Birmingham Public Library Board Minutes

Call To Order

• Meeting called to order by President Gwendolyn B. Welch.
• The invocation was given by Jimmie Williams.
• Approval of the agenda was moved by Mrs. Allen and seconded by Mrs. Fincher.
• Irene Harve, an employee in the acquisitions department, received a certificate of appreciation for her service to BPL.
• Approval of the minutes was moved by Mrs. Sims and seconded by Ms. Adams.
• Approval of the consent agenda was moved by Mrs. Sims and seconded by Mrs. Fincher.

Interim Director's Report

• Herman Ellsberry of the Department of Public Works verified through Geoff Morgan of Planning, Engineering and Permits and Paul Jennings, city architect, that the second floor of the former ADT Building located on 708 17th Street North had the load capacity to hold up to 100 lbs/sq. foot of archival materials.
• The library's maintenance crew plans to begin readying the building by tearing down sheet rock walls to allow for more space. Public works will ensure that the building is environmentally sound with the proper temperature controls. Space will also be used to store Powderly and East Lake materials and furnishings during renovation.
• Archives Security Inc. has submitted a proposal outlining charges for storing archival materials in environmentally safe warehouse and vault facility at a cost of $30,000 annually. A budget request will be submitted to the city to cover the expense. The Birmingham Public Library's archival collections have outgrown available space in the library and much of the space currently used for archives is unsuitable.
• East Lake renovation was approved by the City Council on 4/14/09.
• Andre Bittas informed Mrs. Lyons that the elevators would be on next week's council Agenda.
• Mrs. Lyons emailed Captain Duff of the Birmingham Police Department on 4/15. He said he'd presented everything to Chief Roper and he was waiting to hear from him regarding the press conference. Captain Duff reiterated to his officers that they continue to visit libraries between calls for service. "I promise you we will follow up on this matter and will make it happen." No word yet on Security writing parking tickets.

BPL hosted APLS Video Conference

• Public libraries in the State of Alabama are required to attend a minimum of two administrator's meeting at APLS in Montgomery. Through video conferencing technology, library directors may travel to a location near them, saving time, and travel funds. BPL was one of the sites. Approximately 40 people attended.

Alabama Bench And Bar Association (ABBA) Event

• BPL agreed to serve as a partner with the ABBA by promoting the event via website and displaying posters. Author, Georgetown Professor, and Alabamian, Sheryll Cashin was the guest speaker. Renee Blalock, Sandra Crawley, Mrs. Lyons, and Mr. Rumore attended the event at The Club on 4/17/09.

PLA Symposium

• Staff attending the PLA Symposium in Nashville spoke well of the Turn the Page workshop. Others they attended will be presented at the May joint branch/department heads meeting.

Everest Academy Visit

• Approximately 15 homeschoolers along with four parents had a job shadowing experience at the library. Junior Achievement spearheaded the program and the Friends of BPL sponsored the event by providing lunch and a Friends bag as a keepsake from the library. Normally the Friends pay for a bus from the school, but since the students were homeschoolers, that was not needed this year. The students selected archives, genealogy, facilities management, graphic artist, and IT as areas of interest.

Awards And Donations

• The Academy of Fine Arts honored BPL as a community partner and Irene S. Blalock was a recipient of the Women's History Award along with former BPL Board President, Dorothy Porter.
• North Avondale neighborhood donated $1500 to the North Avondale Library for children's tables. Arlington-West Neighborhood donated $500 to the West End Library for the West End summer reading program. Elizabeth Swift donated $107.95 to BPL to purchase Overdrive Audio Books
• TOTAL: $2107.95
• In Memory to BPL Foundation:
• Pride Forney $100
• Dr. A. A. Khatri $50

Unfinished Business

• It was moved by Ms. Adams and seconded by Mrs. Allen that the board will be polled for possible dates to hold the library director interview. The dates will be either May 15th or May 16th. The votes were unanimous.
• Mrs. Allen asked Ms. Lyons for the reference checklist sheet.
• Mrs. Fincher stated that Mrs. Allen is doing a wonderful job with the library director search.
• Janice Granger will be responsible for making travel arrangements for the library director interview.

Comments

• Mrs. Welch asked that Mrs. Lyons contact Fred Fullerton to review the BPL Foundation contract so that we can be informed as to the amount in the account, how the funds are spent, and the structure of the Foundation.
• Mrs. Welch would like for the library board to have a resolution for Councilor Witherspoon.
• Mrs. Welch thanked the board for making the decision not to place the Eastwood Library in Century Plaza.
• Mrs. Lyons stated that the status of the security being trained to write citations is still being reviewed.
• Mrs. Welch would like for administration to come up with a plan to address the potential reduction in budget.
• Mrs. Welch stated that the library uses twenty-five different types of light bulbs and asked administration to look at possibly switching to interchangeable bulbs. Mrs. Lyons stated that there has been a policy change and light bulbs will now be uniform for any new building and will be purchased in bulk.
• Rev. Johnson stated that in the March minutes it stated that he said "crime is going to happen; it cannot be prevented". He stated that he said "some things are going to happen."
• Mrs. Allen congratulated Ms. Blalock on her award from The Academy of Fine Arts.
• Mrs. Allen stated that Miriam Witherspoon really wanted to help the library and we should do something to honor her.

Meeting Adjourned at approx. 10:00 a.m. with the next scheduled meeting on May 28, 2009.

Submitted By

Pamela O. Lyons, Interim Director