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Home > About InfoNet > Board > Meetings > August 27, 2008

Maine InfoNet Board Meeting, Aug 27, 2008

Blue Hill Public Library, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Members Present:  Richard Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library; Barbara McDade, Formerly Interim InfoNet CEO and Director, Bangor Public Library; Cora Damon, Librarian, MaineGeneral Medical Center   Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM; David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Clem Guthro, Director Miller Library, Colby College; Judy Frost, CMCC; Gary Nichols, Maine State Librarian; Linda Lord, Deputy State Librarian (non member – recording secretary).

InfoNet staff present: James Jackson Sanborn, Executive Director, Maine InfoNet

Members Absent: Ralph Caruso, CIO University of Maine System; Richard Thompson, Director, State of Maine Office of Information Technology; Liz Reisz, Director of York School Libraries; Steve Podgajny, Director, Portland Public Library.

Several members of the Board met at the Barnside Restaurant in Blue Hill for an informal good bye lunch for Barbara McDade and a welcome lunch for James Jackson Sanborn.

  1. Rich Boulet was thanked for hosting us in his beautiful library.
    After a motion from Joyce and a second from Clem, the minutes of  the July 30 meeting were approved as amended (Omission of “O” from UMO in item 1, bullet 5; omission of second part of first bullet under #4; bullet 1 under #6 to read “Marilyn is working on a grant for a digitization preservation project; and the first bullet under item#7, is to read “Concerned about the effect of cost on Minerva libraries, Karl Beiser is researching contract history.”).
  2. James Jackson Sanborn received a hearty welcome from Board chair David Nutty who said, “We are pleased and thrilled to have you here.”

    He also added that the Board has obligations via bylaws and wants to help James be successful. The Board needs to help James set priorities because there’ll be so much people will want James to do and that he could do. David described the Board’s ambience and said the Board wants to hear whatever James wants to share.
  3. Three Priorities for James
    1. Cataloging issues related to Minerva and Solar. Is one solution to develop shared cooperative cataloging in the State via the ARRCS (Area Reference and Resource Centers). Maintaining catalogs from new members and the integrity of the catalog is a perpetual problem. The State Library has had to cut hours from staff that support cataloging and training. 10 hours a week of support is available to clean up the records in the existing database. The idea of centralized cataloging is of concern to some libraries.
    2. Budget – the InfoNet budget can be difficult to understand because of such varied inputs and outputs.  There is no room for inflation or surprised. The membership structure needs to be carefully examined. The idea of an independently focused grant writer was mentioned.
    3. Next generation library systems – The Board is very concerned about Triple III’s future. Open access needs to be studied and we need more serous commitment from the State of UM for support.  InfoNet needs money and personnel.  Bonding, 501(c) (3) status, supplemental budget requests and the membership structure are all potential avenues of revenue that need to be studied.  If the membership structure is going to change, Judy requests that libraries know this by October as some municipal budgets begin development at this time. Clem mentioned that Triple III is not going to work for every Maine library, and that OCLC is doing many things beyond cataloging.
  4. Transition Executive Report from Barbara and James.
    Barbara presented a ten-point written report. Some of the key points were that:
    1. Laura Galluccihas has completed online tutorials for circulation, cataloging and Inn Reach;
    2. an Audiobooks committee is meeting on August 28. Barbara has been asked to move this project along. To match a $40,000 New Century Grant and enable InfoNet to purchase content, i.e. Audiobooks, libraries that chose to join will pay a fee based on their service population. The fee will be extremely modest for small libraries, e.g. $25. Governance and Collection committees will be established. 

      David Nutty moved and Clem Guthro seconded that the New Century grant for Audiobooks be accepted by Maine InfoNet and that a committee chaired by Barbara carries out the details involved.  A governance committee should be set up first.  Clem’s second included that the Board’s electronic resources committee assist Barbara.  The vote to do so was unanimous; (3) NELINET is now billing Minerva libraries.  Jay Scherma is the treasurer for Minerva.

      James reported that he is meeting people, has had several informal meeting with InfoNet staff members, and has completed UM orientation.  He and his staff are in the process of moving into York Village on the UM campus and hope to be settled there by Sept. 9-11.  James plans to attend Minerva and URSUS meetings as well as HISLIC and the tri-district fall council meeting on Oct. 3 in Augusta.  He will also be doing a presentation to the UM trustees.
  5. Welcome to new HISLIC member. Cora Damon is filling the position on the Board recently vacated by Sue Jagels’ retirement.  Cora is the Librarian at MaineGeneral Medical Center and was warmly welcomed to the Board.
  6. Status and Strategy for open position. The position formerly held by Jon Forest has been officially reopened.  The words “systems administrator” will be added to the online ad which will be shorter than the full job description. This will be placed on every relevant listserv. Current candidates will be notified that the position is being reopened.
  7. 7.  Triple III Contract - Triple III did not want to deal with contract issues until licenses were taken care of. InfoNet went over in the number of licenses issues for three years before Triple III mentioned it. A new contract has been drafted with the same costs. Triple III will have to tell Maine what they want the new costs to be. The resulting contract will be for one year with an option for renewal.
  8. Security Certificate concerns from Minerva. This has been renewed. In the past renewal has taken three days but it took 16 days this time.
  9. Digital Collections of Maine at InfoNet – Postponed
  10. York Village Offices – See item 4 above.
  11. Plan for MLA (Maine Libraries Conference) at Sunday River Resort Oct. 23-24.  InfoNet will be presenting a panel discussion as part of the program offerings and will has a display “booth” also.
  12. Weekly phone call between the executive committee and James – James plans to set this up.
  13. Time did not allow for any other business. The meeting was adjourned at 3:42 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Linda Lord, Recording Secretary.
Maine State Library