Jasper Library Board meeting: May 8, 2014

Jasper Library Director Rita Douthitt reported to the Library Board in their meeting Thursday night that the building committee is now in place to help move the library closer to a decision on expansion plans.

The building committee is made up of nine members who convened for the first time Tuesday night for two hours.

The nine members include Brad Ward, CEO of the Dubois County Community Foundation who was also nominated to chair the group; Karen Grewe, a city employee at the Jasper Community Arts Center; Joe Huddleston, a Kimball Office employee and market master for the Jasper Farmers Market; Tina Mair, temporary librarian at Ireland Elementary School; and John Bell, the COO at TrueScripts Management Services, he also serves as the president of the Jasper Redevelopment Commission.

They will join two Jasper Library Board members — Mark Kunkel and Pamela Catt — and two staff members — Library Director Rita Douthitt and Branch Manager Christine Golden— in exploring ideas to be presented to the board for consideration.

Douthitt sent out meeting notes to the rest of the board members about the discussion in the first meeting. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 20th at 6:30 p.m. at the Library Annex in Jasper.

The board heard that the library will undergo a financial audit by the end of the year that will cover fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

She also reported that for an unknown reason, Jasper circulation was off by 20 percent in April from 2013. The library staff is proctoring fewer GED tests, too. Douthitt says that she is excited about the summer reading programs, however, because they bring in many patrons.

—Another big item on the agenda was the discussion about allowing the library take a picture of patrons to be used for indentification purposes when checking out materials. Douthitt informed the board that she will craft a new circulation policy with the oversight of library attorney Bill Shaneyfelt and it will be presented at next month’s meeting for approval and adoption by the board.

—The library is about to have their first court date to recoup borrowed materials or the money owed on overdue materials. Douthitt reported that their first small claims court date is in early June for 25 or 30 people from which the library is trying to obtain late fees. Several patrons have contacted the library and are working out an arrangement to pay their overdue fees.

—Douthitt also stated the library is looking for local graphic artists to design a new logo for the library to use in a re-branding initiative. Contact the library for more information at 482-2712.