Meeting Minutes
Topsham Public Library
May 25, 2011
Meeting called to order at 10:05
Reports:
Minerva Executive Board
No Report
Maine InfoNet Director: James Jackson Sanborn
• Albert “Albie” Dunn joined the Maine InfoNet staff on May 9th as a Library Support Technician / Librarian I. His job responsibilities will include a bit of everything including answering tickets and working on the website. This position was created from the position that Marilyn Lutz vacated.
• Last week’s MaineCat outage was related to a software upgrade that was performed in anticipation of the hardware upgrade that will take place next week.
• III has announced their next generation software “Sierra”. James would like to hold off on decisions about possible migration until it has been tested and used by other library consortiums. Webinars about Sierra are available on the CS Direct website and Minerva members are encouraged to view these. James will keep us apprised on the implications of this new software with all members of MaineCat, including Minerva.
• The Maine InfoNet Board is having conversations with OCLC about potential opportunities for statewide services including cataloging utilities, lending utilities and a MaineCat layer in WorldCat. Questions being discussed include: What would it take to offer statewide access and what would it look like? What possibilities would statewide representation in WorldCat provide libraries in Maine?
• This summer, Kindle and Overdrive will become compatible with each other. James is waiting to see what impact this will create and is saving a portion of the budget for title purchases to possibly purchase extra copies of indemand titles. Currently there are about 3000 ebooks and 2000 audiobooks. The Download library is averaging about 10,000 checkouts a month since January. Maine InfoNet is not currently looking at movies or music available from Overdrive but MARVEL is looking at Ebsco’s scholarly
ebook collection.
Maine InfoNet Representative: Judith Frost
• Submitted a written report, attached.
• Judith talked more about possible opportunities and challenges with OCLC’s Web-Scale Management Services. An opportunity would be having Maine library resources visible on Google. A possible challenge would be how acquisition and serials would work with WMS. Maine InfoNet needs to determine its goals for lending and borrowing as well as determine what advantages III gives.
• The Maine InfoNet Board plans to continue holding statewide summits on a 2 year cycle.
• Judith stressed the need for Minerva to have strategic planning for dealing with possible growth of Minerva and Minerva’s relationship to Maine InfoNet.
Minerva Technical Report: Alisia Revitt
• Maine InfoNet is working on upgrading the MaineCat server. This will take place during the week of May 31. Possible Inn-Reach outages are to be expected during this process.
Librarians can follow the real-time progress of the upgrade on Twitter at twitter.com/#!/maineinfonet. (You do not need a Twitter account to view these tweets.)
• Alisia is working on downloading Overdrive bibliographic records into Minerva.• Librarians can contact the Overdrive Helpdesk with any questions at support@libraryreserve.com.
• Please do not give out email addresses of the Maine InfoNet staff to your patrons. Also, please submit all questions to Maine InfoNet staff using the ticket system. This ensures that your questions will not be lost in an individual staff’s email inbox.
• A load balance was performed in March. If you feel your Library is receiving too many requests or not enough requests, submit a ticket and an adjustment in the load can be made.
• Alisia explained why the interlibrary loan statistics she submitted to the State differ from the ones most Minerva libraries submitted. The basic difference is that most libraries count items when performing statistics and Alisia counts patrons.
Delivery: Dean Corner
• Legislation has been submitted for the State to pay for one day of delivery for each existing member of the Delivery Service. We will find out by the end of June if this legislation has passed.
• The State is in its final year of the three year contract with Freedom Express. On July 1, 2011, the cost per stop will go up to $15 per stop for Minerva libraries. (Ursus libraries will also pay $15 per stop and Colby, Bates & Bowdoin will pay $19.50.) Last year, the State subsidized the $2 increase in cost but will no longer be able to do that.
• Another change for fiscal year 2012 is that Freedom Express will charge for missed stops due to non-emergency closings. Dean will send a detailed explanation to the Delivery Service contacts.
• In the fall, the state will begin the RFP process for the next three year cycle for the Delivery Service.
Finance and Budget: Jay Scherma
• Jay distributed the Treasurer’s report for the month of April (attached).
• Minerva has a balance of $110,000. Jay does not foresee any more large bills coming in before the end of the fiscal year.
• The budget for the fiscal year 2013 will be finalized in January 2012.
• Jay offered to work closely with the next Financial Officer for Minerva to ensure a smooth transition. Committee Reports
Circulation: Cyndi Burne
• The Circulation Standards Committee has been working on a Best Practices Manual at the request of the Executive Board. Cyndi will send this document out to the MinervaCirc listserv for comment next week.
Cataloging: Carin Dunay
• Robin Sanford from the Lithgow Public Library has joined the Cataloging Standards Committee.
• Revised Material Types have been approved and implemented.
• Ellen Conway, Alisia Revitt & Venice Bayrd are working on revising Item Types.
• The Cataloging Survey is complete and a summary of the results are available. The Committee will be studying the survey over the next couple of months. Initial finds include that there is a need for training on AACR2 and MaRC Format.
• The Committee asked Ellen Conway to build a website for Minerva Catalogers based on the feedback from the survey.
• Currently the Committee is working on a guide for cataloging eReaders in Minerva.
New Business
Agreement to Participate: Steve Norman
• Steve is chairing a committee to revise Minerva’s Agreement to Participate to bring it up to date with the changes in Minerva. The original document was created in 2001.
• The Committee plans to have it ready to be voted on in the Fall.
• The new document will clarify where authority resides within Minerva as well as articulate the relationship between Minerva and Maine InfoNet and Minerva and the Maine State Library.
• Members of this committee include: Steve Norman (Chair), nancy Crowell, Pam Turner, Kevin Davis, James Jackson Sanborn, Linda Lord, Judith Frost (Observer), & Jay Scherma (Observer).
Other
No other business
Meeting adjourned at 12:10.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Carin Dunay
Present: Shelly Davis, Vice-Chair (Saint Joseph’s College), Nancy Crowell (Scarborough Public Library), Karen Valley (Walker Memorial Library), Steve Norman (Belfast Free Library), Jay Sherma (Thomas Memorial Library), Judith Frost (Central Maine Community College), Lynda Sudlow (Falmouth Public Library), Jim Roy (Maine State Library Outreach), Carin Dunay (Southern Maine Community College), Stephen LaRochelle (Kennebec Valley Community College), Lyn Smith (Pittsfield Public Library), Jeff Cabral (McArthur Public Library), Karen LaForgia (Upper Kennebec Valley Schools), Luke Sovensen (Rumford Public Library), Peggy Malley (Ludden Memorial Library), Alisia Revitt (Maine InfoNet), Albie Dunn (Maine InfoNet), James Jackson Sanborn (Maine InfoNet), Suzanne Sullivan (Auburn Public Library), Melora Norman (Unity College), Dean Corner (Maine State Library), Nikki Maounis (Camden Public Library), Cyndi Burne (Topsham Public Library), Amber Tatnall (York Community College), Cindy White (Eastern Maine Medical Center), Martha Ott (Kaplan University), Laurie McQuarrie (Bangor Theological Seminary), Rebecca Francis (Curtis Memorial Library), Betty Hughes (Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library)
