Maine InfoNet Board Minutes, February 23, 2011
The Maine InfoNet Board met at the Maine State Library on February 23, 2010 at 12:15pm.
Members present: Janet Bolduc, Librarian, Central Maine Medical Center; Richard Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library; Clem Guthro, Director, Colby College Libraries; Linda Lord, State Librarian; Barbara McDade, Director, Bangor Public Library; David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Steve Podgajny, Director, Portland Public Library; Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM and Richard Thompson, Member-at-Large.
InfoNet staff present: James Jackson Sanborn, Executive Director
Members absent: Ralph Caruso, CIO University of Maine System; Judith Frost, Director of Library Services, CMCC; and Elizabeth Reisz, Director of Library Media Services, York Schools.
Meeting Opened.
David Nutty, Chair, opened the meeting and congratulated Dick Thompson on his up-coming appointment as CIO of the University of Maine System.
Discussion on the Future of MaineCat/SOLAR
The discussion was limited to three questions –“What is the goal of MaineCat?”, “What are we trying to do through SOLAR?” and “Is III the right product to use to achieve our goal?”.
Clem distributed a paper with his thoughts—If our goals are to facilitate state-wide resource sharing by getting as many Maine libraries as possible to participate in MaineCat, and if our goal is to help libraries find a sustainable ILS model that will allow them to operate alone or with others and seamlessly to participate in MaineCat, and make the participation model affordable and sustainable while exposing all metadata to the open web, then could the answer be to get full participation in OCLC, investigate ILS models that will meet our goals (III, Open source, OCLC Web-scale) and develop pricing/participation models and timeframes? The SOLAR problem is a credibility problem and needs a solution even in the short-term.
James described the current state of MaineCat. There are two ways to participate in MaineCat:
- As a native III Library (the easiest, cleanest way—patrons records are included so patrons can request materials and material status is given in real time)
- Through the DCB software (SOLAR)—there are no patron records nor is there any indication of an item’s availability in real time. No patron records means requesting materials from other libraries must be mediated by local staff—and no availability status means other libraries may be frustrated in requesting material that may be in circulation or missing.
There are two ways of getting records into MaineCat using SOLAR:
- A library may catalog directly into SOLAR and export the record to the local ILS
- A library may load records from the home system into SOLAR periodically. With the periodic export of new records, it is hard to get missing or withdrawn titles out of the system. Using “kill and fill” (delete a library’s entire holdings and replace with complete, updated holdings) adds overhead to both the local library and to the MIN staff.
There is still no circulation status—some libraries don’t add “new books” to MaineCat so as not to frustrate those requesting from other libraries, because a patron may see an item at a SOLAR library marked available. SOLAR libraries may use one record to make requests for patrons, overtime that record starts to break down. III doesn’t have a solution, although the current update of MaineCat could address that problem. James doesn’t think he can add more libraries to SOLAR without more money and staff. Currently, we do not have a scalable, sustainable model.
Dick suggested that we need to disappoint some libraries in the state. We need to make a benchmark for those libraries wanting to join MaineCat and only allow those that can meet it join.
The Board agreed to the following plan going forward:
- Short term: Upgrade MaineCat and find what’s “good enough” for now.
- Middle Term: Investigate using OCLC for all libraries in the state
- Long Term: Investigate OCLC web-scale management—ILS-in-the Cloud with a MaineCat tier in World Cat.
The Board appointed two committees:
- The “Subway” Committee – Joyce (Chair), Clem, David, Steve and James, whose charge is to define: what is the future of MIN—what would it mean to go Web-scale--How can we help SOLAR libraries get records into MaineCat, what does it mean if we provide ILS to some libraries and not all?
- The “Bus” Committee – Dick (Chair), Rich and James. The charge: what are the things that MaineCat needs to do NOW to help SOLAR libraries.
Minutes
The minutes of the December meeting were approved as distributed.
IMLS Grant
Clem reported that the committee was meeting the next day to review applications for the project director, discuss models for collection analysis and print-on-demand and to get the process started. XEROX now sells the Espresso machine. It looks as if there is no need for the scheduled March 11 meeting of the participating directors.
MIN Tech position
James reported that there were 96 applications for this position. There will be telephone interviews for the top 5 candidates this week. This will be followed by three in-person interviews. He hopes to have someone hired in the next 30 days.
METADATA Committee
Clem reported that this committee met in December. It is still waiting for OCLC to get back with answers to questions from the meeting. Linda Lord will join the committee. Sarah Campbell and Clem are on the ballot for OCLC’s Americas Regional Council.
501 ( c ) status
James gave the committee a copy of the 1023 financial projections form. He also got the organization’s EIN number.
Director's Report
Staff completed four Summon implementations – OneSearch is now live at USM and UMaine. There will be a combined implementation for UMA, UMPI, UMM, UMFK and UMF. URSUS and MaineCat records need to be re-exported for fresh indexing and an automated process needs to be established for future updates. Server hardware has been specified and ordered for the MaineCat upgrade. The date of migration is not set, but it will mean one full day of down-time for MaineCat (not for individual systems).
MIN will be replacing Easy Proxy servers with virtual machines—we had 11 physical boxes that lasted 8 years, by paying monthly fees for virtual machines MIN will break even in 10 years. Twenty new libraries are joining the Download library beginning February 28. The Download Library has 2,006 titles or 2,132 volumes of e-books and 1,722 titles and 2,163 volumes of audio books. Fifty-eight percent of the e-books are checked out at any given time and 62% of the audio book. The MACON project is continuing. Venice is the staff contact, Marilyn will remain involved.
Maine Academic Library Day
The second Academic Library Day will be held on April 15 at Colby. The speaker will be from Google and speak on User Happiness. Clem is still accepting suggestions for afternoon programs.
Delivery System
Linda reported that last spring the price per stop for delivery had risen to $15. The State Library has been picking up the increase for libraries on the state contract until the end of June. There is a proposed amendment to the contract calling for libraries to pay for non-emergency canceled stops. Emergencies are defined as weather-related, flooding or electrical or mechanical failures.
Legislation is pending that would pay for 1 day of delivery for libraries already participating on the state contract. It asks for $100,000. The Board felt Freedom Express does a good job. Linda, Joyce and Barbara will be meeting with Freedom Express to negotiate any needed changes in the current contract. Over 1.5 million books went through the delivery system last year.
MIN Summit
The Board concurred that the next MIN Summit should be on Special Collections and would include an invitation to the Maine Historical Society to participate. The date would be in June or early July. MHS got another IMLS grant to work with local libraries, schools and historical societies.
MIN Retreat
The MIN Board retreat will be Friday, May 18, 9:30 – 3:30 at Colby.
R2 Consulting
Tabled until the Board gets more information on statewide OCLC participation.
The meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM.
Next meeting is March 23 at 1:30.
Respectfully Submitted by,
Barbara A. McDade
Acting Secretary
