NOBLE Executive Board meeting
January 10, 2007
@ NOBLE
In
Attendance: Sue Koronowski, Dennis Kelley, Elisabeth Tully, Barbara LaChance, Doug Rendell, Linda
Hummel-Shea, Karen Pangallo and Martha Holden , NOBLE- Executive Director Ron
Gagnon, NOBLE Member Services Manager Elizabeth Thomsen and NOBLE Systems
Manager Martha Driscoll.
I.
Call to Order: President Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m.
II.
Approval of Minutes: A Motion to approve Minutes of the November 8, 2006 Executive
Board meeting was forwarded by Barbara LaChance, seconded by Karen Pangallo,
and unanimously approved.
III.
Treasurer’s Report: Ron Gagnon distributed the
Treasurer’s Report as the Treasurer was not in attendance. NOBLE’s operating
budget is in good shape year-to-date.
Overall 45% of operating funds have been expended halfway through the
fiscal year, with no anticipated problem.
IV.
Executive Director’s Report:
Danversbank
Grant In late November NOBLE was awarded $9,000 in
grant funding from Danversbank to support the Digital Library Project. The funding will be paid out over 3
years. NOBLE staff are working on
selecting and purchasing the server that will store the images. Martha Driscoll met with a Dell
representative today but was not satisfied with the options presented at that
time. Martha will continue to pursue other
options.
NOBLE
Staff Sick Days. Ron reported that of eight eligible
employees, five had no sick days in 2006.
Three of the five opted to take advantage of the pay conversion while
the other two selected the extra vacation option.
NMRLS
Web Proposal. In response to NMRLS’ request for proposal
for Internet, e-mail and web hosting, NOBLE staff found that NOBLE could offer
competitive e-mail and web hosting, but not competitive Internet pricing (due
to cost of providing dedicated line) as compared to Comcast or Verizon. NOBLE presented NMRLS with a pricing package
that includes web hosting and e-mail.
Pricing is based on market rates.
Ron expects that NMRLS will accept this proposal.
Grant
Reports. Ron completed the required report for the
federated search grant. This was a
difficult process even with the two-month extension that made it possible to
fully implement product and start to collect data from users. Libraries received promotional materials to
market federated search and Elizabeth Thomsen continues to provide training for
libraries via site visits to individual libraries. Ron also completed follow-up report for our
last network upgrade/security grant.
E-rate. Ron filed Form
470 in early December. Form 470 outlines
what NOBLE is interested in getting for FY08.
NOBLE is now eligible to complete Form 471 that will confirm pricing and
contracts. Ron is exploring options with
different vendors for the purpose of due diligence but expects to stay with
Verizon and keep the same technology for next year.
9C
Cuts.
9C cuts announced by Governor Romney in November were rescinded by
Governor Patrick last week. NOBLE
expects to receive the full amount that was anticipated when the FY08 Budget
was approved in October.
MBLC
Legislative Agenda Funding. The MBLC agreed to increase its request for
funding of line 7000-9506 from $4.666 to $5 million. This would provide an additional $200k in the
request for networks to a total of $2.3 million. Ways & Means Day at the State House will
be held February 14. Legislative Day
will be Thursday April 5.
ALA
Midwinter. Ron and Elizabeth will attend ALA Midwinter
from January 19-22 in
New
Copier. The current budget includes funding to
purchase a new office copier. NOBLE
staff contacted three vendors who are on the State Contract. Ron reports that NOBLE currently favors the
product offered by Toshiba. The decision
will be made soon and cost will be well within budget.
Virtual
Catalog Upgrade. The operating software for the Virtual
Catalog is outdated and must be replaced as soon as possible. Sirsi Dynix has a software revision that
should be complete by the summer. There
are no viable competitors at this time.
Implementation of the new version will require transition from the old
to the new software. Files and
transaction from the old system cannot be ported to the newer version. Ron will attend the URSA session at ALA
Midwinter and keep NOBLE members informed of any plans regarding the
transition. There will be no added cost
for libraries to convert to the new Sirsi Dynix software.
Other.
Ron
renewed NOBLE’s “Partner Membership”
with MLA. This is categorized as a
membership expense rather than lobbying expense.
Part-time
operator at NOBLE Doug Warnock’s mother recently passed away. NOBLE donated a book in her memory to the
Salem State College Library. Doug is
also an employee of SSC.
In
response to a question from Karen Pangallo as a follow-up regarding NOBLE
membership for
V.
Strategic Planning Meeting Preparation: Ron reported
that sixty-four people had registered for the Strategic Planning session to be
hosted by Margo Crist at NOBLE tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Margo will not do standard SWOT analysis but will be creative with the
format to develop the statement of need.
The Board discussed rapidly changing technology as the biggest challenge
to planning. NOBLE’s role is expected to
evolve more quickly in the future. The
Board discussed how rapid technology change will affect resource sharing.
VI.
Resource Sharing Policy Revision: Ron
reported that the current language in the Resource Sharing Policy is not
sufficient to cover multiple copy requests from libraries for book groups,
displays or special projects. NOBLE has
come up with a web form to email to libraries to request multiple copies and
specify reason for borrowing. A library
in receipt of such request would have a better idea of why (and for how long)
the material is needed and could base their decision of whether to lend on the
information provided. In some cases a
lending library would like to know whether a customer is waiting for a
particular title or whether the title will merely be displayed.
Ron
reported that details would need to be worked out. Those present expressed interest in synchronizing
due dates for materials borrowed in bulk.
Ron requested that the Executive Board consider rescinding the language
regarding the reading group policy and adding language as a 5th
bullet at the end of the Network Transfer Policy.
Linda
Hummel-Shea forwarded a Motion to Rescind the Reading Group/Multiple Request
Policy Language in the Resource Sharing Policy.
Motion was seconded by Elisabeth Tully and unanimously approved.
Dennis
Kelly forwarded a Motion to add language as follows to end of Network Transfer
Policy: “For special requests, such as multiple copies, displays, book groups,
community reads and course reserves, libraries will use the Special Requests
Guidelines on the Staff Information System.”
Motion
was seconded by Barbara LaChance and unanimously approved.
VII.
Digital Library Update: As a follow up to conversation at the beginning of the
meeting regarding the Digital Library server, Ron reported that NOBLE is
looking for a server to index/house the data that will be collected as part of
the Digital Library Project.
The
Local History Roundtable in November generated enthusiasm and good ideas. Library Director Ruth Urell emailed Ron with
a grant opportunity that existed with IMLS that would support funding of this
project. Upon further investigation Ron
determined that IMLS was looking for large leadership projects that could be
replicated by other libraries. The
criteria also included a 1:1 funding match.
The grant writing process would be time consuming as well. Even if Noble were to hire an outside writer,
the selection and bidding process would be time consuming. Funding would not be available until October.
Ron
proposed an alternative course of action.
On March 6 NOBLE will host a meeting for libraries who are interested in
participating in the project and are interested in pursuing group funding. NOBLE will develop a webform that will be
available via the Staff Information System.
Libraries will use this to create a list of the items that they are
interested in including in the project.
NOBLE will index and upload the data to the new server. This project would be promoted and the
initial work will be the basis for requests for funding to support the project. Ron would like to include an educational
component for participants particularly regarding issues of copyright and
scanning. Ron pointed to NEDCC’s “School
for Scanning” as a great tool that we might utilize. Ron agreed to host a one-day workshop to
raise awareness of digitization issues and spark interest among libraries. The Board expressed that they needed to
understand concepts regarding how various initiatives at different levels
(local, state, regional, federal) mesh.
The Board agreed that the course of action as described by Ron is the
course that should be followed.
VIII.
Adjournment.
Respectfully submitted:
Martha Holden, Secretary