MARINet
Board Minutes
To: MARINet Board and Interested Parties
From:
MARINet StaffCC:
Val Morehouse; Glade Van LoanDate:
10/25/99Re:
09/23/99 Meeting at Marin County Civic Center, Room 410B, 9 A.M. (Approved).Attending:
Board Members--- Debbie Mazzolini, MARINet Board President (Belvedere-Tiburon Public Library); Sara Loyster, Board Secretary (San Anselmo Public Library); Mary Richardson (Sausalito Public Library); Carol Starr (Marin County Free Library); Vaughn Stratford (San Rafael Public Library); Cathy Blumberg (Mill Valley Public Library). Absent: Anne Montgomery (Mill Valley Public Library). Staff present--Val Morehouse (MARINet Systems Administrator). Guests present--Jennifer Dyment (Marin County Library Systems Librarian).
Jennifer Dyment, the new Marin County Library Systems Librarian, and Cathy Blumberg, Mill Valley Public Library's Deputy Director were introduced. Minutes for the July 1999 meeting were approved. Previous Minutes can be found online at http://marinet.marin.org under "About Us." Val indicated that the statistics section contained previously in the Automation Update would come attached to the monthly Minutes. The past two months are covered in the current copy through 9/15/99.
Announcements: Meeting Dates; System Upgrade; Innovative Retreat; Stinson Beach and the Canal Learning Center; Phone Renewals.
Space in 410B at the Civic Center has been confirmed for the Oct. 28th MARINet Board meeting. Debbie Mazzolini will confirm a tentative date for a Board Meeting at Belvedere-Tiburon on November 18th at 1:30 p.m. Val Morehouse will try to confirm 410B for the December 16th meeting at 9:15 a.m. Oct 5th is still the target date for the next system upgrade: mid-release 12. Val reminded everyone that the Innovative Retreat for Library Directors was approaching (Oct. 17-18), and urged Board Members to attend. Under news of the new branches, Carol Starr indicated that the tentative date for the Stinson opening is November 21st. There was no additional news about the Canal Learning Center. Carol Starr announced that Marin County Library is beginning a trial of telephone renewals at all branches.
Additions to the Agenda: Y2K Test, Web Access Management, and Multiple Order Records.
Various Board Members requested that MARINet "test" the system remotely (from home) to see if the MARINet system was up and operating on Jan. 1, 2000. Val will calendar this for Jan. 1st.
Cathy Blumberg requested that Web Access Management (specifically the proxy server) be added to the agenda. Cathy wanted to know why we have to have it. Val and Jennifer indicated that the proxy server is necessary to validate remote web patron's use of contractually restricted databases, and the proxy server itself is only one aspect of the program. It functions in other ways also (such as 856 field validation and statistical reporting), and is a basic module for Millennium. Cathy thinks a background sheet should be prepared on what it is and does. Val and Jennifer agreed to work on that, and Val requested Cathy's help in preparing a draft. Other ideas discussed were presentation at a Public Services Committee meeting, and an investigation of why Alameda County was not using WAM. Other Board Members stated that it is necessary to look at Web Access Management in the functional context of MARINet's technological development and progress on Millennium, not of the proxy server portion of the program only. Val stated that MARINet has offered to handle patron queries about setting up the proxy server, just as she and Glade had done for telnet for patrons.
Sara Loyster said San Anselmo staff had noticed the existence of multiple order records for some items. She was wondering how that could be happening. As an example, she gave Frank McCord's 'Tis a memoir. Another Board Member commented that she had noticed the same one, and that one entry did not contain the apostrophe preceding the "T". All felt that that could be the source of the problem. Sara said that the Bibliographic Standards committee needs to get a protocol to handle this sort of thing, such as when any staff member notices something like this they should broadcast an email to TECNET. People who put in orders need to read TECNET, even if they don't attend the Bib Standards committee. There needs to be more group awareness.
Personnel Update:
Val queried Board members about personnel changes. Carol Starr stated that as of Dec. 31st, Alan Kristal will no longer be on the County Library Contract. IST has advised the County Library that they should hire a TSAII to maintain the personal computers, as most of the networking has been done already by Alan. A long list of staff changes at the County Library, Mill Valley, and San Rafael followed.
Val alerted everyone that Glade Van Loan would be on vacation Sept. 27-28th, and that she has more time scheduled in October. Under orientations, Jennifer Dyment and Mary Brown from County Technical Services are scheduled Oct. 1st for the MARINet orientation. Orientation for Civic Center Branch Librarian David Dodd is still pending.
Val's indicated that for several weeks she had been doing a "projects list" with priorities and finished tasks listed. She had sorted it into categories such as Board, Contracts, Documentation, Intranet, Helpdesk, Financial , Training, Software, etc. She asked for input on whether or not this report format was acceptable? The Board preferred that the projects be sorted in priority order next time, and that each list begin anew after they have seen the last one.
Val mentioned that the catchup time during August had been invaluable for Glade and her. The number of projects completed on the projects list is a direct reflection of that. The Board agreed that a cleanup month should be worked in each year, probably in August.
Budget/Audit Update: Final and Current Reports; Audit Letter, Mayors' and Councilmembers JPA Oversight Group; IST Contract; Books in Print Costs; Grants Update; LTI Update; Membership Payment Options.
Val presented the final Budget Update for 7/1/98-6/30/99. As promised, a final pass across the figures is complete, and represents best efforts at tracking receipts and expenditures. Resolution is not perfect. She has discussed the situation with Andrew Yon, who also found small differences between the ending County figures and MARINet's backup. The change to accrual accounting is a likely factor. After searching for some time, Val decided the difference would be left to the auditor to resolve. A report on the Sinking Fund is included in the Board packets also. This report is in balance, and Val was able to pursue the missing interest, which needed to be posted as part of the fiscal year. The third budget report is the regular cumulative monthly transaction report for the new fiscal year up through 9/15/99. Andrew Yon has finished preparation of the Annual Report of Financial Transactions of Special Districts for the MARINet JPA for the year ending June 30, 1999. The figures differ quite a bit in this report from last year's because the peripheral equipment value has been removed from inventory per the Board's decision at an earlier meeting . Also, additions reflect the Board's new capitalization policy passed last year. Andrew filed the report with the Office of the State Controller via ftp in order to meet the filing deadline
The MARINet audit engagement letter was prepared, and Susan Forsyth will be the Auditor for the two-year catch up audit, scheduled to begin November 1st. Because of the difficulties MARINet experienced last year, Carol Starr visited with the Auditor, and the new audit will be done for free. In a related matter, Val mentioned that the background letter and report on the MARINet Joint Powers Agreement requested for the oversight committee of the Mayors' and Councilmembers group had been prepared and sent to Marty Nichols at the County Administrator's Office.
A copy of the new contract with Marin County IST is ready for signature. Val indicated the changes from the previous year's contract. Basically, the contract covers weekend emergency support, Intranet development, PC support for the MARINet office, and the training dollars. The Board approved unanimously, and the contract was signed at the meeting. Val will forward a copy to Marilyn Filbrun at IST.
Val revisited the perennial issue of the Books In Print subscription. The reason she did not move forward on it is, that rechecking costs with Innovative revealed that the price had doubled since the original quote. She felt it necessary to have Board approval before going further. After discussion, the Board directed Val to clarify issues involving concurrent users and branches. If that inquiry proves acceptable, the Board gave Val permission to proceed.
MARINet received some goods news and some bad news concerning outstanding grants. The ERATE telecommunications reimbursement period was extended for 6 months to June 1999 because the SLC was unable to complete grant reviews before the funding year ending December 1998 was over. Val then filed for funds paid during the ensuing six months. In September, MARINet has received $2464.92 additional reimbursement on the previous year's ERATE grant request. In August, we had received $286.52 from GTE and $6077.68 from Pacific Bell on the original request. The bad news is that the California State Library Retrospective Conversion grant prepared by the Bib Standards Committee has been disallowed on a technicality. The technicality is that these grants may only be awarded to individual public libraries. MARINet is not an individual public library; however, the Program Director stated that the grant itself was sound, and the grant should be resubmitted in the next rou nd (probably after the California Library Association meeting in November). The fiscal agent should be one of MARINet's libraries. Belvedere-Tiburon volunteered to be the fiscal agent for the next grant round
Val has been discussing re-authorization of the MARINet database (the Bibliographic Standards Committee project presented at a previous Board meeting) with the LTI President. While exact database counts will be unavailable until the entire database is copied and sent via ftp to LTI, Val's best estimate for LTI cost is $11,827.89. There may be a small add-on for children's headings, but MARINet is getting a discount for being a previous customer of LTI. Val has received ftp instructions and passwords from LTI. Since copying and sending a database this size is a huge undertaking, MARINet will not be ready to begin compiling and sending the database until the end of September or the first week of October. Hearing no objections to the project, Val said that she would schedule the project.
Board President Debbie Mazzolini reviewed the options available to the Board for a possible change in the member payment schedule outlined in the JPA. She stated that the Board members did not feel that they had the authority to decide on Marin County's request for late payment without a more formal arrangement involving an amendment to the JPA. Any library could find itself in the same predicament in the future. Carol Starr stated that she did not favor changing the JPA just to add a new payment schedule, but that if the JPA had to be amended to add an additional library, then would be the time to add the payment schedule. The issue was tabled.
Training:
Val alerted everyone that training sessions on EBSCOhost Magazine Index Searching (Sept. 29th) and on TUG Basics (Oct. 14th) are in preparation. EBSCOhost Administration training is scheduled for the afternoon following the EBSCOhost Searching workshop. Val and Glade will attend. There was nothing new on the Management Institute.
Juvenile Pak:
The Juvenile Book Pak has to be removed from Marin County Technical Services as soon as possible. Carol Starr discussed the lack of room at Tech and how long Marin County had sponsored it. After discussion, Mill Valley made a tentative commitment to take it if some logistics can be worked out. The issue will be revisited at the next Board meeting after Cathy Blumberg has had a chance to check on some things at Mill Valley.
New Business: New Policies?
Val asked if anyone had samples of new policies for the Board to consider. No one had samples this time. The issue was tabled and will return to the agenda.
Systems Communication Restructuring, Co-Location, etc.
In pursuit of better system-wide communications, Val Morehouse has begun work with the Systems Integration Group (SIG) on formalizing the group's structure to make its work more accessible. A chair has been elected. Minute-takers have been selected, and a tentative agenda structure developed. Adjustments will be made as members see how this new structure works. Debbie Mazzolini has discussed co-location of MARINet with IST in an area where Alan and Phil would have space. This should facilitate communication through proximity. Dave Hill is very interested in the idea. In the meantime, Val and Phil are meeting regularly, and both feel it is very productive. Currently they are working on updating the Computer Help Manual. Unfortunately, Val's idea about getting everyone on MAGIC to facilitate problem call tracking is on hold, since IST is having problems with the program and is considering replacing it. Once a new program is selected IST will train MA RINet on that, and the idea can be revived.
System Update: Action Forms; Software Orders; Millennium, Release 2000.
There were several action requests. San Rafael Public Library came in with a change request concerning the language used for holds, which would urge patrons to call the library if they can't pick up a hold. The Board had no objection, but because this has not been to the Circulation Standards Committee, it was referred back to them. Val Morehouse presented Marin County Library's request to purchase self-check interfaces for the regional libraries, which was approved. The Circulation Standards Committee wants to have "recall" turned on. They understand that it will not function as a blanket "recall", but only works in a certain time period in the overdue/billing cycle. Costs should be minimal. Approved.
Phil tested the evaluation copies of EM320W and E-Term32. He recommends we stay with the latest EM320W for now. Val will gather numbers for a possible site license purchase at discounted prices by querying the vendor on their count of purchased copies by library. We can work from that starting point.
Val distributed two Innovative quotes for Millennium software packages. She also handed out a booklet describing all of Millennium's modules for comparison to the quotes. Board Members will need to study the material before making any decisions on how to proceed with Millennium: either as single modules, or as a discounted and pre-paid package. The topic will return to the agenda.
Val distributed copies of the booklet Innovative published on Release 2000, which is the next big upgrade to the Innopac software. The upgrade should be available before the end of the year. Staff need to familiarize themselves with changes which affect modules for their departments.
There is no update this meeting on the SuperSearch 50 cent charge, as MARINet has not had time to pursue it. Tabled for a future meeting.
Library of California:
Val pointed out that the State Library had issued a press release on the RAND California database which could be modified and used by the Reference Staff to educate patrons. A copy is in the Board packet. The Board discussed the upcoming Library of California meeting at Falkirk on Oct. 21st, 4-5 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to introduce the Library of California multi-type cooperative concept to non-MARINet libraries in Marin County. Debbie Mazzolini will do a presentation using a script and screens already prepared. Board Members divided up the list of possible participants to invite and jobs that needed to be done.
Committees: SIG; TUG; Links; Circulation; Goals Received.
Val indicated that Minutes from 6/14 and 9/13 for the Systems Integration Group (SIG), Notes from the Links Task Force and the Technology User's Group (TUG) are to be found in the Board packets. A SIG worksheet, Variations of Possible Internet Access [scenarios] Involving OPACs, is included so that Board can be familiar with various levels of OPAC lockdowns and setups. Also included is an FAQ for the TUG meeting (EBSCOhost vs. EBSCO Inn-View), which Val prepared for Phil to use to correct misinformation about the database change. The Public Services Committee is interested in doing Featured Lists on a regular basis, although they have not produced any yet. An example of how a featured list (Miwok Indians of Marin) looks is included in the packet. So far goals have been received from TUG and the Circulation Standards Committee. Goals discussion will be tabled until more come back from the committees.< FONT SIZE=1>
The next meeting will be Oct. 28th, 1999 at Civic Center, Room 410 B, 9:15 AM.
Attachments:
Agenda for the Meeting
MARINet Draft Minutes for July Meeting (There was no meeting in August).
Project's List
Final [Budget] Transactions 7/1/98-6/30/99
Sinking Fund Report
MARINet Budget Transaction Report 7/1/99-9/15/99
JPA Background Letter to Marty Nichols for MCMCC
Letter to Susan Forsyth
MARINet Consortium JPA Annual Report FY98-99
Service Agreement between the County of Marin IST & MARINet
Grant Report Letter on Retro Conversion Grant
Action item: circulation.
Action item: MCL shelf check.
EM320W site license prices.
Innovative Millenium Packages & Costs
Millenium Module Descriptions
Release 2000 Description
Press Release for RAND California Database
SIG Minutes 9/13/99 + Variations on Internet Access
SIG Minutes 6/14/99
TUG Goals & Job Description
TUG Documentation for Database Verification & EBSCOhost
Bibliographic Standards Minutes
Links Task Force Minutes 8/12/99
Circulation Standards Goals
Public Services Featured List example.
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