Minerva Executive Committee Meeting, Nov. 21, 2007

Location: Maine State Library Studio

The meeting was called to order at 10:02 am.

In attendance: Cora Damon, Pam Turner, Karen LaForgia, Amy Averre, Barbara McDade, Steve Norman, Jon Forest, Deb Hensler, Natalie Hutchinson, Betsy Pohl, Judy Frost, and Susan Preece (via conference call).

The motion was made by Steve and seconded by Cora that the minutes from the September 24, 2007 meeting be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

Committee Reports

Finance / Cora Damon

Cora presented a draft proposal from Susan Kasuba of Nelinet to manage the approximately $100,000 surplus. Gary Nichols approves of the proposal. Nelinet will maintain a separate bank account for us; the Board will maintain a small slush fund. The cost will be up to $3,000 the first year and between $1,000 and $2,000 other years. These fees are comparable to current state fees. There was a question of who does, and who pays for audits. Another question was whether the contract will be renewed annually. The InfoNet CEO has to be included in all of this.

There was a discussion about what this Board decides and what the Full Users Council (FUC) votes upon. The by-laws give the Board fiscal authority. The Board is the elected representative body, and there is a process in place to handle appeals and disagreements.

Cora will get a formal contract from Nelinet and the Board will not ask the FUC to vote. The contract will be signed by Pam, Gary Nichols and Susan Kasuba.

The motion was made by Karen and seconded by Susan to proceed to move funds to Nelinet. The motion passed unanimously.

By-Laws / Steve Norman

By January 15, 2008 the committee will have proposed changes in writing. The Board’s preference is to have the by-law changes in place before the next FUC meeting. Changes to the by-laws can be voted on by mail or by e-mail.

A tentative date of February 27, 2008 for the next FUC meeting was made. Deb or Jon may offer a training session after the meeting.

InfoNet / Barbara McDade

33 people attended the Solar summit. Barbara is trying to encourage cross-pollination of ideas among Solar, Minerva and InfoNet libraries, especially with respect to cataloging, and borrowing and lending.

The CEO search is progressing, and is now down to two candidates. She hopes to have the new CEO here by February 1, 2008. Barbara expressed regret that more Minerva librarians didn’t attend the interview sessions.

Judy Frost distributed her handout describing recent InfoNet Board meetings. She reminded us to read the minutes of the monthly InfoNet Board meetings which are posted on their web site.

Minerva / Deb Hensler and Jon Forest

Scarborough Public and Walker Memorial (Westbrook) should be live by the end of December. Unity College should be live during their semester break.

Jon is working on the children’s scope. The Board agreed that the label in the drop down menu of the catalog will be Children’s Collection.

The Board agreed to renew the Syndetics contract in January, 2008 at a cost of about $23,000.

The Board discussed how to foster better communication among member libraries, especially with regard to librarians asking for help. Perhaps creating a Go To list of expert librarians would alleviate some of Jon’s and Deb’s work loads.

The Board discussed whether standards for new members, such as attendance at cataloging meetings, should apply to current members. The membership committee should review this.

Borrowing and Lending / Deb Hensler

This committee is working on a circulation handbook.

Statistics / Pam Turner

This committee is working on a set of best practice instructions suitable for all Minerva libraries. Committee members will do thorough testing before publishing the instructions.

Membership

This committee needs to meet again and report back in December.

New Business

The Board looked at and discussed the librarything.com web site. Bowdoin College and the Danbury, Connecticut, Public Library use it. It offers alternative ways to access the catalog, such as by different subject headings.

The Board discussed reconvening the public relations/education committee. A long term project for them would be to look at changes to the catalog user interface.

Adjournment

The Board adjourned at 12:03 pm.

Submitted by Amy Averre

For the Public

For Librarians