NOBLE

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

NOBLE

SEPTEMBER 20, 2001

Present: As attached.

 

1. CALL TO ORDER /WELCOME - Deborah Abraham.  Deborah called the meeting to order at 10:00.  She asked for a moment of silence in memory of the victims of last week’s attacks.  Deborah announced that Martha Holden was appointed director of Peabody, and Linda Weinstein of Bunker Hill Community College was retiring.  Directors went around and introduced themselves.

 

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Thomas Cesarz made a motion to approve the Minutes from the June 21, 2001 meeting, Linda Shea seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.

 

3. TREASURER’S REPORT - Thomas Scully.  The vote was unanimous to approve the treasurer’s report. 

 

4. MANAGER’S REPORT - Ronald Gagnon.   Ron reported he met with Rob Maier of the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners to discuss a grant application for a digitization project.  The grant is approximately $13,000-$14,000 under the Innovative Grant Program.  The grant will cover the costs of a scanning station and Innovative software.

 

Elizabeth Thomsen.  Elizabeth explained the concept of the digitization project is to enhance with images catalog records for local history and other special collection materials.  She did an overhead presentation with some examples and explained how it worked.  There will be a high quality scanner at NOBLE with libraries to be trained individually on how to scan images using the equipment using local images.  If libraries need to scan more images after their initial training they can reserve time to use the scanner and equipment at NOBLE.  They may also continue the project at their library on their own scanner, or outsource it.  The images can be stored anywhere.  For libraries with web sites hosted by NOBLE, the images can be stored on NOBLE’s web server for an additional $10/month.  Libraries whose web sites are not hosted by NOBLE can also store the images on NOBLE’s server for the same $10/month.  Ron stated that the grant is due next week and as part of the grant three letters of support from libraries who would be interested in doing the project is required. 

 

Elizabeth reported that all meetings and training sessions have been scheduled from September-December and are posted on the Staff Information System.  She also replaced the “What’s Happening” page on the Staff Information System with a list of what’s going on.

 

Martha Driscoll.  Martha reported that on August 5th Release 2001 was loaded on the Innopac server.  A lot of work was done in preparing libraries for this release.  PC Support Specialist George Lally has been visiting libraries on the PC Support program installing Windows 2000.  Martha reported also that the recent virus did affect e-mail accounts on NOBLE’s server.  Martha is looking into loading some virus scanning software onto the server.  Also the Nimda virus effected several PC’s at NOBLE and took a few days to fix.

 

5. FY2003 BUDGET - Ron Gagnon.  Ron did an overhead presentation of the budget.  He began by reviewing the FY 2001 Objectives that were accomplished and the new FY 2002 Objectives that were approved by Executive Board this past summer.  Ron showed a comparison between FY 2002 and

FY 2003 budgets and explained that expenses are not increasing dramatically, but our reimbursements are decreasing. Ron reviewed the major resources for reimbursement, and two main ones, the Telecommunications and Virtual Catalog Grants, are declining for this fiscal year.  Ron explained the amount for operation and capital meets the CPI + 2% to capital guideline.  Adding the second of two steps to cover the base fee formerly paid by Bradford College accounts for the average assessment increase of 8.65%.  Ron showed a graph that depicts budget percentages.  Personnel is the largest at 39%.

 

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Ron reviewed the budget line items:

 

PERSONNEL - Costs will increase by 2.5%, which is due to the typical 5% step raises. 

 

OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION - Expenses are largely level for FY 2003.  In the current fiscal year budget however, the Furniture and Equipment line item was increased to allow for the replacement of an aging copier machine and to purchase furniture for a redesign of the Member Services area.  Also increasing are Travel, due to staff attending more training and conferences, and Printing to allow for costs for the NOBLE brochure.  NOBLE’s office insurance has been combined with our computer system and power and HVAC insurance into one policy for lower total costs but equivalent coverage.

 

OCCUPANCY COSTS - Overall the costs remain level.  In our lease we maintain a low per square foot charge if we do our own maintenance and cleaning.  Our lease will increase every two years by fifty cents per square foot.  The next increase will be in FY 2004.  Utility costs increase slightly.  Most of the cost goes to running the air conditioner to maintain the temperature in the computer room.

 

COMPUTER SUPPORT - Most of the costs are included in the Per Staff Users.  Computer Supplies has decreased due to libraries running more reports locally, and due to the use of standard computer paper for notices instead of custom-size paper as with the old system.

 

MARC RECORDS – More cataloging is being done therefore costs are increasing, which is reflected in the budget.

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES - These items cover our audit and legal costs.  Last year’s audit was more costly and complicated than usual due to the Federal funds received for the Millennium project.  There are no grants of that size for this fiscal year or next so the usual audit will be done.

 

CONTINUING EDUCATION - Conferences is increased slightly, while Training, and Books and Journals remain level.  These line items are to keep NOBLE staff up to date and informed on systems and technology.

 

EQUIPMENT UPGRADE - These costs remain level.  PC Upgrade allows for regular upgrades of NOBLE office PC’s and software.  Equipment, Other provides fund for printers and other peripherals for PC’s and servers.  Funds are also budgeted for Reserve for Additional III Software for new software for the system.

 

CAPITAL FUND - The 2% Capital Contribution for FY 2003 is $147,949, an increase of approximately $20,000 from last year. 

 

REIMBURSEMENTS - The costs charged to libraries for branches is increased to $28,650 from $17,800 for this fiscal year.  This is due to the Lynn branches going on-line in January 2002.   These costs cover the equipment and data lines to the branches.  The Overhead Contribution is from the ILL Center.  After totaling the expenses less reimbursements the base expense to members is $24,651 for Fiscal Year 2003.

 

PER STAFF USER COSTS - Ron reviewed the Central Innopac Maintenance, Data Lines, Internet, and Data Comm Maintenance line items.  The Central Innopac Maintenance is under a four-year contract and will remain the same.  Our Data Lines are under a three-year contract and are level. Internet costs increase slightly for the upcoming year.  Dimension Data Maintenance is increasing.  The increase is due largely to monitoring costs. They have upgraded their network monitoring service and provide 24 hour a day monitoring and diagnosis if a problem should arise. The Power Conditioner Maintenance was moved

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to this page and remains level.  Ron explained the Federal E-Rate Discount and MBLC Telecomm Reimbursements, as well as the Branch Fees are applied to get the total cost that is used to determine the Per Staff User cost of $1,006. 

 

Ron reviewed the FY 2003 Library Assessments and explained, with the exception of Lynn, the average increase is 8.65%.  Libraries with more staff users will have a lower increase and libraries with fewer staff users will have a higher increase.    

 

 

6. WORKING GROUP UPDATES.

 

Brochure Committee - Marjorie Hill-Devine reported the committee interviewed three design companies recently.  The committee asked them to submit a cost estimate and description on how they would approach the project. 

 

Holds Committee - Deborah Abraham reported the committee met last month and is making progress.  They will be meeting next month at which time they will have some recommendations.

 

Electronic Resources Working Group - They haven’t met since the last meeting, nothing new to report.

 

7. ADJOURNMENT.  Tom Cesarz made a motion to adjourn, John Beauregard seconded the motion.  The meeting was adjourned at 11:40.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Mary Rose Quinn

Secretary