MINERVA Executive Board Meeting
July 11, 2012

Maine State Library Studio

In attendance: Kevin Davis, Shelly Davis, Judy Frost, James Jackson Sanborn, Steve Norman, Alisia Revitt, Gail Roy (remote), Cindy White

o Call to Order – Kevin Davis, chair, called the meeting to order at 10:05 am.

o Acceptance of Minutes of the April 4, 2012 Meeting – Gail Roy made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Steve Norman seconded and the board voted to approve the minutes.

o New Business

Discussion of Minerva ‘opt-in’ options – Currently, the Intra-Minerva Request Policy outlines two categories of partial participation which allow libraries to exempt items from open borrowing and lending. These are Option A – all but non-print and Option B – all but non-print and new books. Auburn Public is the only library which officially uses one of these options (A) and Kevin Davis will talk to them about stopping. Cindy White made a motion that the options for partial participation be stricken from the policy and a new #5 be added to the list under Full Participation with the following wording: “Items such as equipment, museum passes and other nontraditional library material may be exempted with approval of the Executive Board.” Steve seconded the motion and it was approved by the board.

o Old Business

Memorandum of Participation – At the Users Council, the question came up regarding who has the authority to sign the agreement. We discussed and agreed that it should be up to the library director to determine the appropriate person at his or her institution. James Jackson Sanborn will be responsible for collecting copies of the MOP. The MOP is ready to go out for approval by the membership. Kevin will send out an email and give people 2 weeks to respond. James agreed to donate a Sony e-reader as a prize, the winner to be drawn from respondents’ names. It was determined that we need 29 libraries to respond and, of these, 20 votes need to be “yes” in order for the MOP to be approved.

o Reports

Maine InfoNet Representative (Judy Frost) – Judy reported that there are 3 summits planned for the coming year: a Directors meeting, a Circulation meeting and a Collection Development meeting. At least one of these will focus on e-books. She is pushing for the circulation meeting to include a discussion of fines, billing, etc. procedures/policies across groups. The Maine InfoNet board is working on a strategic plan, also the by-laws.
Maine InfoNet (James Jackson Sanborn) – James gave an update on the extension to the III contract. The Attorney General has said that the State Librarian does not have the authority to sign the contract. There are three options: 1) obtain letters of agency from all Minerva, BPL, URSUS, etc. libraries or 2) obtain a single letter of agency from the Minerva Executive Board or 3) split the contract into 3 parts. James noted that the easiest way might be to send out letters of agency with the MOP when it goes out, since both will need to be signed by the same person. James stated that the IRS has approved the Maine InfoNet Collaborative as a 501(c)3. The Collaborative is considering acting as fiscal agent for the Health Sciences Libraries and Information Consortium of Maine (HSLIC).

The Maine InfoNet website should be unveiled in late summer/early fall. There are now 8800 items in the download library. The University of Maine has donated $20,000 and the Maine State Library has donated $4,500 for content. MSL has also donated funds for Ebsco e-books in MARVEL. James has been reviewing libraries for possible addition to Solar. Fifteen applied and 7 will be added (Lubec, Ellsworth, Northeast Harbor, Freeport, Farmington, Wilton, Kennebunk). James shared pricing that he had received from Library Anywhere for their mobile OPAC product. Costs were based on type of library and seemed expensive, especially for academics. James also handed out copies of the Maine InfoNet “Draft Combined Fiscal Report” that he distributed at the last Maine InfoNet board meeting.

Minerva Technical (James Jackson Sanborn/Alisia Revitt) – James noted that the URSUS server will be migrating on July 20 and this may affect MaineCat. Alisia Revitt asked the board to consider the Create Lists page on the Minerva website which notes that libraries should not lock a list *unless* it is either 1) a featured list or 2) a list containing all of the library’s item records. Libraries who are locking in lists (taking ownership) of all their items are taking up too many big slots and Alisia asked for permission to delete this from the website. The board agreed and said she should do this.