Minutes – LDAC – June 9, 2025

Location: PPLC

Present

• Jennifer Obermaier, Clearwater
• Phyllis Gorshe, Dunedin
• Lois Eannel, East Lake
• Stanley Silverstein, Gulf Beaches
• Susan Hurley, Oldsmar
• Matthew David, Palm Harbor
• Dave McMurrin, Pinellas Park
• Beth Lindsay, St. Petersburg
• Glenn Ferdman, Seminole
• Cari Rupkalvis, Tarpon Springs
• Cheryl Morales, PPLC
• Dino Giallourakis, PPLC
• Michelle Howard, PPLC

Absent

• Dave Mather, Gulfport
• Casey McPhee, Largo
• Lisa Kothe, Safety Harbor
• Cathleen Bowley, St. Pete Beach

1. Acceptance of Minutes from April 14, 2025
   1. Motion to accept: Jen
   2. Second: Phyllis
   3. Discussion: Correction: for the Youth Services SIG, Jaclyn is the new co-chair (not chair)
2. SIG Meeting Reports
   1. E-Content (Jen)
      1. The May meeting was fantastic. The Overdrive rep (Andy) showed off great features such as statistical looks at holds. PPLC has lowest average hold time among peers (Broward, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough), and checkouts by foreign language. Cheryl will send Andy’s slides to the LDAC group.
      2.  Overdrive will host their annual Digipalooza in Cleveland in August. The SIG chair (Emilia Zimmerman from St. Pete Library) got a scholarship to attend
   2. Youth Services (Dave McMurrin)
      1. Met on May 4 and discussed summer reading
      2. Presentation by Steve Turner (Giving Tree) who discussed drum circles and music in programming
   3. Cataloging (Susan)
      1. Will meet on August 20
   4. Circulation / Borrower Services (Cari)
      1. Met on May 6 and discussed:
      2. Handling hot spots and special collections
      3. Reminders: when juveniles become adults, update their records to reflect the change; and when staff leave convert their accounts to a standard adult account and update their contact information; keep returning courier bags whenever possible
      4. Stat class verification project – over 100,000 addresses verified so far
      5. PPLC Visitor card – the most popular is the 3-month, so that will be set to be the default
      6. Next meeting will be August 5 at PPLC
   5. Adult Services (Phyllis)
      1. Met April 22 briefly
      2. Will meet on September 2 on Zoom – everyone will be asked to share a successful summer program
      3. December 2 meeting will be in person at PPLC
   6. DEIA
      1. Cheryl reported that on Pride Family Day – interacted with 551 people
      2. Will meet on June 11
   7. FOL (Glenn)
      1. Met on May 23 at Seminole
      2. Peter Pearson presented on advocacy, fundraising and board recruitment
      3. Six Friends groups attended
      4. Glenn will send PDF of handout to LDAC
      5. Will meet in September at Seminole
3. Old Business
   1. Gale LegalForms
      1. With a countywide contract, most individual rates would be lower
      2. Michelle H. shared that Gale has a partnership with US Legal Forms which is reputable, but not all Gale LegalForms are sourced from US Legal Forms
      3. Alternative: the Pinellas County Law Library in Clearwater is open to the public, and also lists free reputable sites on its website
      4. The NOLO resource was discussed
      5. Michelle will contact Gale rep to see if they can update more of the FL forms
4. New Business
   1. Review of Libby Advantage and the allocation for this product from PPLC Libraries that have this plan (Lois)
      1. Some PPLC libraries utilize this service (Clearwater, Pinellas Park, St. Pete) to provide additional access to supplement the central collection with popular titles, and their members get first dibs before other county cardholders have access
      2. Many PPLC libraries just use it in order to offer kanopy
5. PPLC Topics
   1. PPLC Staff Development Day 10.13.25
      1. Planned for Sand Key Resort, 8:30am-4:30pm
      2. The agenda for the day is being developed
      3. Dave McMurrin will offer a breakout session on hiring for culture change; Matthew D. will assist
   2. Circ Desk: Generic Accounts will be deleted 10.1.25
      1. Our policy states that there should be no generic accounts
      2. Generic Sirsi accounts used for reporting purposes and item status accounts are exempt from this. Reports regarding overdue and hold notices are typically run under the library’s CIRC or TECH account. Accounts that dictate an item’s status include those for display, repair, discard, unavailable. Staff should log into their personalized Sirsi account when completing functions within the ILS.
   3. Staff Accounts: Home address needed
      1. Staff need to have their personal addresses in their staff accounts, even if stat class is outside Pinellas
   4. ALA: Who is going?
      1. Phyllis, Cheryl, Casey
   5. Next TBLC board meeting will be on June 20
      1. Future of Interlibrary Loan is unknown
   6. FEL (Glenn) – no updates from the state library
6. PPLC Board Meeting Update – Dave McMurrin
   1. Discussed current events
   2. Spotlight: Glenn / Seminole
   3. Next meeting: will start strategic plan building with Collaborative Labs and the September meeting will be at Collaborative Labs (September 24 / Wednesday); LDAC directors are invited in September
7. Public Comment [n/a]
8. Announcements from PPLC Libraries (10 minutes)
   1. Clearwater (Jen)
      1. End of June – change of hours at multiple locations
      2. Beach location still not open (damage from Helene) – hoping to be open by March of 2026
   2. Dunedin (Phyllis)
      1. 130th anniversary event went very well
      2. The foundation held a gala event
      3. PT Librarian Doreen is retiring in early July
      4. Summer reading kicked off with Jack Hartman
      5. This year they are using print logs and now Beanstack for the reading challenges
   3. East Lake (Lois)
      1. Capital campaign is in motion! The county confirmed they will be getting $4.5 million (Penny for Pinellas); they held a family event that resulted in an outdoor butterfly mural. If anyone wants to borrow their greenhouse, they can.
      2. This year is the first year ELCL reached over 100 adult signups for summer reading
      3. They are also using Beanstack
   4. Gulf Beaches (Stanley)
      1. Kicking off summer reading June 14 with events/activities
      2. Post-flood they have new shelving, and the children’s area looks great
      3. Hired new cataloger (internal promotion)
   5. Oldsmar (Susan)
      1. Hired a new shelver and a position in Children’s
      2. The lot next door broke ground on a new town home community
      3. Historical collection will be moved to offices in the library building – most likely later this year
   6. Palm Harbor (Matthew)
      1. Matthew joined the FLA Public Library Standards committee; the committee plans to reach out to FLA members and library directors in order to solicit feedback which will be used to guide work on the next set of standards; the current standards are from 2015
      2. In July, Palm Harbor will be celebrating 100 years of being called Palm Harbor! PHL will host a couple of events in coordination with Palm Harbor Main Street; all are invited to the July 14 event, Countdown to Palm Harbor with speakers, bites, wine, and music
   7. Pinellas Park (Dave McMurrin)
      1. Two staff members resigned / relocated
      2. Now closed on Sundays
      3. They are installing hurricane resistant windows
      4. Summer reading kickoff May 31 – attended by over 200 people
   8. Seminole (Glenn)
      1. Jill Storm (YS Supervisor) retired – position was filled internally
      2. New circulation supervisor – internal promotion
   9. Tarpon Springs (Cari)
      1. Library survey online (and paper copies in the library)
      2. Three new people starting this month
      3. Construction grant project extended to the end of September
      4. Library will be closed on June 19th
9. Adjourn
   1. Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.