Page 1 of 9

4.

MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Civic Center Building, Room #410B

- - PROPOSED MINUTES - -

(1) CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 7:05 p.m.

(2) ROLL CALL/INTRODUCTION OF NEW COMMISSIONERS

Present

Bill Crandall Alison D. Howard Joel S. Fugazzotto Cal Kurzman

Barbara Schoen Lori O’Connor Martin Perlmutter

Absent with Notification

Leslie Plant David Fickbohm Judy Anderson Jennifer Wallace Meredith Parnell Max Norman

Also Present Gail Haar, Director of County Library Services Scott Bauer, Deputy Director of County Library Services

Edna Guadiana, Sr. Secretary Laurie Thompson Librarian II/CA Room, Civic Center Library

(3) ADOPTION OF AGENDA M/S/C Kurzman/Perlmutter - Agenda approved as submitted.

(4) APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

M/S/C Fugazzotto/Howard – Minutes approved as submitted

(5) OPEN TIME FOR PUBLIC EXPRESSION NONE

(6) READING AND CORRESPONDENCE FILES

Page 2 of 9

(7) ANNE T. KENT CALIFORNIA ROOM REPORT

Laurie Thompson, Librarian II/CA Room at the Civic Center gave a brief update on recent outreach and activities of the Anne T. Kent California Room for the Marin County Free Library.

FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS

138 New, Deeper Shelves Installed Thanks to funding from the Friends of MCFL

Many California Room materials are oversize and our old shelving did not adequately support them. Thanks to funding by the Friends of the Marin County Free Library and thanks to the California Room volunteers who helped with installation, all of our shelving is now 11” deep. It’s a major improvement in both functionality and aesthetics.

FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS New Door Installed

Adds Security & Enhances Preservation

The door was designed by DPW architect, David Vaughan and uses all recycled materials. It allows us to better protect our materials when we are unstaffed. It also gives us flexibility in how we shelve things as the whole room is now more of a “locked case” environment.

Page 3 of 9

OUTREACH TO YOUTH

Teacher Open House @ Marin History Museum September 8, 2011

The California Room serves youth of all ages on a regular basis –everyone from 4th graders writing local history reports to College of Marin students making videos or working on in-depth research projects. This year we’ve also done a few outreach activities including participating in a Marin County-wide teacher open house sponsored by the Marin History Museum where teachers were invited to explore the resources available to their schools.

PARTNERSHIPS - YOUTH

Kentfield Centennial Committee Above: Grape Festival Celebration at the Kent Estate, c.1930

Laurie is serving on the Kentfield Centennial Committee under the auspices of the Kentfield School District which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Adaline E. Kent Middle School in 2014. On October 4, Laurie gave an illustrated talk on the history of the Kent Family in Kentfield as part of a community meeting to garner support & volunteers for the centennial celebration. On December 14, Laurie gave a more in-depth talk on the same subject to the entire staff at Bacich Elementary School to introduce them to Kentfield history and to MCFL & CRM resources.

Page 4 of 9

PARTNERSHIPS – MARIN PARKS

2011-12 Oral Histories Focusing on Open Space Preservation Above: Oral Historian, Marilyn Geary interviews former Sup. Gary Giacomini

During fiscal year 2011/12 the California Room is partnering with Marin Parks to create a series of oral histories with individuals instrumental in preserving Marin open space. 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the Marin Parks & Open Space Dept. The California Room will also be hosting a digital photo album documenting the history of Marin Parks on our digital archive. Volunteers & members of the Parks Dept. will collaborate on the cataloguing and description of the images. So far we have interviewed David Hansen, a pioneer employee of Parks & Open Space who discussed the history of the department as well as land acquisition and trail creation in Eastern Marin. We also interviewed former Supervisor Gary Giacomini (above) whose term as Supervisor coincided with much of the major acquisition of open space in Marin. He was also instrumental in helping to preserve the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

PARTNERSHIPS – CIVIC CENTER BUILDING CONSERVANCY Creation of New Exhibit on Frank Lloyd Wright in former Gift Shop

Above: R-L: Aaron Green, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mary Summers, et al. on the site of the future Marin Civic Center, 1958

Page 5 of 9

Laurie is curating an exhibit titled “Marin &The Realm of Frank Lloyd Wright” in the former Civic Center gift shop. DPW has retrofitted the former gift shop with locking glass cabinets. The installation of the exhibit is complete; it will open in early 2012. Materials for the exhibit are principally from the Anne T. Kent California Room collection and a number of new donations have enhanced the display, including a collection of FLW-inspired Heath Ceramics donated by Suki Sennett.

GRANTS – LSTA PITCH GRANT AWARD OF $3000.

50 Microfilm Master-Negatives of Historic Marin County Newspapers, 1861-1922, created for us by the U.C. Berkley Lab for future digitization

Completed August 31: 50 master-negative reels of historic Marin County newspapers on microfilm (1861-1922) belonging to the California Newspaper Project were generated for the Marin County Free Library for future digitization and incorporation into its CONTENTdm local history database. We now need to raise money to digitize it all; very expensive; approx. $80,000. On our digital archive, we currently feature a pilot project with a small subset of these papers. It is very successful. It has been processed for OCR, including headline correction, and it has also been segmented, which makes it easy for the user to click on the desired article, open it up in a new window & print it out. You can find the pilot at: californiaroom.marinlibrary.org.

Page 6 of 9

MATERIALS & SERVICES – WEBSITE & DATABASE Added CONTENTdm database to website one year ago

Launched re-designed CRM web pages with MCFL site in November californiaroom.marinlibrary.org

Thanks to Thompson’s talented colleague and the CRM Digital Archivist, Carol Uhrmacher, we have recently launched a nicely-designed & user-friendly virtual portal to the Anne T. Kent California Room collection. It includes a substantial digital collection in our searchable CONTENTdm database.

Our database includes over 1000 images, 85 oral histories (including full streaming audio) & digitized newspapers. Our site features a comprehensive section on FLW and the history of the Marin County Civic Center; an inter-active Rancho map; pathfinders for popular topics such as researching an historic home & genealogy research; and much more. Statistics from Last Quarter for CRM Digital Materials:

Online Archive of California (OAC) & Calisphere: 234,188 hits

California Room Digital Archive (CONTENTdm): 442,685 hits

MATERIALS & SERVICES – SOCIAL MEDIA

Page 7 of 9

January will mark 1 year on Twitter Also participate in MCFL’s: YouTube; Facebook & Flicker outreach

californiaroom.marinlibrary.org

The California Room piloted Twitter for MCFL, starting on January 1, 2011. To date we’ve generated over 700 tweets. We currently have over 200 followers. We average about 1 tweet per day.

MATERIALS & SERVICES: DONATIONS

Many outstanding new primary source materials donated Above: Rose Bowl dance in Larkspur, 1947

From the Zan Negative Collection donated in 2011 A few of the significant donations: Extensive archive on Justus and Jack C. Craemer (former owners and publishers

of the Marin I.J.) including original photographs, correspondence and ephemera; includes signed letters from Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon to Justus Craemer. Donated by Jeff Craemer.

5 original copies of the newspaper, Marin County Journal from the 1880s. Donated by Doug Bunnell, Executive Editor, Marin I.J.

Photographs & ephemera documenting “Corte Madera del Presidio” rancho grantee, John Reed and family. Also includes images of Dr. Lyford & wife, Hilarita Reed, and an original document signed by Rancho Sausalito grantee, William Richardson. Donated by Jeff Craemer.

Alexander J. “Zan” Stark collection consisting of 385 postcard negatives documenting townships and sites across Marin, c.1933-1955. (see illustration above). Donated by Jeff Craemer.

Panama Pacific International Exposition (1915) souvenirs and memorabilia including “Novagems” from the Tower of Jewels, medals, buttons, plates, fans, etc. (donated by the San Rafael Public Library).

After a brief question and answer period, President O’Connor thanked Laurie for her presentation.

Page 8 of 9

(8) REPORTS OF COMMITTEE CHAIRS AND OTHER COMMITTEE LIAISON

NONE

(9) NEW BUSINESS NONE

(10) OLD BUSINESS NONE

(11) PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2011

NONE

(12) DIRECTOR OF COUNTY LIBRARY SERVICES REPORT FOR NOVEMBER, 2011 Director Haar gave a brief report on both the good and bad news for the library: Good News: Bolinas Stinson Beach Library Improvement Society voted in October, to fund

another 15 hrs per week at both the Stinson Beach and Bolinas libraries. This will go to BOS for approval next week. These branches will now be open all day Saturday and for the first time on Mondays.

The newly hired Branch Manager (Janet Doerge) and Children’s Librarian II (Jennifer Robinson) for the Novato libraries started this week.

The Kay Ryan event raised $9,200, with the library getting $8,000 after expenses were paid.

The Library Desk Supervisor recruitment closed on Monday, with 14 candidates meeting the MQ’s, so we will go directly into the hiring phase of the recruitment in the near future.

Requisitions will be submitted to fill a fulltime Teen Librarian at the Novato library and a halftime Librarian II/Cataloger at Technical Services.

Future recruitments include: a Community Library Specialist for the Bolinas Library; an Office Assistant for Administration and a Selector for Children’s materials.

Lucky Day Books are going out – MCFL, Tiburon and Mill Valley are now doing this, and San Anselmo along with Sausalito will start soon

The Library’s new website is a hit Nooks are very popular Next year’s Summer Reading Program will be a joint venture with the Parks

Department. The theme will be “Between the Covers”. Bad News: The State Trigger Cuts included a $16 million reduction to state library funding,

which essentially eliminates all remaining state funding for the California Library Services Act, the state literacy program, and the Public Library Foundation. MCFL did not budget for any State revenue this year. The projected funds that we have lost are:

$48,300 from the Public Library Fund $167,000 in Direct Loans and Interlibrary Loans from TBR $34,709 in Literacy grants

Page 9 of 9

(13) ANNOUNCEMENTS

Director Haar announced that: This year’s Budget meetings will be coming up the week of January 23. Sometime in January, we will be going for approval to the BOS to stop the

50¢ hold fee. The Marin City Library will be having their 15 year celebration on Saturday,

February 11 at 12 noon at the Marin City Library. President O’Connor announced that sadly West Marin Library Commissioner Richard Gamble had passed away on November 29. A memorial service has been planned on Tuesday, January 3 in Bolinas, and donations may be made in his name to the Bolinas Stinson Beach Library Improvement Society.

(14) ADJOURNMENT – M/S/C Schoen/Perlmutter Meeting adjourned @ 8:20.