Meeting Minutes
Maine State Library Studio
The meeting was called to order at: 10:00 am.
In attendance were members Janet Blood (by phone), Kevin Davis, Shelly Davis, Steve Norman, Karen LaForgia, Martha Ott, Jay Scherma, and Cindy White. From Maine InfoNet: Alisia Revitt and James Jackson Sanborn. Cyndi Burne represented the circulation standards committee.
The minutes of the January 13 meeting were accepted.
Reports
Minerva Technical:
Alisia reported that the 2009a Millennium update had been scheduled for January, but the “b” version is promised soon, so we are waiting to do that upgrade. In the meantime, staff is dealing with backlog. The new circulation settle-up procedure is due to take effect March 1. There will be three training sessions held at end of month. There will be an online training, as well. If there should be a huge snowstorm, she might ask for a delay. Max holds will change at the same time (as well as the timing of notices).
Maine InfoNet Director:
James reported that the university funded support position has been re-advertised, closing this week. There are a good handful of qualified people – telephone screenings will happen next week. Last month Nelson went to load profile training – required by III of staff who have relevant permissions.
It is expensive – the university paid, but state permission was required and slow to come. In December it was learned that the server room is no longer staffed overnight. Only MaineCat was living on old hardware, and taped backup was now happening mornings. Nelson configured the system so that backup can continue to happen overnight. They are exploring ways to get the hardware upgraded. (Hardware costs are low, but migration costs are high.) Maine AudioBooks- renewals & new entries are due next week. The numbers are close to last year’s at this time. MARVEL! – In about six weeks a one-search product will debut (it will appear at the top of the MARVEL! page and will also have its own landing page). It will search all MARVEL! databases, MaineCat content, and Windows on Maine digitized content along with Maine Memory Network content. (Dartmouth is beta testing the product – we are the first non-academic and first state-wide implementation) Maine InfoNet received a sum of money from MTEAF to pay for this and ongoing costs. Technology – regarding the SSL certificate issue, we now buy our SSL certificates through Go Daddy. Additional scopes are technically feasible, but are a policy issue. Put on agenda for next meeting.
Finance:
Jay reports we are solvent. All but two libraries are confirmed as paid (not Warren Memorial and not SPPS).
Circulation Standards Committee:
Cyndi presented wording for amending Minerva policy regarding the sanctity of a library’s patron and item records. The text was reviewed. Jay made a motion and Cindy seconded to accept the suggested amendment to the Integrity of Local Records policy with the addition of Martha’s language about remembering to remove “a” or “z” from PMESSAGE field. Discussion revealed that policies are not being posted reliably. Policies should also include a revision date. The motion passed unanimously. The circulation committee will be sending out a survey on what libraries are doing with multi-volume sets. The committee has also been asked to look at standardizing practices related to identifying problem patrons across member libraries. Advice from the state attorney general’s office is that patron information in the context of borrowing materials is privileged information, and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Future agenda item – FOI Act and privacy. James says that he sees increasing activity of FOI requests even among vendors. We should find and post existing information about standardized patron records. Our next agenda will include patron record information.
Cataloging Standards Committee:
The handful of libraries that aren’t in compliance are being notified.
Nominations:
Martha reported that two public librarians have offered to run.
Statistics:
No report.
Membership:
No report.
Old Business
Non-profit status:
Drummond Woodsum is working on the project and Maine InfoNet will soon have articles of incorporation to review along with boilerplate by-laws. This is the first step to 501c3 incorporation. They will continue to include Minerva in discussions. The intent is to create a Maine InfoNet Collaborative – to support and further the activities of MIN and member organizations. There should be a legal entity by May, with state papers within another month. After that they will need to work on IRS 1023 and 501c3 papers – 6 month to 1 ½ yrs. (Can’t accept grants limited to 501c3 organizations until have IRS piece – though some can be backdated.)
Agreement to Participate:
nothing done yet.
Transfer of Minerva funds to state account:
Jay and Steve held a conference call with Linda Lord, Maine State Library; Sarah Forster, Attorney General’s office; and Terry Brann, State Controller’s office. The upshot is that we can move the funds. Fund protection will probably come though the setup of a trust fund within the state. The Controller doesn’t think this will be difficult. They will check the language of the enabling legislation. LYRASIS has been gracious in forgiving our missing of the deadline. How will we then cut checks? State library must remain in control, perhaps there could be cosigners on the checks. Nothing is definite yet.
Implementation of settle-up procedure:
Discussed above. Inter-system settle-up procedures are on Judy’s radar. Martha suggested they also examine the amount charged between systems.
Process for developing policies and implementing changes:
Ellen Conway will chair the cataloging roundtable, and Carin Dunay the cataloging standards committee. Alisia will chair the circulation roundtable, and Cyndi the circulation standards committee. The framework for communication flow is now in place. We are once again posting minutes. The posting of policies should now be addressed. With the new settle-up there will be training and a procedure posted online. There have not been many complaints continuing on the new settle-up. Some libraries will have to make changes to their present operations. In a shared system everything we do has ramifications on others. A continuing agenda item will be the identification of issues that require “special” steps. Steve and Jay will work to identify the kinds of issues that would need special steps. These might be identified in either the Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement to Participate.
New Business
S. Portland schools offer:
No one can find the original signed agreement. S. Portland is willing to pay half of a year’s membership. Cindy made a motion and Karen seconded to accept the offer of half. The motion passed unanimously. Should we check on lost contracts and have those missing ones redone? Should we wait until a new agreement is drafted? When will that be? What about new libraries? We don’t know if exiting libraries free-up those licenses for new libraries. James says that he would also charge in-migration fees. He will no longer do this in-house due to work and clean-up problems. We don’t know the costs of new members, and probably won’t until someone tries to join.
Approve budget:
The budget is slightly revised from its last iteration. Van costs have been re-calculated (the first six months are now firm), the III cost is known, and, most importantly, the loss of 4 members has been adjusted for. To honor our commitment to members to hold fees at last year’s level, we had to reduce our contingency reserves. Jay made a motion and Cindy seconded to accept the proposed budget. The motion passed unanimously.
Revision of bylaws:
Awaiting the transfer of our funds. Linda says Sarah will review our bylaws and agreement to participate, but she didn’t see much that was problematic in governance, just on the financial side.
Next Users Council meeting: May 12? Perhaps at KVCC? Will finalize location. At 10:00am.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:10pm.
