Meeting Minutes

Kennebec Valley Community College
May 19, 2010

The meeting was called to order by Steve Norman at 10:10 am. In attendance were: Martha Ott, Andover College; Charles Prinn, St. Joseph’s College; Lisa Auriemma, Thomas College; Liz Reisz, York Schools; Jennifer Lewis, Augusta Schools; Melora Norman, Quimby Library, Unity College; Chris Boynton, Maine State Library Outreach; Stephen LaRochelle, David Smith, and Barbara Boynton, Kennebec Valley Community College; Lyn Smith, Pittsfield Public; Carin Dunay, Southern Maine Community College; Amy Averre, Husson University; Cindy White, Eastern Maine Medical Center; Susan Preece and Cynthia Burne, Topsham Public; Anne Davis, Gardiner Public; Dean Corner, Maine State Library; Betsy Pohl, Lithgow Public; Nikki Maounis, Camden Public; Molly Larson, Rockport Public; Anne Romans, Witherle Memorial; Janet Blood, Eastern Maine Community College; James Fein, Washington County Community College; Amber Tatnall, York County Community College; Lyn Sudlow, Falmouth Memorial; Susan Winch, Scarborough Public; Steve Norman, Belfast Free Library; Jay Scherma, Thomas Memorial; and Judy Frost, Central Maine Community College. Also in attendance from Maine InfoNet were James Jackson Sanborn and Alisia Revitt.

Steve welcomed users and introduced new board members – Betsy Pohl and Lisa Auriemma. Melora moved to approve the minutes of the last meeting, Judy seconded, and the motion was approved.

ME InfoNet Director report:

James Jackson Sanborn reported on staffing: they are fully staffed. Tim Pellet rejoined as Library Support Specialist. However, Marilyn Lutz is retiring – she has been with the University system for over 25 years. They are currently trying to define the position. Meanwhile, they may hire temps to get some special projects done. Marilyn had been doing special projects, so we shouldn’t see much of an impact in day-to-day operations. The MaineCat server is old and failing. They are trying to get it upgraded. It should be on a Linux platform. They have some funds reserved, but it will cost ~$25,000. The upside is that there will be additional functionality, including InnReach search capability. James updated users on the 501c3 project – this week they submitted paperwork for the Maine InfoNet collaborative which will be similar to a library friends group in supporting and furthering the work. After this nonprofit entity is established, they will be able to go after grants directly and be able to enter into contracts. This will lay the groundwork for the future. The audiobook service now has 140 members, 1500 titles (100 always available), and had 10,500 check-outs in the last 12 months. We are starting the 2nd year of the 3 year plan. We expect to continue beyond three years, and hope to branch out with eBooks. However, we will want to find extra funding. Unfortunately, Kindles don’t work with this service, but Sony, Nook, and others will work. Prices are coming down on e-readers. Steve Abrams, who spoke recently in Maine, encourages librarians to jump in with this new technology. There have been some requests for other vendors, as well. We will consider this if we can find additional funds. Authentication to the MARVEL! databases has traditionally used last name and barcode – disconnected, however, from the Minerva database with updates happening every few weeks or so. Maine InfoNet worked with a contract programmer to make the two systems talk to one another. The new authentication does, however, require patron records with last name, barcode, and valid expiration date. Lastly, PUC and MTEAF approved funding for a single search option. Maine InfoNet is now working on rolling out OneSearch – they hope to have it out during the summer. James gave a demonstration of the beta site. This will roll out in 3 ways – on the MARVEL! page, at Maine.gov/onesearch, and they will also provide code that libraries can put into their websites.

Minerva’s representative to Maine InfoNet:

Judy Frost reported that a number of staff have received load profile training. We will probably leave our money with the state for now, but there may be an opportunity to move it to MaineInfoNet once the 501c3 has completely been established. There will be a collection development summit in June at Colby. Judy has raised the issues of InnReach settle-up and borrowing & lending policies and there will be a coordinated meeting among libraries scheduled in the future. Think ahead on delivery costs – there will probably be another increase in 2011. Minerva has paid for its own migration to a new server. There may be conversation in the future on how InfoNet money can grow. The Steve Abrams presentations, Talking about the future, featuring new trends, were discussed at the retreat. Solar has prepared a set of standards/guidelines. The Blue Hill library is close to having its updated bibliographic records added to Solar. Solar libraries have felt left out of the loop, but are now being given more attention.

Minerva technical:

Alisia reported that Millennium 2009b has finally arrived! We will upgrade June 11 (Friday, early morning). This version includes exciting upgrades: – there is a long list on CSDirect. Upgrades include: cataloging – the ability to remove an item in global updating, transfer an attached record within a bib record; circulation – the optional retention of the previous 5 patrons who have checked out an item, print templates (not as easy to manipulate as hoped, must use the IReport program), when opening a patron record can now display all “m” messages in one pop-up; ability to view items that will be cleared before they are cleared, ability to extend the date on the hold shelf (policy decision required!); statistics – increased branch address character limit; ability to delete by scanning items in Millennium. ALERT: all libraries must be running the most recent version of the Millennium environment version 1.6.0.

Delivery:

Dean reported that when the current RFP was crafted in 2007, it used InfoNet statistics (~1,000,000 items ILL’ed). Over the next few years, the number went up. Records Management couldn’t continue, though they persevered through the interim. Freedom Express was the next lowest bidder. Dean said they started with good conversations. After 3 weeks, Freedom said we had misrepresented our volume and they threatened to withdraw. Linda Lord met with president of Freedom Express (we found a volume of 1.3-1.5 million, they claimed over 2 million). They wanted to charge $14.50 per stop, but the result would be that libraries would reduce delivery days and drop out. They finally agreed to $13.00 per stop. The State Library will pick this up for a cost of between $25,000-30,000, which they can cover with LSTA funds until July 1, 2011. Dean will prepare another RFP at the end of 2011. Freedom has had some sorting problems, but now seems to be working them out.

Finances:

Jay Scherma provided handouts, the 3rd quarter report and April finances. Money has been transferred into State coffers (end of March). As of the end of April, we have only disbursed $2,000 for van delivery (that was the supplemental amount we pitched in). We have not been billed for deliveries. Minerva bills will be going out very soon, at the promised amount of $3,750. We needed, however, to reduce the reserves amount in order to do this. To recap: last fall we were notified that our financial officer would be stepping down, raising the question of the necessity for bonding the position; an Informal discussion with a lawyer raised the issue of whether we should be paying taxes; we went to Linda Lord, who talked with the Attorney General’s office; it was felt that the money should come back to the State (where it would shortly be moved into a special account); now there is some talk that it should go to a special State Trust account – more later!

Committee reports

Membership:

no report.

Circulation:

Cyndi Burne reported that the settle-up seems to be happening. The committee will be meeting soon after the circulation roundtable. The committee is working on policies with the cataloging standards committee. Their next task will be a best practices manual.

Cataloging standards committee:

Carin Dunay reported that last year they worked on status codes. These have been implemented. An attendance policy is in place – 100% compliance. Now there are five DVD copies of each meeting circulating. The committee is starting to look at item and material type codes. There are questions about blue-rays and DVDs. The standards for cataloging electronic resources are also under discussion. Jay raised the issue of having training opportunities available at the Maine Libraries Conference, particularly around the new standard, RDA. The Maine Libraries Conference committee will be meeting in June to discuss programming – Alisia will be happy to help enable.

Statistics:

no report

New business

Process for developing policies and implementing changes: At the last Users Council meeting, some expressed dismay that not all parties had been aware of pending changes. The Executive Committee has paid attention to this. The circulation and cataloging roundtables, along with the standards committees generate a flow of information from libraries to the executive board. These groups are now clearly established, and are meeting regularly. Alisia is chair of the circulation roundtable, and Ellen Conway is chair of the cataloging roundtable. These groups are composed of front-line workers and meet to raise issues and make recommendation to the standards committees who create standards to propose to the executive committee. The process has now been clarified, and everyone should be informed along the way, with all perspectives being heard.

Old business

Adding new members and the agreement to participate: Minerva has lost four libraries: South Portland Schools, Pembroke, Wells Reserve, and Warren Memorial. We have lost that dues money and need to add new members. A complication is how much money will new members have to pay to join (what will III charge for licenses? can we reuse abandoned licenses?)? James has talked with the sales staff – they couldn’t answer that question. Overall, they say the cost for adding a new library = agency license fee, the costs for in-migration, and an increase for ongoing system maintenance. We need a candidate or straw man to see what the actual costs will be. In the future, the state will not cover the cost of data conversion and loading. Maine InfoNet will no longer handle data migration – James does not think it wise to take responsibility for this piece. Libraries will have to pay their own costs for data manipulation, etc. The other piece of the puzzle is the agreement to participate – things have changed since it was first written. There is a committee in place to work on this.

New business (again)

System-wide continuing training: There are ongoing new developments in Millennium, also staff turnover in member libraries. We need ongoing training opportunities. There ensued a floor discussion of training needs. What about new technologies like “Goto Meeting,” or online training videos? Mentoring has been discussed in the past, but we are all short-staffed. There will be a survey coming out on continuing training needs.

The meeting was adjourned 12:10pm

Respectfully submitted by Martha Ott, Secretary