Library director reports staffing gaps, program growth and $50,000 bookmobile grant

Beaufort County Library Director Amanda Dickman told trustees she is juggling five vacant positions across branch locations while maintaining programming and services. She said the system currently has vacancies for a library assistant at Lobeco, a senior librarian at the Hilton Head branch, a library specialist at the Beaufort District Collection (BDC) following an internal promotion, a full-time library assistant at Bluffton and a librarian for Saint Helena.

Dickman framed the update around the systems three strategic goals (Connect, Discover, Grow) and reported several funding and procurement priorities. She said the library was awarded a $50,000 impact grant administered through the state library and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support purchase of a bookmobile; staff will coordinate vehicle quotes with the county fleet department. She also noted a $10,000 unrestricted gift distributed by the Carnegie Foundation to eligible Carnegie libraries, which the Beaufort location qualifies for, and said the funds will be assigned to a project to be determined.

"We ended our annual summer reading program with 3,073 participants," Dickman told trustees, citing a 20% increase in program completions from the prior year. She said the system expects to use the bookmobile funding to expand outreach and will return to the board with procurement details once quotes are in.

On facilities and equipment, Dickman said a request for qualifications for design services for the Prichardville-Okatie Library (design only) is under review, and the library has issued a request for proposals to replace automated materials handling (AMH) machines and self-check units that are more than 10 years old; vendor support has ended and some card-payment readers are nonfunctional. She invited trustees to a short ribbon-cutting at the Beaufort picture book room and a community Bluey/Bingo event following the ceremony.

The board did not record a formal roll-call vote on the grants and procurement items during the meeting transcript; Dickman said staff will follow procurement rules and return with specifics as those steps proceed.