Attending: Dee Magnoni, President; Tom Jewell, Vice President/President Elect; Leslie Schoenherr, Past President; Cathy Lee, Treasurer; Cynthia English; Jeannette Hudson; Paul Polk; Linda Stetson; Paul Kissman, MBLC; Sunny Vandermark, MMRLS; Beth Gallaway, MMRLS
Meeting called to order at 2:40 p.m.
Approved: Stetson/Schoenherr
Sunny and Beth reviewed the Metrowest Strategic Plan 2007-2011. When the goals were developed last summer, they were divided into three tiers. Beth displayed the strategic plan web page on a screen with a Mac and projector. A gold star appears next to each goal that Metrowest staff has worked on this year. Nearly every goal has a gold star! Beth also showed us web pages with information that support classes given at Metrowest. The web site has become a rich source of information and helps get this material to people who cannot get to classes at Metrowest. Beth highlighted the blog and how popular it has become. In December 2003 there was only one hit. In March 2007 there were 11,212 hits!
Sunny and Beth showed us pictures of the automated sorting facility at the Seattle Public Library. SPL’s facility can process 1,200 items per hour. Books put into the exterior book drop or at the book drop at the circulation desk are automatically put onto a conveyor belt. In the sorting room a RFID reader scans each book. Books are separated by branch. Books going to the main branch are further sorted onto the book carts in call number order! The Kings County Library System’s sorting facility can sort 8,000 items per hour! Barcodes are scanned. This system does not sort books onto book carts but it does have a feature that keeps the bins in order so truck drivers can request all the bins for their route and an automated crane puts the bins in reverse order for the truck so the bins to be delivered first are on the back of the truck.
Governor Patrick’s FY 2008 budget level funded the MBLC’s budget line items. The House budget added money for account 9401 that would provide funding for the Library of Last Recourse and Regions.There are $245,000 additional dollars in the House budget for Metrowest. We are still waiting for the Senate budget but the fact that there is additional money in the House budget means that we should get more money for the regions. If this happens and more money is added to 9506 line item, some credit for this accomplishment should go to MLA’s government specialist.
The FY2007 budget needs to be revised due to recent developments. There is not enough money in the budget to pay for the NY Times Historical database so the subscription will end in early August. Additional funds from MBLC will cover the cost of World Book Online. Cathy Lee suggests the approximately $11,000 of available funds be used to purchase new equipment for the computer lab. This sounds very reasonable since the equipment was last upgraded in June 2001. MMRLS staff recommend that iMacs be purchased because they have both Macintosh and Windows platforms. A new version of iMacs is due in the fall so the purchase will take place in the fall. Since this plan crosses fiscal years, Cathy suggested the available funds be moved to the MassCat line item.
Motion: Take the $11,000 and move it to the MassCat line item, a budget revision in the fall will allow the purchase of iMacs for the lab.
Approved: Schoenherr/Polk
Over the summer and fall Dee Magnoni and Hope Tillman (Babson College), who worked on the first set of the MMRLS’ bylaws, will review the current bylaws and suggest updates.
Trans-Solutions’ analysis of the state’s delivery system is underway. Analysts have ridden along on deliveries and are gathering data. This data can be put into a software package and analyzed. Trans-Solutions staff gave demonstrations of three software packages. The committee decided to purchase the $11,200 package ($9,500 purchase price plus a $1,700 one year service agreement) called Truck Stops. The cost of the software was split among the regions. All of the routes in the state will be input as they stand today then the computer works out new routes. All of the regions will own this software after the study is completed so the analysis can be performed again. Data will be updated annually by all regions. Analysts have already made some interesting discoveries through their ride-alongs. For example, some drivers have too many bins on their vans and some bins are too small. Trans-Solutions will recommend standards for size of trucks and bins. They know the drivers have good rapport with librarians and have agreements on the side. These special agreements will be documented. According to Trans-Solutions, the best time for delivery is the most convenient time for the driver.
Metrowest staff is heavily involved in the search for a new Trainer/Consultant to replace Beth Gallaway. There are some very strong candidates and second interviews are scheduled for the third week of May.
The delivery survey for April is completed. Delivery volume is up over 200,000 items or 7% from fiscal 2006.
Metrowest applied for an LSTA grant, requesting $2.6 million for an automated materials handling system pilot project. MBLC countered by requesting a revision to the original proposal for $75,000 to get a consultant to work on a business plan for the project. The MBLC will work with the regions to look for additional funding, which is not something the MBLC usually does. The business plan will be used when searching for other sources of funds.
At the Commissioners’ March meeting the board approved a small public libraries grant program to get them into library networks. For some libraries this means helping them get telecommunications. For others it means upgrading from associate network member status by providing them with subsidies through off-sets on membership fees. Most of this problem is in the central and western regions. Funding comes through the 9506 line item and grants will be made to networks and regions. Unfortunately, if there are no new funds in the 9506 line item for FY08, then MBLC cannot make any grant awards.
MBLC is working on its five year strategic plan (2008-2012) for LSTA grants. A draft of this plan is on the MBLC’s web site and the MBLC is looking for comments. This plan will be submitted to the Institute of Museum and Library Services by June 30, 2007. Updated policies and procedures should also be available on the MBLC’s web site by that date.
The Board also approved a three year marketing plan for FY2008 – FY2010 that was put forth by the MBLC Public Relations Advisory Committee at its April 5th Board meeting. It is a rolling three year plan that will be updated on a yearly basis. Among its components are objectives, target markets, market messages, strategies and tactics, evaluation, timeline and priorities, and budget. The MBLC is in the procurement phase to hire a firm to implement the plan. It is expected that a firm will be chosen in June with implementation to begin in July.
The PR Advisory Committee also made several recommendations to the Board that were adopted at the April 5th Board meeting. First, the MBLC should launch and host a separate website portal for use by the general public for online access to library databases and access to local libraries that can be used in advertising and promotion. Second, the MBLC should find other sources of funding in addition to its federal funding that can be used for library awareness or promoting programs. Last year LSTA funds were used to promote libraries but LSTA has stated that the funds must be put toward tangible things (a programmatic element), such as a web portal. Third, the MBLC needs to investigate ways to obtain state funding for library awareness and promotion.
The decision was made about the set of for databases offered by the MBLC beginning July 1, 2007. Contracts were awarded to Thomson Gale, ProQuest CSA and EBSCO Industries. Among the Thomson Gale products will be 13 periodical, biographical, reference and news databases covering an array of subjects and 23 Gale Virtual Reference library titles. ProQuest CSA will be providing 12 Massachusetts full-text newspapers (some going back to 1980), and EBSCO, its Literary Reference Center.
Meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted
Bobbie Myles, Clerk
The April Executive Board meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum. I have combined April and May activities into one report.
The job posting for the Youth Services position was sent to all appropriate lists. To date three applications have been received. Rita and I met to set the time line for interviews and demos. I have put together draft materials for the review process. The materials will be sent to the Personnel Committee. Demos will be open to the membership.
By the April 23rd deadline I had received 17 applications. Rita and I reviewed all of the applications. We are lucky to have a significant pool of candidates. Three candidates have been interviewed and a number more are scheduled.
I ran a focus group for Northeast Regional MassCat members on March 20th. This year we have spent considerable time on MassCat. Highlights will be discussed at the April Board meeting during the Strategic Plan update.
Planning continues for the Library Leadership Massachusetts 2007 Institute. The mentors have been selected and notified of their responsibilities. Most participants have submitted their paper work and the $100 fee for participation.
Two Metrowest librarians were selected for this year’s Movers and Shakers. Bonnie Peirce, Children’s Librarian at the Dover Town Library and Robin Brenner, YA Librarian at the Brookline Public Library. Bonnie attended the LSLead Institute held in 2002. And our own Beth Gallaway, a 2006 Mover & Shaker also attended the LSLead Institute held in 2002. Robin attended the YSLead Institute held in 2003. Maureen Sullivan was the facilitator for the YSLead Institutes. Maureen is also facilitating the upcoming Library Leadership Massachusetts 2007 Institute.
Legislative Breakfasts were held on March 23rd. 100 people attended the breakfasts. Thank you to Carol and Judy for their assistance in putting together the packets and to Judy for doing the nametags and designing the agenda. Rita attended the Watertown Free Library Breakfast and Beth and I attended the Millis Public Library Breakfast. See attached summary of the two breakfasts.
Judy did a site visit to Eastern Connection and met with the new contact person for our delivery. She also had a long conversation with Jack Barr. We order 250 new bins for delivery. This week is the semi-annual delivery survey.
With the semi-annual survey completed I will provide an update on delivery numbers at the May Board meeting.
I met with Eastern Connection on April 24th. It was an opportunity to meet with the new daily manager. Once again I explained the importance of daily, consistent delivery. Eastern wanted to visit all the libraries on delivery to talk about their services. I suggested that a few happy and unhappy libraries would be better. Judy will send contact information for approximately 10-15 libraries to Eastern for interviews.
I attended the MassCat Steering Committee meeting at the Central Region on April 3rd. Following the meeting we had the start-up meeting with principles from Trans-Solutions. They are doing the transportation survey for regional delivery. They have requested a ride-along on at least one route in each of the regions. In addition we will be providing them with a number of statistics about the current delivery across the state. Trans-Solutions will develop a model of the current delivery and then provide several alternative route optimizations. We anticipate that the primary work will be completed by the end of the fiscal year.
Trans-Solutions has completed more than half of the ride-alongs that they are doing as part of their field work.
The MassCat Steering Committee met May 1st at SEMLS. We reviewed the focus group results. Approximately one quarter of all MassCat members attended. Metrowest had the largest group. One comment from Metrowest MassCat members:
Some Metrowest libraries felt that the funders of MassCat place too much emphasis on ILL and wanted to be sure that the ability for libraries to have their holdings available online and to have access to MARC records were valued and worthy of funding just as much as ILL seems to be.
The MassCat Pilot Project has been significant. We have seen an increase in ILL activity from 69 ILLs in FY2006 to 616 ILLs in the same time period in FY2007 (Sept-Jan), an increase of 793%. Final numbers will be available at the end of the project in June.
I have been attending the EqualAccess library training, funded through the MBLC. This is a really interesting model for libraries to use in developing needs statements and other documentation for funding of three different programming ideas—health, youth or lifelong access. There is one more full-day session at the end of the month. Hopefully next year some Metrowest libraries will apply for funding from the MBLC on one or more of these programs.
Treasurer Cathy Lee and I developed a second budget revision for FY2007. The revision is in your packet. We will be discussing it at the meeting on Wednesday.
On April 27th the Continuing Education Committee meet to discuss and brainstorm Metrowest CE and member needs. We got their input on the upcoming CE survey. It was a very productive meeting.
I have been working on revisions to the LSTA Automated Materials Handling System grant. As anticipated there are insufficient LSTA funds to cover the $2.6 million cost of the pilot project. I have been encouraged to ask for funds to develop a business plan and specifications for an Automated Materials Handling System. Hopefully another funding source can be found to let us implement the project. SACL thanked Metrowest for pursuing a delivery solution.
Beth is at MLA all three days as coordinator of blogging the various programs. I am attending Thursday and Friday.