Yazmin Mehdi: I think the only things we have to vote on are at the beginning of the agenda.
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, it is 1101 and I would like to call this
Yazmin Mehdi: meeting of the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees to order.
Yazmin Mehdi: This is a regular meeting. We need to start by approving the agenda,
Yazmin Mehdi: but we have one change.
Yazmin Mehdi: Literature and Humanities Program Manager Stesha Brandon is working to finalize
Yazmin Mehdi: contracts with the proposed author for this year's Seattle Reads program.
Yazmin Mehdi: And now I'm so curious about who that is. Thanks, Stesha.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we will strike that report from today's meeting and bring the Seattle
Yazmin Mehdi: Reads update to our
Yazmin Mehdi: August meeting when contracts are signed and the book selection is official.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we'll all have to suspend our curiosity until August. If there are no,
Yazmin Mehdi: if there are no other changes to the agenda,
Yazmin Mehdi: may I hear a motion to approve today's agenda without a system report as noted?
Faith Pettis: So moved.
Bendixen, Carmen: Second.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great. All in favor, please say aye.
Ron Chew: I.
Bendixen, Carmen: I.
Faith Pettis: I...
Yazmin Mehdi: And that passes unanimously. Let's move on.
Yazmin Mehdi: As noted at the top of the agenda, the library board is accepting public
Yazmin Mehdi: comments that are directed to matters on the agenda by e-mail,
Yazmin Mehdi: in person at the Central Library, and in this remote meeting. Amy,
Yazmin Mehdi: is there any public comment?
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: There is no public comment by any of the three members.
Yazmin Mehdi: All right, then. We have a consent agenda with minutes
Yazmin Mehdi: from our June regular meeting, as well as May and June financial reports.
Yazmin Mehdi: If no one has changes to these documents, may I hear a motion to approve the
Yazmin Mehdi: consent agenda as published?
Tali Hairston: Domoot.
Faith Pettis: Second.
Yazmin Mehdi: All in favor, please say aye. Aye.
Faith Pettis: Aye. OK.
Bendixen, Carmen: I.
Tali Hairston: Right.
Yazmin Mehdi: and that also is approved unanimously. So we can move right along to Tom's
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Three.
Yazmin Mehdi: Librarian report.
Tom Fay: Well, I'm going to probably just have it stand
Tom Fay: as is, but I wanted to mention that I am out at
Tom Fay: the IDC branch today. They did reopen this morning at 10 A.m.,
Tom Fay: so very good news there. Staff are working to put all the pieces
Tom Fay: back into place after being down
Tom Fay: a few months. We looked closely with our facilities
Tom Fay: folks, our CIP folks and skip the to resolve
Tom Fay: this matter. We appreciate their support and efforts
Tom Fay: to get the branch reopened and ready to go.
Tom Fay: working diligently to work through some backlog and material that's being checked
Tom Fay: in, but they seem to be in good spirits and
Tom Fay: doing well as patrons are starting to come in as well.
Tom Fay: I would also draw your attention to a couple of reports that were in the packet
Tom Fay: from collections and special collections. I think there's some really good nuggets
Tom Fay: of information in there about their work. And I'll turn it back over to Yazmin for
Tom Fay: any questions.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great. Well, I wanted to say, first of all, thank you, Tom,
Yazmin Mehdi: for being at the branch there, both because we want to confirm that
Yazmin Mehdi: there is no smell and also to welcome back patrons and staff.
Yazmin Mehdi: I know it's been a trying time for the regular patrons of that branch and nobody
Yazmin Mehdi: ever wants to have a branch closed, but it sounds like that needed a little
Yazmin Mehdi: additional remediation. So I'm really glad that we were able to
Yazmin Mehdi: take care of that and get it.
Yazmin Mehdi: opened back up. The other thing I just wanted to note is
Yazmin Mehdi: the reports in our packet, one of the things that I find really
Yazmin Mehdi: wonderful is that at the top of these reports,
Yazmin Mehdi: the staff who are writing them are indicating
Yazmin Mehdi: how the work they're doing meets the impact areas in the strategic plan.
Yazmin Mehdi: So just wanted to draw the public's attention to that.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's just a demonstration that the strategic plan is not something that's
Yazmin Mehdi: being put on a shelf and left to gather dust. It's actually a living document.
Yazmin Mehdi: The other thing I wanted to note is that the contents of the library levy have
Yazmin Mehdi: fostered quite a conversation on the interwebs about how efficiently the
Yazmin Mehdi: library performs its various tasks. And I think this month's report from
Yazmin Mehdi: Technical and Collection Services highlights
Yazmin Mehdi: one of the ways that efficiency is being addressed by the library,
Yazmin Mehdi: and I wanted to bring that forward. It has to do with the ILS replacement.
Yazmin Mehdi: One of the things that I hope the public recognizes is that the library has done
Yazmin Mehdi: quite an impressive job
Yazmin Mehdi: of following on the heels of the ransomware attack and just pumping out
Yazmin Mehdi: some really important pieces of technology.
Yazmin Mehdi: The library app is one of them. This ILS replacement is another.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I would just want to quote Kate Sellers.
Yazmin Mehdi: who wrote the TCS report that the new ILS called Polaris will bring a whole new
Yazmin Mehdi: world of functionality both on the staff side and the public side.
Yazmin Mehdi: And one of the things she talks about is that there are changes being made to
Yazmin Mehdi: metadata
Yazmin Mehdi: that will improve staff side efficiency. On the public side,
Yazmin Mehdi: people who are looking for books, for example,
Yazmin Mehdi: in the book spiral at Central will know exactly where to go to get the book,
Yazmin Mehdi: not just, you know, floor 7 to 9, but like floor 7 South.
Yazmin Mehdi: which is wonderful. So I wanted to bring that forward and I
Yazmin Mehdi: see that my colleague Carmen has her hand up.
Bendixen, Carmen: Well, something you said prompted, reminded me of something I read this week
Bendixen, Carmen: with the ILS improvement. So and also that was in our packet.
Bendixen, Carmen: So at the end of the packet, we always have the list of the media
Bendixen, Carmen: coverage and articles. But there's also a list of blog posts.
Bendixen, Carmen: So I don't know if everyone, you know, I know we read A lot.
Bendixen, Carmen: for this group. But the Shelf Talk blog that the library
Bendixen, Carmen: has had for a million years, a lot of times there's really great
Bendixen, Carmen: information on reading recommendations, of course.
Bendixen, Carmen: But there was a post on the ILS for on the blog that I came across earlier this
Bendixen, Carmen: week.
Bendixen, Carmen: And I thought it was really helpful and informative because it was kind of like a
Bendixen, Carmen: FAQ format so that members of the public and patrons could actually see like, well,
Bendixen, Carmen: what does this mean for me? Like, how does this look different for me?
Bendixen, Carmen: And I thought that was really well done. I think there was also another piece on
Bendixen, Carmen: the Library Art Review Committee calling for people to volunteer. So
Bendixen, Carmen: So yes, things are happening and I think we get a
Bendixen, Carmen: lot in our packets, but there's more is just all I'm saying.
Bendixen, Carmen: So thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Carmen. That's great. I appreciate you bringing up the art
Yazmin Mehdi: review committee. They're looking for volunteers, folks.
Yazmin Mehdi: Tally, over to you.
Tali Hairston: I was overjoyed to read about the 200 items related to the Seattle and the
Tali Hairston: Puget Sound area, AANHPI community. The impact historically that they have
Tali Hairston: provided
Tali Hairston: Seattle and making Seattle what it is for the library to do this kind of work in
Tali Hairston: special collections is huge, needs to be celebrated.
Tali Hairston: And if there's anybody listening out there who has some money to give to the
Tali Hairston: Seattle Foundation around things like this,
Tali Hairston: this is a very important thing for us in the days we live today where histories
Tali Hairston: are being erased. We need to step up and continue to
Tali Hairston: provide
Tali Hairston: this as an opportunity for folks in our community to learn and grow around these
Tali Hairston: stories. They're powerful stories, true stories, amazing stories.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Tally. Absolutely agree. And the other thing is that it's not like
Yazmin Mehdi: there's another library that should be doing that work that really truly falls
Yazmin Mehdi: to Seattle because this is Seattle history. I noted that in the
Yazmin Mehdi: There's a photo of a young Cheryl Chow. And yeah, I mean,
Yazmin Mehdi: I see you all nodding heads because Cheryl Chow served on the city council
Yazmin Mehdi: for quite a long time and was an important leader for the entire city.
Yazmin Mehdi: So again, that's history that appropriately Seattle
Yazmin Mehdi: Public Library should be collecting.
Yazmin Mehdi: And thank you, colleagues, for reading. I had these things noted and you guys
Yazmin Mehdi: covered them. Thank you. So, Tom, enough of our bantering.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think the next thing is old business. And we have
Yazmin Mehdi: I think a report on the staff systems acceptable use policy.
Tom Fay: Yes, we'll ask Rob Gannon and Charles Wesley
Tom Fay: to come to the table.
Tom Fay: I believe it's both of them, or it might just be Charles today.
Tom Fay: We'll see who we get. Here's Rob. Trying to see if Charles is in.
Yazmin Mehdi: Here they are.
Charles Wesley: Hello, I am here.
Tom Fay: All right.
Rob Gannon: So members of the board, I'm just going to defer to Charles to
Rob Gannon: make this presentation, but I'll be here as well and in support.
Charles Wesley: Awesome. Let me just pull up my library packet.
Charles Wesley: I don't know if you can hear any background noise or not,
Charles Wesley: but the Navy's in town, so I apologize if you talk about hearing
Charles Wesley: me. So I did bring to you the last meeting a
Charles Wesley: memo informing you that we intend to have a new staff acceptable use policy.
Charles Wesley: In this packet, there is a draft of that system's
Charles Wesley: accessible use policy for staff. We also included, just for reference,
Charles Wesley: the existing City of Seattle policy for comparison.
Charles Wesley: I wanted to just at a high level, go through the policy and give you an
Charles Wesley: opportunity just as we scan through it to raise any specific questions that you
Charles Wesley: have.
Charles Wesley: I've also noted some questions that you had asked previously that I can address.
Charles Wesley: And I'm going to share my screen here very quickly.
Charles Wesley: All right, are you able to see my screen?
Charles Wesley: Okay. So this policy lays out at a higher level
Charles Wesley: from a policy perspectives what is in scope and why these areas are important
Charles Wesley: for the library. There's a companion piece for this.
Charles Wesley: that is a standard. So there's a policy and then a standard.
Charles Wesley: The standard has not been written yet. So I don't have this to do a side by side.
Charles Wesley: The thinking being that we wanted to establish the policy and then build the
Charles Wesley: standard within the confines of the policy.
Charles Wesley: But the intention of the standard is to be able to have
Charles Wesley: much more granular, much more specific details about the ins
Charles Wesley: and outs of things that we relevant for staff to understand,
Charles Wesley: and that we will want to be able to update that more frequently.
Charles Wesley: So as emerging security issues arise, as confusion arises,
Charles Wesley: we can keep that up to date, and then the policy would be a changing
Charles Wesley: on.
Charles Wesley: annual basis, for example. So that's just the context of this.
Charles Wesley: As I mentioned in the memo, this is applying only to staff and that
Charles Wesley: is also inclusive of contractors, consultants, partners, volunteers,
Charles Wesley: other third parties.
Charles Wesley: but explicitly does not apply to patrons or the use of public technology by the
Charles Wesley: public. There is a policy on the spl. org website,
Charles Wesley: public use of internet policies. This is actually something that we
Charles Wesley: tweaked with you all back in 2023.
Charles Wesley: that speaks to the public's use of the internet and some of the technology
Charles Wesley: related to it. And then there's also our community use
Charles Wesley: agreements in general, which apply. I would envision a future policy for
Charles Wesley: patrons that is more similar to
Charles Wesley: The staff one that isn't kind of covering a variety of things,
Charles Wesley: but is focused on technology in general, but that policy has not yet been written.
Charles Wesley: So in this policy where it references patrons,
Charles Wesley: it's really referring to the existing policies,
Charles Wesley: which aren't as kind of encompassing as this policy. We also in this document,
Charles Wesley: cover some definitions. So these are definitions that we hope
Charles Wesley: help for the understanding of the policy, but also for staff to understand when we
Charles Wesley: are talking about library technology resources, specifically what those mean,
Charles Wesley: for example.
Charles Wesley: And a lot of these terms also have standing in other policies or laws and
Charles Wesley: regulations. And so the larger context is that this
Charles Wesley: policy exists amongst other policies and rules and regulations.
Charles Wesley: So things that we call out specifically in this policy, even if it is redundant,
Charles Wesley: really is just to under score
Charles Wesley: for clarity that those things have a specific implication to the use of
Charles Wesley: technology in general.
Charles Wesley: The.
Charles Wesley: Policy statements, I think are pretty self-explanatory,
Charles Wesley: but just as I'm going through this, if you have questions on specific topics,
Charles Wesley: I'm happy to entertain those. But again, we want to really understand,
Charles Wesley: we want staff to be able to understand when we're referring to technology
Charles Wesley: resources, it is going to be things that are used by
Charles Wesley: the library for library business, and their responsibilities for that will
Charles Wesley: be governed by
Charles Wesley: this policy.
Charles Wesley: Um...
Charles Wesley: sharing of library data and files, we may want to have another conversation
Charles Wesley: with you in the future about data handling,
Charles Wesley: whether or not that be something that needs to be a policy,
Charles Wesley: but we are just at a high level establishing that in this as important.
Charles Wesley: I see, Faith, you have your hands up.
Faith Pettis: Yeah, and I thank you for allowing me to
Faith Pettis: interrupt you for a second. I just want to make sure I'm
Charles Wesley: Mhm.
Faith Pettis: understanding clearly the difference between the standard and the policy.
Faith Pettis: So we approve the policy, and then the standard will be the more
Faith Pettis: detailed rollout implementation, almost like an FAQ type of thing for step.
Faith Pettis: Is that right? More programmatic.
Charles Wesley: Yeah, so you can think of it as like an
Faith Pettis: and detailed.
Charles Wesley: administrative procedure or policy. So it'll speak to, for example,
Faith Pettis: Right, OK.
Faith Pettis: K.
Charles Wesley: like in this document, we reference mobile devices,
Charles Wesley: personal devices. Broadly, the standard will be much more specific
Faith Pettis: Right.
Charles Wesley: about the current practice regarding those,
Charles Wesley: and that will evolve more rapidly than the policy.
Faith Pettis: Okay, and that standard is not something we
Faith Pettis: approve. We approve the policies, right? The guidance,
Faith Pettis: and then the staff puts out the standards.
Charles Wesley: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: which we don't approve.
Charles Wesley: Correct. So that the standards, so administrative procedures in general
Faith Pettis: Got it.
Charles Wesley: are ultimately the chief librarian's prerogative for responsibility.
Faith Pettis: Yep, yep.
Faith Pettis: Great, great. Thank you.
Charles Wesley: Yep. So the standard is basically the
Charles Wesley: implementation. So how do we implement this policy at the
Charles Wesley: library would be detailed in the standard. So that would be much more focused on how
Charles Wesley: the policy is executed versus the policy, which is really more of like what it
Charles Wesley: covers and why.
Charles Wesley: So for example, smartphone and mobile data or mobile
Charles Wesley: devices is mentioned in the policy so that the use,
Charles Wesley: so the policy establishes that the use of smartphones and mobile devices is subject
Charles Wesley: to library approval and the technical requirements for the delivery would be in
Charles Wesley: the standard. So that's a good example of that.
Charles Wesley: A specific instance of the two working in tandem.
Charles Wesley: And.
Charles Wesley: We do have a specific prohibitions and limitations section.
Charles Wesley: I know that was one of the items that was mentioned in the last section.
Charles Wesley: This isn't all inclusive, but these are very specific ones that we
Charles Wesley: wanted to include at the policy level for clarity sake.
Charles Wesley: And this is very much in line with what the city policy has.
Charles Wesley: For limitations, as well.
Charles Wesley: And...
Charles Wesley: also referencing the artificial intelligence policy.
Charles Wesley: So there were a couple of specific questions from the last time that I'm
Charles Wesley: happy to address. But are there any just broad questions on
Charles Wesley: the policy that you all have, having had more time to review it,
Charles Wesley: that you'd like me to address?
Yazmin Mehdi: I'll see if any of my colleagues have questions.
Yazmin Mehdi: One thing that comes to mind for me is that you included the city's policy,
Yazmin Mehdi: Charles, and is it simply a reference? Because I don't think it's noted in the
Charles Wesley: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: policy itself.
Charles Wesley: Yes, so my, so I will speak to my understanding,
Charles Wesley: I did verify this with our director of HR, the city policy and the library policy,
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh.
Charles Wesley: like in many cases, they sometimes overlap and sometimes
Charles Wesley: stand separately. So this policy for the library will apply
Charles Wesley: to library staff.
Charles Wesley: The city's technology policy, I believe, was outside of the bargaining process
Charles Wesley: that we had with our union. So that specific policy would not apply
Charles Wesley: to our staff while other city policies do. So we included it more as a reference
Charles Wesley: just so that you can understand in the context whether or not what we were
Charles Wesley: putting forward is.
Charles Wesley: consistent with city practice, but in this particular case,
Charles Wesley: the library's policy would be the one that would apply to library staff in
Charles Wesley: place of the city's policy.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, I understand that.
Yazmin Mehdi: I skipped, I read the library policy closely.
Yazmin Mehdi: I skimmed the city policy. I didn't see, nothing jumped out at me as being
Yazmin Mehdi: significantly different. But is there anything you want to
Yazmin Mehdi: highlight here?
Charles Wesley: Yeah, I think the material difference between
Charles Wesley: the two, one, the city policy is a little bit longer,
Charles Wesley: a little bit more detailed because it needs to speak to a variety of
Charles Wesley: departments. So it includes references to like
Charles Wesley: operational technology, which is really big for like the
Charles Wesley: utilities, for example. So we don't have sections of our policy
Charles Wesley: that speak to the level of detail that they do in some areas.
Charles Wesley: And we also make a stronger distinction in our policy between users of library
Charles Wesley: technology being distinctly separated between patrons and staff.
Charles Wesley: The city policy is really focusing on employees or authorized users,
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Charles Wesley: which is the majority of the users using city technology.
Charles Wesley: We're a little bit different where we invite hundreds of thousands of people to
Charles Wesley: use our technology in a way that other city departments don't.
Charles Wesley: So we're just trying to ensure that it's clear that those are separate.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Charles. I appreciate that summary.
Yazmin Mehdi: Anybody else have questions?
Yazmin Mehdi: I think we can move on, Charles.
Charles Wesley: Great.
Charles Wesley: So just to quickly follow up from the last time, I did want to also touch base.
Charles Wesley: There was a question around examples of problematic uses for smartphones and
Charles Wesley: mobile devices. So there's really kind of two broad
Charles Wesley: categories that would fall into. One for devices that the library owns.
Charles Wesley: We need to ensure that one, they are managed correctly,
Charles Wesley: both in terms of security and in terms of preserving public records.
Charles Wesley: So you can think of like text messages, for example,
Charles Wesley: being something that needs to be properly managed.
Charles Wesley: And there's an expectation that staff would not attempt to, you know,
Charles Wesley: subvert or get around controls we have in place in order to secure and protect
Charles Wesley: things like public records.
Charles Wesley: And then also mobile devices, for example, using library issued and supported
Charles Wesley: devices rather than personal devices, for example,
Charles Wesley: for like patron use or program delivery, those types of things.
Charles Wesley: So the policy would really just help to clarify that it is staff's responsibility
Charles Wesley: to use the technology that is issued by the library and in accordance with the
Charles Wesley: library.
Charles Wesley: and not to utilize unknown or kind of unsecured or unmanaged devices for
Charles Wesley: library purposes.
Charles Wesley: Um...
Charles Wesley: Any questions on mobile?
Charles Wesley: Oh, um...
Charles Wesley: There was a reference to the employee handbook,
Charles Wesley: and I just wanted to speak to that just a little bit.
Charles Wesley: The employee handbook kind of sits in between the policy space and
Charles Wesley: administrative side. So an employee handbook basically
Charles Wesley: synthesizes multiple things into one document that employees can reference.
Charles Wesley: So the employee handbook is in itself a policy.
Charles Wesley: but it often speaks to the contents of policies,
Charles Wesley: but then also puts into context some of the administrative procedures that are in
Charles Wesley: place. And so in this particular example, the policy would supersede the handbook,
Charles Wesley: but the handbook may go into more detail about how the policy and the standard
Charles Wesley: apply from a staff member's perspective.
Charles Wesley: And then lastly, there was a question around the language
Charles Wesley: in the document, in the policy about the potential
Charles Wesley: conflicts with collective bargaining agreements.
Charles Wesley: That's basically standard language for policy,
Charles Wesley: so there isn't a specific conflict that we're aware of,
Charles Wesley: but just wanting to ensure.
Charles Wesley: that like with other policies, if there is something related to the
Charles Wesley: collective bargaining agreement, that would supersede A discrepancy in the
Charles Wesley: policy.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great. Thank you for being so on top of those
Yazmin Mehdi: questions and being prepared with answers. I think one thing that is just helpful to
Yazmin Mehdi: state is that the, well, first of all, this is not
Yazmin Mehdi: Is this the first time we're implementing an acceptable use policy for staff?
Charles Wesley: Correct. Yeah.
Charles Wesley: That is this, so this acceptable use policy is in line
Charles Wesley: with more of an industry standard of acceptable use policies. Previously,
Charles Wesley: there's been a collection of policies or things in the employee handbook.
Charles Wesley: So this is really about creating a definitive acceptable use policy,
Charles Wesley: which to my knowledge has not existed at the library to date.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, that's interesting. So a million years ago,
Yazmin Mehdi: when I worked for the city, I was on what was called the Data
Yazmin Mehdi: Processing Advisory Committee, and we set up an acceptable use policy
Yazmin Mehdi: way back then, which I thought covered the entire city.
Yazmin Mehdi: Apparently not
Yazmin Mehdi: not the case. But the other thing I wanted to note is
Yazmin Mehdi: that I like the idea of having this standard that has more detail,
Yazmin Mehdi: because ultimately what we want is for it to be very clear for staff how they need
Yazmin Mehdi: to use the technology that the library has provided to them.
Yazmin Mehdi: And also, because I feel like there are overlaps,
Yazmin Mehdi: especially if you're using a cell phone, that it's really clear what any personal
Yazmin Mehdi: use does to, for example, the need to retain information
Yazmin Mehdi: as required by law. So anyway, I just think ultimately what we're,
Yazmin Mehdi: what we as the board would want is that staff have very clear understanding of
Yazmin Mehdi: what the expectations are and
Yazmin Mehdi: The policy, if you just glance at it, seems like it doesn't have enough detail.
Yazmin Mehdi: So it's really important to note that there is this standard that will be
Yazmin Mehdi: developed next, or it's being developed as we speak.
Charles Wesley: Correct.
Yazmin Mehdi: And when I had one other question, which is the policy refers to an LTO,
Yazmin Mehdi: Library Technology Officer. Who is that?
Charles Wesley: That's me. So my, yep, my official title is Library Technology
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, that's what I thought.
Charles Wesley: Officer.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, I don't know. I did not know that, so that's great.
Charles Wesley: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: Any final questions from library board members?
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, I think this is just informational, Charles. Am I right?
Yazmin Mehdi: We are not adopting this policy yet. Are we?
Charles Wesley: Yep. So if there is no additional feedback
Charles Wesley: from you all, then we will continue in the policy
Charles Wesley: development process and then we'll bring this back to you at a future board
Charles Wesley: meeting for your consideration for a vote.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great.
Yazmin Mehdi: Well, thank you very much. Appreciate your diligence.
Charles Wesley: Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, so the next thing is to go to new
Yazmin Mehdi: business and the first item is a library operations update.
Tom Fay: Yes, I have a couple of folks come to the
Tom Fay: table. I know Kate Tang may be joining a few
Tom Fay: minutes late, so we'll have Rob Gannon come forward
Tom Fay: first. The intention of this is, as you mentioned earlier,
Tom Fay: I believe Carmen mentioned, there's a lot of things going on at the
Tom Fay: library.
Tom Fay: all the time. And just to give you a sense of some of
Tom Fay: those things and what we're working on now and what we know we'll be working on
Tom Fay: once we are successful with the levy vote next week,
Tom Fay: it's really important to kind of give you a grounding of where we're at.
Tom Fay: So we're not going to make this kind of an ad nauseum.
Tom Fay: but we are going to give you a sense of things that are going on in capital
Tom Fay: improvement and some IT. Then I'll be talking a little bit about
Tom Fay: the collections, where we're at, where we see things going,
Tom Fay: and then also with programming as we know it today.
Tom Fay: Just to give a little bit of grounding before we
Tom Fay: move into the budget season, which will be coming very soon for you
Tom Fay: all as we get into the October timeframe. So with that, I'll turn it over to Rob,
Tom Fay: who's going to give you a little bit of an update on his areas.
Rob Gannon: Thank you, Tom, and good morning, members of the board. Again,
Rob Gannon: I'm Rob Gannon. I'm the Director of Administrative
Rob Gannon: Services, and I have a long list of things that I
Rob Gannon: want to provide to you as an update of all the goings on at the library,
Rob Gannon: or at least on the operating side. The first half of our fiscal year has
Rob Gannon: in a very busy period. The everyday activities,
Rob Gannon: as Tom alluded to, have been going on. So we have library spaces open to the
Rob Gannon: public and fully energized with patron activity,
Rob Gannon: a wide array of programming throughout our branches,
Rob Gannon: attentive service being provided by our staff, materials, of course,
Rob Gannon: circulating throughout the city.
Rob Gannon: But there is a great deal of activity going on just outside of public view,
Rob Gannon: and I wanted to provide sort of a brief overview of some of those efforts,
Rob Gannon: both because they represent the other elements of what goes on at our library,
Rob Gannon: but there are also important things that are critical underpinnings of our
Rob Gannon: operation and fulfillments of our levy resources,
Rob Gannon: as well as our general fund resources.
Rob Gannon: As has already been alluded to in earlier comments and in other documents in your
Rob Gannon: packet, the integrated library system replacement
Rob Gannon: project is well underway and is also approaching a critical period where we
Rob Gannon: will cut over from the legacy system to the replacement system.
Rob Gannon: So we're not only gearing up inside to have that
Rob Gannon: effectuated, but we're preparing how we can inform our
Rob Gannon: patrons and our communities about what that will mean.
Rob Gannon: Our internal teams have been coordinating and preparing for this moment for much of
Rob Gannon: the year, and so the fall months will represent a
Rob Gannon: big transition point for the library. It's an enterprise-wide effort,
Rob Gannon: and it affects
Rob Gannon: most all of the areas of library operation.
Rob Gannon: So I want to just make clear that this is not just a cattle area,
Rob Gannon: an ILS replacement. It is really a enterprise-wide system
Rob Gannon: that helps the library operate efficiently and effectively,
Rob Gannon: and there will be
Rob Gannon: Notable stability improvements as well as a contemporary modern system that
Rob Gannon: supports everyday use of the library. A critical fulfillment of one of the
Rob Gannon: projects identified in the 2019 library levy.
Rob Gannon: At the same time, our IT team has been engaged in any
Rob Gannon: number of areas making key upgrades and replacement efforts.
Rob Gannon: We are close to replacing all of our branch wireless upgrades.
Rob Gannon: So all of the branches except three are now complete,
Rob Gannon: and the remaining three will be done later this fall.
Rob Gannon: Similarly, we have been busily over the course of
Rob Gannon: the last year and a half replacing network switches at each of our branches,
Rob Gannon: and we're down to our last three switches. Those 2 will be completed this fall.
Rob Gannon: We have been undergoing some deliberate server replacement,
Rob Gannon: which will allow us to have better server management capabilities and
Rob Gannon: into our local data center, as well as better managing our
Rob Gannon: on-premises environments. And this frankly replaces end-of-life
Rob Gannon: servers. So this is not just an improvement for
Rob Gannon: the sake of improvement, but this is replacing old servers that
Rob Gannon: were fast approaching.
Rob Gannon: their demise. Throughout the system, the IT team has been busily at work doing
Rob Gannon: progressive staff computing replacements. So we've been upgrading the actual
Rob Gannon: devices that our staff across the branches use,
Rob Gannon: and we're trying to keep that on a regular schedule.
Rob Gannon: so that we have timely upgrades to technology that empowers staff to do all
Rob Gannon: that they can in service to their communities and patrons. Similarly,
Rob Gannon: we're gearing up to start later this fall in upgrading our public computers to have
Rob Gannon: Windows 11 and a suite of contemporary software available to our public.
Rob Gannon: So that will be another effort that is busy in our fall months.
Rob Gannon: And then deeply behind the scenes, we continue to make intentional upgrades
Rob Gannon: and enhancements to our cybersecurity configuration,
Rob Gannon: including additional protections to prevent data loss,
Rob Gannon: but also just reviewing our architectural structure to assure
Rob Gannon: the safest and most secure environment to operate our total IT systems.
Rob Gannon: IT is very busy, and they have much more work to do,
Rob Gannon: presuming the levy is successfully passed. So there will be resources that come
Rob Gannon: online in the out years of that levy, which will continue the efforts that I've
Rob Gannon: just described here.
Rob Gannon: Our security teams are busy in a very different sort of way. Of course,
Rob Gannon: our security teams are on the ground doing everyday work to support safe,
Rob Gannon: secure environments for our library staff and our patrons as they come into our
Rob Gannon: various locations. But in the background, our security manager and team are
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay.
Rob Gannon: initiating an audit, an assessment of all our locations.
Rob Gannon: to assure that we have the necessary and proper security tools in place.
Rob Gannon: So we're looking at the potential for structural enhancements,
Rob Gannon: the way in which we staff our branches with security officers,
Rob Gannon: the way in which we deploy and have our officers available.
Rob Gannon: We're looking at training needs and how we can be sure that we have the most
Rob Gannon: contemporary and safe practices. We're looking at our procedures and
Rob Gannon: assessing our everyday practices, and also looking at the ways in which the
Rob Gannon: team, the security team can support branch
Rob Gannon: staff.
Rob Gannon: training them and helping prepare them for everyday occurrences in the workplace.
Rob Gannon: So the security audit is underway, and we expect in the late fall months
Rob Gannon: that this comprehensive assessment will help inform how we can make structural,
Rob Gannon: environmental, and staffing improvements in the
Rob Gannon: years to come, especially if levy resources are approved
Rob Gannon: later this month. So we're preparing ourselves to be even
Rob Gannon: safer and more secure going into the period ahead.
Rob Gannon: Another important security enhancement or
Rob Gannon: baseline amount of work that we're doing right now is the security team is working
Rob Gannon: with our capital improvement team and our IT teams to make some very important and
Rob Gannon: timely changes and physical improvements to our entrance control environment.
Rob Gannon: So how we keep our buildings locked and secure,
Rob Gannon: how we use automated control systems to open them.
Rob Gannon: This has been, I'm sure you all are well aware,
Rob Gannon: a trying system over the many past years. We are doing an actual physical
Rob Gannon: assessment of all of our locations. We're starting at some of our most
Rob Gannon: heavily used branches, including Ballard, Capitol Hill, and Central,
Rob Gannon: to try and make necessary improvements as soon as possible so that we are setting
Rob Gannon: the stage
Rob Gannon: for a sustainably secure environment, while we also look at future enhancements
Rob Gannon: on entrance control systems, fire control systems,
Rob Gannon: and other security systems that are necessary to support the infrastructure
Rob Gannon: of our branches. So that too will be part of the security
Rob Gannon: audit, but even more specifically, we're doing some of that evaluative work
Rob Gannon: right now, and
Rob Gannon: with the help of a new vendor, we are confident that we're going to be
Rob Gannon: able to make some important improvements in actual branch security in the near
Rob Gannon: term. The capital improvements team also has a
Rob Gannon: lot going on above and beyond the university project.
Rob Gannon: That project is well known, I think, to everyone. We're aiming to have that.
Rob Gannon: The contractor, we reach substantial completion of their
Rob Gannon: efforts here very soon. This will then allow a period for
Rob Gannon: readying the newly refurbished and seismically safe building for public use.
Rob Gannon: So we're gearing up to have our branch staff, our facilities crews,
Rob Gannon: and our IT teams into the building, restoring all of the internal functions
Rob Gannon: and furniture.
Rob Gannon: And we are still a pace to have that building open sometime later in the fall.
Rob Gannon: Not yet quite ready to declare an opening date,
Rob Gannon: but things are coming together nicely and we're anxiously awaiting that.
Rob Gannon: Central elevators and escalators are receiving some much overdue maintenance
Rob Gannon: right now. So I want to be clear that the
Rob Gannon: maintenance that we're doing on elevators and escalators, especially at Central,
Rob Gannon: is really a interim refurbishment. So this work being done
Rob Gannon: literally as we speak at Central with elevators being taken down and
Rob Gannon: refurbished, will stabilize their operation for
Rob Gannon: probably a period of one to two years, which means we should see not only more
Rob Gannon: reliable performance, but less downtime. But that in turn sets the stage for a
Rob Gannon: more
Rob Gannon: full upgrade and modernization process. If we receive the levy funds coming out
Rob Gannon: of this vote later next week, we should have resources to make the
Rob Gannon: necessary improvements and upgrades to our elevators at Central that would last
Rob Gannon: for a 5 to 10 year period, if not longer. So this is much overdue work.
Rob Gannon: But it is really a two-step process. How do we stabilize in the near term to
Rob Gannon: set up a period where we can do a full refurbishment and have that persist for
Rob Gannon: many, many years?
Rob Gannon: I think in your packet or in prior reports,
Rob Gannon: we've also mentioned the HVAC projects. So the Fremont and West Seattle branches
Rob Gannon: are just about to close temporarily, starting early in the month of August and
Rob Gannon: then through to November for the installation of modern electric HVAC
Rob Gannon: systems.
Rob Gannon: This work is part of the library's larger cooling center project,
Rob Gannon: providing air conditioning and improved ventilation to our Carnegie buildings
Rob Gannon: that will set the stage for them to be
Rob Gannon: No.
Rob Gannon: both cooled in extreme heat environments, but also to have better ventilation in
Rob Gannon: the event of wildfire smoke and just improve their overall condition as
Rob Gannon: important shelters during whatever weather conditions might occur.
Yazmin Mehdi: Rob, can I stop you there because I wanted to
Rob Gannon: Jurru.
Yazmin Mehdi: just make sure that we note that the reason the library can actually do those
Yazmin Mehdi: HVAC replacements at West Seattle and Fremont is because the library staff went
Yazmin Mehdi: out and got a FEMA grant to do this work.
Yazmin Mehdi: So this is work that otherwise might have had to be funded some other way,
Yazmin Mehdi: but thanks to libraries being, you know, out there trying to be innovative around
Yazmin Mehdi: getting additional funding sources, we can do that now.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I want to just applaud the library for
Yazmin Mehdi: for the effort to get that FEMA grant.
Rob Gannon: Thank you for making that note, Yazmin. That is an important piece of our effort
Rob Gannon: here. And if I could, I just augment what your comment is to
Rob Gannon: say that, yes, the grants from FEMA that we carefully
Rob Gannon: coordinated with city partners and state partners has been essential to our
Rob Gannon: ability to do this work.
Rob Gannon: but it's not without a library provided match.
Rob Gannon: And some of the cost overruns are also being absorbed under the current capital
Rob Gannon: improvement project or the current capital improvement plan.
Rob Gannon: And that is drawing heavily on our precious levy funds. So we are
Rob Gannon: optimizing the use of those grant funds, but I want to make it clear,
Rob Gannon: we're also supplementing them with our own present levy funds.
Yazmin Mehdi: If...
Rob Gannon: So that will be important in the current year.
Rob Gannon: It'll be important as we fulfill the last remaining Carnegie HVAC upgrades in 2027.
Rob Gannon: So we have two more to go, and that too will draw both on.
Rob Gannon: the FEMA grant as well as library resources.
Yazmin Mehdi: What are the remaining two, Rob? I think it's Queen Anne.
Rob Gannon: It is, and I should know this immediately after
Rob Gannon: that. Yes, it is Queen Anne and Columbia. Columbia will receive its HVAC upgrade,
Rob Gannon: then it will reopen, and then it will close again,
Rob Gannon: presuming we have the funds.
Rob Gannon: to then proceed with the seismic upgrade at Columbia.
Rob Gannon: So short answer to your question is Queen Anne, your home branch and my home branch,
Yazmin Mehdi: Hmm.
Rob Gannon: as well as Columbia next year.
Rob Gannon: I have one more item and then I'll end my litany here.
Rob Gannon: I wanted to also note that our facilities team, our capital improvement team,
Rob Gannon: as well as the finance team, are busily at work right now
Rob Gannon: transitioning our comprehensive plan, which is a
Rob Gannon: a large inventory of all the maintenance needs across all our buildings across a
Rob Gannon: 30-year period. And they are working with an outside
Rob Gannon: contractor to help us hone that down into a 10-year facilities master plan that
Rob Gannon: really looks at what are the most, the highest priority maintenance projects,
Rob Gannon: for the upcoming period, how we can schedule and systemically plan
Rob Gannon: for those across our capital program, as well as use the opportunity of having
Rob Gannon: that detailed plan to see when we're doing maintenance,
Rob Gannon: what other opportunities does that create to enhance spaces or to optimize multiple
Rob Gannon: maintenance projects at the same time.
Rob Gannon: so that we're not only using our dollars as efficiently,
Rob Gannon: as effectively as possible, but we're limiting the time in which a
Rob Gannon: branch is offline and unavailable to our patrons in our community.
Rob Gannon: So that facilities master plan, we hope will be completed before the end
Rob Gannon: of the year and begin to inform our maintenance plan
Rob Gannon: in the out years. We're going to stagger our efforts,
Rob Gannon: but do a similar evaluation of Central as a facility, as a building,
Rob Gannon: as a place in need of a good deal of maintenance.
Rob Gannon: But we'll have a comprehensive maintenance plan as well for this
Rob Gannon: building, Central, so that we can also do the same sort of
Rob Gannon: opportunities. When should we do the maintenance?
Rob Gannon: How do we optimize that?
Rob Gannon: what opportunities do we create to do space enhancements when certain
Rob Gannon: maintenance projects may open up the facade or open up elements of the
Rob Gannon: building. So that will be important work, helping inform how we execute a levy plan
Rob Gannon: should it be renewed going into the upcoming period.
Rob Gannon: So with that, I'll either pause and answer any
Rob Gannon: questions, turn it back to Tom if he wants to
Rob Gannon: comment on anything I missed, or I'll just turn it over to another
Rob Gannon: colleague to do an operations upgrade as well. Or operations update as well. Sorry.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'm not.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's great. I'm not seeing any questions for my
Yazmin Mehdi: colleagues, Rob, but I really appreciate hearing all the
Yazmin Mehdi: work that's underway. And not only that, but also that you are thinking about how
Yazmin Mehdi: do we do some of this work in the most efficient way so that
Yazmin Mehdi: It doesn't affect patrons more than it needs to.
Yazmin Mehdi: But obviously this idea that we would have a master plan so that we can be
Yazmin Mehdi: thoughtful about sequencing of work and also like seizing upon opportunities to
Yazmin Mehdi: get things like a FEMA grant.
Yazmin Mehdi: is, you know, that we have all our ducks in a row and
Yazmin Mehdi: we understand how to employ funds that come along. This is really amazing,
Yazmin Mehdi: an amazing amount of work, and I appreciate very much hearing about
Yazmin Mehdi: what's going on behind the scenes.
Rob Gannon: Thank you.
Rob Gannon: So Tom, I'll turn it back to you then.
Yazmin Mehdi: You're muted, Tom.
Tom Fay: Sorry, thank you, Rob. I appreciate it. Thank you, Yazmin,
Tom Fay: for noting the mute problem. I have Kate Tang joining me.
Tom Fay: She's just returning from vacation, so she's going to help run the slides
Tom Fay: since I'm not able to do so, or the documents that we're going to
Tom Fay: share today.
Tom Fay: I didn't feel that I had enough time to brief her in the 20 minutes before this
Tom Fay: getting to IDC to have her be able to deliver the pieces on some of this other
Tom Fay: work that we're doing, but she will be jumping in if I miss
Tom Fay: things, which is probably likely. So Kay, if we could start with Kate's document
Tom Fay: that
Tom Fay: she produced on collections. I wanted to talk a little bit about,
Tom Fay: you know, the collections work. As noted in the collections report,
Tom Fay: obviously, TCS and our collections folks are doing a
Tom Fay: massive amount of work when it comes to this ILS.
Tom Fay: upgrade. So much of their focus is there, but then they also have those daily
Tom Fay: duties of making sure that they're ordering.
Tom Fay: Some of those orders are obviously going to be suspended or delayed as we move
Tom Fay: through the ILS upgrade. But most certainly they're planning out
Tom Fay: how to spend those dollars throughout the rest of the year once that system comes
Tom Fay: back online. As we look at our collection, I think here you can see what we have
Tom Fay: been seeing over time with our projected circulation over the last couple of years.
Tom Fay: It continues to increase, and you can see that the overdrive or the
Tom Fay: e-materials continues to increase as we see that spike continue.
Tom Fay: I think we see physical collections plateauing mostly.
Tom Fay: We don't see them necessarily reducing fully in number,
Tom Fay: but most certainly kind of at a plateau point. Sorry,
Tom Fay: and I'm trying to look at this as we scan through it here.
Tom Fay: Sorry, Kate, can you scroll a little farther and go
Kai Tang: In.
Tom Fay: ahead, please?
Kai Tang: Yeah, Tom, I do just want to make sure everyone
Kai Tang: notes that in 2024 is when we did have the cybersecurity incident,
Kai Tang: and that is the reason for the lower physical materials for that year.
Kai Tang: We were very lucky our IT was able to continue the use of RE materials,
Kai Tang: but that does show that slight
Kai Tang: strip dip in 2024.
Tom Fay: And if you could scroll to the library lockers,
Tom Fay: I think this is one that we're definitely seeing more use.
Tom Fay: I think this is an important piece to note for collections access.
Tom Fay: This has continued to grow year over year as of
Tom Fay: K reported, excuse me, Kate reported. And that use is with really not that many
Tom Fay: lockers. So we, as you've heard us talk about in
Tom Fay: strategic plan, we're talking about additional lockers,
Tom Fay: potentially also kiosks that can basically dispense books as people walk
Tom Fay: up.
Tom Fay: Those are going to be key assets for access.
Tom Fay: We know that the likelihood of us having the new library buildings is not as high
Tom Fay: and maybe improved as Rob just indicated, but really trying to get materials out
Tom Fay: where people are is going to be key over the next
Tom Fay: five to seven years. And so you can see that the lockers,
Tom Fay: while initially were a little slow to take off because we only had one or two,
Tom Fay: now that we have extended them into other locations in the city,
Tom Fay: that's been picking up. Also as the city grows and as the hours
Tom Fay: of operations grow and it becomes more of a 24-hour city, I think we'll continue
Tom Fay: Continue to see that use go up, and then here you, yes, please.
Yazmin Mehdi: tom-tom, can I stop you for a second? Is there a way to track when the lockers
Tom Fay: Sure.
Yazmin Mehdi: actually get used?
Tom Fay: We do have that information. We can see when they're being used.
Yazmin Mehdi: Wow, that would be really interesting to get a
Yazmin Mehdi: report on at some point.
Tom Fay: Yep, absolutely.
Tom Fay: We can do, we can do that. I'm noting it, having Amy note it as well. And then,
Tom Fay: of course, the beloved Pete Picks continues to do
Tom Fay: well. As we've noted in this next levy, we have contemplated how we might be able
Tom Fay: to do
Tom Fay: at peak picks for e-materials. That one that was is has not been done by
Tom Fay: anyone yet, but we are game to give it a try and
Tom Fay: figure out a way to do it if we are successful next Tuesday.
Tom Fay: And then...
Tom Fay: K, if you could go to...
Tom Fay: That document that said the one from Jessica.
Tom Fay: PowerPoint.
Yazmin Mehdi: And in the meantime, can I just alert people that peak picks
Yazmin Mehdi: is very, very contagious. Every time I walk into a library,
Yazmin Mehdi: I look for the peak picks and I end up getting another book out of the library.
Yazmin Mehdi: because they really have picked the most sort of like top bestsellers.
Yazmin Mehdi: So what it means is that the stack of books on my nightstand,
Yazmin Mehdi: the ones that I had like either bought or gotten from somebody else,
Tom Fay: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: they keep getting subsumed.
Yazmin Mehdi: by the books, the Pete Picks books, man, is really dangerous, but in a good way.
Tom Fay: Thanks for that. Well, and just this case, bringing up that PowerPoint.
Tom Fay: The other thing to know is that.
Tom Fay: We are still ranked very highly in the world for e-content checkouts.
Tom Fay: I don't expect that to change dramatically. Well, actually,
Tom Fay: I do expect it to change dramatically with additional funds that could be made
Tom Fay: available through levy dollars and also the great support that we get through our
Tom Fay: foundation.
Tom Fay: So I do believe that we'll see those numbers increase.
Tom Fay: And it's important to note that our team and TCS and end-to-end collections and
Tom Fay: acquisition really do a great job managing those purchases.
Tom Fay: And it is a constant body of work on their part.
Tom Fay: Can you all still hear me?
Yazmin Mehdi: Yes, sorry. No, I'm not surprised by what you just said.
Yazmin Mehdi: I will say I went to Central earlier this week and there were a ton of tourists in
Yazmin Mehdi: the building, in addition to our, you know, local patrons. And I did see,
Yazmin Mehdi: I did overhear a conversation
Yazmin Mehdi: among some tourists about the peak picks and how they wished that they were,
Yazmin Mehdi: they had library cards so that they could borrow the books.
Tom Fay: Event.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's just a good reminder that the Central Library is, of course,
Yazmin Mehdi: heavily used by our own patrons, but it's also like,
Yazmin Mehdi: it's a place that people come from all over the world to see.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's a tourist attraction.
Tom Fay: Absolutely.
Tom Fay: Absolutely. And again, I apologize, I'm out on remote here and I've got a 4G
Tom Fay: connection at the moment. So if you do lose me,
Tom Fay: I know Kate can take control if need be. Just real quickly,
Tom Fay: I wanted to talk about programming. I know that's something that we also have
Tom Fay: contemplated additional funding in the levy. And with that, often people ask,
Tom Fay: well, how do you go about knowing what you're
Tom Fay: going to do for these programming opportunities?
Tom Fay: And there's a number of ways, and Kate can most certainly jump in, but
Tom Fay: A lot of these things come from working with our patrons who are obviously are
Tom Fay: expressing their interest. Sometimes that's through materials that
Tom Fay: are being selected. Sometimes that's the reference questions.
Tom Fay: Also, our staff are working with partner groups
Tom Fay: in their neighborhoods where their branches are located.
Tom Fay: So they're also getting that kind of context around the community and where
Tom Fay: those community needs are. And then of course,
Tom Fay: you all recall that we had our survey at the end of last year. That gave us, again,
Tom Fay: some additional insight into areas that
Tom Fay: People have an interest in K, if you can move one forward,
Tom Fay: that'd be great.
Tom Fay: Think.
Tom Fay: So there's a couple of things here.
Tom Fay: Is this the one I wanted? No, next one, please.
Tom Fay: Although this one was also an interesting slide.
Tom Fay: This one gives you kind of a breakdown of where people have an interest in
Tom Fay: different types of programming. So you have enrichment classes.
Tom Fay: That's like how to cook, garden, play.
Tom Fay: play music, social activities, knitting, book clubs, gaming activities,
Tom Fay: adult life skills, which we have a lot of interest in,
Tom Fay: how to get insurance, do your taxes, buy a car,
Tom Fay: any number of things that we think of as basic life skills.
Tom Fay: Arts and culture opportunities, more concerts, performances,
Tom Fay: if you would have been in
Tom Fay: Central yesterday, you would have heard on level 3.
Tom Fay: I'm not sure what instrument they were playing, but beautiful music, live music,
Tom Fay: humming through the building yesterday. And that's the type of just passive
Tom Fay: programming that can also work. Also an interest in wellness classes,
Tom Fay: yoga, nutrition, healthy living.
Tom Fay: Information literacy, identifying and combating misinformation,
Tom Fay: disinformation, more media literacy, and computer classes.
Tom Fay: The media literacy one is very interesting.
Tom Fay: I happen to be on a call with the Carnegie Foundation today with Brian
Tom Fay: Lawrence, our CEO for the foundation.
Tom Fay: And that's a lot of where they have some interest. As you might recall,
Tom Fay: we received 450, 000 from Carnegie Foundation for our ESL
Tom Fay: program. They're looking to probably extend some
Tom Fay: of those, so we're hopeful that we might be in that
Tom Fay: mix.
Tom Fay: We all have an interest in this media literacy from an AI perspective.
Tom Fay: So they were picking our brains about how we were thinking about how library
Tom Fay: positioned with its own internal policies and practices,
Tom Fay: and then also looking for how additional funding in this area might be.
Tom Fay: really be able to help patrons. So we know that there is obviously some
Tom Fay: additional funding sources that may be available for programming.
Tom Fay: And as you already know, much of our programming dollars come from,
Tom Fay: almost all of them come from the Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Tom Fay: And then, of course, our staff may be funded in a number of
Tom Fay: ways, through the levy, through a general fund, or in some cases,
Tom Fay: they are also funded in full by the foundation.
Tom Fay: If you could move to the next slide, K, I think.
Tom Fay: Sorry, I'm lagging here a bit. And one more, please.
Tom Fay: And so really sometimes too, as we talk about programming,
Tom Fay: it's going to be tied to the space we have. So in this,
Tom Fay: you'll see things like maker spaces, co-working spaces, more quiet spaces.
Tom Fay: This ties back to what Rob was talking about with this master plan.
Tom Fay: So as we contemplate different types of programming or different types of uses of
Tom Fay: space, that all needs to really be thought out
Tom Fay: as we do that master planning effort. Because some programming,
Tom Fay: while we may really want to do it, for example, maker space,
Tom Fay: The question is, where?
Tom Fay: The question is, who are we partnering with to assist or
Tom Fay: do those classes or that instruction? So many of those things still need to be
Tom Fay: worked out as we looked to bring on some additional programming when we were
Tom Fay: successful this Tuesday. And with that, I'll
Tom Fay: Pause there. It's a lot of information. Kay's also available to answer some of
Tom Fay: this as you have questions.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great, thank you, Tom. I know that one of the things that,
Yazmin Mehdi: you know, people might be curious about are how do
Yazmin Mehdi: we decide in terms of programming what the library should provide vis-a-vis what
Yazmin Mehdi: somebody else should provide?
Yazmin Mehdi: So, Tom, I know, yeah.
Tom Fay: Yeah, I mean, I can...
Tom Fay: I can touch on that a little bit and Kate can jump in as well.
Tom Fay: I think what we look at is where there is lack of community. And in many cases,
Tom Fay: what we may see is a partner out there, a partner organization that may be doing
Tom Fay: the work but may not have a location to do it, a meeting place to do it.
Tom Fay: So maybe that's how we are the partner. In some cases,
Tom Fay: is we may want to engage those partners to carry out instruction.
Tom Fay: So there's many different ways we would approach it potentially.
Tom Fay: But did that answer the question or did, Kate, did I stumble on that one?
Tom Fay: I'm breaking up a little bit here, so unfortunately I might have missed part
Tom Fay: of it.
Kai Tang: Yeah, no, Tom, I think that you hit it on the head.
Kai Tang: We have fabulous librarians and program managers and staff who are in contact
Kai Tang: with our community. And I feel like this is similar to other
Kai Tang: services. If we find that there is a gap in service,
Kai Tang: like Tom said, how can we assist and help?
Kai Tang: We do have very strong partnerships with folks that say, SPS.
Kai Tang: And so really happy about having a standardized MOU with them so that we
Kai Tang: know we have that constant communication back and forth on what are they seeing
Kai Tang: that their audience needs, their students that we could possibly
Kai Tang: help with or connect with.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's helpful, K. Yeah, I think the point here being that
Yazmin Mehdi: for example, yoga classes, the question, you know, somebody might legitimately ask,
Yazmin Mehdi: well, is yoga something that the library should
Yazmin Mehdi: provide when there are yoga classes offered elsewhere?
Yazmin Mehdi: And so I think the thing that's helpful here is that
Tom Fay: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: Obviously, the library staff are out there listening
Yazmin Mehdi: to what patrons need and want and parsing that information. It's not like, hey,
Yazmin Mehdi: one person asked for a yoga class, so we're going to offer a yoga class.
Yazmin Mehdi: It's really, there's connection with the communities
Yazmin Mehdi: in which the branches are located so that
Yazmin Mehdi: we're thoughtful about what partners can do, how we can support,
Yazmin Mehdi: but not necessarily offer the whole, all of the programs. So yeah,
Yazmin Mehdi: I just think it's important for people to realize that it is part of the work of
Yazmin Mehdi: our staff.
Yazmin Mehdi: to be aware of what their local communities need and want and how it is
Yazmin Mehdi: appropriate for the library to respond to those needs and wants.
Kai Tang: Definitely. And Yazmin, part of our strategic plan projects for
Kai Tang: this phase one was standardizing our programming so that the library is
Kai Tang: planning seasonally three to six months ahead.
Kai Tang: This has enabled us to gather more data. It also is encouraging us to be able to
Kai Tang: be pre-planning so that we can have those
Kai Tang: standardized programs set and then be responsive to the community needs when
Kai Tang: trends pop up, when there is an immediate need.
Kai Tang: It's been very helpful to be able to gather that data and then see as well
Kai Tang: what has worked well, what is the community's response to
Kai Tang: certain programs. So again, trying to create a more robust ability to
Kai Tang: gather that data to make
Kai Tang: those informed decisions.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great. Thank you. Go ahead, Paige.
Faith Pettis: I would just say I'm really glad that we're staying relevant and it sounds like
Faith Pettis: the type of work that you're doing to gather current data on what the trends
Faith Pettis: are is what's going to keep the library in the communities and relevant for
Faith Pettis: people. So it and that relevancy changes on a
Faith Pettis: dime, right? So I'm
Faith Pettis: I'm glad we're doing that footwork.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Yeah, and I think it's also the deep
Tom Fay: partnerships that many of our staff are working on with our partners.
Tom Fay: I was just at an event last night at Beacon Hill where Tina Mat,
Tom Fay: the Librarian there, was working with a partner group of
Tom Fay: Somali and Ethiopian
Tom Fay: families and just seeing how deeply engaged they are in the community.
Tom Fay: That's kind of work that
Tom Fay: Obviously, we can have data points for, but we also can have outcomes,
Tom Fay: and I think that's really the important piece.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's great. Yeah, absolutely. Point point noted and taken. Wow. Well,
Yazmin Mehdi: thank you, Tom. Is are we do we have any other special
Yazmin Mehdi: guests?
Tom Fay: No, I think that's as many as we could get in
Tom Fay: today. Sorry, I went outside so I could actually have a
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Tom Fay: better connection. My apologies.
Yazmin Mehdi: No, that's great. And I understand that you're off camera
Yazmin Mehdi: because it allows you then to be heard better. Well, Tom,
Yazmin Mehdi: I'd like to thank you and Rob, Kay, as our special guest today to kind of
Yazmin Mehdi: give us that update on the gamut of work that's being done by the library and how
Yazmin Mehdi: you all are thinking strategically.
Yazmin Mehdi: about what we need to be doing in the near term,
Yazmin Mehdi: as well as preparing for the longer term. So I really appreciate that.
Yazmin Mehdi: And with that, I think we should move on to our next
Yazmin Mehdi: agenda item, which is the union report.
Tom Fay: The.
Tom Fay: All right, Jesse, I think, is here today.
Yazmin Mehdi: I believe she is. I think I saw her.
Yazmin Mehdi: There she is. Hi, Jesse.
Jessica Lucas: Hey, hello.
Jessica Lucas: Thank you for all of those great reports, Rob and Tom and everyone. Sorry,
Jessica Lucas: my voice is a little low today, but I'm Jesse. I'm the union president.
Jessica Lucas: And I just wanted to also thank Charles for sending over the accessible
Jessica Lucas: Will use policy for staff or for staff to us as well to look at.
Jessica Lucas: We do want to stress that staff need consistent messaging around the use of
Jessica Lucas: personal devices to access work apps for information for our patrons.
Tom Fay: Yes.
Jessica Lucas: I heard specifically that in his report to you and I just want to make sure that
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Jessica Lucas: that's going to be very clear in the standard when we get to see that.
Jessica Lucas: Also, having devices to work with our patrons
Jessica Lucas: and outreach opportunities, we need to make sure that everyone has
Jessica Lucas: access to those devices and are able to use them easily or at least have
Jessica Lucas: instructions available. It is difficult.
Jessica Lucas: sometimes to get a device to work in an outreach situation. And then...
Jessica Lucas: I am a little worried about the statement about tracking staff movement,
Jessica Lucas: so we'll be talking more about that.
Jessica Lucas: On a different note, I do want to again thank management for
Jessica Lucas: working collaboratively with the union and staff to lessen the impact when
Jessica Lucas: branches are closed for improvements. It's been ongoing and very encouraging,
Jessica Lucas: and I appreciate that. And then finally, I just want to speak
Jessica Lucas: little, a couple sentences about what Rob
Jessica Lucas: mentioned around locked and secure, securing our buildings during his
Tom Fay: Yes.
Jessica Lucas: security statement. And I'm looking forward to have,
Jessica Lucas: we are looking forward to staff having
Jessica Lucas: those more secure environments and being able to react in the moment when an event
Jessica Lucas: comes up. So again, just mostly thank yous and we're looking
Tom Fay: The.
Jessica Lucas: forward to continuing to work with management in the future.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Jesse. Any questions for Jesse?
Tom Fay: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, well, it's good to see you back. I think you were not around last month
Tom Fay: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: and we just had your in your report stand, but it's always nice to see you.
Jessica Lucas: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks for joining us.
Jessica Lucas: Yes, thank you for having me and I'll see you
Tom Fay: Yes.
Jessica Lucas: next month.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, sounds good.
Tom Fay: See.
Jessica Lucas: Mm.
Yazmin Mehdi: All right, next is reports from the foundation and
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: the friends. And I know unfortunately we did lose Ron.
Tom Fay: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we'll just go forward with the friends update.
Faith Pettis: Sure, and the Friends Update is always a fun
Faith Pettis: one to give. They had their monthly board meeting at
Faith Pettis: the Rubens Brews in Ballard after on the tail of the Foundation's Gratitude
Faith Pettis: Tuesday event and Library Levy fundraiser. So that was a lot of fun to meet in
Tom Fay: In.
Tom Fay: Like.
Faith Pettis: person again with them.
Faith Pettis: They had three summer events, Juneteenth Pride and Ann Patchett Author
Faith Pettis: Event, at which they were giving out totes and
Faith Pettis: books. And the number of the Tri-branded totes
Faith Pettis: that they gave out was just astounding. They gave out 1700 of them over those
Faith Pettis: three events and almost 2500 books.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: So they're out there making a big splash, which is terrific.
Tom Fay: Stop.
Tom Fay: No.
Faith Pettis: They had a party which has already happened at one of the board members'
Tom Fay: Okay.
Tom Fay: Yes.
Faith Pettis: houses, books on beacon party to support the levy.
Faith Pettis: And there also will be an election night party, just FYI for folks.
Faith Pettis: I think we all got.
Tom Fay: Play.
Faith Pettis: And notice about that at Rubensburg downtown.
Tom Fay: Okay.
Tom Fay: The.
Faith Pettis: They're planning for their annual board meeting in October. And then finally,
Faith Pettis: they are looking for new board members. They put a notice out soliciting new
Tom Fay: Okay.
Faith Pettis: board members for their friends and they had 12 applications, which is fantastic.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: So they're in the process of interviewing candidates at the end of August for five
Faith Pettis: open positions.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: So they're busy and engaged, and as usual, a lot of fun.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's great. Thanks, Faith, for that update.
Tom Fay: Ohh.
Tom Fay: Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: in terms of handing out totes, but also giving out books and the care
Tom Fay: Thank you.
Tom Fay: You.
Yazmin Mehdi: with which Lisa Lee and her volunteers do this distribution of books.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Tom Fay: So.
Yazmin Mehdi: They don't just bring random books places. They really are thoughtful about
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Yes.
Yazmin Mehdi: who's going to be at this event and how can we best meet their needs. So it's,
Tom Fay: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: we're very lucky in our partners.
Yazmin Mehdi: Tom, I wonder if you might be able to give a
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: quick update on the foundation.
Tom Fay: I wish I could, but I'm not at a place where I can access
Tom Fay: that. I can talk about their...
Tom Fay: Ruben's Brews event, which was a great event.
Tom Fay: They've done that twice now. I think this was the second year. Yes,
Tom Fay: I believe it was the second year. It's just a great turnout of the
Tom Fay: community supporting books. They basically have a book exchange.
Tom Fay: People can come in and pick any book they want.
Tom Fay: have a bite to eat, have a drink, talk about books, talk about the library.
Tom Fay: It was really good, good time all around. So if you do get a chance to go,
Tom Fay: I definitely recommend going to one of those.
Tom Fay: They have been doing a lot of work looking at board
Tom Fay: Kirk.
Tom Fay: I do know that Brian has been working heavily in that effort,
Tom Fay: as has Matt Hillman and Sarah, the former president of the foundation.
Tom Fay: So they definitely are bringing in new board members.
Tom Fay: We also had an emeritus lunch.
Tom Fay: as well. So it was good to see many of the former
Tom Fay: board of directors at that luncheon. And we had a special guest there, I guess,
Tom Fay: as he's been considered an emeritus, so to speak, Jay Richard,
Tom Fay: who is on our board of trustees for a number of years. So it's good to see Jay.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's great. Thanks, Tom. And Amy was on it and I just caught up.
Tom Fay: Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Here's what Ron probably would have shared with us.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: The foundation has raised approximately 4. 1 million toward its goal of 5.5 million.
Tom Fay: It.
Tom Fay: How do you?
Yazmin Mehdi: This figure includes state giving, which has proven especially beneficial.
Tom Fay: The.
Tom Fay: Stop.
Yazmin Mehdi: The foundation thanks donors for their generosity and commitment to the library.
Tom Fay: No.
Tom Fay: Yes.
Tom Fay: People.
Yazmin Mehdi: And as earlier reported under the programming tab,
Yazmin Mehdi: so much of our programming actually gets funded by the foundation.
Tom Fay: Play.
Yazmin Mehdi: So without these dollars, that would not happen.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: So thank you to the foundation for that.
Tom Fay: But.
Yazmin Mehdi: Um...
Yazmin Mehdi: Let's see, the foundation board received a
Yazmin Mehdi: presentation by a volunteer from Literacy Source,
Yazmin Mehdi: a local nonprofit and valued SPL partner who shared information on the English
Yazmin Mehdi: Conversation Circle program. Literacy Source helps adults build
Yazmin Mehdi: literacy and language skills they need to succeed in school,
Yazmin Mehdi: advance in their careers,
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: and achieve their personal goals. Attendees learned what an English
Tom Fay: No.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: conversation circle class looks like in practice and how this program helps
Tom Fay: Oh.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: participants build confidence, connection, and English language skills in a
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: welcoming community setting. So
Tom Fay: So.
Yazmin Mehdi: That is probably what Ron would have shared with us if he had been able to
Tom Fay: Ohh.
Yazmin Mehdi: stay for the length of the meeting. So let's, I think that's it.
Tom Fay: Go.
Yazmin Mehdi: Let's move on to updates from library board members.
Tom Fay: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: Any updates?
Yazmin Mehdi: Go ahead, Faith.
Faith Pettis: I just want to say thank you, Yazmin, for all your work on that op-ed piece
Faith Pettis: that was published in the Seattle Times. I thought that was very, very well done.
Faith Pettis: I know we are all speaking in our individual capacities when we talk about
Faith Pettis: the levy, but I appreciate you taking that time to
Tom Fay: Box.
Faith Pettis: do that.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Faith. That's very kind of you. I cannot take full credit for that.
Tom Fay: No.
Yazmin Mehdi: That was definitely a group effort. And I just I want to recognize Matt
Yazmin Mehdi: Hillman and Jennifer Lowe for being co-authors on that piece.
Tom Fay: Ohh.
Yazmin Mehdi: But a lot of people did
Yazmin Mehdi: important work to put that together. So thank you for that.
Yazmin Mehdi: And thank you to Tally. Thank you to Ron. Thank you to all five,
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: all four of you for the work that you're doing on behalf of the library.
Yazmin Mehdi: With that.
Yazmin Mehdi: I believe that we can adjourn, and so do I need a motion?
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Two.
Yazmin Mehdi: No, it is now time, now, sorry, it is now 12 16 P.m.
Yazmin Mehdi: and I would like to say this meeting is adjourned and I look forward to a fun
Yazmin Mehdi: August meeting. Everybody enjoyed this potentially last
Yazmin Mehdi: month of summer.
Faith Pettis: Thanks, all.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you.
Bendixen, Carmen: Thank you.
Tom Fay: Bing.