MINERVA Executive Board Meeting
November 14, 2012
Maine State Library Studio
In attendance: Cyndi Burne, Kevin Davis, Shelly Davis, Pam Gormley, Steve Norman, Martha Ott, Betsy Pohl, Alisia Revitt, Gail Roy (by telephone), James Jackson Sanborn, Cindy White
o Call to Order – Shelly Davis, chair, called the meeting to order at 10:02 am.
o Acceptance of Minutes of the September 12, 2012 Meeting – Steve Norman made a motion to approve the minutes as written, Pam Gormley seconded and the minutes were approved.
o Old Business
Library Anywhere – James Jackson Sanborn reported that he recently had sent the board an email which outlined the vendor’s most current price quote. To summarize, this quote was $7800 for an implementation fee and $2500-2800 for an annual fee for the first year. In an earlier discussion, the board had considered paying the implementation fee for the Minerva group for the first year and building the annual fee into the yearly Minerva membership fee. Betsy Pohl made a motion to approve Minerva paying the implementation fee from the contingency fund for this year with the annual fee coming from the members. The motion was seconded by Cindy White and approved.
Inter-Minerva Collection Policy – Cyndi Burne had sent a draft of the Inter-Minerva Collection Policy which she presented with one change: “if the item is not returned within 45 days of the due date…” Steve made a motion to accept the Inter-Minerva Collection Policy with this wording change, Betsy seconded the motion and the policy was accepted. Cyndi will be responsible for making sure it is posted to the best practices manual. The board thanked Cyndi and the Circulation Standards Committee for their work on this policy. Cyndi asked if the board would like the committee to work on a policy pertaining to DVDs (bib vs item holds, loan periods, checkout limits, etc.). The board was in favor of this.
Memorandum of Participation: Next Steps – Steve explained that the Memorandum of Participation (MOP) next needs to go to member libraries for signature. The board discussed details such as how to distribute, collect and store the document. It was decided that Shelly will send out an email by Nov. 16 with a link to the MOP as a pdf on the Minerva website. “Authorized persons” will be given 2 months to sign and return the document. It may be returned in person at the Users Council meeting on Nov. 28 or mailed to Cindy White, Minerva secretary. We hope to store the completed forms at the Maine State Library; James will contact Linda Lord about storage space for them.
o New Business
School libraries representative – Shelly explained that we needed to elect a new representative for school libraries. She contacted all the possible candidates and they all declined. Pam also respectfully declined another term. Steve made a motion that the board appoint someone to fill this vacancy, Pam seconded and the board unanimously approved. Betsy offered to help Shelly identify some people to contact about the vacancy.
Agenda for Users’ Council Meeting – Shelly asked for items for the agenda. The following were suggested: MOP, committee reports, borrowing/lending ratios (from Alisia Revitt’s report), preliminary budget.
Kaplan University: One library, multiple locations – Martha Ott explained Kaplan University’s situation with a new site in Augusta. There is a library collection but no librarian. We discussed whether it should be considered a new agency or be subsumed under another one. James explained that using another agency would not compromise Minerva expansion plans or current users in any way. Steve made a motion to accommodate Kaplan’s Augusta site as a new agency; Cindy seconded the motion and the board passed it.
Goals – Shelly asked for input on goals for the year. She noted that finishing up work on the MOP would be one goal. She wondered if Maine InfoNet (and, by extension, Minerva) would be looking at a migration to a new vendor or not. James explained that there is a group called the “Exploratory Needs” group which has been investigating options for the future of the Maine InfoNet system. OCLC and Evergreen are not ready and/or suitable at this point. At this time, it looks like III is the only workable option. James hopes to be able to meet with some different people from III at ALA mid-winter and see where that leads. Other goals for the Minerva board are implementation of Library Anywhere, filling the vacant board position, and looking at criteria for adding another library to Minerva.
o Reports
Maine InfoNet/Minerva Technical (James Jackson Sanborn and Alisia Revitt) – James noted that he had reported already on the Exploratory Needs Group. The upgrade to WebPac Pro is in process as is “lax scoping.” Alisia reported that they are bringing 7 new libraries into Solar. Ellsworth and Lubec are done; next are Northeast Harbor and Freeport; then Farmington, Wilton and Kennebunk. All are on the delivery service.
Maine InfoNet Representative (Judy Frost) – Judy sent regrets that she could not attend. She did not have a report.
Finance (Nikki Maounis) – Nikki sent a report by email. Gail Roy will be the new Treasurer starting Nov. 16. Nikki has volunteered to be a resource at the Users Council meeting as Gail will not be able to attend. Two libraries (Thomas College and Unity College) had not paid this year’s dues and Gail will double-check with Nikki concerning their status.
Circulation Standards Committee (Cyndi Burne) – see under “Old Business”
Cataloging Standards Committee (Katherine Morgan) – report sent by email.
Membership Committee – no report.
Statistics Committee – no report.
o Other
Bangor Theological Seminary has notified Minerva that both locations will be closing at the end of the fiscal year. The Seminary is closing.
Board meetings for 2013 will be held in Jan., Mar., May and July on the second Wed. of the month.
Steve asked about the ad hoc committee to look at issues with high-demand titles. It was felt this should be tabled until the MOP is finished and signed by all members.
Kevin noted an issue with some libraries charging for audiovisual materials. The board recognizes that this exists and may need to be revisited.
o Adjournment – Pam made a motion to adjourn, Betsy seconded and the meeting adjourned at 11:50 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Cindy White
