NOBLE Executive Board meeting
November 2, 2005
@ NOBLE
In
Attendance: Dennis
Kelley, Deb Abraham, Mary Rose Quinn, Doug Rendell, Sue Koronowski, Elisabeth
Tully, Martha Holden and NOBLE Executive Director Ron Gagnon.
Call
to Order: Sue
Koronowski called the meeting to order at 2:20 p.m.
Approval
of Minutes: Motion
to approve Minutes of July 15 Executive Board meeting forwarded by Dennis
Kelley, seconded by Elisabeth Tully and unanimously approved. Motion to approve Minutes of September 14
Executive Board meeting forwarded by Mary Rose Quinn, seconded by
Doug Rendell and unanimously approved.
Motion to approve Minutes of October 12 Executive Board meeting
forwarded by Mary Rose Quinn, seconded by Elisabeth Tully and unanimously
approved.
Treasurer’s
Report: The
Treasurer’s report figures are not yet available because of adjustments that
have to be made per recent audit.
Treasurer’s Report will be available at the Members meeting on November
9.
v
NOBLE’s
contract with current ISP Verizon/Level 3 expires on December 12. Verizon and UMass were invited to offer
proposals. The new ISP is UMASS. Contract is for same capacity – 6 Mbps. The capacity can be increased for a fee at
short notice if necessary at a later date.
There is no installation fee, technology is new, and cost is reduced by
10%. The connection is an Ethernet type
of connection as opposed to the T1 type of connection. One advantage of contracting with UMASS is
that they use three Tier 1 providers.
If there is a problem with one provider, there are alternative
providers. UMASS is also involved with
Internet 2, and we may want to explore this technology in the future.
v
NOBLE
currently offers EZproxy - a proxy server to member libraries. This would allow a user to log in with a
card once to access multiple web-based licensed databases for an individual
library. Several academic libraries are
taking advantage of this, but it may be useful for public libraries as well.
v
NOBLE
is currently exploring PC reservation/Printing software products that may be
hosted by NOBLE and available for group discount pricing if multiple libraries
are interested. Martha Driscoll will
send out RFP to different vendors who may want to provide a demo similar to the
Envisionware demo recently hosted by NOBLE.
This would be targeted for implementation on July 1, 2006, so that
individual libraries can budget for the service.
v
Ron
attended the Joint Network Administrators/Regional Administrators meeting on
October 26. The discussion focused on
the MBLC Legislative Agenda for the next three years. The MBLC will attempt to reinstitute the net lender program. Restored network funding is the #1 priority. Increased Database subscription is #2
priority. Ron distributed the
three-year proposal/projection of the MBLC.
He pointed out that the projected decrease in Regional/Statewide
delivery from 2006 budget figure of
$350,000 to a projection of $100,000 the following year reflects a projected
funding shift from “network” line item (7000-9506) to the regions’ line item
for the added delivery costs. The remaining $100,000 figure is for
inter-regional delivery.
v
Ron
reported that the network problem that plagued NOBLE libraries for the past two
days is due to a problem with the new T3 line that connects the central site to
all NOBLE libraries and provides libraries’ connectivity to the network, e-mail
and the Internet. The problem stemmed
from a bad connector and a bad repeater card.
November statistics will reflect an extra day as the transactions on
October 31 were uploaded the following day.
Board members expressed the opinion that 24 hour Verizon technical
assistance should have been provided rather than NOBLE’s having to wait for a
technician to return the following day.
Ron will investigate whether a credit will be issued for the downtime.
v
Ron
reported that FY2006 e-rate subsidies will be reflected as a 30% discount on
bills rather than as after-the-fact reimbursements. The FCC issued a regulation to force vendors to provide automatic
discounts. Our budget provides for the
full invoice amount, therefore the telephone and data line totals will appear
to be underspent even though the bottom line is the same.
v
Ron
reported that NOBLE’s FY2007-9 Technology Plan was submitted to Paul Kissman of
the MBLC for his review.
v
Ron
reminded the Executive Board that the Members meeting on November 9 will be
held at Wakefield.
Approval
of FY2005 Audit:
Ron
reported that the FY2005 Audit was not problematic. The IRS 990 returns and state charitable forms were prepared and
will be filed with the IRS and the Office of the Attorney General upon approval
of audit. A Motion to approve the audit
was forwarded by Dennis Kelley, seconded by Deb Abraham, and unanimously
approved.
Transfer
from Capital Funds:
Ron
reported that NOBLE is leaning toward the API interface for 3rd
party access to the patron database as opposed to the SIP2 interface, that we
had originally planned to purchase. The SIP2 model is designed primarily for
self-check workstations. The API model
is better suited for other applications such as PC reservation software and
downloadable audiobooks as API has the capability to pass a broader range of
patron information to a 3rd party.
The API interface would not be implemented until spring, after the new
server is installed.
We
had originally approved the transfer of
$4,500 to purchase a single SIP2 license. NOBLE would have the initial workstation and additional
workstations would have been subsequently added in individual libraries at a cost
of $2,500/workstation. The pricing
model for the API interface is different.
NOBLE will purchase an unlimited number of licenses for $15,000 with a
12% annual maintenance fee that will include automatic upgrades.
Elisabeth
Tully forwarded a Motion to transfer an additional $10,500 from capital to
purchase API software. Motion was
seconded by Deb Abraham and unanimously approved.
FY2007
Action Plan:
Ron briefly summarized some of the activities outlined in NOBLE’s FY2007 Action Plan. There is less in new initiatives than last year. Next year NOBLE will work mainly on perfecting the improvements we have implemented this year in technology.
Deb
Abraham forwarded a Motion to approve the FY2007 Action Plan. Elisabeth Tully seconded the Motion that was
unanimously approved.
Working
Group Update:
The Collection Management Working Group is slightly behind schedule in its planned review of 36 collection areas in three years. The group will fine tune the subjects further in an attempt to move the project forward more effectively. The Collection Management Working Group is scheduled to meet next week. Sue Koronowski suggested that libraries identify their collection strengths when responding to Elizabeth Thomsen’s request for library descriptions.
The
Electronic Resources Working Group met last week and will meet again at the end
of November. The focus of the
Electronic Resources Working Group activities is to develop consistent policies
and provide examples of how different policies may be implemented.
The
Resource Sharing Working Group is in the process of implementing a regular
meeting schedule.
The
Executive Board discussed the need for an updated confidentiality policy as the
current policy has been in effect since before technology was implemented in
most libraries. The Executive Board
will be responsible for developing this
policy. Doug Rendell and Barbara
LaChance have done some preliminary work and have defined some common threads
throughout most of the confidentiality policies that they have found. In public libraries the biggest challenge is
likely confidentiality of children’s records.
The problem is alleviated somewhat with patron use of PIN numbers to
access their own account information.
Executive
Board members briefly discussed other network resource issues. Elisabeth Tully introduced the idea of
prepared book group kits that would contain multiple copies of a title plus
author information, book discussion guides and other information relevant to
the title.
Deb
Abraham outlined problems encountered by librarians who are first to create a
bib record and may have partial bib information – including in some cases
temporary ISBN numbers assigned by B&T. Often there is not enough
information to determine which record to which a particular item should be
attached. The implementation of EDIFACT will alleviate this problem to some
degree. Ron will ask the ERWG to look
at this and determine if the process can be made easier for librarians.
Adjournment.
Respectfully
submitted:
Martha
Holden, Secretary