Director’s Report and Highlights January 20, 2009
Pamela Nyberg Kiesner, Director
Bellingham, Washington


Happy New Year! At the library we are hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst. How can we do anything different in these times?

At each of our staff meetings we begin with “Celebrations and Successes”. This helps keep us focused on moving forward, with a positive outlook. Some good news: several staff members have been hard at work preparing a new look and feel for our website. A true team effort, each of them is to be congratulated. The new website is being launched today (Friday, January 16, 2009) at 5:00 p.m.! Check it out. You can look forward to a tour of some of its new features at your February meeting.

See you for our first 2009 regular Library Board meeting at 2:00 p.m. in the lower level meeting room.

2008 Board Review and 2009 Calendar
Thought you might find it interesting to review what the Board did, decided, and who you heard from in 2008. We’ll talk briefly about the 2009 calendar – bring your ideas for agenda topics, and folks in the library or community you would like to hear from for “Trustee Education”.

Fairhaven Branch Library
Faye and David are representing the Library Board on the Fairhaven Project Team. They, along with Christine and I will provide an update for you on progress to date. We’ll share the preliminary cost estimates, and the plans for you to see.

We’d like you to put February 5th, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. on your calendar. We’ve scheduled a public meeting at the Fairhaven Branch Library to share the plans and costs with interested people in the community. Brad Cornwell, from RMC Architects, who is working with our Portland FFA team, will help present the plans and issues.

FYI
WhatcomREADS! is nearly upon us, so we’ll provide an update and tell you about The Big Read for next year. We’ll also share plans for a user survey. We expect it will give us useful information for decision-making related to the budget and library services.

See you soon.