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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Packet - 2025-06-11AGENDA LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD Wednesday, June 11, 2025 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Library 706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034 The Library closes at 7pm, please arrive prior to 7pm Staff Contact: Donna Harlan, 503-697-6583, dharlan@lakeoswego.city 503-697-6583 706 4TH STREET PO BOX 369 LAKE OSWEGO, OR 97034 WWW.LAKEOSWEGO.CITY Virtual Access This meeting will be held in person. To participate remotely, please email the staff contact at least 24 hours before the meeting. ADA Accommodation Requests lakeoswego.city/accommodation 503-635-0282; Relay 711 Please allow four business days to process your request. Translation Services Traducción o interpretación 翻译或传译 통역혹은번역 503-534-5738 Patrick Walsh, Chair ∙ Lilisa Hall, Vice Chair ∙ Mark Pontarelli ∙ Patricia Walls ∙ Joy Fabos ∙ Seth Pauley ∙ Liberty Planck Melissa Kelly, Staff Liaison ∙ Anisha Oruganty, Youth Liaison ∙ Enid Rittman, Youth Liaison ∙ Rachel Verdick, Council Liaison 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes from May 14, 2025 and Summary Notes from June 5, 2025 3. PUBLIC COMMENT The purpose of Public Comment is to allow community members to present information or raise an issue regarding items not on the agenda or regarding agenda items that do not include a public hearing. A time limit of three minutes per individual shall apply. Public Comment will not exceed thirty minutes in total. If you are unable to attend the meeting and prefer to provide public comment in writing, please email the comment to the staff contact listed above at least 24 hours before the meeting. 4. DIRECTOR’S REPORT 4.1 Library Task Force update 4.2 Boards and Commissions update 4.3 Staff Updates 4.4 Sherwood Library Board inquiry 5. OLD BUSINESS 5.1 Debrief of Noah Siegel visit 5.2 Work group assignments and preparation 5.3 Library research fieldtrip logistics 6. NEW BUSINESS Page 2 503-697-6583 706 4TH STREET PO BOX 369 LAKE OSWEGO, OR 97034 WWW.LAKEOSWEGO.CITY 7. DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARDS PRESENTATION 8. CHAIR REMARKS 9. YOUTH LIAISON REMARKS 10. FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY REPORT 11. ADJOURNMENT Next meeting July 9, 2025 CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO May 14, 2025 Library Advisory Board Library 1 503.697.6583 706 Fourth Street PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us Present: Patrick Walsh, Lilisa Hall, Pat Walls, Mark Pontarelli, Joy Fabos, Seth Pauley, Liberty Planck, Councilor Verdick, Enid Rittman, Anisha Oruganty, Kent Watson Staff Present: Melissa Kelly, Donna Harlan, Andrea Milano, Joshua Macias Absent: none 1. Call to Order The Library Advisory Board (LAB) meeting was called to order at the Lake Oswego Public Library (LOPL) on Wednesday, May 11, 2025, at 7:03pm. 2. Minutes Motion to approve was made by Pontarelli and seconded by Pauley. The April 9, 2025 minutes were unanimously approved by LAB. 3. City Council Update – Rachel Verdick  The dry side of the LORAC is now open with the water side to open as soon as state requirements are completed.  Stafford Road closures are starting.  The Farmer’s market is now happening.  The Budget committee has met, the budget has been distributed and Council is going to approve it. 4. Public Comment - None 5. Library Manager’s Presentation – Andrea Milano, Youth Services and Technical Services Manager and Joshua Macias, Adult Services Librarian Library Collection Development  Milano shared with LAB the collection policy and process when adding items to the library.  LOPL’s materials collection policy is consistent with professional library collection development practices, and items don’t need to meet every criteria on the list to be considered when adding to a collection.  Staff look closely at self published books, but the majority of items added to our collection are selected through a standard process of reading reviews from professional journals.  Staff also accepts suggestions from patrons.  Staff receive a monthly report from LINCC which is the Purchase Alert Report (PAR). This provides a snapshot of items that are on hold throughout the LINCC system. From here staff follow a ratio of 1 to 5 to assist us in determining if we need to add multiple copies of a book.  Staff are intentional about auditing titles in our collection to include content created by authors from diverse backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. We obtain this information from our vendors and community partners.  Milano explained and shared slides with LAB providing statistics related to diversity markers.  Milano then discussed LOPL’s World Languages collection for children and adults. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO May 14, 2025 Library Advisory Board Library 2 503.697.6583 706 Fourth Street PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us o Currently the largest world language collections are in Chinese, Korean and Spanish as those are the top three non-English languages spoken in our community, but we have 15 languages represented in the adult collection and 24 represented in the children’s collection. o April Younglove, Adult Services Librarian manages the World Languages collection for adults and have invited community members who speak various languages to participate in a volunteer advisory team to suggest book purchases. o Younglove also sends out a bi-monthly World Languages enewlsetter and runs the World Languages cinema program for adults. o In the Children’s library, we have our Global Stories program which includes a First Saturday read aloud where community members read to the group in their own language and share their culture.  LOPL also curates a collection in a variety of formats to suit individual needs, interests and learning styles which include Dyslexia friendly fonts and a small collection of memory books specifically for patrons with dementia. Books are available at different levels for different stages. o Libby’s accessibility features include adjustable text size in 15 languages. o The children’s library has a collection of books in braille. o We provide referrals to the State Library for the Talking Books and Braille collection.  Macias explained that LOPL is currently in a one to one relationship with ordering and removing a book due to space.  Ideally, we strive to have 75% of the shelf full. This makes the collection more inviting, aids in keeping our collections current and provides for ease in shifting books and shelving when needed.  Macias states the key to weeding is to keep our collection flowing and relevant.  Librarians at LOPL have different collections at the library where they are responsible for weeding and keeping the collection current.  LOPL uses CREW: A Weeding Manual for Libraries from the Texas State Library and Archive Commission as well as professional discretion in determining if a book should be weeded.  Librarians are able to pull reports from Bluecloud Analytics, using different filters to determine which books should be weeded from a particular collection.  Throughout the presentation, LAB members asked questions that Milano and Macias answered with great explanation and detail. 6. Student Survey Presentation – Anisha Oruganty  Oruganty presented a draft of her student survey presentation full of great details from the students who participated in the survey.  Oruganty will be presenting the survey results to City Council on July 1.  LAB members offered support, suggestions and their time in supporting Oruganty as she works on her final version to present to Council. 7. Director’s Report CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO May 14, 2025 Library Advisory Board Library 3 503.697.6583 706 Fourth Street PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us Budget Update  Kelly shared that the City’s biennium budget was approved by the Budget Committee and will officially be approved by Council in the coming weeks. Donation Agreement  The library has a donor who will be naming the library as their beneficiary to receive funds upon the donor’s passing. These funds will be distributed to the city, and then invested in an Oregon Community Foundation Endowment Fund. o The library will be required to use the funds for the library collection per the donation agreements. o Currently, the library receives funds from the Bischoff Endowment that is similarly structured. Bookmobile Update  LAB was advised that the library Bookmobile is scheduled for delivery in August. o Library staff are planning the initial route. o Kelly advised LAB that staff is working on being able to have holds pick up available at Bookmobile stops. o Staff training is in the planning stages for driving and parking. o The bookmobile will be fully outfitted, with staff only needing to add supplies and our collection. o The vehicle will come with an upgraded Wi-Fi system so we have internet everywhere we go. o More staff, using some vacant FTE we have, will be able to support our service hours. o A pilot route is anticipated to be late September at the earliest. Lake Oswego Reads wrap up  Our 19th LO Reads was another great year.  We continue to work on engaging youth in the books and events.  The baskets donated by LAB were beautiful and much appreciated.  There was some group discussion related to observations and suggestion for improvements for next year, including cooking classes, engaging more youth, a local author, and more advertising.  Discussion was had regarding engaging the schools, how that worked in the past and how it could possibly be looked into again. LAB special meeting June 5  Guest Noah Siegel, of MSH Strategy, will be on hand to discuss strategy goals and how to prepare for a future library campaign.  Madison Thesing will also be joining us.  It is a public meeting, and will be recorded and posted on our website if you can’t make it. Boards and Commissions recruitment update  Applications closed on May 11.  There are four applicants for two adult positions plus the alternate position.  We have three applicants for the two youth positions.  Many more adults and youth applicants listed LAB as their second or third choice. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO May 14, 2025 Library Advisory Board Library 4 503.697.6583 706 Fourth Street PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us  Interviews are scheduled for the end of the month. 8. Old Business Work group assignments and scheduling  Two workgroups have been created. o New library visioning workgroup. o Existing library needs work group. o Communication and storytelling workgroup to come in the future. o Walsh will not be assigned to a workgroup to avoid having a quorum, and will bring us together for updates at group meetings.  At the June meeting, goals and objectives will be discussed with the workgroups scheduled to meet in July, August and September at 5:30 pm on the dates of our regularly scheduled LAB meetings. o The library meeting room has been reserved. o The volunteer services office is also available.  LAB members were asked to let Melissa and Donna know of any information they need.  Discussion was held related to the workgroups and scopes of work.  Goal is to go before Council in November. Library research fieldtrip  Our date is June 27 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.  Kelly is working on putting an itinerary together with more information to be shared at our next meeting. 9. New Business – Kent Watson  Watson explained why he stepped down from LAB, and since he is part of the Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library, he will continue to attend LAB meetings as the Friends Liaison.  Watson plans to continue supporting the library in any way he can. 10. Chair Remarks  Walsh encouraged LAB to tell friends to sign up for Imagination Library from Dolly Parton. Signing up was very easy. Children below 6 can sign up.  Please remember we are playing the long game when it comes to the library and need to pace ourselves.  Thank you all for giving your time, heart and brain power to contribute to LAB meetings. Walsh expressed that he is continually impressed by all. 11. Youth Liaison Remarks  Rittman shared a story from Ohio where someone checked out 100 books and burned them. Rittman sees this as a serious issue and inquired about what we can do to prevent something like this from happening, and if it did happen here what would we do. o Kelly responded that we would buy the books again. CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO May 14, 2025 Library Advisory Board Library 5 503.697.6583 706 Fourth Street PO BOX 369 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 www.ci.oswego.or.us 12. Friends of the Library Report  Booktique sales increased by $2000 in April.  The Friends are participating the upcoming Portland Book Week.  We will have two more author signings coming up and Watson has helped to connect the BOOKtique with Ingram to purchase the author’s books and sell them at the events.  Friends are in process of voting in new members.  Grant fund requests from the library were approved.  A Volunteer appreciation luncheon will be held in July. 13. Adjournment Motion to adjourn was made by Planck, seconded by Pauley. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm. A Special LAB meeting will be held June 5, 2025. The next monthly LAB meeting will be held June 11, 2025. Respectfully submitted, Donna Harlan SPECIAL MEETING LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD SUMMARY NOTES JUNE 5, 2025 The video recording constitutes an accurate record of the Library Advisory Board Special Meeting. The following summary is provided as an overview of the meeting. Link to WebEx recording https://apps.lakeoswego.city/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=2991187&repo=CityOfLakeOswego&cr=1 CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME Library Director Melissa Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Guest Presenter: Noah, Siegel, MSH Strategy Library Advisory Board Present: Patrick Walsh, Lilisa Hall, Pat Walls, Joy Fabos, Mark Pontarelli, Liberty Planck, Seth Pauley, Enid Rittman Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library Present: Andrew Edwards, Nell Diamond, Donna Needham, Kent Watson, Janet Buck Staff: Present: Melissa Kelly, Library Director; Donna Harlan, Administrative Assistant Guests: Noah Siegel, MSH Strategy Madison Thesing, Deputy City Manager PRESENTATION BY NOAH SIEGEL: The Structure of a Campaign  3 steps: Science, Story, Strategy o Science:  What is the path to getting the 50 + 1 to win a campaign?  This step involves polling, public opinion and research.  We need to be rigorous and ask the tough questions to understand the value people are willing to pay for.  Need to find the positive and negative messages that resonate with them.  Depending on the sample size, the data can be broken down into categories which provides an understanding of where people are based on where they are coming from.  From here you can build a profile for what a winning path looks like and reach out to people using a variety of methods (direct mail, digital marketing, social media, for example). o Story:  Framing is important. “We have a problem, we (stakeholders) have thought of a solution to solve our (collective) problem”, rather than “I have a problem and want someone to fix it”.  Facts support our story, but what sticks with people is what resonates with their values.  Creating a message house is an important key:  Top – A single message that resonates with the greatest number of people.  Middle – supporting pillars, the three things to make a case using core arguments.  Base – consists of supporting facts.  Form focus groups to refine the story and view their reactions to statistically get a sense of the core values. o Strategy:  Collect information and statistics that already exist.  Capital stack  Political Capital – consists of good leadership.  Financial Capital – costs money, who has a vested interest and where does the money come from? Inventory your assets.  Community Capital – the less community mobilization you have the more funds you have to spend. Inventory your community and groups that would care about this to build a broader coalition.  From here we create messages.  What are our 10 core stories to share.  Use the space we currently have to tell our stories.  The human piece of the campaign comes from community.  Community Capital is a way to build trust and support that this project/campaign is a good thing. The Legal and Technical Side of the Campaign o Who owns the campaign?  501c can do ballot measure lobbying/campaigning up to 20% of their budget.  Create a Political Action Committee for a library campaign that can be opened at anytime and fundraising can begin right away. FOLLOW UP WITH MADISON THESING: o No City staff time or resources can be used for a campaign. o The City’s is only able to share public, neutral, impartial and apolitical information. It is against ethics to do otherwise and is and not the government’s role to persuade. o The City does the polling and information gathering through the task forces and visioning. o Once a bond is referred, the City Communications Team works on developing messages which define the ask of the voters while following the strict processes the city has to follow. o We can speak as individuals, and make it clear that we are expressing ourselves as an individual only and not wearing a city hat. o Further clarification on what is ok to say when wearing the hat as a city board member will come from the city attorney and more information will be shared when the time comes. o Working with other boards on an idea would be supported. Meeting was adjourned at 8:19 pm The next scheduled meeting for Library Advisory Board will be Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 7:00 pm. Prepared by Donna Harlan, Administrative Assistant Lake Oswego Fiscal Year to date ending June 2025 General Information Number of new borrowers/patrons added 255 3,176 Number of registered borrowers 25,499 25,499 Books and other print items Number of physical units owned 123,969 123,969 Number of physical units added 766 10,350 Audio Materials Number of physical units owned 16,335 16,335 Number of physical units added 63 729 Video Materials Number of physical units owned 18,839 18,839 Number of physical units added 96 947 Other library materials Number of physical units owned 1,025 1,025 Number of physical units added 2 66 Total physical items owned 160,168 160,168 Total physical items added 927 12,092 Magazine Issues Number of physical units owned 1,945 1,945 Number of physical units added 111 1,411 Holds Placed 13,777 152,294 Holds Filled 11,185 125,875 Holds Expired 38 368 Holds Expired on shelf 1,511 16,955 Circulation of library materials at all facilities for the fiscal year Library2Go & Advantage Circulation Combined 14,753 152,189 E-book Reader Circulation with material type of CHILD 6 60 E-book Reader Circulation with material type of YA 1 12 Adult Checkouts 17,938 199,080 Adult Renewals (via WorkFlows and PAC) 11,308 124,843 No Longer Used - - Adult Renewals (via Shoutbomb) 373 3,443 Adult Renewals (via TeleCirc) 68 943 Adult Renewals (TOTAL) 11,749 129,229 May 2025 Lake Oswego Fiscal Year to date ending June 2025May 2025 YA Checkouts 936 10,756 YA Renewals (via WorkFlows and PAC) 636 8,148 No Longer Used - - YA Renewals (via Shoutbomb) 34 345 YA Renewals (via TeleCirc) 0 4 YA Renewals (TOTAL) 670 8,497 Child 1st-time circ excluding E-book Reader uses 11,013 132,623 YA 1st-time circ excluding E-book Reader uses 935 10,744 Number of Circulation of Electronic Materials 14,760 152,261 Child Checkouts 11,019 132,683 Child Renewals (via WorkFlows and PAC) 6,770 81,721 No Longer Used - - Child Renewals (via Shoutbomb) 388 4,506 Child Renewals (via TeleCirc) 3 57 Child Renewals (TOTAL) 7,161 86,284 Total 1st-time circulation 44,646 428,311 Total renewals 19,580 224,010 Total circ of Adult materials 29,687 328,309 Total circ of YA & Childrens materials 19,786 238,220 Total circ of YA materials 1,605 19,241 Total circ of Childrens materials 18,180 218,967 Total circ 64,232 718,778 Self-Check Circulation Self-check checkouts 24,754 287,193 % of physical item checkouts at self-checks 82.8% 83.9% Check Ins items CHECKED IN via book drop or circ desk return 31,692 365,824 items CHECKED IN from "in transit" status 23,115 257,026 TOTAL items checked in 54,807 622,850 Lake Oswego Fiscal Year to date ending June 2025May 2025 Items loaned to other libraries Items loaned to other libraries within resource-sharing network (LINCC)16,265 179,198 Interlibrary Loans - Items Loaned to All Other Libraries (OCLC)197 2,283 Total loans to other libraries 16,462 181,481 Items borrowed from other libraries Items borrowed from libraries within resource-sharing network (LINCC)14,515 164,924 Interlibrary Loans - Items Borrowed from All Other Libraries (OCLC)79 1,017 Total loans from other libraries 14,594 165,941 NET ILL using a shared catalog of automation system (LINCC) 1,750 14,274 Adult Services May 2025 Monthly Report In May, Adult Services staff put the finishing touches on the Adult Summer Library Challenge program, including prepping the website, promotional materials, and registration packets, and finalizing our summer events. We’re excited for summer! Here’s a look back at the rest of our work in May: • The stairwell gallery featured beautiful work by local artists inspired by this year’s LO Reads selection, How to Read a Book by Monica Wood. • We curated fiction & non-fiction book displays for Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month. • We received 31 submissions by 18 patrons for our Call for Poetry in April, and we posted these poems to our website in May. • Thanks to the help of our Seed Library volunteers and Seed Library staff team, our Mobile Seed Library, which we take to outreach events, was redesigned to have only grab-and-go seed packets, which has made it quite popular and more accessible at Rover visits! • We engaged in the following outreach activities: o Together with Circulation staff, we brought Rover to Greenridge Estates senior living facility. o Along with Circulation and Youth Services staff, we helped staff the library table at Palisade’s World Language School’s International Children’s Day Festival, where we interacted with 153 visitors of all ages and multiple patrons thanked us for expanding the world languages collection and expressed excitement for the Summer Library Challenge. • Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Library, we hosted the following events in the library and/or virtually: o Continued bi-monthly Ancestry Answers sessions where patrons can get help researching their family trees from Genealogy Interest Group volunteers. o Hosted a special author presentation by Tara Rolstad at the ACC for Mental Health Awareness Month. Rolstad is the author of What to Do Right Now When Your Child is Suicidal and We’ve Got This: Journal for Parenting Kids with Mental Health Struggles. o Our First Tuesday Music Concert featuring singer/songwriter Bernie Sims drew 42 people in-person and 18 livestream viewers! o A Bookish Affair met virtually to discuss Role Playing by Cathy Yardley. o A Digital Dive session on Can You Trust Influencers? Fact Checking Like a Librarian with Librarian April Younglove at the ACC. o A presentation by Oregon Black Pioneers’ Mariah Rocker on York of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for Pints from the Past. 52 people attended this event! o A Genealogy Interest Group meeting at the ACC and online. o Our monthly Poetry Group meeting. o A Third Tuesday Author Talk featuring Christine Negroni, a former journalist and FAA advisory committee member and the author of The Crash Detectives and Deadly Departure. o Our fifth Senior Scholar program with the ACC on Deconstructing Deception: Understanding Conspiracy Theories with Political Science Professor Robert Asaadi, Ph.D., which drew 67 attendees. o A World Cinema showing of the classic 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal. o Building Bridges Book Group met to discuss the Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch. Stats Reference & Readers’ Advisory Interactions: 1,445 Programs for Adults: 17 Adult Program Attendance: 1,014 Programs for All Ages: 1 All Ages Program Attendance: 153 NOTE: The figures above include statistics for the LO Reads Author Talk on May 1 (which was planned and hosted by Nancy Niland), but they do not include the number of views of our recorded events. Youth Services May 2025 Monthly Report In May we welcomed the return of Youth Librarian, Allison Staley, and welcomed a new addition to the team, Jackie Spencer. Our full crew met the demand of school visits, both at the library and in the schools with enthusiasm and high energy. We were pleased to announce the availability of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for all children 0-5 in Clackamas County, and to start promoting next year’s OBOB collection. Programming: The youth Services Team welcomed pre-schoolers from Our Lady of the Lake, second graders from River Grove and K- 5th graders from the International Leadersip Academy this month. All of our visitors were excited to learn about how PHIL sorts books, enjoyed the best Choose Your Own Adventure book ever written, and learned about the value of their free library cards. World Language storytimes continue to be successful. We hosted ESD Hearing and Development Screening events for children and put on a special storytime to promote National Public Works Week. Our efforts to cross promote the newly opened LORAC led us to host a water safety (without the water) program on a rainy Saturday morning. Several children learned the importance of the buddy system, how to use a pool noodle as a safety device, and had fun finding different safety devices around the library. Dena Marshall from WaterStrong did a great job. The May Global Stories Project Read-aloud featured author Nui Wilson who is a Karen-Thai-Portlander who has spent more than two decades working with Karen refugees in Thailand, Utah, and Oregon. She is not only a writer but a community builder and story keeper having heard the stories of countless refugee families in Portland. For more than fifteen years, Portland has been home to a vibrant Karen refugee community. There are almost no books about the Karen people. In 2024, Wilson published “A Tree of My Own,” a picture book that features the resettlement experience of the Karen refugee community in Portland, Oregon. Nui generously shared her story, which has now been translated into Thai and Karen, and her culture. Teen Advisory Board We hosted teens at a Summer Library Challenge kick-off event that provided an opportunity to make new friends, register for the challenge and choose a free book to inspire lots of Summer reading. Bulletin Board Our last Art Literacy display featured the Korean Fan Art that we also showcased in February. This time the art is from River Grove Elementary, which was fun for the River Grove second graders who visited early in the month and got to see their classmates’ art up on the wall. Outreach Our marathon LOSD school visits began this month. Librarians, Amy and Allison, have been to Oak Creek, Forest Hills, and Lake Grove Elementary schools to promote our Summer Library Challenge, connect with teachers and students, and spread the good word about everything that LOPL has to offer. In those three visits alone, they spoke with over 1200 kids. YS staff represented the Library at the International Children’s Festival at Palisades World Language School and spoke with many families about the upcoming Summer Library Challenge. The May StoryWalk (Drawn Together by Minh Lê) was installed at Woodmont Natural Park. It celebrates AANHPI month and has clearly brought joy to many fans young and old. A few quotes from our guest book: Nice change in our routine I love to read and go outside, doing them together makes me happier! Alexa (age: 10) Very sweet story! Enjoyed it! Marlise (age: 49) What a fun thing to include in the park! Jennifer (age: 67) Stats Reader’s Advisory/reference – 474 (includes 1000BBK and New Parent Gift bags) Program attendance – 32/2054 (includes storytime, special programs, outreach and LEGO club) HIGHLIGHTS • May brought a lot of change to the Circulation Department. Library Assistants incorporated shelving into their hourly tasks, working alongside our Shelvers to return materials to their proper place on the shelves and reprioritizing much of our daily routine. In June, we will have additional shelving help from our seasonal employees, so that will get us through the busy summer! • We had several school visits, some planned, some not, and saw many new faces while touring Phil, our automated returns handling machine. • We are excited to share the news that our part-time Library Assistant in Technical Services, Rick Lyons, has accepted the position of full-time Lead Library Assistant – Materials Movement in Circulation! Rick will help oversee the workflow of Shelvers, Circulation volunteers, and Library Assistants. • The Circulation department also partnered with Positive Charge PDX to run a period product drive from May 10-30, benefiting local students. CIRCULATION SERVICES NOTABLE STATISTICS *This number is based on FootfallCam people counter. The Library’s security gates were turned off (but not removed) temporarily for the month of May, a trial period to assess the efficacy and necessity of the gates. Not only can security gates be disruptive in a library and frustrating for patrons, they are also expensive to maintain, often more so than replacing missing items, and don’t deter all theft. During the down period, we are measuring and comparing data, including the number of missing materials and the accuracy of the built-in people counter, which may have been slightly inflating our numbers due to its limitations. During this period, we have installed a silent visitor counter, FootfallCam, that can give us helpful metrics, (in addition to a 98% accurate people-counting rate), including the average time people stay in the library, adult versus child visitors, busiest hours of the day/week/month/year, and other helpful metrics. This data will give us the information we need to make a decision about whether or not we turn our security gates off completely at the end of our year contract (June 30, 2025). *The Library was closed for Memorial Day on May 26, 2025. Items checked in Items sorted by AMH Items renewed Items borrowed from outside the County Items loaned outside the County Items borrowed from LINCC libraries Items loaned to LINCC libraries Holds filled Held items not checked out Library cards issued to new members eCards issued Home Deliveries Carts shelved Average daily carts shelved Cultural Pass reservations Seed Library Checkouts Indoor Visitors Curbside Visitors Self-checkout 54,807 42,623 19,580 79 197 14,515 16,265 11,185 1,511 255 51 62 915 30 270 269 13,773* 7 82.8% Technical Services Department May 2025 Monthly Report Happy Retirement, Todd Mecklem! After nearly 20 years of service at the Lake Oswego Public Library, Technical Services’ Todd Mecklem retired on May 12th. Todd’s contributions to the Library over the years are many and significant. As the Tech Services team member primarily responsible for book processing, Todd oversaw much-needed efforts to update and improve labeling, especially for fiction genres and the Large Print collection. Todd also pioneered labeling the growing World Languages collections, making sure that each book has a correct spine label in its native script, as well as English – a first for this Library. An avid cinephile, perhaps Todd’s most distinctive contributions to the Library’s offerings are the seasonal Sharky Day and Spooky Day video collections; displays each July and October (respectively) that highlight shark-related thrillers (Sharky) and Halloween-themed and other otherworldly entertainments (Spooky). Both collections have found enthusiastic audiences among Library patrons. Todd (along with his wife, Sue) travels extensively. During his time at the Library, Todd’s destinations have included multiple trips to Europe, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France; as well as China and Hong Kong. Most impressive of all, Todd is one of the tiny number of Americans to have visited North Korea—not just once, but twice! Upon Todd’s retirement last month, Todd and Sue launched on their greatest adventure yet—they have relocated to France, where they intend to retire. They’re temporarily staying in Paris, but plan to relocate to Nice, on the French Riviera. Todd is already deeply missed as a friend and coworker by the Technical Services Department and Library staff. We wish Todd and Sue a long and happy retirement, and hope for frequent updates on their exciting new life abroad! A post-retirement Todd proudly shows off Union swag around Paris, June 3rd 2025. Sue Mecklem photo. Programs & Volunteer Services May 2025 Report May 2025 Volunteer Stats Total Volunteers Serving 143 Total Volunteer Hours 1035 • Met weekly with Social Media Committee to plan daily posts/weekly focus to promote library events. Communicated updates as needed. • Represented LOPL with Strategic Communications Team at City level • Finalized Lake Oswego Reads 2025 figures and reports • Planned and implemented Lake Oswego Reads Author Reception at Lakewood Center for the Arts and Author presentation at Lakeridge High School to great success • Met with Lake Oswego Reads committee to begin reading for 2026 • Coordinated volunteer program for Summer Library Challenge: facilitated two training sessions for incoming volunteers. All volunteer shifts have been filled by day one of SLC (June 1, 2025) • Coordinated large-scale button-making project for Pride LO 2025 • Onboarded 8 new volunteers for opportunities at the Library • Coordinated Home Delivery volunteers for all assisted living communities and other patrons who can’t come to the Library on a regular basis.