February 2008 Executive Committee Meeting
PINES Executive Committee meeting
February 13, 2008
Locust Grove Library – Locust Grove, GA
Minutes approved 5/15/2008
Committee members attending: Marsha Christy, Carolyn Fuller, Claire Leavy, Lisa Rigsby, Lois Roberts, Richard Sanders, Joe Shinnick, Nancy Tillinghast.
Committee members attending by teleconference: Claudia Gibson, Donna Howell.
Technical facilitator: Tim Daniels.
Motion to approve the minutes of the December 12th meeting – Lois Roberts.
Motion seconded – Marsha Christy.
Motion carried.
PINES Staff Reports
Thanks to Carolyn Fuller for hosting the meeting.
Delivery Service – Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
See handout – “Analysis of Intra-PINES Loan Data”.
GPLS has met their reduction goal as agreed.
Average transit time – lowest was in March/April of 2007. The current contract stipulates a 2-3 day transit time. Performance has improved to current level of 12.75 days.
There was a meeting with a DOAS representative to help tweak the RFP for the new courier contract. This was a very productive meeting, with good ideas from DOAS.
Question, re: “Downstream shipping” – Greg Heid believes that this has improved service.
Regarding the development of an “in-house” courier service, Tim Daniels described his efforts, working with a group of students (dual Master’s students with Georgia Tech and the University of Singapore) to examine ways of making the routes more efficient. Should be finished by April or May with recommendations on logistics of routes, warehouses, etc. Also doing research on “green” vans. Projected costs so far are comparable to the current service. There have been volunteers to work on the study, and a meeting schedule is pending. Some interest has been expressed by the University System of Georgia, and they will have a representative in the study committee, as will non-PINES libraries.
Introduction: Dr. Bob Molyneux – former professor at the University of South Carolina, now master statistician from Equinox.
Budget – David Singleton
See handout – “FY08 PINES Budget”.
There have been big expenditures, though there may be some money back from Equinox when GPLS has a systems administrator. Since there’s been no increase in PINES funding since 2003, GPLS has had to use LSTA money this year, mainly for the courier service. GPLS remains hopeful about the Governor’s recommendation for an additional $500K for PINES.
Note: Legislators need to be reminded of how helpful this $500K will be. Dr. Molyneux recommends showing how impressive the usage/growth statistics are.
WebJunction – David Singleton
WebJunction is now a joint venture for OCLC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be starting WebJunction Georgia soon, with online learning opportunities, with the possibility of expansion into online PINES training. An advisory committee will probably be forming soon, drawing members from public, school, and university libraries.
Staff Update – Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
PINES is still looking for a Systems Administrator, as well as a Software Development Manager, and will be creating a Help Desk position, dedicated to working on PINES issues. Equinox is looking for staff, as well.
Software Development - Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
See handout - “Evergreen Software Development Report - February 13, 2008”.
Please note on page 4, the paragraph titled “Policy Concerns” – a vote may be required for some issues.
The “Lee-Dougherty County Proposal” is in progress.
See handout – “Evergreen – GPLS TO DO List”.
The list was reorganized after the Lake Blackshear Regional Library System went live.
The GALILEO login is still having problems.
The OCLC upload feature is in the works and is very close to compliance level.
Training – Katherine Gregory
Bin Lin has conducted three cataloging training sessions since December 12th, and there will be additional cataloging (and reports) training coming up in March and/or April. Training sessions will also be added at Lake Blackshear Regional.
Katherine asked for suggestions for training opportunities at the PINES annual meeting in May. Bin Lin wants to do Library of Congress subject heading training in May, as well.
On February 22nd, a small group will be holding a “ReportsFest” in Covington, creating templates and a “wish list” of reports enhancements. They welcome suggestions.
Community building – Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
There is an academic library group in New Jersey interested in PINES, as well as the Michigan Library Consortium.
A library group from Indiana has brought an online credit card processing enhancement to PINES, an enhancement that will be moved up the priority list.
Tim Daniels made a PINES presentation to the Second Life online community.
There is a FaceBook presence for Evergreen.
David Singleton will be speaking at the Canadian Library Association/IFLA conference.
Tim Daniels will be speaking at a pre-conference in Charleston, SC.
There have been several presentations at state library association meetings.
GPLS and the PINES/Evergreen staff are partnering with SoliNET for an Evergreen conference which is still on track for the second week in November 2008 (Wednesday through Friday).
Dusty Gres will be doing a presentation at the Association of Rural & Small Libraries conference in Sacramento, CA in September.
Statistical reports – Katherine Gregory
See handouts – “PINES Overdue Materials” & “IntraPINES Holds, January 2006 – January 2008”.
Circulation is up, but overdues are up, as well.
See handout – “IntraPINES Loans by Systems Q4 Oct – Dec 2007”.
New Libraries – Katherine Gregory & Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
Lake Blackshear went live in a new location (their temporary quarters, following tornado damage to the Americus facility). It was an “interesting” day.
No new libraries are coming online, but there may be some shifting within systems.
PINES Bags & Equipment Order – Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
The new shipment will consist only of large bags.
Nicole Lewis is coordinating a group purchase of receipt printers (the opinion was expressed that thermal printers are lots better) and hand-held scanners within a week.
Helpdesk – Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
Elizabeth has looked at some new software, but we can’t afford an entirely new product, so we’re just looking at ways to improve the current system.
Out of 1794 Helpdesk tickets in 2007, 1211 were PINES-related.
Follow-up from December Meeting - Elizabeth McKinney de Garcia
First of the cataloging sub-committee meetings will be at the PINES annual meeting in May.
“Town hall meetings” have not been scheduled yet.
“The Lee/Dougherty Proposal” is moving forward.
Executive Committee Action Items
See handout – “Discussion/Action Items – February 2008”
1. Hold Expiration plus Recommended Schema
Motion by Lisa Rigsby to accept the subcommittee recommendation.
Motion seconded by Claire Leavy.
Discussion – Software modification would still be required. Would there be notification to the library and to the patron that Holds were about to expire? Would the expiration date be modifiable? The patron account screen would show a Hold expiration date.
VOTE – Carried unanimously.
2. Proposal of 2 New Circulation Modifiers
Motion by Lisa Rigsby to accept two new categories.
Motion seconded by Lois Roberts.
Discussion – Patron confusion or patron abuse of differing circulation policies. David Singleton said he would hope that policy would be consistent within systems.
VOTE – Carried unanimously.
3. Blocking Holds.
Motion by Carolyn Fuller to accept the subcommittee recommendation.
Motion seconded by Nancy Tillinghast.
Discussion – This was a very popular idea with the subcommittee.
VOTE – Carried unanimously.
Discussion Items
Overdrive Downloadable Media
A group of libraries that are buying into Overdrive are meeting to discuss their policies for circulation. These libraries are Athens Regional, Bartow County, Chestatee Regional, East Central Georgia Regional, Houston County, Lake Blackshear Regional, Lee County, Live Oak Regional, Mountain Regional, Roddenbery Memorial, South Georgia Regional, Statesboro Regional, Thomas County, Three Rivers Regional, and Troup-Harris Regional.
Libraries will have a link to Overdrive servers to download audios from offsite computers. They hope for this service to be up and running in April.
Consortium libraries are divided into four payment categories. Half of the payment is the user fee. Half is for materials selection. There will be a collection development committee to come up with a cohesive collection. Payment and joining policies will be discussed by the consortium.
Downloadables are “owned” by the library – it is not a lease, and publicity materials are likely to be made available.
Proposed Change to “Intent to Participate” Agreement
See handout – “Proposed wording to add to PINES Membership Agreement/Strategies for a Quality Database”
“In order to achieve and maintain a quality PINES database, the library system wishing to become a PINES member library will follow the guidelines outlined in “Strategies for a Quality Database” and agree to database cleanup in order to increase the match ration for records between their database and the existing PINES database.”
Carolyn Fuller endorsed the “Strategies for a Quality Database”. Much discussion followed, but there was universal acknowledgment of the need for quality records. This item will be voted on by the PINES member libraries at the annual meeting in May.
Motion by Joe Shinnick to recommend that official standards be developed and put in place for records being entered by new systems joining PINES, in support of the official vote by the PINES membership.
Motion seconded by Nancy Tillinghast.
VOTE – Not required (?)
Old Business
None.
New Business
None.
Next Meeting
The next Executive Committee meeting will be held in Warner Robins at 9:00 AM, prior to the meeting of the entire PINES membership.
Adjournment
Motion by Carolyn Fuller to adjourn.
Motion seconded by Lisa Rigsby.
VOTE – Carried unanimously.
