Call to order: 10:04 AM.

Welcome and introductions: Steve Norman, chair of the Minerva board welcomed everyone and offered thanks to our host, Topsham Public Library. Attendees introduced themselves. (A list is attached.)

Review and acceptance of minutes from June 6, 2014 Users Council meeting: Moved approval, carried.

Old Business

Welcoming New Libraries: Steve welcomed our new members – Windham Public, Freeport Community, and Maine College of Art Libraries. This is Kennebunk’s first meeting. He also thanked the membership committee and Maine InfoNet staff for their efforts. New members extend our reach, increase our resources, and keep costs down.

Board Vacancy: There is still a vacancy on the board for the school library position.

New Business

Review of AV ILL loan period and other policies: The AV/ILL period change from one week to three for a trial period was a topic of discussion.

Josh Tiffany (Gray Public Library) compiled statistics that he has shared on the Minerva list.

James Rathbun, circulation committee, reviewed the process behind this trial. There has been a long history of discussion of AV loan periods within the roundtables and standards committees. Also, a survey on the topic was sent to directors. A decision was made to not split TV series sets – this made a one week loan period too short for these items. The board discussed two weeks, then went with a trial of three weeks (the same as books). There is now a Minerva loan period of three weeks with a two-week renewal option. Some libraries have changed their own loan periods to conform to this.

Josh Tiffany felt this greatly impacts libraries that are heavily invested in AV. He commented that a rule created for the 12 percent of items that are sets seems off. There can be a very long wait for items that are owned one per library, not so much for those that some libraries have many copies of. Cyndi Burne said that there was much discussion before the trial. She has not heard any complaints from patrons – they are grateful for the extra time – especially mothers! Getting away from breaking up sets has made ILL requesting much cleaner. Catalogers are happy because it makes things much simpler – not having to worry about volume fields and the length of the DVDs. At the last circulation roundtable there was no negative feedback among attendees. Currently there are older sets that are broken up, but everything new is kept together.

Much discussion followed – some comments: From shared data, it looks as though holds are taking longer – that should be primary, not the ease of the staff. We are in an Amazon.com world – we must be able to compete. We should talk about collection development policies and about all libraries purchasing additional AV items. Directors have a responsibility to ensure robust collections. Libraries should be looking at hold lists and purchasing as needed. Patrons are not noticing that their waits are longer. The point was made that patrons of the owning library will get first dibs. The issue of browsing was raised – does that it differ from books? If every library bought more AV, would there even be an issue? Some statistics seemed to show that the twenty most popular AV items exhibited a net increase in wait times. Someone noted that hot AV items aren’t purchased first thing, but are gradually added. Lynn will be talking about high demand holds lists. The Download Library was mentioned as an instance in which items are purchased when there is high demand. Could we, as a system, purchase high demand hold items? Someone noted that the format is dying. There are three streaming market options. Overdrive is a statewide system, but there can also be individual add-ons to the system. Video can be done the same way, but video would first have to be added to the general collection and the issue is that there is no budget to support it. Hoopla is another option – the package could be a consortial purchase, but statewide access was $100,000!  Indie Flix is the final option. Across these systems, video options are poor, they don’t include the content that our patrons are looking for. There are three months remaining in the trial. The process for moving the conversation forward should include conversation on collection development.

Reports

Minerva Executive Board: no report.

Maine InfoNet Director: James Jackson Sanborn recognized the new libraries as taking a fair amount of work – Kennebunk over the summer. Windham and Freeport are going through an accelerated process thanks to the staffs of those libraries and Maine InfoNet staff. Maine State Library Outreach will be merging with the rest of the Maine State Library in Ursus – probably early in January. Maine College of Art will be joining, but due to the existing contract year and their academic year, they will wait until this summer to join. Once these libraries are in, there might be a chance to add more. He noted that it had been over six years since the last entry.

James mentioned the roll-out of a new ticketing system, Fresh Desk. They are finding it easier to manage. There was, of course, a major migration from Millennium to Sierra. There are still some issues, mainly around slowness. With the new contract, we have a number of new services, APIs and access points that we used to have to pay for or not have at all. One option we will be launching is the airpac system – a mobile interface. This will save us the $3,000 a year we now spend on the Library Thing product.

Also, SIP 2 licenses are now unlimited (for instance, for self-check machines). There is no longer a $3,000 fee with associated annual fees. The item status API we now have access to allows us to unlock the full potential of RFID. With all of this, if a library is thinking of adding a service, they should open a ticket if it is something that needs to be integrated. Some things will work in a consortial environment, others will not – even if a vendor says otherwise!

Other things happening: Maine InfoNet has always operated as an agreement between the University of Maine and the State library. Now it has 501c3 status and can own the III contract and have its own bank account. Minerva can move its funds from the state to Maine InfoNet in a separate numbered account. This will save money and make things work more easily. One discovery is that not all non-profit charitable corporations are tax exempt, though libraries are. If Maine InfoNet were to purchase something tangible, it would incur a tax liability. The easiest way to avoid this would be to ask for a legislative exemption for Maine InfoNet from taxation – this process is under way. Perhaps the exemption would even cover other consortia of libraries, not just Maine InfoNet. If Maine InfoNet doesn’t succeed with the legislation (they should!), they could become a reseller for sales tax purposes, but this would be involved. Friday, Nov 21, is the Maine InfoNet Library Directors’ forum with a speaker from the Digital Public Library of America.

Discussion ensued about adding the catalog function of Library Thing. We now use Syndetics, but that contract is up in February – there will be time for discussion at the next board meeting. There are other products to consider, as well – Book Letters, Sizzle, etc. Who will be doing bookkeeping and accounting? Maine InfoNet will be hiring a part-time accountant. Thanks were offered for the job done in negotiating the Sierra contract.

Maine InfoNet Representative: Judy Frost reported that for the second time in ten years, the Maine InfoNet board is going through a facilitated planning process. There will be a new three year plan which should be ready in the spring. Ongoing concerns include Linda Lord’s retirement; there will be a new State librarian. We have always had people committed to Maine InfoNet. It is the Maine Library Commission that hires a new State Librarian. Linda has been working on clarifying the role of the Maine State Library. Recent events at the University of Maine and USM are worrying. Academic library events at Colby are subsidized by Colby and U. Maine. How can we maintain what we have been doing with no money? Only Minerva has money…. They may set up a committee to look at membership in Maine InfoNet – how to sustain what we have. Bates, Bowdoin and Colby have contributed to the support of MARVEL! and Maine Download Library. Minerva has not done strategic planning. Mostly things happen to us. The first step was in taking control of our membership. Should we set up a 501c3 structure? New library directors are always joining – they may not know what we are about.

Minerva technical: Alisia spoke about the migration and the update. Sierra will be updating on the third of November. Minerva is doing better than Ursus on the upgrade. The system is still too slow – they are tweaking tables and the server. Members should continue to submit tickets if they experience problems. We will soon start to see Windham and Freeport items and patrons. They will be live the Monday before the Directors’ meeting.

Finance and Budget:  Amber Tatnall is learning the ropes. Our finances are solidly in the black. Annual fees are up slightly. We are anticipating the move of monies which will save fees and headaches. There will be no additional charges to Minerva during the move. (Our contingency fund was sufficient.) We will be buying bags though a library agent. Marcive processing, and the RDA toolkit are other purchases.

Committee Reports

Membership committee: Offered many thanks to members. The process went smoothly. All three applicants were accommodated.

Circulation Standards Committee: They are working on BluRay / DVD issues. Their next meeting is December 3.

Cataloging Standards Committee: There are now only four meetings a year, and members must continue to attend three. RDA is going OK. Meetings will be available via Tandberg, and members can view the streaming version. The meeting DVDs will go away.

Other:  A concern about payment of bills in a timely fashion was raised. Should there be a standard? There is one – it is located on the web and was adopted several years ago.

Adjournment: 11:35 AM

Lunch – Thanks to Shelley Davis for arranging!

Attendance:  Auburn Public Library, Suzanne Sullivan; Augusta Schools, Liz Soares; Baxter Memorial Libray, James Rathbun, Pam Turner; Belfast Free Library, Steve Norman; Boothbay Harbor Public Library, Tim McFadden; Camden Public Library, Nikki Maounis; Central Maine Community College, Judy Frost; Eastern Maine Medical Center, Cindy White, Cynthia Young;

Edythe Dyer Library, Debbie Lozito; Falmouth Memorial Library, Andi Jackson Darling; Freeport Community Library, Robin Lowell; Gray Public Library, Joshua Tiffany; Hobbs Memorial Library, Anne Romer; Husson University, Amy Averre; Kaplan University Maine, Martha Ott; Lewiston Public Library, Karen Jones; Maine State Library, Jim Roy; McArthur Public Library, Jackie McCann; Norway Memorial Library, Katherine Morgan; Orono Public Library, Laurie Carpenter; Rockland Public Library, Patty King; Scarborough Public Library, Nancy Crowell; South Portland Public Library, Kevin Davis; Southern Maine Community College, Mark Lawrence; St. Joseph’s College Library, Shelly Davis; Thomas Memorial Library, Steve Gibbon; Topsham Public Library, Cyndi Burne, Susan Preece; Walker Memorial Library, Michelle Conners;

Waterville Public Library, Sarah Sugden; Windham Public Library, Jen Alvino; Witherle Memorial Library, Anne Romans; York County Community College, Amber Tatnall; York Schools, Michelle Adams; Maine InfoNet, Alisia Revitt, James Jackson Sanborn, Lynn Uhlman; Guests/Other, University of Maine, Matthew Revitt.