Massachusetts Library System Executive Board Meeting Minutes September 24, 2012

The meeting of the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) at the Marlborough office was called to order at approximately 1:04 p.m. by Dee Magnoni, President. Present: MLS Executive Board Members: William Adamczyk, Vicky Biancolo (by phone @1:21), Charlotte Canelli, Cathy Collins (by phone @1:21), Tim Gerolami, Betty Johnson, Deborah Kelsey (1:11), Dee Magnoni, Jean Maguire, Margot Malachowski, Patrick Marshall, Sarah Watkins Ex-officio- Greg Pronevitz, MLS Ex. Director; Rob Maier, MBLC (by phone); Gianna Gifford, LFC Guests: Catherine Utt, Carolyn Noah, Kelly Woodside Minutes from August meeting approved. Motion-Patrick; Second-Tim. Unanimous. Budget Committee Report/Recommendations fy2014 Budget Change made to FY14 Budget that was presented in August; the space rental/electricity increased by $4000. Plan of Service and Strategic Plan now match up in regards to core services. Motion to approve Plan of Service and FY14 Budget with changes to space rental. Motion-Patrick; Second-Margot. Vote: 8-0-1 Newspaper Procurement Greg is waiting for a response from NewsBank regarding a request for a more affordable pricing model for state-wide access. Price based on actual use, not total potential usage. Based on past usage, this service is not as highly used as other products. Every effort is being made to provide this newspaper access to all. It needs to be a sustainable model or MLS cannot go ahead. 7% of all libraries, 20% of publics pledged towards paying for NewsBank. If this negotiation is successful, member libraries will be expected to fully fund NewsBank access after a couple of years and MLS will continue to do the negotiating. Statistics for past and current usage will give benchmarks for price increases. Plan for state-wide menu with geo-location. Greg asks for an exception to the 2 meeting requirement for funding requests in order to be prepared to move quickly when NewsBank’s response is given. Motion to accept request to allocate $270,000 from FY13 Online Content line item to negotiate with NewsBank and ProQuest and waive 2 meeting requirement for funding request. Motion-Patrick; Second-Deborah. Vote: unanimous (in person members) Personnel Committee Recommendation – CORI Policy At this time, BiblioTemps® performs CORI checks upon request for its clients. Only three have been requested to date. A policy must be in place shortly to enable future checks. Dept. of Justice template was used to formulate proposed MLS policy. Kelly Woodside and Carolyn Noah are trained in CORI procedure. Motion to adopt proposed MLS CORI Policy. Motion-Patrick; Second-Will. Unanimous. Nominating Committee Report Cathy Collins – Sharon High School-4 months, filling out Barbara Lichtman’s term Brian Tata – Leominster High School-4 months, filling out Sue Wargo’s term Motion to accept Cathy and Brian to fill out remaining 4 month terms. Motion-Jean; Second-Tim. Unanimous. Cathy Collins – Sharon High School (3 years Ellen MJ Keane – UMass Lowell (3 years) Bert Saul – Simpson Gumpertz and Heger (3 years) Brian Tata – Leominster High School (2 years) John Walsh – Newton Free Library (3 years) Motion to accept slate. Motion-Jean; Second-Tim. Unanimous.

Betty Johnson for Secretary Margot Malachowski for Treasurer Will Adamczyk for Vice President/President Elect Motion to accept officer nominations. Motion-Jean; Second-Patrick. Unanimous. Legislative agenda budget request for FY14 “The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) requests a 12 percent funding increase in fy2014 to provide adequate resources to meet three critical strategic objectives from our new strategic plan. This budgetary target is the first step toward a 30-35 percent increase, which would be necessary to bring MLS services to the 2009 level and provide adequate services to 1,700 libraries across the Commonwealth.

1. Providing assistance to libraries in meeting the skyrocketing demand for electronic content. 2. Expanding practical options for Massachusetts libraries to share physical library materials. 3. Providing valued services to all libraries throughout the Commonwealth.

The Massachusetts Library System’s (MLS) funding request for a 12 percent budget increase in fy2014, i.e., $843,000, would provide adequate resources to provide substantial assistance to libraries throughout the Commonwealth in all of these areas.”-MBLC September meeting Meeting schedule for 2013 Jan 14 2013 – Location TBD Feb 11 2013 – Marlborough Mar 18 2013 – Marlborough Apr 22 2013 – Whately

May 20 2013 – Marlborough June 17 2013 – Marlborough July 22 2013 – Whately Aug 19 2013 – Marlborough

Sep 16 2013 – Marlborough Oct 21 2013 – Whately Nov 4 2013 –Holy Cross Dec 9 2013 - Marlborough

January meeting will be at Marlborough. Discussed scheduling one meeting per year at BPL-perhaps on Library Legislative Day. Conflict with NELA for October meeting-perhaps move to earlier in Oct at Whately office. Catherine will check on details and provide updated schedule. Auditor preliminary report Chris Johnson, Audit manager, reported to Board. Field work was completed last week. Draft to Board. Report due on Nov 15. Auditor available on phone at Oct meeting in case there are any questions prior to Board approval. Audit is on schedule this year; no findings to be reported. Auditor review of Financial Manual-happy with content. Staff presentation: Kelly Woodside, BiblioTemps® Manager / Advisor Short term staffing service from a one day substitute to a yearlong placement while candidate search proceeds. Prelaunch work included implementing an applicant tracking system, website, paperwork, contracts. Interviewed 95 applicants at all job levels and for any type library. Will recruit to suit a specific position. 1st placement occurred at the end of May. 11 placements by June 30. Placements throughout the state. Reports Executive Director’s Report attached at end of minutes Greg urged Board members to thank Legislators for the additional funding. To date 2 responses received on Strategic Plan survey. On track for 50 libraries to trial eContent platform by May. CE and Advisory Report-Carolyn Noah attached at end of minutes To date-150 people registered for MLS Annual Meeting. Financial-Catherine Utt attached at end of minutes Vendor expo attended by Catherine, Shirley McLean, Deb Hoadley, and some library representatives. MHEC training is next week and sign-up for this training is good. It was suggested that a table with library-oriented items offered through MHEC be set up at the annual meeting. MBLC – Rob

Legislative agenda goes to MBLC on Oct 4. Priority state-aid to public libraries. Input on agenda received from 31 libraries. 6-8 people testified at the Sept MBLC meeting. Comments about library services can be viewed on Tumblr. Social media is being used to communicate with Legislators. Construction funding will be announced at Oct MBLC meeting. Resource Sharing Committee is continuing its work; MBLC Consultants and MLS advisors meeting. Library for the Commonwealth (LFC) – Gianna A lot of work has been accomplished in a short time on the Repository. Beta testing; searchable. Polaris migration taking place (ILS that will work with BiblioCommons). Other Business-none Future Meetings for 2012 October 22 – MLS-Whately 1-4pm November 5 (Annual Meeting) - College of the Holy Cross December 3 Morning orientation; afternoon Board meeting at MLS-Marlborough January 14, 2013 – MLS-Marlborough 1-4pm (tentative-for advance planning) Adjourn regular meeting at 3:33 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Betty P. Johnson MLS Executive Director Report – September 2012 Thank You for Budget Increase Letter-See attached sample letter. Please consider sending a similar letter to your own legislators. Dee and I sent one to the Governor, Senate President, Speaker of the House, and Chair of the Library Caucus. Testimony at MBLC Budget Hearing-See attached formal version submitted to MBLC. Newspaper Procurement Additional pledges have been made since August. I have been in touch with NewsBank and suggested an affordable counterproposal to their original quote of $.95million. I am awaiting their response. I hope we can allocate matching funds so we can act quickly in the event that NewsBank provides a reasonable alternative and to allow for the potential of a ProQuest statewide agreement which will be pursued shortly. Our goal is to develop a model that can be sustained by library funding in three years with MLS subsidy for two years. Pledge Summary – September 18, 2012:

Type Amount No. of Responses Total Pledged 113,369.00 120 AC 21,600.00 13 PU 86,544.00 73 SC 4,375.00 28 SP 850.00 6 Yes for next year 20 Region Amount No. of Responses Boston 10,550.00 7 Central 10,275.00 20 Metrowest 10,500.00 17 Northeast 32,350.00 20 Southeastern 12,400.00 29 Western 37,294.00 27 Total Pledged 113,369.00 120

In addition, 21 libraries indicated that they are unable to pledge this year but are willing to do so next year.

Strategic Planning We have hosted two open meetings on the Plan. Total attendance was 16 members and stakeholders, including two MBLC Commissioners. Staff attending is drafting a consolidated list of suggestions for consideration. In early October we will provide this list to the Strategic Planning Task Force, Executive Board, and Staff for comment along with suggested revisions to the Plan for your comment and review. We’d like to finalize the Plan at our October 22nd meeting. Survey response online is nil. Over 30 folks viewed it but no one completed it. A reminder will be issued shortly. Upcoming member meetings to discuss the plan. Executive Board members or Strategic Planning Task Force members are scheduled to attend. You are also welcome. September 26th, 2012; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Followed by a library directors roundtable discussion.

Wareham Free Library, 59 Marion Road, Wareham, MA 02571 October 1st, 2012; 10:00 am – 11:00 am Followed by a library directors roundtable discussion.

MLS- Marlborough October 2, 2012; 10:00 am- 12:00 pm Followed by a library directors roundtable discussion.

Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138 Creating a Resource Sharing Vision for Massachusetts The Statewide Resource Sharing Committee continues to work on a plan to recommend the implementation of a proof of concept for a statewide eContent platform that incorporates many of the Douglas County features that will be launched by spring 2013. We will be attending webinars from about 8 vendors over the next month to explore alternatives. Two additional projects are also planned: Studying the feasibility of a statewide library card and planning for a fully featured statewide discovery platform. I have informed the group about MLS action to budget for an eContent manager, in the event that MLS is seen as the best choice to manage this project. Management Salary Study Data Don Tyler provided the explanation of why the Analysis of Salary Data (see below) did not match the salary ranges that were approved in July (see below). After he gathered the data he realized that the salary at the low end for the Business Manager was not a good match for the role performed by the incumbent. This resulted in new, higher range, which was recommended as a new range for this position and approved at the July 2012 Executive Board meeting. Fy2012 Plan of Service Revised Update A revised copy of the latest update to the fy2012 Plan of Service is in the drop box. We’ve added all statistical data that is available at this time.

Thank you letter to Governor for increase in funding:

   

                               

Letter concerning testimony at MBLC Budget Hearing

Massachusetts Library System 225 Cedar Hill Street, Suite 229

Marlborough, MA 01752 508-357-2121

Continuing Education and Advisory Report September 2012- Carolyn Noah In August, we made 274 advisory contacts with members, 12 of which were site visits. We spent 123 hours working with members, travelling 27 hours to do so. Members’ needs centered on summer reading and databases. In addition, Mary has been working intensely on resource sharing with small libraries that relied upon C/W MARS before the network migrated to Evergreen. She has both been troubleshooting their access to C/W MARS and working toward making traditional ILL more accessible to them. We held 13 continuing education events attended by 190 people. Of particular note: “Redefining the Recipe for Sustainable Leadership”, a daylong opportunity for mature professionals facilitated by Moira Garvey and “Children’s Literature for Library Generalists,” a webinar led by Sue McLeaf Nespeca. In addition, Anna continued to lead her very successful Marketing 101. Thirty staff members took advantage of Lynda.com online learning. Six planned classes were postponed due to light registration. This experience reinforces our learning about summertime CE participation. The week of August 20 was an advisory service qualitative survey week. During the week we responded to 57 advisory questions. We sent survey request to everyone; 25 responded. (Response diminished by 10% from the first survey in May.) Our members rated our services highly – an average 4.5 (of 5) points for responsiveness, usefulness, and meeting expectations. In August, we also compiled evaluative and cost information about our continuing education offerings. Continuing education presented by our staff cost an average of $41.83 per attendee and was rated an average of 4.5 on a scale of 5. Sessions for which we contracted cost an average of $59.82 per attendee and were rated an average of 4.7. The contracted costs were affected by one unique offering for mature staff on sustainable leadership. More information is included in your board packet. As of this writing, BiblioTemps® has 16 people in a wide range of placements and 5 positions to be filled.

Financial/Business Report September 24, 2012-Catherine Utt Financial Report No extraordinary costs during the month of August. Completed fy11 audit and paid remainder of outstanding costs. Auditors have been on-site working to complete audit. We continue to work to be on schedule and have audited financials completed. Delivery A survey of approximately 50 volunteer libraries is beginning Monday, September 24 to test delivery turnaround time, item sorting accuracy and bin delivery accuracy to ensure all are within contractual standards. Upon review of the survey results, action will be taken if necessary. MHEC The Supplies IFB has been awarded. Contracts were awarded to DEMCO, Gaylord, Reliance Label Solutions, The Library Store, Thomas Klise, Stanger Lithographics. BayScan Technologies and Bibliotheca. The Materials IFB is being evaluated and will be awarded for October 1. A third IFB for Magazine Subscription Management services will be posted by the end of the month, with contracts in place by the end of the calendar year.