The Library Network Newsletter May 02, 2011 Page 2 - Job - (3) Library Assistants / Shelvers - Novi, MI Page 5 - SAS Executive Committee March 2011 page 1 / 1
Shared Automation System Users Group Executive Committee Meeting Minutes March 10, 2011 2:00 p.m. Livonia Civic Center Library The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. Present: Dolores Hayen (2:05), Paul McCann, Celia Morse, Angie Michelini, Anne Neville, Teresa Powers, Donna Rickabaugh, Ed Rutkowski (2:11) Heather Sturm, Holly Teasdle, Absent: Betty Farhat, Maria McCarville Others present: Julie Farkas Morse called for additions to the agenda. No additional were requested. Teasdle moved to approve the agenda. Second by Powers. A vote was taken. Aye=all, nay=none, 4 absent. Motion carried. Morse called for corrections to the minutes from the February 10, 2011 Executive Committee meeting. No corrections were requested. Hayden moved to approve the minutes from the February 10, 2011 meeting. Second by Rickabaugh. A vote was taken. Aye=all, nay=none, 3 absent. Motion carried. Reports Budget Neville provided a handout covering the SAS budget from October 2010 through the end of January 2011. Neville noted all budget lines are within expectations, nothing is currently out of balance and that any budget lines with significant expenditures had been discussed by Ex-Comm at previous meetings. Neville continued the discussion from the previous meeting regarding the SIRSI maintenance agreement by recapping SIRSI s terms. The vendor is asking TLN to commit to a longer term maintenance agreement in order to guarantee fixed contract rate increases. A three year contract would guarantee a 6% increase, a five year contract would guarantee a 4.5% increase and a seven year contract would guarantee a 3% increase. The members at the last SASUG meeting commented on wanting a longer term contract to help minimize costs. Neville noted the current year maintenance agreement rose 8.5% over the previous year. Neville discussed the rate increase with the SIRSI Library Relations Manager, but received little satisfaction as to bargaining room. She also discussed the issue with TLN s SIRSI sales representative with similar lack of success. Neville distributed a rate comparison sheet showing past rate increases. SIRSI was willing to provide an additional 50% discount on the Enterprise software maintenance agreement if SASUG would sign the standard agreement for five or more years and noted we may be able to get a reduction on director s station
maintenance. SIRSI s legal department will provide Neville with a final contract that will outline any penalties for early termination should we migrate to a different vendor. Morse questioned SIRSI s overall justification for the steep rate increase for maintenance. Neville said that SIRSI applied a complicated formula based on titles in the TLN catalog and many other factors. The committee discussed the pros and cons of the various maintenance agreement term lengths, including SAS s timeline for selection of new system. Morse noted that we do not know what will be the state of systems in five years. The committee agreed there needed to be protections for the SAS group, not just penalties imposed by SIRSI. No Ex-Comm members had been approached individually by SASUG members with concerns for longer contract. Morse will send an e-mail to the SAS distribution list outlining the maintenance agreement terms, lengths and ask for opinion. Hayden noted that Ex-Comm made the decision to delay looking at new systems and noted we should consider what timeline was set forth when considering maintenance agreement terms. Sturm noted SASUG/Ex-Comm could look at any penalties as part of the cost of moving to new system, Hayden moved that Neville should pursue the SIRSI maintenance agreement for both the three and five year terms. Second by McCann. A vote was taken. Aye=all, nay=none, 2 absent. Motion carried. McCann noted company buyout or product decommissioning should be included by TLN s attorneys as possible ways to exit the maintenance agreement for SAS. The group raised concerns regarding financial pressure on local libraries and whether some libraries would face closure and hence affect the maintenance agreement. It was noted that SLC recently signed a three year maintenance agreement with SIRSI. Neville will contact group to ask if there are any changes needed to deal with Troy non-resident patrons. TLN Board Meeting - McCarville was absent and no report was submitted prior to the Ex-Comm meeting. Symphony Update Neville reported the safe for the backup tapes has been moved from the Southgate Library to the Novi library. Documentation for delivery drivers is currently being prepared. Neville also reported that the Directors Station updates are too large for the old server to handle and the old server will be decommissioned within the next six weeks The issue of changing Library Policy names to include delivery numbers was revisited. Neville reviewed the SIRSI quote to reconcile pre/post change statistics in Director s Station but SIRSI is still a bit unclear regarding the effects of the change. Neville needs more time to prepare a full review of the impact. Morse noted it was not wise to create a new problem to solve an old problem. No members of the committee reported receiving urgent requests from SASUG members to implement the Library Policy name changes. Several of the larger transiting libraries were represented at the meeting and reported no difficulties with the current format. The group s consensus was that the Library Policy name changes to include delivery numbers was more of a convenience than a necessity. Powers noted it would have an impact on reducing delivery errors. The group will continue discussion of this topic.
TLN Network Update - Michelini reported the new systems administrator, Mark Teschker, has been hired started work at TLN on Monday, March 7. Michelini is currently reviewing applications for the part-time technology specialist position. Michelini reported that the VPN upgrade at Hazel Park was finalized on March 10. VPN at Walled Lake will be installed during the next two weeks. The e-rate telecommunications RFP committee has been finalized. Committee members include Tina Hatch, Michael McCaffery, Martin Smith, Frank Ferguson and Melanie Bell and the first RFP committee meeting will be on May 10. Michelini asked that committee members email her any ideas for new three year technology plan. Michelini also reported that Berkley will be upgrading to 5mb fiber, Livonia will be upgrading connection speeds at all branches, Chelsea will increase to a to 20mb circuit and that Ypsilanti, Allen Park and Oak Park will also be upgrading their circuits. Madison Heights and Trenton are investigating moving to fiber as part of cooperative projects with their respective cities and city complex buildings. Michelini reviewed the Barnes and Noble Nook demo. The presentation was a huge success, but lack of discounts has resulted in low order numbers. Michelini will need a minimum of 30 Nooks ordered to get the discount. Barnes and Noble will not provide any discount on the Nookcolor. Michelini is also investigating an ipad demo day. Michelini also reported on upcoming technology related events including March 29 Joomla Training at Northville; April 19 3M RFID presentation at Salem-South Lyon; May 17 ITG RFID presentation at Plymouth and June 8 SAM User Group meeting at Novi. Unfinished Business Update on Library Anywhere mobile application for mobile devices Neville asked the Committee to review the app prior to the meeting. Powers used it through Firefox and found some bugs with multiple searching. She reported that the app seems to retain searches and pull up previous results. No significant bugs were reported from other members. Neville reported the cost would be $4620 for the entire SAS group and noted the live app (in use at other library systems) works better than demo. Neville also noted that it would work best if all SAS members were participating. Rickabaugh moved to seek a three contract for library anywhere mobile app with the cost being covered by the capital reserve fund. Second by Sturm. Morse noted that the cost for a three year contract would exceed the $10,000 cap on expenditures and need TLN Board approval. McCann noted apps are always being developed and augmented so perhaps a shorter term would be better. Neville will find out cost for a third year. A vote was taken. Aye=all, nay=none, 2 absent. Motion carried. New Business At Hayden s request, the Committee discussed ways to reduce the number of items being sent through delivery. Morse noted that North Chicago cut in half their number of items transited between locations by limiting hold requests to the home library if a copy is owned by a patron s home library. In this scenario, available items would not be sent and a patron would wait for in turn for the home library copy to become available. Morse also asked if there was a way for SIRSI to return better sort general subject searches so items owned locally would rise to the top of the search results list. Neville noted the web interface to the catalog could be changed to
default the initial search to this library (rather than all ) in order to restrict the returned results to each specific local library. Hayden noted LVCC gets many items in delivery that LVCC owns and are currently available when the hold is tripped. There was discussion of forming a committee to investigate ways to reduce the volume of delivery. Sturm cautioned against making decisions on behalf of the patron and allowing patrons the widest access possible to the system. McCann noted his concerns that curtailing the ability to borrow from other libraries somewhat defeats the shared nature of the system and individual library participation. Neville and Sturm will inquire about this topic at the SIRSI user s conference. Other Matters The Committee discussed the recent reciprocal agreement between the Dearborn and Dearborn Heights libraries. Sturm presented an outline of the process and benefits to both libraries as submitted by Michael McCaffrey. The Committee discussed concerns regarding selfcheck machines, patron profiles, hold limits and non-residents. It became evident that the Nonresident user profiles are not used uniformly and/or mean different things at individual libraries. The Committee asked if a new user profile could be created to better define nonresidents especially as there are several other issues or potential issues on the horizon Troy closing, questions about the viability of Ecorse and Romulus, etc.) Neville did not think that would solve the issue. Hayden asked if non-residents could be blocked from placing holds on materials from other libraries. Neville noted the barred status would enable that, but would prevent the non-residents from using any library. She noted there is no good solution to allow Dearborn residents access to the Dearborn Heights (and only Dearborn Heights) collection. She noted that Dearborn Heights is using the most restrictive user profile. The Committee asked Anne to monitor circulation statistics and report back on the volume. Hayden moved to adjourn the meeting. Second by Powers. Aye=all, nay=none, 2 absent. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 4:44 pm. Please note the change in venue: The next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. The Library Network 41365 Vincenti Ct. Novi MI 48375 Respectfully submitted, Paul McCann Recording Secretary