GMLC ANNUAL MEETING

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 from 1:30 – 2:30 PM

Via GoTo Meeting

Attendance

Board Members: Wendy Hysko, Richard Pritsky, Lisa Von Kann, Owen McDermott, Hannah Peacock.

In addition to the Board, 18 members libraries were represented.

President’s Welcome - Wendy Hysko

Wendy welcomed all to the meeting and introduced Owen McDermott for explanation about need for fee increase.

Fee Increase & Current Statistics - Owen McDermott  

Circulation has increased dramatically -from pre-pandemic until now, it has doubled. We have lost approximately 1000 eBooks due to changes in publishers’ terms. Purchasers have shifted slightly more towards audio, as they are generally more permanent. Unfortunately, audio books are more expensive. 29,000 people are now using LUV, up 9,000 from 2 years ago. The average wait time for a book is 52 days.

Owen welcomed ideas from members and opened the floor for discussion.

Questions & Discussion

Susanna K. from Charlotte, who orders titles with High Holds for the Consortium, explained that many permanent audio titles have moved to a metered format. As a result, over 40 titles expired this past month.

Marie S. from Warren mentioned that it may be difficult for libraries to keep Overdrive now that Palace is an option. Wendy H. responded that VTLib has shared that they have very limited funds for Palace collection development moving forward, and the app does not work with eBooks readers.

Traci from Hartland asked about grant opportunities for smaller libraries. Wendy responded that any grants received would be for all libraries, to supplement the full collection.  Owen will continue to look for grants.

Emer F. from Fletcher Free opened a discussion about extending check-out times from 2 to 3 weeks. This will be investigated further, as it would have to be implemented consortium wide. Members were reminded that check-outs may be automatically set to 7 days, (rather than 14) and that we should  all show our patrons how to change that setting.

Collection Development - Hannah Peacock

The $200,000 ARPA grant was hugely helpful, but we are once again seeing the number of holds increasing at an alarming rate.  It is frustrating to see many Advantage copies not being shared and even being deleted when there still many holds in the general collection. Please remind patrons to return titles early if they are done reading/listening. Many thanks to Susanna K. and Lisa M (from Norwich) who are amazing purchasers. We could use another purchaser for non-fiction titles. 

Questions & Discussion

Susanna K asked about the possibility of trainings on how to share Advantage copies.

Traci J. from Hartland asked about general training on Collection Development.

Wrap-up- Wendy Hysko 

Board will look into trainings in the New Year.

Wendy mentioned that no Board members’ terms expire this year.

Wendy Hysko, President, Brownell Library (President and Board terms expire 2026)

Owen McDermott, Secretary (Secretary and Board terms expire 2025)

Hannah Peacock, Burnham Memorial Library (term expires 2026)

Richard Pritsky, Carpenter-Carse Library (term expires 2025)

Mara Siegel, Treasurer (Treasurer and Board terms expire 2024)

Wendy H. thanked everyone and ended the meeting for all at 2:26pm.

Respectfully submitted by Hannah Peacock, GMLC Board Secretary.