Meeting of Sept. 14, 2016

Present: Tim McFadden, James Rathbun, Nancy Crowell, Kevin Davis, Shelley Davis, Steve Norman, and Liz Soares
From remote sites: Lynn Uhlman, James Jackson Sanborn, Janet Elvidge, Amber Tatnall and Alisia Revitt

Old Business:

Memorandum of Understanding: James Jackson Sanborn is working on an MOU template with ala carte features.

New Business:

We discussed scheduling the Fall Users Council meeting in late October or early November. Kevin will check with Topsham Public Library to request a date and put out a call for presentations.

Report from Maine InfoNet:

James Jackson Sanborn reiterated that they are having conversations with OCLC. They are trying to look at what is possible for statewide participation in OCLC, with low or no-cost options. This is looking like a possibility. This would have a major impact on cataloging improvement.

They are also looking to move from OverDrive to 3M for download library service. Cost is one reason, and membership is the other. Overdrive has not let school libraries participate, but 3M would. However, Overdrive does support more devices. 3M does not support eInk Kindles but sales of those are dropping. James is looking for feedback on this possible move. Nancy will put info together on what Scarborough Public Library does.

There is a meeting in November with high ranking III representatives, including new CEO Jim Tallman. Topics will include the obsolescence of their code, web access, and how difficult it is to get statistics. We are 2.5 years into a five-year contract, so we need to get a sense of where they are going before we decide to go with them again.

Maine InfoNet Representative

Not present.

Report from Minerva Technical

Alisia said the 3.2 version of Sierra has some issues so we’re going to wait a bit on it.

Is it time to sack Kaplan’s records? They are suppressed now. Steve wondered about items taken by other libraries. James Jackson Sanborn said we could reach out to these libraries to make sure they have transitioned the items. Kevin said he would put it on the listservs.

Lynn is looking to delete unused ptypes and itypes.

Finance Report

Amber has been paying the bills and working on figuring out a $21.06 discrepancy in the checkbook. All but five of the bills sent out in July have been paid and James Jackson Sanborn has sent out second notices.

Collection Development Committee

Kevin said they hadn’t met yet, but had put out the word about the committee.

Circulation Standards Committee

James Rathbun said they haven’t met since the last meeting.

Cataloging Standards

The committee submitted a request for action. A retired cataloger wanted to view the cataloging roundtable meetings online. They wanted to make sure that it was clear that the meetings should be viewed by Minerva members only.

The issue is that when records are shown during the meeting, sometimes the borrowers’ names are visible.

James Jackson Sanborn noted that Maine InfoNet staff are not Minerva members. Also, if we eventually have an “uber” cataloger, that person might not be a member either.

Nancy noted that confidentiality of patron records is the law. There was a question of whether limiting access would be violating the open meeting law. However, James Jackson Sanborn said Minerva is a Maine InfoNet project. The Maine InfoNet collaborative is a 501c3, so he does not believe the open meeting law applies to us.

Alisia suggested defining access as Minerva members, Maine InfoNet members and others as approved by the Minerva Executive Board. James Jackson Sanborn asked if that would include volunteers.

Steve said he thought it should include anyone participating in cataloging. He wondered who would watch just to see patron information. Maybe we are imagining a problem that isn’t really there.

Nancy suggested an online non-disclosure form; potential viewers would have to agree to keep any information they see confidential.

It was agreed that Amber would create a document of non-disclosure and that Maine InfoNet staff would set up the password.

Membership

Steve and Janet will meet to discuss membership. Chair Anne Davis can’t do it right now. Tim suggested his assistant director might be willing to serve on the committee.

Steve said membership needs to update documents for new members and provide them with information on procedures. Lynn said libraries need documentation on workflow processes such as running notices. They are going from working individually to a “grander scale,” and need help with the transition.

James Jackson Sanborn suggested we “play matchmaker” with new libraries going to visit existing libraries.

Steve said he is willing to co-chair with Anne

Shelley offered to take bylaws off Steve’s plate.

Kevin will reach out to get more members for committee.

James Jackson Sanborn said there are a couple of libraries who are interested in joining. We do have capacity for more members. Nancy asked if Dyer Library was one of them. James said no, but it would make sense for them to join. He said Old Orchard Beach is looking at MILS and Yarmouth is looking at Minerva.

Nancy is in favor of a common borrowing card for southern Maine libraries.

We discussed issues with cataloging quality. Nancy said maybe we can pay someone to be an “uber cataloger.” She is sensing the cataloging issues are a weak link in our system.

James Jackson Sanborn said we could use a mix of approaches beyond training and standards. We could purchase a major clean-up program to fix what’s already in there. We could try co-op cataloging, designated uber catalogers, and membership in Sky River or OCLC. The latter would make the source of records a lot more consistent. Maybe the transition of the ARC services would mean they could become cataloging backstops. This is the right time to have these conversations and we should keep looking at the issue.

The next meeting will be held November 9, 2016

Respectfully submitted,
Liz Soares
Secretary