NOBLE

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT MIDDLESEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE – LOWELL CAMPUS

MARCH 16, 2006

 

PRESENT:  Fourteen libraries were represented at the meeting, attendance sheet attached.

 

CALL TO ORDER:  In Sue Koronowski’s absence, vice president Linda Hummel-Shea, presided over the meeting.  The meeting was called to order at 10:25. 

APROVAL OF MINUTES:  The Minutes could not be voted on since there wasn’t a quorum at time of discussion. [see also page two]

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Mary Rose Quinn reported the budget is 64% expended through February.  No vote could be made.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT:

Ron Gagnon –

·         Continue to work with Atrion implementing wireless for libraries.  Seven libraries requested information on wireless. Lynn and Melrose are implementing wireless, with a few to follow. Presently ten public libraries have wireless access.

·         February 23rd attended Network Administrators meeting at Cisco headquarters on network security.

·         Ron and Marilyn Graves attended ILL Center Meeting at NMRLS.  Comparing long term costs with other regions.  Annual ILL Center meeting for libraries served by NOBLE is April 26th.

·         Staff from Libraries On Line (LIONS) visited NOBLE to discuss Innovative system. They currently have Dynix and are switching to Innovative.

·         Next Innovative Consortia Meeting will be held in September.

·         NOBLE staff will be attending PLA in Boston.  Office will have minimal staff.  Technical staff will be available via cell phone in case of emergency.

·         Elizabeth is attending Computers in Libraries in Washington D.C.

·         Ron and Elizabeth attended Legislative Breakfast, and will be attending Legislative Day on April 5th.

·         The rate for our Tufts Health Premium Plan offered to employees will increase 29% on April 1st.  Ron met with NOBLE staff and did a cost and benefits comparison with other plans and Tufts Health Value plan.  NOBLE staff preferred to stay with Tufts and opted for the Value Plan, which has a $15 co-payment and a $350 fee for inpatient hospital care. Executive Board approved the change.

·         Executive Board approved Elizabeth’s request to take July and August off to go to China.

 

Elizabeth Thomsen –

·         Federated Searching - Continues to research federated searching and work with libraries on usability studies.  Danvers has participated, as well as Peabody, Gloucester, MCC Lowell, and NSCC Lynn.  The concept is to give the user a task and observe and record what the user does.  There is information on the Staff Information System.  Elizabeth restated our federated search goal, to provide patrons the easiest way possible for them to enter a search, have that search go to several databases and get back a full text.

- Vendor demos have begun. Innovative’s product has been ruled out because it doesn’t do deduping.

   Serials Solutions “Central Search” product comes bundled with other products, i.e. A-Z Lists.  

   Another issue is it comes with a “journal resolver” not a “link resolver”.  The bundled price is more  

   than the grant funds, which is an issue.

- Webfeat is the original creator of the federated searching concept, therefore the most experienced. 

   The cost is within the grant budget and is the least costly.  Ron and Elizabeth met with creator Todd

   Miller, and they are going to set up a demo system, then a demo will scheduled for NOBLE

   libraries.  Elizabeth encouraged library staff to visit Webfeat demo at PLA. 

- Met with IndexData, reseller of open source software.  Impressed with expertise and can be

  customized.  Cost is $60,000 and would be more involved and time-consuming to set up.

An issue that has to be taken into consideration is that our libraries already contract for some of the bundled services in the Central Search package.  Therefore, an a-la-carte product is preferred.

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                                         Page 2

March 16, 2006

 

·         Libraries continue to use NOBLE’s digitization workstation to scan images to put into our bibliographic database.  NOBLE staff is looking at ways to manage the collections and into acquiring a new server for the images to be stored on.  Also researching digital library software.

·         Reviewed the upcoming training and meeting schedule for March and April.

·         The annual NOBLE Tech Expo will be held June 8th.

 

Martha Driscoll –

·         Last month a transformer at our office failed, which revealed some issues with our Internet connection.  The box installed by Verizon was not installed in our office space, but in an equipment room located in another area. Therefore, the box was not on our UPS and when power went out there wasn’t any backup for our Internet connection.  Another issue when power was restored was that our main data switch lost some settings.  The incorrect settings degraded Internet response time.  Atrion worked with Cisco to resolve the problem.  Martha has also reconfigured the mail server to allow more space.

·         PC Reservation and Print Management Demos scheduled: 

March 30th – OCS

April 6th – Conway Office Products, a reseller

April 12th - SAM, product by Comprise Technologies   

All these vendors will be at PLA.

 

MINUTES:

Linda Hummel-Shea stated the meeting now has a quorum, therefore the Minutes were voted on.  Deborah Abraham made motion to approve the Minutes of the February 16th meeting.  Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion.  The motion passed by unanimous vote. 

 

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVACY POLICY REVISION VOTE:

·         Ron explained the revised policies were approved by Executive Board and are being recommended for approval by the Membership.  This vote is approving the policies, not procedures. Once the policies are approved the procedures will be discussed at Executive Board and with our attorney.  Ron did verify with our attorney that warrants are effective immediately.  Also, although patron information is exempt from public records law, doesn’t mean libraries can’t use it for public relations purposes.  Training material will be prepared as well.

·         The Privacy Policy was made into a web version and a print version.  The policies are policies of NOBLE with the Confidentiality Policy between NOBLE and the libraries; and the Privacy Policy between NOBLE and users.

 

Deborah Abraham made a motion to approve the Revised Confidentiality Policy dated March 16th as recommended by Executive Board.  Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion.  There was no further discussion.  The motion passed by unanimous vote, with the exception of Salem State College, who abstained.

 

Mary Rose Quinn made a motion to approve the Revised Privacy Policy dated March 16th as recommended by Executive Board.  Dennis Kelley seconded the motion.  There was no further discussion.  The motion passed by unanimous vote, with the exception of Salem State College, who abstained.

 

BYLAWS REVISION:

Ron stated this is the first revision since 1996.  Executive Board approved the revision at their December meeting.  The text is presented at this Members Meeting, with a vote at the next Members Meeting.  Our current Bylaws did not take into account when a director, who is an officer or on Executive Board, leaves their position. The two new sections clarify this issue.

 

 

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                                         Page 3

March 16, 2006

 

The new text is presented as follows:

 

4.11  Ex-Officio.  NOBLE Executive Board members hold their office by virtue of being the designated voting representative of a NOBLE member library. If the Executive Board Member is no longer the designated voting representative of the member library, the person's office with NOBLE is also automatically and immediately terminated, except as follows. If the person is no longer the designated voting representative of the participating library because the Executive Board Member is either (i) taking a voluntary leave or (ii) moving to a similar position with another NOBLE member library then, with the approval of the Executive Board, the person may continue in his or her position with NOBLE. Any vacancy will be filled for officers per Section 5.8 and for at-large members can be filled at the President's discretion.

 

5.10  Ex-Officio.  NOBLE officers hold their office by virtue of their being a designated voting representative of a NOBLE member library. If the officer is no longer the designated voting representative of the member library, the person's office with NOBLE is also automatically and immediately terminated, except as follows. If the person is no longer the designated voting representative of the participating library because the officer is either (i) taking a voluntary leave or (ii) moving to a similar position with another NOBLE member library then, with the approval of the Executive Board, the person may continue in his or her position with NOBLE.  Vacancies will be filled per Section 5.8.

 

ADJOURNMENT: 

Mary Rose Quinn made a motion to adjourn.  Martha Holden seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 11:20.  The Director’s Open Forum took place after adjournment.  Topic for discussion is “Security Cameras in Libraries”.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Martha Holden

Secretary