Maine InfoNet Board Minutes Board April 4, 2012
The Maine InfoNet Board met at the Maine State Library in Augusta on April 4, 2012 at 1:33pm.
Members present: Janet Bolduc, Librarian, Central Maine Medical Center; Richard Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library via Movi; Sarah Campbell, Portland Public Library; Judith Frost, Director of Library Services, CMCC; Clem Guthro, Director, Colby College Libraries; Linda Lord, State Librarian; Barbara McDade, Director, Bangor Public Library; David Nutty, Director of Libraries at USM; Elizabeth Reisz, Director of Library Media Services, York Schools; Joyce Rumery, Dean of Libraries at UM; and Richard Thompson, CIO of the University of Maine System.
InfoNet staff present: James Jackson Sanborn, Executive Director.
Also present: Pauline Angione.
Minutes
Barbara made a motion, seconded by Joyce, to approve the minutes of the March meeting, as amended. All voted in favor.
Guest
The Board welcome Pauline Angione, a volunteer at Dorcas Library in Prospect Harbor, who has an extensive background in information systems.
MeLibs and MeInfo-L postings
Messages will be posted this week, one about SOLAR application process for new libraries, and the other, about Maine InfoNet’s mission and plans for the future. James will be doing a session about the vision for the MaineCat environment at the Libraries United conference in May.
Library Commission Sub-Committee
Dick reported that the sub-committee has been formed to address the need for better communications between Maine InfoNet and the Maine Library Commission. The Commission has raised a number of questions about library structures in Maine to help them understand how they can better serve libraries. The sub-committee’s initial meeting will be held next week.
MIN Website vendor and process for IA development
Raintstorm Consulting from Orono has been selected as developers of the new website. The primary goal is to merge content from .gov and .edu sites. Work will begin in late April or early May, with launch at maineinfonet.org planned for summer .
Executive Director’s Report
James reported that the records of the Wells Reserve Library, formerly a member of Minerva, are fully loaded into SOLAR and ready for WRL staff to examine.
The Board acknowledged that generous donations for additional ebook purchases for the Download Library have been made by Portland Public Library and Topsham Public Library.
A no-cost extension has been filed to the existing III contract to move the expiration date to December 31, 2012 in order to sync contract dates with maintenance invoices to a calendar year cycle. Plan is for renewing current contract for one year with two single year renewals for a total of 3 years.
III Academic Library Director’s Symposium
Clem reported that the first library to move to Sierra went live recently and there are 200 more libraries expected to go live by the end of 2012. III anticipates it will take 3-4 years to transition everyone to Sierra. INNReach appears to be stable but is not part of the Sierra product line. It is unclear what future development will be, however, they do not intent to walk away from INNReach. While many things about Sierra are not yet known, it does seem clear that the platform brings no direct improvements to the user (students and faculty) but is essentially an overhaul of the back office functionality.
Minerva Board
New Memorandum
A concern about Maine State Library Outreach providing free lending services to small, but not really rural communities that don’t want to pay for such services should be referred to the Library Commission.
Report of Eli Neiburger presentations and the Tri-District Board Retreat
Participants resonated with Neiburger’s statement that “the 20th century library brought the world to the community; the 21st century library will bring our communities to the world”. Content, collection and curation of local resources is the direction libraries need to go. Our physical branding, the book, is turning into bits and bytes.
James and David agreed that the Tri-District Board retreat was beneficial. Communications is a major concern.
Digital Commons discussion with Dave Stout. Next Steps
Sarah commented that the discussion was very lively. Linda was impressed that there would be little preparation to do at our end. Barbara has agreed to develop a business plan to present. Digital Commons is one of the preferred formats that Google will recognize. Content will be discoverable in a google search.
Retreat
Secheduled for June 27 at Colby College. There will be no regular Board meeting in June.
Meeting adjourned at 3:36pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Crawford Reisz, Recording Secretary
