Minutes of the 2/4/2010 MHLS Directors Association Meeting.
Meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by Julie Kelsall-Dempsey.
Present
Columbia County: Luisa Sabin-Kildiss Chatham, Sally Alderdice Claverack, Carol Briggs Hillsdale, Corey Fleming Hudson, Julie Hamrah Johnson Kinderhook, Jeanne Bogino New Lebanon, Vicki Kurashige North Chatham, Karen Garafalo Philmont
Dutchess County: Phyllis Keaton Beacon, Carole Rodriguez Beekman, Terry Sennett Clinton Corners, Susan Totter Dover Plains, Gloria Goverman East Fishkill, Julie Spann Fishkill, Gregory Callahan Hyde Park, Lisa Karim LaGrange, Nancy Rogers Millbrook, Robert P. Reilly Pawling, Marguerite Hill Pine Plains, Daniela Pulice Pleasant Valley, Tom Lawrence Poughkeepsie, Tom Lawrence Arlington Branch, Mary Anna Egan Red Hook, Steven Cook Rhinebeck, Joanne Meyer Rhinecliff, Erica Freudenberger Staatsburg, Arlene Christiansen Stanford, Bonny Corrado Tivoli, Matthew Pfisterer Wappingers Falls
Greene County: Debra Kamecke Cairo, Tracy J.Priest Palenville, Linda Deubert Coxsackie
Putnam County: Jean Buck Carmel, Gillian Thorpe Cold Spring, Frank Rees Kent, Patricia Kaufman Mahopac, Kathleen McLaughlin Putnam Valley
Ulster County: Kelly Tomaseski Esopus, Julie Kelsall-Dempsey Highland Clintondale Branch, Margie Menard Kingston, James Cosgrove Marlboro, Laurie Coccio Milton, John Giralico New Paltz, Tracy Priest Phoenicia, Faith Johnson Town of Ulster, Amy Raff Woodstock
Mid-Hudson Library System: Josh Cohen, Christina Linder, Merribeth Advocate, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Laurie Shedrick
Action Items
S. Cook moved that the minutes of the previous meeting be approved.
T. Lawrence seconded and the motion passed.
Congratulations to A. Raff, new director at Woodstock, and T. Priest, new director at Phoenicia.
MHLS Reports
MHLS Executive Director’s Report Josh Cohen
A written report was circulated in advance of the meeting.
Lobby Day: Reminder that NYLA Lobby Day is coming up on 3/2.
E-Rate: Libraries planning to apply for E-Rate beyond basic telephone should have their technology plans submitted to MHLS by the end of March.
Food at Meetings: Since budget issues are so severe, some questions have been raised regarding food being provided for MHLS meetings. The cost is about $1000 per year. The DA agreed that MHLS should continue to provide food for appropriate meetings.
MHLS Board Liaison Report Frank Reese
The last meeting was 1/9.
Plan of Service: Reviewed.
Gates grant: Discussed.
Search Committee: Makeup of the committee was discussed. The board wants all counties represented and would like a good mix of men and women.
The next meeting is scheduled for 3/13.
Advisory Committee Reports
Central Library/Collection Development
No meeting. No report. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/22.
Continuing Education/Professional Development
No meeting. No report. The next meeting is scheduled for 4/23.
Marketing and Program
No meeting. No report. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/24.
Resource Sharing
The last meeting was 1/14.
A written report was circulated in advance of the meeting. This will be discussed under New Business.
The next meeting is scheduled for 5/18.
Consultant Activities
Outreach & Education Coordinator Merribeth Advocate
A written report was circulated in advance of the meeting.
Annual report: Thank you to the four libraries that have already submitted their reports. MHLS is receiving many calls each day from directors working on their reports. A few libraries have not yet logged in. Merribeth urges them to do so.
Paper for Workshop Notices: Traditionally workshop notices are printed on yellow paper, which costs more than regular paper, and a question has been raised whether these should be printed on regular paper. The yellow was chosen to make workshop notices easily recognizable. The difference in price is $90 per case. There was a suggestion that notices be sent via email, then directors could print and distribute them. The DA agreed to continue using yellow paper for the notices.
Benefits, Leave, & Salary Survey: This has been completed by about half the member libraries. If anyone needs to correct errors in the survey, contact Merribeth.
Health Information Project: Last week in February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Mailings have been sent out to 185 participants.
Coordinator for Library Growth and Sustainability Rebekkah Smith Aldrich
A written report was circulated in advance of the meeting.
MHLS Listserv Switch to Google Groups: This will save $1200 per year.
Instructions for the switch will be distributed and will hopefully be foolproof. If anyone has issues, Rebekkah or Julie Johnson can help.
WOMM Project: The first month of WOM marketing more than doubled the number of people subscribed to Hudson Valley Reads.
www.protectnylibraries.org: New website created by NYLA to help gain support for Lobby Day. It sends a consolidated message throughout the state that libraries are necessary and important. It features an online petition which is statewide. Nice one stop shop for getting out information to trustees, friends, and patrons about the budget cuts.
Valuation of System Services for 2010 Advocacy Season: Distributed at meeting. This spread sheet addresses value, not cost, determined as follows: if you couldn’t get MHLS to do something, how much would it cost to have someone else do it? There was discussion around whether this is the best approach or if a straight cost report would be more useful. One suggestion was that a 4th column be added breaking out specific cost, value, and actual savings. Josh requested that directors look over the spread sheet and ask questions if necessary.
Good news: The state did not touch the construction money. MHLS will host the annual workshop on 4/22 from 10:30 am to 12 pm. That same afternoon at 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm they will offer a second workshop, “Greening Your Library.”
This Year’s Construction Grants: Notifications will be issued soon, hopefully by the end of the month.
Youth Services Coordinator Christina Linder
County Youth Bureaus: Christina has participated in 4 out of 5 counties youth bureau groups. Groups contain youth workers from all over the counties and from many different functions.
Automated Systems Manager Laurie Shedrick
SAM: Adriance has made changes to how they use SAM which are affecting everyone. Patrons whose “Birthdate” field contains hyphens with no number are creating error messages. Hopefully this will be corrected soon. Resource sharing will look at entering a specific date in the “Birthdate” field, which would change the policy from birth decade.
There still are some patrons who refuse to give this info.
Computers In Libraries Conference: SELRC can get a 50 % discount for this conference.
Mandatory Millennium Holds Training: A session will be held at MHLS on 3/11. The Patterson session will be 3/12. This is stated incorrectly in the report, although the yellow workshop sheet is correct.
Spring cleaning of item and bibliographic records: This is rolling out next week.
System Funding Task Force
No meeting. No report.
The next meeting is scheduled for 2/8.
Ad Hoc Committee discussing DA and Advisory Committees
A written report was circulated in advance of the meeting.
This committee Formed to discuss DA meetings and decision making process. The committee will meet again if needed.
Advisory committees: There was discussion around whether participation should be based on expertise as well as on counties. Some directors choose not to be on committees, so the pool is smaller pool than full DA. There was a suggestion that advisory committees should have a quorum, or they can’t meet.
Break Out Groups: The DA tried out the suggested breakout groups. In the future, this will be noted on the agenda. Subject of small group meetings was “What do we want in a director?” These groups worked very well and were helpful in gathering input from everyone. Tables set up in advance would be helpful.
Old Business
Courtesy Notice Wording: Agenda attachment was circulated at meeting.
Patrons whose cards are about to expire will not be notified, although this is forthcoming. Rollout on March 1. Patrons will not be able to block these notices based on who it’s coming from because that would also block overdue notices. The rollout will be postponed until this issue is fixed. The item will go back to the Resource Sharing Committee.
Collection Agency: Agenda attachment circulated at meeting. Total cost will be $18500. Innovative will honor the fact that Adriance has already spent $5000 on this model and will apply to the consortia cost. Total cost will be $18500. Not every library needs to buy in.
System wide reports could be sent back to the collection agency and used to bill the appropriate libraries. The collections module can filter only by P-Type or Home Library, not by individual item. There are two separate products: Unique, which goes after patrons, and the Triple I collections module. It is possible to use Unique without using the module.
If a patron has items due from another library, the owning library can notify Unique directly if the lending library has opted out. The DA expressed a desire for the process to be more item specific. There was a recommendation to do a baseline study to see where libraries are now. If this is not done in advance, there will be no way to see how much impact these products have. Regarding the Millennium module, individual rules can be set up for different libraries but Unique recommends that we come to consensus.
$25 amount is chosen because that amount is needed to make a credit report.
The $18500 will either come from the capital fund or billed to individual libraries, depending on how many libraries opt in. An action form will be circulated to see who’s interested. This will be discussed at the March meeting.
Overdrive Rollout: Agenda attachment was circulated at meeting.
Content is loaded.
In March, Overdrive will be the WOMM focus.
New Proposed Business & Information
Patron Record Purge: Agenda attachment was circulated at meeting.
There was a suggestion that patrons who don’t owe money at all be the only ones affected by the purge. This may be a large enough number of patrons to have a significant impact, then a second pass could be performed if needed. This will go to an action item and be voted on in March.
Steering Committee: needs a Greene county representative.
Catskill Library: has no director. A trustee will formulate a communication to MHLS, Catskill staff, and Greene county to explain what the structure will be during this time.
Battle of the Books packages: are here and should be picked up.
Adjournment
S. Cook moved to adjourn the meeting. M. Egan seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 11:49 pm.
Respectfully Submitted:
Jeannie Bogino
New Lebanon Library