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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLibrary Board of Trustees Min 1989/03/22 -- . . . , MINUTES LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MARCH 22, 1989 LIBRARY CONFERENCE ROOM 2 PM BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman McBreen, Vice Chairman Lindsay, Trustees Miller and Romero BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: None LIBRARY STAFF PRESENT: Library Director Lane, Assistant Library Director Palmer, Head of Technical Services Blue I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES February 22, 1989 Meeting of January 25, 1989 and MSUC (Lindsay/Miller) to approve the minutes of the January 25, 1989 meeting. MSUC (Lindsay/Romero) to approve the minutes of the February 22, 1989 meeting. MSUC (Lindsay/Miller) to submit the original letter of recommendation for award for Sheridan Hegland to CALTAC with a letter of endorsement from this Board strongly endorsing their reconsideration of a posthumous award for his service. MSUC (McBreen/Miller) to request the City Council to prepare a suitable award of recognition to Sheridan Hegland as past Chairman and Trustee of the Library Board for contributions he has made. In discussion which followed, it was decided that Trustee Miller would purchase a gavel which would be presented to family members at a City Council meeting. II. CONTINUED MATTERS A. Branch Library Sites, Action on preferred sites as identified in Trustees workshop of February 7, 1989 MSUC (Romero/Lindsay) In view of the changed conditions the Library Board affirms the recommendations from the February 7th Library Board workshop on site location and designates site C (paseo Ranchero and East H Street) as the preferred library site in the Sweetwater/Bonita planning area. MSUC (McBreen/Romero) that Focus Area 4 (Lauderbach and Third Avenue) is the preferred Montgomery/otay planning area library site. LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES - 2 - MARCH 22, 1989 B. Library Book Security System Trustee Lindsay submitted a written policy statement (attached) for transmittal to the City Council, recommending that the present security system be extended to all books. After further discussion under a motion, the policy statement was approved with minor changes. MSC (Lindsay/Miller, Romero abstaining) that the policy statement submitted in writing by Vice Chairman Lindsay be approved by the Library Board as a recommendation to the city Council with the following changes: 1. Change item state that targeted. number 1 of the policy statement to all reference books continue to be 2. Paragraph number 1, line 3 to "for all classes of books" . C. Establishment of Output Measures to evaluate first year operation of new branch performance MSUC (Romero/Lindsay) that the output measures be used to evaluate first year operations of the new branch libraries and that output reports be shared with the Library Board. D. Preserving library resources MSUC (McBreen/Romero) to request Library staff to prepare a letter to Senators Wilson and Cranston, requesting that both Senators strongly support and co- sponsor Senate Joint Resolution 57, concerning the use of acid-free paper for books. All trustees will sign E. Legislation Day MSUC (McBreen/Lindsay) to nominate Romero to attend Legislation Day. Library staff to make arrangements. Trustees Miller and They will contact . LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES - 3 - MARCH 22, 1989 III. NEW BUSINESS - None The Board requested that the following items be placed on the agenda for April. A. Limiting books checked out by category - McBreen B. Status of Sea Chanty - Lindsay C. Status of May Library Board meeting (McBreen and Lindsay cannot attend on scheduled date.) IV. LIBRARY DIRECTOR'S REPORT Meeting Orange/Hermosa Park Public Library Director Lane explained the three proposed park layouts for the Orange and Hermosa site. Trustee Romero reported on the public meeting held February 13, 1989 in which a passive park without any recreation or library buildings was recommended. V. COMMUNICATIONS A. Friends . Friends Liaison, Betty Roche, reported that the Book stop bookstore now has additional book cases. Also there does not appear to be enough gift books to support both the store and large all-day book fairs. B. Public Comments Mr. Coye said that the Lauderbach branch site has a parking problem and that the Orange and Hermosa site was not suitable for a Library. C. Written Comments Chairman McBreen shared a written communication from Gerry Craver, Literacy Team Coordinator, extending an invitation to the Library Board members to attend the Volunteer Recognition Dinner on April 13, 1989, and also inviting the Board to hold a meeting at the Literacy Team office. D. Board Comments . VI. ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 4: 12, the next Library Board of Trustees Meeting is scheduled for April 26, 1989 in the Literacy Team office at 210 Landis Avenue in Chula Vista. . To: The Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Library Board of Trustees .' Date: March 22, 1989 Subject: Book Theft Prevention Over a considerable period of time, the Library Board of Trustees has been examining the question of book theft and this Library's lack of a security system. While the Library is in no danger of closing its doors because of book loss, it does have a responsibility to the taxpayers to safeguard what their money has purchased. As we have the means at hand to do this, it seems wasteful in the long run not to use a system designed to prevent book theft. It is a sad fact that people do steal, and if you make it easy for them, they steal a lot. The most commonly used system is a sensor inserted in the book spine which triggers an alarm when passed through the sensing gates (which the Library has), unless the book is de-sensitized by the check-out librarian. . CUrrently, some of the reference books, but none of the books in circula- tion, are targeted. At one time all books were targeted and an active security system was in operation but the process was discontinued. We have heard various reasons put forward for not using a security system - a complete system is costly, it is labor intensive, a loss of time and administratively burdensome. We feel in many cases loss cannot be measured in money. A book that is out of print cannot be purchased. As the Library has no real inventory of its books (a physical count), we cannot truly know what the theft ratio is. The secondary effect of missing items is that the Card Index File is adversly affected and, hence, does not accur- ately reflect the available books. This is frustrating and time consuming for library patrons who cannot find the book which is listed in the Card Index File. They are then required to pay a fee and experience further delay while their request is forwarded to another library. A recent study by the Assistant Library Director confirms the fact that earlier losses were considerably underestimated and that, in fact, the Library may be losing $14,000 to $15,000 worth of books a year. This statistical sampling also estimates a loss of 4,500 items over approxi- mately three and a half years and states that the last inventory was ten years ago, a period which we consider excessive. We believe that there is far more to the loss of library books than their dollar value. All of the new progressive libraries, such as Pasadena, Cerritos and Huntingon Beach, use an electronic security system. They target their entire collections, including reference and vijeos. Hunt- ington Beach even safeguards paperbacks. That there is theft, there is no doubt and, with our particular layout for checking out beoks. it is an open invitation to steal. . 1 or ") ./ / . . " r , -2- March 22, 1989 Therefore. we are recommending the following policy statement for your concurrence and implementation: 1. That all reference books be targeted at once. 2. That all new books be targeted. 3. That all books purchased for the new Branch Libraries be targeted. 4. That all books presently in circulation be targeted as soon as possible. We believe that the sensitizing target strips can be installed largely by volunteers and that the extra seconds of time indicated in the time motion study can be absorbed by the present staff since a similar security system was previously operated effectively. For the Library Board of Trustees F. Rodger Lindsay Vice Chairman