AADL Board Meeting - September 16, 2019

[00:00:09.31] LINH SONG: I'll call this meeting to order. Good evening, everyone. Karen, do we have attendance?
[00:00:17.27] KAREN WILSON: I do.
[00:00:21.41] LINH SONG: OK. All right. So Jim will be back shortly, but I think we can proceed without him. We had a recess for closed discussion, and now moving on. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

[00:00:36.42] KERENE S. MOORE: Motion to approve the agenda.
[00:00:38.46] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Second.
[00:00:40.98] LINH SONG: Discussion. All those in favor?
[00:00:43.73] VICTORIA GREEN: Wait, I have one point.
[00:00:44.67] LINH SONG: Yes?
[00:00:44.94] VICTORIA GREEN: Do we have any amendments to the--
[00:00:47.13] LINH SONG: I don't think so. I think we already have a closed session on the agenda for next month, right? All right, so I don't think we need to amend that. Great. All those in favor?
[00:00:57.61] GROUP: Aye.
[00:00:58.53] LINH SONG: Opposed? OK, so moved. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

[00:01:07.36] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So moved.
[00:01:08.25] JOSIE PARKER: Sorry. Beg y'all's pardon.
[00:01:11.66] DHARMA AKMON: I second.
[00:01:12.14] LINH SONG: Second. Any discussion? All those in favor?
[00:01:17.89] GROUP: Aye.
[00:01:18.50] LINH SONG: Opposed? OK. Motion is approved. Moving on to citizens' comments. Karen, do we have anyone signed up for citizens' comments?

[00:01:31.27] KAREN WILSON: No.
[00:01:32.18] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So different than summer.
[00:01:35.43] LINH SONG: You don't have to say nice things about us. OK. If you're so moved, you're welcome to give public comments at the end of the meeting though. Thank you. All right, moving on, on the agenda-- financial reports.

[00:01:50.24] JOSIE PARKER: That would be me in Bill Cooper's stead, so our apologies for the lack of the financial reports beyond the check register. We will have financial reports caught up at the next board meeting.
[00:02:06.17] LINH SONG: Great. Thank you. Any questions for Josie? OK, moving on to executive committee. We had an executive committee meeting prior to the closed session. We just kind of caught each other up on strategic planning meetings that are happening with each trustee. I think the majority of trustees are very met with Anika. Is that right? No?

[00:02:31.07] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I have.
[00:02:31.96] DHARMA AKMON: Not yet.
[00:02:32.47] LINH SONG: Not yet. OK, they're working through that.
[00:02:34.69] DHARMA AKMON: Yeah, I don't know.
[00:02:35.59] LINH SONG: And, let's see. We also-- that's still scheduled to be, I think, wrapped up before the end of the year and presented to the board in January, right? OK. We talked about the staff day that's coming up in November, and hoping to have a presence there. I know last year, Jamie and I both went. I don't know if other trustees were there, either.
[00:02:58.39] But it was amazing because we had-- it was really nice to see staff in action, and trying to figure out how their brains worked, and understanding where programs are going to. And I think there was a moment where was a wall of stickies. And just trying to see what was important to staff was-- I think it was a really nice moment to kind of check back in and how this institution works-- what the wheels are like on the bus.
[00:03:25.84] So we've made a commitment to being at staff day. And then, yes, and also just kind of catching up on the progress on the audit, which is we're on track. I think that's about it. And we'll schedule another executive committee meeting before the next board meeting. All right.
[00:03:46.97] Moving-- any questions for our executive committee?
[00:03:49.52] COLLEEN SHERMAN: No.

[00:03:50.21] LINH SONG: No. OK, great. Budget and Finance Committee?
[00:03:54.67] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Our agreement last Tuesday-- committee members from the board are Dharma, Victoria, and myself. I am the chair of the committee. We met for about an hour and we discussed the status of the audit and the timeline associated with the audit. I've heard from Yeo & Yeo's principal, Dave, whose last name I can't remember right now.
[00:04:17.62] JOSIE PARKER: Don, is it?
[00:04:18.55] LINH SONG: Dan Beard.
[00:04:19.16] JOSIE PARKER: Dan Beard. That's who's our--
[00:04:21.20] COLLEEN SHERMAN: That's our auditor, and the principal's name is Dave.
[00:04:24.37] JOSIE PARKER: Dave.
[00:04:24.92] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:04:25.62] COLLEEN SHERMAN: It's all right.
[00:04:26.60] JOSIE PARKER: I drew a blank, as well. Sorry.
[00:04:28.43] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So we have had check-in, and just basically touched base on that. And then the other issue on that agenda was about reporting of accrual versus projected income. Each year, we were advised by manner-- it's [? custarian? ?]
[00:04:46.29] JOSIE PARKER: [? Custarison. ?]
[00:04:47.56] COLLEEN SHERMAN: [? Custarison. ?] And it was confirmed by our auditor that we need to do an accrual budget each year, rather than projections. And that's it. And then we had some questions, and we are on track to meet next month to meet with the auditor. And we're good to go.
[00:05:09.92] LINH SONG: When will the auditor report to the board?
[00:05:12.10] COLLEEN SHERMAN: November--
[00:05:13.78] JOSIE PARKER: Deliver the audit in November. Reports to the Finance Committee and talks with the Finance Committee, as it turns out, on Halloween.
[00:05:22.23] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Oh that's right. We confirmed that on Halloween.
[00:05:23.78] LINH SONG: You're having a finance committee on Halloween?
[00:05:26.62] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Josie says I can dress up.
[00:05:29.83] LINH SONG: That will be a very exciting meeting.
[00:05:31.75] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah. There will be candy. So November board meeting--
[00:05:37.48] JOSIE PARKER: Are we not doing Halloween on Halloween here?
[00:05:38.68] ELI NEIBURGER: Of course we are.
[00:05:39.31] JOSIE PARKER: So everyone on staff will be dressed up, so it'll be totally appropriate for you guys to dress--
[00:05:42.27] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Great. Great. So November, the auditor comes in and reports, and then December we vote.
[00:05:47.84] JOSIE PARKER: No, no. You vote--
[00:05:49.04] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I have that wrong?
[00:05:49.24] JOSIE PARKER: You vote in November.
[00:05:50.20] COLLEEN SHERMAN: We vote in November.
[00:05:51.55] JOSIE PARKER: Mm-hmm. When they present it, we vote in November.
[00:05:53.84] LINH SONG: OK. All right, thank you. Any questions for Colleen or Finance Committee? Finance Committee do you have anything else to add?
[00:06:04.78] VICTORIA GREEN: The only thing I would add is that the change in the budgeting documents that we'll get. The way we were doing it in the past-- there's no reason to think that we made any decisions that were inaccurate. These are small kind of numbers that were not the sort of thing would make us suddenly think, well, wait. Why did we do this?
[00:06:21.61] DHARMA AKMON: That's correct.
[00:06:22.73] LINH SONG: All right. Thank you, great. Moving onto a Strategic Planning Committee. That's Jamie.

[00:06:30.40] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we haven't met as a committee since the last meeting. But like you said, the interviews with the trustees are underway. Kerene and I had ours-- two weeks ago? A week ago?
[00:06:40.57] KERENE S. MOORE: Maybe just week.
[00:06:41.70] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: It was probably just a week. It feels like longer.
[00:06:43.63] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:06:45.01] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So those are happening. And then I think they plan to go back to staff one more time, and just to remind everyone, we're talking about the strategic plan, but also the library's values and sort of updating those, because they were-- last of their major revision, like, 20 years ago, would you say, Josie? So yeah, on track still to complete by January.
[00:07:07.43] And we're meeting, I think, on September 30th, so I'll have p to report back in October.
[00:07:14.41] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I enjoyed my meeting. I think I was the first to go. It was really helpful to sort of take the time to spell out what our values are, and really hash through them.
[00:07:24.06] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah.
[00:07:24.47] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Did you have
[00:07:24.97] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:07:25.30] COLLEEN SHERMAN: : --yet?
[00:07:25.88] DHARMA AKMON: No.
[00:07:26.39] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK. Yeah, huge. I thought it, like, opened up a lot for me and made me feel like, oh, I could do a couple of these.
[00:07:32.15] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah.
[00:07:32.61] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: It'll be good for us to talk about it as a group afterwards.
[00:07:36.69] KERENE S. MOORE: Absolutely
[00:07:38.48] LINH SONG: Great. Thank you. We're really speeding along.
[00:07:43.08] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I know.
[00:07:46.83] LINH SONG: I did also-- I also met with Anika, too, and it was a quick one-hour meeting going through our values. And one thing that I really liked was how we were trying to make it more action-oriented, versus a passive voice on what we would, like, happen in the library. So when we talk about strategic planning and visioning, it's kind of a action-oriented toward equity, action-oriented towards access, so not just, these are important values because they're values.
[00:08:16.74] Good luck with everyone with your meetings. Anika's really great on managing your time and getting the most out of it. Great. Moving on to Josie. Director's Report, please.

[00:08:28.29] JOSIE PARKER: Thank you. So, we're going to start with some stats and numbers, and I'm going to ask Eli to talk to you about the stats numbers around Malletts Creek, and what's going on there that we've seen since we reopened. And then another slide is going to be stats and numbers abouts Summer Game, because I feel like he gets to do that.
[00:08:48.84] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah.
[00:08:49.34] JOSIE PARKER: So here he goes. [INAUDIBLE]
[00:08:50.52] ELI NEIBURGER: So we have just some data about Malletts Creek since it's reopened. It's been two full months. So Malletts Creek opened in about early June. So now we have two full months of data that were not really impacted by the closure. So, what we saw is-- in terms of door count, this isn't very surprising, that door count in July-- you can see the top two lines are July 2013 versus July 2019. Door count is slightly down, which isn't surprising. People still didn't know was open.
[00:09:17.50] But also, we did not expect this change to have a big impact on the door count, right? This is not a major renovation. It was very much repair and refurbishment, addition of the meeting rooms. Even though the meeting rooms have been very successful, this is a result-- doesn't move the door count needle when you're already having 20,000 people through the door a month. So very slight difference downward in July.
[00:09:37.02] In August, it was up 2%. But this is what's really interesting. This is our first opportunity to see the impact of the category system in checkouts. At Westgate, we couldn't-- while we knew it was working anecdotally, and circulation was strong, there wasn't apples to apples because the old Westgate and the new Westgate have nothing to do with each other in terms of attraction or anything like that. So you can see the door count, pretty much unchanged; circulation, up 20%.
[00:10:01.90] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Wow.
[00:10:02.64] ELI NEIBURGER: So that is huge, and a very strong signal that the category system is-- that's the only thing that changed.
[00:10:09.46] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Wow.
[00:10:09.77] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes?
[00:10:10.27] VICTORIA GREEN: I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. How much did it compare to our other branches? They didn't also jump 20% coincidentally between--
[00:10:16.51] ELI NEIBURGER: No.
[00:10:16.71] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:10:17.07] ELI NEIBURGER: Most of them were actually slightly down during that same period.
[00:10:20.44] VICTORIA GREEN: That's so exciting.
[00:10:21.21] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah. So that's a strong signal that, despite what some internet commenters might say, it has been extremely successful at getting people new books-- things that they're looking for, things checked out to them. Similarly, just to compare that, we have event attendees where you can see that the attendees in July were slightly down, 14% fewer attendees total.
[00:10:42.00] In August, it was up 11%. You can see the attendees per event has changed. That's mostly reflecting that we were doing programs differently at the branches. We've been getting a little overwhelmed during the summer in terms of turnout at branch programs because we can't really comfortably accommodate 100 people at a craft program at a branch. It has to be very specifically set up that way.
[00:11:03.64] So we've started programming against ourselves more, putting more things happening at the same time at multiple locations, to spread out our audience and make a better experience for everyone. So we are pleased to see that the attendees per event has gone down slightly, because that was intentional to make it a more comfortable, more successful event for everyone.
[00:11:21.12] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Great.
[00:11:21.57] ELI NEIBURGER: And in July, we had 51 self-bookings of the room. In August we had 80, which is crazy that people in Ann Arbor in August are booking rooms, because meet-- everything seems to stop.
[00:11:32.97] JOSIE PARKER: Library rooms.
[00:11:33.78] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes. Library rooms, yes. So that's been very successful. Any questions about Malletts Creek data? All right. So we're going to talk about Summer Game data. So with Summer Game 2019 behind us, we're first going to look at engagement. This tells us how many people we reached and what they did.
[00:11:49.42] The number of active players is up 16% 2018 to 2019. That's a big increase. But the engagement numbers are off the chart! We have 50% more points earned in 2019 over 2018. Again, that's with only 16% more players.
[00:12:04.53] So everybody is playing more. Code redemption is up 20%, badge awarding is up 24%. Just the people who are playing-- not only are more people playing, but the people who are playing are playing more, and we certainly see that in the data. Similarly, well, maybe there's more content, but there isn't really more content.
[00:12:21.51] There's only 3% more codes and 2019 over 2018. There are 13% more badges. We added a couple series that we didn't have last year. So there's not a lot more content; we're just getting a lot more engagement with the game.
[00:12:33.36] Prizes ordered is way up, so it's 45% more units of prizes ordered in 2019 versus 2018, and that's mostly powered by we had a big increase in the number of players who ordered something from the shop. So out of those 10,000 players, 4,400 hundreds of them-- 4,500 of them-- ordered something from the shop this year, an increase of 38% over the previous year.
[00:12:55.33] VICTORIA GREEN: Can we afford it?
[00:12:57.20] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah.
[00:12:58.52] LINH SONG: That's from Friends, right? The Friends.
[00:13:00.34] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, it's from Friends. The Friends doesn't cover the entire game anymore. The game has grown beyond that point.
[00:13:05.32] JOSIE PARKER: But the Friends money is used for the game, and so--
[00:13:07.80] ELI NEIBURGER: Yes.
[00:13:08.10] VICTORIA GREEN: Thank you.
[00:13:08.65] ELI NEIBURGER: But a lot of it, and you don't see that here at all, is the new books that you win when you finish the paper game. That is a major part of the expenditure. That's not included in this at all because it's not tracked as closely, because we don't have data about every single one of those interactions, so this is just the swag that's in the shop.
[00:13:24.00] LINH SONG: Do we have a sense of where the pickup is coming from?
[00:13:27.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah.
[00:13:27.55] ELI NEIBURGER: It's really hard to guess.
[00:13:28.78] LINH SONG: Better marketing by Rich, perhaps?
[00:13:31.93] ELI NEIBURGER: Certainly there's a lot more outdoor advertising than we've ever done before. And you'll see, actually, our number one code this year was a code on the side of the bus. So that was renamed 5,420 times. 50% of players got that code, so that is certainly a big part of it. Log jammer is when they-- that's when they get-- that's for people who's logged they're reading at least once, so you can see half of players did that.
[00:13:54.94] Super summer readers, for people who finished the paper game-- so it's 36%. So that's 4,200 kids, generally, that got to take a new book home. Plus, 3,500 redemptions of the code in Josie's office.
[00:14:07.40] VICTORIA GREEN: That's crazy.
[00:14:09.52] JOSIE PARKER: It was amazing. It was amazing fun. People asked me, how do you get your work done? And my answer is, this is my work. This is my work. Talking to you is my work.
[00:14:20.29] LINH SONG: Did you have a goat or something at some point?
[00:14:23.02] JOSIE PARKER: I have six goats.
[00:14:25.94] VICTORIA GREEN: In the office?
[00:14:26.31] JOSIE PARKER: Not in my office, but I have six goats.
[00:14:29.87] JIM LEIJA: She had chicken, Josie--
[00:14:30.60] ELI NEIBURGER: The video was goats.
[00:14:31.72] JOSIE PARKER: The video was goats. My video was goats this year. It was goats once before, but it was goats again this year-- goat kids, so the code was-- are you the one person in this room who doesn't know what the code was?
[00:14:43.17] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:14:44.32] ELI NEIBURGER: It's too late now.
[00:14:45.31] JOSIE PARKER: Too late now.
[00:14:46.37] LINH SONG: I know. I missed my chance.
[00:14:48.00] JOSIE PARKER: Just kidding.
[00:14:51.43] LINH SONG: That is really cute.
[00:14:51.97] JOSIE PARKER: It was fun. No. There's a video of goat kids who about three weeks old playing.
[00:14:56.76] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:14:58.41] JOSIE PARKER: The kids, the young-- the people kids really were interested in the goat kids. So no, and older people, too, and all kinds of stories about people who had goats, and once had goats. It was great.
[00:15:08.45] LINH SONG: My daughter got the code.
[00:15:09.67] JOSIE PARKER: Yes.
[00:15:09.88] LINH SONG: She's the one who reported to me. And I-- in my head, she said there are goats in Ms. Josie's office.
[00:15:14.09] JOSIE PARKER: There were.
[00:15:14.53] ELI NEIBURGER: That has happened.
[00:15:15.70] JOSIE PARKER: That has happened. I have brought a goat to the library. Yes, I have.
[00:15:20.14] ELI NEIBURGER: So, but for sure a big part of the movement was increased marketing all around the community. A lot of stuff in print, although our numbers show us that the outdoor advertising far and away outperformed even the print advertising.
[00:15:32.86] COLLEEN SHERMAN: All right.
[00:15:33.31] ELI NEIBURGER: So it's like the billboard-- even the stuff that we did on that pedicabs. We tried that. Those were all very high engagement on those, so that's all been great.
[00:15:43.37] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: What about the yard signs? Were you going to talk about that already?
[00:15:46.09] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh, we haven't really looked at that in detailed in terms of numbers of redemptions of that code, because the code was really for the person who got the sign, not so much other people. Because we didn't want to drive people into other people's yards, so the code was really for the sign holder.
[00:16:00.89] RICH REYTI: We ordered 1,000. I would say we might have 100?
[00:16:06.40] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Good.
[00:16:07.23] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah.
[00:16:07.85] VICTORIA GREEN: Oh, it's amazing!
[00:16:08.29] RICH REYTI: Roughly, I would say there about 900.
[00:16:10.66] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I see them a lot. Great.
[00:16:13.88] ELI NEIBURGER: OK, and that's it. Any other questions about Summer Game data?
[00:16:20.07] JIM LEIJA: I'm curious to know, like, in your estimation, what-- does, like, growth, growth, growth? Like, is there-- where's the ceiling? Or is there one?
[00:16:32.07] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, there's 160,000 residents.
[00:16:34.29] JIM LEIJA: I know. That's what I was thinking about just now.
[00:16:36.78] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, you know, it'd be incredible if we hit 40,000 players.
[00:16:41.13] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
[00:16:41.24] ELI NEIBURGER: I'd be astounded by that, right? And but, you know, at this growth rate--
[00:16:45.79] JIM LEIJA: It's possible.
[00:16:46.56] ELI NEIBURGER: It's possible eventually. But it's also, it's like, there is a ceiling to how many people want to play this game, especially-- it's complicated.
[00:16:53.55] JIM LEIJA: Sure.
[00:16:53.88] ELI NEIBURGER: You know, it is a tricky thing to onboard because there's so much content, so many things to do. It's a very-- you know, people know about it. But we're also always running into people who haven't heard about it at all. So it's really-- you know, when you figure that we have about 60,000 really intense library users, right? I mean, it's a great-- it would be amazing if half of them played the game. That would be 30,000 players. Right. Does that answer your question, Jim?
[00:17:20.34] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I mean, so there's still growth potential. And I also just wonder a little bit about the-- you know, what I have, just anecdotally, what I have experienced is that even if people aren't playing, they sort of-- the reputation, and the sort of word of mouth, and the kind of, like, meme-iness of the game is really good advertising just for the library, or really good marketing for the library in general, like institutional marketing.
[00:17:53.84] And it made me-- it was making me think a little bit about the biannual user surveys that we've been doing, and how-- whether we've asked questions about it. We haven't asked questions about the Summer Game--
[00:18:08.09] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, and we have. And when we asked that--
[00:18:09.24] JIM LEIJA: But not in a while, right?
[00:18:10.03] ELI: NEIBURGER What we found was that awareness was very strong.
[00:18:12.13] JIM LEIJA: Very strong.
[00:18:12.74] ELI NEIBURGER: Right? So part of the challenge, I think, is actually that when people see library Summer Game, they assume it is all reading.
[00:18:18.37] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
[00:18:18.73] ELI NEIBURGER: That they assume, and they're like, well, I'm not a recreational reader--
[00:18:21.10] LINH SONG: Or that it's just for kids.
[00:18:22.81] ELI NEIBURGER: Or that it's just for kids. We've really tried to depart from that, specifically this year with the marketing. We'll continue that next year, but more adults play the Summer Game than kids. That is completely the case.
[00:18:34.60] JIM LEIJA: You see, I think that's very interesting, because I was also under the impression that this game was for children until I was on the library board and I played it myself.
[00:18:42.38] ELI NEIBURGER: Sure.
[00:18:42.76] JIM LEIJA: And so I just, like--
[00:18:44.56] LINH SONG: Maybe we can do a testimonial from you.
[00:18:46.54] JIM LEIJA: Yes. I was under the impression that this game was for children.
[00:18:49.99] [LAUGHTER]
[00:18:52.25] Take that off YouTube video.
[00:18:53.79] [LAUGHTER]
[00:18:56.45] But I'm just, I'm intrigued--
[00:18:57.39] JOSIE PARKER: But for many, many, many, many years, it was.
[00:18:59.72] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
[00:18:59.88] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah.
[00:19:00.43] JIM LEIJA: Of course. And traditional program would be for kids, yeah.
[00:19:03.13] JOSIE PARKER: And the Super Summer Reader Game is still. The classic reading is primarily--
[00:19:07.15] JIM LEIJA: Yep.
[00:19:08.21] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, that's the thing is we still do exactly the thing that we've done for 35 years for children. It is entirely unchanged.
[00:19:14.55] JIM LEIJA: Right.
[00:19:14.80] ELI NEIBURGER: And all this is just on top of that.
[00:19:16.15] JIM LEIJA: It's an overlay. Yeah, that I'm aware of. And I I'm just wondering, you know, just, like, again, like, how you leverage the Summer Game just to draw sort of institutional awareness. And what about it, you know, what would we change about how we, like, we talked about it, market it in terms of letting the community know how it's being used and who it's for?
[00:19:39.13] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, one thing is that we've seen a huge uptick in the number of partners that wish to engage with it.
[00:19:43.08] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:43.68] ELI NEIBURGER: And people who want to take the Summer Game laser and point it at whatever it is that they're doing.
[00:19:48.43] JIM LEIJA: Yep.
[00:19:48.85] ELI NEIBURGER: And so there's very strong awareness organizationally in the community. And certainly, our super fans know about it, but I think there's a lot of normies out there that are still--
[00:19:57.99] JIM LEIJA: Normies?
[00:19:58.69] [LAUGHTER]
[00:19:59.67] ELI NEIBURGER: Normies, yes.
[00:20:01.15] LINH SONG: Have you heard about, like, a Summer Game withdrawal?
[00:20:05.47] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh, yes. Yes. We've heard complaints about it from parents.
[00:20:09.04] LINH SONG: No, well is there a plan to have a transition from-- no, it's--
[00:20:15.35] ELI NEIBURGER: Actually, we have in the past. We have done off season games, sometimes that have dropped the day that the Summer Game ends. But the uptake is real low, and the investment of time is very high. So we didn't do that this year, and that's one of those things where we see how many people ask about it. Only a few people asked about it.
[00:20:29.87] So it's kind of like, what the off season play looks like continues to evolve. And there's a lot of opportunity there. But the one thing that we have heard is one year we started it on the same Friday, but school was in a few extra days, and the schools were very upset that Summer Game was starting before the last day of school, and they couldn't get kids to pay attention.
[00:20:50.89] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:20:52.12] So we can not begin Summer Game at all before the last day of school--
[00:20:56.20] DHARMA AKMON: Unless you tied it in with the curriculum somehow.
[00:20:59.28] [LAUGHTER]
[00:21:00.19]
[00:21:00.65] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Do you feel like there's, like the-- last year, I think Friends opened up a store where you could get the sweatshirts and hoodies and stuff briefly. It feels like there's a lot of people who would probably want library stuff--
[00:21:13.15] ELI NEIBURGER: I agree.
[00:21:13.52] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But wouldn't play the game. Like, do you feel like we could think about that as a fundraising mechanism?
[00:21:18.51] JOSIE PARKER: But we did think about that. And I did attend their board meeting, and I did offer for them to take and sell things that we had for sale in the store, in the shop. And they are taking it under consideration.
[00:21:37.53] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's awesome, yeah.
[00:21:38.38] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah.
[00:21:39.55] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Because I don't know how to play euchre, I must admit.
[00:21:42.43] JIM LEIJA: Oh!
[00:21:43.00] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I am a Summer Game player. I should crawl under the table. But I will go shopping for library things, and I know that I'm not alone.
[00:21:51.80] VICTORIA GREEN: Eli, I just wanted to say to you, the staff-- I mean, just congratulations.
[00:21:56.02] JIM LEIJA: Congratulations.
[00:21:57.93] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, everybody in the entire organization works on this. This is every single position-- you know, from the maintenance guys, all the way up to Josie in her office. Every single person is involved in Summer Game, so everybody works.
[00:22:10.72] VICTORIA GREEN: And the only other thing I'd ask, is there any barrier to continued success? Is there anything you need to make sure it continues to succeed as it did this summer?
[00:22:19.24] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, I think the volume of swag expenditure will continue to grow. You know, because that's-- even though we reined it in a couple of years ago in limiting people to four new items per person, that is still-- most people are getting them, so that's a lot of stuff. And people are playing a lot. All those points have got to be spent.
[00:22:37.43] We had-- at the gala, we had our silent auction and the live auction. 1.5 million points were spent between the silent auction and the live auction, including a picture of a cat from tubing, and that sold for 130,000 points at auction.
[00:22:50.38] INTERPOSED VOICES: Wow!
[00:22:51.86] JOSIE PARKER: That was-- it was fun to watch the auctioneer deal with that, this German cat picture.
[00:22:58.98] JIM LEIJA: I bet.
[00:22:59.94] JOSIE PARKER: was, he had fun with it. He had a lot of fun.
[00:23:03.48] LINH SONG: Is there anything to be done with people who hoard points? Say that, I know a family that might not have done anything with their points?
[00:23:12.90] ELI NEIBURGER: No.
[00:23:13.64] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:23:14.12] ELI NEIBURGER: I mean, we had one person check in for the auction who had a points balance of 600,000 points. So some people play because they like to play. They don't care about the swag. They don't want less stuff-- they don't want more stuff in their house. Right.
[00:23:23.68] JOSIE PARKER: They just like to play.
[00:23:24.84] LINH SONG: Right.
[00:23:25.43] ELI NEIBURGER: Points have no cash value. You can carry on as long as you want. You know? Those don't go on our books.
[00:23:29.85] LINH SONG: OK. OK. I wasn't sure how it was being monitored.
[00:23:33.86] [LAUGHTER]
[00:23:35.27] JOSIE PARKER: They're not cents or dollars.
[00:23:37.13] LINH SONG: Yes, right. They're points. Great. Any other questions for Eli?
[00:23:43.15] JIM LEIJA: I took it for granted that you-- how do you know someone's an adult?
[00:23:47.72] ELI NEIBURGER: It's self-reported.
[00:23:48.56] JIM LEIJA: It self-reported, OK.
[00:23:49.16] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah. However, anecdotally from the way people we interact with and the people, especially at events-- you know, you have to choose what age you are when you register.
[00:23:57.74] JIM LEIJA: So you have some, like, you have some low-level demographic information.
[00:24:01.54] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah. Plus, and it's very obvious when we're helping people, just from their behavior in the game. But it's like, most people who engage with us in person are adults.
[00:24:11.29] JIM LEIJA: Cool. Thank you. Congratulations.
[00:24:14.93] JOSIE PARKER: So the next slide is about Pittsfield Branch, which closes on Monday, September 23, for six to eight weeks. And you'll see that, in the red boxes, where the changes are going to be. The current computer area will be that large meeting room, which will be equivalent to what we have down here as free space. And then, in the southeast corner, there is an area now that is where the magazine where the newspapers are.
[00:24:41.15] There just some tables and chairs. That will become two small meeting rooms back there. The computers will move slightly down the wall from what is currently the computer center, and now. The other thing we are considering doing is moving the Bernoulli to the children's area, down where that octagonal space is. Currently, that's a computer table.
[00:25:08.79] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's a good idea.
[00:25:09.23] JOSIE PARKER: We are looking to move the Bernoulli down there, and that's about noise, because this will be a big meeting room. So we'll move the Bernoulli down into the children's space. So we can, and we're looking at that, so we'll be doing that. So that doesn't show necessarily on this drawing, but we've been talking about that.
[00:25:26.92] So this building was newly-- had new carpet done before Westgate was done, so that's not part of this. This is strictly about creating these rooms, here. Traverwood Branch will close in December for six to eight weeks. We won't announce the exact dates for this closure before we know the opening dates for Pittsfield. So we want to make sure people know when Pittsfield is re-opening before we say when Traverwood is closing.
[00:25:58.78] This is a similar situation. We're taking some space outside the current computer training area and making it into one meeting space. There's only going to be one bookable meeting space at Traverwood, and this is just about opportunity there with the way the building is set up. Pittsfield-- I should say, Pittsfield and Traverwood will be converted to category system of organization during these closures, so that's happening at both of those places, as while they're closed.
[00:26:27.55] The other big piece of the project at Traverwood, we're hoping to change the way the meeting room doors at Traverwood works. They're currently on a pivot, and they pivot and turn. And they're big, and they're huge and heavy. And if they get away from the person, they can mash fingers.
[00:26:48.46] And it doesn't really work the way we need it to. We're looking at structurally, what do we have to do to change those doors to keep the look the same, but to not have them work the same? So we're looking into that, so that's the other thing at Traverwood.
[00:27:03.19] Plus Traverwood, all re-carpeting, and the wooden floors will be sanded and finished the way they have to be done periodically, so far as their upkeep. Maybe some paint, but not much else, right? That's that.
[00:27:17.92] LINH SONG: Are we changing the way the books are--
[00:27:20.38] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah, categorization. Yep, yep. So when Traverwood reopens, all locations will be categories except this building. And when people ask us that question, to categorize the collection here is a feat-- huge. And that's not something you close down for six weeks and do, so there's a lot more involved in a conversation about how to do that. So we're not we're not having that conversation here, in any kind of material way. We are getting it done at the branches.
[00:27:51.01] JIM LEIJA: You mean here as in downtown.
[00:27:52.18] JOSIE PARKER: Here as in downtown, yes.
[00:27:54.37] VICTORIA GREEN: But Josie, I mean, I understand about the challenges. But it seems to me that if we continue to see that it increases the amount of material that people bring home, that we should tackle--
[00:28:03.73] JOSIE PARKER: We will. But we will.
[00:28:05.47] VICTORIA GREEN: On a time frame that's to be determined.
[00:28:06.31] JOSIE PARKER: I think we will, but it's looking at it with a little bit longer view, and in the building itself, because it's a relocation issue as well, and how to do that.
[00:28:21.92] ELI NEIBURGER: It's also a different set of decisions when you're categorizing a 300,000 item collection, as opposed to 40,000 item collection. The system will need to flex for that, so that's a long way off.
[00:28:32.10] VICTORIA GREEN: So it's a goal. We don't yet have a plan for it.
[00:28:34.53] JOSIE PARKER: You can't stand in this building and see it all. And all of the others, you can. And so, this makes it different.
[00:28:45.99] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Is there a precedent for categorizing a collection that large? There is?
[00:28:50.78] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh, for sure.
[00:28:51.21] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Is it bookstores, or is it libraries--
[00:28:53.13] ELI NEIBURGER: There are libraries.
[00:28:53.49] JOSIE PARKER: There are libraries.
[00:28:54.33] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah, public libraries.
[00:28:55.54] COLLEEN SHERMAN: --who have done it. OK. So it's been done. It takes a long time.
[00:29:01.00] JOSIE PARKER: Yes. And everything has to be touched and changed.
[00:29:04.14] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK.
[00:29:04.42] JOSIE PARKER: And then decisions have to be made about where things go. And then, if you have multiple copies of something, do you have them in two different categories? In which category. there's a lot that will go into that-- a lot. And the catalogers and the librarians among us like that work. They like that work.
[00:29:27.11] LINH SONG: I'm sorry. So, when the branches are closed, there's a notice that holds will be held at--
[00:29:31.94] JOSIE PARKER: And when Pittsfield is closed, all the holds will be held at Westgate. When Traverwood is closed-- historically, when Traverwood is closed, the holds are here, but that usually depends on what else might be happening here. But usually, it's here when Traverwood is closed. Pittsfield's holds will be at Westgate when Pittsfield is closed.
[00:29:54.86] Pittsfield's lockers will not be operating during this closure because there is no hold shelf there. As soon as it opens back up, the lockers will open back up.
[00:30:04.00] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:30:06.32] JOSIE PARKER: Anything else about that? All right. Downtown, the exterior dropbox will be relocated later this month. This time, our time frame on this was strictly driven by getting the contractors and the bids in the time frame, but also the street work. So because the street work is slowed down, it's more delayed project, we're feeling a lot more comfortable about when this is going to happen. So it's going to be coming later this month.
[00:30:35.63] We will have both open at the same time for a period of time. So we'll give people the notice that Williams Street dropbox is closing, but not until after the front porch drop boxes open. And then, we'll close the Williams Street dropbox once we have enough time in there.
[00:30:54.35] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Do we know when Williams Street is supposed to be done?
[00:30:57.43] JOSIE PARKER: No.
[00:30:58.42] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK
[00:30:59.16] JOSIE PARKER: No. They're projections, but our portion was supposed to be done later this month, right? I mean--
[00:31:09.34] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK.
[00:31:11.53] VICTORIA GREEN: Josie, I noted that we are asking that we get some short term parking on 5th Avenue, as well?
[00:31:17.21] JOSIE PARKER: We've asked for the same type of short-term parking in two spaces in front of the library that we had on Williams Street for people to hop out, put things in the dropbox, or run in and get things off the hold shelf. And the DDA was amenable to that, so there would be two spaces out front for vehicle short-term parking, as well as the pull up over on-- from library lane for people to hop out, drop something off, same thing.
[00:31:43.30] VICTORIA GREEN: So we heard that they will do that for us?
[00:31:46.51] JOSIE PARKER: That was what we understood. We are considering the possibility of a cafe in the downtown lobby. I spoke to the library board members last month about this, and got the OK to consider it and pursue it. So we're looking at the things we had to look at in terms of-- what we would do is place this in the corner of the building that's above you, over there, which would be the Williams Street / 5th Avenue corner.
[00:32:20.14] We would want to have window service, so we had to find out if code allowed for us to do that before we could go anywhere down the path with that, and it does. We also, then, have to look at our utility infrastructure and water connection to the city, and Len is looking into that. And so those are the things that were a large part.
[00:32:44.12] If that can be done-- if that can work out-- then we would develop an RFP based on the RFP we used for Westgate. And we would make sure a vendor knew there would need to be window service. Because in this location, the only way a coffee vendor could be open before us would be from the street, because we couldn't have the building open the way we have it at Westgate. It wouldn't work. It's not practical.
[00:33:10.13] And so that's what we would do with that. So the BOCD collection-- I got it right this time. This morning, I said it wrong to the staff. Because it was once the large print collection, but it's not now. The BOCD collection would move in the building, and we know where we'd move it to. And so we would put that window in the corner space there. So we're looking at the possibility of this.
[00:33:36.91] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So clever. I get off that bus a lot in the morning and then walk up to campus, and a lot of people are streaming off the buses and walking to campus, or coming down from the Old West Side and walking by there. There's no retail, really, between Main, and, like, for a while.
[00:33:53.62] JOSIE PARKER: Well, and also because it's a bike lane, because it's what it is--
[00:33:58.21] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yeah.
[00:33:58.45] JOSIE PARKER: We have lot more bike traffic.
[00:34:02.08] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: It's a great idea.
[00:34:03.37] KERENE S. MOORE: Bus depot, too.
[00:34:04.43] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Hmm?
[00:34:04.98] KERENE S. MOORE: Bus depot.
[00:34:05.95] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: The bus depot? Exactly. Well, that's what I meant. You got the bus there, and then, everyone, like, walks across the parking lot.
[00:34:10.67] JOSIE PARKER: So we're looking at it. The RFP-- you know, there's-- the way we do this. We put out the RFP, we see what came back. this is not something that the library staff can do without board approval, so any consideration of responses to the RFP, library board is involved in that. And any leasing to anyone, sub-leasing to anyone, however we would do this, that's-- you're involved in that. This was strictly exploratory, and then we'll see where it goes.
[00:34:39.14] VICTORIA GREEN: Josie, I wasn't here when we made the decision to add a cafe to Westgate. When adding a cafe to a library of any sort, but especially downtown, of course, our branch-- what's our expectation about what that means? How does it impact how people interact with the library? I think it'd be very popular. But, you know, who does it bring in through the door? What do we expect the impact on library operations to be?
[00:35:06.37] JOSIE PARKER: I think, downtown, I think we would see more people coming to the window for service who don't normally use the library. I don't know that they, honestly, are going to all come in, except perhaps if they wanted to come out of the weather. I do think that many people who use the library now will use the cafe if it's stocked the same way Sweetwater's is with the kind of food that families are interested in, as well as coffee drinkers.
[00:35:40.00] I think people like to sit and talk over a cup coffee, and inside the public library would be a place where people would choose to do that. I think the new users would be coming up to the window and moving through.
[00:35:53.05] VICTORIA GREEN: But I think you're also implying that we can see people who are already in the door more apt to stay through a program, more apt to persist, because there is a chance for them to get their coffee without having to leave the library.
[00:36:06.61] JOSIE PARKER: I think there would be people who would come in and use the coffee shop, and be in the library with a cup of coffee, because--
[00:36:14.95] VICTORIA GREEN: Because there's coffee.
[00:36:15.43] JOSIE PARKER: --being in the library with a cup of coffee is a place they'd rather be. I don't think it's about staying through a program or not for a cup of coffee. I do think it's about, I'm going to go the library and get my coffee. And that's going to be about the vendor as much as it is about the library. And the fact that we make places comfortable, also, and it's clean, and it's welcoming, and there's Wi-Fi, and all those things.
[00:36:40.88] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: What about the lobbytorium events?
[00:36:43.27] JOSIE PARKER: We would-- and we have already talked about this in the RFP-- we would make sure it was understood that, for a certain number of hours in a year, we would expect them to not do certain things, and that would be during a program where they would not use--
[00:37:02.44] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: No cappuccinos.
[00:37:03.19] JOSIE PARKER: That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that would be upfront-- upfront and understood that, because of the conditions, this is why you have to do this.
[00:37:12.71] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: It's funny. I mean, that's a very excellent point. But I was thinking more about, like, if their footprint is blocked by a big program?
[00:37:21.67] JOSIE PARKER: We would-- we've already talked about how we would do that.
[00:37:25.48] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: OK.
[00:37:26.71] JOSIE PARKER: One way to do that is to have people go out and walk down in front of the windows, because you can do that now when the chairs are all set up, and have cafe tables and chairs along the windows, so it's identified as, this is how you go, to go to coffee shop. It's also just around the brick corner into the garden, so the garden has this whole other use--
[00:37:48.13] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: That's great.
[00:37:49.09] JOSIE PARKER: --for spillover from the coffee shop in better weather.
[00:37:55.45] LINH SONG: So this is exciting.
[00:37:58.00] JOSIE PARKER: Well, we hope so. We're looking forward to trying to bring it out.
[00:38:01.15] LINH SONG: Will we still keep the machines up on the--
[00:38:04.19] JOSIE PARKER: I think we will, because the way they're determined--
[00:38:07.75] LINH SONG: I've had that coffee.
[00:38:09.08] JOSIE PARKER: Well, it's not so much-- it's not so much how it tastes. It's what it costs. The coffee in the machines upstairs are a lot less expensive than any coffee that you're going to buy in this corner. And so everybody here needs to have coffee. They want coffee however they can afford it. And the way this works is that the vending machines are there if they're used.
[00:38:31.08] A company won't keep them there if no one's spending money there. We do not charge for them to be in those spaces, and we get nothing from the proceeds of those machines. It's a public amenity. And so if people aren't using them, they will take them out.
[00:38:48.83] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:38:50.76] JOSIE PARKER: That's how that works.
[00:38:51.98] VICTORIA GREEN: Josie, what's our time frame on this?
[00:38:55.01] JOSIE PARKER: We're bringing out the-- we've got Pittsfield closing and the door. We've got a lot going on. So Len's figuring out the infrastructure, the utility aspect to this. And once we know that we can make it work, then we'll look at the RFP. I haven't spent the money with the attorney to go over an RFP until I knew this. And so, once we get the RFP done, we put the RFP out.
[00:39:18.44] It comes back sometime after the new year. Then we can look at this, so this won't start as a real project before the spring. Late spring or something like that.
[00:39:30.10] LINH SONG: And the funding would come out of?
[00:39:32.15] JOSIE PARKER: The capital-- capital fund. The big fund, not the operations of the library operating budget, but the big fund, the capital fund.
[00:39:43.13] JIM LEIJA: I'm just curious to know-- I'm sorry, I'm just real sitting back tonight. I'm just curious to know about whether you would have just explored the option of actually another entrance, if it's even feasible? And I know because you can control building access differently.
[00:40:03.32] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah. I think the access down here, Jim--
[00:40:06.40] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
[00:40:07.02] JOSIE PARKER: Knowing what we know already, we would not have another entry in this building by the way it's set up. So I think we would make it window service, and it would have to work. I mean, our hours are really long--
[00:40:24.17] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: It's a great idea.
[00:40:24.42] JOSIE PARKER: --for generally, and we're seven days. So, that aspect of it, so--
[00:40:30.12] JIM LEIJA: Yeah.
[00:40:31.37] JOSIE PARKER: I'm sorry, Jamie?
[00:40:32.81] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Oh, I just think like you're making lemons out of-- or lemonade out of lemons, like with the window service. It's a very cute idea, very urban, and we don't really have a lot of that. And it just suits the bus station and the bike commuters so well. So--
[00:40:46.86] LINH SONG: Great.
[00:40:47.00] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: I think it's a good idea.
[00:40:47.77] LINH SONG: Coffee for all, thank you. All right.
[00:40:50.98] JOSIE PARKER: Oh, the staff, the comments. I keep forgetting about this. So this is a new library card pictures of the best. People are bragging about the library cards and their collections. They can't wait to start reading all their social work books for fun, and not for school. So obviously somebody's got their card.
[00:41:10.06] And then the next one-- I'll let you guys look at these. Hot summer days, cold winter nights, power outages, we're here for you. This one, somebody who was very happy with how the library handled the power outages.
[00:41:25.30] DHARMA AKMON: That's one of my colleagues.
[00:41:26.97] JOSIE PARKER: I liked Tom Finholt, who's the Dean at SI, who said things that make Ann Arbor great and you don't need a power outage to enjoy this resource. Wonderful when the lights are on, as well. I liked that very much.
[00:41:39.13] This one is the Rasa Festival, got off to a beautiful start last week, and there's more for-- more going on this week. And so it's ritual floor paintings from India and the Secret Lab, and the ADL hosts four events in total through the end of this month. And then, Wayzgoose is coming up-- scenes from the summer letter press lab events. And you can look on the walls in here, and see one person, one man's-- it's Amos Kennedy's efforts-- to promote not only the letter press and the use of letter press, but the public library, as the public forum, community forum.
[00:42:18.58] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Josie, can I just say something about? I think that this is hung beautifully.
[00:42:22.76] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, it's gorgeous.
[00:42:24.03] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: And you kind of can't see because the lights aren't on, but there is this amazing fish section in the back. And the woman who made those-- she is replacing them, like, Jim Horton. He is like the letter press printer in the studio that I run. He's a master wood engraver. And he's-- like, she's going to replace him at the Folk School, which I think it's in West Virginia. Is that right?
[00:42:47.11] It's in the south. But anyway, that's really cool that--
[00:42:50.62] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:42:50.74] --you have her work.
[00:42:52.42] JOSIE PARKER: So this-- if my understanding is correct, what these are hanging on is something we got, that we keep, and we're keeping so that we can do more--
[00:43:04.75] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Cool.
[00:43:05.20] JOSIE PARKER: --like this. And did we hang these, or did Mr. Kennedy hang these?
[00:43:10.60] ELI NEIBURGER: I believe it was collaborative.
[00:43:11.87] JOSIE PARKER: OK, so there you are.
[00:43:14.29] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Sarah Brown, I guess, and I didn't remember that I'm reading it off the sign behind you guys.
[00:43:18.75] JOSIE PARKER: Yeah, yeah. I've enjoyed it very much. I'm glad. I thought it was great that we were having the meeting here in this room, knowing what was up on the walls.
[00:43:31.37] This one is-- even after 40 years of circulating art print, seeing these wonderful pieces in patron's homes never gets old. So here's one who took-- someone who took home an art print and wanted us to know about it. And after seven years of circulating music tools, seeing a teen rocking out in their living room also never gets old. He wanted his-- a daughter plays the bass, and someone wanted us to know about it. Look at that.
[00:44:02.76] This artist, who goes by the name The Lasso, recently released an album called The Sound of Lasso that included at least one song recorded using AADL synthesizers. And here's an example, or a sample, I should say.
[00:44:17.68] [VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[00:44:18.17] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:44:45.23] [END PLAYBACK]
[00:44:45.77] So I have a question. I have a question. So is the art and the film aspect to this, with the lights sparkling out of that, supposed to look like something really, really old? Or is it just how it came across in here?
[00:45:02.75] ELI NEIBURGER: I think it's supposed to look like that.
[00:45:03.86] JOSIE PARKER: I like-- that's what I thought. Good for him, right? Good for him. Really, really old, like me-- really, really old.
[00:45:11.54] JIM LEIJA: Is that, like, made with the pocket operator? Because if it is, my dreams would come true.
[00:45:15.56] ELI NEIBURGER: I don't think so. That does not sound like that. The pocket operator has fallen out of the collection.
[00:45:21.02] JIM LEIJA: Really? Oh.
[00:45:22.66] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh no, the OP1?
[00:45:23.44] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
[00:45:25.11] JIM LEIJA: Like those little--
[00:45:26.39] ELI NEIBURGER: Oh, no. That might have been pocket operator.
[00:45:28.71] JIM LEIJA: Right.
[00:45:30.45] JOSIE PARKER: So we're asking really good questions up here tonight, Jim, so let's keep this up.
[00:45:35.18] JIM LEIJA: This is the pocket operator.
[00:45:36.29] ELI NEIBURGER: Yeah.
[00:45:36.55] JIM LEIJA: Which, I, which there was--
[00:45:37.67] ELI NEIBURGER: There's three different ones.
[00:45:40.07] JIM LEIJA: I am just to tell a little anecdote because that made me think about it. But there was a big article in the New York Times arts section about pocket operators changing music education because they're, like, they cost like $50, and you can make beats, and all this stuff. And I was just like, oh, where do I get one of these?
[00:45:59.37] VICTORIA GREEN: And the answer was?
[00:46:00.11] JIM LEIJA: And the answer was the toys collection where you get three in a pack when you take it out. I haven't gotten around to taking one yet. But if there's one here tonight, I will take it home with me, because I want to make beats and, like, the future of music.
[00:46:13.18] JOSIE PARKER: Compete with Lasso.
[00:46:14.98] JIM LEIJA: I Know. That's amazing.
[00:46:16.18] LINH SONG: You better tell lasso.
[00:46:17.51] JIM LEIJA: Yeah. Well, we can--
[00:46:18.78] ELI NEIBURGER: Well, it might be hard to find because at Labor Day, all of the tools became requestable.
[00:46:24.26] JIM LEIJA: Oh, yeah.
[00:46:24.59] ELI NEIBURGER: So you can now request them, so they are now harder to find on the shelf.
[00:46:28.19] JIM LEIJA: That's great. I was wondering if that was going to happen because that was my problem with taking one out, is that I was not home at the time one was available. Oh, we're learning so much tonight.
[00:46:36.62] LINH SONG: I know. We're going to be super users.
[00:46:38.48] JIM LEIJA: That is awesome.
[00:46:39.75] LINH SONG: Yeah.
[00:46:39.89] JOSIE PARKER: So here's a photograph that someone took of a summer afternoon at Westgate. And if you look, you'll see Nicholas Books responded to this. We're in a fantastic neighborhood, so we're happy about that. For this parent, the AADL has literally kept me sane this summer. So you are. And in the Westgate honeycomb, one of the most photographed, and it's one of the most photographed spots in Ann Arbor is-- you're asking, is it yet? I think it probably is, we just don't know.
[00:47:11.73] So you want me to turn it? Yep, it's official. Oh my gosh. There, yep. There's another one. And to finish things off, one last farewell to the Summer Game-- this photo of peak Summer Game Ann Arbor. Two players who thank the AADL and Summer Game for seeing them on a scavenger hunt at the golden hour-- how lovely.
[00:47:34.54] And the thing I miss most about summer is the Summer Game, they said. We feel same way. Thank you. Was that it? Was that at the party? Was it?
[00:47:47.27] ELI NEIBURGER: I don't think so.
[00:47:50.36] JOSIE PARKER: It does look, it does look, it does look quieter. So that is my report unless you have questions. And we took up more time for that than you guys ever have for business. The other thing I wanted to point out was a poster that's in front of you.
[00:48:04.42] Some of you remember that we participated in the Books for Babies for Motts, for the infants in the cardiac care unit. And they did a poster and had permission from these families to put their images on this poster. And I asked Rich to get a good image for us so that I could share it with you. There you are, Books for Babies-- all those little babies, and their families, and their big sister it's pretty-- it's very moving.
[00:48:32.99] LINH SONG: Thank you.
[00:48:34.88] JOSIE PARKER: Yep. Thought you wanted to see that
[00:48:37.34] LINH SONG: I just want to say how nice it is that the library is such a good ambassador for the city over the course of the summer. I've run into people playing the game in really funny ways at the parks, or in the library itself. I like seeing how the little kids will show other kids who are unaware of the game how to play and say, like, you come with me. Do you see where this code is? Did you find this code?
[00:49:00.98] And a nice way to connect with strangers in public places over something they love. So kudos to everyone. Cool, any other questions for Josie? No? OK, great. So moving on to Len-- update on construction projects. Hi, Len.

[00:49:22.61] LEN LEMORIE: Hello, good evening. So, old business. We'll start with Pittsfield. Josie mentioned the closure on the 23rd. We will tie in a couple maintenance or just repair projects with it. We're going to paint the outside, soffit, high cleaning, kind of a similar thing we did with Malletts-- better reset, get everything nice and new.
[00:49:41.60] We have a construction budget for the fourth floor meeting room from O'Neal Construction, and we would like to go out to bid with this. So this is-- up the top left would be the old media room where we used to have the board meetings. You can see we've remove the radius wall there. We've removed the concrete wall inside. The AV, or the control room, and the podcast room, have moved to the back.
[00:50:08.33] There is a green room now for guests that come for as presenters, or are guests of the library. So we do have a budget. It's about what we thought, so we would like to go ahead and go to get a bid so we can present you guys with that actual true number. The budget right now is about $117 a square foot before equipment, so it's a probably about $150 a square foot renovation, which is, I think, reasonable.
[00:50:39.64] You can get $200 to $300 a square foot for something very expensive, especially in the city or probably as low to $75 to $100 on the low end.
[00:50:47.87] VICTORIA GREEN: Wait, wait. $150 a square foot equals how much total?
[00:50:52.49] LEN LEMORIE: For the construction budget right now, it's $392,000. That's 3,300 square feet.
[00:50:59.50] JOSIE PARKER: So if you're looking at perspective-wise, so where you were was in the conference room a while ago. So there are two closets. One, you see now, is green room and the access to that currently is in the conference room. So the access changes. Then, what we've done is we've taken that atrium area where that little table and four chairs sit, made that doored, so it's not open to the public unless the doors are open, and made that check-in space for people who are there, speakers, whatever.
[00:51:37.44] And then, a gathering space-- the main doors into this remain the same ones, but then, carved out of it, are these two control room, podcast studio rooms, where, when you walked into that room, you're looking-- you're going that way-- that's right. They're back here. And this makes the room bigger for people. I'm sorry, I know too your--
[00:51:58.94] LEN LEMORIE: No, you're good. Currently, the podcast room is about the size of a closet.
[00:52:01.69] JOSIE PARKER: Exactly.
[00:52:02.87] LEN LEMORIE: The biggest benefit, and you can see, you're gaining about-- you can seat about 60 people more in there. So it would be our biggest space not counting the lobby.
[00:52:13.34] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So the podcast room now is back where it says storage?
[00:52:17.49] LEN LEMORIE: Pretty much, yes, where is says storage. You see those double doors? That wall is basically out to the left there where that room, that that wall would kind of move. So yes, it's back there in the back part of that storage.
[00:52:30.15] COLLEEN SHERMAN: You know where the podcast studio is now?
[00:52:31.16] JIM LEIJA: Yeah, I get it now.
[00:52:32.87] JOSIE PARKER: And you also see a door into the fourth floor staff area. It lets the staff go directly in there to get to work, whereas now, people have to come out and go all the way around.
[00:52:44.63] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So the conference room kitchen is still that little area?
[00:52:48.03] JOSIE PARKER: Correct. That doesn't change.
[00:52:49.39] LEN LEMORIE: Next to check-in there.
[00:52:50.46] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK.
[00:52:51.53] JOSIE PARKER: Kitchen stays.
[00:52:54.49] LINH SONG: I'm so glad this isn't a boardroom anymore.
[00:52:56.83] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Mm-hmm Yeah.
[00:52:59.17] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So the kitchen is interesting. Do you need the kitchen for events?
[00:53:03.73] LEN LEMORIE: We use it quite a bit, yeah. For even, if someone uses the conference room, but yes. We use it for, actually, events all over the library.
[00:53:13.42] VICTORIA GREEN: So it'll increase the capacity larger than this room?
[00:53:17.17] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[00:53:17.59] VICTORIA GREEN: So that's some of the-- I mean, I've been in meetings where this is standing room only. And we would expect that those folks would be more likely to go upstairs, or we can have two medium-sized events at the same time, whether they're library events or civic events.
[00:53:30.55] LEN LEMORIE: Yes. And this room has been used as overflow. But when you-- you've removed the curves, you've really increased the space.
[00:53:38.18] VICTORIA GREEN: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:38.77] ELI NEIBURGER: This would become our main programming space, especially because there's more bathrooms.
[00:53:44.53] VICTORIA GREEN: I like the idea that the space would have some windows. I mean, I'm happy to be in the basement myself, but for other people.
[00:53:49.83] LEN LEMORIE: And this design actually opens up the window. Currently, the way when you enter the room, that radius wall kind of blocks out that light from the first window. This would open that up.
[00:54:01.00] LINH SONG: Will the elevators-- will the elevator be enough to handle the increase in crowd size?
[00:54:08.10] LEN LEMORIE: I think so, yes.
[00:54:08.81] LINH SONG: We'll be OK?
[00:54:09.57] LEN LEMORIE: A lot of people still choose the stairs.
[00:54:11.34] LINH SONG: The stairs? OK.
[00:54:13.54] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Lynn, can I make sure that I have the numbers right?
[00:54:16.98] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[00:54:17.22] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Just as I sketch them out.
[00:54:18.48] LEN LEMORIE: So the construction budget is currently at $392,000. that's everything except for the AV equipment and any equipment we would add to the room. And we're guessing around $150,000 for that.
[00:54:32.42] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK. And then capacity goes from what?
[00:54:35.85] LEN LEMORIE: 120 to 180.
[00:54:38.32] COLLEEN SHERMAN: OK.
[00:54:40.16] LINH SONG: That's pretty impressive.
[00:54:41.09] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah. That is.
[00:54:42.05] LINH SONG: Right. I mean, if we look at the construction from the other branches that we're adding for meeting rooms, that's just kind of, like, along the same path, right? Of just trying to extend what we can to the space that we have?
[00:54:53.75] LEN LEMORIE: The lower part about this is, I think, there is a lot of labor hours put in to setup and breakdown of that room. We don't have AV built into that room the way we do this room, so the production department-- they spent a lot of time getting that ready, whether it be stages or seating, or, you know, over a weekend where we have something on a Friday night, and an event in there on Sunday. There's a lot of time that gets spent just setting that room up and breaking it down. This would help that.
[00:55:21.29] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:55:22.50] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I have a few more questions--
[00:55:23.51] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[00:55:23.83] COLLEEN SHERMAN: --about how that space is used, and I know this is like a pop quiz question. I've been in the library on Friday nights, and it seems like that room is always active with gaming and with really cool things going on. Will the number of events increase because of the increased capacity? I'd think the answer is yes--
[00:55:41.03] LEN LEMORIE: Likely, yes.
[00:55:41.57] COLLEEN SHERMAN: [INAUDIBLE] moving things out in the [? lavatorium ?]
[00:55:43.31] JOSIE PARKER: That'd be the intention.
[00:55:44.62] COLLEN SHERMAN: Right. OK.
[00:55:46.97] LEN LEMORIE: There'll also be many events that happen down here now, and then you have 15 people in the lobby will be happening up there, and everyone will have a seat.
[00:55:55.36] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And this room seats how many?
[00:55:56.66] ELI NEIBURGER: 120.
[00:55:57.62] COLLEEN SHERMAN: So then you go, instead of 120 and 120, you go to 120 and 180, which gives you a lot more options. OK.
[00:56:04.68] ELI NEIBURGER: All right. I mean, many of our events attract around 150 people, which is a really tough fit down here and still a squeeze up there when we can.
[00:56:12.75] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah, OK.
[00:56:16.22] LINH SONG: Are there any other secret spaces that we could be converting into-- have you maxed our building out, Len? Is this--
[00:56:23.87] LEN LEMORIE: We're trying.
[00:56:25.17] ELI NEIBURGER: Not without moving things out of the building.
[00:56:26.91] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah. That would be the only other option.
[00:56:29.45] JOSIE PARKER: If we moved functions out.
[00:56:31.91] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:56:33.64] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah, this is the last--
[00:56:34.98] LINH SONG: This is it?
[00:56:35.40] LEN LEMORIE: --space that--
[00:56:36.22] LINH SONG: There are no secret closets left?
[00:56:37.54] LEN LEMORIE: No, not really. And if we have one, it's probably full of stuff.
[00:56:47.83] LINH SONG: Should we talk about our sewage?
[00:56:52.27] LEN LEMORIE: Yes, but I'm not done with old-old business.
[00:56:54.37] LINH SONG: Oh, OK. I'm so sorry. It kid of is kind of old business.
[00:56:57.80] [LAUGHTER]
[00:56:58.57] JIM LEIJA: Did you want to talk about sewage crocks?
[00:57:00.76] LINH SONG: I do, but it's old business. We're still in old business.
[00:57:03.95] LEN LEMORIE: Are there are any more questions about the meeting room?
[00:57:06.34] LINH SONG: I don't think so.
[00:57:07.72] LEN LEMORIE: So we will-- if it's OK, then we ask to get actual bid numbers from contractors and present those in October.
[00:57:15.51] LINH SONG: Great.
[00:57:17.50] LEN LEMORIE: The backup power and generators, we are still working on that. We're really close. The only thing left is to work with DTE on the site utility plans to get gas to the units. And then probably-- we may have to upgrade the service at the branch, depending on which branch it is, so that will probably be October, as well. But kind of perfect timing.
[00:57:38.41] Last week we had at Traverwood-- we had an outage that was a minor outage. We didn't get an update from DTE. The restoration time was never given to us. We made the decision to close probably around 5 o'clock--
[00:57:52.92] ELI NEIBURGER: After being without power for two hours.
[00:57:54.21] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah. Two hours. We held staff. We let them go, put them at other branches, and within about 20 minutes, power came back on. So, you know, we would have had uninterrupted service for that two hours, and everything would have gone off just like we were open.
[00:58:11.31] LINH SONG: Do we lose equipment, though, when this happens?
[00:58:13.93] LEN LEMORIE: We have; it's just hard to track. It depends on the outage. You know, we've mentioned before. If it's a brown out, yes, we can and we have. Malletts Creek-- I know of two compressors that we've lost since I've been here. But with history of Andre and our mechanical contractor, yes, we've lost other equipment-- pumps, motors, and compressors are probably the big things that go, but it's hard to track because you have to track it to the storm.
[00:58:41.12] If a chiller has four compressors, one goes out, you may not notice it for a few weeks. And then you do. And then you track it back-- yes, it probably went out at that time. So last year at Malletts Creek, it was $22,000 for two compressors, and they were storm damage.
[00:58:55.57] LINH SONG: OK.
[00:58:56.11] LEN LEMORIE: So it is very costly. I mentioned before, too, the battery backup systems that we have-- they're about $11,000 just for the battery banks, and they have to be replaced every five years. So we'd like to get a permanent solution and then just offer that. And I think the patrons would really appreciate it. So we'll get a number of really soon for that.
[00:59:17.66] VICTORIA GREEN: Lynn, how long do generators let us stay open during a power outage? Two hours, two weeks?
[00:59:22.67] LEN LEMORIE: As long as we have the natural gas, it's like it's never gone off. We will have full power to the building.
[00:59:27.97] VICTORIA GREEN: And what's the sort of cost to run them when it happens? Like what's operating expense?
[00:59:31.66] LEN LEMORIE: Same as a boiler. It's not, it's not expensive. I mean, I'll get numbers for you for the next meeting.
[00:59:39.40] VICTORIA GREEN: Thank you.
[00:59:39.97] LEN LEMORIE: Inexpensive, considering what we're gaining and the fact that we're not running people around, and were staying open. To run natural gas-- a typical natural gas bill for us in the wintertime at one of the branches is probably about $2,000 to $3,000 a month for the whole month to heat in the winter in Michigan. So to add, you know, if a generator ran for 24 hours, you're not looking at-- a few hundred dollars to $1,000 tops.
[01:00:06.90] VICTORIA GREEN: For a couple of days. Seems minimal in order to be able to provide service--
[01:00:12.07] ELI NEIBURGER: Especially when the whole neighborhood has it.
[01:00:13.84] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[01:00:14.20] VICTORA GREEN: Yeah. And when it's cold and people need places.

[01:00:19.25] LEN LEMORIE: OK. So the other part of this is new business, I guess, which would be talking about the reserve study we did. And so we can talk about the sewage crocks or sumps. I think we're going to adopt sumps as our new thing. We had a failure--
[01:00:36.17] JIM LEIJA: Sumps?
[01:00:36.95] LEN LEMORIE: --last week that it was a mechanical failure. It wasn't something because we did something wrong or-- we had a check valve and a ball valve. And the ball in the valve, it just, it goes up and it drops. It goes up and it drops. And so however many times that pump came on, it had gone through that process. And a flange cracked and the pipe broke.
[01:00:58.07] So we replaced everything from the pump up, but this is a perfect time to look back. So in 2017, we did a study of maintaining this building over the life of all of the equipment. And so this basically broke it down if we were to use planned maintenance or deferred maintenance, what would the costs be annually to fund this over 30 years, and basically replace everything in the building? The only thing that's left off of this is some piping, but other than that it's everything from the furnishings, to the roof, to the windows, to the masonry, all the pumps, all of the HVAC-- everything in the building over a 30 year process.
[01:01:37.68] So we did that. In years one and two, you have a lot of things like the sewage crocks, like the building management system, which we have prices for that. It has air handler, too, which we have prices for that. So we're working towards or off of this list. It's not something I don't think we have to go line item by line item on what it is. It's more of what our need is, but it's definitely a roadmap to get us to full replacement in 30 years.
[01:02:11.85] LINH SONG: So there are things that can't be replaced in those 30 years, right? I mean because we were talking about like-- aren't there parts that are so all that they have to be manufactured?
[01:02:22.38] LEN LEMORIE: Yes and no. There is a benefit of what happened last week. Since I've worked here, I've never seen inside the actual sump. So last week I did, and we were able to clean everything off enough to get some numbers off the pumps so we can get that replacement cost.
[01:02:38.37] LINH SONG: OK
[01:02:38.86] JOSIE PARKER: for the whole pump?
[01:02:39.78] LEN LEMORIE: For the whole pump.
[01:02:40.69] JOSIE PARKER: My time here, we've had to fabricate something as a part of of that.
[01:02:45.27] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[01:02:45.98] LINH SONG: OK.
[01:02:46.56] LEN LEMORIE: Our pumps are also-- but they don't they don't just pump the liquids and solids out; they actually chop it, as well, so it's a very large pump. If you look, on it is--
[01:02:56.16] JIM LEIJA: Wow.
[01:02:56.40] LEN LEMORIE: It's listed, yes, it's listed on in the reserve study in 2018, and the cost is around $70,000 to replace all five pumps.
[01:03:05.32] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Wow.
[01:03:06.18] JIM LEIJA: That's a lot of sewage.
[01:03:07.48] LINH SONG: That is a lot of sewage.
[01:03:09.52] JIM LEIJA: That needs to be--
[01:03:10.90] LINH SONG: And chopped.
[01:03:13.62] JOSIE PARKER: And far more now than was intended when they were putting it in in '77.
[01:03:17.87] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah, that's the other thing-- yeah.
[01:03:18.90] JIM LEIJA: More than ever.
[01:03:20.30] LINH SONG: And we have thousands of more people coming.
[01:03:23.04] JOSIE PARKER: Right.
[01:03:23.62] LINH SONG: OK.
[01:03:24.30] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So we're talking about the sumps because we just had this failure, right?
[01:03:28.38] LEN LEMORIE: Mm-hmm.
[01:03:29.06] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: But, like, on this list, like the prioritization stuff is-- like the roof is the first thing.
[01:03:33.60] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah.
[01:03:34.49] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Like, what about the difference between what the paper says and, like, what would fail randomly? Do you know what I mean?
[01:03:42.03] LEN LEMORIE: Yes, yes.
[01:03:42.78] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Like, we had a plan and we're like, well, we're weren't going to do that for five years. It's not in the plan, and we have to to do these other five things right now.
[01:03:48.42] LEN LEMORIE: And that's why we've been selected. So the first year, if you were to take-- we didn't-- we didn't fund this. It calls for $900,000 the first year, spending $850,000 and then having a balance, or a fund of $50,000. So if you went-- even if it wasn't by item, but by dollar amount, at the end of the 30 years, you end up with the $1.4 million left that you can do something else with.
[01:04:10.98] We haven't stayed on it because a lot of it-- the first year it had pumps and motors for HVAC. We have a full service maintenance contract, so they maintain that. A lot of our pumps and motors-- if they break, they replace it, not us. So we don't run to fail, but that's a case where we would kind of run right up to failure, and they have to replace that.
[01:04:30.99] So we did have compressors here, downtown, that were part of that maintenance agreement. We didn't have to pay for it. Our contractor paid for them because they maintain them. So we do get to choose. The roof, it has-- if you look, it actually has doing the roof over three years.
[01:04:48.34] And if we were to do it, I would suggest doing it all at once, because it suggests we should do the lower level roof first, and then do the upper. Well, if you're going to come back to do the upper, you're going to be-- That's going to be your lay down area. All your equipment, your crew, is going to be up and down off your brand new roof.
[01:05:06.14] VICTORIA GREEN: The one complication, Len, this is just for the downtown library?
[01:05:09.57] LEN LEMORIE: Yes, that is this is just for the downtown. And with our branch closures, we're staying ahead of this. With Malletts Creek, that was basically a reset. We did a lot of work there with that closure. Even though that wasn't a 30 year, that was a 15 year. So you walked in, it's-- we kind of did the same thing.
[01:05:26.42] LINH SONG: OK. So this is just-- this is buying us more time on the building.
[01:05:33.22] LEN LEMORIE: It is. I mean, well, it's planned maintenance. I mean, you're saying, if you're a healthy organization and you can actually fund this, it is prioritizing the things that you need to do, so you're not in a place where everything is just falling apart, where you're not waiting on a roof until water is running in, or you're not waiting on a chiller until it completely breaks, and then you're without cooling for a month. You know? When you're staging it.
[01:05:56.02] It's no different than our than our sewage sumps. We would plan that, and we would have a short term closure versus an all out failure where you actually have to order the pumps with whatever lead time there is on that. If you were to plan that maintenance, you would have all of that here-- the piping here. You would close, pull them out, put the new ones in, and be open probably within four to five days. If those were to actually fail and we had ordered order them, it would be weeks.
[01:06:24.19] LINH SONG: So how do we prioritize this, then? Is it sewage before roof, or roof before sewage? Or?
[01:06:30.31] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: So the roof says fair to poor condition in this report.
[01:06:32.78] LINH SONG: Right.
[01:06:33.67] LEN LEMORIA: The upper, the fourth floor area, would be the fair. And then the lower area would be the poor. Yeah. And there is-- Tremco did a study on it for us, as well. The biggest issue with our roof right now, but it is at its end of life-- it's driven rain. We deal with that, but to me, the roof is a big deal because it's the big expense.
[01:06:55.39] The fact that these pumps have been here for so long. If the number-- I mean, this says it's $70,000. I don't know the price; we're getting that now. If that's the case, that's inexpensive because that'll shut us down.
[01:07:07.95] VICTORIA GREEN: Yeah. And I heard you say weeks if wore un-- I mean, I know you're not promising that's going to happen, but that's a risk that we're running if we don't fund that.
[01:07:16.99] LEN LEMORIE: Well, I spent some time just looking at-- searching for pumps, similar pumps, that what we have. And they're all over the place, so it's wise, just for now, to look at them, locate where they are, where we can get them, and then start talking about that replacement, because that's right here in year one of the study. That's something we should probably do.
[01:07:36.70] LINH SONG: What would the closure look like for replacing that roof?
[01:07:39.79] LEN LEMORIE: Wouldn't be a closure.
[01:07:40.69] LINH SONG: It wouldn't? OK.
[01:07:41.74] LEN LEMORIE: No. They would probably-- they would use the lower level for their lay down area. They would bring everything off crane probably off Library Lane or 5th, get it all on there. And after that it's just trucks and probably roll off dumpsters off Library Lane or something, so we'd stay open for a roof.
[01:07:55.78] LINH SONG: OK.
[01:07:56.17] VICTORIA GREEN: But we couldn't stay open during replacement of our sewage system. That's going to be a closure.
[01:07:59.30] LEN LEMORIE: No, because a lot of it's under grade, so the piping is actually in the concrete. And it serves kind of all of the sumps. So if you're not using the first floor public restrooms, it goes into a sump.
[01:08:16.37] JOSIE PARKER: Sinks, toilets, everything
[01:08:18.38] LINH SONG: If we can't keep staff here, we can't open for patrons?
[01:08:21.12] JOSIE PARKER: That's right.
[01:08:21.92] LEN LEMORIE: The big things on the list right now would be the roof, would be the sumps, and probably would be air handler, too, which serves this room that we're in now. Those would be the three items that would probably be top of my list. And then we can kind of selectively go through it. With the carpet we've replaced, the furniture, and the finishes, we're actually ahead of this schedule by about a year.
[01:08:40.01] LINH SONG: All right.
[01:08:41.33] LEN LEMORIE: From what we've done this, this, the basement. We've done the first floor. The second floor is this year. We've done the fourth floor, and then we have our staff area for the third floor coming up. So we're actually ahead of schedule as far as this study goes.
[01:08:54.25] VICTORIA GREEN: Well, I think we have an interest in reducing the risk of closures in addition to providing staff with a workplace that doesn't have sewage problems.
[01:09:01.25] LEN LEMORIE: Yes. Any more questions about the study?
[01:09:09.26] LINH SONG: Any other thoughts?
[01:09:11.34] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I remember-- didn't we, wasn't this presented to us before? It was either by you or it was by the--
[01:09:16.86] LEN LEMORIE: Bill Gordon came.
[01:09:17.76] COLLEEN SHERMAN: That was it.
[01:09:18.14] LEN LEMORIE: From O'Neill.
[01:09:19.45] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah, that was a few years ago.
[01:09:20.63] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah, they brought reserve in to do the study. They did a really thorough job.
[01:09:24.57] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yeah.
[01:09:25.08] LEN LEMORIE: I mean, the thing is, is that the study is accurate. It's a very thorough study. It's really accurate. The cost, you know--
[01:09:31.27] COLLEEN SHERMAN: We knew the roof was coming then. You told us very clearly, the roof is coming. Plan for it now, and it's coming soon.
[01:09:38.19] LEN LEMORIE: Yes.
[01:09:38.57] COLLEEN SHERMAN: And I remember thinking, that's a lot of money for a roof.
[01:09:41.93] LEN LEMORIE: It is.
[01:09:42.39] JIM LEIJA: If I remember, I think you might have said that, actually.
[01:09:44.94] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I probably said, this is so much money for a roof.
[01:09:48.62] LINH SONG: I know. But we need a roof.
[01:09:50.75] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Going to have to have a roof.
[01:09:52.15] LINH SONG: I appreciate you coming back to the board with this. So mean, you feel like you're pretty much tracks from when I was presented last? OK.
[01:10:00.54] LEN LEMORIE: Yeah. This a very thorough study. We can choose on how we want to implement it. But if you get five or 10 years down line, you'll see this will be very true, that that's about the time certain things will break. So it's-- I look at this as planned maintenance, but it's-- if you have any more questions, let me know because this is a lot of information.
[01:10:19.05] I've looked at it a few times, but I didn't look at it again today, knowing I was going to be up here and kind of caught my eye on a few things that we look at every day. So--
[01:10:28.21] LINH SONG: Great. Well, thank you, and thank you for handling the sewage crock situation.
[01:10:35.40] LEN LEMORIE: It was OK. It wasn't that bad. It was finding the parts and then getting everything back together, so it wasn't that bad.
[01:10:44.52] JOSIE PARKER: He says with a smile.
[01:10:46.26] LEN LEMORIE: It was bad for one person. I'll tell you about that later.
[01:10:48.22] [LAUGHTER]
[01:10:49.14]
[01:10:50.06] JOSIE PARKER: There is a person who would not agree that it wasn't bad.
[01:10:53.10] LEN LEMORIE: You guys have a good evening.
[01:10:53.80] GROUP: Thank you, you too.

[01:10:56.43] JIM LEIJA: I would like to move for a closed session at the October 21, 2019 regular board meeting for discussion of real estate.
[01:11:06.04] COLLEEN SHERMAN: I'll second that.
[01:11:07.53] LINH SONG: Any discussion? All those in favor?
[01:11:10.86] JIM LEIJA: We have to do role call.
[01:11:12.00] LINH SONG: Oh, that's right. Roll call, that's right. Hi, Karen.
[01:11:14.98] KAREN WILSON: All right. Dharma Akmon?
[01:11:15.89] DHARMA AKMON: Yes.
[01:11:16.83] KAREN WILSON: Victoria Green?
[01:11:17.80] VICTORIA GREEN: Yes.
[01:11:18.63] KAREN WILSON: Jim Leija?
[01:11:19.45] JIM LEIJA: Yes
[01:11:20.00] KAREN WILSON: Kerene Moore?
[01:11:20.92] KERENE S. MOORE: Yes.
[01:11:21.36] KAREN WILSON: Colleen Sherman?
[01:11:22.36] COLLEEN SHERMAN: Yes.
[01:11:23.17] KAREN WILSON: Linh Song?
[01:11:23.52] LINH SONG: Yes.
[01:11:23.96] KAREN WILSON: Jamie Vander Broek?
[01:11:24.96] JAMIE VANDER BROEK: Yes.
[01:11:27.34] LINH SONG: Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Karen, do we have any citizen's comments?

[01:11:30.88] KAREN WILSON: We do. Dave.
[01:11:33.51] JIM LEIJA: Dave. Hi, Dave.
[01:11:34.62] LINH SONG: Oh, yes. Hello.
[01:11:38.92] DAVE: Hey, y'all. So I have maybe two comments. One is kind of a question, but I'll give the short comment first. With the downtown cafe consideration, I was thinking about the logistics of having a window service open while the library is open.
[01:11:58.75] And just thinking, like, well, if you have two points of service, then managing who's first in line is probably hard for the cafe. And people might try to cut or other silliness. And if you only keep one point of service, so when the library is not open, having outside when the library is open, having inside, I think it would draw more people into the library, so just something to consider.
[01:12:28.21] The other thing I was kind of curious about, and this kind of goes to Eli is-- I know I'm not really supposed to ask questions, but it'd be cool if, maybe for the next board meeting that's open session, having some numbers for Summer Game as to-- I don't know if the ATA-- AATA-- tracks how many people use the library fare. That would be cool, as well as looking specifically at event codes and seeing how many people did that versus other codes.
[01:13:03.23] JOSIE PARKER: Thank you.
[01:13:03.58] DAVE: Thanks.
[01:13:03.83] LINH SONG: Thank you.
[01:13:04.79] VICTORIA GREEN: Thanks, Dave.

[01:13:05.26] LINH SONG: All right. Well, with that, I think we're at an adjournment. Thank you. We'll see you next month.
[01:13:11.80] [GAVEL STRIKES]
[01:13:13.10]
[01:13:14.40] SPEAKER 1: This program was recorded on September 16, 2019 at the Ann Arbor District Library.

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September 16, 2019

Length: 01:13:16

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