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Approved Minutes of Owatonna Public Library
Board of Trustees
Owatonna Public Library, Gainey Room
105 North Elm Avenue
Thursday, March 21st, 2024 at 4:30p.m.
The Owatonna Public Library Board of Trustees held the monthly meeting on
Thursday, March 21st, 2024. The meeting was held in the Owatonna Public
Library Gainey Room. In attendance were President Trudy Severson,
Trustee Karen Malin, Trustee Quinn Meyer, Trustee Julianna Skulzacek,
Library Director Mark Blando and Administrative Technician Robin Spande.
Absent was Vice President Amy Tapp. We also had one public guest in
attendance.
1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by President Severson at 4:30pm.
2. Reminder of Open Meeting Law
The open meeting law applies to board meetings.
3. Public Comments
Various questions were asked by our guest in attendance.
4. Approve Minutes
Trustee Karen Malin moved and Trustee Julianna Skulzacek,
seconded to approve the minutes of the February 2024 meeting. All aye and
the motion approved.
5. Children’s Services Report
Children’s Services
February 2024
Read Around the World, a story program done in partnership with Kiwanis
International, was held on the morning of Saturday, February 3rd. Forty-three
children and adults listened to “celebrity readers” read a favorite book.
Storytime continued throughout the month on Tuesday mornings at 9:30 and
10:30. It was held 8 times and attended by 184 people.
Lincoln Elementary 4th grade students visited Children’s Services on Tuesday,
February 13 for a tour and to check out books. The class included 21 students

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and 1 teacher.
Two teachers and 26 Fifth Graders from St. Mary’s School visited the library on
the afternoon of February 15. They needed to find biographies of famous
Americans for a school project.
Trinity Preschool brought 2 classes of 3-year-olds for a visit on the mornings of
February 28 and 29. The children were given a tour, to show them where the
best books are, listened to stories and checked out books to take home. Eleven
children visited on the 28th and 12 children on the 29th.
6. Financial Report
Blando reported that there are two new bottle fillers being installed at the
Library that will be coming out of the CIP budget. One in Children’s services
and the other in Adult Services.
We received the initial disbursement of a memorial gift in the amount of
$95,000 from the estate of Gary Kaplan.

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7. Library Use Report
CKI & CKO - physical items Feb-24 CKI & CKO - physical items Feb-23
bp Checkin Normal CKI 973 bp Checkin Normal CKI 1,001
bp Checkin Late Checkin 227 bp Checkin Late Checkin 210
BP TOTAL CKI 1,200 BP TOTAL CKI 1,211
bp Checkout First Time CKO 1,091 bp Checkout First Time CKO 1,008
bp Checkout Phone Renewal 67 bp Checkout Phone Renewal 71
bp Checkout Other Renewal 51 bp Checkout Other Renewal 24
bp Checkout Opac Renewal 111 bp Checkout Opac Renewal 169
bp BP TOTAL CKO 1,320 bp BP TOTAL CKO 1,272
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
CKI & CKO - physical items Feb-24 CKI & CKO - physical items Feb-23
owat Checkin Normal CKI 10,051 owat Checkin Normal CKI 9,581
owat Checkin Late Checkin 1,957 owat Checkin Late Checkin 2,062
OPL TOTAL CKI 12,008 OPL TOTAL CKI 11,643
owat Checkout First Time CKO 10,869 owat Checkout First Time CKO 10,120
owat Checkout Phone Renewal 173 owat Checkout Phone Renewal 268
owat Checkout Other Renewal 293 owat Checkout Other Renewal 357
owat Checkout Opac Renewal 839 owat Checkout Opac Renewal 941
owat OPL TOTAL CKO 12,174 owat OPL TOTAL CKO 11,686
New Borrowers Feb 2024 Library Visits Feb 2024
bp 7 bp 847
owat 116 owat 6,854
ILL/Loaned Feb 2024 ILL/Borrowed Feb 2024 ILL/Loaned Feb 2023 ILL/Borrowed Feb 2023
bp 484 bp 275 bp 438 bp 252
owat 1,226 owat 1,161 owat 1,186 owat 1,178

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8. Upcoming Programs
Winter Book Bingo is in full swing running from February 1 to March
31st. All Patrons need to do is read five books during this time frame. Each
book you read gains you entry to the grand prize drawing. There will be one
bingo card accepted per patron.
Join us on Thursday, March 28th at 2:00 p.m. for a showing of the movie
The Color Purple in the Gainey Room.
We will be hosting a presentation in partnership with SELCO of
Minnesota’s Hooded History - The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Minnesota. Join us for
this free presentation by local Historian Nancy Vaillancourt on April 11th at 6:30
PM.
Friday April 19th we are expecting two authors at 4:00 pm. Jess Lourey
and Sarah Stonich, local Minnesota authors will be visiting the Library in the
Gainey Room.
April 29th local author Doug Ohman will be here to talk about towns in
Minnesota. In May we are expecting Patty Wetterling to give a presentation.
Our first podcast has been produced and completed. The topic was the
Dewey Decimal system. This promises to be a monthly event and will be featured
on the city/government page. The first podcast is titled: “Who Dewey Think We
are.”
Mark Blando and Renee Lowery will be speaking to the Parkinson’s
Support Group on April 26.
9. SELCO Update
April 1st the checkout time for books will change from two weeks to three
weeks. New books are still required to be checked out for two 2 weeks.
There are SELCO visits coming up. We expect to visit Krista Ross,
Donovan Lambright and Steve Harsin.
10. Library Updates
The long awaited Makerspace hopefully will be up and running this
month soon. The delay has to do with technical problems but should be
available to the public soon, hopefully in April.
Mark is working on the annual reports that are due to the State of
Minnesota.
New shelving is on the agenda and part of the renovation program.
Adjourn
A motion to adjourn was made by Trustee Karen Milan and seconded by Trustee

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Quinn Meyer. All aye. The meeting adjourned at 5:13 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
by Robin Spande