Minerva Executive Board Meeting, Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Maine State Library Studio

 

Meeting called to order at 10:05.  In attendance:  Liz Doucett, Pam Turner, Karen LaForgia, Cindy White, Martha Ott, James Jackson Sanborn, Judy Frost (via telephone), Kevin Davis , Amy Averre and Steve Norman.

 

Minutes from February meeting accepted as written.

Maine InfoNet – Judy Frost & James

Discussed Maine InfoNet mission/vision work that is being done by the InfoNet Executive Board.  Group is trying to clarify the InfoNet message and the target audience for the message.  Another key focus is to break down “silos” of different components of InfoNet.  Judy felt that this was going very well and that Minerva was very much being incorporated into Maine InfoNet.  Have had interviews to replace Jon Forest position, there are two very strong candidates.  The next meeting is March 25.

 

James indicated that the paperwork is in the system to try to free up the second InfoNet position.  The Download Library went live on Monday.  Received only 3 email support questions so far.

Minerva Technical – James

Will flag all verizon.net emails for switch-over.  High priority is Millennium upgrade.

Finance – Jay

We are at full payment for all Minerva participants.  Balance should be $78,000.  We will need to adjust the budget with the exit of Warren Free Public Library from Minerva resulting in a loss of $3,750 to the budget.  We will have next year’s budget to hand out at the next Users Council in April.

Circulation Standards Committee – Kevin

Committee has been working on defining their next project – the settle-up process.  They want to define best practices and set guidelines for the future.  Also looking at transit slips.  There is some concern with the Cataloging Committee discussions around status definitions – there is a feeling that this work really goes across the two committees and they both need to have input.  Committee also working on streamlining loan rules and notices and will discuss at the User Council.  The Board asked the Committee to develop a contact list.

Cataloging Standards Committee

Report reviewed from the Cataloging Standards Committee.  Discussions on 3 issues coming up but no decisions yet.  Need to work with Circulation Committee on status codes.  Pam will send an email to the 2 committee chairs requesting such.  Jay would also like them to discuss the duration that a code can be in effect, specifically with respect to on-the-fly items.  How long do we keep “withdrawn” and “billed”?

Statistics

Need to put forward recommendations on how to use statistics.  Finished up recommendations on Annual Report data.

Membership – Pam

Membership meeting will be held in April.  Working with Circulation and Tech committees to focus on standardization.  Are we locked in the current Triple I contract to the current number of members?  James indicated that the number is linked to the number of agency licenses.  Once we get the final signatures on the current contract then we will be able to figure out how many new members we can take on.  Additionally, we need to figure out migration costs, size ramifications, etc.  Pam said she had told inquirers that it is “not likely” that Minerva will take on new members in the next 12 months.

Nominations – Martha

We have 2 academic, 3 public and 1 school nomination.  We will send out the slate with ballot and a deadline of May 15 for voting.

Old Business:

Non-payment policy – will be on the ballot for the Users Council.  Timetable for payment.  Will also add in a “restart” fee equal to 10% of the yearly Minerva fee.

New Business

Users Council will be at 10am on April 8 in Topsham.

Maine State Library Outreach:  right now they are providing extended loan period to Outreach patrons which goes against Minerva efforts to standardize loan periods.

Steve Norman made a motion:

Outreach be allowed a two week circulation period for otherwise one week circulation material to compensate for the one week hold shelf period.  In all other ways, Minerva records policies should be adhered to.  Martha Ott 2nd.  Motion passed.

**It was noted that this will be announced at All Users Meeting

Reading history discussion was tabled until next executive committee meeting.

Agenda for Users Council meeting will be emailed before meeting on April 8.

What are the ramifications of the closing of Warren library?  Tabled until next Executive Minerva meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 12:25.