Present: Leslie Schoenherr, President; Paula Polk, Past President; Dee Magnoni, Vice President; Bobbie Myles, Clerk; Linda Horn, Tom Jewell; Paul Kissman, MBLC; Sunny Vandermark, Metrowest
Meeting called to order @ 2:50
Leslie Schoenherr announced that Dee Magnoni has agreed to serve as Vice President. Now the Assistant Treasurer and Lay Person positions are open on the Executive Board.
The consent agenda was approved (Magnoni/Polk)
Sunny told us how she became a librarian and gave us an overview of her library career.
Sunny recommends that Metrowest put out an RFP for ILL services for FY 2008. Wellesley is the current vendor. If the contract were given to another library Metrowest is required to give Wellesley a full year notice before terminating the contract. The cost of the current contract with Wellesley is $210,860. The number of inter library loans in Metrowest has fallen slightly but not as much as in the other regions. The reason for the reduction is probably that patrons are placing their own ILL requests on the Virtual Catalog. Metrowest is not mandated to provide ILL services but it is one that many libraries value.
Motion: Prepare an RFP to go out to bid for ILL services. (Jewell/Magnoni) Approved
Mary Ellen Loud from Arlington has sent letters to all of the Friends of the Libraries organizations at public libraries asking for donations to help pay for food for the breakfasts. Executive Board members are strongly encouraged to attend one of the breakfasts and bring patrons if possible.
Sunny explained that the Massachusetts Library Association has hired a liaison on a pilot project basis to work with state legislators and advocate for higher budgets for libraries. Maryanne Lewis, who used to be a legislator for Dedham, was hired for $30,000 to be the legislative liaison. MLA has a new MLA Partner level of membership to help fund this legislative liaison position. The regional libraries and library networks have been asked to become MLA Partners.
Metrowest can use interest money to pay for this membership.
Sunny explained that the liaison’s contract has an agenda of getting more money for libraries and following MBLC’s goals. Each MLA partner will have an equal vote. Board members had concerns about how the program would work with such a diverse group of libraries but the Board agreed that this pilot project is worth funding.
Motion: Metrowest join MLA at the partner level. (Jewell/Magnoni) Approved.
Delivery is not working perfectly. Sudbury and Wayland are frequently receiving deliveries when the library is closed. Lincoln has had this problem on Mondays. Some libraries are happy with the Eastern Connection. Metrowest will send a questionnaire to all libraries receiving deliveries to learn the satisfaction rate. Approximately 50 of the 340 Metrowest libraries receive deliveries and approximately 25% have called to complain about the new company.
Tom Jewell reported on a meeting he, Sunny, Sarah Pawlek, Paula, Bill Talentino, and Lynda Wills had with Eastern Connection on January 19. Eastern is reducing their services, such as turn around time, so Metrowest wants to lower the per stop charge. Eastern was not excited about reducing the charge. Instead, Eastern wants Metrowest to reduce delivery volume. MLN has already reduced volume for new DVDs. MLN may reduce volume further by paying for a software enhancement to III to keep requests from branch libraries from going out into the main system if the requests can be filled by another branch or by the main library. The cost of this software would be $27,500. Another solution proposed was to hire a courier service to make deliveries among the big libraries: Newton, Cambridge, and Brookline. MLN also has a best practices committee working on other ways to reduce Eastern’s workload.
Congress has passed a budget that level-funds Literacy through School Libraries at $19.683 million and increases LSTA by $5 million to $210.597 million. It is not clear yet whether Massachusetts will receive more LSTA funds next year.
Governor Mitt Romney released his budget recommendations for FY 2007 to the Massachusetts House and Senate on January 25. The Governor’s budget recommendations include an increase in local aid and education funding. Next the Governor’s budget goes to the House and Senate who will each develop their version of the FY 2007 state budget. The House budget is usually released in April and the Senate budget in May. The MBLC’s Legislative Agenda for FY 2007 may be found at: http://mblc.state.ma.us/mblc/legislative /initiatives/index.php.
Meeting adjourned @ 4:30
Respectfully submitted,
Bobbie Myles, Clerk
Beth and I attended ALA Mid-winter in San Antonio. We each had a good conference even if we didn’t see each other in San Antonio. I am on the ICAN Board for the next three years. ICAN (Interlibrary Cooperative and Networking Section) is one of four sections of ASCLA (Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies).
The Metrowest/Minuteman Committee met on January 19th to develop a strategy for our next meeting with Eastern Connection. We did meet with Eastern on Tuesday, January 31st. A brief report is included in the packet.
Invitations to the Legislative Breakfasts have been sent to legislators. Maryellen Loud, Robbins Library Director and member of the MLA Legislative Committee, is sending letters to Friends Groups requesting help in funding the breakfasts. Hopefully we will receive some positive responses.
I attended the Digital Commonwealth meeting in Weston on February 30. There will a general meeting for all interested groups on March 30 at 2 pm at the Worcester Public Library. At that meeting a Council of members will be developed and organizational guidelines approved. Each participating group will be asked to pay a fee of membership. The fee structure is under discussion.
The Governor’s House 1 Budget was released in late January. Included in House 1 for the MBLC are additional funds for 4 of the 6 line items: $19,714 in 9101, $250,000 in 9401 (library of last recourse & regions), $150,000 in 9501(state aid to public libraries) and $39,000 in 9506 (library technology and resource sharing). I attended MLA WAYS AND MEANS on February 1st. Leslie Schoenherr also attended. There was an excellent turn out and the legislators were pretty positive about the state’s economy, in spite of the negative impact of rising fuel costs.
On the agenda is a request from the Mass Library Association for regions and networks to join MLA at the Partner category. This is a pilot project for this calendar year. I will explain in more detail and answer your questions on Wednesday.
See you all on Wednesday the 8th at 2:30 pm.