Library Board Discusses ‘Red’ Classification For Kosciusko County
Posted
Jackie Gorski-
Kosciusko County going “red” was discussed during the Warsaw Library Board of Trustees meeting Monday.
Before going into Indiana State Department of Health’s red classification for COVID, Library Director Ann Zydek said the county was in orange, but was running close to red.
Zydek said the library is highly recommending masks due to the red classification. If someone is sitting at a desk 6 feet away from other people, that person can take their mask off.
However, programs that were upcoming that involve motion are not necessarily being offered. The main person running any of the scheduled programs has been given the individual decision of whether that program will still be offered, Zydek said. The library’s programming will be limited through the end of the year and the limited programming might extend to the end of January.
In other business, Indiana Library Federations’s Indiana Professional Licensing Agency virtual meeting for public library directors was Nov. 22, Zydek said. At the IPLA meeting, Jake Speer, Indiana state librarian, talked about the formation of a statewide Overdrive consortium.
The Indiana State Library would commit Loan Syndications and Trading Association funds to pay for platform costs for each library participating. Individual libraries would continue to be invoiced by Overdrive for digital content.
Speer shared this potentially could expand content availability to Indiana patrons of 160-plus libraries, mostly Evergreen libraries, sometime in January, according to Zydek’s report.
The consortium wants the libraries to decide if they want to be part of it or not by the end of the year, Zydek said.
Currently, the Warsaw library is part of a smaller Overdrive consortium in the northern portion of Indiana, she said.
Some Warsaw library employees are going to make contact with some people with the statewide Overdrive consortium and see if it’s something the library wants to be part of.
Also:
• Zydek recognized the Friends of the Library for its $6,850 donation to install a new lower-level water fountain.
• The 2022 board of officers was voted to keep the same as 2021 with Chris Merrill as president, Barbara Beck as vice president, Jill Beehler as secretary and Ben Rice as treasurer. Merrill said the Board will vote to approve the officers during its January meeting.
• The Board approved the library’s wage/salary table and the 2022 staff salary schedule.
