Library goes out for proposals for new books, AV for new library

The Belleville Area District Library has called for proposals for the Opening Day Collection from Baker & Taylor, Brodart, and Ingram to give “a shot in the arm to our present collection,” said Library Director Mary Jo Suchy.
The budget for this project is $150,000.
At the Feb. 12 meeting of the library board, Director Suchy explained the purpose of this collection will be to supplement the library’s current collection with special focus on popular materials as well as areas of the non-fiction collection in need of updating.
“With the new library, we anticipate a return of our patrons who are using neighboring libraries, and we want to make sure that our book and materials collection is up to the task,” Director Suchy said.
In the Request for Proposals, it points out the library is seeking Opening Day Collection services for its new, two-story, 31,000-square-foot building which is currently under construction. The library anticipates moving to the new site in autumn of 2019. The purpose of the Opening Day Collection will be to supplement the library’s existing collection of 77,000 books and 9,900 AV materials.
The project includes selection, acquisition, cataloging, processing, storage, and delivery of an Opening Day Collection of materials for the new library.
Materials will include adult, juvenile, and teen books, DVDs, music CDs and audio books. The project will be awarded to a single vendor.
Proposals are due Feb. 22 and the library board is expected to award the contract at its regular meeting on March 12. Tentative date for delivery to the library is October 2019.
In other business at the one-hour-and-24-minute meeting Feb. 12, the board:
• Heard Suchy announce that after much deliberation and consultation with the staff and building committee, she recommends installing an Automated Materials Handling System in the new library. She said she and others visited the Commerce Township Library to see its AMH system and she expects to make a recommendation on a vendor at the March board meeting. She said the AMH system will greatly improve staff ergonomics on a task that is very repetitive, will allow them to get the items to the shelves faster, and will allow them to deploy staff in other, more customer-centric ways;
• Learned the chairperson’s appointments to committees for the year are: Building – chairperson Joy Cichewicz, Mary Jane Dawson, John Juriga; Bylaws – chairman John Juriga, Linda Priest; Finance – chairperson Barbara Gates, Cichewicz; Marketing – chairperson Alma Hughes-Grubbs, Dawson, Gates; Personnel – chairperson Priest, Gates; and Policy – chairperson Dawson and Hughes-Grubbs;
• Heard Suchy report that three young men (ages 18, 18, and 26) were caught pointing what turned out to be air guns at each other in the quiet study room Jan. 8. The police escorted them from the premises and she informed police that the three were to be banned from the library for one year for violating the library’s code of conduct;
• Learned Librarian Theresa Spiteri-Zaidel and Circulation Clerk Beth Booher are on leaves of absence. Clerk Noelle Douglas has found a new duty at the library. In her non-work life she is an artist and she has been helping the kids in the Comic Book Club to draw comics;
• Learned board member John Juriga’s son and son-in-law, Jesse Juriga and Nathan Allen, have pledged $10,000 over the next three years to the library’s capital project fund. Google will match this donation each year and the anticipated total donation will be $20,000. Juriga said his son Jesse, 38, works for Google and had two of his commercials on television during the Super Bowl;
• Heard architect Dan Whisler say that a few months back a youth spinner was broken and they are bringing in a 12’ long new piece of shelving into the children’s area of the library and treating it like a mockup. People can inspect it. It will be going into the new library;
• Heard board vice chairperson Mary Jane Dawson announce that the BYC is holding its annual Lake Cleanup on May 4 and volunteers are invited to join in. She said volunteers will include the University of Michigan Women’s Rowing Team and the Belleville High School football team; and
• Heard board chairperson Sharon Peters say the responses from the community concerning the library have been “so heartening and gratifying.”