Attending: Leslie Schoenherr, President; Dee Magnoni, Vice President/President Elect; Cathy Lee, Treasurer; Tom Viti, Assistant Treasurer; Bobbie Myles, Clerk; Tom Jewell; Jeff Cramer; Jeanne Smyth; Linda Stetson; Paul Kissman, MBLC; Sunny Vandermark, MMRLS; Beth Gallaway, MMRLS
Meeting called to order at 2:30 PM.
Approved: Dee Magnoni/ Tom Jewell
Incoming and outgoing board members introduced themselves.
Sunny distributed a handout titled “Delivery Comparisons,” which showed delivery volume from 2004 through 2006 for the weeklong sampling periods in April and October. Overall, delivery volume is flattening out, perhaps due to the resource sharing restrictions put in place by the Minuteman Library Network. Sunny also reported that the regions have a delivery related RFP ready to go out for proposal. The regions are looking for a consultant to look at delivery routes to see if there is a better way to arrange the routes and located the sorting facilities. Metrowest funds will pay for 1/6 of the cost of this study. In addition, the regions are looking to implement automated sorting facilities across the state. All of the Regional Administrators are working on this project together. They sent a letter of intent to the MBLC for a $2.5 million grant. The goal of this grant is to make the delivery system work better and reduce costs.
Regional budgets were not cut as a result of Governor Romney’s cuts but reimbursements from MBLC for NewsBank will be halved this year, which is a $32,000 line item for MMRLS. Metrowest’s FY2008 budget, which was approved at the Council of Members Annual Meeting last month, contains no new initiatives because there is no new money. The databases line item was cut from the FY2008 budget due to lack of funds. Sunny explained that MMRLS pays for databases at the end of the prior fiscal year so the database subscriptions paid for in FY2007 will expire at the end of June 2008.
Leslie reviewed the strategic planning process, which began in June and ended in November. The “Future Search” book was used as a model for the planning activities. Approximately 40 people came to focus groups that were led by consultant Becky Schreiber. MMRLS staff arranged the ideas that came out of the focus groups and worked them into a draft plan. The Strategic Planning Committee worked together to make a concise and useful strategic plan that also allocates resources for each of the initiatives. This plan is for FY2007 through FY2011.
Beth submitted a letter of intent for a $15,000 grant to bring video games to libraries. As the letter of intent states, “Libraries, traditionally, are about stories and information; games are a simply a new format to tell stories and gather, interpret and relay data.” MMRLS would purchase gaming software and hardware and put them into kits for libraries to borrow. MMRLS would also provide “continuing education workshops on the who, what, why and how of gaming in libraries by nationally known presenters and gamers.” The games requested are rated as for teenagers or younger.
Sunny attended a breakfast about legislative breakfasts in Shrewsbury. A committee will be formed to work on the upcoming breakfasts. We want to do a really good job this year because we are concerned about funding. The breakfasts will be later in March this year due to the new administration. Leslie encouraged us to attend a legislative breakfast.
Two additional letters of intent were sent to the MBLC. One was to develop a “Library Director and Trustee Manual” and put it online. The other letter of intent is to fund lectures by the authors who win the awards given by the Center for the Book. Sunny also told us that she is concerned about the viability of MassCat. The goal was to increase ILL activity but this is not happening as much as expected. As a pilot project, more libraries were put on the delivery system this fiscal year, which is encouraging resource sharing and increasing activity. However, there is not enough money to put all of the libraries that use MassCat on the delivery system. The pilot project ends in May.
Governor Romney made 9C cuts, which restore the budget to a balanced budget. The Legislators cannot override 9C cuts. The 9506 cuts for telecommunications to the networks are the most important to get restored. The MBLC is investigating ways of advocating for restored funding with the Massachusetts Library Association.
Paul gave us updates on the Public Relations Advisory Committee, State Aid Review Committee, Delivery Committee, and Authentication Task Force. The Delivery Committee came to an agreement on a best practices document, as well as a recommendation regarding funding efforts to automate the delivery process. Their best practices document is on the MBLC’s web site. The Public Relations Advisory Committee is meeting regularly and is working on a three-year PR and Marketing Plan. Minutes of their meetings are also available on the MBLC’s web site. The State Aid Review Committee’s meeting minutes are also on the web. Their recommendations for the MBLC are due in May.
Construction awards were given to three public libraries (Heath, Dalton, and Dudley) at the MBLC’s November meeting. There are 31 communities on the waiting list, however, with $84 million requested for construction grants. MBLC will increase the construction bond bill from $75 million to $100 million due to the skyrocketing construction costs. Paul explained that in some cases libraries have to abandon their construction projects because costs have increased dramatically between the time they submitted their funding requests and the time they received construction grant awards.
Paul gave us a progress report on the Statewide Electronic Resources RFR for procuring statewide databases. On December 4 a big committee comprised of regional administrators, regional help desk staff, members of the Reference Advisory and the Statewide Electronic Resource Advisory Committees and the MBLC Procurement Team heard presentations by each bidder and had an opportunity to ask questions. Information gathered from the online trials in November, called CODfest (Commonwealth Online Databases) was used to evaluate five bidders: EBSCO Publishing, the Proquest Company, H.W. Wilson, Thomson Gale, and NewsBank, Inc. The new database contract begins July 2007.
There were 139 letters of intent received for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) direct grant program. The MBLC has $1.3 million to award but the requests total $4.8 million. State Advisory Council on Libraries (SACL) will meet in early January to go over the letters of intent and send applications to people who sent letters of intent. Workshops will be held during the last two weeks of January to help applicants prepare their proposals. Applications are due on March 8 and awards will be made in July.
The Medway Public Library had a disproportionate cut (50%) in its FY2007 budget compared to other Medway municipal departments. This means that Medway did not meet the municipal appropriation requirement (MAR) and probably will not receive certification from the MBLC. Randolph is also in danger of losing certification because they do not meet the minimum hours open requirement. Public libraries who requested waivers will meet with the MBLC in late January.
MBLC’s legislative agenda was revised on November 29. The State Aid Review Committee advised the MBLC to Increase its state aid line item by the consumer price index beginning with the large cuts in 2002. This translates into a 24% increase for FY2008. In dollar terms state aid would increase from $9 million in FY2007 up to $12 million in FY2008. Additional money was also requested for the 9506 line item for the library networks. The line item would increase to $5 million for FY2008, up from $4.66 million in FY2007.
Sunny distributed contact information to the board members so we can communicate with each other outside of board meetings.
Farewell to out going Board members and passing of the gavel Leslie thanked the outgoing members for their service and passed the “gavel” to incoming President Dee Magnoni.
Meeting adjourned at 4PM
Respectfully Submitted,
Bobbie Myles
Clerk
The Regional Administrators, through Cindy Roach at SEMLS, submitted a letter of Intent for an LSTA grant of $2.5 million for an automated sorting facility solution for delivery. In addition we are developing a Delivery Routing RFP.
The MassCat Steering Committee is looking at possible ways to revitalize the MassCat project. We had demos of other modules that participants might wish to have as add-on services. As a pilot project we have selected a minimum of two libraries in each region to put on deliver to see if Interlibrary Loan will increase. In comparing October 2005 with October 2006 (the first month the pilot libraries were on delivery) there is a significant increase from 16 to 79 items. In addition, we are investigating the potential for MassCat to become a digital repository for libraries to belong to the Digital Commonwealth. On the other hand, the Trial Court Libraries are pulling out of MassCat and the Norwood school libraries plan to withdraw at the end of the school year.
Planning for the Library Leadership Institute 2007 is progressing. Metrowest will be the coordinator and fiscal agent. The deadline for applying is Friday December 8th. Up to 50 attendees can participate. Maureen Sullivan and Jack Siggins are the facilitators.
There was an excellent Gates funded Sustainability workshop at Metrowest on November 30th. It was disappointing that more of our public library members did not attend as sustainability is an issue for everyone.
Our audit was completed and mailed to the appropriate agencies. I have a copy that Board members can review if they want to see the audit. In addition, I had our local accountant come in to assist with some of my accounting questions.
Judy completed the values of service reports and mailed them to our members prior to the Council of Members meeting. This is the earliest the reports have been mailed.
Rita attended a two-day conference in New Hampshire in late November and a two-day Flash class on December 7 & 8.
The December Executive Board meeting is for outgoing and incoming Board members. I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday, December 13th at 2:30 at Metrowest.