LFNAC Minutes January 19, 2008

The Library Facilities Needs Assessment Committee met at the Hatfield Public Library at 9:00 a.m. Present were Martin Antonetti, Dodie Gaudet, Sue Gaughan, Harold Green, Milton Howard, Sheila McCormick, Lynn Omasta, and Mary Williams
Absent: Mike Paszek

Minutes from the meeting of January 5 were accepted as read with two corrections of typographical errors. Also, 3 possible sites for a new facility were listed in the minutes, but there are more.

Sheila announced that $36,000 of our grant money has arrived from the state. We can now purchase supplies and Sheila will provide committee members with a large, expandable file folder.

We began by setting guidelines for attendance since we want to make sure there is a quorum for voting. MOVED and VOTED: If any member misses 5 meeting, he/she will be asked to resign. A letter will be sent after 4 missed meetings letting the person know he/she cannot miss any more meetings and still be a member of the Library Facility Needs Assessment Committee.

The discussion about the need for an Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) continued. Lynn talked with her colleagues who said that one is not needed at this point. We need a designer or design house (aka architectural firm) to help us do a design study to present a project to the town. This design house may or may not be the same one that builds the facility. To Do: Sheila will talk with some directors of libraries constructed since the requirement of an OPM became law to find out the exact contribution to the project. She will also invite Anne Larson to visit with this Committee.

We reviewed a document form the Mass Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) “Your Library Construction Project: a checklist for success” which is a timeline for the project. A long-range plan has been developed; we’ve started to identify needs. Our next task is to write an RFQ for a study.

Sheila made some calculations on how much space we need for the current collection size and town population based on the Wisconsin Library Standards. Currently, there should be 5,254 sq. ft. of space and we have about 2300. She then recalculated based on the anticipated collection size and town population in 20 years. Gross area needed will be over 11,000 sq. ft. The Committee decided to use the working figure of 10,000 sq. ft.

We need to write a plan which the designer/architect will help us refine. We need to be clear on what we want so that we don’t get talked into a feature that is not appropriate for Hatfield. Qualifications for a designer: someone who has worked on a library project in Massachusetts in a town with a population size between 2,000 and 7,000 since 2004. Also, we want someone with at least 5 years of experience.

We looked at copies of the Central Register for examples of wording. It is very brief. We developed the criteria required for that publication. To Do: Dodie will forward this information to Marlene Michonski to post in the Central Register.

The committee scheduled three more Saturday meetings: February 2, February 16 and March 1, all at 9:00 a.m. at the Library. The meeting adjourned at 10:46.


Respectfully submitted

Dodie Gaudet
Secretary