Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2009 11 18

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. Memorandum To: From: Date: Re: Historical Commission Malcolm Fleming, City Manager November18, 2009 Joining Forces For Effective Coordination of Library and Museum Services Why should we do this? The Louisville Public Library and the Louisville Historical Museum have much in common. Both organizations share similar missions and are both involved in the preservation of City and regional history. A key function of both entities is maintaining and providing access to information and items of interest. It makes sense to join forces to ensure effective coordination of Library and Museum services. Doing so would: . Make the Museum's collection more accessible to the public through cataloging and digitization . Increase the security of materials by having them available electronically . Facilitate greater shared programming, like the recent Smaldone program . Promote coordinated disaster preparedness plans for the collections at the Museum and the Library. . Help Library and Museum staff to become more knowledgeable about what is located in both collections and thereby better serve the public . Encourage coordination of reference help. For instance, children doing research for school projects related either to Louisville or Colorado history (fourth graders, for example, study famous people in Colorado history) could use photos from the Museum's collection if they were available electronically. What will change? Currently, Museum Coordinator Bridget Bacon reports to the Public Relations Manager, Meredyth Muth. To achieve this transition, beginning January 1, 2010, Bridget will instead report to the Director of Library Services, Beth Barrett. Beth's title will change to "Director of Library and Museum Services". What will not change as a result of this shift? The independent nature of the Library Board and Historic Commission will not change (although we would encourage periodic joint meetings to foster improved collaboration at the Board/Commission level as well). Furthermore, Museum and Library staff will remain the same. What else is happening? Although not related to this merger, to bring the City's expenditures back in line with anticipated revenues, one of the dozens of changes that the City Council approved as part ofthe 2010 Budget is to reduce the Museum Coordinator's hours from 29 to 20 per week (although the Museum Coordinator may still maintain a 29 hour work week if research work is required that is consistent with the provisions of the voter-approved Historic Preservation Sales Tax). Consequently, Museum drop-in hours will be reduced to one weekday and a monthly Saturday. Appointments will still be available for those who wish to visit at other times.