[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Booey? >> Here. >> Coleman? >> Here. >> Johnson? Kim? Maker? Yang? >> Here. >> Chavez? >> Here. >> Four present, three absent, three being excused. The first item on the agenda is the approval of minutes, minutes 20- or 26-23 library board minutes for 7 or July 8th of 2026. >> Great. Um I uh will take a motion from Council member Coleman to approve the minutes. Is there any discussion? Uh seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed? >> Five in favor, zero opposed. The minutes are adopted. Excuse us. I'm sorry. >> We had two people come in. >> Six in favor. I'm so sorry. >> [laughter] >> Six in favor, zero opposed. The minutes are adopted. The next item on the agenda is the staff report, staff report 26-154 newcomer services. >> Um and this item uh we actually will be laying over to August 7th. Uh the presenter uh ended up not being available to present today, so I'd like to take a motion. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm Are we getting feedback in here? >> We are. >> Okay. Okay, hopefully that will get fixed. Um, so I'd like to take a motion from uh Council Vice President Yang to lay the staff report over to August 7th. All those in favor say oh, Octo- my god, why am I saying August? October 7th. Thank you, Director Carmen. To lay this over to October 7th. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All those opposed? >> Six in favor, zero opposed. The staff report has been laid over to October 7th. The next staff report on the agenda is staff report 26-156, strengthening libraries as spaces of belonging project. >> Great. I'd like to welco- welcome Rebecca Ryan to present uh this this topic uh for the Melon Grants. Thank you. >> Thanks, Library Board Chair Joslin and Council members. Um, this will be really brief. Uh, you will hear maybe some specific activities um from Adriana when she's back in October. Uh, this relates to our upcoming agenda item about um the Melon Grant. I'm really happy to uh say that the Friends of the Library was granted a million dollars by the Melon Foundation this summer for 3 years. Um, they've also granted a similar amount for a similar timeline to Hennepin County Library. And um you know, I really appreciate my uh colleagues across the river. And excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> I'm excited for more of our staff to develop some collaborative relationships between our library systems. Uh, these are our pretty broad goals of the grant. As you can see, they um very much reinforce the work that we do every day in the library. We want to build and restore trust in public institutions like the library. Uh, we want to continue to dir- directly address um and provide services that address people's like learning and information needs, provide safe and welcoming spaces and programs, and address the widening learning gaps like literacy. Um, and some of the specific project activities um that we are just embarking on will be expanding our community services team with an additional Spanish-speaking community specialist and an additional um specialist to work with our Karen community. Um, we will support existing library materials that have proven um really high demand and high value for some of particularly the digital literacy work that we do. That would be Salad, some adult basic education materials, um the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment. Um, this will also support um one FTE of a library safety specialist in 2027 and 2028 to continue kind of to bridge um the gap that we have between ARPA and general funds. Um, support public-facing programs like family literacy nights, which we've been experimenting with with success in some of our libraries. Um, and then uh some of you may know or remember that we have published children's books in Karen and English before and we uh will be exploring the possibility of doing so again with these funds. And that is all I have about this grant for now. So, happy to take questions if there are any. >> Any questions or comments, Council Member Johnson? >> Yeah, no questions. Um, more so of a comment of just that's a really big deal. So, I'm glad to you know, I'm glad that we're talking through but I do want to echo and kind of double down if not on just the significance of that investment um both for here and Hennepin County. So, that's a really welcome surprise and also very um excited about it and just simply wanted to say that's a big it's a big deal and um incredible uh investment in our St. Paul Public Libraries and so I'm glad to hear about that. It's really exciting and so just didn't want that to pass through uh with just with no conversation or acknowledgement of how big of a DEAL THAT IS. >> UM COUNCIL PRESIDENT NICKLE. >> THANKS CHAIR JUST. I share my colleagues enthusiasm and congratulations. I just want to ask note um as it looks like you're talking about hiring staff with a one-time funding source and we're talking right now about shifting six full-time staff that we funded with a one-time funding source onto the general fund um to please be thoughtful about that and I want to make sure that we have an exit strategy that doesn't rely on the general fund and that also doesn't um compromise the quality of the services that we start to provide or people's livelihoods. >> Any other questions? >> Oh. >> I will say we're um about to post for those positions and they're clearly noted in that posting as a three-year grant-funded position. >> Um yeah, this is really really exciting. It's a huge investment in our libraries and I'm just really appreciative to see um what this is going to mean for for our libraries. I mean all of the additional services and the expansion um of um more languages uh and our community services team and we also know how critical our library safety specialists are especially with us opening you know the new library this year and and additionally having you know so many more renovations to our libraries. I'm excited to see that this will help support both goals. Um Any other questions or comments? All right. Well, thank you so much. This is really exciting. >> The final item on the agenda is a discussion item resolution public hearing 26-178 amending the financing and spending plan of the Saint Paul Public Library Agency in the amount of $920,000 to reflect multi-year transfer of grant funds received on the behalf by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. >> Yes. Um so this is basically the the action item that is approving the the funds that we were just talking about. Um I will take a motion from Council Member Johnson to um approve this item. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> Six in favor, zero opposed. Resolution has been adopted. >> Great. Well, that brings us to the end of our um the end of our agenda. I'll say a couple of things here quick. Um we we did open the Hamline Midway Library a few weeks ago and it was amazing. Um we're so excited uh about about the library. It's incredible. If you haven't been there yet, uh please come by. And I'm excited that the the library budget address will be at the Hamline Library this year next Thursday at 2:00. So another opportunity for people to come and check it out if they haven't already. Um and then in uh at our next library board meeting is when we will be receiving the budget presentation from the director. Um so thank you again everyone for your participation today. And with nothing else to come before us, we are adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> is safer. St. Paul has lowered speed limits [music] on all city streets. Many busy streets are now posted at a slower speed limit of [music] 25 mph. Residential side streets are now 20 mph. If there are no speed signs [music] on the street, it is a 20 mph street. Let's make our streets [music] safer for every one of us. Keep our neighbors safe. Drive slower and with caution in St. Paul. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> is safer. Saint Paul has lowered speed limits [music] on all city streets. Many busy streets are now posted at a slower speed limit of 25 mph. Residential side streets are now 20 mph. If there are no speed signs [music] on the street, it is a 20 mph street. Let's make our streets safer for every one of us. Keep our neighbors safe. Drive slower and with caution [music] in St. Paul. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.