Library Board of Trustees

LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MINUTES JUNE 17, 2025 Roll call and introduction of attendees Tom Engelmann called to order the monthly meeting of the Davenport Public Library Board of Trustees at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. The meeting was held in Meeting Room C at the Main Library. Board members present: Honey Bedell, Joanna Drake, Joe Heinrichs, Michael Hustedde, Shelley Klaas, Amanda Motto, Malavika Shrikhande, Jerry Skalak, and Tom Engelmann. Steve Imming, ex-officio, was also present as well as Lexie Reiling, Assistant Library Director; Jennifer Williams, Library HR Operations Manager; Christine Aden, Information Services Supervisor; Kathryn Whalen, Special Collections Supervisor; Kasey Shipley, Library Office & Facilities Manager & Recorder; Marion Meginnis, City Council Liaison (12:03); and Hilary Tanner, FRIENDS of DPL Board President (12:03). Reiling introduced Aden as the newly-hired Information Services Supervisor. Aden is delighted to be at Davenport Public Library and ready to serve the Davenport patrons. She worked at Augustana Library for 21 years. Consent Agenda Heinrichs motioned to approve the consent agenda with a second by Hustedde. Bedell, Drake, Heinrichs, Hustedde, Klaas, Motto, Shrikhande, Skalak, and Engelmann all approved. Public with Comment No one was present. Reports and Communications FRIENDS Report Tanner reported that Save the Date cards will be coming in the mail for the fundraising event on Saturday, September 27. It will be at Main, after hours, with food, drinks, music and fellowship of other library supporters. If anyone knows of a local business as a potential sponsor for the event, please put them in touch with Tanner. The FRIENDS are grateful for the Board’s support and any recommendations they can share. Meginnis inquired about a list of levels and Tanner will be happy to share that information. Finance Committee Heinrichs reported the fiscal year is ending, and spending seems to be on track. Personnel Committee Motto had nothing to report. 1 Advocacy Committee Shrikhande was excited by the Miss Lydia Bookmobile post on Facebook and wondered if it could come to The Library for a program. Whalen noted that the owner was out of the town for the Summer Reading Touch-A-Truck kickoff or would have come. Hopefully next year he will be available. WQAD may be doing a story on it as well. The Mending Monday program at Main had some students at St. Ambrose interested. Shrikhande shared that the program information was added to monitor slide shows. St. Ambrose also shares with students that they can get a Davenport library card. Shrikhande is joining the Figge Art Museum board next month and hopes to find even more ways the Figge can collaborate with Davenport Public Library. Director’s Report Engelmann shared that Collins is not present this month as he is camping with his sons. Reiling shared some highlights from the report in the meeting packet. Special Collections is closed for about one month while they move offices and collections to the second floor. The decorative railing was installed out front since the last meeting. Glass walls have gone up in Makerspace, Special Collections, and Teen areas. The sculpture was placed on the art pad last week through a collaboration with Quad City Arts and Downtown Davenport Partnership. It is titled Wind in the Waves. The meeting room used for Board meetings at Main underwent some changes in the last month with new furniture and paint, and is now a dedicated conference/boardroom style set-up. Summer Reading kickoff with Touch-A-Truck had 300 attendees during the sensory-friendly hour and another 900 in the second hour. The sign-up totals for this year are nearly to the total for last year, so it may be a record-breaking year for participation. Fairmount will be a meal site for the Davenport Schools from June 9-August 1. RiverShare consortium is now offering a second renewal on many items if requested by a patron. Shrikhande asked a question to clarify the renewal and Reiling confirmed it is the same time of the original loan period and available on non-Davenport items as well. Hustedde suggested the owner of the vintage bookmobile bring it to Party in the Park. Whalen will ask him, but noted he does travel quite a bit. Klaas gave kudos to the shade sail project at Eastern to provide shade for programs. Reiling replied it is a game-changer for outdoor programming at Eastern. Skalak shared that the Parks Department is working with West High School on metal benches if there would be any interest in adding some at library locations. Council Liaison Meginnis said Council is approving contracts and has approved an extension of the Annie Wittenmyer proposed project. They will be looking at a bridge loan for the project due to a slow down at federal level to get this affordable housing project in motion. Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP) is planning a family-friendly event after the Bix 7 in the Motor Row District where they will close off two blocks. She shared in case The Library would want to participate. Kyle Carter is the contact at DDP if there is interest. 2  Old Business Engelmann asked for a motion to approve Administrative Policies 1.2, 1.5, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.6, noting these were discussed at last month’s meeting. Heinrichs motioned to approve with a second by Klaas. Hustedde requested some language changes but since the same verbiage is used in the union contract, it will need to be changed the next time the contract is open. Hustedde inquired about 4.1, Professional Development, and if that is available to all staff or just some. It is available to all staff. With no further discussion, Motto, Drake, Bedell, Skalak, Heinrichs, Klaas, Shrikhande, Hustedde, and Engelmann all approved. New Business The first item of new business was to approve a 3.0% General Wage Increase (GWI) for the Library Director and to contribute 2.25% of the Library Director’s annual salary to the Retirement Health Savings Plan (RHSP), effective the first pay period in July 2025, in accordance with the provisions for other library employees in the AFSCME/Library agreement. Bedell motioned to approve with a second by Shrikhande. Shrikhande, Hustedde, Drake, Motto, Bedell, Heinrichs, Klaas, Skalak, and Engelmann all approved. The second item of new business was to discuss the Library Trustee Code of Ethics and Library Trustee Job Description. Engelmann noted the document was adopted a few years ago in a response to censorship. Hustedde stated he believes the Code of Ethics seems like very reasonable expectations of current and future Trustees. He noted one grammatical error in the first provision. The preposition should be “for” and not “of” “their colleagues’ opinions…”. Reiling shared that Collins’ asked her to get the Board’s opinion on the Job Description for Trustees and if it is still needed since much of it is covered in the Code of Ethics or the training manual. It is also not used in the process of filling a Trustee position. Klaas said she found it useful to be its own document as she was onboarded. It sums up what the job entails and she noted she felt overwhelmed by the amount of information she received during her onboarding meeting with Collins and appreciated the summary in this document. Drake agreed that it gives a clear view of expectations in a brief summary, but didn’t feel it was as impactful to her as other Board policies. Imming shared that the intent was it could be shared with prospective Trustees before they apply through the City’s website; possibly something the Mayor could have on hand to send to someone curious about what the position involves. Shrikhande added it is nice to have if she had someone express interest in joining the Board but would want to know more before applying. Bedell said they are two separate documents, Code of Ethics and Job Description, and both are useful on their own. Engelmann suggested signing the Code of Ethics on a regular cycle, as often as once per year, and it would be a decision of the Board to implement that cycle. Skalak had a question about the Job Description bullet noting that the Board sets the compensation for the Director and all staff. Engelmann shared that the Trustees only set the Director’s compensation and nearly all of the staff is covered by the union contract. Imming added the wording used may be included in the City Ordinance regarding Libraries. Skalak asked about number 8 on Code of Ethics and if recuse or disqualify is the best term to use from a legal point of view. Motto noted in the Go To Meeting 3 comments, as her microphone wasn’t working, that she could look into it. Engelmann said the documents would be voted upon in July. Drake asked if Collins’ intention was to retire the Job Description. Reiling stated that if the Trustees want to keep it, there will need to be some updates. President’s Comments Engelmann had no comments to share. Board Training – Special Collections with Kathryn Whalen, Special Collections Supervisor Whalen introduced herself and said she’s been at The Library for nearly eight years. She provided a 30- minute training session for the Trustees. An overview of the department was shared. The materials in Special Collections are related to local history and genealogy. The focus is Scott County and Davenport. There are also items Quad City-related and some southeastern Iowa county-related. The department answers many reference questions and research requests of a more complex and time- consuming nature; similar to the Book-A-Librarian service offered by Information Services. Genealogy assistance is offered to patrons that want to find their family history. Programs include partnerships with other Library departments like Information Services, Youth Services and Outreach; outside organizations like the Historic Preservation Commission; and creating their own specific programs based on materials housed in the collection. There is a large digitization effort to make materials more accessible. Images are stored on the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive which is a consortial digital library and includes active partners such as St. Ambrose University, Augustana University, and a number of smaller institutions across the Quad Cities region. The department enters the description of their items through cataloging of materials, or processing and describing archival collections. For moving from the basement to the second floor, only parts of the collection will move due to space constraints. Map cases and compact shelving will remain in the basement. The Library is acquiring more compact shelving, recycled from St. Ambrose, soon and that will allow more storage in the basement closed stacks. She invited everyone to come and celebrate the new Special Collections space when a grand opening is held later this summer or fall. She is also happy to give a personalized tour; just reach out. The Trustees can advocate for Special Collections as they are always looking for current items to add to the collections or historical items. Davenport and Scott County are the focus, so if a Trustee runs across an item or a community member that has something of interest related to genealogy or local history, keep Special Collections in mind and share contact information with them. The department consists of four full-time staff members of which Whalen is one. The other positions include a Special Collections Librarian, an Archivist and a Principal Clerk. She gave an overview of what each person is responsible for in the department. Some notable projects they are working on include Quad City Archives Fair which is October 18 at Dan Vinar Furniture building in Rock Island. The Historical Resource Development Program (HRDP) grant received in 2023 through the State Historical Society of Iowa to digitize the Fredlo Recording Studio holdings is wrapping up with Whalen submitting the final report soon. A volume of 1863 Davenport Daily Gazette newspapers was purchased in the last couple of years and Advantage Archives has digitized and put up on one of their sites. Whalen will share the paper copy at the end of the training with anyone that wants to see it. This fills a void of 4 microfilm missing from The Library’s collection. Related to this, Whalen mentioned that some reels of microfilm in the collection are suffering from vinegar syndrome and need to be digitized so they remain accessible to patrons. Davenport Schools yearbooks have also been digitized and they are working on a good place to store them for access. Special Collections partners with the City’s Historic Preservation Commission on programs such as a downtown walking tour and Party in the Parks. The Scott County Genealogical Society has partnered with the Special Collections department since 1984. Their holdings are at The Library and they allow the public to attend their programs without being members. Their members work the service desk to help patrons with genealogy research. Whalen shared some statistics related to the department as well as use of the Upper Mississippi Digital Image Archive, Bix Beiderbecke Museum and World Archives Collection, ArchivesSpace, blog postings and comments, and use of Special Collections Indexes through the website. The Library’s Information Technology (IT) department created the index search a few years ago as the old system became obsolete. She shared the story of volunteer, Mike, who turned an old Model T Ford wagon into “Miss Lydia” using a blog posting as his inspiration. She also shared that some genealogy researchers from Australia will be in town this fall and she is excited to meet them. They have assisted them with research inquiries in the past. One branch of the Irish family went to Australia and another ended up in Davenport She shared some links at the end of the training that included the indexes, QC Archives Fair and a Fredlo recording. A parody of a new type of poetry done by two area residents was shared and a lithograph of Davenport’s skyline from 1875 was shown. Hustedde inquired about map use if those will not be moved to second floor. Whalen said there is a call-slip system that will be in place to retrieve items from the closed stacks. Shrikhande and Engelmann noted their thanks for all the department does. Before the meeting ended, Reiling shared that the Library Trustee magnet nametags attached to the folders are for each Trustee to take and to wear when representing The Library or attending a program. Adjourn With no further business, Hustedde motioned to adjourn at 1:09 p.m. with a second by Shrikhande. All approved. 5