The Library Board of Trustees met Oct. 20 to discuss various topics as the library’s construction moves on.

The Whitewater Public Library is in the midst of being renovated, and it is scheduled to be closed from Oct. 27 to Nov. 8. Library members who need to retrieve any books can pick up books from other libraries.

The board discussed many issues before reopening the library. Firstly, StudioGC, the architectural firm behind the project, are doing walkthroughs to make sure everything is getting installed correctly and no codes are violated.

“Last week, StudioGC and the architect and her team did a walkthrough of the renovation, and they had a punch list, so they made note of anything that was off,” library director Diane Jaroch said.

Other final installments like signs, panels, Braille, trellises and asphalt for the parking lot are under way for the library to be on schedule to open Dec. 8.

“They’re in the process of putting up the interior signage above the doors,” Jaroch said. “However, the panel signage, which goes next to the door, and that has the Braille on it has been delayed until the end of the month.”

Another topic the board discussed was the new logo for the library. Working with another company, the board created a different version of a logo. The board discussed various placements of the items in the logo, colors and what the design will go on once it is finalized.

“They put the headphones back in for multimedia and then also rounded through that top left and top right, and just kind of balanced it a little bit more,” said citizen member Carmen Harlen while talking about the new logo.

The team discussed the media policy of the library next and what, if anything, needed to be changed and updated. An old policy used during the COVID-19 pandemic was amongst the policies that needed to be re-written.

“The changes that were made were under removal posts,” Jaroch said. “There was a sentence there that was deleted, so mainly we talked with the attorney, and we really had that in it when we went back to COVID when we were doing online story times.”

Along with new policies, the library and its staff will also receive new safety measures and systems with the renovation.

A new strategic plan was discussed toward the end of the meeting. This plan outlines how the library will run in the future.

“That entails process prep and kickoff data and information gathering, and that is the longest part of the process, development of strategic goals, objectives and activities and the plan narrative and then activation,” Jaroch said.

The board uses this plan as an outline for how the library will run and what goals they would like to achieve in the upcoming years.

“They put the plan in place, and then each year, we come up with goals within the outline of that plan,” Jaroch said.

The board also discussed where the library can get books from when contractors are having issues. Popular places like Ingram, Amazon and Baker & Taylor are where the library collects most of its collection of books.

The final topic on the agenda for the meeting was agreements on various contracts to renew. The library had contracts with Bridges and Library Systems, movie licenses and other contracts.

The next Library Board of Trustees meeting is Monday, Nov. 17, where the members will discuss how to spend recent donations to the library.