NOBLE MINUTES

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT ENDICOTT COLLEGE

MARCH 20, 2003

Present: Sixteen libraries were represented at the meeting, attendance sheet attached.

 

1.  CALL TO ORDER - Deborah Abraham called the meeting to order at 10:10.  Tom Cesarz introduced his staff and the Vice President and Dean of the Undergraduate College, Laura Rossi-Le, who welcomed NOBLE.

 

2.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Mary Rose Quinn made a motion to accept the minutes from February 20th, Tom Cesarz seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.

 

3.  TREASURER’S REPORT – In Tom Scully’s absence Ron Gagnon discussed the report.  NOBLE is two-thirds through the fiscal year and the budget is 60% expended.  Ron explained that our primary insurance carrier, Kemper Insurance, is in financial difficulties and is leaving the insurance business.  The new quotes we are receiving through our insurance agency are coming in with higher premiums. Low premiums were part of the reason for Kemper’s difficulties. Tom Cesarz made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report, Martha Holden seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.

 

4.  MANAGER’S REPORT – Ron Gagnon.

 

Annual Tech Expo – Will be held on June 12th at NOBLE, 9:30-2:30.  There will be shorter sessions in the meeting room, as well as demonstrations in the training room and lobby.  Our III representative will be there also.  More information will follow.

School Visit – Ron, Elizabeth, and Martha met with staff at Phillips Academy Andover to discuss NOBLE membership with them.  The have an aging Sirsi standalone system and have expressed interest in NOBLE.  The school is on trimester break now and we will meet with them again possibly in April.

Value of NOBLE - Ron updated the section on the Staff Information System and it was faxed out.

MLA PR Contest –NOBLE entered our brochure and logo design into MLA’s contest.

LSTA Funds – Funds at the federal level have been approved by the House and will now go to the Senate.

E Rate – Form 471 has been filed for FY 2004.

Generic Library Cards – We are receiving price quotes from several vendors.  If anyone has any particular “responsibility” language they like, please send to Ron.

Meetings – NOBLE will be hosting the Network Administrator’s Meeting on April 1st.  Ron and Elizabeth attended the Legislative Breakfast in Methuen, and Ron attended NMRLS Executive Board meeting in Beverly last month.

 

Elizabeth Thomsen.

Personnel - Elizabeth hired a part-time cataloger, Kelli Bacon. Kelli’s background is in special corporate libraries, with experience using OCLC and ILL.  Carolyn Wakefield also has been hired to assist with cataloging.

Electronic Resources Working Group – The committee has been working on the web catalog redesign.  One issue is creating better ways to integrate the catalog, the NOBLE web site and the links to the databases.  On the NOBLE web subject page old links have been removed and new ones added, and frames have been eliminated.

“In Transit” Reports - NOBLE staff recently sent out to libraries reports with lists of their material that have been “In Transit” for more than a few weeks.  If an item is “In Transit” and not checked in then it appears to not be available in the catalog and it won’t trap a hold.  The reports were sent out with bar codes.  When libraries have checked their list, the remaining items will be checked-in and marked “missing” if necessary.  The goal is to set up a way to notify libraries when an item is “in transit” for a pre-determined number of days. 

Training – Acquisitions Roundtable and several Create Lists Training are coming up.

 

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March 20, 2003

 

Martha Driscoll.

Release 2002 Phase 2 was loaded on March 4th.  Slowness has been an issue and a call has been open with Innovative.  There is a new birthdate field in the patron record with this Release.  The field is a real date field with logical formatted dates.  NOBLE staff is moving the data from the old variable date field to the new birthdate field. 

PC Support - George Lally was in Seattle for more Gates Training.  The training focuses on security issues with public PC’s in a library environment.  He returned with some good information.

Web Catalog – The patron name requirement has been removed from the catalog to simplify the log in process.  Patrons now just need to log in with their bar code and PIN.

Special Cards – Staff is in the process of cleaning up “Special” cards.  These are patron cards with a special category, such as nursing home, staff, and faculty that were carried over from the Geac System.  New categories are being created for libraries that use special categories for these patrons.

SPAM – Martha continues to work on this issue. Our system is rejecting about 3,000 Spam messages a month.

 

5.  EBSCO CONTRACT RENEWAL – Ron handed out two charts, EBSCO Cost, Titles and Use and Library vs. Remote EBSCO Use, 2002. Our current contract expires December 31, 2003.  Ron reviewed these charts and pointed out that log in uses continue to increase.  The Full Text database titles have increased from 650 in FY 1996 to over 2,000 in FY 2003.  Additional databases and articles have been added as well.  Ron explained the proposal is a 3-Year contract increasing 3% in each of the next 3 calendar years.  The current contract runs through December 31st therefore the impact for FY 2004 will be 1˝%.  The cost will go from the current $3,290 to $3,340 in FY ‘04, $3,440 in FY ‘05, and $3,550 in

FY ’06.  The original proposal was a 6% increase at the beginning.  The size of the database is increasing as well as the licensing fees, which accounts for the higher costs.  Ron explained this is a well-used service and the cost is economical for the amount it is used.  Deborah Abraham explained that the Executive Board felt this was a relatively small increase to keep this service going especially not knowing what funding will be from the state.  Dennis Kelley asked if libraries are having financial difficulties can they get out of the contract.  Ron explained not individually, but there is a clause in the contract that releases NOBLE from the contract.  Alyce Deveau made a motion to accept Executive Board’s recommendation as presented to renew a 3-Year contract with EBSCO.  Linda Shea seconded the motion.  The vote passed unanimously.

 

6.  APPROVAL OF CATALOG WEBSITE LINKING POLICY -

Ron explained the Electronic Resources Working Group has been working on a pilot project of cataloging web sites in the database.  The results of a survey that was sent out to libraries about this project were overall unfavorable.  Therefore, the Electronic Resources Working Group recommends a Catalog Website Policy as follows:

1.       The existing pilot project for cataloging web sites be ended;

2.       Web sites catalogued during the pilot project be removed from the NOBLE web catalog;

3.       No additional bibliographic records for web sites be added to the NOBLE web catalog, except for web links governed by the NOBLE’s 856 field policy (“Use of field 856 in bibliographic records for owned items”).

 

The Executive Board approved this recommendation.  Linda Shea made a motion that the Membership recommends the Catalog Web Site Policy as presented by the Electronic Resources Working Group.  Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion; the vote was approved unanimously.

 

7.  FOUNDATION GRANT UPDATE -

Verizon Grant – Deborah Abraham explained this grant would assist NOBLE in providing materials and information in languages other than English.  The grant would support libraries in the acquisitions and cataloging of materials in other languages.  A web page and a multilingual brochure will be developed to assist and promote NOBLE’s services to those residents.  The total grant request is $55,524.

 

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March 20, 2003

 

Cisco Grant – Ron explained this is a telecommunications grant that will upgrade the equipment at the libraries.  The proposal would replace the aging 10-megabit routers at each library with Cisco switches and high-speed Cisco routers.  This will allow the establishment of VLANs to improve internal security and throughput.  The Cisco grant is a product donation program where they give equipment, not funds, to upgrade telecommunications.  Ron spoke to Atrion to confirm they support Cisco equipment and that they have a Cisco Certified Engineer that can be involved in the project. 

 

Executive Board approved support for both grant proposals.

 

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF MA BOARD OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONERS –

Deborah Abraham discussed having a resolution on record from the NOBLE Members in support of the MA Board of Library Commissioners.  The resolution is as follows:

 

            “A resolution in support of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

               as an independent and fully-funded state agency to continue its sole focus of aiding

               and improving the libraries of Massachusetts.”

 

Martha Holden made a motion to accept the resolution as stated.  Nadine Mitchell seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.

 

8.  WORKING GROUP UPDATES -

Electronic Resources Working Group – Mary Rose Quinn reported they are working on the catalog and looking at different strategies for searching.  Mary Rose thanked Elizabeth for her work.

Holds Committee – In Bonnie Strong’s absence Debbie Abraham reported a meeting would be scheduled soon.

Database Quality Working Group – Elizabeth report they will be meeting the second Monday of every month starting in April.

 

9.  ADJOURNMENT -  Tom Cesarz made a motion to adjourn.  The meeting adjourned at 11:20.

 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

 

Kimberly Lynn

Secretary