Okay. Okay. I want to call the meeting of the library board of trustees together to order and say good evening and welcome to everyone here in the room and to anyone who is joining us live streaming. I'm sorry Elise can you just tell the check that your microphone's on? It's on. Okay sorry. Okay can you hear me? Okay, I can do that. Okay. Okay, sorry. Okay, can you hear me? Okay, I can do that. Okay, so we're learning how to do this. We've never done this before. So I wanna thank, I'm Elise Stein and I'm the chair of the Library Board of Trustees and I'll be the presiding officer for tonight's library board meeting. And I wanna thank everyone for their attention and we will now begin the meeting. Claudia, can you call the roll? Sure. Lace Stain. Here. Claire McRae. Here. Janice Jensen. Here. Jess Laboukas. Here. Airing Klein., President Robert Leopold and Steve Morris and we have Consoliasin Mary Beth Connelly present at the meeting. Thank you and that's it. Great thank you. We have several library staff members here with us this evening who I want to take the time to acknowledge Megan Dotsler, our library director, and board liaison, and Claudia Gutierrez, senior administrative assistant, both of whom regularly attend all library trustee meetings. Additionally, two members of the library management team are joining us tonight. Jessica Borschetta is assisting with public petitions and Bollette RIPPY is assisting with technology. Thank you, Gillette, Jessica and Bollette for your time and thank you, Marybeth Conley, as well. And then I'd like to get a motion for approval of the February minutes. And if does anyone have any questions, I guess I should ask before. You got three corrections. Three corrections. Okay. All right, well, the first one is on page two. Is your mic on? Steve, is your mic on? No. Yeah. The first is on this page to upcoming programs One two three fourth bullet point where it says oh February 8th should be on February 8th Page three library board of trustees meeting on March the 19th we had already voted to change that today the 26th And then I was a little unclear back on page two under staffing, the second bullet point, where it says job descriptions for upcoming vacancy. I wasn't sure whether that should be job description for an upcoming vacancy or job descriptions for upcoming vacancies. So I need a little clarification on that. I believe at that time it was just one vacancy. So upcoming job description for an upcoming vacancy is in the work. So thank you for that. Okay. Okay, anyone else? What? Sorry, the library board of trustees on March 19th, that was before we made the change for this meeting. So that's why it says March 19 instead of March 26. Okay. Just this is just a note. So we've got it. Okay. Then can I then I can I get a motion? Oh, sorry. I had another. So sorry. Not this is going to sound very soft, but under the follow up questions from last meeting, it says Miss Kray. I just even other small sea before the the other big sea. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Now can we get a motion to approve with the changes the February minutes? I move with changes that I move with changes that we approve the board meetings from February 5th Thank you in a second my second Okay, all in favor. I hi, okay? It's carried excellent Okay I'm there. Okay, Megan you have a a report on the request for review. I do, thank you. So on January 31st, 2025, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library received a request for review of the book, P is for Palestine, a Palestine alphabet book by Goldberg Bashi. After review, the library decided to retain the book in the Children's Nonfiction Collection. I informed the resident who made the request of the library's decision. The resident indicated that they wanted to appeal the decision to the trustees. While we plan to discuss that appeal today, on March 20th, 2025, the resident withdrew their appeal. Though we are not hearing an appeal today, I wanted to give the trustees an update on the status of this request for a review. The request was made by a City of Falls Church resident in response and in accordance with Library Policy, a review committee of three staff members with master's degrees in Library Science was formed. The committee acknowledged the seriousness of the requesters' concerns and sought to address them within the framework of the library's mission and policies. The committee evaluated the book using Mary Riley's styles public libraries collection management policy, the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights, and the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Statement. The committee also reviewed news articles, statements, and other documents related to the book. After its review, the committee recommended retaining P.S. for Palestine in the collection and moving it from the picture book section to the children's nonfiction collection. The reasons include, first, while this is an alphabet book, the author presents Palestine as the primary focus. The book also introduces complex topics that will require adult explanation for some children and introduces a glossary, which is similar to other narrative nonfiction books in the nonfiction section. Second, the library aims to include materials that represent historically underrepresented groups. Library policy states, the library recognizes that many perspectives which include but are not limited to racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic demographic groups, have been historically underrepresented, stereotyped or excluded from library collections. And items are selected, offered, and maintained to address this imbalance. Third, other libraries have placed the book in the Children's Nonfiction Collection, doing number 956, where books on Israel and Palestine are located, showing that there is a precedent for placing this book in the Children's Nonfiction Collection. Library policy also states that a patron's choice of library materials for personal use is an individual matter. While a person may reject materials for themselves, they cannot exercise censorship to restrict access to the materials by others. And second, that MRSPL does not endorse any particular views expressed in the materials it selects, meaning that the inclusion of any material in the library's collection does not reflect an endorsement by the library or the city of false church. Professionals who select materials for the library follow the library's collection management policy, which adheres to the best practices in library science and is based on the American Library Association's Bill of Rights and other American Library Association documents. After the committee completed their review, I contacted the resident on February 24th, 2025, and informed them of the decision to retain the book in the Children's Nonfiction Collection. The resident gave notice that they would like to appeal the decision to the trustees. On February 24th, I contacted the library board of trustees to inform them of the appeal. On March 20th, 25th, the resident gave notice to me that they were withdrawing their appeal. Since the resident has withdrawn their appeal, the decision of the library stands and this determination shall remain in effect for two years. I want to thank each trustee for taking the time to review the book and the materials relating to the book. Thank you for your time, your research, and your serious consideration that you gave this request. Thank you also to City of Leadership, who worked with me and the trustee used to ensure proper procedure was followed for this meeting. Thank you. Megan, thank you. I'd also like to take a moment to thank the committee that conducted the review of PS4 Palestine for the many hours of research and thoughtful deliberation in reviewing this book, so they could make their recommendations to the library director. I'd like to thank the library director for her many hours of the same and for working so closely with myself and the Board of Trustees as we conducted our own review as required by library policy and anticipation of hearing the appeal. And finally, I would also like to thank the city management team for being so helpful with logistics and support. Did any board members have anything they wanted to add? Okay. Moving on. I don't see anyone in the room who to make a petition, Megan, do you have any public petitions? I have no further public petitions besides the summary written comments. OK. Thank you. Let's move on to the regular library report then. Megan, that's also you. OK. You will note that you have two months worth of statistics and that is because we changed our meeting last month to accommodate the timeline for the budget. I have several other updates including staffing. So the 30-hour library system position has been filled internally. That was a vacancy because we have a new programming and outreach library. And the 20-hour library assistant position has been offered to somebody internally as well and they have a verbal acceptance. We're still waiting on a little bit of paperwork for that. And then finally we had had our 40-hour Technical Services Library Assistant to give notice and they have resigned. They are moving back to their home state to be closer to their family. That position closes on Friday and interviews will be next week. So right now, just the status again is that we have a 30-hour position that has been filled and we have a 20-hour position that's almost filled and then vacant 40-hour technical services library assistant 2 that is also posted internally and has gained internal interest that position will close Friday and interviews will be next week. For collections, I wanted to mention that we have Brown's hardware displays in the library and also in City Hall. We have a meeting on Thursday with a historical committee to show them our new archive. And then I also wanted to mention that our very own ballot is running March Literary Madness, which is going really well and is been well received by the public and also on social media. For upcoming programs, I wanted to mention that our use book sale was March 14th through 17th. We are trying a new Italian conversation group to add to our conversation groups that we already hold. That Italian conversation group will be once per month, April through June. We have a variety of author talks this month. Coming up soon is poetry month. We will have poetry events and we will be reading poems over the loudspeaker at Closing. We have a Keith Butler concert on March 29th. On Saturday, April 12th, we have inviting nature in, creating outdoor spaces that support wildlife. And I also want to just mention that one of our regular programs is on Wednesday morning mindfulness meditation for everyday life. Building updates. The HVAC has gone to City Council and was approved, so that's very exciting. the city's budget for the city's budget for the budget for the city's budget for HVAC has gone to City Council and was approved, so that's very exciting. We will be moving forward with that, which is great. And I'm also just really pleased to tell you that the City conducted a survey, a community survey, and library services. This is the top service that residents are satisfied with in the city, with over 90% of survey respondents satisfied with library services. So I was really excited to hear, and I want to say thank you to the library staff and also to the library trustees for making the library a place that is beloved in the city fall stretch. For equity, I want to point out that we have a women's history month display with books and also a women's history month display in two sections of our library that highlight important women for the city of Falls Church. Those are really wonderful displays and if you haven't been able to go over and see them yet, I would highly encourage you to do so. And then the look ahead for next month is we have a trustee meeting April 16th. Any questions? Doesn't look like it, thank you, that was for the report. Then in that case, we can move on to foundation liaison reports. I know that the library foundation Amy's not able to be here today. So, did you know that? I have two short updates from Amy. The foundation is in the process of redesigning their website. They also have a new display up at our library. So if you haven't gotten to see that, come take a look. Then I also wanted to mention that in March they had a volunteer open house which was really well attended. I was happy to see that. And that's all from the foundation. Excellent. Can we get a City Council report, Mayor Bath? Thank you. The City Council had a meeting till midnight Monday night. I'm still recovering from that. At that meeting, we were presented with the school board's budget as well as the City Manager's proposed budget. So the next six weeks will be spent reviewing budgets and the library budget was in there as well. So there's a big fat book. There will be a public meeting on April 3rd and noon time in this space for the public to learn about the budget and there's another one in the evening about two weeks later and then we'll have our final vote on the budget on Monday May 13th I think it is and that will then will be set for the year. Let's see. You may have noticed fresh asphalt around town, maybe even on Park Avenue right out here. So that was one of the top concerns of many people and the asphalt trucks were out filling holes. If you see other holes and problems or things in the streets, you can go right to the city's website and put those in and they'll fix them and I think they're still out and about doing asphalt. The other thing coming up for City Council is April 14th will be our vote on accessory dwelling units. We are just coming to the very finish line on that when it's been about a year and a half of consideration. So there have been a lot of back and forth and it seems like what we're getting close to is a good compromise, which means not everyone's not happy but it's gonna go. But we hope it's all gonna pass and everyone will eventually be able to actually build an accessory dwelling unit if they so desire. And then the last thing is I was at the 100th anniversary of the volunteer fire department on Saturday night. They had a black tie event which was lovely and they had this great slide show and they had tons of photos from the Ray Ray Styles local history room archive that were really nice and really showed this great history of our volunteer fire department. And that is all. Any questions? Thanks. No. Thank you very much. It's good to know. And do we, Megan, do we have a report from the school board? I do not have any updates from the school board. Okay. And finally, the Arts and Humanities Council, Jess. Yes. false church will be participating in World Arts Day on Saturday, April 26th at Cherry Hill Farmhouse and Park from 9 to 1 p.m. So that is also the day of the farmers market. So hoping for beautiful weather and once you're at the farmers market, you can go over to Cherry Hill to check out the arts scene over there. There will be 35 artists displaying their work with live music and dance performances throughout the day. Excellent, thank you very much. Anyone have business that's not on the agenda? No? Well then, this is a very quick meeting so thank you to everyone. Can I get a motion to adjourn? I'll move to adjourn the meeting. Okay, in a second. Thank you very much. All in favor? Well, adjourn. Meeting's adjourned. Thank you very much. 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