Minutes of the MARINet Board of Directors' Meeting
Thursday, September 28, 2000
Marin County Civic Center

Board Members Present:
  Sara Loyster, San Anselmo
Carol Starr, Marin County Free Library
Vaughn Stratford, San Rafael
Cathy Blumberg, Mill Valley
Deborah Mazzolini, Belvedere-Tiburon
Absent:
  Mary Richardson, Sausalito
Also Present:
  Deb Moehrke, Temporary MARINet System Administrator
Phil Youngholm, Consultant

  1. Public Comment: no public present

  2. Introduction of guests: no guests present

  3. Approval of Minutes:
    Minutes of August 24, 2000 MARINet Board Meeting
    Approved with a few questions and follow-up items. Sara Loyster reviewed action items cited in the Minutes of the August 24, 2000 meeting under Item III and the status of each was discussed. Deb was asked to confirm whether Richard Arrow's and Andrew Yon would attend the October MARINet Board meeting.

  4. Announcements:
    Carol Starr informed the Board that the Marin County Free Library is studying the use of credit cards at the Circulation Desk to pay for fines and fees and may be implementing the new process in the near future.

    Sara Loyster informed the Board that San Anselmo Library is starting its author series and that tickets for the event have been selling briskly.

  5. Agenda:
    Sara asked that the status of the Beverly Simmons and Joan Fry-Williams contract for the MARINet staffing analysis be reviewed under Old Business as Item E. The Board approved the agenda change.

  6. Old Business:

    1. Budget Report
      There is no official budget report at this time. Deb is studying the budget and has met with Andrew Yon regarding budget strategy relative to the County system. All MARINet Library annual membership checks are in and all bills are being paid.

    2. Personnel
      1. The Board recognized the resignation of MARINet employee Glade Van Loan. Vaughn Stratford will draft a letter of appreciation to Glade from the Board. Carol recommended that the letter note the good job Glade did keeping MARINet on track during the period of time that the consortium was without a Systems Administrator.
      2. After discussion with Deb and Phil regarding current work load, the Board agreed that the best strategy would be to fill the vacated position at 25 hours per week on a temporary/extra hire basis as soon as possible. The Board also agreed that a final decision on MARINet staffing should not be considered until a recommendation and report is received from the staffing and network analysis study that is being currently contracted for with Simmons/Fry-Williams. Carol asked that Board members Contact County Human Resources if they have any staff who would be interested in the position.
      3. Deb asked if the current year's budget for personnel was adequate to cover increased hours for consultant Phil Youngholm. The Board confirmed that funding was available for his hours.

    3. Statistics on Patrons: How to standardize
      This item will be revisited at the October meeting

    4. Brown Act
      A motion was made (Carol, Vaughn) to formally adopt the Brown Act. The vote to adopt the Brown Act was unanimous. It was noted that MARINet's Standing Committees need to be notified of the Board's vote as they will also need to comply. Sara Loyster will write a letter informing the committees of their obligations. The Standing Committees of MARINet are: Public Services, Circulation Standards, Bibliographic Standards, and the Technology Users Group. The Board discussed various aspects of the Brown Act, including posting agendas 72 hours in advance online as well as in the Civic Center and other member libraries.

    5. Contract for Staffing Analysis
      Joseph Murphy has sent a contract to Beverly Simmons for her signature. County Counsel has approved and signed the contract and included a statement of insurance requirements that need to be met by Beverly. Sara Loyster will call and confirm that Beverly received the contract. The Board authorized Sara Loyster to sign the new contract when it was received from Beverly Simmons unless there are changes that need to be brought to the Board of Directors. The Board asked Deb to include the Staffing Analysis Study on the agenda as a standing item.

  7. New Business:

    1. Larkspur Update
      1. MARINet Systems Administrator Deb Moehrke and Consultant Phil Youngholm met with Larkspur Library Director Frances Gordon. They clarified that Larkspur is contracting for one entry point into the MARINet system to be used to input Larkspur's items into the collection. Larkspur has ordered item barcodes and Deb and Phil have provided Larkspur with information for coding their items.
      2. Deb informed the Board that Larkspur's City Counsel had questions regarding the MARINet contract relative to liability and downtime. Their Counsel also asked that the pricing quotation submitted from MARINet have the tax and shipping figures included within the set amount rather than on an 'at cost' basis. Deb will make the suggested changes to the contract and have it approved by Jennifer Waldron, MARINet's County Counsel, before sending it to Larkspur for signatures.
      3. Frances Gordon, Larkspur Library Director, discussed the Larkspur Library Board of Trustees' concern about loaning of their audio books to non-Larkspur Library patrons. The Board hopes to provide the Larkspur Board with information on the benefits of resource sharing and reciprocal borrowing and to highlight the expanded resources Larkspur library patrons will have access to through the MARINet system. Deb and/or Phil will inform Frances Gordon that if they block system holds on their audio books, they will also block the placement of holds on those items by Larkspur patrons. Suggested within this discussion was the possibility of local holds only status. Deb will inquire.
      4. Of the 11,250+ residents in Larkspur, 5,700 already have active MARINet library cards. This will ease the patron registration process for Larkspur when they are ready to become full members of MARINet.

    2. Revised MARINet Webpages
      Deb distributed a sample of a draft for MARINet's new Webpage. The Board had positive comments about the new screens. Sara suggested that the FAQ page be redesigned to match fonts and put line spacing between bullets. At their last meeting, the Public Services Committee recommended that MARINet drop the featured lists and Internet resources links. The Board approved their recommendation. Other suggestions from the Public Services Committee take more time and Deb needs to look into them. These include giving patrons instructions on entering their pin and the location of SuperSearch links.

    3. Recon Project
      1. As the County is now the fiscal agent for the Recon Grant, Carol will be part of the interview for the recon cataloger to ensure that County hiring policies are complied with. The cataloger will be an extra hire and will work out of the County's Technical Services Department in Bel Marin Keys.
      2. The Board of Directors moved (Vaughn, Cathy) to authorize Sara to sign a contract between Marinet and Belvedere-Tiburon for the retrospective conversion project transfer of funds and administration.

    4. System Administrators Report
      1. Release C will be installed on October 3. The date was chosen as it is near the first of the month but not on a Monday. There will be a brief interruption in service. Deb will be sending out information to library staff that will highlight problem fixes, new features, and asking all staff to tell MARINet about unexpected problems. As the new software cannot be tested by MARINet before it is installed, there is no adequate method of identifying all possible glitches in advance.
      2. Deb informed the Board that documentation on III problems reported to MARINet in the past is not completely clear. Deb will ask staff to provide more information when they report problems than has been requested in the past. A form will be developed for reporting problems that provides details, including name of library, staff person reporting, date/time of report, description of problem, etc.
      3. Deb reported back to the Board on the research she's done into purchasing a burster. A motion was made to purchase a burster (Carol, Cathy) for approximately $3,000.
      4. Committees
        Deb attended Standing Committee meetings. She discussed her role as Systems Administrator with the committees, informing them that she sees herself as a liaison between the committees and the Board of Directors. The Circulation Standards Committee discussed their concerns about training on Millennium Circulation with Deb. Windows is a different, and to many staff, new environment. Individual libraries will need to do mouse and windows training for their staff in advance of installation of Millennium Circ. The Board agreed that MARINet should hold on any major projects until complete staffing is in place.
      5. Board liaisons to the Standing Committees will respond to the letters of accomplishments received from each committee. It was suggested that the committees be asked to report on their goals for this year and submit the information for the Board of Directors' meeting on November 30.

    5. Blue Ribbon Task Force
      Carol Starr distributed the results of the Godbe research and analysis report on a parcel or state tax measure. The results show that a sales tax would more likely pass than a parcel tax. The Task Force is not inclined to go for a ballot measure until the transportation issue is resolved. The return of ERAF funds and other sources of funding delay the crisis for the County Library until FY2006.

    6. Elimination of 10 hold limit
      The Board of Directors made a motion (Carol, Sara) to eliminate the ten-hold limit on patrons' requests for materials. The motion carried by unanimous vote.

    7. Ongoing authorities work
      A decision on this was tabled for a future meeting. Several relevant issues were discussed, including the fact that the LTI upgrade created ongoing authority work and a decision needs to be made on how, who, where to get that work done. Perhaps someone should be hired under the umbrella of MARINet to oversee the development of the database. This should be incorporated in the staffing analysis. The Board asked that the Bibliographic Standards Committee make a recommendation on this issue. It was also suggested that authority work training be done for MARINet library cataloging staff.

    8. Additional equipment and licenses for MCFL
      A motion was made (Vaughn, Sara) to approve Marin County Free Library's self-check license and ten additional III user licenses. The motion was approved. Phil was asked to explain the necessity of requesting Board permission. It is due to the fact that increasing user licenses and ports impacts the cost of MARINet's maintenance contract with III.

    9. Other
      No other issues were discussed.

  8. Adjournment

    The meeting was adjourned at 12:10pm

Next Scheduled Meetings: October 26, 2000, Marin Civic Center
November 30, 2000

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