May 24 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

Prince Rupert Public Library

Library Board Meeting



May 24, 2023

Present: Ronald Braun (RoB), Richard Butler (RiB), Teri Forster (TF), Tiffany Prystay (TP), Brendan Turner (BT), Joe Zelwietro (JZ, Chief Librarian)


Regrets: Carolina de Ryk (CdR), Kate Lyon (KL)


Meeting commenced at 7:04 pm.

• Traditional territorial acknowledgement by BT
• Motion to accept Consent Agenda by TF, seconded by RoB; passed
• Discussion Agenda
• Discussion about recently passed Library operational budget and capital request for heating/HVAC issues
• Motion by TF, seconded by RiB that JZ invite Dr. Rob Buchan (or his designate) to a PRL Board meeting to clarify the City's position for a new Library, passed.
• Discussion about the Library's Heating problem in relation to other building issues and Board consensus that heating was the number 1 priority
• Discussion about possibility of having a mental health nurse/social worker at the Library present at the Library for some time. JZ will contact Northern Health to explore this possibility.
• JZ will explore what other mental health training or emergency processes or de-escalation training would be useful to Library staff.
• Board suggests that Saturday June 17, 9am to 12:30pm is a good time for trustees and staff to get together to discuss the implementation of the Strategic plan and the next iteration of the plan.
• Motion by RoB, seconded by TP to accept the proposed wording of the suggestion that PR Library creates a policy to explicitly state that the Library will support local authors. The statement will be: The Prince Rupert Library will support authors of Prince Rupert by collecting published area authors books while retaining the right of rejection. JZ will place this new Policy in the PRL Policy manual prior to June 14 Board meeting.
• Discussion about the soon-to-be hung new Library sign -Wap Liistx. We are still hopeful that it will be hung June 21, 2023.
• The PRL Library Board negotiation team will consist of the Chief Librarian, JZ and Richard Butler and the planned negotiation session will be July 4-7 2023.
• JZ will request that Rosa Miller, Corporate Administrator of City of Prince Rupert, come to speak with the Library Board about the selection of Library trustees. Any BCLTA training will wait until after Rosa's talk with the Board.
• There was discussion about moving the 'Children's computer' from the Children's area. Trustees are going to think about this and talk to other people before any action is requested.
• There was discussion about possible expansion of weekend hours, possibly on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Again, trustees are going to think about this and talk to other people before any action is requested.

Motion to adjourn: RiB, passed. Meeting ended at 8:15pm

Next Meeting at 7pm Wednesday June 14, 2023.