Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library Board meeting highlights 8-18-2014

AUGUST 18, 2014

• Communitywide reading program
• Meeting room policy changes
• Board resignation
• Retirements
• Book Bike award
• July public service highlights
  
  

James Posch, board president, and Ron Holland and Jeffrey Eummer, board members, were absent.

Communitywide reading program

“On the Same Page” the communitywide reading program, kicks off Sept. 17 at the Cedar Lee Theatre with a showing of the movie Smoke Signals, [based on a short story] by author Sherman Alexie. His book, The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian, contains themes of poverty, identity, race and friendship, and inspired fall programming that includes a debate about the Indians’ mascot Chief Wahoo.

Meeting room policy changes

The board approved policy changes, effective Jan. 1, 2015, involving meeting room use. For a personal celebration, the reservation must be made by a resident with a CLEVNET library card in good standing. The room deposit fee has been raised to $100 from $50. Sunday hours for personal celebrations will be 1:30 to 4 p.m. Board Member Rob Fischer commented on the importance of meeting room use to residents but noted that it cannot interfere with other parts of the library’s mission or be a burden for staff.

Board resignation

The board accepted the resignation of Board Member Jeffrey Eummer, who is moving out of the district, and thanked him for his service to the library.

Retirements

Two staff members will be retiring: Circulation Services Supervisor Mary Murphy, who has spent 23 years of her 30-year career with this library, and Adult Services Associate Chris Sheppa, who has been with the library since 1989, serving as outreach specialist.

Book Bike award

The Ohio Library Council’s Innovation Award for 2014 goes to the library’s Book Bike program and will be presented at the annual convention in October.

July public service highlights

• LaBena Fleming of the Hospice of the Western Reserve presented the first of two programs on end-of-life issues; this one focused on dementia.
• The Cleveland Institute of Music and Maggie Kinney offered the Instrument Petting Zoo where children could see, hear and touch different orchestra instruments.
• A representative from the Cuyahoga County Department of Senior and Adult Services came to the University Heights Library on July 30 to tell community members about county services.
• Youth Services Associate Mary Susan Delagrange, along with Librarian Lauren Saeger and Marketing Manager Sheryl Banks, used the puppet stage in the story time room to present “Picnic with Puppets” to 45 children and adults.
• The Coventry Village Library youth services division “hatched” and released the first monarch butterfly of the season. Resident Carol Laursen provided the caterpillar eggs for the project.
• The training services department presented a new class, Creating a Brochure in Word.
  
  

LWV Observer: Anne S. McFarland.

These meeting summaries are abstracted from LWV observers’ written reports. The summaries have been edited and prepared by Anne McFarland, Charlene Morse, and Maryann Barnes. To receive e-mail postings of full reports, send an e-mail to mbarnes9515@gmail.com or join through Google groups using “lwv-chuh observer reports” as a search phrase.

These reports contain member observation and selected highlights of public meetings and are not official statements of the Heights Chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland. This disclaimer must accompany any redistribution of these reports.