Minerva Executive Board 3/10/10

Minutes

Maine State Library Studio

Meeting called to order at: 10:00 am by Steve Norman.

In attendance were board members Kevin Davis, Steve Norman, Karen LaForgia, Jay Scherma, Liz Doucett, Martha Ott, Janet Blood, and Shelly Davis. Also attending were James Jackson Sanborn and Alisia Revitt, Maine InfoNet; Carin Dunay, cataloging standards committee; Cyndi Burne, circulation standards committee; and Dean Corner, Maine State Library.

A motion was made and approved to accept the minutes of the February meeting.

 

Reports

  • Maine InfoNet Rep – No report
  • Maine InfoNet – James reported no change in staffing, though they are getting ready for interviews for the library support position. James will soon be on vacation for a week. Regarding the audiobooks project, there will be about 6 new members in May. They are still adding new titles. MARVEL! is continuing with implementation of Summon (Serial Solutions). The authentication system for MARVEL! has been changed – no complaints so far. However, now people with expired records won’t be able to log in until their record is updated.
  • Technical: Alisia reported that settle-up training went well. Most people thought the procedure wouldn’t be too difficult. Jay made a motion, seconded by Liz, that the settle-up start date will be January 1, 2007 for items not returned, and September 1, 2009 for those long in transit. The motion passed. Minerva to Minerva items requested through MaineCat are subject to the MaineCat loan rule. Libraries should use discretion. What is happening with these loans? Are bills being produced? Alisia will investigate.
  • Finance – Jay. He authorized payment of 1/3 of the server invoice yesterday (it was $1,800 higher than expected as the III escalator wasn’t properly estimated). Through February, we have not received payment from SPPS. The state controller has not done anything yet to move funds from LYRASIS. Jay made a motion to authorize moving the funds into state accounts and/or authorizing a change in signature cards to add an authorized state signer. Martha seconded, and the motion passed. The controller said the trust fund would be set up by March 31. Our contract with LYRASIS is finished at the end of March.
  • Circulation standards Committee: Cyndi reported on the DVD split-up investigation. They have been in contact with the cataloging standards committee. She spoke with the library that is separating bonus discs from features, and they are willing to stop. The circulation committee recommendation is to oppose the splitting up of such items and to circulate them as a single item. Jay moved to accept the recommendation of the circulation committee and Liz seconded. Jay added a friendly amendment to confer with the cataloging standards committee and, if they agreed, to make it so. The motion passed. Cyndi’s 2nd point was the use of the price field to set the cost in the bill. (70% of libraries already use the retail cost.) The cataloging standards committee agreed to support the circulation committee in this. Going forward what should we do? Libraries should be aware of processing fees. If used, they might need to be taken off for library-to-library bills. The price issue should be sent out to directors as a heads-up and to solicit input. The cataloging committee will come back with language. Something will also go out about retroactivity.
  • Cataloging Standards Committee: Carin spoke about the attendance policy. There were originally six libraries not in compliance. Of these, two are dropping out of Minerva, and most of the others have sworn to attend required training in the future. One library hasn’t responded, and Carin and Steve are working on it. Catalogers find that the Web page is not easily navigated. Alisia will meet with Ellen. Finally, RDA is coming closer. Minerva needs a plan, and the catalogers are willing to help. This issue is also being discussed in URSUS – we should coordinate. Perhaps we should set aside time at the fall libraries conference for training. James will investigate training opportunities for Ellen Conway (we have some funds).
  • Nominating Committee: Martha reported that there are two public nominees and no academic candidates yet. She will send out a reminder.
  • Statistics Committee: No report. Jay did announce that juvenile and adult numbers are done. (Susan Samberg runs some numbers for all Minerva public libraries for the state report.) Those reports are due April 1.
  • Membership Committee: No report. Information update forms will be sent out by Pam soon.

 

Old business

  • Delivery Service: Dean reported that the Freedom Express contract just went out. They are already doing some of the URSUS libraries and CBB. Records Management Corp. seems to be doing OK on their reduced schedule (with a lot of work by Dean). The last week in March will see both companies at work, with RMC delivering only. Freedom Express will pick-up only on the 25th, then pick-up and deliver for the rest of the week. The companies are working together to make the transition work. The money issue is complicated – we don’t know if there will be a balance or a credit for individual libraries, and we won’t know for a while. We hope $11.00 per stop will be good through June 2011. The 2012 contract must be rebid. More than 40% of libraries have delivery only one day a week. What could Minerva do to help? Are there some alternatives (split contract – warehouse and delivery people, or have small libraries just ship UPS) that would be better?
  • Nonprofit Status: James reported that Maine InfoNet received draft bylaws and is moving ahead.
  • Revision of bylaws: No report.
  • Agreement to participate: No report – pending.
  • Transfer of Minerva funds – Steve will contact Linda Lord.
  • Implementation of settle-up: It seems to be going well. Kevin raised the problem of libraries that aren’t running notices regularly (perhaps they don’t know how….) It seems to be the smaller libraries that aren’t active.
  • Process for developing policies and implementing changes: Steve posted to Minerva-L asking for feedback. He has received two responses so far.
  • Continuing system-wide training: has to be an ongoing agenda item.

 

New business

  • Patron record policy: Martha will look for it. This is an issue regarding the Freedom of Information Act. (The opinion of the Attorney General is that Minerva patron records as they relate to circulation are confidential. Sarah Forster implied that name and address information would be related to circulation and so would be private. But the supporting argument seems weak…) It is also an issue in relation to cross checking patrons from town to town.
  • Policy on new scopes: Martha made a motion, seconded by Shelly, that any request for new scopes must come before the executive committee. Jay asserted that we must, at some point, come up with guidelines. James said he might be able to tweak the display in the OPAC to look better. A friendly amendment was made that primary juvenile scopes are OK. The motion passed.

Our next meeting is April14th at MSL.
The meeting was adjourned 12:00 noon.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Martha Ott

secretary