Present: As attached.

1. CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME – Marjorie Hill-Devine. Marjorie called the meeting to order at 10:00. She introduced Ann Gutting, Winthrop’s new assistant director. Also introduced were Kimberly Lynn new director of Reading Public, Nadine Mitchell, assistant director of Lynn, Ann Connolly, assistant director of Marblehead, and Cheri Coe, director of Montserrat. Marjorie reported that Executive Board met in August and had two budget meetings in September.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. The Minutes from the May 18^th and June 22^nd meeting were voted on. Camilla Glynn made a motion to accept both Minutes, Tom Cesarz seconded it. The vote was unanimous.

3. NEW COMMITTEES – Marjorie Hill-Devine. Marjorie reported the Personnel Committee finished their work on updating and revising NOBLE’s Employee Handbook. The Electronic Resources Working Group (ERWG) was established to investigate the feasibility of cataloging web sites into our database. Camilla Glynn is chair of the ERWG. Salem State is participating in a pilot program with OCLC. There have been some preliminary recommendations to the database policy. Also a New Brochure Committee is being established to design a new brochure for NOBLE. Marjorie Hill-Devine is the chairperson. The current brochure is several years old and outdated. Anyone interested in joining the Brochure Committee should e-mail Marjorie, Mary Rose Quinn, or Dennis Kelley. Next meeting is October 6^th.

4. TREASURER’S REPORT – Thomas Scully. Tom handed out the report as of August 31^st. Tom pointed out a couple of line items that were in excess of their allotment. Legal Services is up due to the recent work done on drafting the Employee Handbook. Equipment Maintenance is at 55% because that is a semi-annual bill and that figure represents the first payment. MARC Records is paid on an annual in advance schedule with NELINET so that figure represents the payment for this fiscal year. Tom Cesarz made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report, John Beauregard seconded it. The vote was unanimous.

5. MANAGER’S REPORT – Ronald Gagnon. Ron reported that two major projects were worked on over the summer, the Millennium project and the telecommunications upgrade. The new release of MilCirc 3 was loaded about seven weeks ago. The mid-afternoon freezing issue is still being worked on. III has contacted us to be a Beta test site for new software that will be in MilCirc 4. This will be done on the training system and involves testing sounds and freezing issues. Ron also reported we have been working with Salem State on serials, and they are about 60% through their serials conversion. Also being turned on soon are consortia holds improvements. NOBLE staff continues to work with III on issues and resolutions for them. Ron reported there was a lot of training over the summer and more is scheduled. Also over the summer statistics were compiled and combined from the Geac and Millennium systems for the end of the fiscal year using a temporary worker to get the statistics together in Excel reports. Two new HVAC units were installed over the summer, one for the Meeting Room and the other for the Training Room. Each room now has their own separate thermostat. Ron reported that our e-rate subsidy was down this year. The reason is that there weren’t enough funds to go around to our level for internal connection funding which is considered a secondary priority. Ron has filed to collect the second half of last fiscal year’s reimbursements for Verizon.

Elizabeth Thomsen. Elizabeth reported on Millennium enhancement requests to III. There are two ways this is done; one is to e-mail Innovative directly, and the other is through the User’s Group. This is an annual process and the closing date for submitting enhancements is October 1^st. The enhancement requests are on the Staff Information System, or www.noblenet.org/enhance. A consultant/trainer from III is

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coming back in October in which the enhancement requests will be discussed. Elizabeth reported that

Advanced Create Lists training is starting. She is trying to provide a variety of methods since everyone’s approach is different. She posted to the list group and added to the Staff Information System a list of basic skills. The first Create Lists training for Circulation was held. Elizabeth passed out some documentation from that session and reviewed it. It is also on the Staff Information System. The biggest problem people are having is finding the time to practice Create Lists. Elizabeth is thinking of scheduling some sessions where people can sign up and bring their projects and NOBLE staff we will assist them. Staff is also available to help on an individual consulting basis.

Course Reserve and Circulation Roundtable sessions are coming up. The Circulation roundtable is divided into college and public library issues. There was a web site meeting for libraries whose web site NOBLE hosts. A lot of it was focused on web trends reports. We had a trial period of NoveList database, created by Duncan Smith, who did a presentation at NOBLE. Eight libraries have signed up for NoveList.

Martha Driscoll. Martha reported that we would be upgrading our mail and web servers. The mail server was installed two years ago and is no longer adequate for NOBLE’s e-mail accounts. The servers will be upgraded to Pentium III models with more speed and memory. Martha reported the network upgrade is still on going and twenty sites are now on the Verizon network. Ron stated that part of the delays was due to Verizon’s two-week strike in August. There have been some problems -- during the week of September 4^th Salem Public was down for 3 ½ days. Also the Internet changeover is delayed and is expected in October. Ron stated Verizon did push to get as much of the changeover done before the strike.

5. FY 2002 NOBLE BUDGET – Ronald Gagnon. Ron did an overhead presentation of FY 2002 Budget, the vote will be at the October 19^th meeting. The deadline to change your staff users number is October 1^st. Ron discussed challenges facing NOBLE for the upcoming year. They are Loss of Bradford College, Incorporating Electronic Resources, and Increasing Energy Costs. Ron explained how the funds from the three new members were used to subsidize NOBLE’s portion of the PC Support Program, as well as for increased maintenance costs for the new system and the increase of the lease renewal. There was also an initial contribution to the capital fund. The amount being assessed out to libraries meets the CPI + 2% guideline.

The New Members Committee, which is chaired by Tom Scully, will be looking into ways to replace Bradford’s contribution. Ron discussed the FY 2001 Objectives that can assist in achieving this, such as improving member satisfaction, continuing to enhance the Millennium project and creating a new brochure that is attractive and informative to potential members. Over the past several months NOBLE has been speaking to potential new members: Peabody Essex Museum, Suffolk University, Marian Court, and Nahant Public Library. All of these have not gone beyond the point of general information.

The second challenge for the upcoming year is electronic resources. Ron explained these resources are available through our EBSCO contract, as well as databases through the Northeast Region and the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners. Some libraries subscribe locally by individual contracts. None of these electronic resources are reflected in NOBLE’s catalog. Our catalog entry notes the end of the print subscription but does not reflect that the resource is available electronically. The ERWG will be looking into these issues, as well as Internet resources in our catalog. The ERWG met several times over the summer.

In regard to energy costs Ron briefly discussed the increase expected with the rising costs for electricity and petroleum. A stable climate is needed in the computer room, which requires the constant use of electricity, and the office is heated by natural gas. Therefore a significant increase in utilities is expected.

Ron reviewed the budget line items stating that most of the expenses are similar to last year.

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WAGES, SALARY AND PAYROLL – There is an increase due to the addition of a part-time cataloger to deal with the electronic resources issues and assist in improving the catalog. Also included in the increase are the annual step raises as well as insurance costs.

OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION – These costs are stable with the exception of increased printing costs for the design of a new NOBLE brochure as previously discussed.

OCCUPANCY COSTS – These costs will go up from last year. The utilities are up to $30k due to projected increases in energy costs. The rent will also increase due to a contractual increase in the lease and utility costs in the common area charges.

COMPUTER SUPPORT – Most of these costs are on the Per User Distribution page, which will be reviewed later. The Power Conditioner Maintenance was moved to the Per User page also. The remaining costs in this area do not reflect any increase.

MARC RECORDS – We now get our MARC records from OCLC. The increase costs reflect our flat rate charge and accessing them over the Internet. The basic connectivity costs are split with the ILL Center, which is included.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS – Are on the Per User page.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES – Most of this cost is for our accountant for the audit and tax preparation services each year.

CONTINUING EDUCATION – These costs have been reduced in order to come out with a proposed balanced budget.

EQUIPMENT UPGRADE - PC Upgrade has been increased slightly to maintain the needs of what Millennium will require. Funds were reallocated into the Equipment Upgrade line item for FY 2001 to cover costs for three infrastructure projects: the mail server, web server, and telephone system. E-rate subsidies were filed for these but they are considered secondary priorities, therefore there were not enough funds to receive a subsidy for these projects. The costs for Equipment Upgrade for FY 2002 is projected to be similar to what was originally budgeted in past years. Line item Reserve for Additional III Software has been eliminated.

CAPITAL FUND – There is a 2% capital contribution that is set aside each year, this is up to $129,152 for FY 2002. The Special Capital Contribution item was funds received last fiscal year from the three new members for their base annual fees.

REIMBURSEMENTS - Ron reviewed the expected MBLC Telecomm and Virtual Catalog funds. The costs charged to libraries for branches is increased to $17,800. These costs cover the equipment and data lines to the branches. The Overhead Contribution is from the ILL Center.

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STAFF USER DISTRIBUTION - Ron reviewed the Central Innopac Maintenance, Data Lines, Internet, and Data Comm Maintenance line items. The Innopac Maintenance will increase slightly to cover additional purchases; Data Lines is under a contract and will remain the same; the Internet will have a slight decrease with the new contract with Genuity; and the Data Comm Maintenance costs will increase to due to inflation and equipment upgrades that will need to be maintained. The Power Conditioner Maintenance has been added to this page also. Ron stated that according to law we have to show that the college libraries are not receiving any benefit from the e-rate funds. He explained how the Federal Telecomm Discount and MBLC Telecomm Reimbursements are applied to get the total cost that is used to determine the Per Staff User cost.

John Beauregard asked if EBSCO costs are reflected in the budget. Ron stated that it is not, it is a separate extra cost. The contract with EBSCO is up on 12/31/00 and Ron will be discussing alternatives with the Executive Board. Mary Ann Niles asked if Executive Board would look into the possibility of libraries having the opportunity not to join EBSCO. Ron said at this point no because the price is based on the number of members we have. Marjorie suggested conducting a survey of the academic libraries to see what databases they are getting and what they are paying.

Ron reviewed the FY 2002 Library Assessments. He explained that there is no Dimension Data or line cost to MCC and NECC as they connect their branch through their campus network so their branch cost is lower. Ron presented a Network Budgets Percentage Comparison Sheet which showed NOBLE’s cost distribution to be similar to other Mass. networks cited with the exception of lower personnel cost percentage for NOBLE.

6. CONVERGENCE AHEAD – Elizabeth Thomsen. Elizabeth did an overhead presentation on how things are changing and becoming diverse in the library environment. She talked about e-book reader devices and explained that there are several devices people can use to access the web and e-mail without using a computer. As an example patrons are using Web TV to access our catalog and EBSCO. She gave a demonstration of a device called "Cuecat" that reads the barcode of a product and brings you to the manufacturers home web page. It can be programmed to read different barcodes. Elizabeth also showed different ways to get to our web catalog. One issue that the ERWG is discussing is how to deal with resources that are owned by an individual library and not by all of NOBLE.

7. ADJOURNMENT. Mary Rose Quinn made a motion to adjourn; Linda Shea seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 12:00.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Rose Quinn

Secretary