NOBLE

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT NOBLE

SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

 

PRESENT:  Twenty-two libraries were represented at the meeting, attendance sheet attached.

 

CALL TO ORDER:  Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 10:05.  Introductions were done.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:  Ruth Urell made a motion to approve the Minutes from the June 22nd  meeting.  Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion.  The motion passed by unanimous vote.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Mary Rose Quinn reported as of June 30, 2006.  This is prior to any adjustments during the audit.  Bob Rice made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  Martha Holden seconded the motion, which was unanimous.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT:

Ron Gagnon –

·         Staff has been working on Super Search and PC Reservation projects over the summer.  Both will be addressed later on the agenda.

·         Submitted a grant proposal for $13,000 to Danvers Bank to fund the digital library server.  Doug Rendell assisted.

·         Ron attended NMRLS Digital Library Committee meeting hosted by Roger Brisson at Gloucester, who has joined the committee. The committee is chaired by Mary Rose Quinn.

·         NOBLE is participating in the Digital Commonwealth, which is statewide project linking libraries in the state.  Elizabeth Thomsen is on the Executive Committee.

·         NOBLE is facilitating two meetings coming up.  On September 19th Backstage Library Works will do a presentation on digital scanning.  Roger Brisson added he has worked with them and were very reliable.  On October 12th Plymouth Rocket and Library Insight will do demonstrations on museum pass management systems. Registration is on the Staff Information System. 

·         Ron and Elizabeth are attending the Innovative Consortia Partners Group meeting late September.  Ron is on the planning committee.

·         There was down time in August for conduit work for future improvements to the network.  Changing from copper to fiber.  Expecting proposal from Verizon for newer technology for our WAN. 

·         Beverly Public Library joined the PC Support program.  Alyce asked with the growing number of PC’s on the program has it been considered to hire assistance for George.  Ron explained it has been discussed, but a decision has not been made as to the best approach.  Whether a part timer is hired or a college intern.

·         The process for the Strategic Plan will begin the next couple of months.  A new 5 year plan is needed to begin with fiscal year 2008.  Looking for a facilitator and will be seeking input from Members.

   

Elizabeth Thomsen –

·         Reviewed the upcoming meeting schedule; Reference Roundtable, Annual Circ Review.

·         Working on moving from BISAC ordering to EDIFACT ordering in acquisitions.  The need to switch is because BISAC doesn’t support the new 13-digit ISBN, which is required on January 1st.

·         Currently working with Everett, Lynn, Lynnfield, and Saugus on editing their web sites.

·         Mary Puleo from Everett got NOBLE on the MLA agenda to do a program called “Extreme Makeover – Library Web Site Edition”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 14, 2006

 

Martha Driscoll –

·         Release 2005 was loaded in June.  One enhancement is when a patron places a hold and it is available in their library the request can place the hold on the item in their library.

·         Release 2006 was released on August 1st and supports the 13 digit ISBN.  It will be loaded on the training system for review and prior to implementation by the January 1st deadline.

·         Coordinating a group purchase with libraries and our PC Reservation vendor, Envisionware.  George is doing partial installation of the program at libraries for staff to become familiar with.  An all day training session is scheduled on October 4th to cover installation and management.

·         New release of Brightmail was installed on our mail server.  Prior to the upgrade the program was marking 62-65% of our mail as spam, now it’s marking 75-80%.  Over the last 30 days 230,000 messages were spam out of 292,000 messages received.

 

FY 2008 BUDGET PRESENTATION:

Ron explained the Executive Board approved budget is presented to Members at this meeting, with the vote taking place in October.  Ron reviewed the highlights with an overhead presentation:

·         FY 2008 budget is funded with no increase in assessments.  Several factors contributed to this:

1)  Mass. Board of Library Commissioners increased network funding from line item 7000-9506          from $1,069,000 in FY 2006 to $1,836,000 in FY 2007.  This is a 72% increase.  NOBLE is   expecting approximately $221,000.

2)      The hardware maintenance cost is lower on the new Sun training and main servers that were installed in January.  The cost was paid for in advance in fiscal year 2006. 

3)      The lease was renegotiated at a savings of $10,000 per year.  Part of the new lease was the installation of more efficient HVAC units, which in turn lower energy costs.

4)      A graph showed a five year trend of NOBLE assessments.  More funds were put into capital, which built up.  The amount contributed into capital has decreased the past three years.  For FY 2008 it is being reduced by $54,600 from $100,000 to $45,400.

 

New Initiatives -

·         Super Search - The first year of the federated searching project was funded by the grant.  Approximate cost will be $48,000 in FY 2008.

·         Additional Innovative software is being funded by NOBLE capital.

·         Digital library, seeking grant for server.  Free open source software will be used.

·         Bibliographic enhancement pilot.

·         MOTOR (Mentioned On Television Or Radio) collection alert service.

 

A contingency fund of $675,000 is set aside, if funding or membership is drastically reduced.  That figure represents six months of operating costs, which is what is recommended.  Our capital fund is for future upgrades and expenditures.  The balance is $841,544. 

 

SUPER SEARCH:

Elizabeth did an overhead demonstration of federated searching.  She explained it is designed to give a user a single search to many databases with deduped results.  Super Search is limited to residents of the seventeen public library communities served by NOBLE, and to current students, faculty, and staff of the ten academic libraries that are full members of NOBLE.  Elizabeth demonstrated how a basic search and advanced search options are performed.  A discussion ensued. Documentation is on the Staff Information System.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 14, 2006

 

MOTOR (Mentioned On Television Or Radio):

Elizabeth explained this is a media monitoring service that monitors 65 television and radio programs for information related to books, music, DVDs and other material of interest to libraries. New entries from every program are added daily to the database.  This is for library staff only and can not be copied or posted for public use.   Library staff can access this information in two ways, by searching the MOTOR database, and by receiving a daily e-mail message of all the new listings.

 

ADJOURNMENT:  Ruth Urell made a motion to adjourn.  Mary Rose Quinn seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 12:10.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Martha Holden

Secretary