Maine Library Commission Minutes, Sept. 15, 2009

The Maine Library Commission met at the Maine State Library (MSL) on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM.

Members present: Debe Averill, Charlie Campo, Beth Edmonds, Inese Gruber, Barbara Harness, Molly Larson, Barbara McDade, Steve Nichols, Jamie Ritter, Joyce Rumery and Art Turley.

Members absent: Mike Kennedy and Steve Podgajny.

Also present: Pam Bonney, Anna Carr, Dean Corner, James Jackson Sanborn, Linda Lord, Janet McKenney, Mamie Ney, Peggy O’Kane, Valerie Osborne, Susan Preece, Sarah Stanton, Elaine Stanley, Susan Trent, Ellen Wood and Stephanie Zurinski.

Chair Jamie Ritter introduced Art Turley, Lewiston Public Library Board of Trustees, as the newest member of the Commission.

Acting State Librarian’s report:

Linda Lord reported that September 30, 2009 will be “Maine library snapshot day.” All libraries in the state will be tallying their activities, programs, and attendance on that day. Results will be collected and published as a brochure in time for Maine Libraries Week in January 2010. These brochures will also be valuable for municipal officials and other funding bodies.

The Maine School and Libraries Network (MSLN) will henceforth be administered by the newly formed Network Maine Council comprised of the Chief Information Officer of Maine; the Chief Information Officer of the University of Maine System; the Maine Commissioner of Education, and the State Librarian. This group will develop RFP’s and administer contracts. Eventually Network Maine, rather than MSL and DOE, will be responsible for E-rate applications and any follow-up verification or audits that may be required.

With the retirement of Gail Waddell, director of support services for the cultural agencies, other MSL staff will deal more directly with financial and budgetary tasks.

A hiring freeze exemption has been submitted for Shirley Helfrich’s position (SMLD consultant).

Ballot referenda: TABOR2 and the excise tax rate decrease will impact municipalities. The Maine Library Association (MLA) is studying these and will be presenting a position statement on these referenda.

The NTIA (National Telecommunication Information Administration) has placed prioritizing of grants in the laps of the states. The Maine State Library has submitted a BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Grant) which will be reviewed along with other NTIA grants by the State’s Broadband Council, then by the ConnectMe Authority who will report to the Governor. The final recommendations will go from the Governor to the NTIA.

Dean reported that the limestone panel façade on the Cultural Building has shown evidence of erosion and some chunks of the panels have fallen off. Harriman Architects of Auburn, Maine were given the task of pulling off a number of panels to determine the state of the façade. They found that the original building frame is strong and the support angles that hold the lowest row of panels are sound. The panels on the south and east sides of the building have weathered extensively, however. These are the locations where pieces have fallen off. The most troublesome section of the building is the parapet system. Most of the grout is missing and many limestone parapet caps are in place only by their own weight.

Harriman will recommend that the entire parapet system be replaced. They will also recommend pulling off all the limestone panels and weather-proofing, caulking, and replacing flashings behind the panels.

Consultants’ Reports:

Stephanie Zurinski announced that the 2008 public libraries statistical report is now available online. 95% of the libraries reported data – the greatest participation rate ever. Highlights of the report include financial, circulation, reference, interlibrary loan, registered patrons, and collection size information by population size of the libraries.
http://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/statistics/

The fall tri-district council meeting will be held in Augusta on October 30 in partnership with MLA. The focus of the meeting will be on building a library community. The key note speaker will be Pat Wagner a nationally recognized expert on this topic.

Valerie Osborne mentioned that approximately 300 library staffers from around the state have received MARVEL training. Also, libraries in each district are participating in the development of a district technology plan. Thus one plan will cover all the libraries within a district.

Maine InfoNet:

James Jackson Sanborn reported that MIN has begun the hiring process to fill the vacant URSUS system manager position.

MIN is investigating the formation of a 501(c)3 organization to better achieve its goals.

Online requesting, which had been suspended at all libraries except the URSUS group, has been resumed as of August 31 along with the resumption of delivery to all parts of the state.

EBSCO, the provider of most of the online databases in MARVEL, has agreed to allow MIN and MSL to promote the source of MARVEL funds (U Maine, MSL, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin, the Legislature, and Maine Telecommunications Education Access Fund) on all pages of its databases.

A one-search product continues to be explored for the MARVEL databases that would allow searches across all the databases within MARVEL. The cost of such a product is a substantial hurdle.

Minerva report – Pembroke Library will be leaving this consortium. The consortium agreed to keep its membership fee at $3,750 per year.

The Downloadable Audio Books program has 131 libraries participating and there are 1,062 one-use titles and 100 multiple-use titles. The six-month circulation totaled 15, 282 items.

Minutes:

On a motion by Steve Nichols with a second from Beth Edmonds, the minutes of the June 22, 2009 meeting were approved.

District Liaison Report:

Susan Preece, director of the Topsham Public Library, chair of the CMLD executive committee, and chair of the District Liaison Committee presented information on the report which was previously distributed to the Commission.

The report is intended to be a picture of the state of the state’s libraries as seen by the leaders of major stakeholders: MLA, Maine Association of School Libraries (MASL), Friends of Maine Libraries (FOML), Maine Library Trustee Association (MLTA), Minerva, MIN, Maine Health Science Libraries Information Consortium (HSLIC) and the University of Maine at Augusta.

These groups find that MSL should be the lead agency for advocacy, funding, mentoring, and long range planning.

The report finds and recommends that:

MSL and the Commission be the leaders in the library field.
MSL and the Commission take a lead role in a long range strategic plan.
MSL and the Commission enforce minimum standards, especially among public libraries.
MSL and the Commission simplify the relationships between Minerva, SOLAR, MIN, and other consortia.
MSL and the Commission determine how to create a closer connection between school libraries and other libraries in the state.
MSL and the Commission should be the primary advocacy bodies for Maine libraries.
MSL and the Commission should be the leading agency to secure state funding for delivery and statewide borrowing as only two such examples.
MSL and the Commission investigate the Maine Regional Library System idea and determine if the district consultants should be subject specialists; or, should there be more than three districts?
MSL and the Commission should continue its efforts of mentoring and continuing education for librarians and library staff including the variety of formats for one- and two-person libraries.

It was recommended by the Commission that technology developments be added to this list.

Jamie Ritter summarized the discussion by asking how the State Library can add to the ability of its constituents to be successful.

Linda recommended a survey of Maine libraries to see what they want and what they might no longer need. Also, a survey of MSL patrons, which is in development, is needed to determine the public function of MSL.

Linda asked why does the State Library exist? Why should the State Library exist? A mission statement needs to be developed and the goals needed to fulfill the mission need to be formulated.

Jamie assigned Linda the task of preparing an organizational chart of state library associations and organizations. Beth Edmonds was assigned to create a draft of a number of goals for MSL and the Commission.

Dean suggested that Commission members hold regional assemblies in different parts of the state to hear what libraries think about the role of MSL.

The next Commission meetings will be held on: Oct. 13, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.

The Commission voted to go into executive session at 3:22 PM. At 3:25 PM, the Commission ended executive session and adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Dean Corner

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