LINC DIRECTORS GROUP

MINUTES

April 17, 2003

MEMBERS ATTENDING: Bethany Bolduc, Nancy Claypool, Jennie Cisna, Janet Cler, Phill Cohee, Sharon Craig, Scott Drone-Silvers, Lou Graham, Marsha Grove, Jan Hickox, Jan Ison, Jan Johnson, Anne Newman, Barb Nolan, Diann Peabody, Debra Booth, Lynn Schmit, Sheryl Snyder, Barb Turner, Lucy Webb, Wilma White, Lisa Winters

OTHERS ATTENDING: Pat Boze, Merdy Smith, Joe Sciacca, Larry Oathout, Deb Booth, Leanna Morris, Phill Cohee

The meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m. by Phill Cohee, Vice-Chair. Barb Turner moved, seconded by Barb Nolan, to approve the minutes from the October 3, 2002 meeting.

Jan Ison asked if the agenda could be changed slightly, moving the Communications Process discussion up before the zILLANE discussion. There were no objections to this change.

Communications Process

Jan started the discussion by asking how many knew the name of the online question service for the LINC libraries. Very few did. She used this point to illustrate the fact that communications continue to be a problem with the LINC libraries and asked the directors to discuss how communications might be improved. The discussion included the following points:

• Some prefer to ask questions by email to a real person
• Email is easier, an online form needs to be easy to find
• Donπt want to have to remember another password
• At a service desk, not everyone has access to email
• A status screen on the web needs to reflect the date
• A web-based form could be used to report problems
• If an urgent situation, could fax be used?
• What about a pop-up window on the desktop when there are problems?
• List servs could be used

Jan indicated that a web-based status screen will be available by May 1, and we will likely move away from sending out email updates on the status of LINC but will post changes on the web status page instead.

ZILLANE Response Package

The LTLS zILLANE Response Package was submitted to the Illinois State Library on March 31. All systems were asked to submit a variety of materials in response to the Findings and Recommendations of the study conducted by Dr. William Moen.

The LTLS package rated, by priority order, the 11 main recommendations from a system perspective and also from a statewide perspective. In addition, comments were incorporated that reflected the input from LTLS libraries. These focussed on retaining local control for sharing of costs, using current system standards to evaluate the LLSAPπs, and setting statewide parameters for increasing LLSAP membership, among other items.

LINCPac

An informal LINCPac discussion was inserted at this point of the meeting. We have migrated all but one library from Pac4Windows to LINCPac, and there were problems with stability in March and April. It has been difficult to correct these problems because we are one of the largest SUN sites and Dynix primarily has NT customers. However, we have made progress and have stabilized the product in the past few weeks with the installation of the newest build. Comments from the Directors Group centered on the fact that scoping doesnπt work, the asterisk is hard to see (why canπt the product highlight what libraries own), searching is slow, and the screen doesnπt display properly.

Pat explained that we have been testing searching in all LINC Pac accounts and have been returning large searches in 3-5 seconds. Sometimes a desktop security or filtering software can affect response time. Phill Cohee mentioned that taking off Fortress on the Danville Public PAC workstations had speeded up searching considerably. We are working to correct problems ≠ if a problem is submitted to us, we verify that we åseeπ the same thing and then refer it in a log to Dynix.

LINC Users Survey

Jan mentioned that we are working on a LINC userπs survey, to assess current and future needs of staff at the LINC libraries. ILCSO does this once a year ≠ our survey wonπt be as long but will become a valuable assessment tool as we plan for the future.

FY2004 LINC Costs

Jan presented the FY2004 LINC Cost sheets to members. She said that both the LINC Ongoing Costs and the LINC Cataloging Center Costs are down slightly from last year. There is no way to assess what impact the FY2004 LTLS budget will have at this point, since we donπt know our budget for next year. As is always the case, individual library costs vary from year to year depending on the data that is reported on each libraryπs Annual Profile Summary.

Next Meeting

Jan asked that the Directors plan for a meeting on May 1, 2003*. A decision on the Dynix proposal will be made at this meeting.

*This meeting was later re-scheduled to May 15.