The entrance to the McKim building on Copley Square
Reported by Yvette Jarreau
At the January 30 BPL Trustees meeting at the Central Library, BPL president, David Leonard announced he had sent out a Request for Proposal to find an architect to update the Copley Square McKim building. Tied at the hip to the beautifully renovated Johnson Building on Boylston Street, McKim was originally completed in 1895. Designed by Charles Follen McKim, the building had fallen into disrepair by the 1990s. A fundraising campaign by the BPL board of trustees at the time, which included library devotees William O. Taylor, publisher of the Boston Globe and William Bulger, president of the Massachusetts Senate, led to a partial restoration. But today, on the 125th anniversary of the McKim, another face lift is coming. While a firm amount of the expected cost has not yet been established, it is reasonable to assume it will not be less than the more than $80 million spent on the (very successful) renovation of the adjacent Johnson Building five years ago, according to sources within the BPL. Most, if not all, of the funding is at this point expected to come from private donations, according to City officials.
In his report to the trustees, Leonard pointed out that this anniversary year of the McKim the BPL is highlighting several civil rights achievements: the commemoration of the ratification of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote; hosting the post-conference venue of the NAACP Conference in July; and a number of Boston Pride events to celebrate equal rights victories of the LGBTQ community. Reporting on the capital improvement projects now underway, Leonard noted the South End branch will reopen doors after the four-month closing for its ‘refresh,’ on February 18th. The Chinatown branch, closed due to a renovation of the China Trade building where it is located, may swing open its doors at the end of February or early March. And the long-awaited completion of the Dudley Branch is imminent, while great progress is being made with the expansion and renovations of the Adams Street and Roslindale branches.
The Bates reading room at the McKim building
BPL’s chief financial officer, Ellen Donaghey, highlighted key changes in the BPL budget from 2019, including increases in salaries and overtime related to collective bargaining and minimum wage increases; hiring into open management positions; and utilities cost increases, some of which are related to the impending opening of the 27,000 square foot Dudley Branch. Donaghey explained several energy efficient programs are being put in place to reduce energy costs. The BPL’s Finance and Audit Committee approved a vote to move $6 million to a global equity manager called Impax Asset Management, a diverse, socially engaged, environmentally conscious money manager.
Chief of Collections, Laura Irmscher, Director of Library Services, Michael Colford, and Chief of Communications, Lisa Pollack reported on current BPL library usage:
A recent Gallup Poll showed that the largest chunk of leisure time was spent visiting the library, across all age ranges, with an average of 10.5 trips during 2019, almost one per month, and outpacing time spent attending the movies.
During 2019, of the more than 21 million items in the BPL collections, nine percent are checked out and taken home; 75 percent are non-circulating materials used for research in the library; and 16 percent are special collections such as rare books, maps, prints, photographs, etc.
The top five branches in check-out usage were Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, East Boston, Brighton, and South Boston.
Book check-outs have remained stable at about 2.2 million from 2009 to 2019, but big increases have occurred with downloading and streaming materials over that time span, with some decreased use in DVDs and CDs.
BPL collections are “on the move” with 25 percent of the materials checked out at a branch coming from “elsewhere” in the BPL system.
DIGITAL SERVICES
The BPL offers several digital services: Overdrive, Kanopy, RB (Recorded Books), and Hoopla, with almost 60 percent of usage in e-books, about 40 percent in audiobooks and the rest in music and video.
In the past three years, digital circulation use has accelerated and will likely overtake physical use during the next year.
The library has over 130 various online resources, across a wide range of subject areas which are accessible from home; the BPL is continuing to digitize BPL collections with focus on the most used.
Reach in the last five years has increased about 23 percent system-wide. Reach is defined as the usage of all library services including programs and attendance, visits, circulation, computer use and number of wireless sessions.
Computer and WIFI usage are changing as laptops and WIFI become more ubiquitous.
There is an upward trend in attendance at programs; next steps will be analysis of what programs are most attended and and measurements of satisfaction with them.
Outreach is growing, activities like visiting schools, senior housing, providing services at other locations may become more important in our communities
Looking ahead the BPL will capitalize on digital growth, continue to make more collections available to more people, attempting to meet people where they are.
DIGITAL COMMONWEALTH.ORG
BPL manages this non-profit collaborative organization, founded in 2006, that provides resources and services to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives. It currently has more than 180 member institutions from across the state.
Digital Commonwealth provides access to thousands of images, documents, and sound recordings that have been digitized by member institutions so that they may be available to researchers, students, and the general public.
WEB SERVICES
The BPL website and catalog are integrated now and it is possible track usage behavior.
About 20 percent of the activity is related to “search” and one’s “account”
35 percent of sessions begin with search
42 percent come from mobile or tablet platforms rather than desktops
Coming soon: analyses of flow or paths within the site, event analyses, event registrations; all are opportunities for effective marketing of information and events.
NEW BUSINESS
Ellen Duncan introduced members of the 2020 BPL Boston Marathon Team, a group of fifteen people. Their fundraising goal this year is $112K; last year they received $135K. More information can be found at this link here.
PUBLIC COMMENT
(the members of the public at the BPL trustees meeting can sign up for public comment at the end of the public session. below, some of the comments:)
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS:
If a particular item is requested several times, does it get priority for digitization? Yes.
Is tracking on the website specific to individuals or is it anonymous? It is anonymous.
Trustees Meetings should be posted on the front page of the website when the date is nearing making it is easier to find. Draft minutes should be connected to the meeting agenda so that people can see them easily.
THE NEXT BPL TRUSTEES MEETING WILL BE HELD ON THURSDAY, MARCH 26 AT 4:00 PM AT THE WEST ROXBURY BRANCH, 1961 CENTRE STREET, WEST ROXBURY. THE PUBLIC IS CORDIALLY INVITED. FOR ADDITIONAL TRUSTEES MEETINGS, CLICK HERE.