NOBLE Executive Board meeting
April 2, 2007
@ NOBLE
In
Attendance: NOBLE Executive Director Ron Gagnon , Sue Koronowski, Linda Hummel-Shea, Elisabeth Tully, Barbara LaChance, Doug Rendell, Mary Rose Quinn, Martha Holden
I.
Call to Order: President Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.
II.
Approval of Minutes: A Motion to approve Minutes of the March 9, 2007 Executive
Board meeting was forwarded by Doug Rendell, seconded by Linda Hummel-Shea, and
unanimously approved.
III.
Treasurer’s Report: Mary Rose Quinn
distributed the Treasurer’s Report as of March 31, 2007. Elisabeth Tully forwarded a motion to approve
the Treasurer’s Report. Motion was
seconded by Barbara LaChance, and unanimously approved. Ron requested that the Board consider authorizing
the transfer of $3,000 from capital to operating to pay for the tape drive for
the digital web server. Fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) from the Furniture and
Equipment line (65205) and 1,000 from Copier Maintenance (65232) will be
reallocated to cover the cost of the digital web server. Copier maintenance is
covered for two years in the purchase agreement. Mary Rose Quinn forwarded a motion to
authorize transfer of $3,000 from capital to operating funds per the
recommendation of Ron Gagnon. Motion was
seconded by Barbara LaChance and unanimously approved.
IV.
Director’s Report: Following are items reported by
Executive Director Ron Gagnon:
ü
The switchover of
NMRLS to NOBLE for web site hosting and e-mail occurred on March 31, without
incident.
ü
NOBLE’s new
server was installed recently by Martha Driscoll. The server was used to accommodate the NMRLS
switchover and over the next few weeks, Martha will migrate existing NOBLE
services to the new server so that newer versions of software can be run
better. NOBLE staff will also begin
working on the Digital Library Project.
ü
Ron interviewed
one promising candidate so far for the NOBLE PC Technician position.
ü
The Tech Expo
will be held on Tuesday June 5th at NOBLE. The detailed schedule is posted on the Staff
Information System.
ü
Elizabeth Thomsen
and Ron Gagnon will attend MLA’s Legislative Day tomorrow at the State House in
ü
Elizabeth Thomsen
and NOBLE Website Editor Kevin Grocki will speak on Extreme Makeover, Library Website Edition, on May 4 at the MLA
convention in Sturbridge. Ron will
attend the convention as well. NOBLE
entered materials created as part of the publicity for federated search in the
MLA PR Awards.
ü
The Resource
Sharing Working Group met recently to discuss the multiple holds policy
recommendation that was tabled at the last Members’ Meeting. Chairwoman Alyce Deveau will survey libraries
on the issue and propose recommendations for member consideration.
V.
Strategic Planning: Ron proposed six overarching
goals for consideration by the Executive Board.
He noted that the goals are intentionally broad and that objectives that
will be updated annually will support the general goals of the organization. The Executive Committee discussed the goals
and supportive statements and revised the language slightly. The following goals and supportive statements
were proposed:
NOBLE will:
·
Support Member Libraries – Maximize member libraries’ use of NOBLE services
through a program of training, discussion opportunities, consulting and
troubleshooting. To do this requires a
staff of adequate size that is well trained, equipped with current tools and
facilities, and competitively remunerated.
·
Fill Users’ Needs – Improve real and virtual collections in NOBLE by assisting member
libraries in building collections that meet local needs while contributing to
the wider NOBLE holdings; facilitating group purchases, and enhancing resource
sharing.
Page
2
·
Improve Access – Improve access to library services and information through the
integration of catalog, electronic resources and web resources, making library
information more findable, and enhancing the web presence of NOBLE and our
libraries.
·
Advance Technology – Advance technology to improve service and efficiency by working with
our libraries to identify and implement potential new technologies and
technology-based services, and enhance our current systems and infrastructure
to better meet our libraries’ needs.
·
Advocate for
Libraries - Advocate for and with
member libraries to achieve mutual goals and shared objectives. Work with
vendors and user groups to enhance products to better meet our needs; with area
cooperating groups to represent the needs of our libraries and improve service;
with representatives of funding sources, and with the public, to improve
knowledge of NOBLE libraries and services.
·
Expand Partnerships - Strengthen the role of NOBLE by seeking new
partnerships to further NOBLE goals and explore business opportunities and
models. Continue working with networks,
regions, the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners, library associations and
members to advance the future of libraries in our area.
Elisabeth
Tully forwarded a motion to approve the goals and supportive statements as
amended above. Motion was seconded by
Linda Hummel-Shea and unanimously approved.
VI.
EBSCO Contract Update – EBSCO contract expires June 30. ERDWG is currently exploring three options as
follows: continue with a package “as is”; consider not purchasing Master File in lieu of a variety of
products with less overlap; not continuing with EBSCO. After discussion, the Executive Board felt
that the same or nearly-same package should be purchased. Ron will clarify terms of offer as NOBLE’s
current contract has evolved over the years to be uniquely tailored to NOBLE
needs. (Current package does not fall into any standard package offering.) He will follow up this option and report to
the Board on his progress with pricing.
The future of federated search was discussed as well. There is $48,000 in the budget to cover costs
of federated search next year. Board
will discuss this in April to determine whether the funds might be better spent
elsewhere. A-Z plus overlap analysis
is generally considered more useful than the federated search.
VII.
Wireless Security Controllers Maintenance Update: Ron
spoke with an Atrion representative about installing Cisco controllers that can
control multiple access points with one unit.
In some cases it might be advantageous, but libraries with numerous
access points would not benefit.
Security patches remain an issueThe Board discussed whether NOBLE should
allow insecure wireless on a network if it might jeopardize integrity of NOBLE
network? Executive Board was in agreement that wireless systems without
security controllers should not be connected to the network. Ron noted that historically there has only
been one patch from Bluesocket. Atrion
automatically takes care of this as part of contract. Ron also reported that
VIII.
Downloadables Update – Ron summarized some of the vendor options that are
available to NOBLE. There was good
interest and feedback from the Downloadables
demo recently hosted by NOBLE.
Overall many of the features of the Overdrive product were considered
the most useful. Some of these features
include support of audio/video on a single interface; option to burn to CD
(good portability); option to download in segments for faster download and use
of less storage space; ability to exclude non-participating libraries from
service; good holds management; “coke machine” model – fill it up with whatever
libraries want. Ron will continue to
explore options for possible NOBLE contract.
IX.
Adjournment.
Respectfully submitted:
Martha Holden, Secretary