by T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control adopted an Open Meeting Disability Accommodation Policy and agreed to enter into a Cooperative of Agreement with the parish GIS Office during a quick 15-minute meeting Wednesday at the Lincoln Parish Library.
Based on the State Library Board’s Open Meeting Disability Accommodation Policy, that decision stipulates that The Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control, in accordance with Act 393, will provide for participation via electronic means on an individualized basis by people with disabilities.
People with disabilities are defined as any of the following:
1. A member of the Library Board of Control or public with a disability recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
2. A designated caregiver of such a person.
Written public notice for an open meeting, as required by R.S. 42:19, will include:
1. Name, telephone number and email address of the designated agency representative to whom a disability accommodation may be submitted.
2. Time frame in which the request must be submitted.
Upon receipt of an accommodation request, the Library representative is only permitted to ask if the requestor has an ADA-qualifying disability or is a caregiver of such a person (yes or no). The requester shall not be required to complete a medical inquiry form or disclose the actual impairment or medical condition to support a disability accommodation request.
The Library representative shall provide a Board requestor with the accommodation that best suits their personal needs. Any links and/or phone numbers for participation via electronic means will be provided as soon as possible following receipt of the request, but no later than the start of the scheduled meeting.
If the requestor is a member of the public, the Library representative shall ask the requestor to submit a list of questions. The Library representative will then provide the requestor with a number to call to participate in the meeting via a conference call. All questions of the requestor will be read aloud in the meeting by the Board Chair or designee.
It also means that Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control members participation via electronic means shall count for purposes of establishing quorum and voting.
The interagency agreement for 2024 with the Lincoln Parish GIS Office for IT service is a continuation of services provided in 2023.
Those services are for technical support of the Lincoln Parish Library’s computer systems including but not limited to advice and support on any hardware, software, networking and any other such technology information issues.
It stipulates all such advice and support shall be coordinated with the appropriate representatives of the LPL as well as outside providers of computer and software systems.
Also considered was an IT proposal from NetTech, but because an agreement is needed by January the Board decided it would be best to continue using the parish GIS Office IT team until a NetTech proposal can be thoroughly studied and discussed.
“Because this is a very complicated proposal — we only got it about two weeks ago I think, there’s a lot of moving parts when you think about a transition,” LPL Board member Richard Durrett said. “We need to have time to evaluate so I think that we should accept the GIS IT proposal for the year 2024 and authorize LPL Board Chairman Amy Miller to sign that.”
The Board unanimously passed that motion for a term of one year.
Miller also thanked Durrett, an outgoing member who will not return in 2024 after not being reelected to the Lincoln Parish Police Jury, for his service to the Library Board of Control.
Durrett has served as the LPPJ representative on the Library Board of Control. That now open seat is expected to be filled by the first LPPJ meeting in January when Jury electees are sworn into their positions.
During his Director’s Report, LPL Director Jeremy Bolom told the Board that the library’s recent Pictures with Santa event was a big success with more than 300 pictures taken and given to attendees.
“We had lots of babies come out, and that was very good to see and our biggest day of the holiday season,” Bolom said.
