This evening by trustee Heineman. Please stand. Ready begin. I
pledge allege allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which it stands
one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for
all. Just sit. Down. Thank you at this time I
would like to call the meeting to order. And I'd
like to thank our audience members. We actually have an
audience today. It doesn't matter that they're my family. They're
still an audience. It's great. Let's begin with the approval
of the Library Board of Trustees meeting minutes of June
23rd 2026. Do we have a motion to accept them
as presented. I make a motion to accept the minutes
as presented. Do we have a second. I second it.
Emotion was made by Trustee Kinderlean, seconded by trustee Heineman,
Ms. Bacchus, my we take a vote.
Trustee Liddell. I don't have anything. Popping up here. Oh,
okay. How do you vote. I. Abstain. I was not
here. Right, thank you
motion passes. Our consent calendar, all items listed on the
consent calendar are considered to be routine matters. Status reports
or documents covering previous library Board of Trustee items. The
items listed on the consent calendar may be enacted in
one motion with the concurrence of the Library Board of
Trustees, a trustee, or any person in attendance may request
that an item be removed for further consideration. Do we
have a motion to accept the board graph stats calendar
and flyers, our consent calendar as presented? I move that
we accept the consent calendar. Do we have a second?
A second. A motion was made by trustee Heineman and
seconded by trustee Kinderley, Ms. Bakis. May we take a
vote?
Great. That was approved. Thank you very much. Persons wishing
to address a library Board of Trustees on items listed
on the agenda are requested to identify themselves and state
the matter on which they wish to comment. No action
will be taken on matters not listed on the agenda.
The Library Board of Trustees would appreciate your cooperation in
keeping your comments brief. Ms. Bakis, are there any speaker
cards from the public. No speaker cards from the public.
Are there any written comments from the public? No written
comments from the public. All right. Well, we have an
amazing list of reports this evening. Things that I'm very
excited to see. And we will have our report introduced
by our community services director Donna Finch and our report
will then be given by Library Manager, Daniel Whittington. Thank
you, Chair Leonard. Welcome back trustees. I know we had
a nice summer break and hopefully everyone's enjoying the updated
screens that we were able to get through our renovation.
It's a nice new addition and added touch to the
library. So we're happy to show that off for this
meeting. Before I go ahead and get started with an
overview of the report, I would like to make it
introduction. We have our new assistant city manager with us
tonight. Her name is Rebecca Kramer. Uh, she comes to
us from the city of Manaphy, and this is her
third week, I believe with the city. Um, she's overseeing
the community services department. And I just wanted to make
sure I had an opportunity to, um, welcome her and
make sure that the trustees are all introduced to her.
Um, so for tonight's report, we have a lot of
updates for the Trustees tonight. We did not have a
meeting in July. So we've got plenty to share for
the entire summer. Um, we've had a wonderful summer at
your library program, which you're going to receive an update
on tonight, um, from that report. And we are now
in full swing for fall. So, um, all of our
kids are back in school and activities, um, are underway
at the library for them. So we're excited to share
some of the news and information on what we have
going on. Um, and also, uh, during our time off,
we, we finally had our grand opening of the innovation
center. So, um, this Whittington is going to talk a
little bit about that. Um, share some information about some
of the programs and activities we're offering in there. I
know that project's been a long time coming. We're very
excited to have it in the, in the library. And
it turned out beautifully. So if you haven't had a
chance to come, um, look at it, I do encourage
you to come by. For upcoming events, we have our
reader con event coming up that is going to be
on, um, September 12th. This is our third year bringing
that back. Um, in partnership with the friends of the
library, it's getting better and better every year. So we're
really excited to share, um, what's going to be on
the horizon for that. We also have another event coming
up in August, August 23rd, a very fluffy day. Um,
swedington is going to share some details about that. Um,
we have an update on our ZipBooks program. So, uh,
don't want to steal too much of the thunder here,
but we lost funding and then we got funding again.
So we're happy to announce that we're going to be
able to continue that. Um, and then, um, also want
to share that we have the California Library Association Conference
coming up again. Um, it's going to be local again
in the city of Riverside in the month of October.
So excited to share that news and hopefully we can
get some, um, participation from our trustees. We do have
a small budget for you to be able to, to,
um, participate in that conference. So we'd love if you
could come out and join the team for that conference.
Um, once again, we have our monthly spotlight for our
Library employees this month. We're going to be spotlighting Shandora
Khan. He's been with the library for quite a while.
Great addition to our team. So we're excited to share
some information about him. Um, we also have our top
titles, uh, we're going to be sharing for fiction, nonfiction
and ebooks. And we have two months worth of top
titles to share for june or July. Um, and then
our incident updates. So I know we were on a
good streak. We didn't have very many incidents for a
while. Um, I think the summer heat just tends to
bring out some additional activities. So we have, um, some
incidents to report, um, fortunately it seems like things have
come down a bit since then. So, um, excited to
see things kind of, um, uh, normalize over at the
library again. And then, um, finally, we'll be wrapping it
up with our events calendar and then an update on,
um, upcoming item citywide. So with that, I'll turn it
over to miss Winnington to give the report for the
month of August. Thank you, Director Finch. And good evening,
Madam Chair and Trustee's. All right. We had our Innovation
Center grand opening. And if you haven't been to the
library with its new paint and flooring, uh, this kind
of just is the, uh, the crown jewel, I guess
I could say, um, in the, in the library, the
innovation center where it currently stands used to be just
tall shelving and Heidi spaces, uh, but now it's a
place where you can come and you can learn and
you can create. And we can, um, hyper focus on
STEM and steam and how to grow a small business
and so many more other things. So we had our
grand opening on August 12th. We had over 60 people
attend. Not only did we have local dignitaries, but we
also had some of our patrons come and experience the
space as well. Uh, seen USD adult schools classes have
already started. Norco College will start classes in early September
that deal with, uh, financial matters. And then Library Lib
programming is to begin very shortly thereafter. Our grand opening
was also featured in the press enterprise, uh, was very
surprised to click on the link when they sent it
to me. And then I see my face. Uh, it
was jump scare. So, um, but it was a very
lovely article about the, um, the offerings that we're going
to have in the center and just really highlighted the
space. And so, um, I just want to also let
the trustees know if you're ever interested and experiencing the
VR headsets, let me know. And I will make sure
that you experience one of the training sessions that are
offered through the transfer software. Our reader CON is coming
back for its third annual event. It's going to be
on Saturday, September 12th from one to five. It's for
all ages. And it is free. We will have over
60 authors come and be in attendance. And our featured
author is Hannah Shaw. And I've been told that if
you are in the world of kittens and cats, you
will know who Haneshaw is. She is an award -
winning kitten rescuer. So she will be at the event
and we will have a list of all the authors
and the event schedule at our Aspen Discovery website. Oh,
and a special thank you to our friends of the
Library for assisting us in putting this on. This past
Sunday, we had a very lay - vay day. And
that's how you pronounce that. My staff have informed me
that I have been pronouncing it incorrectly. It's not Lalfi.
But I will continue to say that. Um, but we
had a very levey day. And if you don't know
who Levey is, she is a two - time Grammy
Award winning artist. And every year she puts on, um,
places third places where you can go to be creative
and to be safe. And so, um, people, patrons were
able to come by, get a very, um, limited edition.
Levey card or levey themed card for the Corona Public
Library. We had activities and crafts and story time. There
were opportunity drawings for Leve's vinyls and her children's book.
Uh, and was really cool is that the Corona Public
Library was the only library in Riverside County to officially
partner with Leibe. So we were, uh, one of the,
um, uh, one of, I think 10 libraries in California
that partnered with her. And we were featured specifically on
her website, which was really neat to see. We had
over 456 people attend and out of that, we had
256 new library cards made that day. So special thank
you to DBZ Records Books and Records for their donation
in the vinyls of Levey. And we're excited to hopefully
have another levey. People were disappointed she wasn't there, but
come on. She wasn't going to be there. Okay. So
a zip books update. Zig Books is a very popular
program with a Corona Public Library. If you don't know,
if we have a book that's not inside the library,
you can request it online through our, um, our catalog.
And for the last couple of years, we receive, uh,
we received grant funding from the California State Library. And
we were told two weeks before the FY27 fiscal year
was supposed to begin that they cut this entire grant.
So that one million dollar grant that was usually given
out to participating libraries for ZipBooks was, um, was eliminated.
However, um, I pitched an idea to the friends of
the library and they have voted to potentially fund this
program so that we can continue on with zip books
and offering this wonderful service to our community members for
FY27. Oh, it's now, instead of calling it zip books
because we didn't want any sort of copyright infringement, it's
going to be called request a book. So same sort
of style, but, um, a little bit of a different
name. So the, um, California Library Association Conference is going
to be in Riverside again this year. We'll be August
22nd through the 24th. Early bird pricing last until September
11th. So if there are any trustees that are interested
in attending, please let myself or Ms. Baki Snow and
we will be able to sign you up for that.
Um, I'm also encouraging my staff to go, especially to
the AI sessions so that we're all, um, so we
all know what to do for our libraries and making
sure that we offer programs that are informative and fun,
but also allow you to learn a little bit more
about the digital literacy and using AI. Our staff highlight
this evening is Shonda Raccoon. He is our library specialist
too. He works for LCE. And I asked him for
one fun fact and he gave me three. And so
I wanted to say all three of them. Um, he
likes to travel and taste foods, especially in LA and
Long Beach. Those are his favorite spots. Um, he likes
country music and soul blue and Blake Shelton is his
most favorite artist of all time. A couple of Arabica
freshly made coffee is his favorite with his coffee with
his favorite music really makes his day. So if you
ever want to get on Shundara's good side, make sure
you give him a Blake Shelton CD and a cup
of really good coffee. Our top titles for fiction in
June and July. Pokemon's back on top with 140 checkouts.
And with, um, with a nonfiction again, primary phonics is
our top titles, one of, or sorry, five of six
of our top titles, uh, for June and July. And
then for July, specifically for our ebooks, um, Felicia's favorites,
Danielle Steele was our top e - book checkout. So
as Director Finch mentioned, um, the heat is just, you
know, getting to people. Um, so we did have about
five incidences with drugs and drug paraphernalia. We did have
one incident report. I did want to mention that I
have been in discussions with legal public works and PD
on how to continue to make the library safer, um,
we have also included, and this was mentioned in our
June report. An additional 20 plus cameras to inside and
outside the library to make it a lot more safer
for our patrons. This is our, um. Our calendar for
the month of that was supposed to be for September
and for some reason. It is September, but the title
is wrong. So this is the month for September. It
says August. It's just making sure that, uh, you were
reading it correctly. So, um, this is the calendar for
August. The Library will be closed on Monday, September 7th
for Labor Day. And then lastly September 5th, we have
Adopt DePaul with pause at the Corona Animal Shelter. Again,
September 7th, we are going to be close for Labor
Day, but we will reopen on 9 - 8. Our
reader con is at the Corona Public Library at 1pm
on the 12th. And on the 22nd, we will have
our next library board of trustees meeting. We will have
our budget report. That's Connect Report and a computer policy
report. Are there any questions. Ms. Bakes, are there any
speaker cards from the public. No speaker cards from the
public. Any written comments from the public? No written comments
from the public. All right. Trustee Liddell, do you have
any comments or questions. I have one comment I've already
been contacted by the friends of the Library to volunteer
for the Reader Con. I'm very excited. I'd be my
first time going. And I, they are looking for more
volunteers. So I'm very excited. Thank you, trustee Kennerley. Do
you have any comments? Uh, excuse me. I would just
like to say that I did in attend the innovation
center grand opening. And I'm excited to learn all of
the equipment and things that's there. So Ms. Whittington, I
will be taking you up on your offer. So everything
is great. And a lot of the people who were
there were very excited as well. So. As usual, great
job this year, this month, this summer. Thank you. Thank
you. Vice Chair Heineman, do you have any comments. Yes,
congratulations on the. Congratulations on the wonderful job for the
Innovation Center. I'm very excited. And Martin, I just have
to tell you, when I do that, I am not
doing the knee surgery. Cause I do not like blood.
So I will not be doing that one. So pick
another one out for me, Miss Winnington. Okay. Um, no,
I was so excited to see the innovation center and
the whole library all done, all freshly painted and everything.
And, um, you know, it, it was a difficult time.
I know when between the building of the innovation center
and all that, the library staff did a fabulous job
trying to make everything that they could accessible. So I
really encourage everyone to go in, not only to the
innovation center, but to the library and look and see
what new things. They're always looking for ways to increase
services to the public. So please check out the library.
Thank you for all you do. Thank you. Well, thank
you guys very much for all that you've done between
like Vice Chair Heineman said the innovation center, the painting,
the carpening. It has been a very full year, um,
and you have all handled it with grace. So that
was, uh, something that I feel was needed to be
said now about the innovation center. I don't know if
I trust manager, Whittington, to pick out something for me.
I'm always in her office bugging her. So she might
just take that as time for payback. Um, I do
have a quick question regarding that, um, incident reports. Now
normally we, we don't have incidents. Um, and I don't
want to point fingers at a cause. But do we
know how much of that traffic comes from the clinic
that's next door. I can't be a hundred percent sure.
Um, there are theories that when the vans are sitting
there and people get bored, they just would naturally wander
into the local community. And unfortunately our building is right
there. So, um, there have been parallels of people going
and going to the clinic and then going to the
library to the use, the restroom. And then also to
use the restroom. So it's, it's understandable that, um. It
just could just be a natural way that people are,
you know, not wasting, but waiting for the time for
their, their van to eventually leave. So it's, I don't
know. I can't a hundred percent say like I can't
like pinpoint. I'm not out there asking like, who are
you from or where are you from? Who are you
here with? But yeah, we have seen an increase in
uptick. And is that something and this may be something
more for community services directors. Is that something that we
could work with the clinic in conjunction with the clinic
to help minimize rather than, um, criminalize more just minimize
and redirect. I mean, are those attempts that have been
made? Or is it just that we're trying to do
our own route? So PD and legal and public works
are all working together to figure out ways that we
can make the library a lot safer. They're looking at,
um, policies and other ways to just kind of enforce
people behaving, especially on city property. And so it's just,
it's, it takes a while to figure out what's the
best path, not only for the library, but for the
business and the people that they serve. But I don't
know if director Finch has any additional comments on that.
Yeah. Just to add, so there has been outreach with
the clinic, um, the police department has been in touch
with them many times. So they are aware of concerns.
And then, um, just at a policy level, the council
is considering, uh, ordinance right now for conditional use permit
for those types of operations that would, uh, put in
place a certain safeguards that would require businesses of that
type to not be located next to facilities where we
have children. So those are things right now that are
working their way through the council. And then there are
ongoing discussions with the clinic itself. And then we do
have an additional, um, uh, presence and relationship with the
police department to make sure that we're actively monitoring the
library and making sure that we're, we're doing everything we
can to make it as safe as possible. Thank you
very much. Like I said, I do understand like the
businesses clinics to have their purpose and the location and
relation to the hospital is very important as well. Um,
but again, with the number of children who are walking
into our services to receive our services. I just want
to make sure everyone is safe and everyone is getting
what they need. So thank you very much. All right.
Summer at your library. Report given by Library Specialist.
Hello. Hello. Uh, good evening, Madam Chair, trustees and director
of inch. My name is Martin. I am a library
specialist too specifically one of our outreach leads for the
Corona Public Library. But I get the privilege of presenting
our summary or library recap today. And so every year,
if you are unfamiliar, maybe for those watching from home
for the first time, summart your library or S -
A - Y - L. We pick a theme to
go with every year. And this year, Steam was dragons,
dreams and daring reads. So if you think about anything
fantasy related, medieval, knights and dragons, we went all in
on that theme this year, probably Marso than we have
in recent years. Uh, with our programming, with our graphics,
with our design, with our prizes that we gave out.
Uh, so we'll talk about all of that today. So
sale or S - A - Y - L, some
of your library encompasses three main things. It entails the
programs and events that we put on as a library.
It includes the summer reading challenge, which is the main
way that we reward patrons for the reading that they
do over the summer. And it all comes together through
the beanstack app. On the app, it not only tracks
the reading they do as a family, but it also
gives them information about the events and programs that are
available for their age group, depending on the reader that
they have logged in to the app. So what I'll
really kind of synthesize on the app, which is why
we'll give it, it's on little section at the end
of today's presentation. This year, sale ran from June 8th
to July 31st. So it was about eight weeks of
reading, fun and medieval times. So first, we're going to
talk about our events and programs because there was definitely
a lot to do at the library this year. Every
year we design a summer calendar that includes all of
these summer specific programs. So on here, this is the
front side, which included information about, uh, lunch at the
library. It included our summer kickoff and finishers party events.
Um, and then on the backside, and we'll talk about
all of these programs in a bit. So I'm just
going to breeze through them real fast here. On the
backside, you'll notice that, um, we have plethora of programs
available. And the color on the title for the program
indicates the age range. So just that first glance, you
can tell that we have programs pretty much for all
ages here. Um, so let's get right into it. So
kick us off on June 8th. We had a performer
of the juggling arts. His name was Brad Allen. And
he was, he had a whole setup with a juggling
yo - yos juggling bowling pins. Uh, he had a
very cool balancing act where he was passing hoops through
his body while maintaining his balance on like a, like
a skateboard on a ball. Uh, he was juggling multiple,
um, objects at once bouncing them off the ground, flipping
them behind his back. Uh, it was a very cool
presentation. We had a really big turnout as we typically
do for a kickoff events, uh, and as you can
see, tons of people, just eyes a hundred percent focus
on his juggling, uh, they had a great time at
that kickoff event to start us off. Mini makers is
another one of our main stays for summer. And so
this year we had multiple different kind of STEM or
steam activities as part of the mini maker's programs. That's
usually offered for ages six to 12 along with their
caregivers. So we had examples or some examples of crafts
that they were able to do at minimakers this year
includes the shields and swords. They got to make pipe
cleaner dragons. They got to do a cool, uh, castle
design by weaving paper. So it looked like bricks. So
they got to basically, you know, weave their castle there.
Um, and then they had things like the flower crowns
or the paper crowns, uh, that they were able to
do. So that happened on Wednesdays in the afternoon. And
along with the mini makers, they had two family STEM
nights. So included with the maker programming for the summer,
we had one each month. And this is where families
work together to do a specific craft. So in June,
they work together to create battering rams where the goal
was to knock over a stack of the paper cups
that you see on the screen. Um, and in July,
they got to, uh, work together to make ships. And
we actually did test to make sure their ships would
float. And, uh, huge credit to a lot of our
patrons. I think almost everybody got their boat to not
sink. So it's very cool. As you can see, people
had a great time working together. Um, and our STEM
programs are usually one of the, uh. Coolest programs that
we do. And obviously well attended. Along with that, we
also have STEM for the Little Twigs. So that's the
program that we host on Friday mornings. Typically it's hosted
on the first Friday of each month, but for the
summer, it gets, um, the every Friday schedule. So every
Friday morning for ages two to six with their caregivers.
They're able to come in. They do some crafts that
work on building. Some of the concepts that they'll need
for STEM programming later on in life, um, and so
as you can see, it's just more fun STEM programming
for the littles. Along with the, um, story times that
we offer on Wednesday and Thursday mornings for the summer,
we offered two spotlight story times as well. So to
go along with a theme of Dragons, dreams and Daring
reads, we offered the Gnomes and Fairy Story time in
June and the Knights and Dragon Story time in July.
So staff got into it. They dressed up a little
bit for those story times. And the rhymes and songs,
the dances, the books that they read are all related
to the themes as well. So it kind of changes
it up, but also gives maybe some of the older
crowd a chance to attend one of the story times
at the library. And as you can see, it's for
the whole, uh, for the whole family there. So speaking
of programs for the whole family, we invited our learners
in the Adult Literacy Program for a workshop this year
to make their own family crest. So very medieval theme.
They got together to work on a design. And they
were just able to create something unique and special to
their family while having a great time and enjoying some
snacks at the library. Guided Storywalk is another program that
we brought back for this summer. So for those that
may be unfamiliar, uh, at Mountain Gate Park, we have
panels, uh, along the trail there. And each panel has
one page of a story. And that story changes for
month to month. So the guided story block portion is
where staff, or sometimes even the author or illustrator themselves
leads the walk, uh, reading the story as we walk
through the park. So for June, staff read The Knight
Who Said No by Lucy Rowland. And in July, we
read the evil princess and the brave knight along with
each guided story walk. We also had a craft that
patrons were able to do. And so they're pictured, you
see the June Story walk where they got to make
dragon wings to where as we walked around the park.
We did some dances. We did some jogging. We did
some activities from panel to panel. And they had a
great time in Mountain Gate Park. So lunch at the
library was one of the biggest programs that we had
this summer. Uh, mostly because anyone under the age of
18 was able to pick up a free lunch. So
this is a program in partnership with CNUSD. They're pictured.
You see our four library interns that we had specifically
to assist with this program. Um, and so on Tuesdays,
we had lunch in the afternoons along with a movie.
And on Thursdays, we had lunch offered alongside a performer.
And so we'll talk about that. So for the lunch
in a movie program, that's again, Tuesday afternoon, starting at
1230. We offered a variety of medieval themed movies. Some
of them involving dragons. Some of them involving nights or
warriors, heroes, good life moral lessons. So you see there,
the movie offerings that we had included Pete's Dragon, sword
in the stone, onward, which is a very sad movie.
That one got to me. Tale of Desborough, one of
my favorite books, how to train your dragon. Robinhood, puss
and boots and the quest for Camelot. On Thursdays, we
had the lunch and learned, which was the lunch offered
with the performer. So we had things like the puppet
show, a harpest percussionist. Science experiments done live by the
science heroes there. B, for the solution. So as a
program about bees and honey and just creating organic farms,
uh, we had author Dan Gutman, the Dan Gutman join
us for a virtual kind of talk and show and
tell. And then we also had it presentation on indoor
farming and hydroponics. And lastly, we had author Shakira Smith
that did a story time and presentation with this as
well. For teens, the programs that we offered specifically for
them were called The Teen Knights that typically ranges for
ages 13 to 17. And in June, it included the
fencing class. And in July, we have the teen murder
mystery. And teen murder mysteries, another one of those mainstays
that we offer for summer, always a good time, uh,
but for the fencing class, I did want to point
out, it got me because the instructor pulls out the
real fencing sword at first. And he has all this,
you know, students kind of touch it and hold it
and feel the weight of the sword and everything. And
then he was like, all right, well, here's what we're
going to practice with. And he pulls out the pool
noodles. Um, so they still had a good time. They
learned about footwork. They learned about, you know, what it
takes to be a good fencer and just practicing as
a group. And of course the murder mystery, they always
have a good time solving that, you know, who done
it. For our adult programs now, we did have some
specific adult only programs available for those ages 21 and
up. The adult murder mystery, that was for 16 and
up. And so that was a workshop that was held
in July. And that was Tuesdays every week where they
worked on a campaign for Dungeons and Dragons as a
group. And, um, as you can see there, pictured on
the bottom, they all got their own little character that
they were able to create and our dungeon master led
them through a shortened dungeons and dragons campaign. And for
the adult murder mystery, they also had a fantastic time
solving that crime. Um, and of course just enjoying each
other's company, uh, enjoying some of the magic tricks that
get put on as part of that performance, um, and
of course, plenty of jokes and good times. What are
the main adult programs that we offer this summer was
toward the end, uh, it was our fantasy bowl. And
this was a 21 and over event with a DJ.
They were, uh, live dance instructor that was there. We
had palm reading offered. We had a few fantasy authors
that joined us for booths in the library courtyard. And
we had snacks drinks and a bunch of other activities,
uh, laid out on the tables for the adults to
partake in. And I just have to say how blown
away I was. I stuck around after work just to
check it out. And I ended up staying almost the
entire time because it was so much fun. Um, everybody
dressed up so well and so nicely. And I really
have to hand it to the community because this really
impressed me with how much they leaned into the fantasy
theme, much like we did as staff all summer law.
So picture there you see our photo booth that we
had offered, the dance filler was lively all night long.
We had our authors that had a good time talking
to our patrons. And our patrons had a good time
talking to everybody, uh, including their friends, family, and some
new faces that they met at the fantasy ball. So
overall we had 208 programs offered this summer, smattering of
teen, adult programs there, some programs were held off site
or some were done as outreach for the library. And
in total, we had about 9, 386 attendees. Uh, this
is a slight decrease from last year, but again, there
are many factors that go into that largely, mainly, uh,
the construction. But even though our program numbers might have
been slightly lower, we now get to talk about the
summer reading challenge. So along with the events and programs,
we offer the reading challenge and we entice our community
to log the reading that they do over the summer.
And we trade them some prizes. So for ages zero
to four, we offer things like little dragon plushies or
bendable horse toys for the readers agents five to nine.
We offered inflatable swords. We offered literal mystery monsters that
they could clip on their backpacks or key chains. Uh,
we offered minerals and rocks, gemstones that they could take
home and keep for free. Um, you know, if they
earn the prize. And for the adults, we offered things
like socks. They also got Little Rock key chains or
the opportunity for some crochet kits or leather bound journals.
And our teens even got, uh, specific prizes just for
the age ranges as well. So not pictured here are
the grand prizes that we offered through the beanstack app
as well. So each age group had an option. The
more they participate in the summer reading challenge through the
app, the more opportunities they get to put in, uh,
for the drawing for those grand prizes. So each age
range got an additional two extra prize packs that they
could have earned as part of the summer reading challenge.
So overall we had 1, 674 total registered readers this
year. We had 4, 974 prizes distributed and a collective
minutes read of 1, 659, 742. That totals to slight
increases from last year. So even though we had a
slight decrease in the amount of readers we had registered,
the amount of prizes that we distributed went up, the
amount of minutes that we read as a community went
up. And the people or the patrons who finished and
completed the summer reading challenge also went up by a
significant amount. So since we've started using beanstack, we've seen
the amount of people that get to the 1200 point
mark or the end of the summer reading challenge that
has gone from 32 to 34 to now 37 and
a half percent. So the more our readers use beanstack,
the more familiar they get with it, the more they're
actually committing and completing these reading challenges. So that's very
encouraging for us to see. We had a similar reading
camp. Our overall higher numbers for our reading challenge as
well. And a little sneak peek there was our finisher's
party, which we're talking about in a second. We couldn't
have done these summer reading challenge without our volunteers. So
in total, we had 37 volunteers work for our summer
at your library program. That totaled up to 568 hours
just from them alone, which is a slight increase from
last year as well. And of course, summer always ends
with a finisher's party where we celebrate anyone and anyone
that, uh, participate it in our summer reading challenge or
just participate in any kind of library program or just
wanted to maybe check it out for the first time.
So on July 31st, we held a live jousting performance
from the Imperial Knights of Norco. And that was held
at one of his to park. So even though it
was very toasty that day, we had, um, I believe
it was over 400 patrons still attend and watched this
live performance and it included a skills challenge on horseback
and included the nights doing battle with different weapons, uh,
and of course, the jousting performance at the end. We
had face painting available. We had some lawn games available
for patrons. We had a Hawaiian shaped ice truck that
also came out and offered refreshments, uh, so it was
a great time that we held there at one of
his depart. Alongside the party and the celebration, they also,
uh, did a drawing for that sword of destiny and
the child that 18 was so shocked that they had
actually won it. We can see their picture here. He
is in disbelief that he has won the sort of
destiny, but he got a cool picture with one of
the nights themselves, uh, and I do have to hand
it to the Imperial Knights of Norco. They stuck around
in the heat. They took pictures with anyone that wanted
a picture. The horses were very well behaved and very
cool to see, uh, and everybody just had a great
time at the finishers party. And of course we couldn't
have done it without the sponsors that provide things like
coupons for our reading challenge as prizes. Uh, so big
shout out to In - N - Out Berger, lazydog,
good fellas cafe, raising canes, red robin, just yoga, and
Texas Roadhouse, which were our sponsors this year. Now, does
anyone have any questions. Thank you, Martin. Ms. Bakis, are
there any speaker cards from the public. No speaker cards
from the public. Any written comments from the public? No
written comments from the public. Okay. Trustee Liddell, do you
have any comments or questions? Who comes up with all
these ideas. The collective hive mind. We are led by
our wonderful supervisor here to my left, Jennifer Bowserman. We
have some very talented staff that constantly have ideas going
through their heads. And we are very grateful to provide
a nice outlet for those creative ideas in the form
of library programs. Um, so anytime that we come up
with a theme as a group, we pick the prizes
as a group. We start to kind of lay out
the programs that we want to do. And we just
do them. I am in awe. I am absolutely shocked
at all of the different things that you guys have
come up with. My brain cannot comprehend. But working as
a group, I think is a really good thing. And
I'm very impressed. Trustee Kernelly, do you have any comments
or questions. It's like, where were you when I was
little? Okay. I probably would have lived at the library
with all these activities going on. I'm like Trustee Liddell
was saying it's like, wow. And, um, the proof is
in the pudding, right? Everybody's showing up. The numbers are
going up. Uh, that's just awesome. You guys are doing
wonderful job. Vice Chair Heinemann. Do you have any comments?
I do. Um, and I know there are a lot
of creative people, but it seems like this year they
really went all out. Um, but I have a question
on, you know, overall, like for the teen ones about
how many kids are there during one of the times.
So for the murder mystery, there was a, uh, it
was a registration program. So registration was required. So there
I believe it's, uh, 30 spaces, uh, that are available
for that. And then for the teen nights where it's,
for example, like a fencing class or maybe we do
like a teen game night for previous summers. We usually
do get around 20, sorry, but somewhere between 30 to
40 teens that show up for those programs. Okay. Um,
and my other question, I did, I did go and
see the juggler. He was amazing. And there was one
little boy that screamed his lungs out. And I think
the whole library thought, what's going on in there? He
had the best time. The kids had so much fun.
And I did stop by one day just to see
about the lunch. And boy, it was so organized, so
nice. Do you have an idea of average of how
many kids were getting the lunch. So for the lunch
at the library program, um, it was on average about
70 to 80 kids that would get lunches every day.
Um, and then with their family members, you'd get numbers
anywhere from like 110 and maybe 120 total attendees. And
that's about on average. Some days were, you know, maybe
up to 140. Some days were maybe a little less.
But that's kind of what our average numbers were like.
Wow. That's great. Of course, it also was a cool
place in all the heat, wasn't it? Um, I was
so glad to see that you had so many STEM
and steam activities. I think that's really good. And having
the adult, the family night doing those activities, it's really
fun. It gives parents, I think, ideas of things they
can do with their kids. So it can continue. So
great job. Thank you. Thank you guys again. Martin Jennifer
Casey, your team is just phenomenal. The things that you
put on, I just would never have even thought possible
because you walk into the library and you think it's
a library, but you guys transform it into this whole
other world, especially when we're talking about dragons and dreams
and things. This whole other world, the fantasy ball, um,
just, it was just amazing. And so, um, hats off
to you guys for that. And then I do also
appreciate, I mean, I know they're not here to hear
this, but I do appreciate that the, um, school district
utilized the library as a place to distribute lunches. Um,
for some of our kids, they don't know where that
meal is coming from and school provides that for them.
So when we're off on the summer, um, it's nice
that they still have a place to go in a
reliable meal to look forward to. So I appreciate you
guys doing that as well. Martin, just one question. Which
version of Pete's dragon did you show? I believe it
was the modern version. If I have memory serves correctly.
I think there were a couple of them that were,
um, like the older versions, but I believe we chose
intentionally some of the more modern ones for the little
kids that maybe, you know, maybe they've seen him. Maybe
they've heard of about it before, uh, but I do
believe it was the modern retelling. That's one movie where
I actually don't mind the modern retake on it. Like
because it was just as adorable as the original. So
thank you very much. All right. Now we have our
urine review. Our poor given by Library Supervisor, Jennifer Bowsman.
Hi, good evening, everybody. Um, so yes, today, tonight I'll
be talking about, um, are you in stats as well
as, um, show you a video of all of our
fun pictures and everything from all of our events for
the year. Um, we are going to go into this
with just a reminder that we, um, had construction at
the library. Um, so between March and May, there were
a lot of services that were not available, um, so
you will see that our stats have gone down. But
from previous years, but there was a lot of, um,
positive to it as well. So I expect us to
be back up, um, this coming year. So we had
over 220, 000 patrons visit the library that did go
down. But as we said, the construction and stuff not
being available to access. We did see a jump in
our website visits though. So while people were not physically
coming to the library, they were still accessing information from
the library via our website. And then of course our
public computer usage to go down as well. Um, we
didn't have computers available for an extended period of time.
And we still, we are still working on getting them
all set back up, um, currently as well. Um, and
most people that come into the library either using the
computers themselves or they're using our Wi - Fi with
our new laptop checkouts, we should see Wi - Fi
usage, um, continue to grow. And of course we had
our, um, material circulation. Um, and you can see there
is not a huge difference between fiscal year, um, 25
and fiscal 26 with regards to the number of checkouts,
which is, um, very positive because again, we had sections
of the library materials unavailable for extended periods of time.
So we didn't have, they didn't have access to a
lot of the children's winterials or they didn't have access
to the teen and adult computers. But even with our
materials, but even with that, we still, um, we're very
close to a previous year. And then of course we
did see e media checkouts rise. So again, if they
could not physically come to the library to get a
book, they were using, um, e - media services to
have access to materials. And of course our programs, um,
for this last fiscal year, fiscal year 25, we offered
1, 331 or 1329 programs. And again, that was, um,
that's only down a couple from the previous year. And
we had programs that we were not able to offer
towards the end of the school year. So we should
just continue to see, um, our numbers grow. Our most
of our, we have about 54 percent of our program
literacy services. Um, so all of our, um, classes that
we have, um, in partnership with the Corona Narco Unifest
School District Adult School is a part of that number
as well as our veteran services and all of our
book clubs, adult book clubs. Teens is about 16 percent
of our, um, number of programs. And then we have
ages six to 11, which is going to be your
elementary age children. We're at, um, we have. Our younger
babies in our early literacy. We have about 14 percent
So with regards to the youth, we're pretty even across
the board of what we're offering. Of course, adults have
a little bit of a jump there. And then program
attendance. We have. Um, we are pretty close even with,
um, a lesser amount of programs that we were able
to offer this year. Um, we did see some, we
did see a small jump in, um, adult program attendance.
Um, our teens also had a jump, which were always
very excited about. And then we saw, um, lower numbers
for our, um, elementary school age and preschool. And that's
because we had to cancel programs in the spring, such
as homework center, um, some of our story times weren't
available. So that's why there's a discrepancy there. And then
of course we have, um, library volunteers, we can't do
nearly what we do without volunteers. And so we continue,
um, to see that as a positive, um, this past
fiscal year, we had over 14, 000 volunteer hours. Um,
that were worked at the library. And we had 1,
613 volunteers. And we will continue to see that rise
this year. And. Kathy, they may have to hit play.
Now. Is that your
brother.
What. Do I do? I ask. For help. That's what
I do.
Speakers and story times in our community room and some
fun author panels over in the team area. So we'll
see you soon.
And that is a wrap on reader con 2025. Thank
you all so much for being here for both our
authors, our community, and everyone else in between. We will
see you next year.
Any questions. Ms. Backe, is there any speaker cards from
the public. No speaker cards from the public. Are there
any written comments from the public? No written comments from
the public. Trustee Liddell, do you have any comments. Did
you put that together. Or was this a group. The
video I did put together, yes. That was amazing. I'm
just going to compliment you all all night long. That
was amazing. Very nice. Trustee Kennelly, do you have any
comments? No, I was just going to say the same
thing she did. The video was awesome. You know, it
just took us through the year. Awesome. Good job. Thank
you. Vice Chair Heineman, do you have any questions or
comments? I only have one word. Wow. Thank you. Do
you guys sleep. Because there was a lot backed into
that video. So that just tells me that you have
caught at the library and that's what you pull out
and you go to bed and you wake up the
next morning. Just as wonderful as you are and start
all over again. I do have one question. The material
circulation, total circulation. I know we dropped a little bit
and you kind of commented about the fact that we've
dropped a little bit partially because we're being closed a
lot. But I do wonder in that circulation how much
of that was adult versus children. Because it seems as
though in our hoopla account and cloud library or Liby,
whatever we are using. That we're really increasing in the
number of e - checkouts. And so I wonder if
that accounts for some of the loss in circulation is
because it's easier now for people to obtain reading materials
without having to physically walk into the library. Whereas with
kids, they're still thankfully still into having a physical book
in their hand. And so they want to come to
the library because they want to check out books. So
I wonder if that's a little deceiving in the sense
that maybe we didn't go down in circulations. If you
like equate how many e - checkouts we had plus
physical circulations, it looks like we increased by quite a
bit. We just changed in the way we circulated our
material. And so I think you guys have done an
amazing job. Yes. So the total circulation is including e
media. But I give that credit to why the difference
is not much, even though we did have, um, physical
collections unaccessible for a while because the e - media
has gone up as much. Um, but that total circulation
does include the e - media checkouts. Okay. And we
didn't, you guys did an amazing job give in the
amount of time that we were down. I know that
like the friends book shop, we talk about the fact
that we were down for about five weeks. And then
you throw in the days that they were like, Oh,
just kidding. Hey, we're coming into pain today. And, oh,
he's just kidding. We've got this one carpet square we
need to replace. And so it wasn't just a set
period of time that you guys were down. You had
to go up and down and up and down. And
I watched your Facebook page and was like, Oh, Hey,
by the way, this section's going to be close today.
We're sorry. So, um, you guys just resilience is incredible.
You were extremely flexible. And I can't thank you enough
for everything that you've done for our community. So. Thank
you. All right. Trustee communications. Trustee Liddell, do you have
any comments for this evening. Actually have a few questions
if that is okay. The Zipbook or request a book.
A couple of questions. So I actually use this one
day by accident. I couldn't find a book that was
written in the 1940s. It was a fiction book. And
I pressed that I want to have the book and
somebody would contact me. I think within two days, the
book was on my doorstep. I was like, wait, this
is amazing brand new. So I returned it when I
was done. So the couple of questions that I have
first of all are when the book is returned. Do
you put it into circulation? And the second question I
have is they like if somebody keeps ordering zip books,
is there a max that money will cover? Does that
make sense? Like, oh, we're out of money. Are people
using it wisely. So to answer your second question, yes.
We typically limit the amount of zip books or request
a books that you can, um, you can request during
a certain period of time. Usually, um, in the past,
it's been three. Now it's because the last couple of
years with the grant they had, um, cut the amount
of money that each library received. So we've cut it
down to one. We check it in. Then we can,
you know, open it back up to you. So, um,
yes, we do make sure that when you have requested
a book, um, and you still have it, um, we
wait until you to return it so that we can,
um, use our money wisely. And then, um, as for
your first question, yes. So as soon as something, um,
is within our scope and is something that is needed
in our collection. We use our evidence - based software
to justify what book goes into the library and what
book. If we do not use it in our library,
we donate it to the friends of the library so
that it goes strictly to their bookstore. Thank you. Trustee
Kennerley, do you have any comments. No, I don't have
any comments. Everything job well done, all of you. Well,
that was still a comment. I will. Vice Chair Heineman,
do you have any comments. I don't know. It's been,
the year didn't seem that long to me. I'm sure
for all of you, it was very long. And, uh,
Miss Whittington, yes, the white looks much better than the
blood red or whatever it was called. So the library
looks fantastic. Again, I just congratulate, because I know it's
a team effort. So I can congratulate all the staff
at the library for a wonderful year. I just had
actually a piggyback question on Trustee Liddell's comment. Is there
ever an instance where we don't fulfill a request a
book. Yes. So sometimes they will request a book that
is outside of our scope. We will request a book
that we think is, um, like a textbook. Sometimes people
will request textbooks. We don't fulfill those. Uh, and then
the sometimes there's books that are made by, um, uh,
there are questionable that we don't really think we should
be purchasing. So those are some of the very few.
I would say about 95 percent of the time somebody
is requesting a book that they genuinely want to read
and they can't find it or don't have the funds
to purchase it for themselves. So they are community uses
it in a very nice way. Other than that, I'm
fresh out of words. I know it's rare, but I'm
fresh out of words. Um, thank you everyone for joining
us for the library Board of Trustees meeting. We, during
this meeting at 6. 39 p. m. The next meeting
library Board of Trustees will be on September 22nd, 2026
F5 30 p. m. Same Bat Channel, same that time.
Thank you very much.