Zoom Meetup Recording & Notes
Jan 27, 2021
Notes from the call:
(01:20). Mari Martin:
Giving the new Minister briefings on public libraries
Working on moving financial information over to new Ministry, talking about grant sign offs, ensuring public transparency (new process for PLB)
End of their fiscal year. Will be reporting out on strategic plan, starting to plan this.
Mari - had 30 minutes to brief the Minister last week. Really keen, great questions. She foresees some meetings coming out of that. Now that Minister up to date on file, foresees communication coming. Not sure on timing.
As part of transition to Municipal Affairs, emails to Public Libraries Branch are the same.
Grant report - looking for quality, not quantity. Interested in how you navigated COVID. You don’t have to use the template we provided.
Minister visits - we’d like to get the Minister out and visiting public libraries. If you have a particular event or anything where you’d like to invite the Minister to attend, please reach out to me.
We’ll invite new ADM to attend future ABCPLD zoom call
(15:45). A few comments about Mari’s visit.
(18:55). Monika Willner, Burns Lake, has a staffing challenge. Members provided advice and suggestions.
From Cari : “I keep plugging this to everyone who will listen - the Kootenay Library Federation has taken on a labour lawyer that all member libraries have access to without having to pay huge legal retainer fees, and it has been SO HELPFUL. Pitch it to your federations if you aren’t one of the biggies with your own lawyers!”
(39:00). Danika, Fort Nelson - Does anyone else have a threshold of active cases before closing your doors and going back to contactless pick-up?
From Jacqueline Wagner : Radium Hot Springs Public Library will be following suit with Invermere as of tomorrow
From Smithers Library : Smithers returned to Takeout Dec. 22 due to quickly rising local cases.
From Deborah Koep : @Fort Nelson - I am using certain kinds of businesses as comparators to help with these kinds of decisions - ex. if restaurants close for in-restaurant dining that would be a signal to close seating some/all seating areas; if retail closes that would be a signal to cut back to curbside/takeout. We would try to sustain some kind of access to public computing regardless.
From Heather Evans-Cullen : @Fort Nelson- Deb's message reflects the approach we are taking here in Gibsons as well.
From Don Nettleton Okanagan Regional Library : Also depends upon if you have ways you can do self checkout and perhaps just modify service. And of course your staffing levels and do you have the staffing to keep going as you were
From Smithers Library : We are reassessing based on our local case count and 7-day rolling average at each month's Board meeting.
From Melissa : We have kept it as an option
From Beverley Rintoul : I think Cari's right about community cases vs care home cases.
From Monika Willner : We are considering going back to curbside
From Anne IPL : Invermere has resumed curb side for two weeks. We have not changed our hours.
From Wendy - Valemount : We never fully opened to public, are doing browse by appointment and computer use by appointment, limiting the time in library, as well as offering delivery and curbside. Staff is working alone at the library and doing work at home as well
(44:14). Melissa Millsap - question about board recruitment. Non-union PLA.
From Julie Spurrell : important to remember that the "term" is just 2 years, though. The 8 years is 4x 2year terms. Not all Council's renew that often, and in our case, they have started not renewing, especially after 2 or 3 terms
From Scott Hargrove : Yup - Julie's totally right - eight years is the de facto maximum, not a term length...
From Heather Evans-Cullen : @Melissa, we have a Board Recruitment Committee that is responsible for this
From Don Nettleton Okanagan Regional Library : I think the intent of the legislation is to have new blood and some fresh people. But like Scott, we have had some off for just normally a year, but sometimes they did switch to an alternate pretty quick or came back the following year in several cases. Some have been in one community and then come on for another but there was always a break in time.
(55:15). Judy - expanding volunteer base. Question re: criminal background checks. How do you do this?
Majority of libraries shared they used RCMP
Some use local police or RCMP depending on community
From Carmen Oleskevich : CRCs for volunteers can done online for no cost for a basic check
From Nelson Public Library: Tracey : City police in Nelson. We use a form from the City's HR department that other City departments for volunteers that they then take to the police.
(57:02). Don - some conversation with ORL staff of wondering if they can push to front of line for vaccinations? Anyone else experience this?
Others haven’t experienced this
(59:00). Ursula - can we require staff to get vaccinated?
Scott is talking to his lawyer tomorrow about this very thing. His understanding from the article below is that employers can require their employees to be vaccinated, and if they refuse, it could be grounds for firing. Otherwise employers would be accepting all kinds of liability.
(1:09:30). Do people get proof of vaccination?
Our understanding is yes, but no one has seen one yet.
(1:10:30). Ursula - patrons who repeatedly don’t properly wear their masks
(1:14:00). Wendy - banning patrons
Next Call is in 2 weeks: Wed Feb 10 from 2:30 - 4 pm PST
Jan 13 2020
Notes from the call:
(01:10). Scott Leslie:
Current Fund Awardees - https://digiprojects.libraries.coop/connectivity/successful-grantees-to-date/
Connectivity Top Up - 4 applied, 3 approved (1 redirected to work with consultant) - $7600 of possible $75,000 awarded
Network Hardware Fund - 5 applied, 5 awarded - $6,300 of possible $50,000 awarded
10 applications for Consulting engagements - 1 was to discuss lendable connectivity, which we deferred, and one was subsequently abandoned by the applicant. So 8 libraries currently engaged with the consultant. Roughly 20% of total budget for consultant spend used
There is money left in both funds! Please consider applying if you have been holding back.
If there isn’t enough interest, the money will be redirected into other initiatives.
(09:30). Mari Martin:
New ministry is Municipal Affairs. She’s in process of creating new briefing materials. She starts briefings Thurs Jan 14. Will hopefully have meeting with Minister late next week. After that, she’ll share more communications to Library Directors and other Partners. She was in a meeting where the move for libraries to Municipal Affairs was described as a “gift” which told Mari there’s a lot of support and interest for libraries.
Grant report due March 1st. Instructions are in the email sent from Mari.
Annual survey, more information coming via email soon. They’re doing some work to improve the Counting Opinions tool to make it easier for you.
(16:23). Question if technology grant funding could be changed to a different project, short answer = yes.
(23:30). EDI = Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. There’s some conversation starting around possibly collaborating on a provincial learning strategy re: EDI. Is there interest/support for ABCPLD to pursue this? Short answer = yes.
Todd, Coquitlam. Ontario is quite a bit ahead of us. He’s been collecting information from the CULC listserv on things they’re doing on this, particularly related to staffing. They’re trying to get a baseline of where they are, attitudes etc, and then go from there.
Heather, Penticton. Board promoting this since mid 2020. Hoping to get Board to sign up for EDI training recently shared on email list.
Christina, Vancouver. 2 initiatives in strategic plan directly related to EDI, approved end of 2019. 1 is more internal facing - doing baseline survey that BC stats will do, looking at diversity in the workplace. Organized through City of Vancouver. They’re doing anti-racism training for staff with Cecily Blaine. Christina also took a training with AMSSA, Dr. Ismael Traore - good for vocabulary and systemic organizational racism. And took training with Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, they’re offering a certificate. Being offered through Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. Christina is taking this soon and will share feedback on how it goes. Vancouver is working on broad equity strategy. Let’s share knowledge.
From Heather Evans-Cullen, Gibsons : Almost our entire board registered for the EDI course- they are keenly interested in diversifying and would benefit from learning more about this
From Maureen Sawa -GVPL : GVPL is working with the City of Victoria's 'Welcoming Cities' Task Force and yes it will be very timely and helpful to have this opportunity.
From Saara, Creston : Anti-racism work is at the top of my mind for our community right now. Thank you for the course offering. I'd love to see a continued focus in this area
From Tina Nielsen, Bowen Island : Definitely on our radar. Welcoming new opportunities like the one Anna share. For staff and board
From Toby Mueller, Lillooet : these are core values expressed in our strat plan, I look forward to working together
From Tracey Therrien, Nelson : We are working on it on the board and staff level - but its more of an ad-hoc approach and I would appreciate a more structured approach.
From Ursula Brigl, Cranbrook : We are planning some EDI programming here in Cranbrook based on our strategic plan.
From Karlene, Ft St John : My staff views themselves as very pro diversity and supporters of anti-racism. When one of our Library Assistants (page) who has autism, applied for a Casual position, it was quite daunting to get staff on board to recognize what strengths she could offer.
(30:30). Zoom Poll to get a current snapshot:
(35:28). For those libraries without a greeter or welcoming position, what does that look like now? Is there signage or alternate plan in place?
GVPL
(40:00). Are other libraries experiencing a surge in Security Incidents?
From Wanda CRDL : Just as we were thinking of pulling back on greeters, we have had a big uptick in cases so we are staying with greeter for a bit longer.
From Saara : We're definitely encountering more patron outbursts because of masks. All the businesses in town are experiencing the same thing.
From Ursula Brigl : When the mandatory mask order came in there was a surge in cases, but it has been okay in 2021.
From Cari : We’ve had way fewer security issues actually. Last winter we were having serious incidents all the time and now we don’t have any.
From Wendy : The "other" was me, inviting back only one volunteer.
From Carmen Oleskevich : Ok thx Wendy
From Don Nettleton Okanagan Regional Library : We have had a couple of security incidents but certainly not a surge. Generally well accepted by public as to what we are doing now so not change in new year
From Fort St. James Public Library (Karli) : We have a few patrons who argue about masks but only one who has had outbursts and he is notorious around town as fighting against the mask policy
From Marc Saunders : We have not had additional security incidents in Port Moody
From Rebecca Burbank : Significantly reduced number of security issues in Powell River
From Beverley Rintoul : We have had about half a dozen security type issues in the 23 years I’ve worked here. However, the most severe was in December with someone utter threats but it didn’t seem to be related to COVID.
From Wanda CRDL : We have had a few issues with non-maskers in one community and have been giving people the benefit of the doubt and avoiding confrontations but due to a big uptick in cases in that community we are now requiring everyone to wear a mask or make use of Curbside Pickup.
From Julie Spurrell : Very few security issues in New West.
From Anne Rogers IPL : We had protestors in front of the library last Saturday
From Carmen Oleskevich : No security incidents at Pender island recently
From Maureen Sawa -GVPL : All quiet at GVPL thus far...
From Karen Hudson, Salt Spring Island Library : Once we opened the entire building, our incidents were mostly about masks and have almost disappeared since the mask order.
(46:08). Are libraries aware of the great “group deal” to virtually attend the Ontario library conference? If you haven’t been offered, you could approach the committee to work out some kind of deal. Many libraries are taking advantage of this.
(48:38). Christina provided some additional background why VPL didn’t respond to the Georgia Straight article. They’re not responding to it because the reason for why they’re still closed on Sundays are all related to staff, and it would raise a lot of labour relations issues why they’re having difficult getting staff for Sundays. It has nothing to do with budgets. This reporter is now looking at writing something else about libraries. He’s looking at budgets. VPL is trying to get his interest redirected towards provincial funding.
(52:00). What role can libraries play in misinformation? Any practical ideas? Is there a broad strategy we could put in place? (ties in to information literacy)
Council of Europe’s framework for battling misinformation and racism and radicalization. This focuses on curriculum and there might be some interesting things in there. It’s called “Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.”
It’d be great if there was a broader strategy around this. Is there a role for us to partner with public education about this?
Salt Spring is making information literacy a key part of their new strategic plan. In the short term, they’re also adding resources and increased social media posts on information literacy.
Related article: Science Denial and COVID Conspiracy Theories: Potential Neurological Mechanisms and Possible Responses
(1:03:30). Any Boards recording their meetings on zoom and posting on their website?
Libraries on the call shared “no",” they’re not posting recordings of meetings.
(1:10:00). Conversation about Hours.
(1:20:20). Seating - are you offering seating? restricting it?
Alice MPL : we have limited seating that is distanced
Heather Buzzell : Not yet.
From Wanda CRDL : No seating except at available computers.
From Ursula Brigl : Yes, we have seating and encourage people to limit their time to 60 minutes.
From Carmen Oleskevich : No seating yet
From Saara : Our only seating is at the computers as well
From Anne Rogers IPL : We had some open but closed it after the holidays. We have one computer station available and it's used maybe 3-4 times/day
From susan walters : we're getting requests for seating (group study) but we're still encouraging short visits - no seating aside from 45-min computer use
From Fort St. James Public Library (Karli) : We only offer limited spaced seating, all plastic so we can sanitize them, and we tell people we are discouraging just hanging out and have a time limit for how long they can stay
From jmoore : One hour visits. Generally no issues.
From Don Nettleton Okanagan Regional Library : we are doing a couple of trials of seating but we definitely make a point of keeping limited times to them so people know they aren't to camp there. So far so good but it does need some attention. Again subject to capacity which to now has not been a problem
From Abigail Ward : We took away comfy chairs and just had two hard ones, but we have so many seniors it wasn't working, so we have still a couple of plastic chairs and one comfy chair that one particular senior sits in every day. No issues with occupancy limits.
From Ursula Brigl : Seating numbers: 3 for teens, 2 in reference area, 6 in adult, 5 in children. They are all physically distanced a minimum of 2 m from each other.
From Julie Spurrell : Seating for computers, limited at tables, limited carrells, and 5 seats for people reading the newspapers. All on second floor, and number of seats match the capacity for the floor. We encourage 60 minutes max.
(1:22:37). A staff member in Richmond tested positive for COVID. Several staff had to self-isolate as well. Even though they were following all the protocols, they had to self isolate because they worked in proximity to each other for minimum of 15 minutes in an indoor space.
Next call is in 2 weeks: Wed Jan 27