Printable Version: Special Meeting Minutes and Director's Report| November 5, 2009

Note: Director's Report is attached to the end of the Printable Version (PDF) of the Meeting Minutes.

TENTATIVE AGENDA
FOR SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH LIBRARY BOARD OF CONTROL
MAIN LIBRARY
7711 GOODWOOD BOULEVARD
BATON ROUGE, LA 70806
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
4:00 P.M.

I. ROLL CALL

II. EVALUATION OF LIBRARY DIRECTOR

III. ADJOURN

ALL MEETINGS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

THE PUBLIC IS ALLOWED TO MAKE COMMENTS RELATIVE TO AN AGENDA ITEM AT THE DISCRETION OF THE LIBRARY BOARD PRESIDENT. ANY COMMENTS NOT RELATED TO AN AGENDA ITEM MAY BE RECEIVED AND DISCUSSED OR DEFERRED TO A FUTURE MEETING UNDER PROCEDURES DIRECTED BY THE LIBRARY BOARD PRESIDENT.

Minutes of the Special Meeting of the
East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board of Control
November 5, 2009

A special meeting of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board of Control was held in the Main Library Board Room on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Mr. Dan Reed, President of the Board, called the meeting to order at 4:09 p.m. Members of the Board present were Ms. Tanya Freeman, Mr. Jamie Griffin, Mr. Stanford O. Bardwell, Jr., Mr. Donald Browning, Ms. Kizzy Payton, and Ms. Beth Tomlinson. Also in attendance were Mr. David Farrar, Library Director, Ms. Mary Stein, Assistant Library Director of Administration; Ms. Elizabeth Myers, Division Head of Library Computer Services; Ms. Liz Zozulin, Executive Assistant to the Library Director; and Mr. Rod Thomas, Reference Library Technician II; Ms. Nikki Essex of the Parish Attorney’s Office. Mr. Tom DuBos, Ms. Gayle Smith, and Ms. Kathy Wascom, members of the community also attended.

Evaluation of Library Director

Mr. Reed opened the meeting by saying that there is only one item on the agenda for this meeting; that being the evaluation of Mr. David Farrar, the Library Director. Mr. Farrar was hired by the Library Board on October 16, 2008 and his first day of employment was November 10, 2008. The Library Board had decided in October 2008 that an annual performance evaluation was a good idea. Ms. Freeman and Mr. Griffin were named as committee members in March 2009 to draft a performance evaluation method for the Library Board to utilize during the annual review of the Library Director.

Mr. Reed began the review by asking Mr. Farrar to present a report on the state of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library. Mr. Farrar directed the Library Board members to a PowerPoint presentation thanking Ms. Stein and Ms. Zozulin for their technical assistance for today’s meeting. Appended to these minutes is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

The main points of Mr. Farrar’s report were as follows:

• The Library’s Core Values of focusing on customers, striving for excellence, fostering teamwork, and increasing community collaboration.
• The Library’s Vision to offer services that meet the needs of our diverse neighborhoods, provide welcoming spaces, build strong collections, support relevant technology, and employ well-trained, friendly and flexible staff.
• The Library’s Goal of providing learning for life-long success through such programs as Advanced Workstation Education (AWE) in Children’s Services, increasing participation by young adults/teens, and increasing computer based training programs.
• Participation in literacy programs and in organizations that promote literacy such as the Literacy Coalition.
• Spearheading the One Book/One Community program with community partners such as the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Louisiana State University, Southern University, and Baton Rouge Community College. This year’s gala for the community read of A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines with the author in attendance was met with overflow crowds. Next year will feature The Great Gatsby.
• The Library contributes to the economic development of the City/Parish through quality collections and the developing of new ones such as those resources for the growing film and game development industries.
• The Library provides enhanced small business resources and programs such as the Career Center at the River Center Branch Library and an on-line Business and Career Connection through the Reference Division.
• The Library will conduct a Return on Investment survey series in 2010.
• The Library initiated work to provide a more functional state-of-the-art Integrated Library System (ILS) in 2009 to allow customers easier access to information. The implementation of wireless (Wifi) access has been authorized. Delays were a result of issues in the City/Parish Purchasing Department. The Library’s Technology Plan is a priority with a return to the maintenance and replacement schedule.
• With the approval of the Library Board, staffing needs have been addressed in the 2010 budget with additional personnel such as a Deputy Director. Among the priorities for the Deputy Director will be diversity training for staff. Staff will continue to be encouraged to join and attend meetings of professional organizations and participate in committees. The Library will continue to work with Mr. David West, Training Manager of the City/Parish Department of Human Resources on succession plans and Leadership training.
• The Library will purchase materials for the new pre-school bookmobiles in 2010.
• A study of the needs of the Technical Services Division will be conducted in 2010 in order to redesign workflow which will result in faster processing of materials for patron use. OverDrive download stations have been budgeted for 2010 and the Library’s digital archive will go live in 2010. The East Baton Rouge Parish Library has more public relations exposure than any library in the country. Marketing efforts have been expanded to include student practicums with LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication.
• The Director has met with community partners such as Mr. George Pietrogallo of ExxonMobil to further relationships with the Library.
• For the first time in 2010 the Library will utilize targeted advertisements to promote Library services and continue programming on Metro 21.
• The Director and staff will secure legal advice on developing a Library Foundation.
• A master plan to schedule on-going facilities maintenance has been completed with many large maintenance projects also completed.
• The Library’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) has been updated by the Library’s Business Manager and Assistant Director of Branch Services.
• The Library will partner with the Census Bureau in 2010 on a public awareness campaign and will use census results to monitor population expansion and housing developments to determine community branch expansion.

Mr. Reed thanked Mr. Farrar for his informative report. He then made a motion that the Library Board go into Executive Session in order conduct the evaluation of the Director in private. Mr. Griffin asked if there were any comments from the public or the staff before the Board convened in Executive Session. Mr. DuBos, a member of the Federation of Greater Baton Rouge Civic Association said that in the year that Mr. Farrar has been in Baton Rouge, Mr. DuBos has enjoyed working with him and listening to his ideas. Mr. DuBos also said as an outsider, he compliments Mr. Farrar’s work. The Board members then voted unanimously at 5:00 p.m. to go into Executive Session.

At 5:40 p.m. the Board completed their evaluation and opened the meeting to the public. Ms. Freeman made a motion to recommend that Mr. Farrar’s salary for 2010 be increased to Step 7. The motion was seconded by Ms. Payton and passed unanimously.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:42 p.m. on a motion by Mr. Griffin, seconded by Ms. Tomlinson.

Printable Version: Special Meeting Minutes and Directors' Report| November 5, 2009

Note: Director's Report is attached to the end of the Printable Version (PDF) of the Meeting Minutes.

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