Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Updates since the July 9 Trustee's Meeting

(8:00 a.m., July 16)

Thank you for letting us know your favorite aspects of Urbana Free Library. 87% of you named the 'fantastic selection of old and new books' as what you enjoy most, and 81% reported that the 'friendly staff and librarians' were tops for you. Many of you appreciate the AV selections and the magazines, and a smaller number of you enjoy the programming, computers, and space.

Keep track of the full timeline of events here (comment welcomed): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P5LS5DtPzTDvl9OoyzYfMzxOdUthhd4MrvXse9THmRM

(10 a.m., July 15)


(12 p.m., July 12)

 Thank you for your input on the poll (now closed). 59% of voters want to "demand Trustees reopen the strategic planning process," 54% of voters want to "work to ensure that the Library doesn't create an digital / device divide by shifting too much of its collection to online, downloadable, and streaming items," and 48% want to "thank Director Lissak for her service."

 If you still have ideas, please add them as comments to this post or by sending an e-mail to reclaimingourlibrary@gmail.com

(9 a.m., July 12)
(10 p.m., July 11)
(9 a.m., July 10)
Here's some of the news coverage of last night's meeting:


If you would like to view the full meeting, please see the archived stream.

(11 p.m. July 9)

More soon, but there were dozens of people who remained in the Library's auditorium, waiting for the Board to return from closed session. At around 10 p.m. the Board returned with the announcement that Director Lissak would be pursuing early separation; details will be forthcoming.

Many issues remain on the table: grievance policy and strategic planning among them. We've got movement in the 'right' direction, but much work remains to be done.
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3 comments:

  1. Daniel BurkhalterJuly 10, 2013 at 5:16 PM

    Question. One of the problems we're facing is that nobody seems to know how many boxes went out from the Urbana Free Library to Better World Books. What method of shipping did they use? UPS? FedEx? USPS? And if they did use USPS, wouldn't it have been done using some kind of shipping account that would list all the various tracking numbers? As in... isn't there a dramatically high chance that the shipping agency of choice -- even the post office -- would have records we could use to figure out statistics? The only way I can imagine we wouldn't have that information was if someone used postage stamps, or stood in line at the post office with over 250 book boxes. I used to work in shipping at a bookstore, and I'm having a hard time imagining scenarios where this information would be unavailable. I know things work differently in libraries -- but how different can it really be?

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  2. UnknownJuly 12, 2013 at 11:12 AM

    Daniel - Good observation! Both the Library and Better World Books know the number of boxes that were shipped. Someone at the Library ordered boxes from Better World. Furthermore Better World pays for shipping. There would be an accounting record, so many people are confused why the Library's Director has been unable to provide a simple answer to this question.

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  3. CouchnestJuly 16, 2013 at 10:52 AM

    Thanks for putting this blog together! Great resource for all!

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