Maine State Library Commission May 7, 2012

Meeting called to order at 1:00 PM.

Attendance:
Present: Beth Edmunds (Chair), Joyce Rumery (Vice Chair), Art Turley, Charlie Campo, Molly Larson, Dick Thompson, Moorhead Kennedy, Karen Baldacci, Steve Podgajny,
Absent: Liz Doucette, Barbara McDade, Inese Gruber, Debe Averill, Kathy Brunjes
Also present: Linda Lord, James Ritter, Janet McKenney, Mamie Ney, and Stephanie Zurinsky

Minutes from the March 5, 2012 meeting were approved.

State Librarian Report

  • Letter thanking Senator Snowe for years of service was drafted, signed by B.Edmunds and sent.
  • L.Lord will draft broader letter of thanks and make sure is received by newspapers.
  • Van Delivery RFP is public. Submissions are due by May 22, 2012.
  • Taxation Committee approved Tax Check-Off for MSL. We’ll be required to raise $10,000 year 1 and $3,000 additional in subsequent years in order to remain on the Tax Check-Off list. The law authorizing this check-off also mandates that all funds raised will go to support public libraries. In addition to the $10,000 required in the first year, $12,500 must be raised to pay for printing changes in the State income tax forms.
  • L.Lord will send the Commission the write-up promoting MSL that was given to the Taxation Committee to support the Check-Off
  • L.Lord possible Jury Duty in June will keep Commission apprised of developments

James Jackson Sanborn - Maine InfoNet Presentation (Unified Catalog)

  • Presentation is attached as PDF to these Minutes

Major Components/Questions of Presentation

  • Triple I prohibitive to innovation and moving forward not scalable
  • Question asked are we at risk of having III force our hand to move to another platform if they decide not to support Millennium?
  • Challenges to adding libraries to Minerva or SOLAR represent organizational challenges, Tech Issues, Data Massaging, Data Migration, etc.
  • Commission member pointed out If we expect major change in 3-years, work to secure funding/bond, etc. must begin with legislature now so no surprises.

Janet McKenney - LSTA Update

  • Reiterated that the Commission is the LSTA Advisory Committee
  • New LSTA Plan moves from six identified priorities to eight priorities
  • New Goal has been added that focuses on Life Long Learning
  • June 15 final draft will be available to review and the final LSTA plan must be submitted by June 30
  • Alternative Plans (amendments) may be submitted should changes come that impact LSTA projects (like New Century Grants)
  • The new LSTA Evaluation will include “Focus” areas that will be mapped together with other states’ LSTA Evaluations so that the entirety of LSTA projects can be evaluated holistically

ARRC Funding/Results

  • S.Podgajny briefly discussed that there is much data to review and that much of the data does is not in a format to be compared ‘apples to apples’ with other ARRCs.
  • A.Turley recommended that the data categories be agreed upon and then tracked for one year, to which some discussion ensued that there may be enough data existing to get a complete picture, but the ARRCs must determine how that data aligns so it can be compared equally
  • J.Ritter commented that Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB) would also be exploring the ARRCs as well as other functions of the State Library, and that within ZBB the value MSL functions would be assessed

Strategic Plan

  • Commission provided with Plan, and areas of completion (e.g. tasks to be completed 2011) were addressed.
  • B.Edmunds asked commission members to review the plan document to discuss further at next meeting

Consultant Reports

  • S.Podgajny will give Key Note at the Public Library Directors’ Institute.
  • New Public Library Directors Institute will be held June 8 and Commission members are welcome to attend
  • Library United Conference is moving forward and programs have been established. CMLD consultant Stephanie Zurinski is program chair for this conference and the NMLD and CMLD consultants are assisting with programs.
  • Janet McKenney, Stephanie Zurinski, Mamie Ney, Jared Leadbetter, and Lil Fish went on a trip to Dover, MA (Dovertown Library) which was runner up for Best Small Library in America (LJ) to observe the library’s best demonstrated practices

Other Business

  • B.Edmunds and L.Lord to present an Advocacy presentation on June 8 for HSLIC (Health Science Libraries Consorium)

Motion made to adjourn, meeting adjourned at 2:50 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Acting Secretary
James Ritter
MSL, Director of Reader and Information Services