Minutes from December 1, 2010
The Board Meeting for the Trustees of Brown Memorial Library was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
Attendance: Patty Furness, Lorraine MacLeod, Bea Howe, Joan Perry + Wilbur, Rod Jones, Meg Fearnley, Nola Jordan
1. The Secretary’s Report was accepted as presented.
2. A motion was made and passed to accept gifts and donations to Brown Memorial Library in November in the amount of $138.25. The Treasurer’s Report was accepted as presented.
3. The Librarian’s Report was presented and discussed. Our numbers are about where they should be for this time of year.
4. Bea, Joan, and Meg attended a recent Selectmen’s meeting at which the library budget was to be discussed. The Selectmen voted to pass it on with their approval to the Budget Committee. The flooding problem in the basement was also discussed.
5. Rod and Bea have continued to sort through our book sale donations and have made another delivery of books to Henniker for shipment to Ghana. The Rotary Club reports that the books are greatly appreciated and the Club wants to continue this work in the foreseeable future. Textbooks have been requested, particularly in areas such as math where content matter doesn’t change much.
6. A Department of Labor representative visited the library to check on the changes we made to comply with their inspection report. He said everything had been done and we are in currently in their good graces.
7. With the Trustees’ encouragement, Joan will look into The Read Program – she saw the program described on New Hampshire Chronicle. The program is designed to help students in grades K through 2 who are having difficulty reading. They have found that getting them to read aloud to a dog helps them build confidence and reading skills. Meg believes that something similar has been done in Newbury.
8. The Trustees agreed that it would be a good idea for the library to spend $100 per year to join a consortium of libraries sponsoring the Ancestry program. Financial pressures at the state library have forced them to cut Ancestry. If enough libraries want to participate, we may be able to have it again.
9. Dennis Murphy has agreed to replace loose pieces of the front steps of the library with a single piece. He doesn’t know how soon he can get around to it, but Meg will check with him again.
10. The Trustees thanked Patty for her donation of a new mat for the downstairs entrance and seconded a very young patron’s assessment of Meg as “the best librarian ever”.
11. The annual tree-lighting event (complete with horse, caroling, and Santa) will take place Saturday, December 4, at 4:00 p.m.
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The next meeting will be Wednesday, January 5, at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 p.m.