NOBLE

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT NOBLE

MARCH 22, 2007

 

 

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

 

CALL TO ORDER:  Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 10:10. 

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:  Glenn Macnutt made a motion to approve Minutes from November 16th meeting. Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT: Mary Rose Quinn reported 59% of the budget is expended as of 2/28/07.  Deborah Abraham made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Myron Schirer-Suter seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT:

Ron Gagnon –

·         The building we lease our office space has been sold.  The new landlord, Brookwood, is out of Beverly.  National Development will continue on as property management. Sue had to sign a new Estoppel Agreement with Brookwood.

·         Ron and Elizabeth attended Mid-Winter ALA in January.  They met with representatives from Serials Solutions, TDnet, EBSCO and Overdrive to discuss their downloadable audiobooks.  On March 28th, 10-1, there will be a vendor demonstration on downloadable audio and videos.  netLibrary will be demonstrating two products; Recorded Books and MyLibrary DV.  Overdrive will be demonstrating their products. 

 

Also at ALA, Ron and CW-MARS Executive Director Joan Kuklinski met with Innovative representatives to discuss consortia issues, in particular holds.  No issues were resolved. This issue will be discussed again at Innovative Users’ Group in May. 

 

Ron, Greg Pronevitz, Michael Colford, and others toured two automated sorting facilities in Seattle area; one at the Seattle Public Library and the other at King County Library System.  Regions are currently seeking funding to establish automated sorting sites, but details and other logistical issues still need to be worked out.  A change that libraries need to be aware of is having to affix barcode labels on the outside of library materials.  The state will be looking to standardize the sorting for this project.

·         Signed contract with NMRLS to host their web site and email.  Martha is working on setting that up.

·         Strategic Plan meeting was held in January.  Executive Board reviewed Margo Crist’ report and Elisabeth Tully’s notes.  The Board asked Ron to begin writing a first draft to review at their next meeting.

·         EBSCO and Federated Search contracts expire June 30th.  Working with Electronic Resources and Database Working Group to get their input for contract negotiations.  Unanimous decision to stay with EBSCO and continue with the same existing package, as well as explore additional databases. Ron and Elizabeth are meeting with EBSCO next week to review proposal.  Ron and Elizabeth meeting with Serials Solutions representative today to get additional information to review with ERDWG.

·         June Members meeting has been changed to June 14th due to conflict with ALA.  Executive Board will meet a week earlier.

·         New Toshiba digital copier was purchased for cost of $4,200 under state contract pricing. This will save $1,000 in maintenance costs per year.

·         Ron attended the URSA Users Group meeting in Seattle.  URSA is the software that operates the statewide virtual catalog.  Sirsi/Dynix planned a new version of the software by Summer 2007. Now there are new owners of Sirsi/Dynix and announced there will not be a new release.  The

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March 22, 2007

 

      existing software is running.  The State is advertising for a vendor to manage the virtual catalog,

      U Mass contract is expiring.

·         E-rate has been filed, received confirmation, but not approval yet.  Staying with current frame relay T-1 and T-3 technology with Verizon.  Expecting approximately $60,000.

·         Advertising new part-time PC Technician position.  This will support the PC Support program and will be funded through the program.  The position will be one day a week, $20/hour.

 

Elizabeth Thomsen –

·         Had two selection sessions by the Collection Management Team.  Academic session was facilitated by Myron Schirer-Suter of Gordon and Betty Dole of SSC.  Issues discussed format migration, selection methods, budget allocations, accreditation issues.  Public session was facilitated by Linda Walsh of Melrose.  Lorraine Barry of Reading did a presentation on new audio book options, downloadable, playaways. Julie Edwards of Peabody did a presentation on adult graphic novel collections and Ruth Urell facilitated a session on selection tools.

·         Reported on upcoming meetings: two Circulation Roundtables April 10th and 11th.

·         Continues to work with steering committee on Digital Commonwealth Project.  Expect to launch a web site in June.  In October there will be a one day conference, “Digital Day”, at Holy Cross focused on the digital library.  There will be two keynote sessions, one by Marshall Keyes and one by Mary Minnow.   More information will follow.

·         NOBLE Tech Expo will be Tuesday, June 5th.  Schedule will be streamlined with formal presentations in the meeting room.  In the past there were simultaneous sessions going on and attendees had to choose which one to attend.  Reviewed preliminary schedule.   

·         Elizabeth showed a demonstration of Wordpress, which is open source software. As part of server upgrade NOBLE will be using it as our blogging service and Content Management System (CMS).  A CMS is a system that lets you manage your web site more easily without editing HTML.  The NOBLE Newswatch on Staff Information System is set up using Wordpress.  Information on libraries are linked to newspaper articles.  NOBLE For Kids also being added to Wordpress.  Libraries that we host web site will be encouraged to use Wordpress.  This will be discussed at the April 25th NOBLE Hosted Web Sites meeting.

 

Martha Driscoll –

·         Setting up the new server, Dell Poweredge 6850, 8 GB RAM.  It will house all our web sites, email, and the digital library.  Getting NMRLS up first, then move over all the NOBLE web sites and email.

·         Michele is working on the program to set up with new receipt printer that can print delivery slips from Millennium.  Thermal printer capable of printing graphics is required.  Ron stated it will be shown at the Circ Roundtables and a group purchase will be done after the meetings. Brief discussion ensued.

·         Long overdue purge was done in January for items overdue since 2003.

·         Innovative loaded a patch to fix some bug issues.

·         LPT1 has been installed at some libraries, but not set up for staff or public use yet.  There have been problems with Gates PC’s and wireless PC’s, as well as software installation problems.  Martha has been working with George on resolving these issues.

 

 

Lorraine Jackson, director of Salem Public Library, reported their library was down for four days.  For the record she reported she was very dissatisfied with Verizon’s lack of service, difficulty to deal with and incompetence.  At one point they closed the ticket saying the library was up and they weren’t.  The technicians were working on lines that weren’t theirs.  Lorraine had to deal with six different people and none of them knew how long the problem had been going on.  There was no communication between the technicians that came.  Ron added that NOBLE staff and Atrion were working on our end trying to escalate the issue.  The ticket kept getting passed along to different departments.

 

 

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March 22, 2007

 

VOTE TO ELECT ASSISTANT TREASURER:

Ron reported our By-Laws have the option for an assistant treasurer.  A policy was established last year for cases when an officer is separated from a library or a library is separated from NOBLE, the officer can not hold their position.  Pending the Saugus library potential closing July 1st, it was decided to elect  an Assistant Treasurer.   Linda Hummel-Shea made a motion to elect Doug Rendell as assistant treasurer for term to run concurrent with current treasurer through June 30, 2008.  Brian Courtemanche seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

APPROVAL OF RESOURCE SHARING POLICIES:

·         Rescind Reading Group/Multiple Request Policy -                                                                         Ron reported there are two items recommended from the Resource Sharing Working Group regarding handling multiple copy requests.  The first is rescinding the Reading Group/Multiple Request Policy language in the Resource Sharing Policy, and the second part is adding the following language to end of Network Transfer Policy for a method for special requests:

            “For special request, such as multiple copies, displays, book groups, community reads

              and course reserves, libraries will use the Special Requests Guidelines on the Staff

              Information System.”

 

      The issue arose because libraries don’t know if the request is for a patron, a book group, display, or  

town read.  To resolve this issue the Resource Sharing Working Group and NOBLE came up with a web form for libraries to email to libraries to request multiple copies and specify the reason.  Libraries will know why and can decide if they want to lend.  Sue added it could be a positive, because a library that has several copies of a book another library requests for a book group may be more willing to send knowing what it is for.

 

Ruth Urell spoke against the policy stating that it will create extra steps, and does not want to get involved in evaluating why a patron is requesting multiple copies.  She questioned how it will simplify the process.  She stated libraries always had the choice to lend multiple copies or not and feels instituting a policy that is reactionary is questionable. 

 

Deborah Abraham explained it’s to address making the process easier between library’s special requests.  Barbara Lachance added it is meant to be open ended giving the library a chance to be specific on their request and the lending library to make an informed decision.

 

Ruth stated the new language makes references to using “Special Requests Guidelines” and without knowing what the guidelines are does not recommend a vote.  Elizabeth explained the intent is for libraries to be as creative as possible in their requests and for other libraries to be as generous as to what they decide to lend.  Ruth opposes it fundamentally and would like to see what the guidelines would be before a vote is taken.  The discussion continued. 

  

Martha displayed the email web form from the Staff Information System on the overhead.  She reviewed the form and explained it is for staff use.  The form is emailed to all libraries.  Susan Conner commented since the form is sent to all libraries it puts more work on library to see if they own the item.  She asked if a clickable link can put on form for libraries to check. 

 

Brian asked is there middle ground - if just having the number of copies and how long the library needs it for be sufficient.  Ruth asked what prompted all this.  Elizabeth explained the issue of borrowing books for display - this gives libraries opportunity to loan for displays and special projects as opposed to book groups.  Currently there are technical and system issues with showing displays.

 

Sue suggested the policy go back to Executive Board and possibly Resource Sharing Working Group.

 

 

 

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March 22, 2007

 

·         Add Claims Returned Policy -                                                                                                                             

Sue explained the Resource Sharing Working Group developed a Claims Returned policy that was recommended to Executive Board and approved at their February 7th meeting.  The policy reads as follows:

     Only the library that owns the item can change its status to claims returned.  Libraries

     who are informed by patrons that another library’s item was returned should follow the

     procedure outlined on the Staff Information System for claims returned items.

 

 

Discussion ensued.  A unanimous decision could not be made; therefore Sue suggested voting on the first sentence and revisit the 2nd sentence and the suggested procedure.  Ruth Urell made a motion to approve the 1st sentence of the Claims Returned policy and have Resource Sharing revisit the 2nd sentence and the suggested procedure.  Mary Rose Quinn second the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

DIRECTORS’ OVERVIEW: “GET THEM WHAT THEY WANT”

Due to time constraints, this item was tabled to next meeting.

 

NOBLE DIGITAL LIBRARY AND GRANT MEETING:

Ron reported that Ruth identified some local grants that would help libraries with their digital collections.   NOBLE would assist, but need to know what libraries have, etc.  Ron is asking for information from libraries to research the local grants on their behalf.  If interested give detail info on SIS. 

 

WORKING GROUP UPDATE:

Covered in previous agenda items.

 

Mary Rose Quinn gave an update on Saugus library situation.  If override isn’t passed on April 24th than library will not open on the 25th and the process to close the library will begin.  Closing a library automatically causes decertification, so libraries do not have to loan to Saugus library patrons.  Discussion continued.

 

ADJOURNMENT:

Deborah Abraham made a motion to adjourn.  Barbara Lachance seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 12:30.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,