W Tali Hairston: I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Seattle Public Library Board of
W Tali Hairston: Trustees to order.
W Tali Hairston: If there are no changes to the agenda, may I hear a motion to approve the agenda
W Tali Hairston: as published?
Yazmin Mehdi: So moved.
Yazmin Mehdi: Moved.
Ron Chew: Second.
Bendixen, Carmen: 2nd.
Ron Chew: K.
W Tali Hairston: It's been moved and seconded. All in favor,
W Tali Hairston: please raise your hand and say hi.
W Tali Hairston: Opposed of our agenda. As noted at the top of the agenda,
W Tali Hairston: the Library Board is accepting public comment by e-mail in person at the
W Tali Hairston: Central Library and in this remote meeting.
W Tali Hairston: Are there any public comments today?
There is no public comment this month.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you. OK. And base, it looks like we have our minutes from
W Tali Hairston: July, our July board meeting. So we have A.
W Tali Hairston: consensus agenda with minutes from our July meeting. If no one has changes,
W Tali Hairston: may I hear A. motion to approve?
W Tali Hairston: The consent agenda.
Yazmin Mehdi: O moved.
Ron Chew: Second.
W Tali Hairston: It's been moved and seconded all in favor.
W Tali Hairston: Opposed. That's unanimous. OK, next is our Chief Librarian report.
Tom Fay: Right. Thank you and good morning. A few things of note from this last month,
Tom Fay: we had an opportunity to have Congressmember Jayapal and her team.
Tom Fay: Visit our university branch that's currently under construction.
Tom Fay: Very happy to have our CE Foundation CEO Brian Lawrence with us, Sarah Stanley,
Tom Fay: the Foundation President, along with SHKS.
Tom Fay: Architects David Strauss, and Matt in Penbuter.
Tom Fay: They were all in attendance along with our capital improvement team.
Tom Fay: Dennis and Jonathan did a great job of.
Tom Fay: Having everything prepped, architects were also on hand to answer
Tom Fay: any questions. Congressmember Jayapal really appreciated
Tom Fay: seeing it and seeing how extensive the work is.
Tom Fay: I think it was a really good time.
Tom Fay: For her to actually see where we're at in the construction,
Tom Fay: it's torn down to literally the brick. And so now you can actually see why it's
Tom Fay: so important to reinforce these buildings when you're looking at basically hollow
Tom Fay: bricks.
Tom Fay: Stacked on top of each other. So I think it was very illustrative and
Tom Fay: also could see how how much work was going into this and what other
Tom Fay: improvements would be coming for the branch. So truly appreciated.
Tom Fay: The Congress members time coming out and as you all may recall,
Tom Fay: she was instrumental in getting an earmark for that branch as well.
Tom Fay: So wanted to be able to celebrate that and show our appreciation for all that
Tom Fay: work.
Tom Fay: I also had a.
Tom Fay: An opportunity last month as well to go to KCLS and meet with them as well as
Tom Fay: Representative Schreyer. So it was a good opportunity to discuss a
Tom Fay: lot of issues that we see here in Western Washington, Washington, but.
Tom Fay: Also the state in general with some of the funding concerns that we have going
Tom Fay: forward. On August 18th I went to University of
Tom Fay: Washington Libraries SPL Summer High School internship program.
Tom Fay: Which is at the Allen Library on the campus.
Tom Fay: I was there with our Lake City Branch Team Librarian Nancy Garrett and our
Tom Fay: Youth and Family Services Program Manager Shelley Masterless and also.
Tom Fay: The UW Libraries Dean Simon Neen and I were able to welcome the high school
Tom Fay: interns to the program, and it's really a great experience for
Tom Fay: them over about.
Tom Fay: I think it's eight different sessions where they're able to be on campus and
Tom Fay: learn about the opportunities that are present.
Tom Fay: These are all high school students ranging generally from 10th grade through
Tom Fay: seniors and in the various high schools throughout the city.
Tom Fay: Our foundation funds this program and it's been running for a number of years,
Tom Fay: so it's always a great time to go out and spend time over at the university.
Tom Fay: As you know, the library's kicking off a citywide
Tom Fay: survey.
Tom Fay: Hopefully you all received my e-mail with the survey and some other instructions so
Tom Fay: that you could share it with folks you know out in the community.
Tom Fay: The survey will run from August 25th through September 24th.
Tom Fay: It's available in print.
Tom Fay: And online. It's translated into Spanish, Chinese, both simplified and traditional,
Tom Fay: Vietnamese, Amharic and Somali. It's also been mailed to 15,
Tom Fay: 000 households and the library's community engagement consultant on this
Tom Fay: Olympic research and strategy.
Tom Fay: Is offering participants a chance to win one of twenty $50.00 Visa gift cards.
Tom Fay: The survey is one part of a year-long multifaceted community engagement effort
Tom Fay: and follows several workshops held.
Tom Fay: In the spring at the Hill, Capitol Hill and Greenwood branches,
Tom Fay: we have more than 30 community-based organizations participate in that.
Tom Fay: We also had a number of city department departments, pardon me,
Tom Fay: participate in a session as well.
Tom Fay: And so it's been a great engagement and outreach approach to this.
Tom Fay: We will be sharing the results with you later in the fall with more detail as to
Tom Fay: what we learn from that survey and the other item we have coming up that I'm
Tom Fay: going to ask Helen Tapping to come forward.
Tom Fay: Is we will have our library card sign up month coming and I really want to make
Tom Fay: sure that since it's all gonna happen and be almost over by the time we meet again
Tom Fay: in September, I wanted Helen to.
Tom Fay: Give you a preview of what's coming for library card signup month. Helen,
Tom Fay: are you here?
Helen Tapping: I am. Can you hear me?
Tom Fay: Yes.
Helen Tapping: Right. Hello. Thank you for having me. So I'm Helen Tapping and I'm head of
Helen Tapping: marketing online Services and I wanted to share the campaign that we'll be
Helen Tapping: launching next week. There's multiple pieces to it.
Helen Tapping: I'm going to try and share my screen if you bear with me A. second.
Helen Tapping: Can you see the web page that I'm showing? Great.
Helen Tapping: So our campaign this year is called Here for You,
Tom Fay: Yes.
Helen Tapping: and what we're really trying to show is all the different ways that the library
Helen Tapping: shows up for patrons, whether it's with A. good book, helping with A. resume,
Helen Tapping: empowering folks.
Helen Tapping: So on the web page we'll be launching next week,
Helen Tapping: you can see that we've got lots of different opportunities in language and
Helen Tapping: in other opportunities to empower yourself, to nurture yourself,
Helen Tapping: to take care of yourself and and we've got links to all of those different
Helen Tapping: resources available.
Helen Tapping: At the library, we're also going to be creating this year
Helen Tapping: inspired A. little bit by the Passports for All
Helen Tapping: Passport campaign that was launched in 2004.
Helen Tapping: We've created some collectible collectible postcards for every single
Helen Tapping: branch. We worked in collaboration with three
Helen Tapping: local artists.
Helen Tapping: And my team in the marketing team helped create these in conjunction with branch
Helen Tapping: staff who gave highlights and information on the uniqueness of each of those
Helen Tapping: branches around the system. And here you can see that we are giving
Helen Tapping: some examples of what to do with those. You know how to share them,
Helen Tapping: how to use them to advocate for your libraries,
Helen Tapping: how to be creative with them or just to come.
Helen Tapping: And collect them. We also have created and I'll show you A.
Helen Tapping: sample of those in A. second. We've also created like an envelope that
Helen Tapping: with that has space for folks to go and collect the branch stamps around the
Helen Tapping: system. And we really want to encourage folks to
Helen Tapping: tell their library story in their experience with Seattle Public Library.
Helen Tapping: So it's not just go and collect.
Helen Tapping: Until 27, it's where would you take A. selfie? Where do you pick up your holds?
Helen Tapping: Where did you attend an event? Really. So that it's A.
Helen Tapping: very personalized experience and those are also available in language.
Helen Tapping: I want to show you A. sample of some of the postcards.
Helen Tapping: I know Amy has been very kind to get those out. I think Tali,
Helen Tapping: maybe you and Yasmin have them and the rest the other board members,
Helen Tapping: they're on their way in the mail. But we have one for each of the branches
Helen Tapping: and as you can see here, these are just some examples of Ranier
Helen Tapping: Beach and we and on the backside is some information and some sketches from this.
Helen Tapping: Artists, and I'll show you A. couple more. We have one for Cap Hill.
Helen Tapping: And another one for Montlake. So there's there is, yeah,
Helen Tapping: there's 27 versions of these and we hope pigeons will really enjoy finding them
Helen Tapping: and and collecting them and telling their library stories.
Helen Tapping: So we'll also be promoting this campaign starting in September.
Helen Tapping: And we'll be doing that in multilingual campaigns and that will be obviously in
Helen Tapping: our owned channels. So you'll see on our website,
Helen Tapping: you'll see some things in branches, but there'll also be transit ads on buses
Helen Tapping: and we'll be doing local media as well, including Elray,
Helen Tapping: the Emerald and Seattle Times.
Helen Tapping: So um, I think that's my my spiel. Any questions on any of that?
W Tali Hairston: No questions, but Helen, I love the package.
W Tali Hairston: I hope the rest of the board is able has has their it's it's great.
W Tali Hairston: It's wonderfully done.
Helen Tapping: Well, I'm glad these. I'm sorry, Evan.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah, no worries, Helen. They're wonderful.
Yazmin Mehdi: I especially loved seeing that, you know, pursuit of knowledge,
Yazmin Mehdi: that artwork that's at Rainier Beach, the representation of it that you just
Helen Tapping: Yep.
Yazmin Mehdi: showed.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's just like multiple layers of referencing of the many ways that the
Yazmin Mehdi: library supports the community. They're just beautiful. I can't.
Yazmin Mehdi: I want to put them all over my bulletin board,
Yazmin Mehdi: but my bulletin board's kind of full already.
Yazmin Mehdi: I love that. Are you showing right now who the artists
Helen Tapping: These are the artists. Sorry, I should have showed that as well.
Yazmin Mehdi: are yet?
Helen Tapping: This is a page obviously we're linking to. These are the three artists.
Helen Tapping: We've worked with them before on some summer learning projects over the years.
Helen Tapping: But this was the this is the three artists, Jeremy Goody,
Helen Tapping: Sloane Miller and Victoria Rita. And they worked with Annie,
Helen Tapping: Annie and Danny in my department and Joe.
Helen Tapping: Who wrote the copy is our digital marketing strategist,
Helen Tapping: so it's been a very collaborative effort with community as well.
Helen Tapping: So it's it's been a very enjoyable, although a large undertaking.
Yazmin Mehdi: Nice work. It's it's lovely.
Yazmin Mehdi: Hello.
Helen Tapping: Well, I do also hope that even though we have
Helen Tapping: sent you a set of postcards, you will still take the opportunity to
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
Helen Tapping: all locations. The things we want folks to do is to go
Helen Tapping: and find a branch, a new branch, find your branch.
Ron Chew: Helen, can I ask a quick question? I wonderful project idea.
Helen Tapping: Yes.
Ron Chew: I'm curious how this how the idea came about. Are any other libraries doing this?
Ron Chew: And the reason I asked by coincidence, for some reason some a lot of the younger
Ron Chew: folks I interact with, they've been.
Ron Chew: Getting into postcards and I get postcards and it's kind of sweet. Is it?
Ron Chew: What's the seed of this idea?
Helen Tapping: So my team did a brainstorm earlier this year.
Helen Tapping: We did a little retreat over actually at the Green Lake branch,
Helen Tapping: and we did some brainstorming of what we really thought would resonate.
Helen Tapping: We heard a lot of staff input and patron input on how they love the passport
Helen Tapping: programme, but we felt that passport is a little bit
Helen Tapping: of an outdated idea, so we wanted to kind of modernise it with
Helen Tapping: the same intent of getting folks.
Helen Tapping: To to go to branches. And so we did a lot of brainstorming on
Helen Tapping: the concept, but also what the vehicle would be and we
Helen Tapping: just felt this had a lot of more had more flexibility.
Helen Tapping: And to your point Ron about the postcards, I I will say some of my team is quite
Helen Tapping: young and they were saying this is something that really appealed to some of
Helen Tapping: the younger generation because.
Helen Tapping: You can use it for art projects. People put them on their wall,
Helen Tapping: they send them to folks and it. So it seemed like a really good
Helen Tapping: opportunity to create something. Again, maybe people don't want to collect all 27,
Helen Tapping: maybe they just want the one from their branch.
Helen Tapping: So it just had a bit more flexibility than a passport programme,
Helen Tapping: but with the same intent that we'd heard that folks like that kind of programme.
Ron Chew: Great. Well, as I say, it's a wonderful project and I'm getting
Ron Chew: postcards from some folks my age who never gave up giving postcards.
Ron Chew: Then now you get these. So there's nobody in between either young
Ron Chew: folks or older folks, but it's wonderful.
Helen Tapping: Yep.
Helen Tapping: Great. Well, thank you, Ron. And I really, I did.
Helen Tapping: I really hope we have a positive reception from patrons.
Helen Tapping: But I but I said I feel very proud of the work that my team has done and these
Helen Tapping: artists as well. It's been, I said, a big collaboration,
Helen Tapping: but I think it's been a really, really enjoyable experience.
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Yeah, thank you, Helen, and thanks to the team.
Tom Fay: I I don't think sometimes people know how much it takes to put something like this
Tom Fay: together. The work with the artists, the work with all of the copy.
Tom Fay: Just basic preparation before you have engagement in community.
Tom Fay: I mean it's just a a great body of work and I think the postcard thing is is very,
Tom Fay: it's very interesting. It's I was actually at a a forum with a
Tom Fay: lot of library leaders and one of the things that they.
Tom Fay: Had us do because we were all at these round tables.
Tom Fay: They had us talk to a colleague left or right. And then after we did that,
Tom Fay: we went on an exercise of writing something inspiring or uplifting to that
Tom Fay: colleague. And what they did was actually on the UL,
Tom Fay: it was ULC.
Tom Fay: See, what they actually did was sent those out
Tom Fay: about 30 days later. And so 30 days later I got this thing.
Tom Fay: I'm like, what the heck is this? And I'm like, and then the name, you know,
Tom Fay: obviously rang a bell. And I'm like, oh, and it was, they just came in.
Tom Fay: It was one of those things.
Tom Fay: So much different than, you know, just social media where you might get a
Tom Fay: thumbs up or a, you know, actually something that was really
Tom Fay: impactful and meaningful for the day. So I I think there's a lot of interesting
Tom Fay: opportunities that can be explored with it.
Helen Tapping: Thank you everybody.
Tom Fay: Thanks Ellen.
W Tali Hairston: Thanks, Helen.
Tom Fay: And that ends my Chief Librarian report.
W Tali Hairston: Do we any questions for Tom's ported out? Any any questions for Tom?
W Tali Hairston: Yeah, Carmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: Um, just a quick one, Tom. How um?
Bendixen, Carmen: I guess just thinking about how the construction on Green Lake kind of
Bendixen, Carmen: stretched out a little bit, how often might we be getting updates on
Bendixen, Carmen: University branch in that project?
Tom Fay: I just just had one myself today, so hopefully we should be able to give
Tom Fay: you one. I would say probably within the next
Tom Fay: month or two. There's some things we're we're still
Tom Fay: working through. I don't know if I mentioned it, but.
Tom Fay: When you tear the building down this bar and it's a Carnegie that's 100 and some
Tom Fay: odd years old, you are going to find some interesting
Tom Fay: things. They found found an old boiler in there
Bendixen, Carmen: Yes.
Tom Fay: that wasn't noted, that was just covered up with dirt and
Bendixen, Carmen: Mm.
Tom Fay: stuff, so that all had to be taken out.
Bendixen, Carmen: 2.
Bendixen, Carmen: Surprise.
Tom Fay: We found some issues, other issues around the roof,
Tom Fay: some work they did in the 80s that was supposed to make things better. It didn't.
Tom Fay: It actually made it worse and so those things had to be fixed as well.
Tom Fay: So it has impacted the schedule to some extent.
Tom Fay: We had funding contingencies for those things,
Tom Fay: so we should be able to give you an update fairly soon and on the website
Tom Fay: they do have some photos of things as as it's proceeding and we want to hope or we
Tom Fay: will continue to do that. So as we get closer to that.
Tom Fay: Opening people can get it a little more excitement about it, but yeah,
Tom Fay: we'll we'll make sure that we get you an update on it probably in the next month
Tom Fay: or so where we know we have much more progress.
Bendixen, Carmen: Thanks.
Tom Fay: Oh, yes.
Yazmin Mehdi: I just wanted to I I never know when is the right moment to just comment on the
Yazmin Mehdi: on the reports that are in the packet that we don't actually end up talking
Yazmin Mehdi: about. But I just wanted to note that I the
Yazmin Mehdi: human resources report this month.
Yazmin Mehdi: Was super helpful. I wanted to like call out the amazing
Yazmin Mehdi: amount of hiring that has gone on. I think the report said 110 hires this
Yazmin Mehdi: year and the list of positions that have been hired for is just remarkable that
Yazmin Mehdi: that human.
Yazmin Mehdi: And resource team must be working very hard.
Yazmin Mehdi: I also just wanted to note that in that report there's some really good resources
Yazmin Mehdi: that library staff have access to, including there's a employee support.
Yazmin Mehdi: Offering and a mental health offering. And I just know that when I was working
Yazmin Mehdi: for Congresswoman Jayapal during the pandemic, when the pandemic first hit,
Yazmin Mehdi: those employee support resources.
Yazmin Mehdi: Which I never thought I would ever need, were remarkably important.
Yazmin Mehdi: And just given I know we'll talk about the union report at the end of the
Yazmin Mehdi: meeting, but given what Jesse's talking about in
Yazmin Mehdi: that report, it's just good to call out that when
Yazmin Mehdi: employees are stressed, these resources are there for that
Yazmin Mehdi: purpose.
Yazmin Mehdi: So it's great that the HR team is just making sure that people understand that
Yazmin Mehdi: that's there. And then I was really intrigued by the
Yazmin Mehdi: staff reads program and was curious if I'm guessing none of that was public, but.
Yazmin Mehdi: The book Mutual Aid just sounded really interesting.
Tom Fay: Thanks for that, Yasmin. And yes, I was going to mention it because I I had
Tom Fay: a couple of other comments about the work there. We have a really good team,
Tom Fay: strong team where we are hiring a couple of positions in HR at the moment.
Tom Fay: One of the other things I wanted to mention,
Tom Fay: obviously you've all met Brian Sharkey, who's the director over human resources.
Tom Fay: But while he was away on parental leave, Shauna Dennard stepped into an interim
Tom Fay: role supporting the whole group.
Tom Fay: During this time that he was gone for several months.
Tom Fay: And so thinking about all this body of work that's been done to date that they
Tom Fay: reported on leading through that in that interim basis, she did a great job.
Tom Fay: She was in our senior management team, our E team meetings.
Tom Fay: Throughout and also trying to do some of our own work, old body of work as well.
Tom Fay: So a lot of a lot of great teamwork in that division and and greatly appreciate.
Tom Fay: I'm glad you also called it up.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Yasmin. And I want to shout out the I Left
W Tali Hairston: Wellness Wednesdays as an idea. I was like, I need to borrow that,
W Tali Hairston: but also a shout out to the Seattle Foundation,
Tom Fay: Uh.
W Tali Hairston: Seattle Library Foundation for.
W Tali Hairston: The internal work that is critical and the future of libraries is in the hands
W Tali Hairston: of young people that need to continue to support interns,
W Tali Hairston: high school interns from diverse backgrounds. And so loving that. Thanks,
W Tali Hairston: Tom.
Tom Fay: Just a little bit.
Tom Fay: All right. And if we're ready, we can transition to the next one here.
Tom Fay: Apologies, let me bring them up. All right.
Tom Fay: We have joining us for the system report, Charles Wesley,
Tom Fay: who's our library technology officer. He's going to talk about our integrated
Tom Fay: library system, RFP.
Tom Fay: Where we stand with that, as you may recall,
Tom Fay: the ILS or the Integrated Library System is the backbone of our system.
Tom Fay: It's basically where you're seeing all the books where we're checking things out,
Tom Fay: how the big machine out in the maintenance.
Tom Fay: Operation Center checks in all that stuff. It all goes through that system.
Tom Fay: So it's a critical business platform and the primary platform for the library.
Tom Fay: So I'm gonna have Charles join us and do also an introduction, I believe, Charles.
Charles Wesley: That's right. Yeah. Thank you, Tom. Nice to see you all again, everybody.
Charles Wesley: We're moving along with this big project. So we wanted to give you an update on
Charles Wesley: where we are and then also do some introductions. So I'll start with that.
Charles Wesley: So joining me on the call is Hamis.
Charles Wesley: Hamoud, who started with us actually on the 18th.
Charles Wesley: So he has been here for into his second week.
Charles Wesley: He is an IT program manager who is going to be leading the selection and
Charles Wesley: implementation of this project. So you will be hearing from him more as
Charles Wesley: we move.
Charles Wesley: Move forward into this project, but he's brand new and I wanted to
Charles Wesley: introduce him to you all and give you an update on our progress.
Charles Wesley: So we have an RFP that was posted on 731. The vendors had an opportunity to join
Charles Wesley: some sessions and ask.
Charles Wesley: Questions either on some calls or through written questions.
Charles Wesley: And we did hold a session on the 13th of August where we had several vendors join
Charles Wesley: and ask questions. All of the questions were due on 8/20,
Charles Wesley: so that window has closed. So we did receive questions which
Charles Wesley: received their answers.
Charles Wesley: And the next big milestone is vendor proposals are due on September 10th.
Charles Wesley: So on September 10th we will now be able to start to review proposals from vendors.
Charles Wesley: You may or may not be super familiar with the library technology space and the ILS
Charles Wesley: market in particular.
Charles Wesley: In particular, unlike in maybe building construction or
Charles Wesley: others where there are hundreds or even thousands of potential vendors out there,
Charles Wesley: there's really only a handful of companies that operate in this space.
Charles Wesley: But we do have some choices that we can make and so we are expecting to be able
Charles Wesley: to have a good basis for comparison.
Charles Wesley: Between these different bids, once we have those submissions in,
Charles Wesley: we will be scheduling demos with these vendors in September and October,
Charles Wesley: which will allow us an opportunity to see these products,
Charles Wesley: ask questions we want to have.
Charles Wesley: Staff give staff the opportunity to also see these demos and ask questions and
Charles Wesley: provide feedback. We will then incorporate all of the
Charles Wesley: reviews of the materials and the demos and the questions and answers into.
Charles Wesley: Our ultimate selection of a vendor and our hope is that by the end of October,
Charles Wesley: we'll be able to move into contracting and wrap that up before the end of the
Charles Wesley: year so that we can start implementation in January.
Charles Wesley: So next year will be a busy year for us as far as the implementation goes.
Charles Wesley: But as far as we're concerned, this thing has already started and we're
Charles Wesley: on our way. So it's great to be at this, this next milestone on the 10th of being
Charles Wesley: able to review our bids.
Charles Wesley: So that is substantively the update I wanted to have for you today.
Charles Wesley: It's not a long one, but it's an exciting one because we are
Charles Wesley: ticking things off the list, but happy to answer any questions that
Charles Wesley: you may have.
Charles Wesley: Yes, man.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm curious what additional functionality you guys are hoping the new system will
Yazmin Mehdi: give you. I know like as a user, one of the things that I would like,
Charles Wesley: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: but I recognize why we don't. We probably don't do this is a record of
Yazmin Mehdi: the books.
Yazmin Mehdi: I've checked out, but I know that we also are concerned
Yazmin Mehdi: about patron privacy and so I think we don't want to keep that information,
Yazmin Mehdi: but just curious what functionality you're looking forward to adding.
Charles Wesley: Yeah, it's a it's a really good question. The ILS really is like the central
Charles Wesley: nervous system for so many things. It is as much of A customer information
Charles Wesley: system as it is an inventory management system and because the system that we've
Charles Wesley: had in place has served us well for as long as it has.
Yazmin Mehdi: Right.
Charles Wesley: It is a little bit older in terms of the the underlying technology.
Charles Wesley: And so the biggest thing we're looking for in this and is what we expressed in
Charles Wesley: the requirements that were put out for bidders to review is we want to have a
Charles Wesley: modern system that is able to leverage.
Charles Wesley: You know, present day technology. And I say that because the ILS really is,
Yazmin Mehdi: 8.
Charles Wesley: if you think of it like as an ecosystem, it really is like a core element that a
Charles Wesley: lot of other things use. So by making this change,
Charles Wesley: we'll be able to either leverage existing.
Charles Wesley: Technology that we have in new and different ways that maybe the old system
Charles Wesley: didn't support. So being able to get more out of our
Charles Wesley: current systems or when you change out this core system that then opens up
Charles Wesley: opportunities for you to look at how you want to.
Charles Wesley: Then look at all of the ecosystem around that core system and see if there's ways
Charles Wesley: that we can modernize or improve some of some of our services.
Charles Wesley: Everything has a lifespan. Everything kind of is either on its way
Charles Wesley: in, in its core, you know, or kind of on the way out and that
Charles Wesley: applies also into our ecosystem.
Charles Wesley: So interoperability with these other systems,
Charles Wesley: abilities to leverage technology that is more future forward-looking and
Charles Wesley: ultimately try and optimize all of these.
Charles Wesley: Functions so that our library operations can run smoothly and staff are able to do
Charles Wesley: their job and patrons are able to have a smooth experience.
Charles Wesley: So I'm really excited about what the proposals will show as far as how we can
Charles Wesley: look forward.
Charles Wesley: But I think that's that's really the core is to be able to unlock a couple of
Charles Wesley: things that we just haven't been able to take advantage of because of the older
Charles Wesley: system that we've been using.
Yazmin Mehdi: That makes sense. So basically seamless migration and
Yazmin Mehdi: interoperability is kind of like the number one thing which makes perfect
Yazmin Mehdi: sense to me.
Charles Wesley: Yeah. And if if there's opportunities to
Yazmin Mehdi: I.
Charles Wesley: streamline and improve processes, great. If there's opportunities to consolidate
Charles Wesley: technology, we're going to be trying to take
Charles Wesley: advantage as much of those as we can. So there will be kind of this first big
Charles Wesley: change and then they'll kind of be the ripple effect and we're going to really
Charles Wesley: try and set that up. So that ripple effect kind of helps to
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
Charles Wesley: speed up.
Charles Wesley: Other transformations that we might be able to take advantage of.
Yazmin Mehdi: And will I assume that our cybersecurity professional will be sitting in on how
Yazmin Mehdi: this system can be kind of safeguarded?
Charles Wesley: Absolutely. We had an entire section on cybersecurity
Charles Wesley: in the requirements that they were able to contribute to and they'll be a big
Charles Wesley: part of our review. And we are asking for vendors to speak to
Charles Wesley: cybersecurity, not just generally, but also to provide supporting
Charles Wesley: documentation to attest to.
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
Charles Wesley: Them actually meeting these requirements, so we'll we'll be giving that due care as
Charles Wesley: well.
Yazmin Mehdi: Awesome. Thanks.
Charles Wesley: Yeah.
W Tali Hairston: Ron, Carmen, anything you want to?
W Tali Hairston: OK, great. Thank you, Charles.
Charles Wesley: Thank you.
Tom Fay: And we will keep you up to date on this as we go along.
Tom Fay: It's a huge change management project for the organization.
Tom Fay: This hasn't happened in a great number of years,
Tom Fay: probably longer than many library systems, so.
Tom Fay: We definitely will have our work cut out for us,
Tom Fay: but I think the opportunities are going to be that we will have to provide
Tom Fay: different types of services. Patrons will be better looking at
Tom Fay: business integrations down the line as well, not phase one,
Tom Fay: but down the line of how we can be more efficient.
Tom Fay: All of those things are going to.
Tom Fay: Be opportunities that we just haven't had.
W Tali Hairston: Tom, can you remind me just quickly what date
W Tali Hairston: choosing the?
W Tali Hairston: The consultant or group will be. What's the date for that?
W Tali Hairston: I didn't write that down.
Tom Fay: I Charles, I think we we don't have a strict date on
Tom Fay: it yet. I know they've got all receipt, but I don't think we have a date yet
W Tali Hairston: No.
Tom Fay: certain.
Tom Fay: I'll let I'll double check and make sure we get that to you.
Charles Wesley: Yep, Amy just put me back on. So the the proposals would be due on the
Charles Wesley: 10th of September. And part of what Hamis is gonna be
Charles Wesley: focusing on as he onboards is to build out a more detailed project schedule for
Charles Wesley: the reviews and the process. So we will have a lot more structure in
Charles Wesley: place and that is.
Charles Wesley: One of the reasons why we we created this position,
Charles Wesley: so I didn't mention that up front, but this is a net new position that we
Charles Wesley: created funded for this project work and so that is the body of work that they'll
Charles Wesley: be moving forward with. So future updates will have a more
Charles Wesley: detailed project plan.
W Tali Hairston: OK, great. Thank you.
It's Charles.
W Tali Hairston: All right. And that's it for the system reports,
W Tali Hairston: right, Tom. And we do not have any bulk business,
W Tali Hairston: so we'll jump right into new business. And the first point of order in for new
W Tali Hairston: business is the second quarter levy report, which will require our vote.
Tom Fay: Yes, it will. And we'll bring Jan Auschwitz up for this
W Tali Hairston: Or approval.
Tom Fay: one to brief you on this report. Jan, are you here?
Jan Oscherwitz: Good morning. I'm Jana Schwitz, the levy administrator,
Jan Oscherwitz: and I'm going to share my screen. I've got the second quarter levy report
Jan Oscherwitz: here.
Jan Oscherwitz: Okay, folks seeing that.
Jan Oscherwitz: Um.
Tom Fay: Yes.
W Tali Hairston: Yes.
Jan Oscherwitz: We're, yeah, we're in year six of our seven-year $219
Jan Oscherwitz: million library levy and I'm here to present the second quarter recap of
Jan Oscherwitz: activities and accomplishment for 2025.
Jan Oscherwitz: Led by the comms team and particularly Lisa Murray,
Jan Oscherwitz: who's not here to present with me because she's on vacation,
Jan Oscherwitz: we've been working since the beginning of the year to bring you and the public a
Jan Oscherwitz: quarterly report that is more visually engaging and reader friendly,
Jan Oscherwitz: and I want to call out a few things.
Jan Oscherwitz: In this report and welcome your feedback on future improvements,
Jan Oscherwitz: the library levy continues to fund core and essential library services. In 2025,
Jan Oscherwitz: it accounts for 38% of the library's revised total budget.
Jan Oscherwitz: And through second quarter, we've spent $14.
Jan Oscherwitz: 7 million or 27% of the budget. The lag in spending is due to multiple
Jan Oscherwitz: year capital projects like the university branch seismic retrofit, which.
Jan Oscherwitz: Chief Librarian Faye mentioned at the beginning of this meeting that is just
Jan Oscherwitz: getting underway. I'm going to cover highlights from each
Jan Oscherwitz: of the levy categories, and the first one is our hours and access
Jan Oscherwitz: category.
Jan Oscherwitz: And in this category, we continue to operate the schedule that
Jan Oscherwitz: we established in January of this year to keep our libraries open and available.
Jan Oscherwitz: The new schedule increased hours across the system and from above 2019 levels and
Jan Oscherwitz: ensured.
Jan Oscherwitz: All locations not under construction. We're open at least six days a week.
Jan Oscherwitz: This schedule will remain in place through 2025 and we keep track of how
Jan Oscherwitz: we're doing on this at the end of this report on page 18.
Jan Oscherwitz: And one thing that we've added to make things a little easier for folks to see
Jan Oscherwitz: is we've done this by branch. It's weekly hours.
Jan Oscherwitz: And if the current schedule is above the 2019 level, we've colored that in green.
Jan Oscherwitz: If it's the same as we've colored it in yellow and if it's below.
Jan Oscherwitz: below the 2019 level, it's red. And so you can see from this that overall
Jan Oscherwitz: we have a predominant set of green colors. Um And another thing that I wanted to
Jan Oscherwitz: point out is that our new schedule has remained stable.
Jan Oscherwitz: This second quarter, we only had five unexpected closures in
Jan Oscherwitz: Q2, which was significantly less than a year
Jan Oscherwitz: ago when we were unfortunately having to close branches unexpectedly due to
Jan Oscherwitz: staffing and other issues quite frequently.
Jan Oscherwitz: But we have had escape stable schedule. Another thing I wanted to bring to your
Jan Oscherwitz: attention in the hours and access.
Jan Oscherwitz: Section of this report is on page 3.
Jan Oscherwitz: And what we've done here, sorry for the flipping back and forth.
Jan Oscherwitz: It's there.
Jan Oscherwitz: Here we've added our quarterly usage statistics,
Jan Oscherwitz: and this is something we used to share separately in the board packet.
Jan Oscherwitz: We've integrated this into the quarterly report so that there's a little more
Jan Oscherwitz: context and you can see it in relationship to the other things we're
Jan Oscherwitz: describing.
Jan Oscherwitz: Report.
Jan Oscherwitz: And on this report, I guess the one thing that I a couple of
Jan Oscherwitz: things I want to point out, our active users is continuing to grow
Jan Oscherwitz: and as one of the reasons that that's happening is because we've been making.
Jan Oscherwitz: Our our library applications for new cards easier.
Jan Oscherwitz: We have a new online system for that and so far we've been seeing quite a few
Jan Oscherwitz: additional library card signups. In June we saw the highest monthly total
Jan Oscherwitz: of new library card signups for our new simplified.
Jan Oscherwitz: Library card sign up application. The other thing I want to point out in
Jan Oscherwitz: this report is you'll see here there's this dip in Q 2/20/24 where usage is way
Jan Oscherwitz: down. If you look at physical checkouts, digital checkouts and that's the cyber
Jan Oscherwitz: attack which we've been talking about in several libraries.
Jan Oscherwitz: library levy reports. So anyway, having this in the report,
Jan Oscherwitz: I think does provide a lot more context for this information.
Jan Oscherwitz: Um And other things in the hours and access section that I wanted to call
Jan Oscherwitz: Out.
Jan Oscherwitz: Our you know we do feature our programming highlighting for example our
Jan Oscherwitz: social service programming. A lot of our levy funds support directly
Jan Oscherwitz: or indirectly library programs. Social Services in particular has direct
Jan Oscherwitz: levy funding where at least.
Jan Oscherwitz: We have one FTE that's supported by the social service programming,
Jan Oscherwitz: also another area where we are funding staff directly in the.
Jan Oscherwitz: Hours and access is in our security section and we have our security team
Jan Oscherwitz: funding nine of our 22 security officers and you'll find here in this report a
Jan Oscherwitz: little description of our community use agreement which you adopted.
Jan Oscherwitz: At a special board meeting in May and will go into effect in August on August
Jan Oscherwitz: 1st. And also we are including in all of our
Jan Oscherwitz: sections some quotes from the public community voices in the section on
Jan Oscherwitz: collections.
Jan Oscherwitz: We've um.
Jan Oscherwitz: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: We highlighted the ads to our collection. We have 26,500 new digital titles,
Jan Oscherwitz: copies of digital titles that we added in Q2.
Jan Oscherwitz: We also added additional peak picks titles,
Jan Oscherwitz: 3031 titles and 5300 copies to our popular No hold, no wait physical.
Jan Oscherwitz: Collection, which is totally funded by the levy.
Jan Oscherwitz: And we also in this report now we're featuring with more graphics and
Jan Oscherwitz: information our local history collection. And here's an image from the some.
Jan Oscherwitz: Artifacts that we have from the Seattle AIDS Epidemic Collection. Also,
Jan Oscherwitz: we are including some things that we've recently digitized,
Jan Oscherwitz: including some old newspapers that we have digitized from the Seattle today.
Jan Oscherwitz: Collection in the technology and access section we have highlighted it the ILS
Jan Oscherwitz: which you just heard about and also we also have a pull out feature on the new
Jan Oscherwitz: mobile app that was launched in April.
Jan Oscherwitz: And so that app, as of the publication of this report,
Jan Oscherwitz: had been downloaded more than 12, 000 times on Android and Apple devices.
Jan Oscherwitz: And we've got this nice little pull-up that we can use for other purposes.
Jan Oscherwitz: In the report and then the supporting children,
Jan Oscherwitz: we have a description of our plan learn programs which we had in Q2 / 80 sessions.
Jan Oscherwitz: At the Beacon Hill, Columbia, Delaware Lake City,
Jan Oscherwitz: New Holly and Rainier Beach and South Park branches.
Jan Oscherwitz: We also offered over 250 story times at 20 plus branches in Q2.
Jan Oscherwitz: And as we mentioned in an earlier pullout and report,
Jan Oscherwitz: more than 35% of our children and teen.
Jan Oscherwitz: Librarians are funded with levy funds and then finally we have our maintenance
Jan Oscherwitz: section and the big story there is our university branch renovation that was
Jan Oscherwitz: described earlier and this is A. picture from the demolition phase.
Jan Oscherwitz: So still A. lot of content in this report, but hopefully A.
Jan Oscherwitz: little more visual and accessible to the public and just would love any
Jan Oscherwitz: suggestions for additional improvements and otherwise open for questions.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Jan. Carmen.
Bendixen, Carmen: Just two quick things. One comment, one question,
Bendixen, Carmen: the comment on the the visual. I don't know if this was the because I
Bendixen, Carmen: remember you you've had the quotes in the reports for a long time but I I noted the
Bendixen, Carmen: the pull out on the the technology.
Bendixen, Carmen: Section about the ILS and you defined what is ILS.
Bendixen, Carmen: So I appreciate those kind of like translating the jargon for non library
Bendixen, Carmen: insiders. So thank you for that. And then I just had a clarifying on the
Bendixen, Carmen: at the end of the report there's the financials page.
Bendixen, Carmen: Page for the quarter and you know caveat, you include so many amazing details in
Jan Oscherwitz: Mhm.
Bendixen, Carmen: these reports. Sometimes it doesn't all sink in in my
Bendixen, Carmen: brain, but this just kind of jumped at me was so
Bendixen, Carmen: the reference to the 2012 levy.
Bendixen, Carmen: On and there's that little table at the bottom there and I'm I just wanted to
Bendixen, Carmen: clarify in the text you mention.
Bendixen, Carmen: 232, 000 from the 2012 levy is designated for
Bendixen, Carmen: spending in 2025 and then in the table and I think you're talking about two
Bendixen, Carmen: different things, so I didn't expect the numbers to agree.
Bendixen, Carmen: But then you said in the table year to date expenditures are 359482.
Bendixen, Carmen: Um.
Bendixen, Carmen: I guess my question is I guess maybe those are two different numbers,
Bendixen, Carmen: so I get that. But also what what is left from the 2012
Bendixen, Carmen: levy I guess is there more to come or cause I'm I from this picture I I I get
Bendixen, Carmen: it, there's still a little bit left, but what is?
Bendixen, Carmen: What is left?
Jan Oscherwitz: I think this clears the the levy out. This is the fine should be the final
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: appropriation. The money does trickle in for years and
Jan Oscherwitz: so because there's delays in property tax payments and penalties that keep coming
Jan Oscherwitz: in. So it takes a number of years and then.
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: So we had funds that we hadn't fully appropriated and they were actually
Jan Oscherwitz: appropriated in 20, but they weren't in the operations plan,
Jan Oscherwitz: but they were actually appropriated I believe in the final supplemental, so.
Jan Oscherwitz: So now that the now the funds are fully appropriated and and and what you've seen
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: is that we spent through the year $350, 000 and we have not quite $600,
Jan Oscherwitz: 000 left from that money and if we if we don't spend it all this year,
Jan Oscherwitz: some will still trickle over into.
Bendixen, Carmen: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: Next year.
Jan Oscherwitz: That should be fully appropriated.
Bendixen, Carmen: Got it. Thank you. Yeah.
Jan Oscherwitz: Just uh, Yasmin.
W Tali Hairston: Yes, ma'am.
Yazmin Mehdi: Hey, OK, several questions. One is you talked about there were five
Yazmin Mehdi: unexpected closures in Q2 and I thought it might be useful to people who are
Yazmin Mehdi: listening to understand.
Yazmin Mehdi: What that is relative to prior closures, because I think we're saying that's a
Yazmin Mehdi: very low closure level and so maybe you could contextualize that somehow.
Jan Oscherwitz: There though.
Jan Oscherwitz: Yeah. So in Q 2/20/24, we had increased our hours. However,
Jan Oscherwitz: that was the time of the city's hiring freeze and the most intense part of that.
Jan Oscherwitz: And so there were times in Q.
Jan Oscherwitz: To 2024, we just didn't have the staff to open our
Jan Oscherwitz: our branches as scheduled. And so there was last minute
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
Jan Oscherwitz: cancellations because there weren't enough staff. And you know,
Jan Oscherwitz: this year our staffing has been much more stable.
Jan Oscherwitz: All the hirings that you heard about, we still have.
Jan Oscherwitz: More vacancies to fill, but the the staffing has been much more
Jan Oscherwitz: stable and the hours schedule has been able to be met.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great.
Jan Oscherwitz: Tom, do you want to add anything to that?
Tom Fay: Yeah, I mean closures can be a couple of things.
Tom Fay: They could be staff related in the sense of for whatever reason with call outs for
Tom Fay: the day that could be the case. They also could be related to power
Tom Fay: outages, storm related issues we.
Tom Fay: Give a little bit of everything that might challenge us to open a branch or
Tom Fay: have to close early. Pete is another good example. Fortunately,
Tom Fay: we've gotten through most of the year without too much of it and obviously
Tom Fay: we've been able to bring on more air conditioned spaces, so that's also.
Tom Fay: Slowed that down, which was in 23 and 24, some pretty big hits that we were taking
Tom Fay: even 2022 from heat related issues.
Yazmin Mehdi: And the hiring freeze, are we still subject to that?
Tom Fay: So we have. What we do is we look at every vacancy.
Tom Fay: So the city itself still currently has a freeze. The library sits outside of that,
Tom Fay: but the decision of hiring or hiring vacancy still rests with me.
Tom Fay: However, because of the concerns around budget
Tom Fay: reductions and also the need to carry about a 5.5% budgeted vacancy,
Tom Fay: that's a requirement that we have. That means that we have to look at every
Tom Fay: single one of them.
Tom Fay: Say yes, it's a go. No, we're going to wait a bit where we've
Tom Fay: made some decisions here. Most recent, well,
Tom Fay: not most recently within the last six months is to we want to maintain those
Tom Fay: hours of operation. So almost every one of those.
Tom Fay: Is just brought to the table and everybody says yes, we need to,
Tom Fay: we need to move that one forward. It affects the hours of operation in the
Tom Fay: branch and so those move through pretty quickly.
Tom Fay: Everything else we most certainly review. I have my E team who also is.
Tom Fay: Providing guidance and advice on that as we move through it so that I can make the
Tom Fay: best decision possible at the time. But we are very because of budget
Tom Fay: reductions, we are very, very careful with the vacancies.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah. OK, great. Thank you for just bringing,
Yazmin Mehdi: bringing us all up to date on that. I wanted to say I think the new reporting
Yazmin Mehdi: is terrific. Jan, I I think the mix of text and.
Yazmin Mehdi: Visuals is really it's great. I don't think I have anything to add.
W Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think it's important to note that you're doing a really helpful job for
Yazmin Mehdi: those of us who read these reports of integrating the key statistics.
Yazmin Mehdi: And the strategic plan implementation. So it's just it's a wonderful one stop
Yazmin Mehdi: resource for all the work that the library is doing to meet its various
Yazmin Mehdi: commitments. I have just a few more things.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm curious about the social services team, this 128 interactions.
Yazmin Mehdi: So you don't have to answer this now, but maybe at some future point,
Yazmin Mehdi: just some understanding of where those interactions tend to happen and how,
Yazmin Mehdi: because I know the team is small.
Yazmin Mehdi: And so how they're able to deal with things outside of Central, for example,
Yazmin Mehdi: and then same with the the security team. Actually,
Yazmin Mehdi: the thing I wanted to note there is that the model of security officers.
Yazmin Mehdi: Being in branches where they get to know the patrons and so kind of under it's
Yazmin Mehdi: sort of like a small town cop maybe where they really know who they're working with
Yazmin Mehdi: and so they have a better understanding of how to diffuse situations.
Yazmin Mehdi: De-escalate, etcetera is just fantastic. I'm so happy to see that that's that's
Yazmin Mehdi: how you're how this team is being deployed.
Yazmin Mehdi: And then the the last question I promise is this verification of that dress
Yazmin Mehdi: process. I'm I'm just curious how that's happened.
Yazmin Mehdi: Happening, 'cause I'm sure right now, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: people are worried about their about privacy and security and stuff like that.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you.
Tom Fay: The the question Yasmin was on the address verification.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yes.
Tom Fay: So yeah, I I could have, we'll get you some more information on
Tom Fay: that, how we go about that. It's we usually use third party to verify
Tom Fay: that and I'll check to see what we're doing.
Tom Fay: There's a variety of services that help with that.
Tom Fay: Address, I'm sorry, I'm just taking a note so I don't forget.
Tom Fay: I do want to thank Jan and there's a lot of folks behind this as she mentioned,
Tom Fay: Elisa, who helps from the communication side,
Tom Fay: our marketing team, our strategy and performance folks, all.
Tom Fay: Of these folks are in Rick Sheridan's shop. So there's a lot,
Tom Fay: a lot of good that goes into this and they've done a really great job pulling
Tom Fay: this together and making it, I think, very consumable for sure. I mean,
Tom Fay: before we know there's a lot of information, but.
Tom Fay: And great information, but I think now that same information is
Tom Fay: is shared in a number of ways, which is really appreciated.
Tom Fay: So some really good work.
Jan Oscherwitz: And I'd just like to shout out that Elisa Murray really has taken the lead in
Jan Oscherwitz: making a lot of the improvements to this report,
Jan Oscherwitz: so she deserves a lot of credit for it.
Tom Fay: In the reminder, we do need a vote on this one.
W Tali Hairston: OK, so do I have a motion?
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm happy. I'm happy to move approval.
Bendixen, Carmen: I can.
W Tali Hairston: Do I have a second?
W Tali Hairston: All in favor to approve the second quarter 2025 leverage report.
W Tali Hairston: Raise your hand or say aye. Oppose.
Bendixen, Carmen: Hi.
Tom Fay: Hey.
W Tali Hairston: S is.
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you everyone.
W Tali Hairston: Item number two on our agenda, January. Oh, go ahead, Tom.
Tom Fay: Oh, it's the January through June 2025
Tom Fay: summary report on foundation funded projects.
Tom Fay: So Kiersten Nelson come forward and she'll give you a brief on this one.
Kiersten Nelson: Hi all. I hope you're enjoying the sunshine.
Kiersten Nelson: Yesterday's cool down to today has me a little like,
Kiersten Nelson: I don't know what month am I in? And then going back to doing the first
Kiersten Nelson: half of the year summary report on the foundation, I'm like, well, I'm,
Kiersten Nelson: I need a couple moments after this. I'm going to have to go back and really
Kiersten Nelson: figure out what day of the week I'm on.
Kiersten Nelson: So anyway, I want to.
W Tali Hairston: It's football. It's football day. That's what it is. It's football.
Tom Fay: Football game.
Kiersten Nelson: That also works.
W Tali Hairston: That's what the weather change football. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Kiersten Nelson: No, you're fine. So for the first half of the year,
Kiersten Nelson: as of June 30th, the library has expended about 34% of the
Kiersten Nelson: foundation's 2025 grant awards, and that's money that's actually gone out
Kiersten Nelson: the door checks signed off on when we include our encumbered expenses,
Kiersten Nelson: which are things that we have the money going to.
Kiersten Nelson: We just have to wait for the bill to be paid, that kind of thing.
Kiersten Nelson: We're at about 43% of the grant, the grant award and that is on par with
Kiersten Nelson: what we have been doing over the last several years.
Kiersten Nelson: And I do want to note that over the last several years we have been expending the
Kiersten Nelson: foundation's grant at nearly 100%. So there's nothing really here.
Kiersten Nelson: As far as the overall percentage that has big concerns for Tom and company,
Kiersten Nelson: we do have several of our programs are at or near the full allocation of their
Kiersten Nelson: funds and those are programs that are typically at that particular rate at this
Kiersten Nelson: time of year. Those include Seattle Reads raising.
Kiersten Nelson: A reader we have summer of learning purchases, the public computing.
Kiersten Nelson: That's the portion from Charles of getting some of our computers and things
Kiersten Nelson: updated as well as tutor. com and we have a digital equity grant.
Kiersten Nelson: That is being administered through the foundation that is almost nearly expended.
Kiersten Nelson: One of the things that is a very cool addition to our budget for this year was
Kiersten Nelson: based off of last year. We started rolling in on the 20th
Kiersten Nelson: anniversary from the Libraries for All campaign and buildings of our new
Kiersten Nelson: branches.
Kiersten Nelson: And so we started to see branches want to celebrate and the foundation saw the
Kiersten Nelson: success of those particular programming events and set aside $90,
Kiersten Nelson: 000 specifically for branch programming. A lot of those programs are actually
Kiersten Nelson: occurring right now as we speak. We have a.
Kiersten Nelson: Number of summer, end of summer events that branches are
Kiersten Nelson: hosting that are pulling from this particular fund.
Kiersten Nelson: So if you notice it as you're going through the report,
Kiersten Nelson: it hasn't been spent down nearly as much because most of them were sort of end of
Kiersten Nelson: end of summer or going into the fall.
Kiersten Nelson: Getting kids and families ramped back up for the school year.
Kiersten Nelson: So that's a very exciting thing and very pleased that the foundation noticed the
Kiersten Nelson: success of those events and wanted to continue to give our branches the
Kiersten Nelson: opportunity to do things that were specific to their particular communities
Kiersten Nelson: and neighborhoods.
Kiersten Nelson: It is worth noting that despite the controversy at the federal level in
Kiersten Nelson: regards to things like the Institute for Museum and Library Services,
Kiersten Nelson: we have not been as partially impacted as institutions like the State Library and
Kiersten Nelson: the Washington.
Kiersten Nelson: Book and Braille Library. However, we did have an outstanding grant.
Kiersten Nelson: It's been nearly half $1,000, 000 and it was the life of about three
Kiersten Nelson: years for this or five years when you combine the two particular grants and we
Kiersten Nelson: have about 22,000 left. There was definitely some back and forth
Kiersten Nelson: with the federal government.
Kiersten Nelson: And trying to get that money into our inbox or our bank accounts and we have
Kiersten Nelson: about 22,000 left to be inbursed, reimbursed.
Kiersten Nelson: And so we're you know going through that particular process.
Kiersten Nelson: The overall ending of that grant was set to wrap up at the end of July of this
Kiersten Nelson: year anyway. So we were definitely on the tail end.
Kiersten Nelson: But that is something to note when you look at some of the outstanding grant
Kiersten Nelson: numbers.
Kiersten Nelson: And then it is, it has definitely been shared to this
Kiersten Nelson: group because I think we are all super proud of it.
Kiersten Nelson: But we'll also be running through the foundation and will be noted on the end
Kiersten Nelson: of the year as far as an outstanding outside grant,
Kiersten Nelson: the receipt of almost half $1,000, 000 from the Carnegie Foundation.
Kiersten Nelson: For our various ESOL programs for the next couple of years,
Kiersten Nelson: so that is fantastic. It is always worth noting that for these
Kiersten Nelson: multi-year grants, they show up on the foundation's report a
Kiersten Nelson: little bit odd because they are all lump summed.
Kiersten Nelson: And then we spend down from it. So that particular category may look like,
Kiersten Nelson: oh, wow, how have you guys, how are you so underfunded on this?
Kiersten Nelson: And it's like, well, actually we're spending over three years.
Kiersten Nelson: So that's just something to note, but is very exciting.
Kiersten Nelson: When we get to the Q3 report for the foundation, we will have, there's one.
Kiersten Nelson: Particular issue that is still needs to be addressed.
Kiersten Nelson: There were some workday issues with the city's payment and because we have some
Kiersten Nelson: of the funds for various positions are covered by foundation dollars,
Kiersten Nelson: there's about 250, 000 of Labor costs that need to be sort
Kiersten Nelson: of corrected in the report. And so all these things speak to the fact
Kiersten Nelson: that while it's.
Kiersten Nelson: As we're, you know, 43% encumbered, there's not much concern on our end as
Kiersten Nelson: where as to where we are at overall with the spending of the 2025 grant award.
Kiersten Nelson: So that is the high level summary. If anybody has any questions,
Kiersten Nelson: I am happy to answer.
Kiersten Nelson: Well, lovely. Thank you. Everybody have a very joyous, sunny,
Kiersten Nelson: almost long Labor Day weekend and I hope you don't have any more threats to
Kiersten Nelson: thunderstorms.
Tom Fay: Thanks, Kiersten.
Kiersten Nelson: Thank you all.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Kirsten.
Tom Fay: All right. I'm going to go ahead and ask Rick
Tom Fay: Sheridan to join this particular session or excuse me,
Tom Fay: this topic and making sure I have everything pulled up here as well.
Tom Fay: As mentioned earlier, as Jan was talking about our levy report,
Tom Fay: we're in year six of the 2019 levy, which means that we are at the point of
Tom Fay: considering.
Tom Fay: A levy renewal of some sort. Obviously those are still things to be
Tom Fay: determined as the board has discussions as we look to partner with the Mayor's
Tom Fay: office and council moving this forward.
Tom Fay: In 2026. So what our team here at Rick's has done,
Tom Fay: Jessica Smith and Jan Osiewicz were the primaries on this have put together our
Tom Fay: resolution which authorizes basically me and my team.
Tom Fay: To be working with the Mayor's office, the City Budget Office and obviously the
Tom Fay: council as we get to that point to move forward in considering a renewal in 2026.
Tom Fay: And Rick, I don't know if I missed anything in that
Tom Fay: step, but I turn it over to you.
Rick Sheridan: No, Tom, I I think you adequately captured our our
Rick Sheridan: interest here. I would just direct the Board's attention
Rick Sheridan: to the memo in your packet entitled Resolution directing library staff to
Rick Sheridan: prepare a 2026 library levy renewal package that outlines the sort of history
Rick Sheridan: and interest of the library system.
Rick Sheridan: And of course has the attached draft resolution for your consideration and
Rick Sheridan: potential approval.
Tom Fay: I'm happy to answer any questions. I know it has obviously many whereas this
Tom Fay: and I think they've done a really good job of trying to balance the history and
Tom Fay: the the need in this as well as moving to the resolution.
Tom Fay: So happy to answer any questions you might have.
Yazmin Mehdi: I don't have any questions that I'm happy to move approval of this resolution.
Bendixen, Carmen: And I will second it.
W Tali Hairston: It's been moved and seconded and if there be no questions or need for discussion,
W Tali Hairston: I will only add that Tom and I have and Yasmin have been in conversation about
W Tali Hairston: particular issues of the levy.
W Tali Hairston: So this is not some of the information here should not be surprising.
W Tali Hairston: It's not surprising to us and and are in full support of moving forward with what
W Tali Hairston: has been laid out in the in this document and fully support.
W Tali Hairston: at affirming this resolution.
W Tali Hairston: So if there be no further discussion, it's been.
W Tali Hairston: We have a motion and a second and we're all good to vote. All in favor.
W Tali Hairston: OK, that's unanimous. There are no and we are missing faith,
W Tali Hairston: but this is a quorum, so we're good to go.
W Tali Hairston: Our resolution is passed.
Tom Fay: Thank you. And we will be updating you as we go
Tom Fay: through the process. There'll be various times that we'll be
Tom Fay: engaging with the mayor's office. I have Rick and I have a meeting and and
Tom Fay: Rob with the deputy mayor in a couple of weeks.
Tom Fay: To have some preliminary discussions. We also will have a preliminary
Tom Fay: discussion if all goes well with the mayor's schedule on October 3rd to at
Tom Fay: least have some initial briefing on the potential for a renewal.
Tom Fay: In 2026 and we'll keep you up to date as we begin to build what that renewal might
Tom Fay: look like.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Tom.
W Tali Hairston: Next is our unit reports.
Tom Fay: And I don't. I'm looking to see if Jesse is here today.
Please.
Tom Fay: Don't see Jesse here.
W Tali Hairston: If I remember correctly, and my brain may not be working rightly
W Tali Hairston: on this issue, but if I remember she did that,
W Tali Hairston: Jesse's not going to be the one reporting.
Tom Fay: I'm looking.
W Tali Hairston: For this meeting.
That's on vacation today.
Tom Fay: Yeah, so I think, I think it will stand. I think you're correct, Tali,
Tom Fay: and I don't see anyone else here. I'm not seeing any text,
Tom Fay: so I think it will stand as presented.
W Tali Hairston: OK, we yeah, it is in our board packet. We have it.
W Tali Hairston: And if there are no questions or discussion points about it,
W Tali Hairston: we will move to our next.
W Tali Hairston: Point of order and agenda and that is Library Foundation and Friends of the
W Tali Hairston: Library updates and like in Seattle there are no August meetings or reports any
W Tali Hairston: discussion points about those.
W Tali Hairston: That that item in our agenda, the library founded.
Yazmin Mehdi: I just actually, sorry, Tali, can I just, I just wanted I I feel like I'd just like
W Tali Hairston: This.
Yazmin Mehdi: to reiterate what I said at the top of the meeting about in Jessie's report,
Yazmin Mehdi: she's raising some concerns about staffing levels and.
Yazmin Mehdi: The level of stress that some staff are under and I just wanted to note again
Yazmin Mehdi: that.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think it's good to note that HR has these resources available for staff if
Yazmin Mehdi: they need support, and I also wanted to note that you know
Yazmin Mehdi: the library is dealing with.
Yazmin Mehdi: Not a direct hiring freeze, but a and the necessity of being
Yazmin Mehdi: respectful of the city's hiring freeze, and that even despite that,
Yazmin Mehdi: there's an incredible amount of hiring that's going on.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I feel like the the the fact that we've had so few closures in the second
Yazmin Mehdi: quarter all point to an incredible effort by by the library to actually meet and.
Yazmin Mehdi: Ensure that staffing levels are appropriate so we can keep our branches
Yazmin Mehdi: and central open. So I just wanted to under score all that.
Tom Fay: And I think the one thing I'll note too is that we one of our strategic
Tom Fay: priorities was to work towards some work towards a holistic Wellness program.
Tom Fay: The Wellness Wednesday is just a kickoff to really start working through that,
Tom Fay: what that might mean, what other resources.
Tom Fay: This can be brought to bear. We have a staff support group and an
Tom Fay: employee engagement group that all work together in various parts of this arena.
Tom Fay: As we move forward, it is important that you know, again,
Tom Fay: folks feel that they do feel.
Tom Fay: That they have resources when they have that need. As we all know,
Tom Fay: we bring in our entire selves to work, and many times things come with us that
Tom Fay: maybe didn't have anything to do with work. I know that happens to all of us,
Tom Fay: right? And so it's not just work sometimes,
Tom Fay: it's all of life that is.
Tom Fay: Getting in in our heads, especially with the things going on in
Tom Fay: the news, it's very hard not to have a lot of other
Tom Fay: concerns by the time you start your morning.
Tom Fay: So there's some really good work started and we most certainly are not done with
Tom Fay: it. There's more that can be done and more
Tom Fay: that we will do over time.
Tom Fay: So thanks, Jasmine, for that.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you for that.
W Tali Hairston: No August meetings.
W Tali Hairston: The Foundation of the Friends of Libraries, is that correct?
W Tali Hairston: I just want to make sure I didn't over talk someone. OK, all right.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah, the friend. The friends meeting was a social at
Yazmin Mehdi: Volunteer Park, which I sadly could not make.
W Tali Hairston: Our work with the Foundation and Friends in terms of our relationships just
W Tali Hairston: continues to thrive and at least in my opinion,
W Tali Hairston: though I'm very grateful for those of you who continue to serve in that way,
W Tali Hairston: connecting with the Foundation and Friends of the Library.
W Tali Hairston: So thank you for service.
W Tali Hairston: And you got August off, which is cool.
Tom Fay: In meeting.
W Tali Hairston: OK. Any updates from library board members?
W Tali Hairston: I just feel like we're all looking at Ron right now.
Ron Chew: OK, I guess I got to say something. Well, actually I do have an update or it's a
Ron Chew: little more somber note, but about a week and a half ago I
Ron Chew: attended the memorial service for Dan Asher, who is the.
Ron Chew: Financial advisor to the Tatiuchi Foundation and you know,
Ron Chew: he's been a financial advisor to a number of local families as well who have been
Ron Chew: very philanthropically generous towards.
Ron Chew: The library. And anyway, so I learned also at the memorial service
Ron Chew: that Ina Tatuchi had passed away 10 days earlier.
Ron Chew: And of course she made a major gift and was.
Ron Chew: Incredible part of the Libraries for All campaign. And of course, as you all know,
Ron Chew: Ted Collins, you know, long time Libraries for All Foundation
Ron Chew: member passed away. You know, Anne Farrell recently.
Ron Chew: I could go on and on. Those are peers that I worked with in the
Ron Chew: fundraising that helped establish the foundation and really made it a
Ron Chew: powerhouse. It really started with Faye Alan,
Ron Chew: Paul Alan's mother, and a small group of folks who.
Ron Chew: Had the vision that the library should be embedded in all the neighborhoods,
Ron Chew: and so it's the libraries for all based in the neighborhoods.
Ron Chew: I got a new branch in Beacon Hill. We had the first time ever International
Ron Chew: District Chinatown branch.
Ron Chew: Branch something West Seattle here and there. It was an amazing campaign.
Ron Chew: I know there's A. reference Kirsten mentioned to the
Ron Chew: anniversary of fibers for all, but it'd be good for us.
Ron Chew: And I know Brian has looped into this and we're on the same page.
Ron Chew: To kind of honor that legacy in some way as we do these anniversary celebration
Ron Chew: and maybe try perhaps to learn from them. I'm in touch with some of the other
Ron Chew: others of my colleagues, some of them are in very,
Ron Chew: very poor health.
Ron Chew: And we'll probably be losing soon, but maybe there's some moral history to
Ron Chew: be done there, something, you know, to capture that because I think that'll
Ron Chew: spur the creative thinking that'll enable us to move into that next generation as
Ron Chew: we.
Ron Chew: Piggyback on the efforts to launch this levy effort because the Libraries for All
Ron Chew: campaign was really based on the notion that, you know,
Ron Chew: so we'll have this big levy bond measure, but we're going to raise A. lot of money.
Ron Chew: From the community and that will be A. an equal part of this equation to make
Ron Chew: this library for all possible. So just A. little update reflection.
Ron Chew: I don't know if Brian is here with us or.
Ron Chew: You know, Tom, if you have any thoughts on that as well.
Tom Fay: Yeah, I think that's a a good, a good idea to think how we can do that.
Tom Fay: I think in some cases go back and I'll take a have our folks take a look and see
Tom Fay: where we might already have some of those oral histories and maybe then how we can.
Tom Fay: Incorporate that.
Tom Fay: And then I think also working with um.
Tom Fay: The foundation to have that list of those folks who participated in that,
Tom Fay: because as we get farther away from that time frame,
Tom Fay: it becomes there's less corporate knowledge, so to speak of it.
Tom Fay: And really how do we highlight that all that work that went into that that made?
Tom Fay: The library system, what it is today with all these
Tom Fay: facilities. So yeah, let me let me talk to both Brian and some
Tom Fay: of our folks too, just to see what we might already have on
Tom Fay: hand.
Ron Chew: Great. Thank you, John.
W Tali Hairston: And Ron, did you get A. chance to see the letter that we are
W Tali Hairston: sending out?
Ron Chew: I haven't. I haven't.
W Tali Hairston: OK, I I just this morning looked at A. draft review of A. review, the draft,
W Tali Hairston: excuse me, of A. letter from Tom and I, the board.
W Tali Hairston: Honoring the life of.
W Tali Hairston: In A and it does recount several components of service and impact and
W Tali Hairston: names quite A. few of those things in the letter.
W Tali Hairston: I'll make sure that once this is finalized, everyone has A. copy,
W Tali Hairston: or at least I believe Amy's.
W Tali Hairston: will do so. Yeah, it's quite an illustrative career of
W Tali Hairston: service.
Ron Chew: Yeah, I thank. Thank you, Tali. I just want to mention also, by the way,
Ron Chew: I've been in contact with Maria Coe's kids. Again, there's some, I don't know,
Ron Chew: just it just seems to be the time, you know, they were thinking about.
Ron Chew: Hmm.
Ron Chew: Their mother's contribution to to the library as well as a foundation member
Ron Chew: and booster and folks are around and they are still very supportive of the library
Ron Chew: and I think there's there's ways to rekindle that energy and again to bring.
Ron Chew: Some added energy to the foundation just in these simple acknowledgments of these
Ron Chew: relationships. So thank you for that.
Yazmin Mehdi: I I think I'll just jump in really quickly. Carmen and I had A.
Yazmin Mehdi: great meeting yesterday with Laura Pierce. I really appreciate the foundation
Yazmin Mehdi: talking with each of us on the board.
Yazmin Mehdi: About, you know, their strategic planning effort.
Yazmin Mehdi: And one of the things that Carmen and I talked about with Laura was just the
Yazmin Mehdi: incredible leap the foundation made back in the libraries for all days in terms of
Yazmin Mehdi: like.
Yazmin Mehdi: Not only their level of giving to the library and the money they raised,
Yazmin Mehdi: that just it was A. remarkable leap of fundraising,
Yazmin Mehdi: but the effort they made to reach out to this incredible community of supporters
Yazmin Mehdi: like Ina and Anne Farrell and.
Yazmin Mehdi: Ted Collins and that you know as we think about the work that's coming around the
Yazmin Mehdi: next levy, it's another opportunity to meet the
Yazmin Mehdi: moment with not necessarily A. similar jump in fundraising and giving.
Yazmin Mehdi: That would be incredible, but just to it's A.
Yazmin Mehdi: good time to remember that initial group of donors who contributed to LFA and
Tom Fay: 8.
Yazmin Mehdi: really made A. success out of the bond levy because it
Yazmin Mehdi: was leveraging all those public dollars.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's A. it was A. remarkable achievement.
Tom Fay: Yeah, Brian Lawrence is on and I think he, if he wants to also say something,
Tom Fay: he can unmute and come on screen. Brian, I don't know if you can hear me or not.
Tom Fay: Let's see.
Tom Fay: There you are. There you are, Brian.
Brian Lawrence: There, just had trouble unmuting. But yeah,
Brian Lawrence: I just want to echo Ron's comments and thank him for being a great partner.
Brian Lawrence: It has been a pretty hard time last few months because we've lost some really
Brian Lawrence: influential people who have helped shape our library and I would say.
Brian Lawrence: I'm encouraged by the people that are involved with our organization now and
Brian Lawrence: the people that continue to step up to to support our library.
Brian Lawrence: So we will be looking at ways to to kind of make sure that we are documenting the
Brian Lawrence: history and the contributions of all those individuals that that make our
Brian Lawrence: library so special, not just with our organization,
Brian Lawrence: but also with the friends.
Brian Lawrence: As a library system, we have two great support organizations.
Brian Lawrence: And so, you know, we take your comments to heart and we'll
Brian Lawrence: be looking. I'll chat with Tom and some others to see
Brian Lawrence: how we can continue to kind of memorialize the impact that people have
Brian Lawrence: had.
Brian Lawrence: Overtime in the library.
Tom Fay: Yeah, for sure. If you're in community and want to send
Tom Fay: the information to Brian, please do. If you don't have his contact,
Tom Fay: most certainly send it to me and he and I meet every week and well multiple times
Tom Fay: since he's on our E team as well, so.
Tom Fay: We definitely have A. chance to catch up if you have someone in
Tom Fay: the community met that you think would really be important for Brian to chat
Tom Fay: with.
Brian Lawrence: You bet. Thanks everyone.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, Brian.
W Tali Hairston: All right. Well, there is no executive session.
W Tali Hairston: Our next library board meeting is September 25th. Yasmin,
W Tali Hairston: is this the one that you're going to miss? So let's make sure we if we do,
W Tali Hairston: we have a quorum.
W Tali Hairston: Thank you, everyone. We are adjourning at 12:19.
Tom Fay: Thank you all.
Tom Fay: Thank you.
Tom Fay: Hallie and Yasmine, I'll see you on the line on the other
Tom Fay: line.