May 20, 2009 – OIIT, Athens, GA
Call to Order – Marsha Christy, Chair
Members attending were Marsha Christy, Thomas Jones, Lisa Rigsby, Jeff Tomlinson, Lecia Eubanks, Claudia Gibson, Richard Sanders, Donna Howell, and Nancy Tillinghast (by phone). Marsha thanked Jeff, Lisa, and Richard for their service as they are rotating off the EC. She also thanked members for their service during her tenure as chair and she will hand the duties over to Lecia after this meeting.
Welcome – Marsha Christy, Chair
Approval of November 19, 2008 Meeting Minutes
Lecia made and Claudia seconded a motion to approve the minutes. Motion carried
Executive Committee Action Items
- AI1. Proposal to add a new patron profile of “Staff” that does not charge for overdues and has no permissions assigned to it. Lecia made and Richard seconded a motion to accept the subcommittee’s recommendation to approve this proposal. Motion carried.
- AI2. Proposal to block patrons from renewing if they have fines of $10.00. There was much discussion on whether this would punish some users with large numbers of checkouts just a day or two overdue and other scenarios. Also much discussion on whether this would make renewing of items consistent with other library use, like checkouts. Lecia made and Richard seconded a motion to return this item to the circulation subcommittee for a recommendation. Motion carried.
- AI3. Proposal to delete all unfilled holds older than 9 months. George Tuttle provided a report on dates of holds. After some discussion, Jeff made and Lecia seconded a motion not to approve this proposal as the holds will expire after 180 days in new Evergreen release without any action. Motion carried.
- AI4. Proposal to add a new patron profile called “Retired Staff”. Lisa made and Claudia seconded a motion not to approve this proposal. Motion carried.
- AI5. Proposal to have a PINES policy on the number of days items owned from outside of the library system remain on the holds shelf. Lisa made and Jeff seconded a motion to limit the number of days that items from outside the local library system should be held on the holds shelf to seven (7) open business days. Motion carried.
- AI6. Should we allow for a new patron profile that would not charge out of state patrons and would block hold placement? After discussion, Lisa made and Lecia seconded a motion to accept the subcommittee recommendation not to approve this proposal. Motion carried.
- AI7 Should we stop placing an age protection on books? Claudia made and Lisa seconded a motion to accept the subcommittee recommendation not to approve this proposal. Motion carried.
- AI8 Should we add a new fine level of “No-Fines”? This item would primarily impact the new GLASS (State Lib B) facility, but could apply to any library not wising to charge overdue fines. Lecia made and Claudia seconded a motion to approve the subcommittee recommendation to approve this proposal. Motion carried.
- AI9. Proposal to remove the limit on the number of bibliographic formats that PINES member libraries can outsource for original cataloging. Bin Lin explained the need for this. , Lisa made and Thomas seconded a motion to approve this proposal. Motion carried
- AI10. Proposal for partnerships with other types of libraries. This item had not yet been referred to subcommittee for review. Lisa made and Jeff seconded a motion to refer this proposal to the appropriate subcommittees for consideration. Motion carried.
- Approval of new PINES Subcommittee Members. The list of nominees was distributed. Thomas made and Lisa seconded a motion to approve the list as submitted. Thanks to all who agreed to serve.
Executive Committee Discussion Items
- Pines Policy on Patron Records. It has been reported that the PINES patron database has been used for purposes other than PINES transactions initiated by library patrons. Some examples given were county mailings, Friends of Libraries solicitations, and unsolicited e-mail communications from the library staff. Julie Walker indicated that she had spoken with the BOR legal department and they have indicated that in their opinion that state and federal privacy laws prevent use of PINES patron records for any business other than library transactions initiated by the patron. Lisa made and Lecia seconded a motion that the Executive Committee issue a statement reminding all PINES libraries of the confidentiality of patron information. Lecia, as incoming EC Chair, will work with Julie regarding correct legal terminology for the statement. Motion carried.
Old Business
- Lecia asked for clarification on the wrapping of PINES items. Dawn Dale indicated that library staff should use common sense when packaging all materials for shipment – all materials should be treated the same as each library would want their own materials handled. There have been only a half dozen damage claims in the past year. Please continue to report any improperly packaged items or damages to materials regardless of packaging to Dawn.
New Business
- Kathryn Ames asked if PINES would ever consider using an ILS other than Evergreen since more choices, even in open source, are becoming available -like OCLC’s new product. Elizabeth McKinney reported that Equinox/Evergreen is under a five year contract with PINES that is subject to the same purchasing requirements as other vendors. Tim Daniels indicated that he was monitoring the development of other ILS systems to see what other options exist.
- Dr. Veatch Remarks. Dr. Veatch had some general updates. He had been involved in the weekly update regarding federal stimulus funds for broadband. To date $7.2 billion has been appropriate for this purpose. GPLS is hoping to coordinate with BOR to get fiber optic networks into libraries – especially if proximity to BOR institutions allows libraries being added to existing networks. With the change to high definition video requiring five times the bandwidth as current video T-1 lines will not be adequate. E-rate currently covers 80% of the cost of our T-1s but it will not cover fiber. Coordinating with existing networks to increase bandwidth without increasing telecommunications costs is critical. Dr. Veatch asked librarians to contact legislators to ask for their support for these projects. He also reported on major changes to OCLC governance and regional representation.
Next Meeting
As the next Director’s meeting is September 17 & 18 at Spout Springs Library in Flowery Branch, The EC will meet on September 16 at Spout Springs Library. Elizabeth will coordinate with the library to arrange meeting room space and time.
Adjournment
As there was no further business, Marsha adjourned the meeting.
Signed,
Donna W. Howell
PINES Executive Committee Secretary