Maine State Library Studio

In attendance:  Kevin Davis, Judy Frost, Pam Gormley, Nikki Maounis, Steve Norman, Betsy Pohl, Gail Roy (by telephone), James Jackson Sanborn, Cindy White

 

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

 

o Acceptance of Minutes of the July 11, 2012 Meeting – It was noted that there was an error under Adjournment:  the name should be Shelly Davis.  Pam Gormley made a motion to accept the minutes as amended, Steve Norman seconded, and the board voted to approve the minutes.

 

o Election of Officers – Kevin said that the election of officers was tabled at the last meeting because of a desire to have more board members present.  The officers needed are chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer.  He asked for volunteers from the group.  Cindy White volunteered to be secretary for another year and Gail Roy volunteered to be treasurer.  Betsy Pohl expressed willingness to be vice chair or possibly chair, if no one else could be persuaded.  The board thought Shelly Davis, who was vice chair in 2012, might be a logical choice for chair, but she had not responded to an email request for volunteers.  Betsy offered to call Shelly and discuss the situation with her.  Steve Norman made a motion that the board approve the slate with Betsy and Shelly as chair/vice chair, depending the outcome of their conversation; Cindy as secretary; and Gail as treasurer.  Cindy suggested that Kevin could put the slate out to a vote via email when all the “nominees” are firmed up.   

o New Business

• Status of Auburn Public Library’s participation – Kevin reported that he has talked to the director at Auburn Public Library and they will begin full participation in Minerva, including open lending and borrowing, at the beginning of October.
• Changes to OPAC display of holds – Kevin opened the discussion by saying that some members had strong feelings about the change but perhaps people did not understand the reasons why the change was made.  James Jackson Sanborn explained that the problem is caused by the way a scoped search shows items.  There is a workaround which shows all bibs which have items (dubbed “lax scoping”).  The home library’s bibs will show first, followed by other libraries’ bibs with items.  He showed an example of this from URSUS.   James has a support ticket in to III to find out if we can do this with our current OPAC.  James recommends Minerva do the following:  1) switch to the workaround, or 2) if this is not possible in the current OPAC, move to the new OPAC.  If Minerva users would like to see what the design of the new OPAC looks like, we can go to minerva.maine.edu:2082/ (however, this will not show the “lax scoping”).  Betsy Pohl made a motion that we proceed with James’ recommendations concerning the upgrade, Kevin seconded, and the board passed the motion.  James stated that he will send a message to the Minerva mailing list once he knows what is going to happen.
• Violations of open lending policy – Kevin explained that he had had a conversation with Sarah Sugden, the director of Waterville Public Library, regarding Waterville’s unsanctioned practice of “sequestering” new books.  Sarah raised the issue with him of whether or not there is some way to allow for member libraries that are purchasing multiple copies to withhold some portion for “local use only,” provided that they are making some copies available to the consortium.  James said that Jay Scherma had mentioned to him that the Minuteman consortium in MA had done this.  The board had a lengthy discussion about issues related to lending new titles.  James suggested forming an ad hoc committee to “explore creative approaches to high-demand titles in a consortial environment.”  Judy Frost recommended putting the Memorandum of Participation out for voting by members first.  Betsy agreed with Judy, suggesting that the ad hoc committee be formed after the vote on the MOP.  At this point, several members of the board had to leave because of other commitments and the discussion was ended.
• Request to consider purchase of online patron registration module – Kevin had received a request and therefore put this on the agenda.  James noted that the cost from III for this module would be approximately $[not public-ask James].

o Old Business

• Memorandum of Participation – Kevin will send this out to all Minerva users for a vote asap.

o Reports (truncated or tabled due to lack of time)

• Maine InfoNet Representative (Judy Frost) – Judy reported that a committee is being put together to develop an exploratory needs document.
• Maine InfoNet/Minerva Technical (James Jackson Sanborn) – James noted that the next InfoNet directors summit is scheduled for Nov. 16 at Colby College.  Jon Szabo from Los Angeles County Public Library will be the morning speaker.  There will be a panel on space needs in the afternoon.
• Finance (Nikki Maounis) – Nikki reported that all but 2 libraries (Thomas College and Unity College) have paid their annual dues.  She submitted a written budget report.
• Circulation Standards Committee – no report.
• Cataloging Standards Committee – report sent by email.
• Membership Committee – no report.
• Statistics Committee – no report.

 

o Other – Cindy suggested that the next meeting be scheduled for October, rather than waiting until November.  Therefore, the next board meeting will be scheduled for October 10, 2012.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12, 2012.

 

o Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 12:20 pm.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Cindy White