Minutes

Maine State Library Studio

In attendance: Steve Norman, Shelly Davis, Liz Soares, Nancy Crowell, Kevin Davis, Amber Tatnall, Tim McFadden, Judy Frost, James Rathbun, Pamela Turner and, via remote feed, James Jackson Sanborn and Lynn Uhlman.

The meeting was called to order shortly after 10 a.m.; Liz volunteered to take minutes.

Review and Acceptance of the minutes of the March 11, 2015 meeting:
*The minutes were approved as written.

Old Business
*Executive Board election results

Kevin Davis was re-elected and Janet Elvidge was elected to the Executive Board. Shelly noted the turnout was low. Steve thanked her for coordinating the election.

*Plan for the Spring Users Council Meeting

The meeting will be held on Thursday, June 18th, from 10 a.m. to noon. There will be three locations: the Maine State Library, York and Husson College. Allen Fecteau will be doing tech support.
The topics will include strategic planning, and Amber will lead a SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

*Review of Minerva’s policies

Pam Turner has been reviewing Minerva’s policies. She estimates she is more than
halfway done. Steve noted that the policies should be compiled and made accessible online. James Jackson Sanborn said that some of them already are. The problem with the policies, Pam said, is that they are a “mish-mash.” Some are stronger than others, and in some cases we may need new policies.
Some policies are only mentioned in minutes but there is no wording. Now it is standard practice to have wording in the minutes, Pam said. As membership committee chair, she would like to have a packet of information to give to new members.
Kevin suggested brainstorming about policies at the users’ council meeting.
Steve said we’re “Much more aware” now of the need for and differences between policies, procedures and best practices. Liz said it was important to have them, and Tim noted, “We do it for our own libraries.”
Regarding the proposed non-payment policy, James J.S. said most members don’t want bills until July. So 22 were going out in May and 61 in July.

*Minerva strategic planning

Steve noted that we have reached a “plateau.” We have bylaws, we have a solid Maine InfoNet director and staff…the question is, he said, “What next?” Statewide, he continued, “the library world is in flux.”
Judy suggested we revisit the Memorandum of Understanding. We are on our third
State Librarian since it was signed. There have been changes on the university
side. There are questions that need to be answered. “We can clarify matters,” she said.
Steve will get in touch with Jane Haskell, who led Maine InfoNet through their planning, to see if she will work with us.

*Open lending/Collection development issues

We discussed the concept of “floating collections.” This can be described as “Library X requests materials from Y; then the materials stay at X until they are requested again.”
This practice can reduce traffic. James J.S. said that in such a program, not everything needs to float. The floating collection is identified through location and item types.
When the item is checked back in, it is updated to the new location. Colby, Bates and Bowdoin have been working together, with standing orders for items which are then rotating amongst the three libraries.
Judy said the community colleges are participating in the Maine Shared Collection
Cooperative, and Steve said Belfast just signed on. Judy said that many librarians are still struggling with the idea of ‘my patron, my collection,’ but this is sharing. The
important idea is “how we can facilitate information flow to our patrons.”

*Scheduling module in Sierra

James J.S. has not heard back about this yet.

*Syndetics and other options

We discussed whether we should choose another vendor for catalog “extras.” Amber really liked the NoveList/Content Café offering. NoveList provides enhancements, while Content Café provides the book cover images. This package is used on URSUS, and we all looked at it and approved the clear, sharp look, and the fact that scholarly titles were also enhanced. We voted unanimously to go with this package, but James J.S. needs to get a final quote. The new package would be approximately $3,000 more.
The board will ratify the decision then.

New Business
*Minerva migrations

The Maine College of Art migration is underway. Lynn said it was “a bit more
Complicated” than previous migrations, but was set to go live the following week.
Pam asked about Maine State Library Outreach, which is set to leave Minerva. She
thought they would be out by now, and said “it is an issue for some of us.” Her
concern was noted.

Reports
*Maine InfoNet

James Jackson-Sanborn said we had already discussed several items from his report,
including MECA, invoices and the floating collection concept. He announced that
LD 13, a sales tax exemption for library consortia passed, but was vetoed by the
governor. However, Gov. LePage then added the language to his budget package,
and hopefully the exemption will go into law that way.

*Maine InfoNet representative

Judy said there will be a planning retreat in July, and asked if there was anything we’d like to see addressed. She will also see what issues “perk” at the users’ council meeting.

*Minerva Technical

Lynn said the Innovative Users Group convention, which she and Alisia Revitt attended, was “a blast.” She was especially interested in SQL information (Structured Query Language), which can be used to obtain more statistics. There is a new product, DecisionCenter, which, among other things, can provide useful collection development info.
Steve was interested in seeing more information on this.
Nancy asked if an inventory module was on the horizon. Lynn didn’t think so. A Blue Tooth scanner might be one way to approach inventories. Amber has a “nifty set-up” that she will share.

She has also been working on training at MECA and says staff there are enthusiastic.
Lynn said it would be helpful if some of the academic libraries could “mentor” MECA
as they work to meet the cataloging standards.

*Finance

Amber said the “systems are getting cleaned up,” and she is “feeling more confident.”
There is some confusion over van delivery bill, as Minerva did not receive anything
beyond the first quarter.
The van delivery contract goes to Jan. 1, 2016.

Committee Reports
*Membership Committee

Pam said the committee will be dormant until the board decides on goals. James J.S.
said he had not received any inquiries. To be continued…

*Circulation Standards

James Rathbun noted the problems some libraries reported at the last circulation
meeting about check in and check out issues. A generic circ desk log in is a possible solution.

*Cataloging Standards

A Minerva member continues to use bad cataloging practices. After losing privileges last year for this, they cleaned up their records and the matter seemed to be resolved.
Lynn created a template for them and said they have “no excuse” to be doing things
wrong. Also, Ellen Conway of the cataloging committee met with them. Steve will
contact the library director. We voted to “take steps to ensure good records.”

Other
*Nancy said Scarborough has been involved with FEMA Americorps emergency response planning process. Scarborough can rely on Thomas Memorial, South Portland and Baxter libraries for reciprocal borrowing in times of emergency. We agreed this topic should be placed on a future agenda.
*Kaplan University has fired all their librarians. Lynn said the new person (a coordinator) is “trying to fulfill all obligations.”

The meeting was adjourned shortly before noon.

The next meetings will be the June 18 Spring Users Council and July 8 Executive Board.