Present: Leslie Schoenherr, President; Dee Magnoni, Vice President; Cathy Lee, Treasurer, Bobbie Myles, Clerk; Kim Charlson. Jeanne Smyth; Tom Viti, Paul Kissman, MBLC; Sunny Vandermark, Metrowest
Meeting called to order @ 2:35
Motion to accept: Magnoni/Smyth
Tom Viti told us about how he got into library work and his library career.
Sunny gave background information about the new strategic plan that Metrowest is undertaking beginning in April and should finish by the end of September. Sunny, Leslie and Dee will work with Becky Schreiber, who will lead the strategic planning process.
Dee suggested that the end product be multiple scenarios, not just one scenario, of future directions for the MMRLS.
Sunny thought the turn out at the legislative breakfasts in Ashland and Newton was disappointing. More librarians and more legislators should have turned out for these events. We need to do a better job getting the legislators to these breakfasts. Only six legislators and three aides attended the Metrowest breakfasts. Overall attendance was also down. This year 60 people attended while last year 110 people attended the breakfasts. Our next lobbying opportunity with state legislators is April 5, Legislative Day, at the State House.
The situation with delivery has improved but the same issues are still present such as: slow delivery time, miss-sorts, wrong bins delivered, erratic delivery times, bins left behind, lack of delivery bins.
Contract for delivery with Eastern Connection is still not signed yet MMRLS is paying the higher delivery charge requested by Eastern Connection. The next delivery meeting is March 10.
The lease is up on June 30, 2006 for MMRLS’ current office space. The current annual lease is $40,872 and the offer beginning July 1, 2006 is $43,200 for a three year period. Sunny recommends renewing the lease for three years. A five year lease is an option but the situation may change with delivery to the point where MMRLS will want to move to a location that gives it more control over delivery.
Sunny gave testimony to legislators at the Ways and Means Committee. She advocated to the legislators about the importance of the programs and services delivered at the state level including delivery, professional development, online databases, and public library construction.
The Public Library Association conference is in Boston from March 21-25. Sunny distributed free passes to the exhibits which we can copy for our staffs.
Paul Kissman gave updates about two grant programs: LSTA and EqualAccess Libraries™. President Bush has requested a $15,096,000 or 6.1% increase for the FY2007 budget for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. If approved, the IMLS’ budget would be $262,240,000 for FY2007. Paul told us that this could mean an increase of approximately $100,000 to Massachusetts.
EqualAccess Libraries™ is a professional development program created by Libraries for the Future, which is the programming wing of the national non-profit Americans for Libraries Council. Only 15 libraries are accepted into the program and 34 applied this year. The program includes participation by frontline librarians at a four-day EqualAccess Libraries Institute and completion of associated work tasks in the summer of 2006. The 15 libraries also receive a $5,000 LSTA grant to support youth, lifelong, and/or health programming.
The MBLC is planning to amend regulation 605 CMR 6.00 Sections 6.08 (9)(b) to modify the formula for Planning and Design grants in the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program. The amendment will increase the state share to 2/3 of eligible costs (up to a maximum award of $40,000), with a local 1/3 match (up to $20,000).
Another statewide bus advertisement campaign to advertise public libraries will begin on March 20.
Save the date! April 5, 2006 is MLA Legislative Day at the State House.
Meeting adjourned @ 4:15?
Rob asked me to give testimony at the MBLC Ways and Means Budget Hearing in Franklin on February 23. I talked about delivery, the importance of regional professional development for the members, and supported Rob’s comments about the importance of electronic content provided to all regional members. I also spoke briefly on the importance of the public library construction program and the benefits long-term to communities that work with Patience and Ann on library design. All of the testimony was well received (news report available in packet, see pages 3-4)
The Interlibrary Loan Committee met on Wednesday March 1st to review a draft RFP for ILL services. The committee members asked excellent questions and offered good suggestions for clarifying RFP content. For many committee members, ILL is an important service. There was discussion about the delivery service and its impact on ILL service. I finalized the draft and sent it to the committee members for a final review. Time line: advertise RFP and send to interested parties by March 8th; period for questions until March 31st; responses due April 28th; committee review May 10th; recommendation to Metrowest Executive Board June 14th.
Metrowest implemented a quick delivery survey (7 questions) with responses due by February 21st. I have included the results.
I attended the Statewide Delivery Committee meeting. We looked at preliminary data on costs of delivery at the library level. More data will be collected. Representatives from Eastern Connection were guests. They presented the vendor perspective on delivery. (See notes/ page 1 only – from the February 22, 2006 Statewide Delivery Meeting) .
Our lease expires on June 30, 2006. Three years ago we did a search for new space. All of the prices were higher and most locations did not have adequate parking. I am recommending we extend our lease for three years. The new rate will be $18.00 per square foot (now $17.03 per square foot). This is much less expensive then moving. I will provide detail at the Board meeting.
Maryellen Loud, Robbins Library Director and member of the MLA Legislative Committee, sent letters to Friends Groups requesting help in funding the breakfasts. To date I have received donations from 7 libraries. We prepared approximately 60 informational packets to take to the breakfasts.
The breakfasts were excellent. Unfortunately the turn out was significantly less than last year. I have included a summary in the packet. Chuck Flaherty, Director of the Brookline Public Library told attendees in Newton that the libraries had to a better job getting their legislators to attend and also to attend themselves. The next few months are critical to getting the legislative agenda approved and funded. Chuck said everyone must work harder. Jay Kaufman made positive comments about the Newton Free Library’s FBI stand.
The Regional Administrators & MBLC liaisons met at the BPL on February 15th. In addition to our usual business meeting we spent the morning discussing the philosophy of delivery and its impact on resource sharing. It was a very interesting, free wheeling discussion. It spite of the increases in delivery costs we all support the concept of resource sharing. We are concerned that without additional funding for libraries and the regions that resource sharing will decrease.
The Metrowest/Minuteman Delivery Committee is meeting with Rob Maier on March10th to discuss these issues.
Massachusetts was selected as one of the states to participate in a two-day workshop on developing measures to evaluate continuing education programs for library staff. The training will occur in Washington DC on April 10 & 11. I am one of three people attending. Since CE is such an important component of regional service this seemed like a valuable learning experience.
Our March 2006 CE survey is posted on the website. We anticipate getting useful results. The survey was developed with great input from the CE Committee members. Please take time to respond!
See you all on Wednesday March 8th at 2:30 pm.