LINC Policy Council Meeting Minutes
DRAFT
Members Present: Phill Cohee, Glenna White, Cynthia Helms, Jan Ison, Bethany Bolduc, Sally Duchow, Mary Bissey, Janet Sutherland
Members Absent: Clara Schroeder, Barb Turner, Lynn Schmit
LTLS Staff: Pat Boze, Merdy Smith
Others Present: Barb Nolan
The meeting was called to order at 1:10 p.m. The minutes of the December 13, 2001 meeting were reviewed and approved as written.
Jan gave a summary of the financial status of LINC. We still have not received a back payment by one library for authority control costs – the LTLS Budget and Finance Committee sent a letter of concern to the library board.
Jan relayed some information she received from Jean Wilkins, Director, Illinois State Library, concerning the budget status for next year. Budget cuts in the Secretary of State’s offices are likely, and library systems will not receive Live & Learn automation grant funds during the next fiscal year. In the past, we have used this grant to automate new libraries with LINC.
Jan mentioned it is vital that libraries attend the ILA Library Advocacy Day, scheduled for April 17 in Springfield, to make sure legislators hear concerns about library funding. Also, Secretary of State Jesse White will be attending an event at LTLS on March 8 and will give a press conference at 10 a.m. that morning. This is also an event that needs good attendance. We may reschedule LINC Directors Group to begin right after the press conference, allowing directors to attend both Secretary White’s press conference and the LINC Directors Group meeting.
Jan reviewed a study that is being done for the Illinois State Library by Dr. William Moen, University of North Texas. Dr. Moen’s charge is to study the current library system ILS (Integrated Library System) LLSAP projects and make recommendations for future automation and bibliographic access developments in Illinois. Dr. Moen and his study team will be visiting with automation staff, board members, and automated and non-automated library staff from each library system. Our visit is scheduled for April 18. Jan said that members of LINC Policy Council would likely be asked to talk to Dr. Moen.
Barb Nolan was present to discuss a letter she had sent to LINC Policy Council. In the letter, she asked for help from LINC Policy Council in finding ways to give patrons advantage of OPAC web resources without conflicting with their library policies on patron access to the Internet. Danville is currently trying to use a local filter to block url’s, but some of the web-based products have thousands of urls and patrons can get to the open Internet from those urls that are unblocked.
There was some discussion about potential patron resource limit functionality in Pac4Windows, but it can only block an entire resource or time-limit a patron on particular resources. Council members discussed how they handle this at individual libraries, particularly with an emphasis on personal monitoring. There was additional discussion on creating an “express catalog” or a workstation that is dedicated solely to access of the library catalog. Pat Boze indicated that she would contact epixtech to determine if a 3rd party timing software is available that will work with Pac4Windows or IPAC.
Policy Council members reviewed the recommendations for the Database Standards Committee:
Mary Towner, Urbana Free Library
Joanne Kelly, ROE Schoolworks
Holly Nordheden, Danville Area Community College Library
Lucy Webb, Lakeview College of Nursing
Karen Hackman, Champaign Central High School.
Mary Bissey will serve as the LINC Policy Council liaison to this committee while Merdy Smith will be the LTLS staff representative.
Discussion on what to include on the LTLS Technology Services web pages area was continued from a previous meeting. Suggestions included printable security and configuration forms, account configuration information for each LINC library, LINC training manuals, e-mail access to automation support staff, a way to report problems when we are gone, bar code prefix lists, list-serves for circulation and front-line staff, and office hours.
Pat Boze reviewed activities since the last LINC Policy Council meeting. Email notices and self-renewal for all libraries were implemented in January, inactive patrons were purged in February, and we have begun to install the newest upgrades of Pac4Windows and PC Reliance in libraries. We continue to have problems with the installation of iPac. Epixtech has now identified a problem with the construction of indexes that needs to be resolved before we can continue with the installation.
Merdy handed out copies of the Web Resources Cooperative Collection Management Plan, developed by the CORC committee and LTLS staff. This was given out at last month’s LINC Policy Council meeting. Members were asked for input. Hearing none, it was moved by Jan and seconded by Mary to accept this as a working plan for up to one year, with review to be done 12 months from now. This motion passed.
Pat went over some port facts for members of the LINC Policy Council, including that we add an average of 10 ports per year, there are 18 online libraries with no PAC port, and the current breakdown of ports is 39% PAC and 61% staff. With the loss of Live & Learn automation funds, we will not be able to add new libraries and so may see a decrease in the number of ports that are purchased by libraries. There needs to be some examination of ways to continue to fund capital improvements and a way for all libraries to provide PAC access to their patrons. We will continue to look at ways to accomplish these goals, perhaps through different pricing models.
Information on the next LINC Policy Council meeting will be sent on the LPC List Serve. Members will be contacted about attending the study session with Dr. Moen on April 18.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.