March 3, 2008 Minutes
CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
March 3, 2008
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Special Called
Work Session on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT: Mayor McNeill; Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Mulroy; Council Members Heggins,
Montgomery, Thomson, and Watts.
ABSENT: Mayor Pro Tem Kamp
1.Council held a discussion with the Library staff regarding but not limited to department
functions, programs, and major accomplishments.
Eva Poole, Director of Libraries, presented a brief history of the library noting the three directors
that the library system has had and various accomplishments at the libraries. The mission
statement of the library was to enrich and advance the community; and provide quality materials
and services of informational, educational, leisure and cultural value. The values statements
included value the community, intellectual freedom through open access to information,
diversity, service with integrity and enjoyment of reading. The management team of the library
system was introduced: Emily Fowler Branch Manager, Martha Edmundson; South Branch
Manager, Linda Touraine; North Branch Manager, Stacy Sizemore; and Technical Services
Manager, Corinne Hill.
Poole stated that the library system had 49.5 full-time employees on staff with 3,393 volunteer
hours worked which was a great asset to the library. She presented a statistical summary from
2002-2006 comparing population served, expenditures, per capita expenditure, number of items
in the materials collection, per capital circulation of materials, and circulation per staff member.
Other statistical information presented included monthly web usage reports, items per capita
compared with regional peer group libraries, materials expenditures per capita compared with
regional peer group libraries, total expenditures per capita compared with regional peer group
libraries, circulation per capita compared with peer group libraries, and building square feet per
capita compared with peer group libraries. Master services plan key assumptions included
service delivery and resource use, meeting community needs, performing a cost study analysis
and developing activities. Service priorities for 2008-2010 included reading, viewing and
listening for pleasure, lifelong learning, emergent literacy, providing public and virtual spaces,
genealogy and local history and information literacy. Poole also reviewed the services provided
by the Library Advisory Board and the Friends of the Denton Public Libraries.
Martha Edmundson presented features and benefits of the Emily Fowler Library. This library
included special collections which featured genealogy, a Texas collection and Denton, Texas
collection. Programming done at this branch included programs inside the library, outside the
library, books-to-share and Denton Reads.
Linda Tourraine presented features and benefits of the South Branch Library some of which
included wireless Internet access, programs for all ages, 8 public access internet computers and 4
online public access catalogs. She also reviewed the planned expansion of the branch with
construction to start April 2008 and final completion in April 2009.
Stacy Sizemore presented the features and benefits of the North Branch Library which features a
computer training room with 20 workstations, regularly scheduled free computer training for the
public, and youth services programs.
City of Denton City Council Minutes
March 3, 2008
Page 2
Corrine Hill, Manager of Information Services, reviewed the Technical Services Unit services
which included collection development for acquisitions and cataloging, materials processing,
interlibrary loans and an integrated library system. She reviewed the procedures for items on
hold, transfer materials, and new materials with holds. Goals of her department were quality
materials, timely delivery and prudent budgeting.
Council discussion included:
Amount of electronic materials in the system in conjunction with regular books.
Per capita of materials per citizens.
Reaction of the fee charged for non citizens - Poole indicated that the issue had finally
calmed down. Approximately 18,000 outside patrons were served by the library system and
of that, 1,475 had paid a non-resident fee.
Poole presented a summary of building and service capacity, benchmarks for future planning
which included a goal of 3 items per capita, projected population and estimated library
capacities. By 2010 the library collection would begin to exceed the building size. A new
building would be needed in 2012 and 2016 based on population projections and 2 items per
capita. With three items per capita the buildings would be needed sooner. Planning for future
growth would involve the purchase of land in southwest Denton for a central proximity to three
new master planned communities; timing and availability of utilities would have to be
considered as well as access to FM 2449 and I35. She would like to plan for the building of the
southwest library in the 2009 CIP cycle and purchase land in northwest Denton in 2014.
Council discussion included:
Coordinate the land purchases with the Parks Department – Poole indicated that she would
cooperate with the Parks Department as she only needed approximately 5 acres for a library
site.
Would there be an advantage to enlarging the North Branch Library – Poole stated that it
might be an option but had not been explored at this time.
Was the library able to get back any of the positions lost with the reduction in force – Poole
stated that three employees were lost at that time and the forecast was to add one this year.
What was the WiFi usage at the library – Poole indicated there were about 54 users per
month with daily complaints why it was not available at the other branches.
What was the cost to put WiFi in the libraries – Poole indicated it was approximately
$14,000 a year for maintenance and $37,000 for installation.
The park land purchase cycle was earlier than 2009. Look at purchasing park land with a
library site included and then reimburse the funds for the library at the next CIP.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:40 p.m.
_______________________________ ___________________________
PERRY R. MCNEILL JENNIFER WALTERS
MAYOR CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS