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Approved Minutes of Owatonna Public Library
Board of Trustees
Owatonna Public Library, Gainey Room
105 North Elm Avenue
Thursday, February15th, 2024 at 4:30p.m.
The Owatonna Public Library Board of Trustees held the monthly meeting on
Thursday, February 15, 2024. The meeting was held in the Owatonna Public
Library Gainey Room. In attendance were Vice President Amy Tapp, Trustee
Karen Malin, Trustee Quinn Meyer, Trustee Julianna Skulzacek, Library
Director Mark Blando and Administrative Technician Robin Spande. Absent
was President Trudy Severson.
1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Vice President Tapp at 4:30pm.
2. Reminder of Open Meeting Law
The open meeting law applies to board meetings.
3. Public Comments
No Public Comments
4. Approve Minutes
Trustee Quinn Meyer moved and Trustee Karen Malin seconded to
approve the minutes of the January 2024 meeting. All aye and the motion
approved.
5. Children’s Services Report February 2024
See attached
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.

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7. Library Use Report
CKI & CKO - physical items Dec-23 CKI & CKO - physical items Dec-22
bp Checkin Normal CKI 952 bp Checkin Normal CKI 1,113
bp Checkin Late Checkin 266 bp Checkin Late Checkin 272
BP TOTAL CKI 1,218 BP TOTAL CKI 1,385
bp CheckoutFirst Time CKO 1,039 bp CheckoutFirst Time CKO 1,126
bp CheckoutPhone Renewal 103 bp CheckoutPhone Renewal 110
bp CheckoutOther Renewal 39 bp CheckoutOther Renewal 52
bp CheckoutOpac Renewal 104 bp CheckoutOpac Renewal 155
bp BP TOTAL CKO 1,285 bp BP TOTAL CKO 1,443
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
CKI & CKO - physical items Dec-23 CKI & CKO - physical items Dec-22
owat Checkin Normal CKI 8,743 owat Checkin Normal CKI 9,019
owat Checkin Late Checkin 1,955 owat Checkin Late Checkin 2,129
OPL TOTAL CKI 10,698 OPL TOTAL CKI 11,148
owat CheckoutFirst Time CKO 9,253 owat CheckoutFirst Time CKO 9,744
owat CheckoutPhone Renewal 226 owat CheckoutPhone Renewal 214
owat CheckoutOther Renewal 286 owat CheckoutOther Renewal 307
owat CheckoutOpac Renewal 1,047 owat CheckoutOpac Renewal 948
owat OPL TOTAL CKO 10,812 owat OPL TOTAL CKO 11,213
New Borrowers Dec 2023 Library Visits Dec 2023
bp 3 bp 605
owat 167 owat 5,646
ILL/Loaned Dec 2023 ILL/Borrowed Dec 2023 ILL/Loaned Dec 2022 ILL/Borrowed Dec 2022
bp 388 bp 183 bp 365 bp 194
owat 964 owat 855 owat 985 owat 1,018

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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.
Adult puzzle night was offered on Thursday January 25th in the Reading
Room. This program proved to be very popular with ten teams of four signing
up in record time. The winning team finished in twenty minutes.
Last week on February 8th Joseph Mbele from Tanzania came to visit the
Library. His talk covered "Cultural Differences Between Africans and
Americans." He offered an engaging and entertaining talk about cultural
differences which cause misunderstandings and conflicts between Africans
and Americans. This program was very interesting and well attended.
Join us on Thursday, February 22nd at 2:00 p.m. for a showing of the
movie Indianna Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the Gainey Room.
The Diane and Allan Page Testify Collection has assembled banners that
will demonstrate African experience from slavery to today. These banners will be
on display in our reading room. These are very powerful.
The Secrets of the Owatonna Public Library tour is coming up on Thursday
February 22nd at 10:00 a.m. We are celebrating 124 years of serving Steele
County. Join Nancy Vaillancourt as she unveils OPL’s hidden spots and history.
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.
9. SELCO Update
Blando attended the SELCO meeting last Tuesday. They are working
toward a new ILS program. This will be a huge undertaking for all SELCO
Libraries.
Blando will be attending Legislative Day at the State Capital with Senator
John Jasinski on February 29th. It will be broadcast as a TEAMS meeting if you
are interested in attending.
SELCO is working on a timeline for standardization of Library
Procedures.

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10. Library Updates
The long awaited Makerspace will be up and running this month. We
will begin advertising very soon. We will be able to print two colors at a time.
This will be a staff involved process. At this point it is a free service that is
provided by the Library. This is possible due to financial support from the
Library Foundation.
The OCLA (Owatonna Community Leadership Association) program
toured the Library this past week.
The time has come again for the annual report. Gathering statistics on
patron information that begins February 1st until the end of April 2024.
The City of Owatonna has switched vendors for recycling from Waste
Management to Thompson.
Adjourn
A motion to adjourn was made by Trustee Julianna Skulzacek and seconded by
Trustee Karen Malin. All aye. The meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm.
The next board meeting will be Thursday, March 21st, 2024 at 4:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
by Robin Spande