The Library Board met 02/18/2025. There were a couple of items on the agenda that pertained to the new library building. One was the request to update the Space Use Policy and Library Rental Fee Schedule which was recommended for approval unanimously by the board. The second was an update on the new building which was an information item.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The Space Use Policy was amended only 3 months ago in December of 2024. That amendment had completed reworked the meeting room use policy prior to the opening of the new library. Now that the building was open and the spaces were being used, it became clear that some items in the policy needed to be clarified.
The main item they needed to clarify was the difference between public use which was free and private use which required the payment of a fee.
- Free use required that the meeting be open to the public and take place during library hours. An example given was the school district holding an open meeting for parents wanting to learn about AASD.
- Paid used were any meetings regardless of type that take place outside of library hours and any meeting during library hours that was not open to the public. An example of a private meeting was a company staff retreat.
There were also events that were not allowed at all even if a fee was paid. Those include
- Activities intended solely for commercial profit
- Personal parties such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.
It was noted that alcohol was prohibited at any event unless the event was a Library fundraising event held outside of operating hours.
In addition to the policy clarifications, the fee schedule needed to be updated. The rental rate for the Mary Beth Nienhaus Community Meeting Room and Community First Credit Union Welcome Hall had originally only included prices for 1 section of the divided room or the full room but not 2 sections of the divided room. Beyond that, they added language about length of bookings, cancellation, and reservation confirmation.
The amended policy was recommended for approval by a unanimous vote of the board.
The vote on the policy then led into an update on the new building. All of the feedback from staff was positive, and they were clearly very excited to be in the new space.
All of the pallets of books were out of storage and in the middle of being processed and on their way to the library shelves.
Library holds were being processed again. They had been paused during the move so APL couldn’t send materials to other libraries or receive materials in return. Now that the new building was open they were able to turn holds and interlibrary loans back on. There had initially been a very long list, but it had since gone back to its normal level of about 400 to 500 a day.
A lot of families were checking out the library, and the sensory room was particularly popular. They were seeing a lot of teens and younger adults gathering together at tables and booking meeting rooms.
Teen and adult programing was taking place throughout the building. The Fox Cities Reads program utilized the Mary Beth Nienhaus community room and they recently had 282 people show up to an event and book signing. Staff was really pleased with how efficiently the space met the needs of such a large group.
There was still some work that needed to be done, most notably on the learning stairs, some concrete rework, and adding the rubberized surface to the Children’s Garden. There was also some donor signage that still needed to be added as well as signs on the ends of the bookshelves.
All in all staff sounded very exuberant to me and very happy to be mostly moved in to their new space.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1270900&GUID=6764FBA0-7FBC-409F-86F5-A787E8B9E0A3
Be the first to reply