Maine Library Commission Minutes, May 24, 2011

The Maine Library Commission met at the Maine State Library on Tuesday, May 24 at 12:58 pm.
Members present: Debe Averill, Karen Baldacci, Kathy Brunjes, Charlie Campo, Liz Doucett, Beth Edmonds, Ines e Gruber, Mike Kennedy, Molly Larson, Barbara McDade, Jamie Ritter, Joyce Rumery, Dick Thompson (via ATM), Art Turley.
Members absent: Steve Podgajny.
Also present: Linda Lord, Dean Corner, Valerie Osborne (via ATM), James Jackson Sanborn.

Minutes

On a motion by Averill and a second by Rumery, the minutes of April 26, 2011 were unanimously approved.

State Librarian’s Report

  • ALA Library Legislative Day Joyce Rumery, James Jackson Sanborn, Brian Sylvester, and Linda Lord attended this event in Washington, D.C. on May 10 to ask our Congressional delegation to support LSTA funding and funding for the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization to include the requirement for a “school library staffed by a state certified school librarian” and Net Neutrality. The president’s budget calls for $189,000,000 in LSTA funding, a $24,000,000 decrease from the prior fiscal year. This will represent a loss of $65,000 for MSL in federal funds. The American Library Association is seeking funding restoration of $232,000,000 FY 2010 levels.
  • Dean Corner received the John G. Lorenz Award for timely and accurate submission of State Library Agency data for FY 2009.
  • The State Librarian was recognized by the Commission for her work with the Legislature.
  • It is time for the LSTA 5-year plan evaluation as well as for a new LSTA plan to be filed by June 2012.
  • The third year of the three-year delivery contract is being negotiated with the contractor, Freedom Xpress Inc. Joyce Rumery and Linda Lord met with FX to finalize amendments to the contract. These will include a price increase to $15.00 per stop for all libraries other than Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin ($19.50). There will also be new stipulations charging libraries for stops that are cancelled for reasons other than cause.
  • BTOP three candidates were interviewed for the trainer position. A new hire has accepted the position and will begin work as of July 1, 2011.
  • A contract with Learning Express will be entered into for online test tutorials for civil service exams, GED, and ASVAB as well as assistance with resumes and interviews. Learning Express also provides online courses related to basic job skills. The two-year subscription will be available for all public libraries as of July 1, 2011.
  • Legislation LD 1033, funding delivery service to current delivery members for one day per week, was voted unanimously ought to pass by the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. The bill is currently on the Special Appropriations table pending identification of funds and enactment.
  • The MSL budget continues to be flat-funded for the next fiscal year. A total of five positions (two federal-funded and three state-funded) are slated to be filled after July 1, 2011 if funding is supplied.
  • Friends of MSL Representative Lovejoy has been spearheading the Friends membership drive in the House; Representative Wintle was the first legislator to contribute. A little over $600 has been received.
  • Leadership Maine Linda was accepted into Leadership Maine, a program of the Maine Development Foundation, and will entail a substantial commitment of time and effort.
  • BTOP Conference The Gates Foundation is paying for Janet McKenney and Linda to attend this conference which will take place before the annual ALA Conference in New Orleans.

Public Library Definition

It is necessary to define what a public library is and does so that, in the future, scarce funding can be best distributed. Discussion ensued with definitions from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Maine Library Association distributed.

Maine InfoNet

James Jackson Sanborn reported that he is once again fully staffed.

  • MaineCat received a recent software upgrade and a hardware upgrade is scheduled for June.
  • SOLAR there are two committees looking into the status of SOLAR. One is looking at its future; the other is looking into fixing the current SOLAR model.
  • MIN is investigating the cost of statewide access to OCLC utilities: cataloging, group cataloging within WorldCat, resource sharing.
  • Overdrive Download Library is partnering with Amazon’s Kindle this summer. The addition of Kindle readers to the other e-book readers allowed to download by Overdrive will undoubtedly place a burden on the 3,000 e-book titles currently owned.

Consultant’s Report

Valerie Osborne reported that the three spring District meetings were well attended and highly rated. Warren Graham, the self-styled Black Belt Librarian, spoke about safe library environments for patrons and staff.
The fall District meetings are scheduled for September 22 and the topics will be e-books and new technologies.
A new library directors’ orientation is slated for June 3 at MSL. The public library director’s institute is scheduled for June 17 in Augusta.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 pm.

Next Commission Meeting: Tuesday, September 27, 2011