2022 Minutes

Librarians of the Upper Valley

Annual Meeting

Nov. 21, 2022, at Carpenter & Main Restaurant in Norwich, Vt. 

Approved minute

Annual LUV meeting minutes 11.21.2022 

Location: Carpenter & Main Restaurant, Norwich, VT.

Attendees: Amy Thurber, Canaan; Glynis Hart, Wilmot; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free; Judy Russell, Converse/Lyme; Betsy Kane, Bradford Vt.; Laurel Fulford, Orford Free; Katelyn Coolley, Grafton; Holly Lague, Thetford; Kate Minshall, Enfield; Marianna McKim, Kimball Union; Jen Spanier, Blake; Stephanie McAndrew, Cornish; Jen Haynes, Silsby/Charlestown; Tina Fava, Miner/Lempster; Sue Martin, Piermont NH; Laina Warsavage, Orford Social; Lucinda Walker, Norwich; Rubi Simon, Howe/Hanover; Mary King, Plainfield.

Meeting began at 12:59. Judy Russell and Amy Thurber distributed gifts they had collected pre-Covid for the co-op’s members. They apologized that the original chocolate was no longer part of the gift bags.

Minutes of the September 2022 meeting were approved. Glynis H. will check to make sure the minutes on the website for last year’s annual meeting are not in draft form. A motion was passed to allow Glynis to change them from “draft” to “approved” if needed.

Treasurer’s Report (Dawn Huston). The ending balance last year, prior to the Nov. 2021 annual luncheon, was $8,232.51.

Income from memberships/rotations: $4,700.00

Expenses through 11/8/2022:         $9,695.08

Ending Balance 11/21/2022:            $3,237.43

Pending expenses:                              $1,011.60

Balance going forward:                           $2,225.82

Dawn passed around bills for everyone and asked each member to fill in the totals and send payment to her at Dunbar Free Library.

Old Business. Amy T.  said if you’re not receiving emails from LUV please note that it’s the email you use as a member that has access to the Google group.

New Business. Judy R. about the DVDs – the new bags are here and the DVDs are in them! She encouraged members to write the bag number on it with a Sharpie, in case the card with the bag number is lost. Each collection has been weeded and new DVDs will be coming.

Judy R. “From this day I’m handing the DVD reins to Betsy in Bradford. Ask me for a pdf if you want to print labels of your own.”

Dawn H. introduced a discussion of new media, adding video games to LUV collections. Jeff Metzler and Glynis Hart will be on the video game feasibility committee and report back to the group about adding video games to the rotation.

Amy T. Audio Committee News. Audios will switch in January. Amy is working on new bag lists and will be weeding the bags. Please email me a copy of your current bag list.

Betsy K. Bradford has accumulated a bunch of missing and damaged audios. They will send the list to Amy.

Amy T. talked about weeding the collection; over 300 titles have no purchase date recorded, so they may be older than 2009.

Judy R. Will dispose of the old canvas bags unless anyone wants them. Also, there are weeded DVDs up for grabs. “If your bag is light, it will even out with what I send you (new ones). The lists are in the process of being updated."

Amy T. said Corey is stepping down from the Audio committee. “Jen and I are looking for someone interested in doing the ordering. Contact me if you’re interested.”

Election of Officers. Amy T. and Judy R. stepped down as Co-Chairs, but no one has stepped forward to take their places. Judy said the main responsibility is program planning. She will continue to do the website.

As no one volunteered to run for office, Dawn and Glynis were re-elected as Treasurer and Secretary. Glynis suggested filling the void left by the co-chairs by rotating the responsibilities. Perhaps the library hosting the meeting could be responsible for planning it? This suggestion carried.

Upcoming meetings and programs. The consensus seems to be that people would like to meet in person with the option to attend via Zoom or other meeting app. Perhaps for the near future, meetings could be held in libraries with Zoom capability.

Amy T. suggested a theme for the 2023 programs of Implicit Bias Training. It’s such a huge subject it might better be presented “in smaller chunks,” she said. People liked the idea of focusing on diversity as a theme.

The January meeting will be hosted by Howe Library. Ruby S. said she had a staff member who gave a good talk on collection development (and diversity?) and might be willing to speak to the group.

The March meeting is tentatively planned to be hosted by Bradford Vt. Glynis is interested in asking the Hopkinton director to address us about Disaster Planning (? Relevance to theme?).

The May meeting may be about collection accessibility, like large print books, handicap accessibility, resources for blind readers, etc.

July. Betsy K. suggested a documentary by Jill Baron, a librarian at Dartmouth, about changing the legal definition of illegal aliens.

Corey from Abbott Library, who will no longer be on the audio committee, was thanked (in absentia) for her work.

Chef Bruce of Carpenter & Main was thanked for hosting the annual meeting. The food, as always, was very good.

Meeting adjourned at 1:54 p.m.

Librarians of the Upper Valley

Sept. 19, 2022 via Zoom

Approved minutes. 

Attending: Judy Russell, Lyme (co-coordinator); Gayle Evans, Etna; Lucinda Walker, Piermont; Marianna McKim, Kimball Union Academy; Lori Fisher, NH State Library; Tina Fava, Miner Mem/ Lempster; Katelyn Coolley, Grafton; Laura Pauling, Springfield NH; Jennifer Haynes at Silsby Library; Laurel Fulford, Orford Free; Melissa Strayton, Strafford VT; Stephanie McAndrew, Cornish; Glynis Hart, Wilmot.

Meeting opened 10:07 a.m. Absent: Amy Thurber, co-coordinator; Dawn Huston, treasurer

State library report from Lori Fisher: They are still in the process of spending ARPA monies. Last week (Sept. 12-17) was unusual for the interlibrary loan system, as 5 of the 7 van drivers were out for various reasons. LF did two van routes herself. “We tried very hard not to cancel any routes.” The state had approved hiring a substitute driver, however it just so happened the substitute was on vacation that week.

Lori F: Be aware of the increase in the number of book challenges. A recent book challenge by a select person in a New Hampshire town ended with the challenge being removed from the select board agenda by the other members of the select board. “Please post your challenge form and policies on your website. You should have printed copies of these available.”

Fisher said that last year the ALA said they had 700+ challenges, which was a huge increase over previous years. However, this year there have been almost 700 book challenges nationwide by August. “Sixty percent of these are attempts to restrict multiple titles, not particular titles. These challenges are an organized effort by nationally funded groups to downplay efforts of inclusion and equity.” Active groups in New Hampshire involved in challenging books: Moms for Liberty in Hillsborough, which is providing workshops on how to troll (people) online; No Left Turn, and Granite Grok, which posts articles on the need for censorship. “I just mention these things so you’re aware of them.”

Lori F. said that there may be requests for bills introduced in the legislature next session to restrict libraries’ access to books. However, “Our government is locally based, so usually a statewide effort (to make changes) is not received well.”

“Make sure your staff and trustees have read your policies. Lock down your social media accounts. Remember inflammatory language is a tactic; don’t take it personally.” Also, “Be more aware of what people are saying and (monitor) your body language. Is your body language implying agreement? You can acknowledge what someone is saying without agreeing or disagreeing. Practice role-playing so when you need to use de-escalation techniques you’re prepared.” Go to: nhsl.libguides.com for role-play scenarios.

Judy R. Re: Roleplaying, our trustees go through a roleplaying training when they join the board. A board member questioned whether in Lyme this is really needed. “We’d like to think we are somehow immune to all this, but we’re not.”

Lori F. emphasized that individual board members cannot act alone. “The individual board member should lean on the process. That’s applicable to a lot of things. They have to act as a board, they can’t act as individuals.” Fisher is happy to speak to library staff/volunteers about how to handle book challenges. “Reach out to me, I’m here.”

Judy R. Question: Is any of the IRA money coming to the libraries?

Lori F. The money is coming through the ALA but most of it goes to states to distribute to municipalities. Talk to your town manager if you’re interested in funds for energy projects.

Gayle E. Be sure you know when the deadlines are for reaching out to your representatives.

Judy R. The new bags for the audio and video collections have arrived! DVDs will be switched next at the annual meeting at Carpenter & Main in Norwich, in November. Announcement: Amy and I are planning to step down as co-coordinators; we’ve done it long enough. If you’re interested in running please let one of us know.”

Videos are going via van (in NH). Things seem to be going along smoothly.

Discussion topic: Attracting younger patrons. Glynis H. reported on a workshop at the Association for Rural and Small Libraries conference. The workshop presenter discussed using social media and meeting patrons where they are at; most 20-30 year olds visiting the libraries are young parents who are not taking books out for themselves, but for their kids. Reach out to them by posting information on early childhood literacy and development.

Gayle E.: I agree with focusing on early literacy, new parents, programs like cooking for young people and adults. I work with the Teen Center and I go to their programs; I go to the school and read to the kindergarteners.

Judy R. We attract them and they go to the children’s section; they’re not attending programs that don’t involve their kids.

Gayle E. My online programs attract them.

S.E. “We host a paint night, which brings a mix of moms and retirees.”

Laura P. “Have lots of Colleen Hoover available!” (Laughter.)

Melissa Strayton: With the Overdrive upgrade a lot of these age groups’ usage is surging.

Jennifer at Silsby: We have a monthly Adult-Only Craft night. It’s a big hit – starts at 6, goes to 7:30. My adult services person runs it. We have a sign-up sheet on our library doors and through our FaceBook page. Every one we’ve had has been booked to capacity. It does take two of us to supervise. We have a couple thousand dollars in the budget for adult programming. (Will send pics to Glynis at wilmotlibrary@comcast.net).

Laura P. As a part-time librarian doing a monthly craft night would be overwhelming. For right now my goal is to connect with the parents. Once a year we get the list of new babies from the town and send them a welcome letter.

Judy R. We have a baby book program. We get the baby list from the town clerk; we buy a book and have a special Trina Schart Hyman-designed bookplate in in. In the month of March we put the books on display… We invite parents to sign up.

Gayle: I’m going to try hosting a Friday afternoon childcare, beginning in October. The kids can get off the bus near the library.

Judy R. It seems to me that a lot of the younger patrons are more genre-focused. They have a lot more Sci-Fi fans, which tends to be the weakest part of my collection. Making younger patrons aware we’re building up these collections could help.

Melissa S. said her trustees were discussing going to the community with a survey and wanted info from other libraries that had done one. Glynis said Wilmot has, and will send her copies of the survey.

Dawn H. arrived. There is no invoice for the new bags; the LUV bank balance of $9759.50 has not changed.

Judy R. left for another commitment.

The annual meeting will be held at Carpenter & Main restaurant in Norwich, VT at noon Nov. 21 (Monday).

Gayle E. suggested a gift for Amy T. and Judy R. to recognize their service to the group as co-coordinators. Everyone agreed this is a good idea; we will pass the hat to pay for the gifts at the November meeting. Dawn H. offered to underwrite any costs not covered by passing the hat.

A reminder email will go out to everyone prior to the meeting. (GLYNIS DO THIS) People need to be asked to sign up for the dinner so the chef can prepare.

Gayle E. brought up the decreasing circulation of audiobooks and DVDs. Will LUV become obsolete soon? “I just freed up 5 shelves of DVDs and audios… How is this a better bang for my buck than Kanopy?”

Glynis H. suggested that in the future LUV might pivot to video/computer game collections, like the one in Exeter that will be rotating.

Dawn H. said that Justine in Newport would have some ideas on this, as Newport has been doing game rentals for a while.

Katelyn C. suggested Common Sense Media as a tool for finding good games for children.

Gayle E. said she does have kids who bring their consoles and use the library’s TV to play video games.

Jenn asked about the budget for supplies ; Dawn said if it’s 4 or $500 “then that’s what it’s gotta be,” and Jenn said she’d send the bill when she gets it.

Meeting adjourned around 11:20 a.m.

Librarians of the Upper Valley

7.18.2022 LUV Meeting Minutes 

Present:

Co-chair Judy Russell, Lyme/Converse; Co-chair Amy Thurber, Canaan; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free/ Grantham; Secretary Glynis Hart, Wilmot; Betsy Kane, Bradford Vt.; Katelyn Cooley, Grafton NH; Beth Reynolds, Bradford Vt.; Emily Zollo at Latham Library in Thetford Vt.; Laurel Fulford, Orford NH; Joy Worland of Vermont State Library.

Meeting began at 10:07 via Zoom.

Minutes for March and May 2022 were accepted.

Dawn Huston, Treasurer’s Report. The current total of funds is $9,759.70, which is just $20 more than last meeting.

Dawn H. – Judy R. created a graph for expenditures for the video and audio committees. Starting with $9730 at hand, allotting $2600 for audios; $2380 for videos; Audio/visual supplies (like labels) $250; New bags for collections $3216; annual luncheon $650.

Amy T. will do an inventory of videos this January, after the committees have finished shopping, turned in receipts and so forth.

This budget layout was unanimously approved for 2022.

Joy Worland: Vermont libraries update. Twenty people were certified paralibrarians in June. “The program is growing each year.” Vermont libraries are in their second round of ARPA Grants, using them for EDI/Collections equipment. Consultants are going out to libraries as a group (to advise them on the grants?). Vermont libraries are trying out a new app for e-books and audiobooks, called Palace, that aggregates content from multiple sources like Lyrasis, Overdrive, in one app. It delivers more content and is hoped to be easier for patrons to use.

Vt. Libraries are hoping to have some money for building construction soon. The Preservation Trust will do a workshop for libraries on this.

The Vt. Legislature has established a working group to investigate the state of libraries in Vermont. It has been going just a few months; in the future they will make a report to the legislature.

A lot of libraries are doing strategic planning; “We’re looking for providers to do some training” on this.

Asked about disaster planning for libraries (GH/Wilmot) Joy responded the state has a template. She will put the link in the chat box. : https://my.nicheacademy.com/vtlibwebinars/course/38370/lesson/147628

The Association of Rural and Small Libraries also has material to help libraries with strategic planning.

Speaker. Amy T. Introduced a team from TD3 Innovative Gaming: Jack Viscosi, KC, and Ben. TD3 sells Educational programming using Minecraft (a popular online game platform for kids).

Jack Viscosi explained: There are elementary, middle school and high school levels.

The programs are designed to decrease children’s boredom and get them engaged with libraries with educational games. For example, games incorporate STEM content; they are also customizable to go with curriculum. For teens they have PYTHON (programming language) learning modules. They also make custom games for particular subjects.

Glynis H. “How do you know this lines up with curriculum?”

Jack: “We don’t – We’re college students, so we already know this stuff.” They do not have educators vet the material.

Dawn H. “You need to subscribe to use Minecraft; will the library subscription cover all kids in the workshop?”

Jack: There are 2 ways to get into Minecraft; Java is free using our accounts and Bedrock is not.

Jack explained that during the workshop the games are hosted on TD3’s server; the TD3 workers curate the experience and help the kids and library admins set the game up and ensure it goes smoothly. The session lasts 2 hours.

It’s possible to join up with other libraries to share the event. In Rochester NY, seven libraries participated, with 2 programs each.

Jack said they measure engagement by handing out a survey at the end of the program; the libraries reported a surge in attendance. “All of our survey results showed the programs generated better attendance.”

Amy T. “How much knowledge of Minecraft would the librarian or the kids need to have?”

Jack: “None.”

All the programs in NY have been in-person, but they also have a hybrid model, which is how they would conduct programs in NH. The kids can come to the library with their devices, while the host is on Zoom. Kids can also participate remotely. Up to 100 kids can play at once.

Asked what devices work and which don’t, Jack said usually the only devices that don’t work are consoles (Xbox, etc.) and Chromebooks.

Pricing is based on the number of sessions; libraries can team up to share costs. A single session is $300; two bookings would be $275 each.

To contact TD3 Innovative Gaming, email Jack Viscosi at jack@td3innovationgaming.com.

Audio/Video Rotation. Amy T. “The audio rotation will resolve itself, but not before the next rotation; one library is on the rotation after itself (Wilmot). We switch audios again in September. In September let’s be really conscious of who gets our bags.” Amy advised Wilmot to hold Bag 29 until September.

Amy T. Question for group: “We have Libby and Kanopy (online ebooks, audio and streaming services) but I had a patron ask me for Hoopla. Is it redundant?”

Dawn H. “What makes it not redundant is patrons in book groups; a book group can use up all the available copies in Overdrive and not have enough.” Hoopla makes it easier to get content and get multiple copies. HOWEVER, with Kanopy the library can set an upper limit, so if patrons usage gets close to that limit at the end of the month they can throttle or stop it. With Hoopla, if you set a limit they divvy it up per day.

Judy R. “When we had these things on, it drains the time and energy of the librarian. We need to keep it simple; it’s unfair to expect us to manage so many applications.”

General discussion: Publicity and public relations takes up an incredible amount of everyone’s time.

Covid updates. Amy T. is seeing more people in the building; they are starting their Tech Night again. Dawn H. said her board nixed the mask mandate 4-1. Staff may wear masks if they want to. Amy: Patrons are mostly unmasked.

Bags update. Judy R. Bags are ordered and should be delivered, finished, in October. In time for the annual meeting in November.

Dawn H. “I had three guys from Microsoft call in about tying in library programming to Minecraft… they didn’t charge anything.

Meeting adjourned.

Librarians of the Upper Valley 5.16.2022

MINUTES

Members present: Co-chair Judy Russell, Lyme/Converse; Co-chair Amy Thurber, Canaan; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free/ Grantham; Tina Fava, Miner Mem/ Lempster; Secretary Glynis Hart, Wilmot; Betsy Kane, Bradford Vt.; Melissa Strayton; Lucinda Walker, unnamed members on Zoom link.  

Secretary Glynis Hart arrived late, therefore these minutes begin at 10:20 a.m.

Michael York of NH State Library reported on the 5-year Plan. The state library will present its budget to the Governor in the Fall; the Governor will make assemble the state budget and present it to the legislators in February.

York said the state library is required to prepare a maintenance budget. In response to a question (GH) about the budget being bare-bones or having room for new initiatives, York said “NH is known for its frugality,” emphasized that state departments act accordingly. However, “We will be asking for additional funds to beef up our digitization efforts. Bobbi S. is working closely with small libraries in the state to convert all kinds of records to digital ones. We will continue to ask for additional funds to do those things.”

Amy T. presented Joy’s report from the Vermont State Library: “The library is accepting applications for a second round of ARPA grants.” They have new staff, a new director, and new government and management consultants. The New State Librarian collaborated with Big Heavy World, a music nonprofit based in Burlington, to provide 90 USB microphones that are circulating through libraries (enabling patrons to make recordings and download them to computers). Joy hopes to join the next LUV meeting; she is the state library consultant for Continuing Education.

Planned speaker Bobbi Slossar of NH State Library was unable to attend and sent her apologies.

Minutes: Minutes from the 3.16.22 meeting were not available to all; they will be voted upon in the next meeting.

Treasurer’s report: Dawn H. reported holdings of $9,739.70. Outgoing: one check for $50, honoraria for the last speaker.

Following up on questions from the last meeting about the video and audio committees – they asked for a budget -- Dawn H. reported there are 19 video bags and 20 audio bags. At $200 per bag, the budget would support $4,000 for the audio bags, $3,800 for video bags. “That would be a good starting point.”

Dawn H. asked that the co-chairs become signatories to the checking account, in case she is incapacitated somehow. Glynis H. volunteered to do it and asked to set up a date to go to the bank.

Dawn H. said the tub with all the information pertaining to the Treasurer’s duties is “due Southwest” of her office, on a shelf.

The treasurer’s report was unanimously approved.

Amy T. asked libraries to share what they’re planning for Summer Reading Programs.

Orford Free (?) said they’re sharing programming from the state (Oceans of Possibilities) and got a UNHC grant for marine docents to come speak at the library.

Amy T. (Canaan) said they’re sticking to the tried-and-true with Take and Make crafts. They were a great success last year. The library puts them out every other week. This year’s crafts will be ocean-themed, such as turning tea boxes into treasure chests. Canaan always does reading BINGO for adults and kids. They are also collaborating with the elementary school, which is loaning the library its Story Walk for the summer. “We are inching our way back into in-person events.”

(?) Unknown Librarian said they’re going to try out a kids v. adults reading challenge.

Lucinda Walker said they’re not doing Oceans of Possibilities, but “running rogue.” They have just started doing in-person story time again.

(?) Unknown Librarian 2 reported receiving grants for afterschool programs and camps.

Melissa Strayton: We are working with the Oceans of Possibilities theme, doing outdoor programming as the library is too small for in-person.

(?) Strafford will be hosting Story Walks with pirate stories and crafts.

Bradford Public Library Vt. Last year did Beads for Reads; kids collected beads for reading and strung them into necklaces at the end of the summer. “It went okay.” This year they may do Books and Bubbles; she’s still thinking of possibilities.

Judy Russell: Upcoming speaker will address fundraising. “We are all in different boats, but fundraising is becoming more and more of a reality.” She asked librarians to contribute questions about fundraising.

Discussion about fundraising and library Friends groups: Dawn H. said her library recently dodged a bullet, which was the disbanding of the Friends group. The group got so far as to bring disbanding to a vote, as no one was willing to be the President of the group and they hadn’t had a Vice President for more than ten years. Dawn said the Friends group continued once they decided no one would be forced to hold office. “People were willing to continue the group as long as they didn’t have to be president.”

Judy R. said her Friends group contributes $12-13K/year. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Amy T. said the Canaan Friends of the Library group is very active. In the past they’ve done very hard work projects but they are aging out of those projects. They would like to do something different in place of the plant sale.

Glynis H. asked how to go about getting younger members in a Friends group.

Judy R. said meeting during the day is appreciated by older members but they realize that to get younger members to join they need to meet later in the day.

Orford: How much is too much to ask for? Our needs are more focused on infrastructure but the Friends money can’t be used for that.

Judy R. “It depends on the person. You have Big Ask people and your small donors.”

Lucinda W. “The Big Ask people are the hardest ones for me to access.” Her board sends out two fundraising letters a year. They are getting to the point where they need major gifts. The Friends group recently put out a community cookbook, which was so successful it went through three printings. It came out in November right before the holidays. “Who is on my board dictates fundraising.” Her community gained 88 new families during the pandemic.

Melissa said they tried to get their development community to focus on the young parents population.  “We lose them when their kids get to middle school.”

Betsy (Bradford?) asked about passive v. event-based PR.

Judy R. said they do PayPal on their library website. “It’s been really nice” and they get significant money that way.

Amy T. said that the Google Groups mailing list has not been working well. She asked that people check their email listing on the LUV website and make sure it is up to date.

Judy R. said “We’ll put the Google Groups email list to rest.”

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting will be July 18 at 10 a.m. -- place to be determined. 

LUV Meeting 3.21.22

Zoom/in person

In attendance: Co-chair Judy Russell, Lyme/Converse; Cory Smith, Abbott/ Pomfret; Co-chair Amy Thurber, Canaan; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free/ Grantham; Katelyn Coolley, Grafton; Emily Zollo, Latham Mem/Thetford; Tina Fava, Miner Mem/ Lempster; Secretary Glynis Hart, Wilmot; Jen Spanier, East Corinth; Nancy Tuzinski, Hartland; Betsy Kane, Bradford Vt.; Crystal Schimpf, New London; Laura Pauling, Springfield NH; Sue Martin, Piermont; Beatrice Couser, Lebanon (speaker), Mary King, Plainfield/Philip Read.  

Meeting began 10:04 a.m.

Minutes for 1.24.22 accepted.

Treasurer’s Report. Dawn Huston: A check for $677.74 was sent to Latham Library to reimburse them for LUV materials they mistakenly paid for. Four deposits were made into the LUV bank account. The current grand total in the account is $9,789.70

Old Business. Betsy K. asked about the status of the bags, some of which are quite shabby. Amy T. said Judy R. is getting a quote. “Janway didn’t have a lot of stock.” They will have news on this at the May meeting.

Judy R. said we want sturdy canvas type bags.

Amy T. Asked for budgets for the video and audio committees.

Judy R. said she will put something together.

Amy T. asked the video committee to step up – more people are needed. Betsy K. said Bradford was tepidly interested; she will ask her director, Gayle, for guidance.

New Business. Amy T. said LUV will offer a discount to libraries who were left out of the rotation in 2021. “The idea is to reimburse the lack of service.” Libraries who were shorted included Charlestown, Sharon, maybe Orford and Springfield. A 17% discount would change the fee from $100 to $83.  A show of hands approved this. It is not clear how many libraries were affected.

A program on genealogy is planned for the May meeting, but a speaker has not been chosen. Amy T. asked if people are interested in meeting in person; lukewarm response.

Speaker: Managing Your Library of Things. Beatrice Couser of Lebanon Libraries. Couser started in May 2021. She described the library of things, which includes musical instruments, board games, kites, laptops and portable hotspots. To organize it Couser created a binder with pictures, so patrons can easily see what there is. The LOT rotates between two libraries. They also have a recording studio purchased with ARPA funding, that patrons can use by booking a meeting room at the library. Different items have different lending periods; laptops = 3 weeks, board games = 1 week.

Katelyn C. asked about the library’s policy for repairs and replacements. Beatrice C. said the library generally eats the cost.

Other libraries were asked about their non-book items. Bradford Vt. Library has a seed catalog. Betsy C. said NOFA partnered with them to establish the seed swap. “We only take packets that are sealed.” In the fall they’ve done harvest swaps. “It’s a really fun gardening season for us.”

Emily Z. said, “We’re just getting started with ours. We ask for donations from people that are things they’ve grown in their gardens: flowers, vegetable seeds. Thetford school donated quite a bit. It’s pretty labor intensive to label and package them. Maybe we’ll set up a seed station.”

Amy Thurber showed the seed library for her library. “It’s an old Lego box. We accept labeled seed donations. We’ve got little envelopes so people can take just a few. It’s fun to see the little kids come in and want to do it. I like Betsy’s idea of programming around it.”

How to catalog things? Amy T. said they use Follette Destiny and label them Artifacts. Glynis H. said Wilmot uses Biblionix and we have a category of Things and another of Games.

Katelyn C. asked if anyone lent out exercise equipment, like a paddleboard.

Betsy K. said in Norwich they lend out exercise equipment.

Michael York recommended checking with PRIMEX (municipal insurance) about policies for exercise equipment. Using the equipment and transporting the equipment are possible issues.

Reporting from the state library, Michael York said Jim Wetherbee retired from driving the ILL van after 25 years. “Jim was just a special individual. Everybody was always glad to see him. We had a modest event to recognize Jim. We have wonderful librarians and wonderful helpers all across New Hampshire and we don’t recognize them as much as we should. They do an excellent job.”

On the budget, Michael Y. said they are currently taking in more resources than expected. “Things look reasonably good.” The biennial budget will be prepared in November.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:27 a.m.

LUV meeting 1.24.2022

Via Zoom

In attendance: Co-chair Judy Russell, Lyme/Converse; Cory Smith, Abbott Pomfret; Co-chair Amy Thurber, Canaan; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free/ Grantham; Katelyn Coolley, Grafton; Emily Zollo, Latham Mem/Thetford; Tina Fava, Miner Mem/ Lempster; Lucinda Walker, Norwich; Secretary Glynis Hart, Wilmot; Beth Reynolds, Fairlee; Jen Spanier, East Corinth; Melissa Strayton, Strafford; Emily Zollo, Thetford; Joy Worland, Vermont State Library; Lori Fisher, NH State Library; Nancy Tazinski, Hartland; Gayle Evans, Bradford Vt.

Amy T. called the roll. Meeting began at 10:03 a.m.

Minutes for Nov. 2021 meeting were approved.

Dawn H.: Treasurer’s Report. Bank account holds $9,407.44, with almost all memberships and rotation fees paid. This is a lot; hopefully there will be video purchases this year.

Judy R. asked about a budget for audio and video purchases.

Dawn H. said her understanding from Peter (previous treasurer) was that the two committees were given a number and tried to stay within the budget generated by fees for the rotating collections.

Cory S. said, “Each year I would ask Peter how much I had to spend. The figure was based on how many people enrolled for audios the past year; it was between $2K and $2,500.

Judy R. “In terms of anticipated expenses we don’t have much. That’s a pretty high balance to carry.”

Amy encouraged people to save questions for later in the meeting, when the audio/video committees were on the agenda.

Treasurer’s report approved.

Lori F. reported that the NH state library is interviewing candidates to replace the IT person. Also, “We are up to strength with van drivers, and looking to add one in the North.” ARPA II monies are moving forward with the second round of grants. Also, Rep. Kuster’s meeting call with library directors on Jan. 21 had about 30 participants. Fisher was pleased with the impact of grant recipients talking about what they did with their ARPA funds, and is hoping for similar group calls with Rep. Pappas and Senators Shaheen and Hassan.

In the legislature, a bill to require background checks of all library staff and volunteers is in the pipeline. NHLA will keep us up to date. Other bills that may affect libraries include one governing remote meetings for public bodies (such as boards of trustees). Lori said, “Have your trustees chime in if they would like to.”

Re: The incident in Littleton, where it was reported that a candidate for library trusteeship was required by that town’s Clerk to sign an oath of allegiance. Lori F. said it was a school board candidate. “If someone who runs for office your town is asked to sign an oath of allegiance, they don’t have to.” 

A number of professional development opportunities are being offered by the state library. For information on these opportunities, watch the NHAIS listserv. To contact Lori, use her email: lori.a.fisher@dncr.nh.gov

Joy W. from Vt. State Library: Joy is also a consultant for continuing education in Vermont. A new State Librarian has been selected, as well as a new grants administrator. They are also in the process of hiring a cataloging person. The working group on the status of libraries in Vermont is collecting date to report back to the state legislature in Nov. 2023, in hopes of generating better and more equal services throughout Vermont. The state library is the Northeast hub for the ALA Transforming Communities Grant (NH, NY, Vt, ME), with a meeting of that body scheduled for later today.  “It’s nice to get to know people and raise the profile of Northeast libraries.”

Joy W. talked about the continuing education opportunities available and noted seven people received certificates of public librarianship in December. Workshops include: Censorship (1/27); Attracting ARPA and Other Municipal Support (1/31); Information Services (2/02- 3/02); Small and Rural Libraries Roundtalbe (2/04); Social Media Roundup (2/11); Leadership Styles and Management 2/15); Summer Programming Grant Info (2/16); Hybrid Programming & Owl cameras (2/28); and in March, Library Records Retention (3/04). For more information go to libraries.vermont.gov/services or email Joy at joy.worland@vermont.gov

Audio/Video collections.

Amy T. started the discussion noting that for some libraries the rotating collections are a boost, and for others they comprise their entire A/V collection. She encouraged libraries to stay current with moving the collections: “Think of it as moving materials other libraries’ patrons really want.”

Judy R. brought up the difficulty of getting the collection from Bradford, Vt. To Wilmot, NH. After discussion it was decided that in future Bradford’s bags will rotate to Piermont, then Piermont will send to Wilmot. This change should happen in May.

Judy R. is committed to completing an inventory of all the videos. She is creating new check-in and checkout sheets. “Send me a copy of the inventory list as it’s arriving to you, and any missing titles.” It is possible that missing titles are in Lyme.

Amy T. said the audio committee will be tackling inventory as well this year. Cory S. said it would be better to do it when they can meet in person.

Gayle E. asked how weeding was done with the A/V bags. Cody said they’re open to suggestions but haven’t done weeding in a while. Dawn H. noted that anything purchased from Recorded Books has the ability to be replaced.

Three libraries did not renew their membership in the audio rotation, so the items from those three bags will be distributed among the other bags.

Judy R. noted that use of audios has declined. Also, video lending has declined.

Lucinda W. said, “We barely buy CDs anymore because of Libby (the streaming app for Overdrive). Oddly, our DVDs are picking up again. We don’t buy many new DVDs; it’s hard to find them.”

The A/V committees are also looking into the price of new bags.

Dawn H. “Anybody is welcome to be on the committees. Please send new audiobook title ideas to Cory  via abbottlibrary@gmail.com

Judy R. brought up possible speakers for future LUV meetings, such as Libraries of Things; Fundraising; Basic Genealogy Toolkit for Libraries, and hybrid programming if people are still interested. Lucinda W. suggested something about engaging with patrons who don’t actually come into the library – i.e., they use their cards for downloadable books and streaming services.

Gayle E. asked if libraries gathered people’s ages. The general response was No.

Judy R. directed people to the LUV website and there was some discussion on searching the lists of audios and videos. Not all items are on the lists.

Audio questions should be sent to Amy T., who has the master list.

Meeting adjourned.