NOBLE MINUTES

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT NOBLE

JANUARY 15, 2004

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

 

CALL TO ORDER: Sue Koronowski presided over the meeting in Mary Rose Quinn’s absence.  The meeting was called order at 10:05.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Ron noted on the first page of the November 20th Minutes Keith Fiels last name was misspelled. Deborah Abraham moved to approve the Minutes with the correction,  John Beauregard seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT: Tom Scully reported as of December 31st expenditures are at 43%.  Kim Lynn moved to accept the treasurer’s report, Barbara LaChance seconded the motion.  The vote was unanimous.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT

Ronald Gagnon:

·         The Member Directory was passed around for updating.

·         Letter of resignation was received from Executive Board member Marjorie Hill-Devine, who retired end of December.  Mary Rose Quinn appointed Barbara LaChance to fill the position.

·         Phillips Academy – Is now on-line as member of NOBLE.  Ron praised NOBLE staff for their work on this project while keeping up with their other duties.  Elisabeth Tully thanked NOBLE staff for their dedication and work with the their staff.

·         ALA Mid-Winter – Ron and Elizabeth met with Innovative’s VP of Library Services, Sandy Westall and Director of Customer Services Monica Ertel while at the conference.  Ron also attended a Consortia Directors Breakfast Meeting. The topic of “holds” came up and other networks are having issues like NOBLE.  There are two consortia “holds” package, each having some functionality the other does not.  The Mass. Innovative consortia have developed a list of holds enhancements.  Innovative’s new Release 2003, due out this summer, has been renamed Millennium Silver for their 25th anniversary.  Ron and Elizabeth also attended an EBSCO Update session.  Next year’s ALA Mid-Winter is in Boston.

·         Ron is updating the Value of NOBLE document.

·         The new UPS (Uninterruptible Power System) was installed week of Thanksgiving with no downtime to libraries.

·         Four employees had no sick days in 2003 and were awarded bonuses.

·         Three PC’s and two flat panel monitors were ordered through the “Big Buy” to upgrade staff PC’s.

·         The snowstorm in December buried our HVAC condensers under a 10-foot snowdrift against the back of the building.  This caused them to shut down.  Flatley’s crew and our HVAC contractor responded quickly.  There was no damage or downtime.

·         E-Rate Form 470 was filed.  Form 471 is due before February 4th.  All FY 2003 funds were received.

·         Our new 3½  year contract with EBSCO began January 1st.

 

Elizabeth Thomsen:

·         An Everything EBSCO session is scheduled for January 28th.  This session will review various functions and changes of EBSCO.

·         On February 4th NOBLE is hosting a session for EBSCO and Serials Solutions.  Both vendors will be demonstrating their products EBSCO A to Z, and Serials Solutions A to Z, respectively.  Elizabeth saw demonstrations of both products at ALA Mid-Winter.  Bonnie Strong asked about the costs. Ron stated EBSCO’s is based on the number of unique titles.  Serials Solutions costs are on their web site.

 

 

 

 

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January 15, 2004

 

·         IUG Meeting – Reported the new release “Silver” is in beta testing now.  One improvement is the read/write MARC records program has been written into Millennium.  Also libraries will be able to put data into a variable field template.  The enhancement process was discussed at IUG.  NOBLE staff is working on enhancement requests, which are due January 31st.  Other Innovative demonstrations were on cataloging and FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records), a new function that will group all iterations of a work.  There will be a page on the Staff Information System.  The IUG Clearinghouse was announced, a web site that will bring together scripts and other enhancements done by Innovative customers.  The Clearinghouse kickoff will be at the IUG Conference in Boston on April 2nd – April 5th.  NOBLE staff is involved in eight sessions. 

·         Training –Imaging and Pathfinders roundtables were held and Javascript by Email sessions were held, debuting a new format of training conducted through a series of e-mails.  The e-mail training allow for greater participation in times of personnel limitations and greater comfort and applicability by using one’s own PC.

 

Martha Driscoll:

·         SPAM –A newer version of Linux was purchased. A product called Brightmail will be tested on the server.  It is an anti-spam program that checks incoming email and decides if it is spam.  An advantage to this product is the company takes care of updating changes as to what spam is and downloads any changes or updates to our server. 

·         Long Overdue Purge – The items checked out and due in 2000 are scheduled to be purged off the system today. 

 

DIRECT PATRON ACCESS TO VIRTUAL CATALOG:

Ron explained the Statewide Virtual Catalog could be accessed in two ways; by library staff and by patrons.  NOBLE currently has staff access, but not patron access.  Executive Board had decided last October to delay allowing patron access in light of the Boston Library Consortium pulling out of project. Executive Board revisited this issue at their meeting last week and voted to begin allowing direct patron access through NOBLE on February 2, 2004.

Demonstration – Martha Driscoll began an overhead presentation of what the process is for patrons to access the Virtual Catalog.  She was unable to complete it due to some difficulties getting into the Virtual Catalog. She explained that patrons would be required to log in with their bar code and a PIN in order to access the Virtual Catalog.  Patrons can search and place requests on available items only.  If the item is available within NOBLE patrons won’t be able to continue with the request.  Email notifications can be set up to notify patrons at different stages during their request process. 

Tom Scully asked if it has been decided who is going to house and operate the Virtual Catalog.  Ron stated the MA Board of Library Commissioners has a RFR out.  Sharon Gilley asked if there would be fees.  Martha stated that all libraries in our search group are on NMRLS delivery, so there wouldn’t be any charges incurred, and participants have agreed to loan without fees.

 

TELECOMM GRANT UPDATE:  Ron reported on the LSTA grant application that was submitted last November.  This grant round had a 75% reimbursement rate for equipment and $200,000 was available to be distributed among all networks.  Total cost for our project was $185,000, of which NOBLE requested $126,622 in the grant.  MBLC funded all of the networks’ first priority requests.  NOBLE received $42,400 which will fund our first priority of replacing hubs with switches, and part of our second priority which will fund ten out of the thirty-three routers.  Ron and Martha identified which libraries will receive these routers on a priority basis; libraries that currently have wireless access, and libraries with servers.

Funding for the remaining costs of the project will be applied for through the spring LSTA grant round.  Executive Board approved Ron’s recommendation to apply for the LSTA spring grant.

 

 

 

 

 

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January 15, 2004

 

AUTHORIZATIONS:  Elizabeth handed out information on Millennium Authorizations, which control who can use certain functions of Millennium.  There will be documentation on the Staff Information System as well.  She explained authorizations are controlled by initials and passwords.  The initials always begin with a three-letter code to represent the library, followed by two or three personal initials.  Authorizations are a useful tool in allowing certain staff to perform particular functions in Millennium.  Elizabeth reviewed different ways authorizations could be used throughout different Millennium modules, such as circulation, course reserves, serials and acquisitions, database management.  Martha and Michele keep record of libraries authorizations.

 

WORKING GROUP UPDATES:

Electronic Resources Working Group is meeting January 26th, and Holds Committee is meeting January 27th.

Database Quality Working Group and Collection Management will be scheduling meetings soon.

 

Ron mentioned that libraries that have workstations with a NOBLE IP address would receive switches. 

 

OTHER BUSINESS:

·         Sue Koronowski mentioned MLA Ways and Means is February 3rd at the State House.

·         Debbie Abraham urged directors to join MLA.

·         There was a brief discussion on CORI checks.

 

ADJOURNMENT:  

Bonnie Strong made a motion to adjourn, John Beauregard seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 12:05.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Kimberly Lynn

Secretary