Present: As attached.

1. CALL TO ORDER /WELCOME - Marjorie Hill-Devine. Marjorie called the meeting to order at 10:05. She announced that a Nominating Committee has been formed and the members are Dennis Kelley, Sue Koronowski, and Barbara Lachance. They will nominate the next president-elect and clerk/secretary.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. The Minutes from the February 22nd meeting were voted. Camilla Glynn made a motion to approve the Minutes; Nadine Mitchell seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

3. TREASURER’S REPORT - Tom Scully. Tom reported that at three-quarters through the year spending is at 61%. We are still waiting for the maintenance bill from Innovative, which will bring that line item up. Linda Shea made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report; Camilla Glynn seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

4. MANAGER’S REPORT - Ronald Gagnon. Ron reported that we are at the end of the Millennium Project Grant. He handed out copies of the final report that was filed with the MBLC this week. He also filed the last periodic report that was required. Ron reviewed some of the highlights from the report. A large growth in interlibrary loan that was predicted has not been achieved yet. A reason for this is that patron-placed holds have not been implemented, therefore, the increase that was predicted should occur when that is implemented. Ron also handed out a sheet, Network Transfer Changes, which compares libraries ILL statistics in spring 1999 and spring 2000. These are within NOBLE network transfers. Overall Public libraries went down 1.3%, and colleges went up 91%. Ron also reported he filed for e-rate reimbursement for the first half of the fiscal year for our data lines and voice lines in the amount $26,522. Our Internet Service Provider, U Mass, provides the e-rate discount on each bill. Ron stated we would not be getting any discount on our equipment or maintenance for the next fiscal year. These are secondary funding requests and the funds will not be available. Ron reported on letters he sent to the FCC concerning Verizon’s application for long-distance service and two bills regarding Internet filtering. The filtering requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act and the Neighborhood Children’s Internet Protection Act would require filters on all workstations in a library to receive e-rate or LSTA funding, including colleges. There was some discussion. Ron reported that NOBLE received $200,000 from MBLC for our annual Telecommunications and Virtual Catalog funding. Ron also stated that the state’s Virtual Catalog project is progressing. This is a separate system where you can search the entire state in one search for material and request it. The project director will be visiting NOBLE sometime next month to meet with Executive Board and staff. Ron reported on upcoming meetings. April 5^th is the Annual Interlibrary Loan Center meeting for the NOBLE region. On April 1^st-3^rd Ron and Elizabeth will be attending an III Consortia Meeting. They will also be attending the III User Group Meeting on May 20^th-22^nd. Also NOBLE participated in the North Shore Chamber of Commerce Tech Symposium on February 28^th.

Elizabeth Thomsen. Elizabeth reported on the Computers in Libraries Conference she attended last week. Next week she is going to Innovative headquarters for "load table" training. These are the profiles we use when we load MARC or other types of records into the system. Elizabeth also stated two meetings are coming up. On March 29^th is a Reader’s Advisory Session, and on April 10^th is a Multilingual Session. These are both roundtable sessions for people who want to come and discuss issues on these topics.

Martha Driscoll. Martha reported there haven’t been as many Verizon outages and service has been a little better. When an outage occurs NOBLE staff reports the outage to Verizon managers so they can make the data group aware that the problems are continuing and the service is not satisfactory. Martha reported that

the regions are taking over support of the region databases. She and George Lally will be attending a

one-day training session next week on this.

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Brochure Committee - Marjorie discussed the copyright issue that had come up in regard to the contract with Extra Mile. After NOBLE’s attorney reviewed the issue he was in agreement with us that anything produced is work for hire and should be owned by NOBLE. The person from Extra Mile has been away and is due back beginning of April. At that time Ron will discuss this with her to determine if NOBLE will pursue her firm.

Electronic Resources Working Group - Camilla Glynn reported they have not met since February. They are scheduled to meet on April 12^th and will be discussing web resources.

New Members Committee - Tom Scully reported they met last week and are still discussing how to define the difference between full and associate members.

Database Quality Group - Tom Scully reported at their recent meeting they discussed how to treat serials, which are usually items that circulate, as opposed to serials that are reference, such as, almanacs, college manuals, travel books, guide books, etc. that update each year. It was decided that these items would be cataloged as monographs beginning

with year 2000 issues.

6. LOCAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ON THE WEB: The Beverly Experience - Tom Scully. Tom did a presentation showing how to access Minutes from the City of Beverly’s meetings through the NOBLE web catalog. An electronic document called "Beverly Public Documents" was created and can be searched in the catalog. Tom explained in 1995 the City of Beverly had a charter change that required all Boards and Commissions file a copy of their minutes with the Beverly Public Library. The library is using a software product called Laserfiche that indexes the minutes. In addition to getting current minutes

on-line, historical minutes from the city are also going to be indexed.

Elizabeth Thomsen - Elizabeth reported on the EBSCO meeting held earlier this month. General EBSCO topics were reviewed such as, EBSCO Admin, EBSCO statistics, and the catalog. The meeting was to familiarize people with what can be done so they know what to ask for. Setting up profiles was one aspect in EBSCO Admin that libraries can do or NOBLE staff can set up for them. Representatives from EBSCO met with NOBLE staff and went over our enhancement requests. Elizabeth set up dates in April and May for EBSCO hands-on training sessions. These sessions will be focused on searching.

Elizabeth reported on the Serials meeting that was also held. This was an introductory meeting and the basics were reviewed. NOBLE staff has been working with Salem State and Middlesex to get their serials set up. A serials e-mail list was set up for people to communicate and discuss their ideas and thoughts on how they would want serials set up for their library. NOBLE staff will consult with individual libraries to assist them in setting up serials. Information will be sent out shortly in regard to this. Training sessions will also be scheduled.

Elizabeth also reported on the Web Catalog. She explained that once patrons are allowed to log into their patron records that is the start of "My Millennium". A new keyword search engine is scheduled to be loaded on the system at the end of May. It is currently on the training system. Elizabeth also mentioned that two web site meetings are coming up: one in May for all our libraries that have web sites whether hosted by NOBLE or not; and the one in June is for libraries whose sites we host.

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Martha Driscoll - Martha reported she is working on the new web server and will be ready to change over in the next couple of weeks. One issue is importing the web sites that are on the NT server over to the new UNIX server. The new web server will have indexing running, and FrontPage extensions will be loaded on it. Also at some point after the new server is running a database will be loaded on it so libraries can create a database from within their web site. Martha is also looking into providing an audio server.

8. ADJOURNMENT. Dennis Kelley made a motion to adjourn; Tom Scully seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 11:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Douglas W. Rendell, secretary pro tem

For Mary Rose Quinn