Present: As attached.

1. CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME - Doug Rendell. Doug called the meeting to order at 10:10.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. Marjorie pointed out a typographical error and had questions on wording on Item 5 bottom of page 2 – Serials and Acquisitions. Doug asked for a motion to approve the Minutes from January 21, 1999 meeting. John Beauregard made a motion for approval, Camilla Glynn seconded the motion. The vote was to approve unanimously.

3. TREASURER’S REPORT. Ron presented the report in Tom Cesarz absence and reported that as of January 31^st 52% of the budget has been spent. He commented that the final bill for the WLN Collection Assessment project came in and was approximately $7,200. That is why the MARC Records account is up from last month. Although WLN has a separate line item in our Chart of Accounts it gets rolled up into MARC Records. Camilla Glynn moved to accept the treasurer’s report, Linda Weinstein seconded. It was passed unanimously.

4. MANAGER’S REPORT – Ronald Gagnon. Ron reported he hasn’t heard back on the appeal for e-rate. Last year we were approved for subsidy for internet connection and voice lines but were disallowed on the data lines. Form 470 was filed for next fiscal year and are now in our 28 day waiting period. Need new internet and cell phone contracts for next fiscal year discounts, and will apply for DataComm maintenance. They weren’t funding internal connections at our level of discount, just at higher levels, for this year. There are fewer applicants for next fiscal year and we are changing our contract date with DataComm to coincide with the e-rate fiscal year. Due date for paper work has been extended to April 6^th.

Ron also reported that discussions with new college members are continuing. Yesterday Ron, Elizabeth, and Martha met with Barbara LaChance, Director at Merrimack College. She is working on a Letter of Intent to submit to us in time for the grant. Hugh asked if they are looking at Merrimack Valley since they are in their area and MVLC may be in interested in them. Ron explained that Merrimack College prefers to go with a consortium that has colleges and MVLC only has public members. We received the Letter of Intent from Bradford College and will be meeting there on March 3^rd. Also will be arranging a meeting with Northern Essex Community College. All the Letters of Intent should be received by mid-March in support of the grant. Ron hasn’t heard back from Gordon-Conwell and will follow up with them. Doug asked about Northern Essex having trouble with University of Lowell and Lowell no longer carrying them. Pat said that their RFP went out and the system isn’t sized for them so they will be on their own late fall. Ron will follow up with vendors we are talking to for a new system since Northern Essex is on DRA and the vendor we chose would have to be able to handle the change over not only for our Geac Plus data, but also DRA data. Questions were brought up about Bradford College and their past problems with library leadership. A discussion ensued whether they would be a strong member or not.

Elizabeth Thomsen. Elizabeth reported she is going to schedule more Search Party sessions. She is putting together "Search" notes on each of the topics done at the sessions. The notes, some of which are sent out to "netinfo", will include links to the topics and are pages on the Staff

Information System. Elizabeth is also working on database issues. Just finished reloading

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revised records into the public system. The database was copied and Christine has been going through MARC Global removing and updating records and fields that aren’t significant anymore or items that have other structural problems. On the public system it ended up being almost half of the database that needed to be reloaded. Another upcoming project will be bib purges to remove records that have no items. Once purges on both databases are complete, work in preparation for merging both systems into one will begin.

Martha Driscoll. Martha reported she is working on the patron database and how that will work once the two systems are merged. Public systems use one kind of a key to identify patrons, while most colleges use social security numbers. She asked Beverly library to test their OCIRC for year 2000 due dates and it won’t work. The four public libraries that use OCIRC, especially the two with bookmobiles, need to be aware that it will not function when due dates reach the year 2000.

5. SYSTEM SELECTION UPDATE – Ron Gagnon. Ron reported on the system demos from SIRSI and III. About 2/3 of the libraries were represented at the demos in addition to SSWG members and NOBLE staff. Attendees filled out an evaluation form ranking ten questions on a scale from 1 to 10. They were tabulated and overall, III was a slight preference. Both systems come from academic backgrounds, but have differences that will be further researched and monitored. III’s user group has an open discussion list including archives where topics can be searched. SIRSI has closed discussion groups. Ron, Elizabeth and Martha are going to visit WEBNET which is the closest consortia of SIRSI users with four college members. The SSWG will meet on Tuesday, February 23^rd, to review the demos and discuss the next step. Still on track with the schedule discussed at previous meeting and looking to come to a decision for the April Executive Board meeting. Pat asked if there was any feel as to the kind of vote would be looking for, whether it be unanimous or not and if the MBLC has a preference. Ron reported that MBLC has not made any requirements of unanimity or 2/3’s vote, and does not anticipate a unanimous vote. From the evaluations academic members liked SIRSI and public members liked III. Hugh asked where both systems were so close at what point does price weigh in as a factor. Ron reported that with what we budgeted we could afford either system, so does not see cost as being a major selection point. Although SIRSI’s proposal is lower there are items that need to be added or subtracted from the proposals to come to bottom line. In regard to the decision process Mickey asked what part NOBLE staff would play. Ron stated that NOBLE staff would provide input and information to the selection group. Helena asked about materials booking and acquisitions, she thought everyone was getting everything. Ron stated his earlier impression was that college libraries were more interested in it than publics. Aren’t leaving any member out, just that in getting pricing didn’t want it over inflated, wanted minimal amount and if more members were interested we could add it ourselves. It wouldn’t be charged to members, NOBLE would pay for it.

GRANT UPDATE – Ron Gagnon. Ron met with Rob Maier to go over a first draft of the grant text. He will be revising the text and meet again with Rob on March 10^th, which is also Executive Board meeting and will have revised text and information for that meeting. Also at the March Executive Board and Members meetings will be time to vote the grant where it is due on March 25^th.

6. NEW SYSTEM: CIRCULATION AND WINDOWS – Martha Driscoll. Martha reported we are looking for a system that is fully client/server and have PC’s that utilize Windows features.

Therefore, directors will need to start thinking about what skills their staff have and what training

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they may need to operate a Windows environment. Martha did a presentation showing circulation in Windows. She recommended it would be a good time now to send staff to "Search Party" training sessions or any training sessions where they can get some Windows skills. Also she recommended and explained to representatives at Circulation Interest group meeting how they can get some practice now by putting a PC on the circulation desk. When terminals are replaced with PC’s your laser scanner will need to work with the PC, and some hardware will be required to do that. Ron made several suggestions for libraries to consider; 1) using a trackball keyboard instead of a mouse, 2) having a large monitor at the circulation desk, and 3) placing the computer processor under the desk. These issues will be discussed at the upcoming System Contacts Interest group meeting, as well as Y2K issues, and new versions of software that NOBLE has recommended.

7. ILL CENTER UPDATE – Elizabeth Thomsen. Elizabeth reported she has not been able to fill the ILL or part-time bibliographic clerk positions. Setting up second interviews for the ILL position, and will be setting up new interviews for the part-time position since the first candidate did not accept the position. Also working on a project that will allow you to query the ILL database from a web browser. Elizabeth, Martha and Michele have set up a web page with a form that has a series of queries. It is part of the ILL Interest Group page on the Staff Information System. This is a prototype and still being worked on.

8. LEASE AND SITE UPDATE – Ron Gagnon. Ron reported we have not yet signed the lease; still working out the final details. Flatley has agreed to a term of seven years instead of five, and a rate reduction of .10/square foot over the first five years. A contract has been signed for the renovations to the meeting room and is scheduled to begin March 8^th. Also new carpet will be replaced in the meeting room, hallways and lobby, as well as having painting done.

9. ADJOURNMENT. Doug thanked everyone who organized the set up of the demos and participated in them. The meeting was adjourned at 11:50.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie J. Strong

Secretary