Present: Leslie Schoenherr, President; Dee Magnoni, Vice President; Paula Polk, Past President; Cathy Lee, Treasurer; Bobbie Myles, Clerk; Jeanne Smyth; Tom Jewell; Sunny Vandermark, Metrowest
Meeting called to order @ 2:40
Motion to approve the consent agenda: Dee Magnoni/Paula Polk
Paula has very broad experience in public libraries and also worked in a school environment. She has a law degree too! Paula has worked in libraries in the Eastern, Central, Metrowest, and Western Massachusetts regions.
A committee was set up to select the contractor for ILL services. The committee developed questions to ask the contractors. Wellesley Free Library submitted the only bid for providing ILL services. The contract with Wellesley is for 3 years. The committee was impressed by Wellesley’s responses to their questions and recommends that the Executive Board award the ILL contract to Wellesley Public Library. The contract price is less than the contract that expires on 6/30/2007. The price for year 1 (FY 2008) = $205,502; year 2 (FY 2009) = $212,789; year 3 (FY 2010) = $220,353.
Motion to accept: Cathy Lee/Dee Magnoni
Leslie told us that there was a great turn out at the “Future Search” strategic planning session on June 28-29 at Weston High School. Becky Schreiber did a great job leading the discussions over the two day event. A spreadsheet was developed that shows what the region does and what the Minuteman Library Network does. Rob Maier was pleased with this report and may borrow from it to highlight the differences between the regional library systems and the automated networks.
One of the products of Future Search was a list of the “Strategic Focus / Strategic Few” (top priorities) for the MMRLS to include in its strategic plan. There are eight items on this list:
Leslie told us that number 3, diversifying funding, had a big impact on her. We have state funding but it is not enough to support all of the services. Are there acceptable alternatives such as grants? Applying for grants is a labor intensive effort. Tom explained that foundations are willing to fund programs, not infrastructure, for example. Paula pointed out that the online databases are important to all types of libraries in the state yet they are not publicized enough. Sunny explained that this issue was brought up at the PR summit but there has been no real follow up about promotion. Leslie stated that the people who know about the databases love them but awareness is low. The statistics of Infotrac usage for 7/1/2005-April 2006 show that the highest use by market type is academic libraries. The next strategic planning sessions to wrap up the talks are scheduled for August 29-30.
The June survey about Metrowest’s databases was not very useful. Overall, the respondents like the databases and want more of them. There were suggestions for new databases but no consensus about which databases to add.
Two companies were interviewed to possibly take on the delivery contract. The first company, U.S. Ground, thinks that applying a barcode to each item would help track the items through the delivery process. The cost of supporting this method would be approximately $200,000. Commonwealth Carrier’s proposal ($535,000, with a 3% increase each year, plus fuel surcharges) is more than what the region is paying now. Sorting is a focus of concern for the committee. Eastern Connection is the current delivery company; the revised contract has not been signed
There is a national delivery conference in September, which Sunny may attend. The regions may hire a consultant to look at delivery because the regions must go out to bid again next year. Tom advised us that this is not a simple problem to solve. A real solution would require the region to spend a lot of money to have more trucks and reliable drivers.
The Metrowest Web Page is developing nicely. Both Rita and Beth have worked hard on the new format.
The MBLC is nearing the end of its current long range plan (2003-2007) and needs to evaluate the program thus far and develop a new plan. At the Commissioners’ June meeting, they appointed a long range plan subcommittee of SACL. As part of the new plan, MBLC staff will do an online survey of libraries for their input.
A PR summit was held on June 15, 2006 to review some of the Board’s past PR marketing efforts, hear from an outside expert on the role of marketing, public relations and advertising, library marketing efforts from other states and begin to think about future promotional efforts.
Tom Jewell suggested that Sunny pass along the idea that MBLC should promote one thing, such as the online databases, for a year instead of small efforts on many projects over the year.
Also at their June meeting, the Commissioners approved the charge, timeline and committee composition of the State Aid to Public Libraries Review Committee. The committee will have representatives from public libraries, public library trustees, regional and network administrators, public library friends and advocates, MBLC commissioners, and MBLC staff. The final report from this committee is due June 2007.
The state budget for FY 2007 is not settled yet. On July 8 Governor Romney made cuts to the budget that was approved by the legislature.
Kim Charlson won the Outstanding Alumnae Award of the University of North Texas. Congratulations to Kim!
Meeting adjourned @ 4:00
Respectfully submitted,
Bobbie Myles, Clerk
I am on the pre-planning committee for a MassCat Retreat that will be held at Metrowest on June 16th. The pre-planning committee met at SEMLS on May 11th to develop a strategy. The meeting will be facilitated by Alan Brickman. Issues that we will look at include ongoing funding and governance.
I worked with a member on Long Range Planning. And Beth and I have scheduled 2 summer sessions for working with school library teachers on schools plans.
I attended the morning session of the Gaming Workshop at Olin College. Thank you to Dee and her staff for providing space and refreshments. It was an excellent presentation by a nationally known gaming researcher. There were additional sessions by other speakers in the afternoon, including Beth.
The auditor was here for 2 days, starting preliminary work on the FY2006 audit.
The Strategic Planning Committee met with Becky Schreiber on May 31st. It was a very productive meeting. We will share details during the Board meeting.
I attended the MBLC meeting at the Palmer Public Library on June 1st. Our FY2006 Budget Revision was approved. During the meeting a discussion of the proposed State Aid Program review was held. Public Libraries have been notified that there are slots on the Task Force open to Public Library directors and several trustees. People are encouraged to submit their names to Dianne Carty for consideration. The review process will likely take a year.
The Statewide Delivery Committee met again on June 5th. We discussed the Best Practices document one last time. The document will be sent for review by Regional offices, Network offices, and appropriate member library users. A final Best Practices document is anticipated near the end of September.
I attended the Regional Administrators/MBLC Liaisons meeting at the Western Region on Thursday, June 8th. We got an update from Paul Kissman on the Authentication Task Force with a timeline on the Task Force Activities. In addition the group looked at the Draft Best Practices document that is the result of many meetings (and revisions) of the Statewide Delivery Committee. Rob provided details on the statewide database survey. I will comment on the survey at our meeting on June 14th. We talked about the FY2007 budget possibilities. Core Competencies, developed by graduates of the Library Leadership Institute and others, were endorsed by the Regional Administrators. We anticipate some training opportunities to be developed across the state on the competencies. (A copy is included in your packet.)
The June 14th Board Meeting was cancelled. There was no Administrator’s report for July 12, 2006.