NOBLE

ANNUAL MEETING

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION

AT ENDICOTT COLLEGE

MAY 24, 2007

 

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

 

CALL TO ORDER:  Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 10:15.  She asked everyone around the table to introduce themselves. 

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Barbara Lachance pointed out typing error on page 3, 3rd paragraph from bottom, sentence starting with “Elizabeth…..intend”.  Should be “intent”.  Ruth Urell made a motion to approve Minutes from March 22nd meeting with the correction. Martha Holden seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT: In Mary Rose Quinn’s absence, assistant treasurer Doug Rendell presented the report. He reported 72% of the budget is expended as of 4/30/07.  Barbara Lachance made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Dennis Kelley seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT:

Ron Gagnon –

·         Ron & Elizabeth attended MLA Annual Conference in Sturbridge.  Elizabeth and Kevin Grocki, NOBLE’s Website Editor, did a presentation “Extreme Makeover: Library Website Edition”.  Ron attended PR Awards in which NOBLE won 1st place for the Bookmark for Super Search.  Several NOBLE libraries won awards, Barbara Lachance read the winners.

·         Ron and Elizabeth attended IUG, Elizabeth will discuss later in her report.

·         Last month Tom Clarke was hired for the part time PC Technician position.  He will be working one day a week. 

 

Elizabeth Thomsen –

·         Ron and Elizabeth attended IUG Conference in California last week.  About 1,800 people attended.  Elizabeth did two presentations on Create Lists.  This year’s conference had sessions on “bigger picture” issues that may affect the changing library industry.  There was an engineer from Google who did a presentation on Google’s new library initiatives.  Working on project with Innovative.

·         Marilyn Graves hosted the Annual ILL Meeting at NOBLE.  Well attended by NOBLE libraries. 

·         Digital Commonwealth is moving forward and ready to do soft launch this month with several repositories.  This is project sponsored by the Commonwealth where a patron can do one search and get results from many sources. 

·         Tech Expo is Tuesday, June 5th, 9:30-3:30.  It is an open house format where people can stop by anytime.  Elizabeth reviewed the schedule which is on Staff Information System.

 

Ron added Elizabeth will be the keynote speaker at the New England Library Association Information Technology Section’s meeting "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Open Source" at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston on June 6.

 

 Martha Driscoll –

·         Continues to work on setting up new server, which will house both our email and websites.  The changeover will be transparent.  NMRLS website is currently on new server. 

·         Reported libraries are using the new add-on program to print transit and hold slips from Millennium, and it is working well.

·         Continuing to work on resolving issues with Envisionware LPT1.

 

Ron added NMRLS is getting group pricing for thermal paper for the transit and hold slips.  A survey went out for libraries interested.

Member of the Corporation Meeting                                                                               Page 2

May 24, 2007

 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS:

Sue Koronowski reported the Nominating Committee recommends Martha Holden for Vice President/President Elect and Karen Pangallo for Secretary for FY 2008.  The floor was opened for nominations. There were none. Barbara Lachance made a motion to elect Martha Holden for Vice President/President Elect and Karen Pangallo for Secretary/Clerk.  Ruth Urell seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

APPROVAL OF STRATEGIC PLAN, 2008-2012:

Ron explained Executive Board served as our Planning Committee. There was a group meeting facilitated by Margo Crist for input from Members, and Working Groups met to gather input as well.  Then long range goals were developed and approved at April Executive Board and made available to directors, and the full plan was approved by Executive at their May 9th meeting.  Now the Strategic Plan is being presented to Members for approval.  A link to the plan was sent to directors prior to this meeting.  The FY2008 Action Plan will be presented at the June Meeting for approval. Ron did a Powerpoint presentation reviewing the highlights of the Strategic Plan.  Mission statement is the same.  With the rapid pace of change in technology there will be many new challenges in the next five years.  Opportunity of open source software, meeting users’ expectations, more formats and options.  Funding and financial planning plays a large role in the plan. 

Reviewed the goals:

1)      Support Member Libraries

2)      Fill Users’Needs

3)      Improve Access

4)      Advance Technology

5)      Advocate for Libraries

6)      Expand Partnerships

 

Sue Koronowski stated the Strategic Plan is being approved without the Action Plan, which will be presented for approval at June meeting.  Brian Courtemanche made a motion to approve the Strategic Plan.  Sharon Gilley seconded the motion.  Sue opened the floor for discussion. 

 

Deb Abraham suggested under Financial Plan for there to be more information on future planning rather then what NOBLE has done.  She pointed how NOBLE has worked with MLA, and legislature and outsourcing of NMRLS web site.  These are important points to mention how trying to finance the organization beyond the Member assessments and state grants. 

 

Linda Hummel-Shea suggested putting in Action Plan.  Discussion continued.

 

Sharon suggested adding the high level of funding NOBLE use to receive compared to funding we get now and how NOBLE had to make up difference.

 

Bonnie Strong made a motion to amend the first motion to include information on future planning and state funding in the Financial Plan section. Pat Cirone seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

Dennis Kelley moved to approve the motion as amended.  Linda Hummel-Shea seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

Ruth Urell pointed out on page 10 under “Future of Communities”, 4th sentence, there is typographical error.  States “conversation”, should be “conservation”.  Change noted.

 

 

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                             Page 3

May 24, 2007

 

BYLAWS AMENDMENT PRESENTATION:

Ron explained our Bylaws do not outline Members responsibilities.  The language passed by Executive Board was reviewed by our attorney who made some changes.  Bylaws amendments are being presented to Members at this meeting and will be voted on at the June 14th meeting. 

 

The language of the Bylaws amendment is as follows:  

2.4  Maintenance of Membership.  Membership shall be maintained by the annual payment of assessments, execution of an annual contract, and compliance with all the requirements of membership as stated in these Bylaws and in such other policies as may be approved by the Members of the Corporation.
 
2.5  Resignation of Membership.  A Member may resign from membership upon written notice given to the President at least one (1) fiscal year prior to withdrawal. A Member who has resigned or whose membership has been revoked as provided below shall receive no refund on unused portions of any of their paid annual costs.
 
2.6  Suspension or Revocation of Membership.  The Executive Board may suspend or revoke the membership of a Member who fails to satisfy minimum criteria, as established by the Meeting of the Members. The terms of a suspension of membership shall be as established by NOBLE.  Upon such a suspension or revocation, NOBLE reserves the right to revoke the membership of non-paying Members and may curtail network services for that library for the remainder of the fiscal year.
 
2.7  Reestablishment of Membership.  If a library's membership terminates, whether by resignation, revocation or otherwise, the library may be reinstated to membership only upon a vote of the Members and payment of an initiation fee as established by Executive Board, including payments to NOBLE and charges incurred for system capacity, configuration and reconnection.

 

Bonnie commented libraries don’t always know what situation they will be in during the year and may not be able to give one fiscal year notice to withdrawal.

 

Sharon commented she is more in favor of the language written by Executive Board in 2.6, the new wording is vague and not clear.  Ron explained this is the language from lawyers allowing wider range of options, flexibility was the goal. 

 

RENEWAL OF EBSCO CONTRACT:

Ron did a Powerpoint presentation discussing the highlights.

-  Our current EBSCO contract expires June 30, 2007.

-  There were three alternatives discussed with the Electronic Resources and Database Working Group. 

   ERDWG made recommendation to Executive Board to renew the same core package with EBSCO. 

-  Executive Board recommends signing a 3 year contract with maximum 5% annual increases.  For FY

   2008 the increase will be $183. 

-  There are new optional databases available for group discount purchases, individual library pricing is

    available.

-  Ron reviewed reasons for staying with EBSCO.  One being has new features and functionality.  He

   distributed a handout with “Most Used Full Text EBSCO Titles in NOBLE, 2006” showing nine out of   

   the top 54 titles used in NOBLE were unique to EBSCO databases.  Presented graph showing it was

   consistently well used during the years 2000-2006, with 500,000-600,000 searches each year. 

 

Brian Courtemanche asked if procedurally should he go through EBSCO directly or through NOBLE if there’s a database he may want to pursue for a group discount with other academic libraries.  Ron stated either is fine, but should keep NOBLE informed and in the process.  An advantage to going through NOBLE is any additional databases will show in NOBLE profile, get more security, staff troubleshoots and advocates for our Members.  Diane added if purchase through NOBLE, receive services and support. 

 

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                             Page 4

May 24, 2007

 

Bonnie made motion to approve Executive Board’s recommendation to renew with EBSCO for a 3 year contract with maximum 5% annual increase.  Diane Smith second the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

ASSOCIATE MEMBER POLICY REVISION:

Sue Koronowski explained there has been an Associate Member Policy in place, but has never been utilized.  Ron stated that Cheri Coe, director of Montserrat, spoke to him about a year ago about their financial situation and what their options would be to continue with NOBLE.  Cheri explained that Monserrat has had declining enrollment for the last 3-5 years.  Current enrollment is 200 with 38 students graduating this year.  She discussed the reasons for the decline. 

 

Ron explained the current Associate Membership established in 2001 targeted small non-circulating libraries.  Considering Montserrat’s situation it was advantageous to keep them as a member.  There are no significant cost savings if Montserrat were not to continue. Revising the policy would allow Montserrat to stay on as a Member at a reduced cost.  Ron discussed this with Executive Board, who approved, recommending the following changes:

  • Delete 1st bullet, “Must be a non-circulating library”.
  • Change wording on 7th bullet; delete “all Innovative functions”, and add “circulation and catalog functions”.

Current wording under “Costs” replaced with the following:

      “To be determined annually by Executive Board.  Associate Members will be limited to two

        simultaneous staff users in basic membership.  Additional staff users may be available at

        an additional annual charge”.

 

Ruth Urell expressed concerns if creating a second type of membership could put strain on the system.

 

Sue understands the concerns and stated the policy needed to be updated in spite of Montserrat’s situation. Risk is low of a library joining as an Associate since it hasn’t attracted any since policy was in place.  Dennis Kelley added an approval and vote would have to take place for any new membership.

 

Linda Hummel-Shea added felt comfortable changing their membership, as Montserrat has minimal impact on our services.  Their resource sharing and unique collection are valuable to NOBLE and it is beneficial to attract small libraries with unique collections and diversity.  Martha Holden added the costs vs. benefits weren’t worth losing them as a member.

 

Karen Pangallo asked about what additional costs libraries would incur if we lose Saugus.  Ron explained during next FY budget process in fall would be discussed then and any additional costs would be figured in.  Assessment won’t change for FY 08.

 

Bonnie asked if Associate Member cost would be more than the $3,500 currently in policy.  Sue stated that figure is significantly outdated.

 

Sharon Gilley asked for clarification of “committees” in bullet 6.  Discussed ensued and it was decided to delete “on NOBLE committees” and replace with “at any NOBLE meeting”.

 

Sharon Gilley made a motion to approve Executive Boards proposed changes to the Associate Members policy with the clarification above.  Linda Hummel-Shea seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

Martha made motion to authorize Ron to enter into an Associate Membership contract with Montserrat College.  Bonnie Strong seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote.

 

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                             Page 5

May 24, 2007

 

FEDERATED SEARCH UPDATE:

Ron reported the decision was made by ERDWG and recommendation made to Executive Board not to continue with federated search.  The product was not reliable, NOBLE staff spending a lot of time trying to resolve issues, and not well received.  This was a pilot grant program that will expire June 30, 2007.  Staff time and service costs was not financially feasible.  Elizabeth Thomsen thanked everyone for all the time they put into it.

 

Barbara Lachance thanked Ron and staff for their time and work developing the Strategic Plan.

 

Ron read a message from Mary Rose Quinn thanking Members for their support.  Library is open limited time today and Friday, closed as of Tuesday.  FY budget is zeroed out for next year. Mary Rose is asking Member libraries not serve Saugus residents.  Libraries need to let NOBLE know if they plan to or not.  A chart is on the Staff Information System with libraries decisions.  Discussion continued.

 

ADJOURNMENT:

Lorraine Jackson made a motion to adjourn.  Bonnie Strong seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 12:10.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Martha Holden

Secretary