Minerva Executive Committee, June 10, 2009

 

10:10 Meeting called to order by Pam Turner.

The minutes of the May meeting were postponed due to Liz’s absence (car trouble).

In attendance: Jay Scherma, Martha Ott, Karen LaForgia, Steve Norman, Pam Turner, Amy Averre, Janet Blood, and Cindy White. Also present, Judy Frost, Maine InfoNet Board Representative, and James Jackson Sanborn, Maine InfoNet Executive Director, Dean Corner, and Cindy Bourne.

Dean Corner spoke first concerning the new delivery service vendor, NCS. He is working with NCS to try and have them start early, perhaps June 22. NCS is working with Velocity to begin delivery to the problem libraries, approximately a dozen. However, NCS is leery of not being paid by Velocity. The next week or two may be difficult. With NCS, the drivers are employees of the company and not contract workers. NCS is also a “green” company.

Reports

Maine InfoNet:

James announced good news: Alicia Revit has been offered and has accepted the system training position. She has worked at Colby College as a systems person. Also, the cataloging consulting hours will stay the same as last year. Bad news: Jonathan Williams will be leaving this summer to go to seminary school. Fortunately, Maine InfoNet will be able to fill the position as it is a university not a state position. The position will be a technical position at the systems level – it pays less but has better benefits than a comparable state position. On the bright side, the opening will help to continue to shift focus from URSUS vs. Minerva to an across Maine InfoNet-wide scope. The new title will be System Manager. The III contract is now signed. It is for one year with automatic renewal. Downloadable audio books continue to be purchased monthly with 23 new titles this month. Beginning in mid June, the next version of Media Overdrive software will support WMA for Windows-based computers (though not for Macs). New publicity materials are being prepared, including some in print. A search for a federated search tool is beginning. Bowdoin has been looking at one, Summon, which works by harvesting data from various sources, including EBSCO. This will be one option to consider. Next Monday will be the Collection Development Summit in Orono. One hundred and ten librarians have registered.

Minerva Technical:

James announced that an email will go out shortly with information on the Millennium upgrade scheduled for June 17 at 2:00 am. James and Tim Pellet went to the recent IUG meeting. One session was on authority records. A problem has been that death dates do not work with the III system resulting in duplicates (dead and undead!) that require manual correction. With a suggested fix, we will be able to clean up the database’s authority records. There appear to be some problems with scoping in which some new locations are not showing. Some libraries have problems with disappearing items. (Are some libraries deleting others’ records?) Personnel are now working through the back-log of old tickets. It is suggested that libraries resubmit any that are pressing.  Skidompha’s open lending trial is going very well technically – patrons love it, staff are a bit overwhelmed. The Warren collection has been reassigned to Walker, but will remain unavailable until processed by Walker. James will be exporting records for the South Portland school system.

Finance:

Jay reported that we will close the year with a positive balance. One more Marcive payment remains. As of last night there were thirteen libraries that had not paid their fees in whole or in part. Jay went to the Lyrassis informational town meeting and felt that there will be no disruption to our services (we are contractual clients, not members). One problem that has surfaced is that no one can find a copy of our contract with NELINET. Arnold Hirshon has forwarded us a new contract based on the “letter of proposal.” Steve Norman made a motion authorizing Pam to sign the contract and send it to NELINET. Karen seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The question arose as to where to file such papers. It was suggested the position of secretary often takes on this responsibility. Concern was also expressed over the whereabouts of the signed Memorandum of Understanding.

Circulation Standards Committee:

There is a new chair of this committee, Cindy Bourne from Topsham Public. She reported that five public librarians met in May and that they are looking at commonality among Minerva libraries regarding loan rules with an eye to streamlining.

Cataloging Standards Committee:

A written report was submitted. The committee reiterated that it is important for everyone to be using the same codes for the same things and that everyone play by the rules. There is a problem with how to “mark” damaged materials.

Statistics Committee:

No report.

Membership Committee:

Will meet this afternoon to discuss rental videos, standardization of loan periods, budget issues and the fee structure.

Old Business

Regarding reading history, Steve reported that libraries are still held to the terms of the Patriot Act (though it is possible that they may now consult an attorney…). James will check to see if, in fact, reading history can currently be pulled from the system, the back-up files, or anywhere. (Digital archeology might turn up some “de-coupled” data on the hard drive.) It was re-affirmed that this committee will table until September any decision on whether or not to reconsider reading history.

New Business

Regarding MP3 players and open lending. Janet shared that she purchased eight MP3 players with funds obtained through a HSLIC grant. She inquired as to whether they needed to be requestable. After some discussion, it was decided that they come under one of the exceptions and would not need to be.

The issue of overdue notices being sent via email and possibly going to parents (via shared email addresses) rather than directly to the juvenile was raised by Steve. After discussion, it was felt that this could be handled at the time of data entry by clear communication as to what giving an email address would mean.

Martha made a motion that Minerva purchase 1,000 medium sized bags identical to those previously purchased. Steve seconded the motion. There was a friendly amendment to hold the purchase until after June 30. The motion passed unanimously. Martha should inquire from Dean as to where to send the bill and the bags….

The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 pm.