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Year in Review: 2007

February 2008

Boards of Trustees

  • Acting on the Master Facilities Plan (MFP) adopted by the DBRL board, the Boone County Library District (BCLD) board and the DBRL Ad Hoc Boone County Facilities Committee developed a proposal asking BCLD residents to pass a 21-cent (per $100 of assessed value) property tax increase in BCLD to fund the construction of two new facilities and ongoing operational costs. The April election was defeated 10,080 to 3,698. Activities associated with this proposal include:
    • Formed an independent election committee made up of about 50 volunteers, with Teresa Maledy and Don Stamper co-chairs.
    • Held a news conference to announce the agreement with the City of Columbia and the County of Boone for an option to purchase land on the Atkins property just north of the Boone County Fairgrounds.
  • Columbia Library District trustees and and staff met with Grant School administrators and city traffic engineers to implement a new parking plan to ease after-school traffic problems.
  • In July, the DBRL board approved a motion to hold implementation of the Master Facilities Plan in abeyance pending the review and recommendations of the Long Range Planning Committee.
  • With approval from the DBRL board, the Ad Hoc Election Review Committee contracted with ETC Institute to conduct a telephone survey of DBRL voters. Some of the key findings of the survey:
    • 92% of those surveyed are satisfied with the service provided by library staff.
    • 87% are satisfied with the overall quality of public library services.
    • 94% agree that libraries are important to our community.
    • 69% are satisfied with the overall value they receive for the taxes they pay to support libraries. (That is 22% above the national average for local governments.)

Grants and Donations

  • Received a total of $126,784 in cash and non-cash donations from Friends of the Library groups, DBRL Foundation and individual members of the community.
  • For the second year, we received a grant from the Missouri State Library ($10,194) to extend our summer activities into the community. This year, four Columbia Public School libraries were opened and had activities one afternoon a week. We also coordinated trips to CPL for Centro Latino kids and took the youth bookmobile to the center.

National Kudos

  • In December, Forbes magazine ranked Columbia as one of the top 20 places to educate children. The magazine looked at public and private schools, public library use and higher education opportunities in communities across the country. Libraries were graded based on circulation rates. Columbia received an A+ for being a college town, providing college options and for the popularity of the public library.

Regional Services

  • This year, 3,684 children signed up for the summer reading program, 917 completed the program and together participants read 61,067 books. A total of 228 signed up for the teen summer reading program, up drastically over past years.
  • Continued the Way With Words/Way With Numbers tutoring program in Columbia with the University of Missouri. MU students offered K-6th graders help 16-19 hours per week, and hosted Columbia Centro Latino teen tutoring in the spring for children in grades 6-12.
  • Added a very successful new series of programs involving self-guided computer tutorials for patrons to learn Microsoft Office applications, basic computer skills, e-mailing, etc.
  • The sixth annual One Read program featured “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen. We held more book discussions than ever before, including some in our bookmobile towns. In all, 2,760 people attended programs and checked out the title 2,339 times.

Partnerships and Workshops

  • Library Director Melissa Carr served as co-chair of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Education Committee and the Early Childhood Subcommittee. As part of this commitee’s work, Parents As Teachers began handing out a coupon for a free book to families in great need. Families can then come to the CPL Children's Desk or the bookmobile and redeem the coupon for a free book to help build their children's personal libraries.
  • Continued to participate in Central Missouri Training coalition for the purpose of providing free, state-approved workshops for child-care providers. We held seven workshops region-wide.
  • Staff members who work with young children attended a story time course as part of the “Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library” program through the American Library Association.

Volunteers

  • In addition to the Board of Trustees, the Foundation and the Friends groups, DBRL benefited from 625 volunteer hours in 2007. Volunteers mail overdue notices, shelve books and help out on special projects.

Callaway County Public Library

  • CCPL and Outreach staff distributed books to more than 1,300 children in the county during the summer through a Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) “Books for Ownership” program, which included participation in the Children’s Art Festival in Auxvasse and the health fair in Holts Summit. The DBRL Foundation and Friends of CCPL provided matching funds, and Wal-Mart donated funds as well.
  • Served more than 300 students in weekly visits January-March while the McIntire Elementary School media center was under construction.

Columbia Public Library

  • Installed “The Shell Seeker” by Sabra Tull Meyer in the Gene Martin Secret Garden thanks to a generous donation from the Friends of the Columbia Public Library.
  • Installed a color video magnification system and added an additional catalog computer with a large screen monitor, both on the first floor near the large print collection, and added special software and accessories to the large screen computer on the first floor. We also acquired an additional wheelchair and walker for patron use.

Bookmobile & Outreach Department

  • Added three deposit collection locations—Rocktree Apartments in Callaway County, Callaway Senior Center in Fulton and The Intersection in Columbia.
  • Celebrated 50 years of bookmobile service to the region.

Southern Boone County Public Library

  • Began featuring books by topic for more convenient browsing. As a result of one mystery display and a mystery book discussion program, circulation of the mystery collection increased by 22%.