LUV Annual Meeting Minutes (Draft) 11.20.2023

Attendees: Glynis Hart (secretary), Wilmot Public Library, Wilmot NH; Stephanie McAndrew, George E. Stowell, Cornish NH; Jennifer Spanier, Blake Memorial Library, East Corinth; Sarah Molesworth, Etna Library (Hanover Town) Etna, NH; Sue Heston, Abbott Memorial Library, S. Pomfret, Vt.; Betsey Kane, Bradford Public Library, Bradford Vt.; Tina Fava, Miner Memorial Library, Lempster NH; Dawn Huston (treasurer) Dunbar Free Library, Grantham NH; Matthew Gunby, Tracy Memorial Library, New London NH; Laina Warsavage, Orford Social, Orford NH; Judy Russell, Converse Free, Lyme NH; Justine Fafara (co-chair) Richards Free Library, Newport NH; Lucinda Walker, Norwich Public Library, Norwich Vt.; Rubi Simon, Howe Library, Hanover; Mary S. King, Plainfield libraries (Meriden & Plainfield NH); Traci Joy, Hartland Public Library, Hartland Vt.; Amy Lappin, Lebanon Public Libraries, Lebanon NH.

Meeting was held at Carpenter & Main Restaurant in Norwich, Vt.

Meeting was called to order at 12:45 by Justine F.

Treasurer’s report. Dawn H. reported that the balance in the account is ~ $4,500. She will send exact numbers in a week. The last reported balance was $4,943.38 but a check for about $420 has yet to be cashed.

Minutes from the September meeting were accepted.

Justine F. as new co-chair asked to know people’s names and libraries; everyone introduced perself.

Justine F. said the bylaws need updating, and she hopes to work on them this year and have the new version available for the membership to vote on at this meeting – the annual – in 2024.

Discussion: On beginning a new rotating collection of video games.

How much should libraries contribute? Dawn H. said that in the past, $200 was the buy-in cost for libraries new to LUV.

Should we also lend game consoles? Amy said they would love to lend out consoles. Some of her patrons borrow DVD players. They have a Switch, but it doesn’t get loaned out.

Justine: Switch is easy to purchase and lend, Playstation or Xbox is neither. Our library used an ARPA grant to fund the video game collection (which includes consoles). We have four Switches and one never goes out; we could maybe donate one to the LUV collection.

Tracy: In favor of consoles because of the huge discrepancies in patron’s incomes and the cost of the consoles.

JF: When the collection comes, you could also have it available in the library but not loan it out.

Tina: Switch Lite is a cheaper option.

Laina: Do your board games go out?

Justine: We spent the bulk of our ARPA grant on board games and they are very popular.

Amy: Lebanon has a huge board game collection and we will ILL them.

Dawn: We’ve beefed up our game collection with toddler games and they seem to be popular.

Justine F. Youngish men borrow games.

Judy: So that’s how you get that age group!

Justine made a motion to start a rotating video game collection, with a $200 buy-in for the first year.

Judy seconded the motion.

Discussion: Judy said that if there are libraries not prepared to join at this stage in their budget year, LUV could put in seed money.

Glynis H. suggested $2000 would get the project off the ground.

Motion amended/clarified to read: The LUV co-op will start a rotating video game collection, with 3 trial bags. One bag will include a Nintendo Switch donated by Richards Free Library. Each bag will hold ten games. LUV will contribute $1,000 and each library joining the rotation will contribute $200. The bags will rotate every two months.

All in favor – passed unanimously.

Judy asked who would be coordinating. Glynis (video committee) said Jeff M. is also on the video committee and she would talk to him before taking next steps.

Discussion: How often should LUV meet?

Dawn H.: We haven’t been able to make a quorum several times this year.

Justine F. People are preferring to meet online. Maybe we’re going to have to meet for lunch; food seems to get everyone out!

Tina: Meeting every month is not enough time between meetings.

General agreement to meet every two months.

Meeting adjourned 1:30 p.m.

Next meeting: January 15, noon. In person/Zoom to be decided.

Approved 9.18.2023 LUV meeting minutes

Meeting was conducted via Zoom. It began at 10 a.m.

Attendees: Judy Russell (Lyme); Justine Fafara (Newport); Stephanie McAndrew (Cornish); Dawn Huston (Dunbar); Holly Lague (Thetford); Unknown person (Baxter Memorial); Betsy King (Bradford Vt); Tina Fava, Miner/Lempster; Laina Warsavage, Orford Social; Rubi Simon, Howe/Hanover; Glynis Hart (Wilmot)

Minutes. The minutes for the July meeting were approved.

Judy R. addressed the decline in DVD circulation: As patrons use fewer DVDs (the LUV collections) could be a way to keep offering them new DVDs without spending a lot of library budget.

Dawn H. Treasurer’s Report. The current balance is $4,943.38. The Treasure’s report was approved.

Judy R. asked how much is spent on video and audio collections each year.

Dawn H. I have no idea. I don’t think we spend all our annual income on videos and audios. When Peter turned the treasurer position over to me there were no guidelines.

Judy R. We will share some efforts we made last year (about budgeting) with the new co-coordinators at the November meeting. Further: Mindy at the NH state library sends her regards but couldn’t make it to this meeting. Joy Worland of VT Libraries also not present.

Judy R. About LUV’s purpose. It’s a professional development organization that is evolving. Today our main topic is resource sharing. Malia Ebel and Justine Fafara are offering to become the new co-coordinators.

Justine F. Introduced herself to the group. She is director of Richards Free Library in Newport, having been assistant director there for two years and before that, director of the Walpole library.

Malia Ebel was not present, but Judy offered some information about her. Malia is director of the Abbott Library in Sunapee, having previously held a position as an academic librarian at Colby Sawyer College.

Judy R. asked if Dawn and Glynis would be willing to run for their same positions (treasurer and secretary) again. They said yes. Therefore, Judy R. offered the slate of candidates for approval:

·         Malia Ebel and Justine Fafara, Co-coordinators of LUV.

·         Dawn Huston, Treasurer. Glynis Hart, Secretary.

The slate of officers was approved by a unanimous vote.

Judy R. Re: Resource sharing. We don’t have a clear consensus about the video/audio sharing. I would like to ask that if members are going to drop DVDs or audios that they do so at the end of the year.

Dawn H. Originally, if you wanted to join LUV, you pitched $100 into the kitty. Annual fees are $100 for videos, $100 for audios. We won’t need to buy new bags for a video game collection (we have some of the new bags not being used).

Justine F. I am very interested in the idea of a rotating video game collection. We used some of our ARPA grant to expand ours; we went from 12 games to 200.

Dawn H. Moved that LUV add a video game line to the annual invoice, but making it clear to the members it won’t happen right away.

Stephanie McA. Offered to help with game shopping.

Justine F. Asked everyone to email updates (personnel, address changes) to Judy R..

Dawn H. Said that Bruce at Carpenter and Main is willing to host the annual meeting again. Therefore, the next meeting will be Nov. 20 in Norwich, at Carpenter and Main, at noon.

Meeting adjourned at 10:38 a.m.

DRAFT - LUV meeting minutes for September 12, 2023 

Librarians of the Upper Valley

Organizational meeting, 9.12.2023

Attendees: Judy Russell (Lyme), Glynis Hart (Wilmot), Dawn Huston (Dunbar), Malia Ebel (Abbott/ Sunapee), Justine Fafara (Newport).

Meeting opened on Zoom at 10 a.m.

Judy R. shared the bylaws with everyone via email. Judy had polled LUV members about their feelings on whether/how to continue the group.

Discussion led by Judy: A lot of people think LUV is just the videos & audios but that’s not what it’s all about. If you eliminated videos and audios there would still be a reason for LUV. Annual membership is $20.

Dawn H. The state’s position is that every library must belong to a co-op.

Judy R. The poll results were split between preferences for Zoom and in-person meetings. It might be wise to alternate. Amy and I shared a LUV google drive where we kept track of the meetings. (to Malia and Justine) What compelled you to come forward? (Justine and Malia offered to serve in an executive capacity.)

Justine: I loved the co-op I was in at Walpole. I’m ready to be active and I don’t want the co-op to disappear. I love the rotating video game idea. I think it would be a big hit. I like the idea of having professional development speakers. Another reason to have the LUV group is sometimes you just need to vent to other library directors.

Malia Ebel: Was director at Colby Sawyer library, NHCUC was the active consortium there and it was great for resource sharing. NHCUC had a good mentoring program. I think consortiums are really valuable.

Judy R. Challenges: We are split across the river. I threw out that question (on the poll). For the most part people identify as Upper Valley, not Vermont or NH. People did not seem to think the divide was an issue.

Another divide is between large well-funded libraries like the Howe and very small libraries with one person on staff. That’s a real span of experience, needs and interests. I think that’s why people are going to ARSL instead.

Glynis H. I think of ARSL an alternative to NELA, as a professional group that offers conferences, webinars etc. I don't think it serves the same purpose as the co-op. Re: LUV, I think putting together a rotating video game collection might be useful to our libraries. 

Judy R. Barbara Prince was President/Coordinator. Amy and I called ourselves co-coordinators. We talked together a lot and shared responsibility. Does that sound workable?

Justine to Malia: I think we should talk about working together.

Judy R. I just shared with JF and ME the spreadsheet for meeting times. At the annual meeting Nov. 20 we could announce you two as candidates. That would reassure LUV members that LUV is not a sinking ship.

Dawn H. Suggested having a third line on the invoices (handed out in November) where members could choose to pitch in for rotating video game collection.

Judy R. I feel that has to go to a vote in November. We can’t change the invoice until we have a vote. We could vote Justine and Malia in… Does everyone know there’s no September meeting?

Glynis H. What? No.

Justine F. We need to make better use of the website. A banner saying “No September Meeting” would be helpful.

Judy R. I’m on it. Stay tuned for a special meeting to vote in new leadership.

Discussion: We should have a September meeting. Judy agreed and will announce it on the website.  

Dawn H. Re: Purchasing audios. I ordered heavy duty cases and I have extras. Can I sell them to Charlestown?

Judy R. Can you get another signatory on the Ledyard account?

Justine F. There’s a branch in New London. Question for JR: How often did people want to meet?

Judy R. 37.5% were committed to continuing with LUV. 38% seemed on the fence. Six people wanted to meet 4x a year; others said six times a year. We need to coordinate with the video/audio exchange. Two people dropped out of LUV right after taking the poll. 

Justine F. If we meet less than once a month it falls off my radar.

Malia E. No way. Since Zoom has come along it’s convenient to meet without having to travel. I think it would be more realistic to keep the schedule like it’s been. Does it make sense to distill the poll comments into a doc that could be shared? So we could have a conversation in November. We could start with that and add the video games.

Dawn H. For the September meeting, could we say that the November invoice will have an option (to subscribe to a video game collection)?

Judy R. The topic of the meeting should be resource sharing. If no one objects, I will facilitate this meeting Monday.

Judy R. The Book Repair Workshop will be Oct. 23rd. We still have ten more slots.

Adjourned.

LUV meeting minutes for July 17, 2023

Attendees: Dawn Huston, treasurer (Dunbar Free), Glynis Hart, secretary (Wilmot), Holly Lague (Thetford), Sandi Pierson (Grafton). The meeting was conducted via Zoom; Hart and Pierson were in person at Wilmot Library.

Without a quorum, minutes could not be approved.

Holly Lague offered to host the next meeting September 18, 10 a.m. at Thetford Library. Holly will send out email reminders.

Treasurer’s Report (Dawn H.) The last three or four memberships due have come in, so the balance is $4,951.28.

Discussion ensued about attendance. Dawn H. said that earlier in LUV’s history, there were fewer meetings. “With more libraries dropping their rotations it’s hard to find out what people want from the organizations.”

Judy R. (not present) was going to survey the members about interest in continuing.

Glynis H. explained that at the last annual meeting, the co-chairs resigned but no members stepped up to take their places. Since then, whoever is hosting the meeting is responsible for programming and publicity.

Sandi P. asked about the video and audio committees: Who picks the items?

Dawn said ideally there are three or four people on each committee. Right now, there are two.

Twenty bags of videos are in circulation and 16 audio bags. As they do not all overlap, there are more than 20 active member libraries.

Glynis H. said the LUV website is hard to find. The only way in is through your email links, which is inconvenient. You can’t find it through a Google search; that brings you to the State library website, which has a dead link.

Sandi P. asked about book challenges and LGBTQ material for children. Discussion ensued: the upshot is that parents are ultimately responsible for what their kids read.

Next meeting Sept. 18, 10-noon in Thetford.

LUV meeting 5.15.23 ~ Wendy Clark from the ABLE Library

LUV meeting 5.15.2023

Host: Bradford Vt. Library – Gail Trede and Betsy Kane.  Attendees: Wendy Clark, assistant librarian at ABLE library services, Vermont; Dawn Huston, treasurer; Glynis Hart, secretary, Lucinda Walker, Norwich; Amy Thurber, Canaan; Laurel Fulford of Orford Free. The meeting was conducted in person at Bradford, and also via Zoom.

Meeting began at 10:02. Gail opened the meeting and introduced Wendy Clark, who talked about the services ABLE (Audio, Braille, Large print and Electronic books) provides. ABLE is a part of the Vermont Department of Libraries.

Presentation- ABLE services. Wendy C. said ABLE services include audio books or digital format, digital magazines; audiobooks can be uploaded onto a digital cartridge so that (unlike Libby/Overdrive) there is no waiting for a title. ABLE has the largest Large Print collection in the state. They partner with the Perkins School for Braille services for juveniles and adults. They also have children’s books in Braille.

Wonder Books are audio-enabled; they also have high-contrast books. Wonder books are popular with grandparents and parents who have limited reading ability.

ABLE uses special formats because copyright laws, foreign language issues and security can affect whether books are legally available. “We aren’t held to the same copyright standard; (our books) are encrypted and can only be played through the device.”

Braille-on-Demand provides up to 5 books a month.

Who is eligible? Blind, visually impaired, physically impaired, perceptual or reading disabled. Librarians are eligible to certify a reading disability.

There is no charge for any aspect of the service. In New Hampshire, Marilyn Stevenson at the NH State Library is Wendy’s NH counterpart.

For more info, go to able.vermont.gov or call (802) 636-0020

Gail: In Bradford we use this service all the time. It helped us recognize how easy it is to use.

Treasurer’s Report. Dawn H. said the balance is currently $4,159.28. Please check if you have paid for this year; three libraries got reminders in April, and will be getting emails soon. 

Treasurer’s report unanimously accepted.

Gail: Where are we spending? Is it on the website? Who is on the committees?

Dawn: In Dec. and Jan. we paid for supplies.The audio and video committees would welcome new/more members.

Glynis: Jeff Metzler and I are the Video Game exploratory committee.

Update from DVD committee (Judy Russell via Betsy Kane): Updated lists and schedules are on the website. DVDs and Audios will be on the vans this week. Please let Judy know if there are any discrepancies in the lists. Also, let her know if you have extras; some DVDs that have been removed from the collection are still out there.

Audio committee, Amy Thurber: I brought the new rotation lists and new labels for bags. I have relabeled and re-listed the bags that are here today. We mostly finished the audio inventory last year. The Master List is up to date, as are the bag lists. If you have audios in your bag that are no longer on the list, send me a note. I also have a significant list of missing titles.

Dawn H. brought up the learning kits available through calacademy.org. I think $1500 got you five or six different kits but the organization seemed open to a sliding scale fee. 

Glynis H. suggested waiting until more of the membership was available to vote.

Next meeting: July 17th, 10 a.m. will be hosted by Wilmot. Jill Baron may be available to speak about a documentary about students who changed the use of the term “illegal aliens”.

LUV meeting 3.20.23 - VIDEO GAMES in LIBRARIES

Attendees: Glynis Hart, secretary, Wilmot; Dawn Huston, treasurer, Dunbar Free; Julia Lanter, Exeter; Laurel Fulford, Orford Free, Jen Haynes, Silsby Library of Charlestown. Jeff Metzler, of the LUV video game committee, was not able to attend in person but shared his comments and research. (Appendix 2 for Jeff’s letter) (Appendix 3 for survey results)

Meeting began 12:10 via Zoom and in person at the Wilmot Library.

Minutes: Minutes for the January meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:  Dawn H. Twenty-four libraries have responded to annual contribution request, bringing our total funds to $4,159.28. Dawn will analyze the data – she thinks this may be everyone who has bags.

Treasurer’s report approved.

Speaker: Julia Lanter of Exeter Library spoke about the rotating video game collection. Libraries and individuals may borrow the consoles and/or games. Libraries get preference.

Julia L. : The collection was purchased with $25K in ARPA funds; circulation began in June 2022. It includes 6 Playstation 5’s, 6 Xbox X’s, 6 Nintendo Switches, and 50 games for each (brand). The purpose of the ARPA grant was to get teenage boys into the library. A study in the UK found that video games support literacy. People who play video games read! Video games support positive communication with family and friends. (Appendix 1 for links)

The collection has been very successful. Only 4 units are in the library right now; they are all the Xboxes, which are the least popular.

Most popular for library usage are the Nintendo Switches.

YALS (state library) co-sponsored the ARPA grant and matches $250 a year to buy more games/consoles.

Dawn H. Comment: Re the VR helmets, we are having trouble with our insurer getting them okayed. (People wearing VR headsets tend to walk into things.) Still working on the paperwork. Also, we just have PS4 VR.

Glynis H. Comment: The PS5 VR lets users know when they step out of range. Also, we used the VR at Game Night where there were people around to tell the user where to move. 

Julia L. Games are a tool for teens who didn’t get to socialize during Covid to ease back into public spaces. Neurosurgeons are encouraged to use video games because they are similar to the devices used for neurosurgery!

Julia L. Re: Circulation of video games to patrons. Video games have user accounts to create your own video game identity. When we lend out the games, we delete all the patron data when they come back. It takes us about ten minutes. None of our chips have gone missing (the SD cards for Nintendo can be quite small) but people have swapped off the labels. Make sure the label is correct.

The other thing is that updates for a PS4 or an Xbox can take 15 minutes to an hour. Open the console the day before use to do the updates. We hate Xbox and this is why, the updates are constant and they take a long time.

I would recommend starting with Switches, those are the most popular.  The games are more popular than the consoles.

Jen: How long are they checked out for?

Julia: We found one week wasn’t enough. 14 days is better.

Dawn: Dunbar library borrows the collection for their quarterly Teen/Tween nights. We’ve had the issue where you can’t use a regular computer monitor (with the console) because there’s no sound.

Glynis H.: We hooked speakers up to the Nintendo Switch.

Julia: We charge everything before we send it out. Controllers can be charged through the console. Recommends buying used games from Game Stop because they come with a guarantee, and they’re cheaper than new ones. Also, your patrons can access the units through InterLibrary Loan.

Glynis H: What about the library buying online accounts, such as for Minecraft or Roblox?

Julia: Our observation is that patrons want to use their own accounts. Also, games are designed for user levels. We’ve been talking in terms of teens but there are games for seniors; one helps fight Alzheimer’s. There are trivia, historical, flight simulators, even Agatha Christie murder mysteries. An interactive teen-senior night might work. There’s something so empowering for a young person to teach others how to do this. They get really excited to share their knowledge. Some of the games are profound, like Last of Us, which is a video game/morality discussion.

Jen: You can’t find games for the Wii anymore.

Julia: If you’re looking for something, get PS over Xbox every time. Our teens are having problems with apathy. Show them society cares. If their medium is video games, let’s use it. The new stats on teen suicide rates bring out how disconnected teens are. This has to be a focus for us – our trustees tend to be older, and they (don’t necessarily get it). Emphasize to teens “This is YOUR library.” The world is a really hard place right now. Emphasize that libraries are fun. I tell teens, “Libraries are talking places!”

Julia can be reached at Exeter Library. https://www.exeterpl.org/services-4-1

She is also Co-Chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee.

New Business.

Dawn H. There’s an educational organization in California – Spark?—they have kits that come with supplies. It would be $1500 for the co-op to buy in.

Glynis H. Didn’t want to vote on it without more people in the meeting.

Dawn H. Will send a link.

In other business, Cornish Library won their vote to move to a newer library building.

Next meeting is May 15; location and time TBA.   

Appendix 3.20.23 meeting:

1.       https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/video-games-and-literacy/

2.       Hi all, I'm unfortunately unable to make it to today's meeting. I've been helping Glynis look into the viability of launching a rotating video game collection and I wanted to send along a few things I found, and also share my personal experience with circulating video games.

Soon after I began as director at the Etna Library, I started thinking about adding a small collection of circulating video games. I've enjoyed playing video games since I was young and now, having a nine-year-old son, I've rediscovered a love of games as we play hour after hour of Mario and Minecraft together. As video games are quite a bit more expensive than books, audio books, magazines, and DVDs, I think that its a terrific value proposition for patrons to be able to borrow a game instead of necessarily buying it.

I added circulating video games to the Etna Library about a year ago. In that time, our games have circulated 135 times. We have 22 video games in our collection - all for the Nintendo Switch. The Switch is currently the most popular console and is (in general) to most family-friendly, so it was an easy choice for me to start the Etna Library's collection there.  I think that our video game collection has brought in some new patrons who weren’t otherwise in the habit of coming into the library and has generated some excitement simply because it is something new. 

I'm very glad that we added video games to our collection. That said, circulating video game collections at libraries do bring some unique concerns, and I believe that some of these concerns would be increased when considering video games as part of a rotating collection:

1.  Video games are a unique medium because they are so tied to a specific video game console. The most popular system right now remains Nintendo’s Switch. It has, however, been out for 7 years, which is a very long time for a console to be supported. There have been rumors of a new console from Nintendo that will be releasing in the next year or so. Sometimes when a new console replaces an old one, the new machine is backward compatible and works with the older games. Sometimes not. There is a real risk with video games of collections growing obsolete much quicker than with DVDs or audio books. A DVD released in 1997 will play on a DVD player just as well as a DVD released yesterday. Video games don’t work that way. 

2.  Related to this, which consoles should a library or group of libraries choose to have represented in a collection? Switch is popular but old, and if Nintendo's next system doesn't natively play Switch games, then those older games will rapidly become unplayable for many. Another option is the PlayStation 4 - lots of people have these consoles and games are still coming out for it. Again, however, the PlayStation 4 is quite old and its successor, the PlayStation 5 (Sony has never been overly clever with naming their consoles) is still very new, expensive, and difficult to purchase due to shortages. The XBOX Series X & S round out the options. These systems are also quite new and expensive but are not as popular as the PlayStation 5 as Microsoft seems to be moving away from physical media and physical consoles.

3.  Another topic to consider is theft. As video games are expensive, they could be easy targets for theft. For Switch games in particular this is worth considering as games for that console are on very small cartridges. (Which also brings up worries of patrons losing them after checking them out). 

4.  The last element worth thinking about that I'll mention here is content. Like other media forms, video games have a range of content that spans from kid-friendly to adult-only. Like movies, video games are mandated to have ratings that warn about adult content. If LUV were to add a rotating video game collection, we would need to consider if we want to exclude or limit 'Mature' and 'Adult' rated games - or at least figure out a uniform way to label them and display them. At least for myself, I wouldn't want to have an 'Everyone' rated game right next to a 'Mature' rated game on the same shelf in my library.

All that said, I reached out via NHAIS to ask other libraries who are circulating video games to answer some questions. Nine libraries responded and I've compiled their responses in the attached spreadsheet. The questions I asked each library were:

1.       How long have you had video games in your collection? 

2.       About how many video games do you have in your collection? 

3.       What video game consoles do you have games for in your collection? 

4.       Do you loan any video game consoles, or just the games? 

5.       What is the loan length for video games and are they renewable? 

6.       What have the circulation numbers been like for your video game collection? 

7.       Have you had any problems with lost or stolen video games from your collection? 

8.       Do you have any advice regarding loaning video games for a library just starting out? 

I hope some of this is useful and I apologize for not being able to be at the meeting today. If I can assist with looking into the possibility of offering a rotating video game collection in any other way, please let me know - I'm happy to help!

Thank you,

Jeff Metzler, Etna Library

 Responses in the spreadsheet attached below: 

May 15 ZOOM recording ~ Guest presenter Wendy Clark from the ABLE Library

The first meeting of 2023 was held via Zoom, due to a snowstorm! 

Meeting 1.23.23

10 a.m. Via Zoom

Attendees: Rubi Simon, Howe Library; Michael Morris, Howe Library, Stephanie McAndrew, Cornish; Justine Farfara, Beth Reynolds; Amy Thurber, Canaan; Tina Fava, Lempster; Dawn Huston, Dunbar Free; Glynis Hart (secretary), Wilmot.

The meeting began at 10:06. As there were few in attendance, we started with the speaker.

Mike Morris presented “Conducting Diversity Audits for Small and Mid-size Libraries,” a talk he gave at the NELA conference in Manchester October 2022.

MM: The presentation is about the why and how of what we did (at Howe). What is a diversity audit? Why do one? First Steps. Planning Process. Implementation. Findings. Planning for the Future. And “Yeah, but what can I do?”

       A diversity audit is an inventory of the collection to determine the ideas, experiences and representation of non-dominant voices in that collection. It's not a new thing, but it's increasingly common, and not just for children's materials.

       Why? Because patrons deserve equity and representation. They deserve access to diverse reading experiences. The publishing industry isn't set up to provide a diverse reading experience. And, it gives you a baseline to compare the effectiveness of your collections.

       This is not a one-off, but a long-term plan. It should be ongoing, always. Make plans to continue with intentional development of collections.

       First steps. You need buy-in from staff. Create a statement of intent, a rough plan, a timeline. Begin to order books with awareness.

       A resource for how to conduct difficult conversations is  Loretta J. Ross's TED Talk: “Don't Call People Out – Call Them In.”

       At Howe Library we created two committees: Demographics and Data, and Common Vocabulary and Data Collection.

       Use the census and other data to determine the diversity of your community. This eliminates erroneous assumptions you may have about your community, and gives you data to measure your findings. One question to ask is, Are we at least meeting the representation in our community?

       Common vocabulary. We created a common set of vocabulary terms to use.

       Data to collect: Author Diversity; Country/Ethnicity; Economic Welfare; SGM (Sexual and Gender Minority); Mental Health; Physical Health; Race.

       At Howe we did a hand audit, pulling at least 20 percent of each section off the shelves and checking each book for the above data. We took a patron perspective, looking at the cover, the summary, the author bio. Some problematic aspects were determining the author's race or ethnicity; their sexual or gender orientation was hard to determine; many parts were still subjective. For example, the character's point of view – imagine a white author writing a book about Nigeria. Our audit took one year and the involvement of eight staff. We audited 14,130 items and found 25.2 percent of the collection could be classified as diverse. Since we were hoping for 25 percent, that was pretty good.

       However, if you're not happy with your diversity results, don't be alarmed! It took decades to get your collection where it is. It will take time to change it.

       Evaluation. How do you evaluate your results? Will you compare them to your community? Region? Country? You may focus your efforts on children's and YA books, where demographic change is happening. You can use Diverse Book Finder, a website.

       Ordering with intent. We now keep track of diverse titles we order. Our goal is to match the general diversity of the United States.

       To tally your results, you can use a spreadsheet, use your book vendor, or consider software like Collection HQ.

       What would we do differently? Confirm the author's diversity; Consider gender more explicitly; consider character viewpoint.

       Next steps: Rework our collection development policy, write an Equity Statement, consider software, add designations in the catalog to track these titles. For instance, Large Print books shouldn't just be copies of books already in the collection or known bestsellers – think of offering more titles in Large Print.

       Finally, “We can and should do this work.” Don't disqualify yourself or hang back from doing it because you don't identify with a minority.

       Questions? Mike Morris can be reached at 603-640-3263 or mike.morris@thehowe.org

       Note: The Howe has not shared the results of their diversity audit with the community yet, but they will be very clear about what they're doing and why.

Treasurer's Report.

Due to confusion about the start time of the meeting, and general disruptions caused by the snowstorm, the treasurer's report was brief: After spending money on new DVDs, we have $2,679.28 in the bank account.

Old Business.

Bags and Lists. Amy T. noted that it was not possible to do inventory and bag swap (because the meeting moved to virtual) but people can go to the LUV site and check the rotation sheets and the master list. All the lists are up to date. “If you have a bag and you haven't moved it to where it needs to be, go to the website and print out that list. Call me and I'll send you the pull list (titles to be removed).”

New business. Glynis H. reported that the video committee met and is moving ahead with gathering information about the viability of video collections. Wilmot Library will borrow the video game collection from Exeter in March and report back. Jeff Metzler is talking to libraries with video game collections. Also, Emily from Exeter offered to address the March LUV meeting to talk about lending video games & consoles.

The March meeting will be held at Richards Free Library in Newport at NOON.

Meeting adjourned 11:30.