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Englewood library board approves Aug. 3 closure for system migration as visits climb
Summary
At its June meeting the Englewood City Library Board approved a one-day closure on Aug. 3 to allow the Marmot consortium to migrate servers; staff reported 6,302 physical visitors in May and described ongoing delays adding e-books because primary vendors remain strained.
The Englewood City Library Board voted to close the library on Monday, Aug. 3, while the Marmot consortium migrates servers, and heard a report that visitation rose to 6,302 physical visits in May.
Hannah Kenny, patron experience supervisor, told the board the May total amounts to “about 30 every hour, 217 a day,” and that the library is averaging roughly 98 new accounts per week. She cautioned that several figures understate activity: event attendance reported through park partners was incomplete (officially 40), and revenues appeared as $0 in the packet because staff had not yet deposited cash for the period.
Kenny said Marmot—the consortium that manages the library catalog and web presence—scheduled a server move that will take key systems offline. “With that move, basically everything we do is going to be offline,” she said, framing the Aug. 3 closure as preferable to opening a facility without checkout, catalog access or other core services. The board approved the closure by voice vote; the transcript records a voice “aye” vote but does not include a roll-call tally.
Staff also briefed the board on longer-term technical changes: Marmot is migrating some academic partners from the Sierra integrated library system to Folio, and Englewood will eventually move off Sierra as well. Kenny said the library hopes to participate in planning and that staff will keep the board posted on timing and service impacts.
The board heard that the library’s digital acquisitions are still delayed. Kenny said the collapse of one large vendor, Baker & Taylor, concentrated business among a few remaining suppliers and produced setup delays with the library’s primary vendor, Ingram. She said staff are also exploring relationships with Follett and Libreria to expand options but that processing and vendor capacity are causing multi-week delays in getting e-books into the catalog.
Operational updates included adoption of Asana for project management, an ongoing space study and new hires in collections and patron services. Kenny said the collections team is small (about 2.5 full-time equivalents) and that processing incoming material currently requires substantial staff time.
During public comment and audience questions, library staff discussed RFID (radio-frequency identification) tagging and its costs for the collection. A staff speaker estimated a substantial one-time cost to tag the library’s roughly 60,000 physical items and noted ongoing equipment and maintenance expenses. A public commenter also asked why the library does not distribute sterile needles daily rather than monthly; that question was posed as a public comment and not acted on at the meeting.
Next steps noted at the meeting: staff will proceed with planning and public communications for the Aug. 3 closure, continue budget work for 2027, and follow up on vendor onboarding for e-book purchases. The board also discussed scheduling a trustee training with the state library and plans to vote on board goals in July.
