September 2008 Executive Committee Meeting

Date: 
2008/09/03

PINES Executive Committee Meeting

September 3, 2008
Warner Robins, GA

Minutes approved 11/19/2008


Members present: 
Marsha Christy, Lecia Eubanks, Donna Howell, Claudia Gibson, Thomas Jones, Lisa Rigsby, Richard Sanders

I. Call to order – Marsha Christy.

II. Welcome – Marsha Christy.

III. Approval of Executive Committee/Annual Meeting minutes. – Pending.

IV. Election of officers.

        Donna Howell – Secretary.
        Lecia Eubanks – Chairperson-elect.
        (Both candidates were elected by acclamation.)

V. PINES staff reports.

Budget – Julie Walker.  In a meeting with Representative Bob Smith, audits, the courier service, and budget cuts were discussed.  Representative Smith suggested that we, as librarians, think of something big for libraries to do, so the legislature can get behind it.
    This year marks the second anniversary of Evergreen – so Evergreen is in the “terrible twos”.
    The PINES staff is very hard-working, but there may be chances for miscommunication between the levels.
    Julie said “thank you” to the Executive Committee members for their work over the past year, and feels that we’ll all be doing our best to leave PINES better than we found it.

Staff update – Elizabeth McKinney.  Elaine Hardy is going to become an official part of the PINES staff.
    Introduction of Chris Sharp, System Administrator.
    PINES Help Desk assistant is to be announced.  Because the offer was still pending, there could be no formal announcement, but Elizabeth is very enthused.
    Software Development Project Manager – offer for this position is still outstanding.  Will be coordinating our priority list. 
    Katherine Gregory will be the PINES Feature Manager, coordinating “go live” projects, etc.
    Sally Murphy will be leaving at the end of September.  May be re-defining that position to add documentation and other responsibilities.  Carnegie-Mellon grant money will be used to fund Karen Schneider’s documentation of Evergreen.
    See Equinox Organizational Chart. 
    Details of contract with Equinox (including budget).
   
Delivery service – Tim Daniels.  Delivery service contract is being put out for bid a second time, since the first bidders were not able to offer a suitable bid, but there are still potential bidders.  The contract will be out for bid for 15 days.  Tim will be attending a courier conference soon.

WebJunction – Emphasis on web-conference service and tutorials through WIMBA.

Training – Katherine Gregory.  113 PINES staff trained in various classes.

Community building –  Representatives from the state library of Iowa will be coming to Atlanta for a tour, as will other schools and organizations.

Statistical reports
– Katherine Gregory.  [See handouts.]  Comment from Greg Heid:  Unique Collection Agency can’t bill for an item checked out at a non-owning library, so statistics are a little skewed.

New libraries – Katherine Gregory.  Worth County system was the easier move, but added Worth County, Catoosa County, and Quitman County to PINES over the summer.

Equinox staff reports – Introduction of Karen Schneider.  Description of her background and experience, including the military and the library field.  Experience with prioritizing and decision-making, and applying that experience to her analysis of PINES/Evergreen history.  In 2006, there were lots of transitions, which continued into 2007-2008.  Evergreen could get too PINES-specific and therefore less useful if it expands and has other unique users.
    Describes her job as “Malcolm in the Middle” – to listen to the “not fun” elements from both sides.  The Evergreen project is very unique and will therefore have real growing pains, and the growth process is still “new terrain”.
    See Gartner “Hype Cycle” diagram for new technologies.  We may currently be in the “trough of disillusionment” but should be looking forward to the upward “slope of enlightenment”.
    Are we ignoring the usefulness of Evergreen for the end user, our customers?  Karen feels that there need to be more “outward facing” improvements.
    Part of Karen’s job will be to analyze procedures for prioritizing, etc.
   
Assumptions about Evergreen that were right:

  • the open-ness of Evergreen’s open source software.
  • Library-built software is better.

Assumptions about Evergreen that were not-so right:

  • thinking that there’d be a flood of involvement and development from other community members (in reality, you get involvement, but not lots of free code).
  • informal feedback loops.  (Karen thinks there are too many… that there needs to be a more “robust” process, favoring intentionally channeled discussions rather than “organic” ones.

 
Equinox is trying for user engagement.  There’s a feeling that there needs to be more direct observation (i.e. site visits).  Weekly reports will be coming regularly again, and Equinox will be looking at the “big picture” twice a month.  There will be more community sessions, maybe monthly, or twice monthly, and there will be a central place for feature requests and “bug fixes”.

During a Q&A interval, PINES librarians said that they’d like to see an emphasis on accountability, direct observation, prioritization (fixes for existing issues vs. long-term development issues), and system speed.

Shae Tetterton was introduced.  She’s been with Equinox since June.  Her title is “Project Manager”, but she’ll be doing a little of everything.  She also has a library degree from USC. 
Equinox is working on a training session partnership project with SoliNET.

VI. Action Items. 

[See handout.]

1.  New Billing Type – Postage.
Motion to approve – Claudia Gibson.
Motion seconded – Donna Howell.
Accepted unanimously.

2.  Proposal of 2 New Circulation Modifiers – VideoGame and VideoGameLong.
Motion to approve – Lecia Eubanks.
Motion seconded – Thomas Jones.
Accepted unanimously.

3.  Soft Ceiling Holds (already developed and available in current Evergreen release).

4.  Restricting Patron Placed Holds.
    Much discussion and several questions.  Elizabeth McKinney wants the PINES staff to step back and do an overall look at Holds and possibly a more global/holistic approach to the procedure.
    Motion to table the discussion of Action Items 3 & 4 until the PINES staff has had a chance to work on and propose a permanently feasible solution, rather than vote on smaller, individual fixes – Lisa Rigsby
    Motion seconded – Claudia Gibson.
    Accepted unanimously.

5.  Charging Patrons for Holds.
    Motion to accept subcommittee recommendation (“No”) – Lecia Eubanks.
    Motion seconded – Claudia Gibson.
    Accepted unanimously.

Proposed question:  Daugherty County wants to add a patron profile for Payment Plan customers, people who are paying fees/fines over time, to keep collection agencies from pursuing payment from the patron.
    Motion to refer the question to the appropriate subcommittee – Lecia Eubanks.
    Motion seconded – Claudia Gibson.
    Accepted unanimously.

VII. Discussion Items. 

[See handout.]

PINES Policy Change Proposals.
    Committee chose to take no action on this item.

Proposal for PINES Subcommittee Discussions of Policy Changes.

    Motion to retain discussion as it is, but with specifically-assigned number designations(?) – Lisa Rigsby.
    Motion seconded – Thomas Jones.
    Accepted Unanimously.

VIII. Old Business. - None.

IX. New Business. - None.

X. Next meeting.

The first week in November was proposed, date and location TBA.

XI. Adjournment.

Respectfully submitted,
Richard Sanders – Secretary