Minerva Exec Board 3/9/11

Meeting Minutes

March 9, 2011

Maine State Library Studio

Attendance:  Kevin Davis, Steve Norman, Karen LaForgia, Judy Frost, Jay Scherma, Betsy Pohl, and  Shelby Davis. Via polycom were James Jackson Sanborn, Alisia Revitt, Cindy White, and Janet Blood

 

Minutes: 12/1/10 and 1/26/11 minutes were accepted by the group.

 

Reports:

  • Maine InfoNet Rep.-Judy reported she did not go to the December meeting.
  • Maine InfoNet CEO– James reported the Library Support Technician position is in the final interview stage. 2 finalists will be interviewed at the end of this month. The Maine Cat server will arrive this week. We are in the 3rd year of our 3 year contract with Overdrive. James wants to renew this contract. HarperCollins books in ebook format will no longer be purchased while deciding what to do about their new ebook policy. Ebook collection surpassed the audio collection. Audio checkouts are higher than ebook checkouts. James recommended the IVG voting ballot information which pertains to Millennium modules only be sent to the executive board and cataloging and circulation standard committees. The group agreed with this. James needs to vote by 4/1/11.
  • Minerva Technical-Alisia explained the “great leveling” occurred on 2/17/11 leveling out the loaning table so everything is “bumped” to the default level within Minerva libraries.  Now the size of a library’s collection should drive the amount of ILL requests. She will figure out if anyone was hit hard by this and will tweak the loaning table at the end of March. A discussion on placing holds brought up the need for library staff to make sure when they are placing a hold in Millennium the status of an item is “available” or “checked out.” Also, James will look into some to the quirks mentioned such as the increasing number of INN reach requests one library is experiencing and the default search results in the OPAC.
  • Finance-Jay stated the annual maintenance fee invoice was signed on 2/9/11. The new actual encumbered balance is $125,887.88. Also, Alisia has everything approved to go to the IUG conference in San Francisco.
  • Circulation Standards Committee– N/A however Alisia reported the Circulation Users meeting went well.
  • Cataloging Standards Committee-Group had no comment on paper report from Carin.
  • Statistics-N/A
  • Membership-N/A

Old Business:

  • Agreement to Participate-Kevin reported we can assume the bylaws went forward. The next step is to work on the Agreement to Participate. In 2009 Linda Lord, Jay, James, and Nancy Crowell agreed to be on a committee for this. Kevin will send out an email to ask about reactivating the Agreement to Participate group and put this as an agenda item for the May Users Council meeting. Judy will pass along the work she did on this agreement to this group. The need for the final draft of this agreement to go to at least one attorney and the attorney general was pointed out. Also one of the functions of this agreement is to help raise awareness about what the Minerva consortium is such as the Maine Cat participation. The group wants to ensure Minerva is not just viewed as “cheap software.” A discussion for the need to have better training materials and support led to the following ideas:
  • Judy suggested a “welcome wagon” packet of Minerva information given to new directors.
  •  Betsy suggested module based training sessions including how to run lists/reports that are taped.
  • Kevin suggested training on how to use the manual.
  • Jay suggested we add training as a regular agenda item.

The group felt these were excellent suggestions that need to happen in the near future. The need for training has been talked about since 2000. Along with training the group suggested the need to look at how to enforce Minerva policies. Other libraries have reported Auburn library is not following Minerva policies. Kevin will call Auburn and talk with the director about this.

  • Billing for III “add ons”-We are waiting to hear back from Auburn regarding III add-ons billing.  James said Auburn was billed for the collection module.

New Business:

  • Cataloging Meeting attendance /viewing requirements– Four libraries have not met the cataloging meeting attendance/viewing requirements. At this point the group will wait to see what happens.

Other:

  • Agenda items for next meeting include new candidates needed for Jay, Cindy, and Janet’s positions. All 3 terms are up in August.
  • The executive board will not meet in May due to the Users meeting in Topsham.
  • Next meeting April 13th 10-12 at MSL Studio.

Adjournment