Maine InfoNet Board Meetings, November 6, 2006
Agenda
November 6, 2006 1:30pm
Maine State Library Studio, Augusta
- Introductions and Welcome School Librarian representative
- Approve Minutes from October Meeting
- Results of Election for Vice-Chair and Chair of Finance Committee
- School Librarian’s Perspective
- By-Laws Revisions and Approval
- Development of New Programs: See Marilyn Lutz Report
- Status Update on Federated Searching
- CEO Report
- Letter/Communication from Board to Every Library in Maine
- LITA National Forum: Learning 2.0 and other observations
- Meeting Schedule: December 13 last scheduled; hold meeting, cancel, or Executive Comm only? 2007 Schedule? Full Board every other month with Executive alternative months.
- Other Business
Minutes
Members Present: Judy Frost, CMCC; John McManus, Director Millinocket Public Library; David Nutty – Director of Libraries at USM; Sue Jagels, Eastern Maine Medical Center Health Science Library Director; Barbara McDade, Director, Bangor Public Library; Clem Guthro, Director Miller Library, Colby College; Richard Thompson, CIO for the State of Maine; Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM; Karl Beiser, InfoNet CEO; Gary Nichols, Maine State Librarian; Jennifer Lewis, K-8 Library Supervisor, Augusta School Department; Linda Lord (non member – recording secretary)
Members Absent: Steve Podgajny Director, Portland Public Library; Ralph Caruso, CIO University of Maine System;
1. Introductions: Everyone introduced him or herself to Jennifer Lewis of the Augusta School System who is representing school libraries at today’s meeting.
2. Minutes from the Oct 11, 2006 meeting were unanimously approved.
3. Results of Election for Vice Chair and Chair of the Finance Committee
Via electronic ballot, Clem Guthro has been elected vice chair and Suellen Jagels has been elected Chair of the Finance Committee. Both will serve on the Board’s Executive Committee.
4. School Librarians’ Perspective: Jennifer pointed out the need for a federated search engine for MARVEL and praised the utility and effectiveness of both MARVEL and InfoNet. She feels that InfoNet is working in a direction favorable to school climates – teachers love it. Scoping is a problem for schools, e.g. all Augusta schools are under one Minerva scope. This is because all the schools in a school system join as one library. Thus the MINERVA pricing for school systems is exceptionally good. (Karl explained that by contract with Triple I we can have only 60 scopes on Minerva.) Elementary students start working with a card catalogue in the 3d grade. The InfoNet interface is not graphical enough for children this age. The Marvel web site is good. Jennifer added that open ILL for teachers is a double-edged sword. Ed techs are spending up to one hour (or more) each day on ILL. Augusta schools lend more than borrow.
Barbara McDade opined that the Department of Education should set up an URSUS System for schools. Karl commented that long term plans are needed for MINERVA. School libraries that are paying into MINERVA could pay into a new system. What is the long term projection for software that runs MINERVA? What would upfront costs be for a new system? David asked, “Is World Cat the next online catalogue? Will proprietary costs become obsolete?”
5. By-Laws Revisions and Approval
Section I – at large rep – was explained by Karl. Joyce suggested combining the two at-large sections, e.g. there are five at-large seats…public, community college, school, special, and academic. Karl made grammatical changes under numbers 6 & 7 (especially under “program-related committees). Article 8, Section 2 – addresses the proxy situation. Article 7 – Committees – Resource Sharing Committee. The suggestion was made to start each line under this section with parallel construction, e.g. The Committee charge includes: developing, and other “ing” words. The first sentence needs to be moved to the end of this Article.
Following these recommended changes, Barbara McDade moved and Joyce Rumery seconded that the by-laws be approved. Accepted unanimously.
6 & 7. Development of New Programs and Update on Federated Searching– Marilyn Lutz Report (Handed out by Karl)
Karl reviewed the four sections of Marilyn’s written report.
Search engine options: Karl is exploring Google Books for MaineCat. Marilyn’s first proposal involves using Google Scholar to deal with Serials. Google Scholar represents a single search box that would include some or all of MARVEL’s resources and some catalogues such as MaineCat or other web based catalogues. A one box solution searches journals and catalogs. A search engine could be customized for InfoNet resources. Karl is in addition exploring the price of the options for federated searching mentioned at the top of page four of Marilyn’s report.
Everyone feels that this deserves high priority, investigation and testing.
Barbara asked for an explanation of how Serials Solutions’ search engine functions. Karl explained that it links to a database of full text articles that the user is entitled to access. It will also refer users to other sources. Karl will get a MARVEL-search price quote from Serial Solutions. No server is needed for Serial Solutions as the company hosts the search engine on its own server. Questions: Why does Marilyn recommend a server on page 4, #3 under cost considerations? Can we brand Google Scholar so it says Google Scholar Maine InfoNet? Endeca sits on top of a catalog. The user enters a key word and it searches a catalog for that word.
Maine InfoNet Registry of Digital Collections Phase I: We need an inventory of what is in digital form and where it it. Then we need to be able to link all this to a federated search box. Clem commented that this sounds like an open archives repository that all could harvest from. Could we take this need to NELINET? The relationship of this effort to Maine Memory Network compiled by the Maine Historical Society was discussed. There was much ensuing discussion of how open archives protocol works and if it would/could be loaded into Maine InfoNet. Judy is sensitive to creating concerns for other people who have already digitized material. Karl will explore whether a NELINET pilot is available.
Karl has prepared a list of InfoNet priorities from Arnold’s (from NELINET) notes from the Sept. 18 strategic planning retreat at USM. Karl circulated a brochure of these via email. A recommendation was made to use the same brand on all InfoNet printed materials. Judy pointed out the need to discuss walk-in borrowing at some future meeting. It was stated that Phases II and III of Marilyn’s proposals would be discussed at the next Board meeting.
8. CEO Report
A 4-person interview committee interviewed five people for Karl’s former position of Library Automation Manger/Agency Technology Officer. The committee was unanimous in its first and second choices.
The 2007 URSUS release will also apply to SOLAR and MINERVA users. The issue of concern is JAVA compatibility. The new release will not support the next JAVA release. To move URSUS to an updated Lynx based Server could cost about $15,000. It might cost less to move MINERVA and SOLAR, depending on when it is done.
9. A communication in the form of a letter or brochure is needed from the InfoNet Board to every library in Maine. David and Joyce will work on this.
10. LITA National Forum: Learning 2.0 and Other Observations
This agenda item was skipped over due to lack of time.
11. Meeting Schedule
The Board will continue to meet monthly for the foreseeable future. The next meeting will be on Dec. 13 (Wed.) at 1:30 at the Maine State Library.
Clem moved, Joyce seconded, and the Board unanimously approved adjournment at 3:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Lord, Recording Secretary
