Yate Library Management Board AGM and Ordinary Meeting held at Yate Library on 27th October 2011
1. Present:
Cheryl Kirby, Neil Weston, Kay Crowe, Granville Olive, Lloyd Pellow, Carole Zorzo, John Abraham, Hannah & Zoe Mitchell, Christine Howard. New members Cllr Joy Higgins, Annette Parsons & Cllr Paul Jobbins were welcomed to the meeting.
2. Apologies:
Sheridan Crew, Cllr Sue Hope, Martin Monk
3. Matters Arising/Minutes of last AGM
These were accepted as a true record.
4. Election of officers
Cheryl Kirby was re-elected as Chair and Lloyd Pellow was re-elected Vice Chair.
5. Minutes of Ordinary Meeting
6. Apologies
Sheridan Crew, Cllr Sue Hope, Martin Monk
7. Minutes of July Meeting
these were accepted as a true record.
8. Librarians Report
The success of the Summer Reading Challenge at Yate Library, which saw an increase in children taking part, was discussed as were the new Bookstart Bear club, the change in advice agencies using Yate Library and the lack of people attending some of the recent author events. Also the events in October’s Active month were reviewed. Concern was expressed concerning the vacancies which are currently not being filled although it was explained that overtime was being used as necessary to cover these posts. The possibility of using volunteers was mentioned. It was explained that volunteers are currently used to complement the core library service rather than work alongside paid staff.
9. Performance News
Chipping Sodbury Library issues decreased by 12% compared to the same quarter in 2010 despite the number of reservations increasing by 39%. The number of Bookstart packs distributed from there increased as did issues of music CDs and some other audio visual categories of stock. At Yate Library book issues fell by 10% despite a higher number of children doing the reading challenge and the footfall of the library increased from 44792 to 47263 visitors. (The latter is in the face of a fall in visitor numbers to Yate shopping centre during the redevelopment of Tesco).The issue of audiovisual items rose by 7%. The amount of time the public PCs were in use also went up considerably as did the number of people using the library for IT classes. Issues of stock on the Mobile Library fell slightly (by 2%) due to use of Adult Fiction dropping. Conversely non fiction and childrens book issues rose as did the number of reservations placed. The number of visitors to the Mobile Library stayed constant. Once again Internet renewals increased by 25% making this “virtual library” the second busiest behind Yate.
10. Yate 3D update
The three year Big Lottery project is due for completion in January 2012. Yate Library has achieved all but one of its objectives and John explained that information we hope to gather from the forthcoming library user survey should help us to complete that one. The formation of the old library committee into the library management board and the support of its members have been key to the project during this period.
11. Library Service Review
Following a merger of our department (formerly Community Services) with the Planning Dept, Libraries are now in the Environment & Community Services Dept whose director is Steve Evans. Within that department we are part of the Safe & Strong Communities Section, headed by Robert Walsh. Martin Burton’s role has been widened to include Community Learning, Skills and Heritage and he is now the Community Cultural Services Manager. John will become Operations Manager now that Michael Duffy, John’s equivalent in the South side of South Gloucestershire is taking voluntary redundancy. The number of Librarian posts has also been reduced with the merging of Bradley Stoke with Winterbourne, whilst Hanham and Kingswood also join up; most Librarians now manage more than one library. Neil has retained his post but Jackie Roseblade’s role as Assistant Librarian at Yate has been deleted from 22nd December with her moving to Thornbury as the new librarian. As workloads change, John asked what the committee would think about having three meetings a year rather than four (as he will be covering all library committees from January). At this stage the general feeling was that the committee would like to stick to quarterly meetings. There was concern about the impact on the service of these changes and the vacancies mentioned previously. As Jackie’s role involves a lot of outreach work concern was expressed that we might not be able to do as much work in priority neighbourhoods. There will be no closure of libraries nor a detrimental effect on opening hours.
12. Surveys
John fed back on the self service survey completed in the Summer at (Bradley Stoke, Downend, Emersons Green, Staple Hill & Yate). Patchway has since joined this list. 607 surveys were completed and the majority of them were very positive about using the self service system. There were also a number of useful suggestions for improving the terminology used on the machines. From 7 – 13 November South Glos libraries will be carrying out the biennial adult user survey (the committee made suggestions for improving the form last meeting). All library user group members have been invited to help by handing out surveys during this week. If anyone is able to assist at Yate or Chipping Sodbury please let Neil know.
13. Dates of meetings in 2012.
all Thursdays at 7pm at Yate Library,
26th January, 26th April, 19th July, 25th October.