Maine InfoNet Board Minutes, Oct 29, 2008

Maine State Library
1:30 – 3:30

Members Present: Judy Frost, CMCC; Clem Guthro, Director, Miller Library, Colby College; Barbara McDade, Bangor Public Library; Director, David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Steve Podgajny, Director, Portland Public Library; Liz Reisz, Director of York School Libraries; Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM.

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

Members Absent: Richard Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library; Ralph Caruso, CIO University of Maine System; Cora Damon, Librarian, Maine General Medical Center; Linda Lord, Acting State Librarian; Richard Thompson, Director, State of Maine Office of Information Technology.

Approval of September 17, 2008 Minutes

Edited minutes were approved as presented.

III Contract Update

New III contract not yet finalized but proposal is very promising.
Agency license fees and costs related to adding new libraries are not addressed in contract. Currently a la carte.
Maintenance fee is more comprehensive than previously.
Still negotiating services covered and agency license fees for future growth. Technical and staffing limitations could determine capacity.
Minerva member libraries need to know anticipated increase cost for budgeting purposes. Have been forewarned to anticipate an increase of up to $1,000.
INN Reach local server expense is broken down for 10 connections: Minerva, URSUS, SOLAR, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Maine College of Art, Maine Maritime Academy, Maine State Library, Portland Public Library, University of New England.
Will eventually need new server for MaineCat. Cost of migration is high. Should have been done but Innovative wasn’t prepared to do a migration to the virtual servers.
Develop strategy for passing on the INN Reach costs to those benefiting.

Executive Director report

James continues making contact with as many constituents as possible.
Office furniture has been ordered but still don’t have a staff meeting space.
Staff updates – bi-weekly staff meetings. Deb is at office weekly. Staff would like to increase communication with the Board. James did share the agenda and will share minutes. We will plan to hold March 2009 meeting in Orono with time on agenda devoted to staff.
Openness of meetings also discussed relative to question raised during Maine Libraries Conference panel: since we are not a 501(c)3 our meetings don’t have to be open but we can provide time on agenda for anyone interested in speaking directly to the Board. Our Bylaws need to be amended to address this issue.
Interviews with two candidates for the open position are scheduled on November 4. Clem, Judy, Linda and James are the search committee and will participate in the interviews. [James notified the Board on Friday, October 31 that the position is frozen and interviews would need to be cancelled.]
James attended an Open Source ILS meeting sponsored by NeliNet. An Evergreen consortium similar or parallel to SOLAR is a possibility but the technology is not yet adequate to consider as a replacement for existing Maine InfoNet systems. Evergreen could accommodate multiple systems but doesn’t have serials or acquisitions modules. It would provide more complete service than SOLAR for member libraries. Neither Evergreen nor Koha can handle tight-knit sharing across systems. Evergreen was built as a consortial system from the start, Koha is working to better support consortial applications.
Discussed role of Maine InfoNet to provide service to those who are converting to Koha (#9 below). It is not in our best interests to have uncoordinated consortia development. If we were a 501(c)3 (#7 below) Koha users could provide funds to hire staff rather than pay LibLime or another vendor to support their system. Existing structure does not allow for funding such a position. A Maine InfoNet 501(c)3 would provide a structure to manage grants and hire additional staff.
Judy moved that we direct James, with the support of a Board subcommittee, to explore what will be involved in creating a 501(c)3 entity to support the work of Maine InfoNet. Seconded by Clem. Motion passed.
James distributed a draft document, Strategic and Business Plan Development in Support of Maine InfoNet, that could be the basis for approaching funding agencies.
Overdrive contract for state downloadable audiobooks project has been signed. To date, 37 partners have joined and $17,900 has been collected.
Minerva Board anticipates increasing annual support by $1,000/library to cover cost of new contract, Syndetics and van delivery. They are also looking into a sliding scale funding formula where all participants would pay base fee with remaining portion based on some other factor, e.g. legal service area (population size) or collection size. Based on current models and the current budget, the final membership fee would range from approximately $2,200 to $5,800. Even though contract cost is less than anticipated they plan to continue exploring alternative fee structure.
Maine InfoNet is taking part, along with many other institutions, in planning a proposal for building on past EAD work, developing and enhancing tools, and building a shared access mechanism for EAD finding aids, statewide. At the current time, Mellon is the most likely funder, with Bates taking the lead in contacting them.
James will attend HISLIC conference.

MIN at Maine Library Conference

Good conference, significant presence by Maine InfoNet Board and staff. Workshop well attended.

Board Officers

Liz agreed to be recording secretary now that Linda Lord is Acting State Librarian.
Currently do not have a treasurer.

Finance Committee and fiscal affairs [passed over]

501(c)3 investigation; “satellite” 501(c)3 for grants and other staff [see above – Executive Director report]

State wide Collections Conference organized and sponsored by MIN

With Maine State Library taking another large cut and most libraries facing significant budget cuts it is time to hold a ‘Collections Summit’ to explore shared collection development. MIN could take lead as facilitator/innovator by providing the means to convene an event of at least 1 day. Need to find funds to cover cost of Summit.
IMLS funding support for collections management is available. Apply in 2010.
Clem agreed to facilitate a subgroup made up of someone from Joyce’s staff, Dean Corner and Barbara.
Need to look for models of existing cooperative collection development as well as get a handle on existing collection strengths.

Supporting Koha in Maine; MIN role [see above – Executive Director report]

Activate Resource committee
Resource Committee is responsible for developing the OverDrive collection and reviewing Marvel databases
Need to select OverDrive collection is immediate.
Directed Barbara and James to convene an ad hoc committee focusing solely on OverDrive collection.

Alternative funding/revenue models

Need to hold another retreat to address funding/revenue needs.

Other Business

Discussion about developing a Last Copy Center and who would be responsible. MIN might be the coordinating body.
Participating libraries would jointly own items in the LCC. Would need to have a Memorandum of Understanding; membership fee.
Bangor Public Library is purchasing a building where collection would reside. Might be multiple locations.
Committee made up of Clem, Barbara and representatives from Fogler and Portland Public Library can work on policy questions but systems people will need to be involved in set-up. James should be included, ex officio.
Keep on the agenda for next meeting. Need to take action.

Adjourned at 3:50pm

Respectfully submitted

Elizabeth Reisz, Recording Secretary

For the Public

For Librarians