Minerva Executive Board Meeting

June 8, 2011

In attendance:  Janet Blood, Kevin Davis, Shelly Davis, Judy Frost, James Jackson-Sanborn, Steve Norman, Betsy Pohl, Alisia Revitt, Jay Scherma, Cindy White

 

Minutes

• Minutes from the last meeting – Need to clarify/correct statements under Cataloging and Circulation.
  • Cataloging: should read “Kevin stated that the report that the submitted by the Cataloging committee submitted misrepresents information conveyed by him to the committee. The Cataloging committee was not told that the Executive Board felt it lacked proper authority to enforce the meeting attendance/viewing policy, nor was there any indication of the Board questioning the policy.  The committee was informed that, following a discussion of the issue, it was decided, given an inconsistent Agreement to Participate, and the nature of the infraction, the best course of action was for the Chair (Kevin) to contact the members in question and discuss the issue with them, rather than simply cutting off their access to the cataloging module.”
  • Circulation: should read “Jay suggests the addition of a new, longer, loan period for DVD sets of complete television seasons.”

• As Lisa was not at the meeting, Shelly volunteered to take the minutes.

Maine InfoNet Representative

Judy provided a comprehensive report at the Users’ Council meeting two weeks ago; nothing new to report.

 

Maine InfoNet CEO

James also provided a comprehensive report and updates at the Users’ Council meeting.  Since then –

• MaineCat has been successfully migrated to a new server; also the software was upgraded to version 2009b.
• Unfortunately, an agreement could not be reached with Overdrive to allow school library participation.
• Overdrive statistics are available at the patron level, however there is no way to “translate” Overdrive’s patron numbers to Minerva patron record numbers.  Even so, it is interesting to see how the total usage statistics are distributed over the patrons using the system.

 

Minerva Technical

• Alisia has been busy with the MaineCat upgrade.  Minor issues did surface post-upgrade, but have mostly been fixed.   Existing view preferences in the OPAC did not make the transition.  Rather than spend the time to make MaineCat look like it did pre-upgrade, Alisia will apply the 2009b version “skin.”  Minerva is already running on the 2009b version, and Alisia will also apply the new skin to Minerva.
• The school systems in Minerva have had Minerva/MaineCat borrowing and lending turned off.  Items will continue to display as AVAILABLE so they may circulate locally.
• Jay asked if the “sort” was affected by the MaineCat upgrade.  When placing a hold on an item, he noticed that his library’s item is listed first rather than all owning libraries being listed in alphabetical order.  Alisia responded that the MaineCat upgrade would not have caused this, but perhaps a recent patch applied to Minerva did.  She will bring this up for discussion at the next circulation meeting.

 

Finance

• Jay sent out a report before the meeting indicating 20 libraries have paid their FY12 dues.  Since then, three additional libraries have paid.  Invoices have not been cut and sent to libraries that requested post- July 1, 2011 dates on their invoices.
• Jay’s term as Treasurer is officially up after today’s meeting, however he offered to continue these duties until the end of July.  By this time, a new Treasurer will have been elected and information and files passed on.

 

Circulation Standards Committee

Nothing new to report since UC meeting.

Cataloging Standards Committee

Nothing new to report since UC meeting.

 

Statistics

No report.

 

Membership

No report.

 

Old Business

• Elections/Candidates
  • Academic library position – Janet’s term is up; she offered to continue on the board for a second term unless someone else expresses an interest in the position.  Kevin’s recent email to the Minerva list regarding open positions on the executive board did not include mention of the open academic library position.  He will send out an amended email ASAP.
  • Special library position – Cindy’s term is also up, and she also offered to continue if no one else comes forward.  So far, Kevin has not received any response to his email to the listserv from a special librarian. 
  • Public library position – Jay’s term is up and he would rather not be elected for a second term.  Nikki Maounis (Camden Public Library) has expressed an interest in both the public library position and the office of Treasurer.  Pam Gormley has also expressed interest. 
  • School library position – Karen is unable to complete the last year of her term.  Kevin, as chair, will need to appoint someone to complete Karen’s term.  The bylaws state that the person appointed should come from the type of library that the vacancy represents whenever possible.  He has contacted Jennifer Lewis (Augusta) and Liz Reisz (York) from the only other two school systems in Minerva, and neither is able to commit to being on the board.  Options discussed:
    • Change the bylaws to combine the special and school library positions into one.
    • Leave the school library position vacant and try again next year to recruit a school librarian.
    • Appoint a public librarian to the position and try again next year to recruit a school librarian.
    • Contact Liz Reisz again to see if she would reconsider.  Her main objection seemed to be that the current times of the meetings would not work for her. All agreed it would be best to fill the position with a school librarian, and the times of the meetings could be changed.  Kevin will contact Liz again.  If she declines, filling the position with a public librarian seems the next move.
  • It was noted that, according to the bylaws, elections should have taken in place in April, so the elections will need to be fast-tracked.  The next executive board meeting will be on July 13 and needs to include new board members so next year’s officers may be elected.
• Agreement to Participate
  • A committee has been formed to revise the agreement to participate – Nancy Crowell, Kevin Davis, Judy Frost, James Jackson-Sanborn, Linda Lord, Steve Norman, Jay Scherma, and Pam Turner.  The committee met last Friday and has already made good progress; Steve handed out a draft.
  • New language differentiates between Minerva the partnership/consortium and Minerva the system.
  • The committee will meet again on June 22.

New Business

• Jay asked that the board consider a request for reimbursement from Alisia for the IUG conference she attended.  Jay recommends covering all of her costs; there are sufficient funds in the account to do so.  Steve made a motion to cover Alisia’s expenses as recommended by Jay; Janet seconded the motion.  All members in favor, no opposed or abstentions.
  • Alisia provided some highlights from IUG concerning Sierra, RDA and changes in cataloging, and having an opportunity to talk to others using InnReach.

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:10AM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Shelly Davis