're very happy to be here.

[01:26:36.66] So just a couple seconds on my background. So currently, I am working partially, of course, for Bridgeport. I'm also working for an executive search firm based in New York City called DRG Executive Search, and we work with non-profits finding C-suite executive director type level jobs. And then I also am working for the Covenant Foundation.

[01:27:04.65] Before then, I spent years as an administrator and an executive director at summer camps. And I was also the first-ever director of talent development at a foundation in New York City. So those years of working in camp and working as the talent development really gave me the skills to be able to be part of this process with all of you. I've written many, many evaluation forms, and many, many job descriptions. So this is very exciting for me.

[01:27:35.97] So I know all of you can read, so I just want to give a couple of highlights of what we're doing. And I gave each of you a two-page handout. That should be it, at your desks.

[01:27:49.23] So really, we are here to help the evaluation process do a couple of things. Really, one of the main keys is helping to articulate what Josie's role is and the responsibilities of the library director, and to really figure out how we can do that in a more clear manner and really update from the past. We want to continue to improve and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the library director. And then, to take it one step further, we want to create a platform for more frequent and meaningful interactions between the trustees and the library director. And I think those two pieces are really what our goals are.

[01:28:41.86] And so moving on, really, our process is twofold. I'm actually in the midst right now of doing some benchmarking and calling to a couple of other great institutions, both libraries and non-libraries, to hear about their evaluation systems, and what we can learn from their processes, and how we can help our process become better. Josie gave us four different institutions.

[01:29:13.77] I'd be happy to-- we can open the floor, or you can email me. If you have any other suggestions, I would love and be happy to hear. I think the more calls that we make, the more people that we speak to, it only helps our evaluation system become even stronger and the process be even better.

[01:29:39.78] And then the other piece is we have already spent time with Josie in collecting internal data. And we will continue to spend more time with Josie to understand a little bit more about what is her role, and how can we put together a clear evaluation process to really understand how she does what she-- well, I don't know that we'll ever understand how. But more of the what she does, and try and figure out how we can evaluate its success.

[01:30:11.24] So the next page is just a high-level timeline that I wanted to share with you just so you have a view of what's happening, how we're moving forward. So in August, we got to launch the project, and we had a great meeting with these wonderful people to my left. And then in September, as I said, I'm working on the benchmarking and really trying to reach out to great institutions and understanding it. Of course, I'm here, introducing it to the board.

[01:30:42.31] And then I'll continue to conduct the benchmarking, synthesize them. Come back to Josie and say, here are the things that I found, tell me more about your process, tell me more about what you're doing. So we met with in the beginning, we're going to meet with her after the benchmarking.

[01:30:56.32] And then we'll start creating and beginning the design process and come back and forth a couple times. I'm sure there will be a couple of drafts. And then it'll be ready to go.

[01:31:12.20] JAMIE: Great. What questions do you all have? I don't mean to cut you off, if you had more to share.

[01:31:16.48] SARAH: Oh, no. I was trying to be short and sweet.

[01:31:21.01] LINH: I had a quick question. How are the benchmarking institutions chosen?

[01:31:25.72] SARAH: So Kerry and I both asked Josie, what would be great institutions? Who are great library directors out there? And so that was really the standard.

[01:31:37.57] We pushed a little bit about-- because-- we talked about this. The Ann Arbor District Libraries are very unique in how they're set up and who they report to. So there's pieces that are not matching correctly. Correctly is not the right word-- exactly. But there are pieces that are similar.

[01:31:59.59] And so I really pushed her to think about who are great library directors, because we have a great library director. And so we want to think about how do those folks get evaluated? Because they clearly get support.

[01:32:14.57] I had actually one great conversation already with the director of the library in Los Angeles. And you can tell-- he's chosen by the mayor. And we already spent time talking about how he's evaluated the process that he's created. And even though it's a different setup, clearly, I already know what's the nugget that I'm going to take from him and offer it in this process.

[01:32:43.09] So it was hard to figure out what's another institution that's exactly like the Ann Arbor District Libraries. But as I said, I'd be happy to make-- we have four that are great. I'd be happy to make more phone calls, too.

[01:32:57.93] VICTORIA: So I might throw in there-- I would make that a question you ask them, too. Who would you ask? Who would you call?

[01:33:03.67] SARAH: That's a great idea.

[01:33:05.98] VICTORIA: To see what they would say.

[01:33:07.54] JAMIE: Do you mind sharing the other three with us?

[01:33:08.84] SARAH: Oh, sure. It's on the bottom of the page.

[01:33:10.28] JAMIE: Oh, I'm sorry.

[01:33:11.43] SARAH: It's OK. The Los Angeles Public Library, the Seattle Public Library, and Colorado's Anythink Library. And then I have a meeting with-- remind me how to say that.

[01:33:21.14] JOSIE: Jenny Swift.

[01:33:21.88] SARAH: Jenny Swift at the Ann Arbor Public Schools next week. So that'll be great. I'll get to actually go in and sit with her instead of on the phone. That's always better. So that'll be good, too.

[01:33:33.61] And so that's the other thing is we thought about what our local institutions as well as national institutions both in size and scope. We tried to think about what were other cities like Ann Arbor, libraries like Ann Arbor. We're pretty unique. Great. Any other questions I can answer?

[01:33:55.05] VICTORIA: Just one. Is there anything else you need from us?

[01:33:59.67] SARAH: Listen, I would love any other places that you think are great that I could really-- I think any kind of-- I think I will be bringing in my experience from evaluations created in camp and non-profit organizations to think about how I create the form. But I would be happy to hear-- or if you have a great evaluations tool that you've used in your past, send it. I think the more, the merrier. Because you can always grab pieces from lots of other systems that can help make ours the best it possibly can be.

[01:34:41.23] And I think the other piece would be just continual feedback when we come back, and I go back. Jamie, do you agree?

[01:34:50.61] JAMIE: Yeah. I'm just really grateful that we're working with you on this process. It feels very organized, and I think we're going to end up with a great tool.

[01:35:00.45] Your passion for it is really evident every time we talk. And so it's hard to ask for a better person to work with on this. To go from no process to what we will have in December-- I'm pretty excited about that.

[01:35:17.85] I think probably the only thing is getting started with the new process will come with its own questions, a little bit like the website-- it's hard to test until you test at scale. So real life is the scale. And I'm sure that it will be an adjustment for us to get used to, but I feel good. Anyone else?

[01:35:40.20] COLLEEN: We could do some beta testing.

[01:35:41.42] [LAUGHING]

[01:35:43.52] Role-play with each other.

[01:35:47.42] JIM: One of the things that I'm curious about-- and I'm not sure that I would support going all the way to a 360 experience. But I think I'm interested in processes that involve us as the evaluators receiving other kinds of input from different kinds of stakeholders. And I imagine you're thinking about that to a degree, but it would be interesting to figure out what some of those tools are that would be helpful to us.

[01:36:29.22] SARAH: Absolutely. So in our first meeting, I think it was, I laid out, I think it was three or four options of how-- a couple of different ways that we could do it. And one of them was involving a 360 review. And I've use those in the past. And I think there's no downside. I think that it's only beneficial to really understand the full picture.

[01:36:58.19] JAN: I don't understand what a 360 review is.

[01:37:00.09] SARAH: Oh, I apologize. So a 360 review-- basically, it talks about the 360, so the full circle of people that either you report to or reports to you, so that you get the full-- and also peers, by the way. So that's the other really beautiful part about it, is it's not just people that report up to you or people that you report to, but it's also peers and your partners, and how they work with you. And it really taps into different skills and the different strengths that you use in--

[01:37:38.95] JAN: I understand.

[01:37:42.00] SARAH: So yes. So 360 is definitely on my list. And I think it will definitely be an option that I will put on the table with you, and we'll see how we move forward. There's a couple of different systems I've used for the 360 review, so we'll just probably have to figure out what system's best.

[01:38:01.79] JIM: I wonder, too-- just-- and we talked a little bit about this-- that one of the deliverables might actually be a job description. And I'm not sure if you're-- I can't remember if we talked about that?

[01:38:17.75] JAMIE: We did, yeah.

[01:38:18.73] JIM: Yeah. I know we were talking about a set of job responsibilities and tasks, but that's different than a job description specifically.

[01:38:29.58] SARAH: Well, I think after our conversation, I actually switched the way that I was thinking about this project in general. Because I really-- when I sat down with Josie the first time, I really felt as though I was learning about her role and about her job in order to then evaluate. So I agree. I actually think in my head, I'm creating the job description first, to then figure out.

[01:38:58.36] And it's interesting. I was having another meeting this morning. And I was telling them about this process and how I think in order to really evaluate, you have to look back at the job description. And then somebody said to me, wow, that's a really new way of thinking about this.

[01:39:13.72] [LAUGHING]

[01:39:14.29] And I thought, we need to do more work on this. Because if you have a job description that you are hired to do, then we should use that to then evaluate your success. So I agree.

[01:39:27.35] I think that is exactly-- and it probably won't be perfect, and we'll continue to tweak it. And the evaluation will, I think, look a little different. But I think for the core and the guts, it'll definitely be the same.

[01:39:46.10] JAMIE: Other questions? Thank you very much.

[01:39:49.42] SARAH: Thank you.

[01:39:50.45] JAMIE: We'll see you soon.

[01:39:51.53] SARAH: Yeah, absolutely.

[01:39:54.94] JAMIE: So we move onto-- I think you probably all are aware that we have a resolution tonight to award a contract for janitorial service for three years. So we had previously made a decision about the situation, but now we're in a position where we're making that decision again.

[01:40:12.96] JIM: I'll read the resolution.

[01:40:14.04] JAMIE: Thank you.

[01:40:15.52] JIM: The board resolves that the contract for janitorial services be awarded to NRA for the next three years, 2017 through 2020, for the bid amount of $684,034.99. That all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded. Would someone like to second?

[01:40:41.60] LINH: I'll second.

[01:40:42.08] JIM: Thank you.

[01:40:43.46] JAMIE: So discussion?

[01:40:45.40] COLLEEN: Can we know what happened?

[01:40:46.81] JOSIE: Yes. Len?

[01:40:51.41] JIM: Yes, you can.

[01:40:54.24] LEN LEMORIE: It was a failure to perform. Every-- we get complaints for any contract we have. And we always pass them onto the vendor, whether it be a patron complaint, staff complaint. And I don't know of any contract where you won't get them, but we weren't seeing the issues resolved.

[01:41:15.75] And then we've really had, over the last three weeks-- and I have met with All Inclusive to address these face-to-face. But over the last two or three weeks, just a complete breakdown of communication with management as well. So we've noticed in certain buildings, we could feel a difference, we can see a difference in service, and just-- we were not getting the issues resolved. And it's unfortunate.

[01:41:43.08] ED: Could you talk for a minute about what constitutes a complete breakdown in communication?

[01:41:50.58] LEN LEMORIE: Absolutely. Through the process of complaints, I would try to meet with them. I'd reach out through email, phone calls. Wouldn't get calls returned. Tried to set up meetings.

[01:42:06.60] Over the last two weeks, I've tried for 10 days straight to get a face-to-face meeting with the vendor, and I could not get them in my office. And when I finally demanded that they meet here, they sent a supervisor, and they didn't show up for the meeting.

[01:42:21.81] JAN: The supervisor didn't show up?

[01:42:23.63] LEN LEMORIE: A supervisor showed up, but not the owner that I requested the meeting with.

[01:42:27.98] JAN: And are these people who've worked for us for a while?

[01:42:30.62] LEN LEMORIE: Just three months.

[01:42:32.40] COLLEEN: So we approved the resolution in May, correct? It was May.

[01:42:35.48] LEN LEMORIE: June.

[01:42:35.94] JAN: June.

[01:42:36.61] COLLEEN: It was June, OK. So it went downhill very quickly. So we approved the resolution, and it was a cost savings. And the cost savings, well, came at a price that meant compromised service.

[01:42:51.14] VICTORIA: Have we actually terminated the contract with them?

[01:42:53.39] JOSIE: Yes.

[01:42:54.59] VICTORIA: What's our condition under which we're allowed to terminate? What's the contract say?

[01:43:00.23] LEN LEMORIE: It's 60 days of notice.

[01:43:02.48] VICTORIA: So we can give notice for any reason.

[01:43:03.97] LEN LEMORIE: For any reason, and then they also could give notice to us as well.

[01:43:07.38] ED: Is the now discharged contractor present in the audience?

[01:43:12.95] LEN LEMORIE: No, they are not.

[01:43:15.53] ED: I will tell you that I received a communication-- email communication last night. And I declined to respond other than to invite the company either to present themselves here or to speak to Mrs. Parker. They're not here.

[01:43:43.67] LEN LEMORIE: I also extended that invitation when we met with them to terminate the contract.

[01:43:49.29] COLLEEN: When did you meet with them to terminate?

[01:43:52.57] LEN LEMORIE: Last Friday.

[01:43:53.03] COLLEEN: Last Friday, OK.

[01:43:56.72] VICTORIA: Do we know that they have received the notifications?

[01:43:58.76] JOSIE: Yes.

[01:44:00.38] LEN LEMORIE: It was hand-delivered and sent certified mail.

[01:44:02.36] VICTORIA: Great.

[01:44:03.83] ED: Last Friday-- it was a week ago Friday or three days ago?

[01:44:08.94] LEN LEMORIE: Three days ago Friday. It was the 12th.

[01:44:11.69] JOSIE: But we had noticed them through their supervisor, and we had sent the mail. He had the mail. We're expecting them to let us know if they can adequately cover the next 60 days or not. And we asked them to tell us if you can or you can't-- just say.

[01:44:36.14] And so once we hear back about that, we'll have a better idea about what our current situation is. We have reached out to the RNA, who are present. And they have assured us they can pick us back up at the bid that they had originally given us.

[01:44:53.99] ANNOUNCER: Your attention please.

[01:44:54.80] JOSIE: We're closing.

[01:44:55.61] ANNOUNCER: The library will close in 15 minutes. Internet stations will automatically shut off at 8:55 PM. Please make any final copies at this time, and all materials will be checked out [INAUDIBLE] to the circulation desk by 8:55 PM. Thank you.

[01:45:16.16] JOSIE: So this amount that we're asking you to approve is pro-rated at the bid that they had given us originally for the months that they haven't provided a service. I would also say just to their credit, they are who we called Friday afternoon to come in and do the emergency clean-up of the sewage overflow. And they were here within an hour, if not less, getting ready, getting that done.

[01:45:39.75] VICTORIA: So what we're actually paying for service-- if we approve this, RNA would pick it up immediately, and we'd be paying double for the 60 days?

[01:45:47.14] JOSIE: No. They wouldn't pick it up until the end of that period of time when All Inclusive has the contract, or until All Inclusive tells us we cannot do this.

[01:46:01.30] VICTORIA: Right. Unless they voluntarily separate.

[01:46:04.45] JOSIE: Yeah. Or unless the service is so bad, we tell them something else.

[01:46:10.30] COLLEEN: In which case, RNA is ready to punt work with us, we think.

[01:46:14.40] JOSIE: Yes.

[01:46:15.81] COLLEEN: And we see they are here.

[01:46:17.33] JOSIE: Yes.

[01:46:20.43] JAMIE: And they were here before, so they've been fairly very committed. Are we ready to make a vote? All those in favor?

[01:46:31.42] MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Aye.

[01:46:32.94] JAMIE: Opposed?

[01:46:35.41] ED: Do we have to vote on the termination of the previous contract?

[01:46:40.33] JOSIE: Not according to the way the contract was written, no. It was in my discretion.

[01:46:45.09] VICTORIA: We're going to trust that it makes sense.

[01:46:49.05] JAMIE: So this next one, I really want to read it. Am I allowed to read it?

[01:46:55.21] JOSIE: Sure.

[01:46:55.54] [LAUGHING]

[01:46:56.46] JIM: Yes, of course.

[01:46:58.30] JAMIE: The Raynors well, I'll read it, and then I'll say it. So this board resolves that it would like to officially Ken Raynor for his service as an employee from August 26, 2003, to September 30, 2017 of the Ann Arbor District Library. That all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.

[01:47:23.40] JIM: I'll second.

[01:47:26.20] JAMIE: So the Raynors I'm sure many of you know them. And they're basically institutionally part of this library. And I don't know what else to say other than they are just the sunniest, happiest, most wonderful people. And I think we were lucky to have had Ken for well, 15 years almost-- just shy. I think that he's just done an incredible job, and I wish him the best in his retirement.

[01:47:57.16] JAN: Where is he going? He's just retiring?

[01:47:58.88] JOSIE: Retiring.

[01:48:00.61] JAN: Imagine that.

[01:48:02.66] COLLEEN: What is his wife's name?

[01:48:03.97] JOSIE: Laura. Laura Pershin Raynor

[01:48:07.86] JAN: But she's not retired.

[01:48:09.73] JOSIE: No.

[01:48:10.71] JAMIE: But Laura and Josie are going to do a Grown-Up Story Time coming up. So everyone should put that on their calendars. October 12?

[01:48:18.73] JOSIE: I think so.

[01:48:21.12] JAMIE: I'm not great with details, so you might want to Google that. Any other discussion? All those in favor?

[01:48:29.97] MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Aye.

[01:48:32.26] JAMIE: Opposed? OK. Got so focused on that.

[01:48:38.31] Citizens' comments. OK. I think we're adjourned. We'll see you in a month.

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September 18, 2017 at Downtown Library Multipurpose Room

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AADL Board Meeting