Present: Rebecca Dickerson, Bob Bates, Steve Balzarini, Chuck Petras, Rich Chittenden, Kristie Kirkpatrick and Peggy Bryan.

Board chair Rebecca Dickerson called the meeting to order at 4:00. She asked for a motion to accept the proposed officers for 2014: Bob Bates, Chair; Chuck Petras, Vice-Chair; and Steve Balzarini, Secretary. Steve Balzarini made a motion to accept the slate of officers, Chuck Petras seconded and the motion passed. Rebecca passed the gavel to Bob.

Bob asked for additions or modifications to the meeting. Kristie requested that the short film at the end be eliminated and include Rich Chittenden on the agenda regarding the board position.

The minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed. Rebecca Dickerson motioned to approve the December minutes, Steve Balzarini seconded and the motion passed.

Peggy presented the financial reports for December 2013. She presented payment voucher resolution #1-14 totaling $73,925.02. Rebecca Dickerson made a motion to approve the resolution; Steve Balzarini seconded and the motion passed.

Kristie presented the circulation statistics, starting with the December circulation report. While most branches continued to decrease in traditional circulation, improvements were seen in Endicott, Garfield, Uniontown and up by 50% in Lacrosse and Oakesdale.

The report of annual usage showed a 9% drop in traditional circulation with 133,498 items checked out system wide. Lacrosse and Rosalia were praised for seeing the only increases in annual circulation. Nine branches saw increasing use of computers within the library with Rosalia, Tekoa and Uniontown increasing most. Five branches saw increased attendance at their programs which was actually up by over 200 attendees system wide.

Database usage dipped by about 10% and eBook usage increased by just over 20%. This year, we also started tracking Facebook, Twitter and Blog views. Kristie encouraged all Facebook users to join their local branch library, Whitman County Library and History of Whitman County Library pages.

Other reports discussed during the meeting included volunteer hours, media checkouts and branch activity where Rosalia was officially crowned the busiest branch for 2013 with St. John and Tekoa coming in at a strong second and third place.

A brief discussion followed.

CONTINUING BUSINESS: Kristie discussed the search for a board member. Bob welcomed Rich to the meeting and asked that everyone briefly introduce themselves. Rich briefly told the board about himself and they in turn asked him several questions. A brief discussion followed.

Kristie discussed the 2014 Levy Reset Election. She reported that an article and editorial in the Gazette had errors regarding the library levy; misstating the levy increase to be $.50 per thousand rather than 7.08 cents per thousand. Both she and Peggy have spoken with the Gazette and a correction should be in the next edition. A correction was also in the Daily Bulletin. A brief discussion followed on the impact of I-747.

NEW BUSINESS:

Kristie thanked Becky Dickerson and Peggy Bryan for attending Library Legislative Day this week on Thursday & Friday.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:00. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 18th at 4 p.m. at the Colfax Library.

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Peggy Bryan, Recording Secretary

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Bob Bates, Board Chair

For more information, contact:

Kristie Kirkpatrick at 509-397-4366