NOBLE EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
Minutes
of October 8, 2003
In Attendance: Mary Rose
Quinn, Deborah Abraham, Tom Scully, Doug Rendell, Kimberly Lynn, Ron Gagnon,
Anne Tullson, Linda Hummel-Shea, and Sue Koronowski.
Call to Order: Mary Rose
Quinn called the meeting to order at 2:10pm.
Minutes: Ron Gagnon
corrected the minutes of the September 8th meeting by stating that
the increase in payroll taxes will decrease the “contribution to capital” line
item to $102,730, not $103,168 as written in the minutes. Deborah Abraham moved to approve the minutes
as amended. Doug Rendell seconded the
motion. The minutes were approved
unanimously.
Treasurer’s
Report: NOBLE
was over-insured for office insurance and therefore was able to reduce that
line item. Deborah Abraham moved to
accept the Treasurer’s report. Linda
Hummel-Shea seconded the motion that passed unanimously.
Executive
Director’s Report:
¨ The
installation of Release 2002 Phase 3 took place a day late because of a problem
caused by some of the new software already being present for the beta
testing. This was resolved and another
problem, a runaway acquisition process, slowed the system to a halt. The second problem has not been fixed yet,
but was escalated to the VP of Library Service.
¨ A power outage
occurred on Saturday, October 4th from approximately 10:15am until
11am. NOBLE’s systems continued to work
off of the uninterruptible power system.
Unfortunately, Verizon’s data lines did not function so libraries were
unable to access NOBLE services. The
problem was originally discovered and reported to Verizon this past spring and
was believed to be resolved. Obviously,
it was not and Verizon will have to investigate.
¨ NOBLE
purchased a badly needed new laptop.
¨ The BLC will
no longer be running or participating in the statewide Virtual Catalog project
as of December 31. The MBLC is
committed to continuing the project.
NOBLE will postpone discussion of opening the virtual catalog to the
public for the time being.
¨ John
Beauregard is the interim director at Endicott. Joan Reynolds is taking early retirement from Lynn.
¨ NOBLE staff
met with EBSCO representatives to discuss a new product called Book Index with
Reviews, contract issues, and the new EBSCOadmin interface.
¨ Atrion is no
longer allowing direct library to library connections in order to help contain
problems such as the Welchia Worm.
Ron
Gagnon explained that NOBLE’s original plan to submit a grant proposal to
upgrade the NOBLE server (installed in 1999) should be shelved for the time
being. NOBLE staff members believe it
would be wiser to try to upgrade the telecomm system that was installed in 1996
first. Ron went on to explain that the
MBLC has a special LSTA telecomm grant round in November. However, only $200,000 is available and it
will be very competitive.
After
some discussion, Sue Koronowski moved that, “In light of the age and lack of
manufacturer support for NOBLE’s library routers and the telecommunications
system’s inability to handle modern security needs, we vote to amend our FY2004
Action Plan to replace the system server and software upgrade project with the
telecommunications security and hardware upgrade throughout our FY2004 Action
Plan.” Linda Hummel-Shea seconded the
motion. All were in favor.
Doug
Rendell moved that, “Security issues with NOBLE’s network present a real threat
to the ability of our libraries to maintain service. In light of the age and lack of manufacturer support for NOBLE’s
library routers and the telecommunications system’s inability to handle modern
security needs, Executive Board recommends that the Meeting of the Members vote
to submit a grant application to the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners under their Network Connections for Libraries grant round in
November, 2003. We seek the grant
funding for replacing routers at libraries and at NOBLE, upgrading hubs to
switches, upgrading the network at NOBLE and implementing specific network
security hardware and software to increase security and reliability.” Kimberly Lynn seconded the motion. All were in favor.
NOBLE
is receiving $7,000 more from the MBLC than had been budgeted. The money is applied to next year.
The
decision was made to review the “NOBLE Interlibrary Loan Code” originally
passed in 1985 and the “NOBLE Network Transfer Policy” for the next
meeting. Email comments to Mary Rose
Quinn.
The
meeting adjourned at 3:45pm.
Respectfully
submitted by,
Kimberly
Lynn
Secretary