Maine InfoNet Board Minutes, March 25, 2009
The Maine InfoNet Board met at the Maine State Library on March 25, 2009 at 1:40pm.
Members present: Richard Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library; Cora Damon, Librarian, Maine General Medical Center; Judith Frost, Director of Library Services, CMCC; Clem Guthro, Director, Colby College Libraries; Barbara McDade, Director, Bangor Public Library; David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Elizabeth Reisz, Director of Library Media Services, York Schools.
InfoNet staff present: James Jackson Sanborn, Executive Director, Maine InfoNet.
Members absent: Ralph Caruso, CIO University of Maine System; Linda Lord, Deputy State Librarian/Acting State Librarian; Steve Podgajny, Director, Portland Public Library; Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM; Richard Thompson, Chief Information Officer, State of Maine.
Minutes:
On a motion by Barbara, seconded by Clem, the minutes of the February 27, 2009 retreat were unanimously approved as corrected.
Executive Director Report:
General Activities:
James reported that he and Linda responded to questions at a work session of the Joint Committee on Appropriations for Education and Cultural Affairs.
Since the last meeting of the Board he has attended a Maine Library Commission meeting, a Minerva Board meeting and the Minerva/SOLAR catalogers meeting.
Staffing:
Following the interviews earlier this month Nelson Eubanks was offered the position and has accepted with a start date of April 27th. Judith, Clem and Linda served on the search committee.
The Education Specialist position, previously held by Deb Hensler, has been approved for hiring. James will work with Linda to move forward on posting the position. Search Committee will include Clem, Rich, Judy, Linda and James.
Jonathan Williams returns from paternity leave on April 6th.
Contract Update:
The contract came back from III with some edits that need to be finalized by the state.
Service Updates:
Two Marvel database trials are currently underway. EBSCO has proposed replacing Gale Literary Research Center with EBSCO Literary Resource Center. Gale has proposed that their comprehensive package replace the EBSCO comprehensive package. Gale package would be a considerable savings, however, additional databases from EBSCO would be needed.
Minerva and URSUS are flagging all e-mail addresses with @verizon.net for correction.
The closing of Warren Memorial Library in Westbrook, a Minerva member, has raised question about adding a new library.
SOLAR library statistics reports need to be cleaned out.
Audiobooks Update:
Download Audiobooks went live on March 9 and is currently running at about 50% of capacity. There have been few support emails. The mp3 selection is still limited. Some items are very popular, however, purchasing multiple copies of titles that won’t continue to be popular over time is not advised.
Upcoming travels:
James will attend ICOLC meeting in April. James and Tim Pellet will attend IUG in May.
Feedback and Edits on Mission/Vision/Organizational Statement:
Incorporating feedback Barbara received from constituents to the posting on MELIBS-L revisions were made to the organizational statement, mission and vision. A motion by Rich, seconded by Clem, was unanimously passed to accept the revised organizational statement, mission and vision as follows:
Maine InfoNet is a collaborative of academic, public, school and special libraries that provides leadership in resource sharing, promotes cost-effective solutions for quality library information services, and supports the cultural, educational and economic development of Maine.
Mission:
Maine InfoNet connects the people of Maine to information and ideas through library cooperation.
Vision:
Maine libraries. Maine citizens. Connected.
Collection Development Summit:
Summit will be June 15th at Wells Commons on the Orono campus. Barbara will handle registrations. Audience should be library directors as well as collection development staff in larger libraries. Some questions to be addressed: does everyone need to be purchasing the same things? what is the role of the ARRCs?
Outcomes List Moved to Action Items: Implementation Planning
Collaborations – Last Copy Center meeting on March 30.
Organization optimization – Steve is not available until April. An attorney will be needed for establishing a 501c3. The Board can be the same but the new entity needs a different name.
System infrastructure – James plans to talk with people at ICOLC who manage similar systems.
External Communication – will start with Web. Audience is libraries helping libraries to serve their patrons. Would like to move off the state government site and use maineinfonet.org. Content management would be a Maine InfoNet staff responsibility.
Other Business:
Board meeting dates for remainder of 2009 were set: June 24, July 22, August 26, September 23, October 28 and December 16. The July meeting will be held in Orono to tour MIN offices and meet with the staff.
The current Board membership will be maintained and reviewed at 2010 retreat.
Adjourned at 3:33pm.
