Maine InfoNet Board Minutes, June 24, 2009
The Maine InfoNet Board met at the Maine State Library on June 24, 2009 at 1:30pm.
Members present: Clem Guthro, Director, Colby College Libraries; Judith Frost, Director of Library Services, CMCC; Linda Lord, Deputy State Librarian/Acting State Librarian; David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Elizabeth Reisz, Director of Library Media Services, York Schools; 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; Barbara McDade, Director, Bangor Public Library; Steve Podgajny, Director, Portland Public Library; Richard Thompson, Chief Information Officer, State of Maine.
Minutes:
On a motion by Clem, seconded by Joyce, the minutes of the May 27, 2009 were unanimously approved as corrected.
Collection Summit:
Overall feedback has been very positive. Location made it possible for libraries in the far north to participate. 112 registrants represented 83 separate institutions. In general participants valued having the time to be together and talk. There is no real venue for these constituent groups to have face-to-face conversations.
Universal borrowers’ card came up repeatedly. Various ideas have been suggested but local funding issues remain a barrier. In response to discussion about e-reference and electronic access to information sources, is there any possible economy of scale to increase these resources? Bates, Bowdoin and Colby have agreed to contribute $54,000 to add additional databases to Marvel.
A planning grant to support another meeting for continuing the face-to-face conversation could lead to an IMLS grant application for a statewide project, i.e virtual reference. Clem and Joyce will work with Steve on developing a planning grant.
Need to establish a consortium before subscribing to e-resources otherwise access is restricted to members only. Would it be possible to collaborate with other states?
There is clearly a divide between libraries on delivery service and those who are not as well as a divide between those who are in MaineCat and those who are not.
An electronic template has been created for a special collections searchable database on the State Library web site. Libraries with special collections can use the template to add information about their collections to the database.
Need to keep the outcomes of the Summit on our action list.
Executive Director Report:
James reported on recent meetings of the Maine Library Commission, the Minerva Executive Board and the Larger Libraries.
The newest addition to the MIN staff, Alisia Revitt, started last week. Jonathan Williams will be leaving on July 10th. Paperwork to fill that position is in progress. An MLS student who is working at Bates College has expressed interest in doing an internship during fall semester and possibly spring semester as well. The internship would focus on basic systems librarian and web work.
Service updates:
Overdrive: WMA files now work on iPods/PCs, but not yet iPods/Macs.
Minerva: plan for a tiered membership structure would be a base amount plus pro-rated fee for population, collections size, circulation less net lending within the system. SOLAR: Growing use of open source ILS presents issue of integration. Koha and Evergreen migrations have already begun. We need to determine a procedure that will allow them to integrate with INN-Reach. Interest in getting into SOLAR has been expressed by more than one library. Minimum standards for records to be included in MaineCat via SOLAR were discussed. More work needs to be done regarding timeframes, responsibilities of partners and MIN, etc. Refer draft to infrastructure group: Rich, Clem, Judy, Cora & James.
External Communication Committee:
Recommendations to move from maine.gov/infonet to maineinfonet.org on a UMaine System server. Already have services within the maineinfonet domain. Primary audience is the library community not the general public. Use of content management system, Drupal, an open source system, is recommended.
Federated Search and Summon Demo:
Serial Solutions google-like product, Summon, is very promising, but what the pricing model will be is still unknown. Great appeal for high school students and general public. General search across multiple databases (MaineCat and Marvel to start) with single list of results. Need to talk with them about what a statewide contract would be like. It appears to be a model that makes sense. Quick, fast and easy, a discovery tool that does not provide direct access to the data.
Grants Update:
EAD grant is almost ready for submission.
Explored NTIA grants but focus is on infrastructure and didn’t find a connection that works for MIN.
501c3 Investigation:
Steve has discussed our interest with an attorney. Foundation vs. 501c3 for public good. Need to decide on our objectives to determine whether a foundation or 501c3 for public good would best be.
Other Business:
July 22 meeting will be in Orono to meet with staff and tour the MIN offices. We will meet for lunch prior to regularly scheduled meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30pm.
