Approval pending.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — April 12, 2019

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred seventy-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:12 a.m. on Friday, April 12, 2019 by Board Chair Michael Penrod at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, Garalynn Tomas, and Holly Varley.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, and Jamie Pardee (State Library).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Travis McAfee motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

In the absence of anyone from OLC, Yarman reported that OLC’s Legislative Day on Tuesday, April 9, was a very successful event.

The Chair allowed public participation at 10:06 a.m. to accommodate the delayed arrival of Beverly Cain. Beverly Cain reported that the first in-person session for ILEADUSA took place March 19-22 at Mohican State Park. Alan Hall was appointed by the State Board of Education to the State Library Board; he was sworn in at his first meeting on March 21. Mr. Hall brings many years of public library experience to the State Library Board, as well as expands the Board’s geographic representation. In partnership with the Ohioana Library, the State Library hosted a reception for “Choose to Read Ohio” authors; First Lady Fran DeWine was the keynote speaker and stayed after her remarks to mingle with other attendees. On March 26, Cain provided budget testimony for the House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education for itself and the agencies for which it is an umbrella, including OPLIN. Both OPLIN and the Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled are allocated set amounts from the Public Library Fund which have remained flat for many years, so Cain testified that these organizations have managed to maintain critical services for Ohioans and Ohio libraries but there has not been any growth allowed for either. Cain reviewed the recent history of State Library and regional library system funding; she also noted that federal LSTA funds were again not included in the president’s proposed budget, but she anticipates those will be restored by Congress as before. The State Library is finalizing its contract renewal with OverDrive for the Ohio Digital Library. The Association of College and Research Libraries is currently meeting in Cleveland. The next State Library Board meeting is scheduled for May 16, the agenda to include the second year of funding for the statewide collection of research databases.

 

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 8 meeting

Garalynn Tomas motioned to approve the minutes of the February 8, 2019, meeting as presented; Tara Sidwell seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports. The cash balance at the beginning of the current fiscal year was $3.1 million and is estimated to be $2.8 million at then end of the fiscal year in June. For the next biennium, the cash balance is estimated to decrease $450,000 to $500,000 each year as expected due to increase spending in genealogy resources and Lynda.com for libraries. The FY19 budget and expenditures are on target at this point, three-fourths through the fiscal year. Pardee noted the addition of $750 for work by Braindunk development for the Webkit service. OPLIN is still waiting for the bill from OIT for internet service. About $3 million remains available to be spent this fiscal year. For fiscal years 2020 and 2021, Pardee noted a negative projection in Unplanned Spending Authority, so while there are funds available for all expenses, later in the fiscal year we may have to ask for an increase in the appropriated spending authority if expense estimates are accurate. Yarman added that the goal in the next biennium is to spend to the limit of authority to get the available cash balance equal to approximately one year of E-rate reimbursements.

Angela Baldree motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. REPORTS ON THE STATUS OF OPLIN SERVICES
7. REVIEW OF ANNUAL TACTICAL PLAN

Listed separately on the agenda, the status of OPLIN services and the review of OPLIN’s tactical plan were discussed jointly. Yarman noted that the Strategic Plan officially approved June 9, 2017, extends to the end of fiscal year 2021; the Board’s intention was to review annually the services offered and the Tactical Plan. Yarman read through these plans, asking staff to report on the relevant activities from this fiscal year with special attention to the Operations Goals within the Tactical Plan.
 

Annual Tactical Plan – FY2019
In support of Strategy:
Provide and maintain safe and reliable internet connections to Ohio public library systems
S E R V I C E S	OPLIN will provide reliable broadband telecommunications circuits to at least one building in every Ohio public library system that has elected to participate in the network, in accordance with O.R.C. 3375.64(B)(1) and the "Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries." For libraries with circuits provided by a consortium, OPLIN may instead provide a circuit to the consortium sufficient to handle the internet traffic generated by all libraries connecting through the consortium. At least one connection will also be provided to each of the chartered regional library systems and for use by the State Library of Ohio.	FY2020 will bring lower prices on statewide contracts for circuits, and reorganization of AT&T circuits at the OPLIN core.
	OPLIN will provide bandwidth from providers of wholesale internet bandwidth to connect Ohio public libraries to the commodity internet. The amount of internet access bandwidth acquired will depend on the demand from Ohio public libraries and other OPLIN participants and on OPLIN's financial resources.	Continuing contract with OIT for OARnet services.
	OPLIN will provide adequate network routing equipment for Ohio public libraries and other OPLIN participants at their sites, and provide and maintain network routing equipment at the OPLIN network core, and shall take steps to maintain all equipment in good working order. In some cases, OPLIN may work with other library consortia to provide and maintain site equipment.	All but 30 new routers have been deployed. Capacity of old equipment still exceeds need of most libraries. In FY2020, staff plan to reinstate virtual chassis in core routing equipment for redundant internet pathways.
	OPLIN will provide a filtering solution which can effectively provide content filtering for all OPLIN participants, while still allowing each participant to have complete control over how, or if, the filter is to be used in their library system. This will fulfill the charge from the Ohio Legislature "…to help local libraries use filters to screen out obscene and illegal internet materials."	OPLIN has provided OpenDNS (now called Cisco Umbrella) since 2012. Currently 154 libraries with profiles.
O P E R A T I O N S	OPLIN will maintain basic Help Desk services in-house (at no cost to libraries) to remedy network problems that occur on circuits terminating at OPLIN routers, and will pay for 24-hour advanced network management to correct problems with those same circuits whenever problems are beyond the capabilities of the OPLIN staff. [Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a functioning OPLIN connection to the internet 99.9% of the time.]	Goal met.
	OPLIN will maintain monitor(s) on the amount of bandwidth being used by each Ohio public library and other OPLIN participants. If average bandwidth demand during peak hours reaches 70% of the circuit capacity currently available to the library system, OPLIN will analyze the circuit utilization and will either take steps to acquire more bandwidth, within OPLIN policy restrictions, or will consult with the library to find another solution. [Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a connection to the internet large enough that their average bandwidth demand during peak hours will not exceed 70% of the connection capacity.]	Goal exceeded. For E-rate cycle, we upgrade in advance of meeting the need. The OPLIN core currently has 20Gbps of internet connectivity, with peak usage being around 9Gbps. Redundant hardware and circuit paths to allow for reliability.
	OPLIN will maintain effective firewalls and intrusion-protection software at the OPLIN core to protect OPLIN services, and will follow all the provisions and guidelines of the OPLIN Information Technology Security Management policies. [Goal: Deflect 99% of malicious attack activity directed at the OPLIN telecommunications network.]	Goal met. We contract with OARnet for DDOS shield, and have begun proactively throttling non-white-listed DNS queries.
M A R K E T I N G	OPLIN will identify the internet bandwidth needs of Ohio public libraries by monitoring circuit utilization and gathering feedback from library IT staff.	On-going.
	OPLIN will present information about OPLIN-provided telecommunications services and the costs of such services on the OPLIN website. OPLIN will also use temporary communications, such as email broadcasts and social media, to disseminate information about OPLIN-provided telecommunications services.	On-going.
	OPLIN will present programs at conferences and other venues to convey information about OPLIN-provided telecommunications services and costs.	Programs presented at OLC Convention, Right Click.
	In support of the strategy to provide a “safe” connection, staff became active in the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee, began working with the IT Division of the Ohio Library Council to bring a cybersecurity focus to their professional development, and accompanied Michelle Francis to a meeting with Senator Gavaronne in support of the bill she sponsored creating Ohio’s civilian cyber reserve force.
F I N A N C E	OPLIN may use state contracts with telecommunications vendors when possible, or may negotiate its own contracts, to acquire reliable broadband circuits adequately sized for the needs of the public library at the best price.	As budgeted.
	OPLIN may use the Federal Communication Commission's universal service Schools and Libraries Program, commonly known as the E-rate Program, to obtain discounts on telecommunication and internet access costs if E-rate participation does not conflict with the best interests of OPLIN participants.	As budgeted.

 

The Board recessed for a break at 10:28 a.m. and resumed discussions at 10:38 a.m.
 

In support of Strategy:
Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with internal internet needs
S E R V I C E S	OPLIN will offer to assist Ohio public library systems with connecting their branches and with obtaining networking equipment as cost-effectively as possible. Upon request, OPLIN will advise libraries on the quality, dependability, and value of internet connections that libraries are considering purchasing for their branches, or for their main library if they choose not to use the OPLIN-provided connection. When appropriate, OPLIN may also suggest alternative connections for libraries to consider.	OPLIN submits requests into OIT ServiceNow system, and offers assistance to libraries seeking E-rate reimbursements. In FY 2019, Karl helped identify providers for branches of Steubenville, Mansfield, Geauga, Elyria.
	OPLIN will offer a basic network evaluation service to Ohio public libraries and other OPLIN participants that describes the OPLIN connection bandwidth throughput and the physical connectivity between the active devices on the network which affect the OPLIN connection.
	OPLIN will offer annual E-rate workshops for Ohio public libraries to assist with their E-rate applications.	OPLIN contracted with Lorrie Germann to provide targeted webinars – 6 produced for this year. Webinars were recorded and can be streamed from OPLIN’s YouTube channel.
	OPLIN will offer space to libraries in a designated area of the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) where they can locate servers and network equipment in close proximity to the OPLIN network core.	See related operations goal. Space may need expansion in FY2020.
	OPLIN will offer to host or sponsor at least one conference for Ohio public library staff every year, within the constraints of the OPLIN budget, that will present information and facilitate discussion about internet technologies.	Platinum Sponsor for OLC Convention and Expo 2018, and will be again for the 2019 event in Cincinnati.
O P E R A T I O N S	OPLIN will maintain a method for identifying libraries that may have internal networking issues and will offer to evaluate the network and work with library IT staff to resolve any issues. [Goal: Assist at least 10 libraries each year with resolving internal networking issues.]	Goal met.
	OPLIN will maintain an agreement to lease space in the State of Ohio Computer Center for co-location of library servers and networking equipment. [Goal: A current SOCC lease agreement with the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Office of Information Technology will be in effect at the beginning of each fiscal year.]	Met. Current tenants include Columbus Metropolitan Library, Central Library Consortium, Worthington Libraries, Greene County Public Library CLEVNET, and Euclid Public Library.
M A R K E T I N G	OPLIN will identify the internet technology needs of Ohio public libraries by monitoring forums and email lists, attending conferences, and finding opportunities to have discussions with librarians.	On-going.
	OPLIN will present information about available OPLIN internet-related assistance on the OPLIN website. OPLIN will also use temporary communications, such as email broadcasts and social media, to disseminate information about available OPLIN assistance.	On-going.
F I N A N C E S	OPLIN may use funds not needed for providing and maintaining OPLIN connections to public libraries to support this additional assistance to OPLIN participants. While it is important that OPLIN provide technology leadership and assistance to public libraries, OPLIN recognizes that its vision and mandate from the Ohio Revised Code place greater importance on providing Ohio citizens with access to digital information; therefore, spending for technology assistance to public libraries will be carefully monitored to make certain it does not have a detrimental effect on the ability of OPLIN to provide services that maintain citizen access to digital information.	As budgeted. OPLIN provides Security IQ phishing prevention/education licenses to libraries to help with cyber-threat awareness.
	OPLIN may use fees collected from libraries for services which are not likely to be used by most public libraries. OPLIN will limit these fees to no more than the actual amount needed to cover the costs to provide the service.	As budgeted.

 

The Board recessed for a break at 11:24 a.m. and resumed discussions at 11:59 a.m.
 

In support of Strategy:
Provide and maintain access to high-quality digital information for Ohioans
S E R V I C E S	OPLIN will provide subscriptions to selected databases of high-quality digital information with guidance from the public library community and the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee.	$2.31 million disbursed in subscription costs so far this fiscal year.
	OPLIN will provide a website allowing free access to the online information databases. Ohio public libraries and their users will be able to use this website to quickly and efficiently find information from the OPLIN-provided databases. OPLIN will maintain the website in such a way that public libraries can also use it to provide their users with access to databases.	On-going.
	OPLIN will provide support for access to materials that Ohio public libraries have converted to digital formats. This support may take the form of financial assistance or assistance with publishing the materials on the internet in an accessible manner.	OPLIN pays half of the DPLA membership fee for the Ohio Digital Network. Don is on the advisory committee for the Ohio Digital Network; Mandy participated in the Ohio Digital Interest Group and Community Engagement Center meetings. Eighteen ODN members have contributed 102,236 items to DPLA.
	OPLIN will provide the necessary technology to authenticate remote users' access to OPLIN-provided information databases and may offer the use of this technology to libraries to authenticate remote users of library-provided databases.	OPLIN provides EZProxy and flexible validation to cover a range of library options and subscription scenarios. A new EZProxy server is expected to launch this month.
	OPLIN will provide tools for integrating access to online databases directly into a library's website, including authenticated links and other embeddable tools.	Libraries use OPLIN’s links from their own websites to provide their patrons access.
O P E R A T I O N S	OPLIN will maintain and monitor the user interface to the databases to keep it functional. [Goal: Keep the public access website for the databases functioning as intended 99% of the time.]	Interface updated for new content; uptime goal met..
	OPLIN will maintain a Content Advisory Committee of selected Ohio public library staff and will periodically consult with them and with any other partners in the purchase of the databases in regard to the selection of databases provided through OPLIN. [Goal: Meet with the CAC and any database purchasing partners at least once annually.]	Goal met. CAC met March 28; LCO partners met regularly.
	OPLIN will maintain basic Help Desk services in-house to remedy problems that occur with either in-library or legitimate out-of-library access to online databases and, when appropriate, open an incident ticket with the database vendor(s) and work collaboratively toward resolving the incident. [Goal: respond within one hour to malfunctions of database access during regular business hours.]	Met response-time goals.
	OPLIN will maintain database usage statistics, both for OPLIN internal use and for retrieval by individual Ohio public libraries. [Goal: Make at least 80% of previous month database usage statistics available to public libraries by the 10th of each month.]	Mandy scheduled these for the 5th of the month. There are significant problems with the genealogy resources usage stats that we press ProQuest to resolve.
M A R K E T I N G	OPLIN will identify the information resource needs of Ohioans by regularly gathering feedback from Ohio public libraries and finding opportunities to have discussions with librarians.	On-going.
	OPLIN will identify possible improvements in the user interface to the databases to make it easier for users to find and retrieve relevant resources.	Staff are considering a redesign for ohioweblibrary.org
	OPLIN will present database users and public librarians with access to training and training materials for efficient use of the databases and will develop and/or provide database point-of-use promotional materials.	Thirty-eight librarians trained as Ohio Web Library Specialists in FY2019. Regular webinars presented in partnership with OhioNET.
	OPLIN will present information about OPLIN-provided databases and their costs on the OPLIN website. OPLIN will also use temporary communications, such as email broadcasts and social media, to disseminate information about OPLIN-provided databases.	On-going. Particular efforts in the coming months will be devoted publicizing the transition of Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning.
	OPLIN will present programs at conferences and other venues to convey information about OPLIN-provided databases and costs.	Programs presented at OLC Convention, Adult and Youth Services conferences.
F N C S	OPLIN may use opportunities to combine funds with other organizations when purchasing information databases for use by public libraries and the general public.	As budgeted.
	OPLIN may use funds from E-rate reimbursements that are not needed for purchase of telecommunications, internet access, and database subscriptions to support statewide projects to improve access to materials digitized by public libraries.	As budgeted.

Yarman informed the Board that “Lynda.com - A LinkedIn Company” will become “LinkedIn Learning -- with Lynda.com content.” LinkedIn staff gave a presentation to the Content Advisory Committee about the transition. The Committee has concerns about the privacy of user information when they are required to use a LinkedIn account in order to access the learning resources. As unhappy as the committee was with the product move, they did not wish for OPLIN to try to terminate the statewide agreement. The committee feels that libraries remain appreciative of the availability of the Lynda.com content and OPLIN’s financial support of it.
 

In support of Strategy:
Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with digital communications
S E R V I C E S	OPLIN will offer Ohio public libraries a selection of archived email discussion lists and/or forums and chat rooms as a time-based and topic-based means to exchange information digitally, including information about internet technologies, databases. and best security practices . Email discussions will be archived by date and time, but OPLIN will also provide a means to search the archives by topic.	On-going.
	OPLIN will offer a generic public library website with elements that can be customized for each library and which Ohio public libraries can readily use to maintain a website hosted on OPLIN-provided web servers. The site will link to, but not replace, the library's current Integrated Library System and/or other functions related to the management of the library's bibliographic or user data.	Service is 10 years old. Eighty hosted sites live; four in process. To support the service this year, OPLIN contracted with Braindunk for Drupal 8 Date_Recur fix, and separately for Drupal 8 upgrade by June 2020. Suggest changing “generic” to “standardized.”
	OPLIN will offer a professional assessment of a library's website, evaluating the website against current best practices in web design and accessibility.	Laura performed audits for 5 current Webkit customers and 1 other, non-Webkit library.
	OPLIN will offer a service that allows libraries to send notification messages directly to patrons' cellphones via standard Short Message Service (SMS) "text messages" instead of sending messages to their email accounts.	See Operations Goal below.
O P E R A T I O N S	OPLIN will maintain hosting for email discussion lists for Ohio public librarians to share information with each other. [Goal: Email discussion lists will be functional at least 99.9% of the time.]	List up-time goals met.
	OPLIN will maintain hosting for generic public library websites provided by OPLIN. [Goal: OPLIN-provided websites will be functional and accessible at least 99.9% of the time.]	Uptime goal met. Laura keeps all site software updates current.
	OPLIN will maintain a system to monitor the performance of the SMS messaging service and will correct any failures of the messaging service. [Goal: Resolve any performance issues or open an incident ticket with the messaging vendor within 4 hours during regular business hours.]	Support goal met. OPLIN negotiated an additional 5 million message credits, which should sustain the service for over two years.
M R K T G	OPLIN will identify possible assistance with digital communications that Ohio public libraries might need.	On-going.
	OPLIN will present information about available OPLIN communication-related assistance on the OPLIN website. OPLIN will also use temporary communications, such as email broadcasts and social media, to disseminate information about available OPLIN assistance.	On-going.
F I N A N C E S	OPLIN may use funds not needed for providing and maintaining OPLIN connections to public libraries to support this additional assistance to OPLIN participants. Spending for technology assistance to public libraries will be carefully monitored to make certain it does not have a detrimental effect on the ability of OPLIN to provide services that maintain citizen access to digital information.	As budgeted.
	OPLIN may use fees collected from libraries for services which are not likely to be used by most public libraries. OPLIN will limit these fees to no more than the actual amount needed to cover the costs to provide the service.	As budgeted.

 

Angela Baldree asked if the Content Advisory Committee was the only committee, and whether additional committee might help reduce staff workload. Yarman said OPLIN used to sustain a Technology Advisory Committee, which was most useful any time OPLIN considered a large-scale change to infrastructure. Jendretzky said a Technology Advisory Committee might help generate ideas of services OPLIN could create and manage that would be most useful to libraries.

8. OLD BUSINESS — none

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Executive Session

Tara Sidwell motioned to go into executive session to discuss compensation of an employee; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.
Recorded vote: Angela Baldree, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; Garalyn Tomas, aye; Holly Varley, aye.

The Board went into executive session at 12:54 p.m., and resumed the public meeting at 12:57 p.m.

9.2. OPLIN staff vacancy

Mandy Knapp resigned her position as OPLIN’s Digital Services Manager effective March 15 to become the Adult Services Manager at Westerville Public Library. Yarman plans to take on many of the duties that had been assigned to Knapp, and fill the staff vacancy with a new position dedicated to server management and support -- an “infrastructure specialist,” in the state’s official job categories. Duties will include: installs, maintains, configures, upgrades &/or administers hardware &/or software independently in server administration, business continuity, information security, and telecommunications & network connectivity where technical work requires specific knowledge to evaluate, select, adapt & modify standard procedures; diagnoses, analyzes, & resolves issues for customers; provides Tier II-III level customer support and more advanced problem-solving; promotes system security & awareness by adhering to OPLIN’s and State’s IT security policies & standards.

Garalynn Tomas asked whether the organizational reporting structure would change. Yarman said he intended to have the new person report to him, and Stephanie Herriott added that because OPLIN staff are “administrative” supervisory duties could be shared, in such a small agency there is no need to create a complicated hierarchy. Justin Bumbico and Michael Penrod commented that it gave the staff more support coverage and stability. Bumbico asked if OPLIN would keep the relationship with OIT in place for more advanced engineering support, and Jendretzky acknowledged that was important and, in any case, administratively difficult to separate from OIT.

9.3. Decide on staff raises

Michael Penrod read the following resolution:
 

In that the E-1 salary tables in Ohio Revised Code 124.152 awards State of Ohio E-1 employees a 2.75% salary increase effective with the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2019, and allows increases up to 2.75% for other exempt state employees, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with the duties assigned by Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN E-3 staff member to one that reflects a 2.75% salary increase for each employee beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2019.

Angela Baldree motioned to approve the resolution; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Angela Baldree, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; Garalyn Tomas, aye; Holly Varley, aye.

REPORTS

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Yarman had nothing to add to his written report, which included items already discussed in the meeting.

10.1. Library Services Manager report

Solomon reported that she has created a new design on the Drupal 8 platform for the OPLIN website. It will launch after staff create a new Drupal 8 production server for the migrated Webkit sites.

10.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Jendretzky had nothing to add beyond what was discussed previously.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

Michael Penrod thanked the Nominations Committee for their work. The committee proposed reappointing Jeff Garringer and Holly Varley for 3 year terms. To fill the terms being vacated by Penrod and Greenward, the committee proposed Hilary Prisbylla, director of CLEVNET, and Travis Bautz, director of the Midpointe Library System in Butler County.

Chris May motioned to approve the committee’s recommendation; Tara Sidwell seconded. here was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Yarman will communicate these nominations to the State Library Board which appoints OPLIN Board members.

Penrod asked Yarman to send the director’s evaluation form to Board members, who will send completed to Travis McAfee to collate into a single document.

10. ADJOURNMENT

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 1:17 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 8, 2019

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred seventy-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 8, 2019 by Board Chair Michael Penrod at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Jamie Black, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, Garalynn Tomas, and Holly Varley. 

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Garalynn Tomas motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain reported that the State Library Board met on January 17 and awarded just over $100,000 in LSTA grants. The Licking County Libraries received an Outreach and Partnership Grant to support the installation of another automated “Library in a Box” like their one on the COTC campus; this second kiosk will be located in the underserved Eastern part of Licking County, and will feature lockers for additional held items to be picked up. The Bucyrus Public Library was awarded an Automation grant for over $20,000 to support their migration to Evergreen and membership in the Consortium of Ohio Libraries. OPLIN received a grant for up to $70,000 to upgrade the platform for the OPLIN Website Kits, and OLC was granted $11,050 to support a collaborative library conference to be held in June. The State Library has suspended the program of special grants supporting mental health first aid training as that program was so popular it is now out of money; grants may return in the next federal fiscal year beginning October 1. Altogether, over 1,200 people were trained. The application deadline for ILEAD participants was January 31; Cain reported they had received very good applications, and the team is reviewing those and selecting participants for the first in-person ILEAD session to be held in March.

Doug Evans expanded on the LSTA grant awarded to OLC on behalf of two other partner organizations, OELMA for school libraries and ALAO for academic libraries, for their collaborative conference to be held June 14 at the OCLC Conference Center. The grant helps cover facilities and speaker expenses for this event focusing on collaborative efforts between different types of libraries.

The new chair of the OLC Board is Kacie Armstrong from Euclid Public Library, with Cheryl Kuonen (Mentor) assuming the role of Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Paula Brehm-Heeger (Cincinnati) continuing as Secretary-Treasurer; Nick Tepe (Athens County) is Past Chair. Four new individual joined the OLC Board: Kuonen, Aimee Fifarek (Youngstown), Jennifer Sloane (Chillicothe), and Laura Lee Wilson (Huron County). The Board approved OLC’s annual operating budget of nearly $1.5 million. At the meeting, Doug Evans publicly announced his retirement, effective June 28. The OLC Board has formed a search committee and released an RFP for a firm to assist in the process.

Evans reported that the February PLF distributions were 2.2% lower than Department of Taxation estimate -- $37.9 million out of a projected $38.8 million – because income tax collections are down. The expectation is that collections will pick back up. Michelle Francis and the OLC staff are busy at the Statehouse, making contacts with new leadership, Governor DeWine’s transition staff, cabinet members, department heads, agency directors, and new statewide office holders. OLC’s Legislative Day will be held at the Statehouse on April 9; Senate President Larry Obhoff will be the main speaker.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 14 meeting

Garalynn Tomas motioned to approve the minutes of the December 14, 2018, meeting as presented; Tara Sidwell seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee was unable to attend the meeting. Yarman reported that OPLIN has received $915,468.60 in E-rate refunds for the circuit expenses paid July through December 2018; payment is still pending from Agile Networks, who has not filed necessary paperwork to USAC. OPLIN has also received nearly $48,165 in payments from libraries using the Webkit service. The projected cash balance at the end of FY 2019 is $2.86 million, a reduction of $318,500 from FY2018.

Expenditures are on track for being slightly more than halfway through the fiscal year. Yarman reported that earlier that week he confirmed with OLC that OPLIN will contribute $10,000, as budgeted, to support the OLC Convention and Expo in September. All expenses for information resources have been paid for the fiscal year; the remaining balance of $406.25 stems from Lynda.com invoicing less than they had projected. Two expense lines have been added “Other Library Support Services”: $30,000 for Trumpia which supports the SMS Gateway service, and $750 for Braindunk, whom OPLIN has contracted to address the “Date Recur” deficiencies in Drupal 8 Calendar. $770,000 remains unencumbered for OIT/GOSIIP as OPLIN has not yet been billed for internet service this fiscal year. The bottom line budgeted amount for FY2019 is just under $5.7 million, meeting the goal to spend to the edge of OPLIN’s authority to reduce the unallocated cash balance for the agency.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Angela Baldree seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — none

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. OPLIN 470 for Internet Connectivity Service
OPLIN is reaching the end of the current three-year agreement to receive internet service from OIT, so a 470 was issued. Bids were received from OIT (a renewal of the current terms), Cytranet (a fiber company in Alabama), WOW Cable, and Crown Castle (a fiber and wireless provider in Texas). Based on OPLIN’s standard bid decision matrix, staff the clear winner is to continue service with OIT.

Jamie Black asked how much the service cost, and was told it was $770,000 per year. Mandy Knapp added that OPLIN receives a refund on that – 70% of the usage for those libraries that are CIPA-compliant, and briefly outlined the math that supports that. Black asked if there are costs to libraries to be CIPA-compliant and what reasons libraries may not be. Knapp said the reasons are more philosophical in nature, and OPLIN does provide to libraries a CIPA-compliant filtering solution for free. Other burdens to the library are administrative: pass an internet safety policy and have a public meeting. 

Justin Bumbico asked for more information on the deficiencies of the other bids. In addition to some vendors not offering equivalent services, the competing bids scored low on other criteria in the decision matrix, including “Demonstrated ability to do business with the state of Ohio” and “Cost of the non-discounted portion” of the bid. No further action by the Board was required.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman discussed the item in his written report about the seven AT&T circuits on the single E-rate FRN had their prices reduced from the 100 Mbps rate to the 20 Mbps rate, reducing OPLIN’s refund by $11,393.28. Knapp is changing how these and similar circuits will be described in next year’s 471.

Yarman added that OPLIN had received notice on Thursday that the agency is on “red light status,” because USAC claims the agency is late on payments. This stems from the case OPLIN currently has under appeal with the FCC. In 2016, Agile Networks failed to validate OPLIN’s BEAR for July-December 2015, so OPLIN was unable to receive reimbursements for circuit costs. In August 2017, there was a rule change, and a new invoice date was established; OPLIN re-filed and received $10,248 in reimbursement. Referencing the original 2016-era rules instead of the FCC’s correction, USAC claims that $10,248 is owed back to them. USAC has agreed that red-light status should not be applied while the issue is under appeal and they are investigating.

Yarman again expressed his thanks to the State Library Board for the $70,000 LSTA grant to support the Drupal 8 migration for Webkit sites. He reported that the RFP for that project is ready to be issued, but staff are waiting until more progress has been made with Braindunk’s project to fix the D8 Calendar issues.

Yarman highlighted some dates in the Office Activities list, including the unexpected but successful test of the office emergency plan on January 22, when no staff were physically present in the office but all worked remotely. On January 23, Yarman was invited to a conference call with the ALA and Benton Foundation to discuss forming the vision for broadband access in the next decade. As a member of the executive committee for Ohio Digital Network, the regional hub for state participation in the Digital Public Library of America, Yarman intends to attend DPLAfest in April to explore Ohio’s response to changes in DPLA’s mission.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that Braindunk is making good progress with the Date Recur project, which finally seems to be receiving some corporate attention and development. 

Although OPLIN has stopped actively promoting the Webkit service because of the looming upgrade project, three libraries have started working with Solomon to create new websites. In addition, many existing libraries have been working with Solomon to move refresh the look of their sites and move to new templates, which should ease the migration.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reported that at the E-rate meeting at ALA Midwinter in Seattle, it was announced a company named MAXIMUS Federal Services, Inc., has replaced Solix, Inc., as the business processes contractor for USAC. Knapp reported that her experience with the new contractor has been positive. The FCC is still to issue a report and make a decision on the future of Category 2 E-rate funding.

Knapp noted that database statistics show an across-the-board increase for January. She is working with Kirstin Krumsee at the State Library to pre-populate the Annual Ohio Public Library Survey with statewide database usage figures.

Knapp announced that she has been accepted into the ALA Policy Corps, a cohort of ten individuals who will be trained as policy experts for the purposes of advocacy and planning.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky gave progress reports on a number of projects:
Services

• OPLIN’s bank of message credits with Trumpia, the middleman company that sends the text messages for OPLIN’s SMS Gateway, was down to 400,000 credit – enough for about 3 months. The $30,000 expenditure discussed above purchased 5,000,000 credits and should last two years.
• Libraries continue to set up SecurityIQ profiles for phishing training. Good reports about the service from the CLEVNET Directors’ Meeting. Jendretzky estimates that about a third of the libraries in the state are using the service.
• NR3 continues to grow. Euclid will be installing a server that will virtually appear within the library’s own LAN. The CLC has moved in new equipment. Avon Lake and Herrick Memorial libraries are partnering to install a shared backup server in the SOCC. Cleveland Public Library will be installing a rack of equipment in the space next to the CLEVNET racks. Seven of eight rack spaces in the cage will then be occupied. The neighboring cage has been left clear for OPLIN to expand into when the time comes.
• CBTS IP addresses have been assigned to St Marys and Sunbury libraries for their VOIP projects.

Circuits

• The Mentor Public Library joined the CLEVNET consortium; their circuit was rerouted through the OPLIN core into CLEVNET without having to file a circuit move with the vendor.
• There has been slow progress bringing up a new AT&T ASE head-end. Greene County Public Library’s new circuit is the pioneer, testing the redundant ports that the state has requested AT&T begin installing. After months of no progress, Jendretzky and Fouts discovered in AT&T’s equipment at the SOCC an issue with multicast packets, which prevents routing from coming up and the circuits working without an administrative reset. Jendretzky is investigating whether this is an issue with new circuit implementations only, or if the bug can be triggered by common occurrences (such as a power reset at the library).
• Moving existing AT&T circuits to the new redundant head-end would free up equipment to facilitate Cleveland Public Library’s branch circuit move to the SOCC, where CLEVNET services reside. CPL branches would connect to the SOCC on their own hand-off, rather than traffic routing through the OPLIN core to reach CLEVNET services. This project mirrors one OPLIN managed with Spectrum as part of the CLEVNET core relocation to the SOCC.

Cybersecurity

• OPLIN is seeing an increase in short DDOS attacks against libraries; three have targeted Ashtabula County District Library in the last week. The DDOS shield service provided by OARnet is designed for longer, sustained attacks and is an impractical solution for these situations, which typically involve small but critical protocols like DNS. Jendretzky is working with OARnet to determine the usual level of legitimate DNS activity on the network; the plan is to whitelist the most important DNS servers used by libraries and throttle the remaining DNS traffic to block the effects of DNS-related DDOS.
• OARnet is bringing up a new implementation of ServiceNow to let them build automated notices of unusual network activity; OPLIN will then be able to add automation to communicate information to affected libraries.
•  Inspired by information at the CLEVNET Directors’ Meeting about AI applications which identify patterns in network traffic, Jendretzky is researching possible projects. There is a possibility of using OPLIN’s decommissioned DDOS appliance as a side-channel scanner.

Coding

• Jendretzky is updating some of his code supporting office operations from PHP5 to PHP7, which is involving some re-writes.
• Jendretzky is working with Mercer County Public Library to develop an alternative to “Who’s On My Wifi?” for those libraries using Ubiquity access point controllers.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Appoint Nominations Committee

Michael Penrod appointed Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, and Travis McAfee to the Nominations Committee. The committee will work with Don Yarman to select candidates to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the OPLIN Board and will develop a slate of proposed officers for election at the August Board meeting.

9.2. Review April planning meeting arrangements

At the request of the Chair, Don Yarman explained the usual procedures for the planning meeting and lunch arrangements. Because it is a longer meeting, the April Board Meeting has traditionally started at 9:00 a.m., and the Board breaks for lunch. Yarman will provide options closer to the meeting date.

9.3. Ethics training reminder

Michael Penrod reminded Board members that they must complete ethics training each year. Yarman will send the link to the webinar, and asked Board members to send him a copy of the completion certificate to keep on file. This is in addition to the annual financial disclosure required.

10. ADJOURNMENT

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:08 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIRST REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 14, 2018

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred seventy-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December, 2018 by Board Chair Michael Penrod at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, Garalyn Tomas, and Holly Varley.

Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Angie Jacobsen (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Garalyn Tomas motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Angela Baldree seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Angie Jacobsen, Director of Communications for the Ohio Library Council, updated the Board on OLC activities. OLC has held a webinar about HB 312 which requires libraries to institute new credit card procedures by February 2; a recording of that webinar and sample policies are available from the OLC site. OLC also provided Hinkle system training for fiscal officers. Jacobsen also summarized other legislation they are watching, including HB 228, gun legislation that includes signage requirements regarding weapons, HB 291, bonding/insurance policy legislation, and SB 263, which makes changes to laws impacting notary services. Jacobsen reported that Michelle Francis has already met with Laurel Dawson, the governor-elect’s chief of staff, to discuss libraries and workforce development, including OPLIN’s Lynda.com subscription. Jacobsen highlighted in particular programs by the Mentor Public Library and the Columbus Metropolitan Library using Lynda.com in workforce development outreach in their communities.

Michael Penrod asked if the credit card legislation will apply to OPLIN. Yarman replied that the legislation brings restrictions to local government entities that are already in place for state agencies.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 5 meeting

Tara Sidwell motioned to approve the minutes of the October 5, 2018, meeting as presented; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports. OPLIN began the fiscal year with a $3.1 million cash balance, and is projected to end the fiscal year with about $2.8 million, depending on the eventual timing of E-rate reimbursements and expenditures. Current estimates for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 show the cash balance shrinking by about $320-330 thousand per year. OPLIN spent $4.5 million in fiscal year 2018; so far this year it has spent $3.5 million as some of the biggest expenditures – notably database subscriptions – are paid at the beginning of the fiscal year. Yarman mentioned that future fiscal reports may include an expenditure for consultants to help with the Drupal upgrade.

Garalyn Tomas motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — Don Yarman

6.1 Drupal Upgrade RFP update

Yarman updated the Board on progress toward releasing an RFP for consultants to assist with migrating the eighty library sites hosted by OPLIN to Drupal 8. The State Library Board will be asked in January to allocate LSTA funds to support the migration. Yarman plans to release the RFP later this winter, using the same proposal calendar and evaluation method Stephen Hedges designed for the last Drupal upgrade. The target is to have all websites upgraded by June 2020. All sites must then be upgraded to Drupal 9 before November 2021.

7. NEW BUSINESS — Don Yarman

7.1. Webkit service fee increase

Library fees for the Website Kits are intended to cover OPLIN’s actual costs to build and maintain them. In 2012, the annual cost for hosting/maintenance for OPLIN Website Kits was $180; to make sure that the revenue from the kits covered actual maintenance costs, the OPLIN Board voted to increase the fees by $40 each year until the target price reached $340 in FY2016. There have been no price increases since then, although staffing costs have risen. Yarman proposes raising the cost to $360, the $20 increase equaling just under 6%. (A $360 annual fee is also easy to pro-rate for new customers who join midway through the year.)

Michael Penrod asked if the other fees -- new modules, custom work, etc. -- would go up as well. Yarman replied that he and Solomon had reviewed the current costs for other services and they do not recommend changes to those.

Angela Baldree motioned to increase the annual maintenance fee for Webkit Sites from $340 to $360; Joe Greenward seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Yarman discussed his activities since the last meeting, especially those revolving around cybersecurity: meetings of the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee (OC3), cyber-related courses in Lynda.com, and meetings with the Ohio Library Council’s IT Division leadership to discuss cyber programming for Ohio libraries. He summarized the work of OC3 and progress on HB 747 which creates a civilian cyber security reserve force for Ohio.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon discussed her continued exploration of Drupal 8, reporting significant improvements “under the hood” to the management interfaces and tools. She has discovered that the problem with recurring dates stems from the fact that date functionality is part of Drupal 8 core, but not all of the parts of the Drupal 7 date module have been incorporated. Not enough organizations use recurring dates to push for completion of development. There is progress, but it is slow. The OPLIN staff has identified three plans: potentially hire a consultant (estimated cost under $1000) to get date_recur working sustainably; use an iCal interpreter which Karl Jendretzky has designed, which will let libraries manage their events in an external calendar such as Google or Evanced; or return to procedures libraries had to use in Drupal 6, before recurring dates were supported.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reported declining attendance for E-rate training, as more libraries have outsourced their E-rate filing to consultants. OPLIN has completed its first 470 for services starting July 2019, and staff plans to release a second 470 in January. The annual call for letters of agency from libraries has shown good response. Knapp reports that nationally there is still uncertainty whether Category 2 funding for internal maintenance (cabling, equipment, managed services) will be extended when it expires at the end of this service year. It has not yet been announced when the 471 window – when everyone files what services they have selected for the next year – will open.

Knapp reported that usage statistics for databases are stable. She is working with OhioNET to plan a series of training webinars using a combination of vendor trainers and librarian presenters. Yarman commented on a new statistic that OPLIN can pull: the most popular Lynda.com courses in Ohio libraries; since July, the top courses include Programming Fundamentals, Excel 2016, HTML and Javascript, Illustrator, Wordpress, Photoshop, and Time Management.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Jendretzky reported that, from the recent 470, OPLIN will file 43 circuit orders – 8 of those are upgrades, while the rest are just establishing new contracts for those that have expired. He is tracking which of these require supplementary orders with OARnet, which need old circuits disconnected in July, etc. Among these is the NEO Regional Library System, whose new offices have come up temporarily on a cable circuit; they will be brought up on fiber in July with the new E-rate service year.

The new SecurityIQ service has been well-received. The biggest user is CLEVNET with 3100 active users across 42 libraries. CLEVNET reports that their initial campaign had a 25% click-through on the phishing emails. Travis McAfee asked if staff in CLEVNET libraries were warned in advance of the testing campaign; Jendretzy believes that varied by library, as some had union contract concerns about non-HR staff seeing test results. OPLIN delegates the licenses to the library, and the library controls how they use the service. Bill Lane from Cincinnati praised how game-like the service is, rather than boring instruction.

The Co-Location Service at the State of Ohio Computer Center continues to serve libraries well. Jendretzky met staff from Worthington and Greene County in the last month as they serviced equipment; Euclid Public Library is about to move into rack space, and because the CLEVNET consortium network is run out of the SOCC, Euclid’s servers can be mapped directly through as if they were in the library. A couple more libraries have indicated they are budgeting to move in next year, and Jendretzky predicts we will soon need to expand the space into a second cage.

The Dorcas Carey Public Library has begun using OpenDNS; Jendretzky provided them with a network map to help them plan and implement the service.

Jendretzky reported that he and Terry Fouts have created a new base configuration for the SRX300 routers, updating the firmware and making the devices more flexible for individual library network requirements. He also reported that OPLIN has a new Juniper rep.

To address concerns raised at the last meeting about OPLIN’s direct support of a library’s VOIP implementation, Jendretzky met with CBTS that provides the state’s VOIP service to clarify for them which responsibilities are OPLIN’s, which are the libraries. Two more libraries are considering the CBTS service, and Jendretzky has had conference calls defining how those will go.

In addition to developing the calendar-feed importer for Webkit sites, Jendretzky has made enhancements to the SMS Gateway. While investigating a question from SEO about why a certain message wasn’t delivered, he discovered that our vendor Trumpia offers more detailed error reporting, particularly on communication problems after a message leaves Trumpia’s system. Jendretzky set up a listener script for incoming statuses on these failed messages, and working with CLEVNET and SEO to distinguish one library’s messages from another, updated SMS message handling so that library contacts will receive, once a week, a status report of their messages, complete with suggestions for correcting problems. Jendretzky added “re-try” logic to his scripts, resulting in fewer messages falling through the cracks while still making efficient use of OPLIN’s message credits. With the updated message handling, Jendretzky has discovered that SEO is the largest user of the messaging service, sending 13,000 messages per week, compared with CLEVNET’s 8,500.

Before moving on in the agenda, Angela Baldree asked Don Yarman if the allocation of LSTA funds for the Webkit sites upgrade to Drupal 8 will reduce LSTA fund availability to other libraries. Yarman said the LSTA strategic plan allocates different amounts to different programs; any funds awarded to OPLIN for this project would not reduce monies designated by the plan for library programs.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

No chair’s report this month

10. ADJOURNMENT

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 10:54 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 5, 2018

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred seventieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 5, 2018 by Board Chair Michael Penrod at the Mangrove Room, Kalahari Resort, in Sandusky, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Jamie Black, Jeff Garringer, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, and Garalynn Tomas. 

Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, Eric Vescelius, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Black motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans thanked the OPLIN Board for its support of the OLC Convention and Expo, which boasted 652 attendees. 


4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 10 meeting

Tara Sidwell motioned to approve the minutes of the August 10, 2018, meeting as presented; Garalynn Tomas seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.


5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Don Yarman presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee, who was not able to attend the meeting. Yarman expects that the final report for FY2018 will be close to if not identical to that presented, showing $4,564,163.12 in disbursements. There have been $2,867,330.05 in disbursements so far in FY2019, most of which is in payments for databases – OPLIN’s portion of the Ohio Web Library content agreement as well as genealogy and Lynda.com subscriptions. This is for one year; similar payments are projected for subsequent fiscal years. Yarman will meet with Pardee to discuss tweaks to the projected budget for fiscal years 2020-2021. Currently, projections show a cash balance of $2,892,152.17 at the end of FY2021.

Angela Baldree motioned to accept the financial reports; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.


6. OLD BUSINESS – none


7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Request for OPLIN funding in FY2020-FY2021 state budget

Yarman reported that he had submitted his budget language to the State Library. As the questions have not changed since the last biennium, the answers are the same. This includes a description of how the source of OPLIN’s funds has moved between the state’s General Revenue Fund and the Public Library Fund over the years, and how PLF funding does pose a barrier for OPLIN’s participation in cooperative projects with other state government organizations and other library networks. Yarman finds this “barrier” to be an effective tool for OPLIN planning: because the PLF is intended to support local public library activities, OPLIN’s services should remain focused on returning value directly to all public libraries in the state. Jamie Black said it isn’t necessary to draw extra attention to OPLIN’s funding during the budget process by asking to change the source of funds, and Doug Evans agreed, saying that it appears that the Government Relations Committee will wish to ask for an increase in PLF, and it works to the libraries’ advantage to have the example of OPLIN’s collaborative impact. The Lynda.com subscription in particular has gained a lot of positive attention; for example, Representative Carfagna recently filmed a PSA with Westerville director Erin Francoeur about the valuable access to Lynda content. Michael Penrod said he believes having OPLIN in the PLF makes the services more secure. Travis McAfee said he hasn’t heard small and medium-sized libraries wanting OPLIN’s funds returned to them, and that they are happy to have OPLIN do the negotiating for their internet access and database subscriptions. Evans said that when OPLIN was put back into the PLF after having been out for a little while, there was some grumbling about the loss of that revenue, but he thinks that the return on that investment by the libraries in this service is multifold.

7.2 Drupal Upgrade RFP

OPLIN hosts about 80 public library websites on Drupal version 7. Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky have been monitoring the Drupal release schedule, but functional deficiencies have prevented OPLIN from beginning to move library sites to Drupal 8. Last month, it was announced that both Drupal 7 and 8 will be end-of-life (i.e., not supported) in November 2021, due to the end-of-life of some of Drupal’s component dependencies. Drupal 9 does not yet have a firm release date, but it should be in 2020, a year before support for the older versions ends. At a relatively brisk pace of one library website per week, it will take just over a year and a half to move Webkit sites to the latest platforms, and Yarman proposes that the migration project should start in July 2019. When the Webkit sites were upgraded from Drupal 6 to 7, OPLIN hired a third party to assist, and Yarman expects to bring a proposal to the December board meeting for a similar plan. Initial estimates suggest that the project could cost approximately $70,000 over the two year span. Penrod asked whether libraries should be charged an extra fee for migration costs; Yarman said he is considering it, but also is looking into grant funding to help cover the extra costs.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman reported that by the announced September 1 start date for the Lynda.com subscription, all but a few libraries were connected to the service; common barriers were properly configuring firewall rules, or licensing problems with previous Lynda.com subscriptions. The last library on the statewide Lynda subscription was the Morley Library, whose implementation was delayed due to their pending migration to CLEVNET. Yarman reported there has been no further communication after he responded to the FOIA/Open Records request for the Lynda.com contract details. Some librarians have raised questions about Lynda’s privacy policies and the selection process; conversations have generally been positive.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
In addition to preparation for the Drupal 8 migration, Solomon has been working on a new feature for the Webkits – a digital resources page that works similar to the database listing. It is currently being beta-tested by the Granville Public Library. Solomon is working carefully to make sure that new features added to the service do not pose additional problems during the Drupal 8 migration project. Despite concerns with the migration, Solomon praised some of the back-end improvements in Drupal 8, including a package manager which improves control over different modules and plug-ins. Solomon has also been working with the Euclid Public Library to find integrate the LibCal services (room reservation, event registration, etc.) that CLEVNET has begun providing their members.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reported that Ancestry continues to draw the highest usage of the OPLIN-provided resources, followed by the EBSCO package. She is looking into different models for visualizing and presenting statistical data, as some resources – notably Lynda.com and Transparent Language – do not fit with the model of showing counts of searches entered and documents accessed.

Because Lynda.com does not provide an enterprise-level view of usage stats, Karl Jendretzky wrote scripting that logs into the Lynda Stats API with each library’s admin credentials to collect the numbers OPLIN needs. Library directors or their designees will receive an email each month with the Lynda usage numbers (or, if the script login fails, they will receive an email asking them to contact the OPLIN office to update password information). Travis McAfee praised the simplicity of the new stats page, finding it much easier to use than most vendors’ stats interfaces. Jamie Black asked whether, because Lynda is owned by LinkedIn, users had to have LinkedIn accounts. Knapp explained that users can link their LinkedIn accounts, but it is not required. She discussed how unlike other OPLIN-provided resources which authenticate use based on IP address, Lynda.com checks the user’s library card against their library’s local database.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky discussed a few projects with tight deadlines that popped up unexpectedly. The NEO Regional Library System moved to new office space, initiating a scramble to install cable internet access in advance of the longer process to get a fiber connection built to the office. The Toledo Public Library has closed their main library for renovations, and OPLIN’s services needed to be redirected to maintain library system operations. The Findlay-Hancock County Public Library had purchased a new hosted telephone system on the state’s contract with Cincinnati Bell (CBTS), and although CBTS is supposed to notify OPLIN and the state’s Office of Information Technology well in advance of such projects, no one was notified until less than a month before it was to go live. Equipment was found for the library in state salvage, and the necessary configuration settings were added to the OPLIN router to accommodate the phone system’s requirements. 

Jendretzky explained that usually OPLIN has a minimal role when libraries are on the CBTS service; libraries usually configure their firewalls to accept static routes of state IP addresses into their local networks. Because of the tight timeframe and the availability of technical staff at the library, more of the work is being handled in OPLIN router configuration; the library was in a pinch, and OPLIN staff stepped in to help them out. Board members voiced concerns. Garalynn Tomas asked whether OPLIN would have to keep providing and supporting equipment; Jendretzky replied that the library was advised to purchase spare switches, rather than relying on reclaimed salvage equipment.  Penrod and McAfee were concerned that, once this has begun, OPLIN will be forced to continue direct support of voice services for libraries. Black wondered where OPLIN should draw boundaries – with CBTS or with the libraries. 

Yarman suggested that OPLIN staff meet with Findlay to discuss that while OPLIN staff stepped in to make things work for them under the crunch of a deadline, on-going support for telephone services needs to be moved off OPLIN equipment. Knapp suggested that OPLIN staff review the CBTS contract to identify the company’s obligations, then OPLIN and OIT staff can meet with CBTS to clarify those.

Jendretzky reported that he is still pressuring AT&T to bring up new head-end port. The delay is typical, and so far is not inconveniencing libraries, just delaying some of OPLIN’s networking projects – most notably completing the CLEVNET core move.

A webinar has been scheduled for October 16 to introduce libraries to the new SecurityIQ phishing vulnerability and education service. At least 20 libraries had requested SecurityIQ licenses within the past week, and as it includes the largest libraries and consortia, about half of the licenses have been allocated.

The Worthington Libraries have deployed new servers into the co-location space in NR3, and the Jendretzky has been discussing the service with the Euclid Public Library. Jendretzky predicts that OPLIN will expand the co-location space into a second network cage in the State of Ohio Computer Center sometime in the coming year, as more libraries are planning to move racks and equipment in.
 
Jendretzky has added more sophisticated error-handling to the SMS service by pulling more information out of message vendor Trumpia’s API. By learning what exactly causes a delivery error, the system can send more granular messages to libraries automatically, giving libraries a better idea of what went wrong and how to fix it.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT
Penrod said he had nothing to report.

10. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:04 a.m.

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER
 
The one hundred sixty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 10, 2018 by Board Vice-Chair Michael Penrod at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.
 
Present were Board members: Angela Baldree, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, Tara Sidwell, and Garalyn Tomas.
 
Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).
 
ACTION ITEMS
 
2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS
 
Current Board Vice-Chair Michael Penrod presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Michael Penrod, Chair; Travis McAfee, Vice-Chair; Chris May, Treasurer; and Jeff Garringer, Secretary. Michael asked if there were any additional nominations or questions, and there were none.
 
The Vice-Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.
 
3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
 
Travis McAfee motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY2019
 
The Chair asked Don Yarman to present the proposed Board meeting schedule for Fiscal Year 2018 and asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: August 10, 2018; October 5, 2018 (at Kalahari Convention Center, Sandusky); December 14, 2018; February 8, 2019; April 12, 2018; and June 14, 2018. The Chair also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 9, 2018; and October 11, 2018.
 
Justin Bumbico motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as presented; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
 
The Chair called for public participation.
 
Beverly Cain reported that the State Library, in collaboration with the four regional library systems and OhioNET, have just completed a series of four very successful “Opioids in Communities, Libraries in Response” forums. Attendance was high, and feedback was overwhelming positive. Sam Quinones, author of DREAMLAND: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, was the keynote speaker at each of the events; Dr. Meghan Harper, Kent State University iSchool, was the closing speaker for each forum, discussing the impact of the opioid epidemic on children and families. Different local practitioner panels and a local speaker from Project DAWN completed the agendas. The State Library is busy drafting their budget, which includes OPLIN, for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, due October 15. Michael Campbell has joined the State Library staff and will be the point of contact for the statewide delivery system. Cain reported that there are particular problems with Priority Dispatch’s Cleveland hub, and reminded libraries to fill out service tickets for problems. A new contract will be negotiated next year. Cain is near the end of the search process to fill the vacancy when Missy Lodge retires at the end of September. The deadline for submitting proposals for competitive LSTA grants up to $50,000 with a 25% match is August 31. The State Library is offering grants up to $4,999 to bring a certified mental health first aid trainer to libraries, and the open $4,999 grant program is available year round. The federal LSTA program officer will be visiting Ohio the week of August 27, spending time at the State Library and visiting local libraries with successful LSTA-funded programs, including the Louisville Public Library which recently opened their new “Sensory Story Time” space for patrons with autism spectrum conditions.
 
Michael Penrod asked if the budget guidelines projected growth; Cain replied that agencies are permitted to request up to 90% of General Revenue Fund (GRF) programs, and a supplemental budget where they may request up to 10% more. These guidelines do not apply to OPLIN because it is not funded by GRF. Because State Library was cut 13.57% in the last budget, Cain will write a second letter to the budget director arguing for the restoration of some funds.
 
Michelle Francis reported that attendance at OLC’s regional subject conferences (including the “Beyond Books and Programs” youth services conference in Athens held the same day) has exceeded expectations. State revenues continue to come in above estimates, with the PLF August distribution about $400,000 more than in 2017. Governor Kasich, the legislature, and local governments are in disagreement about what should be done with the state’s budget surplus – the Governor favoring a tax cut, and local governments wanting some money to help them cope with the opioid crisis locally. OLC has been busy helping OPLIN manage the Lynda.com project, stepping up to launch and track media attention; they will host a webinar for libraries about using and promoting Lynda on August 20. Some legislators have been very excited about Lynda, and OLC is coordinating another big media push at the start of September, when the service should be live in libraries.
 
Michael Penrod asked if the Lynda excitement is raising OPLIN’s profile with legislature. Francis replied that OPLIN’s instrumental role is foregrounded in the communications; so far, no legislator has asked what OPLIN is.
 
 
6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 8 meeting
 
Justin Bumbico motioned to approve the minutes of the June 8, 2018, meeting as presented; Tara Sidwell seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS
 
Don Yarman presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee. A few open encumbrances remain, but the final cash balance at the end of fiscal year 2018 will be approximately $3.2 million, the high balance caused mainly due to the FY2017 E-rate reimbursements coming late. The cash balance at the end of the next fiscal year is projected to be $2.8 million, reflecting a steady spend down of the cash balance within the limits of current spending authority.
 
Chris May motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
8. OLD BUSINESS
 
8.1. Selection of cybersecurity/phishing awareness service
Yarman reviewed the rationale for investigating this service: libraries have reported an increase in targeted e-mail (“spear phishing”) campaigns to steal information. In response, Karl Jendretzky first envisioned a service where OPLIN could run 2-3 week tests/educational campaigns for sets of libraries, but soon began to recognize the value in longer educational campaigns controlled by the libraries who could adapt the tests and training to their own needs. Jendretzky began exploring vendor options for MSP services that would let OPLIN license an educational phishing service for libraries statewide, and pass out admin credentials, similar to current procedures for OpenDNS.
 

SecurityIQ PhishSim & AwareEd	270 sites / 15,000 seats	$35,000
KnowBe4 Awareness Training Gold	15,000 seats	$97,950
PhishingBox PhishingBox with Ninjio LMS	Unlimited phishing tests Monthly courses	$22,500 $210,000

 
SecurityIQ offers a lower per-seat price, and in staff review, appears to better meet OPLIN’s needs for offering the service to libraries, with better on-boarding materials and promotional webinars.
 
Garalynn Tomas asked what all the service covered. Jendretzky explained that the target is library staff, not patrons. Staff will receive emails that, just like a real phishing attempt, will seek to fool them into giving up login credentials; if someone falls for it, the service will guide the staff to materials to show them how to avoid being fooled in the future.
 
Travis McAfee asked if this was limited to email, or does it extend to phone services. Jendretzky replied currently it is just email, but companies are starting to expand as the threats do.
 
Justin Bumbico asked if accounts could be integrated into library single sign-on systems, like Active Directory. In his tests, Jendretzky did not find that end-users needed to have their own sign-ins for the service – they were sent customized links for the training materials. All the services have Active Directory integration for importing the users, but the users don’t have to authenticate against the system for any reason.
 
Mandy Knapp asked if there was a way to make sure the user completed the training. Jendretzky confirmed that if users “failed” the test, they can be signed up for training, and administrators could see if they visited and completed the training (the system also reminds users to complete the training).
 
Justin Bumbico motioned to select SecurityIQ for library cybersecurity/phishing education; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no additional discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.
 
Recorded vote: Angela Baldree, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; Garalyn Tomas, aye.
 
9. NEW BUSINESS – none
 
REPORTS
 
10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman discussed the successful process of finalizing the contract language with Lynda.com and securing a P.O. for the service before the end of the fiscal year. He described how the licensing breaks down: 4,265 concurrent user licenses, divided among the 251 library organizations according to population served. The current software cannot track and limit concurrent users, and Yarman opposes the imposition of limits narrower than the full licensed number for the state. The statewide agreement excludes access for the State Library and their service to state employees, as that conflicts with the territory of a different sales department.
 
Lynda.com authenticates library users by querying their local patron databases directly, so each library has its own “portal” set up. OPLIN staff helped coordinate the communication and on-boarding of Ohio libraries by focusing first on library consortia, then grouping libraries together by software platform (Polaris, Sierra, SirsiDynix, etc.) As of meeting time, twenty-five library portals were not yet set up.
 
OPLIN received an open records/FOIA request for details on the contract and pricing with Lynda.com. At the advice of the Attorney General’s Office, Yarman informed Lynda.com of the request, and intended to send the information to the requester at the beginning of the next week.
 
Yarman and Mandy Knapp talked with staff at OhioMeansJobs.com about creating linkages between the Ohio Means Jobs portal and the Lynda.com access. Michelle Francis asked whether they would develop a “crosswalk” of Lynda courses with Ohio’s list of in-demand jobs. Yarman confirmed that the crosswalk has already been created and agencies are exploring where best to present that. In addition, the customer success tean at Lynda.com have offered to develop other curated learning paths and collections.
 
10.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that Kinsman and Arcanum libraries have launched new website kits. Because of concerns about migrating sites to the next version of Drupal, she has slowed down promotion of the service to new libraries, instead working with existing customers to update their designs. The next version of Drupal 8 is due out at the beginning of September, and Solomon hopes this improves the upgrade process from Drupal 7. Solomon has been exploring the development of structured data and its relevance to library websites. In addition to creating the “rich snippets” that users see when searching certain subjects (such as events), structured data helps make websites interact better with voice services like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri. Voice interfaces are on the rise; Solomon notes that 1 in 4 American homes now has an Amazon Echo.
 
8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp showed the usage stats for the new Ohio Web Library databases on the report, explaining that she charted new resources separately because, after one month’s stats, there is not trend line. Some vendors (Oxford, Chilton’s by Gale) have a delay before statistics are provided. Knapp explained that Transparent Language statistics (and eventually Lynda.com statistics) will be reported separately from other databases; those statistics will report session information, rather than searches and documents. OPLIN has arranged many training webinars for the new databases; the genealogy webinars were particularly well-attended. Knapp also reported that she has filed the BEAR forms for last service year, and most of the refunds have already been received.
 
8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky reported that 165 replacement routers have been deployed, and the process remains smooth. The default configuration has a SIP (session interchange protocol) port conflict with some InnReach member libraries; Jendretzky fixes those as crop up. He typically checks the new routers early in the morning, correcting configuration errors hours before libraries open.
 
The software on the OPLIN core routers was upgraded in June. Jendretzky explained that this upgrade corrects a deficiency that caused the bridged, redundant cores to “split apart” in September 2017. Jendretzky plans to have the second core back in production before the October Board meeting.
 
With the E-rate service year starting in July, July is a busy month with circuit changes. All CLEVNET libraries on Time Warner (Spectrum) and Everstream have been moved to the new CLEVNET core (including the new member, Morley Library). Two new 10Gb AT&T collector ports have been installed in the core. Jendretzky will move the Greene County library’s circuit to the new port as a test before beginning the migration of the remaining CLEVNET libraries, followed by the Cleveland Public Library branches
 
The NEO regional library system moved offices with very short notice, so they are currently without OPLIN-provided internet, but the order with Spectrum is in process. Estimated installation is late September.
 
Jendretzky described the SOCC Co-Location Center in “Network Room 3” for the benefit of new Board members, and reported that Greene County has moved a couple servers into OPLIN rack space, and that Worthington is scheduled to move in equipment the following week – Worthington and Greene County will be the first tenants to share rack space. Jendretzky arranged a SOCC tour for the SEO consortium and some metropolitan libraries (including Cincinnati, Cuyahoga County, and Akron); Cincinnati is looking to host disaster-recovery equipment there.
 
The OPLIN list server has been moved to Amazon Web Services, so now all of OPLIN’s public servers except for EZProxy are running on AWS. This eliminates hardware troubles and updates, enhances remote management, and is more easily scalable.
 
Because the Gongwer news service changed how it delivers its email subscription, Jendretzky wrote a piece of software that edits the links in the Gongwer email (so that links will use EZProxy authentication) and forwards messages to OPLIN’s subscriber list. While the software was built for Gongwer, it can be used for any email service that we want to do something programmatic to. Jendretzky also has been developing a framework for gathering stats from Lynda.com, which requires a separate admin login for each library account.
 
Two additional libraries have begun using OpenDNS, bringing the total to 154 libraries. A library branch was having trouble with OpenDNS, which led to the discovery that their local ISP was intercepting DNS requests.
 
Jendretzky reconfigured the SMS Gateway so that he can now distinguish between the CLEVNET member libraries; 142 libraries now use the service, which sends out about 130,000 messages per month.
 
9. CHAIR'S REPORT
The Chair announced he was appointing past Chair Joe Greenward as an at-large member of the executive committee.
 
13. ADJOURNMENT
 
The Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:35 a.m.

 
1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER
 
The one hundred sixty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:01 a.m. on Friday, June 8, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.
 
Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Tara Sidwell.
 
Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, and Jamie Pardee (State Library); Michelle Francis and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Holly Varley (Dayton Metro Library).
 
ACTION ITEMS
 
2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
 
Travis McAfee motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
 
The Chair called for public participation.
 
Beverly Cain reported that Missy Lodge is retiring at the end of September, and there has been a lot of interest in the position even with limited distribution outside of the state’s posting site. The State Library is accepting proposals for competitive LSTA grants up to $50,000 with a 25% match; application deadline is in September, to be awarded in December. At their meeting this week, the State Library Board approved some LSTA funding, state subsidy funding for the regional library systems and the Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, and OPLIN Board members for next fiscal year.
 
Doug Evans reported on OLC’s many recent and upcoming professional development events, including the New Directors’ workshop series; there have been over 60 director changes in Ohio public libraries in the past two years. The focus in 2019 for professional development will be community engagement, facilities, safety and security, and an on-demand, on-line series, possibly addressing HR management. OLC Board and Division elections are coming up starting the end of June.
 
Michelle Francis reported that state revenues have been coming in 3% above estimates; the PLF distribution for the current fiscal year 2018 came in $7 million more than originally estimated. The Ohio House has not had session since OLC’s Legislative Day April 11 until June 6 when they elected Speaker Ryan Smith from Gallipolis, and the next day passed 27 bills and resolutions. The House and Senate have extended their session calendars through the end of June. Francis discussed OLC’s efforts with HB292 to address issues with library bond ratings and limits on borrowing against PLF. Legislative Day 2019 will be at the Statehouse on April 9. Four different libraries will be presenting next Tuesday at the Governor’s Workforce Development Board meeting at Columbus Metropolitan Library: Bossard, Columbus Metro, Greene County, and Avon Lake. They will discuss library services and partnerships related to workforce development. OLC hopes to stream the meeting on Facebook Live.
 
 
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 13 meeting
 
Jeff Garringer motioned to approve the minutes of the April 13, 2018, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS
 
Projecting out cash balance to decrease gradually over next three fiscal years to a more comfortable $1.7 million. One more month remains in this fiscal year, and expenses are pretty much on track; there is an available balance of $1.3 million in this fiscal year for appropriations. Overall expenditures for next fiscal year are expected to be higher.
 
Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements remain in line with estimates for this time of year. About $94,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. Pardee noted that none of the Ohio Web Library Specialists have taken advantage of the offer to reimburse mileage, so those funds will just return to the cash balance at the end of the fiscal year.
 
Jamie Black suggested the Board table accepting the financial reports until after discussion of agenda item 6.1. “Selection of continuous learning resources,” as those expenses are anticipated in the draft financial reports.
 
6. OLD BUSINESS
 
6.1. Selection of continuous learning resources
Don Yarman reviewed the history of this project, beginning with the budget language that recognized public libraries as continuous learning centers and directing that job skills resources be made available to Ohioans through the Ohio Digital Library, and how OPLIN stepped in to position resources on a statewide basis, as ODL does not have statewide participation. OPLIN issued an RFP for continuous learning resources with a focusing on job skills development. Proposals came from Brainfuse, Xello, EBSCO, Gale, and Lynda.com.
 
Yarman introduced Holly Varley, a member of OPLIN’s Content Advisory Committee and a new appointee to the OPLIN Board; Varley will begin her term in July. The Content Advisory Committee reviewed the proposals and gave their priorities for negotiation. Staff were concerned that content and services proposed would replicate those currently provided by Ohio’s Department of Jobs and Family Services through OhioMeansJobs.com, and reached out to OMJ/JFS for assistance, connecting with Mark Birnbrich and Tanya Calbert. They detailed the role of OMJ in tracking activities necessary for unemployment disbursement, and offered to review the products for overlap. After eliminating proposals that replicated existing services or were not recommended by the Content Advisory Committee, only Gale Courses and lyndaLibrary remained.
 
Yarman outlined the different pricing/licensing models of the two products, and compared how the two products align with Ohio’s list of in-demand jobs, an evaluation component specified in the RFP. Jamie Black praised Lynda.com content and the pricing offered, but expressed concern about the ability to continue offering the product beyond the three years proposed. Michelle Francis explained how the legislature was impressed with the resources available through the Ohio Digital Library, and separately were looking for solutions for retirees and veterans looking to acquire new skills, especially in rural areas. Francis shared her opinion that providing these resources presents an advocacy opportunity with the in-coming General Assembly for library services, particularly in regard to technology and career development. Beverly Cain added that, with data showing that the project was successful, there would be a strong opportunity to ask for additional funding for support.
 
Susan Brown asked how the original $500,000 budget was set -- Stephen Hedges selected a round number in line with other subscription costs – and questioned what analytics would be available to demonstrate outcomes. Mandy Knapp discussed past experiences gathering customer satisfaction data, and Karl Jendretzky outlined the many datapoints available via the stats API access that Lynda.com provided him.
 
Chris May contrasted his library’s experience with Gale Courses, seeing the 6-8 week commitment for classes as a deterrent, and the content not meeting workforce development needs. Mandy Knapp affirmed that the Content Advisory Committee preferred Lynda.com.
 
There was some discussion about other uses OPLIN might make of the cash reserves, and what a desirable cash balance to have on hand would be.
 
Jamie Black motioned to increase the budget for job skills/continuous learning resources up to $725,000; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no additional discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.
 
6.2. Phishing awareness services
Some libraries report an increase in targeted e-mail campaigns attempting to steal login credentials or financial information (a practice known as “spear phishing”) against library directors and fiscal officers.  Karl Jendretzky has begun investigating the services of companies which provide benevolent phishing campaigns for the purposes of vulnerability testing and targeted staff training, with the idea that OPLIN could create generic campaigns geared toward public library staff. Libraries would join a queue to participate in a 2-3 week period of education/testing, and when that was over, clear out the accounts and on-board the next library. Because extended or on-going campaigns of phishing awareness are the most successful, he is exploring an alternative option, more like OPLIN’s OpenDNS service, where OPLIN operates a managed service provider interface to hand off accounts it licenses on behalf of libraries, letting libraries customize and manage their own phishing awareness campaigns. Travis McAfee and Justin Bumbico discussed how this service might be beneficial to their libraries, and McAfee asked for a more complete MSP proposal for the next Board meeting.
 
 
7. NEW BUSINESS – Don Yarman
 
7.1. Decide on staff raises
Yarman explained that with the passage of HB292, exempt state employees will be granted salary increases matching those negotiated by the employee unions.
 
Justin Bumbico motioned that, in that State of Ohio E-1 employees are expected to receive a 2.75% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2018, and whereas this increase is expected to be allowed for other exempt state employees up to 2.75%, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66(A)(1) which allows the board to fix the compensation of OPLIN personnel, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.75% salary increase beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2018; Chris May seconded. There was no additional discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
REPORTS
 
8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman reported on his experiences at the International Coalition of Library Consortia meeting in Detroit and the Net Inclusion conference in Cleveland, April 16-19. On April 21, he presented OPLIN’s Awards for Advanced Digital Researcher at Ohio History Day held at Ohio Wesleyan University. The Junior Award went to Devin Corrington and Parker Williams for their project “Nuclear Conflict, Peaceful Compromise,” and the Senior Award when to Molly Paker for her exhibit “Rosie the Riverter Campaign: Putting America’s Women to Work.” Both exhibits were selected to advance to the national showcase.
 
In-coming Board member Holly Varley introduced herself.
 
8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that OPLIN currently is running 80 Webkit sites, slightly over 31% of Ohio’s public libraries. She continues to investigate the eventual migration from Drupal 7 to 8. Jendretzky built a separate sandbox server running Drupal 8 for tests. It was recently announced that Drupal 8.6 will be released in the second half of 2018, promising improvements in the migration process and the addition of some critical third-party modules.
 
8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reviewed the latest statistical report, noting that ProQuest and/or Ancestry have changed something in their reporting, so the drop in stats is either an error or a correction of an existing error. (Both companies are blaming the other.) Roll-out of the new resources is on track; the links are ready for distribution and will be announced closer to the July 1 live date. Knapp has ordered promotional bookmarks for Chilton’s, Transparent Language, and the genealogy resources, and will announce the availability of these on OPLINLIST later this month.
 
Forty individuals signed up to be in the Ohio Web Library Specialist program – 1/3 of them continuing from last year, and 2/3 new to the program. Former OWLS were surveyed for suggestions to improve the program, and in response OPLIN will host a meeting for OWLS at OLC Convention in the Training Zone adjacent to OPLIN’s booth. Knapp has set dates for the training sessions, and will contact new OWLS later in June after the ALA Convention.
 
Kent State iSchool student Eric Vescelius will be conducting his practicum with OPLIN starting in September. Vescelius currently works at the Gahanna Branch of Columbus Metropolitan Library; his main activities will be to create training materials for databases.
 
8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky updated the Board on router deployments, which have stalled due to a delay in receiving additional rack mounting brackets. About 100 routers have been deployed. Jendretzky is verifying the new circuit orders due July 1; most are part of the big CLEVNET move to the core. The OPLIN-CLEVNET collector trunk is in production, with four libraries (all Everstream circuits) using it. With the new architecture, the Morley Library, which will be joining CLEVNET in the middle of the service year, can be mapped into CLEVNET without changing the circuit through their vendor.
 
Greene County and Worthington have signed agreements for space in the Co-Location Center. Jendretzky is organizing a tour of the SOCC for metro libraries.
 
Jendretzky has been working with OARnet to bring up redundant links for library customers that use the state’s CBTS phone system.
 
OIT has granted Jendretzky greater access to OPLIN’s routers, and as he completes his Juniper certification training, he is able to implement changes directly rather than wait for them to be pushed through OIT. It gives him the ability to help libraries out with smaller network issue, for example helping a library to configure the network to pass test required for payment card processing.
 
Internet browsers are increasingly preferring https over http, so some library-hosted websites are now showing “insecure” warnings to some users. Jendretzky has been helping those libraries implement SSL certificates for their web servers.
 
9. CHAIR'S REPORT
 
9.1. Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee (Director’s evaluation)
 
Susan Brown motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Jamie Black seconded.
 
Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.
 
The Board entered Executive Session at 11:58 a.m.
 
The Board returned from Executive Session at 12:02 p.m.
 
Joseph Greenward provided Don Yarman with a copy of his evaluation summary report.
 
9.2. Resolutions
 
The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:
 

WHEREAS, Susan Brown has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since 2012, and   WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board, including a number of leadership roles, most notably Chair of the Board, and   WHEREAS she has given thoughtful feedback to OPLIN’s operations and services, and   WHEREAS her wise counsel and considerate expertise will be missed by all members of the OPLIN Board, and   WHEREAS her service as trustee of the Washington-Centerville Public Library gave her a unique insight in to OPLIN and its services for public libraries.   NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED and that on June 8, 2018 the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by Susan Brown during her tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and   BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to Susan Brown for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

 
 
Jamie Black seconded the resolution. All aye.
 
13. ADJOURNMENT
 
On motion of Tara Sidwell and second of Susan Brown, the Board adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)

ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes - April 13, 2018

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 13, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Tara Sidwell .

Also present were: Mandy Knapp, Karl Jendretzky, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jamie Black seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans reported that the Public Library Fund is almost 3% higher than forecasts this year. OLC Legislative Day was on April 11, the day after Speaker Rosenberger announced his resignation. Two hundred twenty-five library administrators, trustees, and staff attended, reporting good feedback with their meetings with legislators. Turnout and feedback was also good for OLC's Opioid Symposium held April 3. Evans mentioned that the upcoming "Opioids in Communities, Libraries in Response" events hosted by the State Library in partnership with OhioNET and the regional library systems will have a different but complementary focus. Chris May praised the timing of the symposium, as it gave libraries good information to discuss with their legislators and aides.

Evans gave updates on the status of HB312 regarding credit card use by political subdivisions, and HB371 which exempts new development properties from property taxes. He reported that representatives from OLC, OELMA, and the State Library will be meeting with Ohio Department of Education staff to discuss concerns that the State Board of Education's strategic plan makes almost no mention of libraries. Upcoming OLC events include trustee dinners and director advocacy training. Finally, ten libraries have issues on the ballot May 8; most are levy renewals, but there are 2 new levies and a few increases.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 8 meeting

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the minutes of the February 9, 2018, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements remain in line with estimates for this time of year. About $94,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. Pardee noted that none of the Ohio Web Library Specialists have taken advantage of the offer to reimburse mileage, so those funds will just return to the cash balance at the end of the fiscal year.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the financial reports; Tara Sidwell seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. MOU between State Library of Ohio and OPLIN

Yarman reviewed proposed changes to the draft memorandum of understanding drafted by the State Library. The MOU lists the fiscal and administrative services that the State Library provides to OPLIN and the broadband services and subscription database licensing that OPLIN provides in return. State Library staff had estimated the cost in staff time for their services, and it is roughly $10,000 more per year than the cost of the broadband circuits to State Library and the SEO Library Center after E-rate refunds.

Jamie Black motioned to approve the terms of the memorandum of understanding; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

 

Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS -- none

PLANNING SESSION

8. OUTCOMES OF CONTENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING - Mandy Knapp

Mandy Knapp outlined the Content Advisory Committee's work reviewing and scoring the responses to OPLIN's RFPs for genealogy resources and for job skills training resources. OPLIN has begun negotiating with vendors based on the priorities that the Content Advisory Committee had set.

For genealogy, the committee selected the products offered by ProQuest, indicating that they felt the company had overpriced their "HeritageQuest" product; acquiring a statewide subscription to that was a lower priority, although the committee did acknowledge that, because so many libraries subscribe to HeritageQuest on their own, purchasing it centrally would directly save money for many libraries. Knapp noted that OPLIN's negotiating power for HeritageQuest pricing is limited: genealogy content is a priority for public libraries, and ProQuest already has a broad subscriber base in place - they are unlikely to agree to take less money. And ProQuest is the sole provider of this content. The Board discussed concerns that ProQuest could ask for exorbitant increases in subsequent years, whether there were other, related products that ProQuest could add to the package, whether prices were out of scale with other statewide deals, and whether OPLIN's current cash balance predictions allowed for the increase.

Yarman noted that should the Board approve an increase in the budget for negotiating for statewide genealogy resources, OPLIN could ask for a pricing schedule for three years that caps increases at 3% and help return some subscription savings to public libraries.

Michael Penrod motioned to increase the genealogy budget up to $580,000 if ProQuest agreed to pricing increases of no more than 3% per year; Jamie Black seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a roll call vote on the motion.

 

Recorded vote: Jamie Black, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Tara Sidwell; aye.

Yarman discussed responses to the Job Skills RFP, the Content Advisory Committee's rankings, and concerns that the highest ranked products - while excellent - may replicate content and services already delivered through OhioMeansJobs.com. OPLIN staff have communicated with vendors to get clarification of exactly how their content aligns with the needs outlined in Ohio's "In-Demand Jobs" list (this was included in the RFP, but responses were weak), and how their content differs from existing offerings from OhioMeansJobs.com. In addition, OPLIN staff is reaching out to Mark Birnbrich of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services to get his input on which services are too duplicative.

Board members discussed their libraries' experiences offering some of the products, as well as their varying experiences with the local OMJ centers. As more information is gathered, OPLIN will discuss it with the Content Advisory Committee, and hopefully be closer to a selection by the next Board meeting.

9. REPORTS ON STATUS OF OPLIN SERVICES - OPLIN Staff

Yarman accidentally left this on the draft agenda. Staff will contribute to discussion of the Tactical Plan and give their reports later in the meeting.

10. REVIEW OF ANNUAL TACTICAL PLAN

Yarman noted that the Strategic Plan officially approved June 9, 2017, extends to the end of fiscal year 2021; the Board's intention was to review annually the services offered and the Tactical Plan. Yarman read through these plans, reporting on the relevant activities from this fiscal year with special attention to the Operations Goals within the Tactical Plan.

The table below contains the text of the Annual Service Plan, with notes on the current status of those services in italics.

Priority:
Maintain public connections to digital information sources
Strategy:	Strategy:
Provide and maintain safe and reliable internet connections to Ohio public library systems	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with internal internet needs
Provide reliable broadband telecommunications circuits	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with their branch connections
Operations Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a functioning OPLIN connection to the internet 99.9% of the time. Met. The 7 hour Spectrum outage affected about 60% of the libraries, but the duration was well under the 0.1% goal.	OPLIN submits requests into OIT ServiceNow system, and offers assistance to libraries seeking E-rate reimbursements. OPLIN can bundle a library's local orders with larger statewide orders to help bring down cost of construction.
Provide bandwidth from providers of wholesale internet	Offer a network evaluation service
Operations Goal: 99.5% of OPLIN participants will have a connection to the internet large enough that their average bandwidth demand during peak hours will not exceed 70% of the connection capacity. Exceeded. For E-rate cycle, we upgrade in advance of meeting the need. All but one library is at or above 100Mbps. The OPLIN core currently has 20Gbps of internet connectivity, with peak usage being around 8Gbps. Redundant hardware and circuit paths to allow for reliability.	Operations Goal: Assist at least 10 libraries each year with resolving internal networking issues. Exceeded; Karl directly assisted between 20-30 libraries in past year.
Provide adequate network routing equipment	Offer annual E-rate workshops
Karl reported on progress of router replacement, and described the scripts that report the change in inventory. By next Board meeting, very close to complete with hardware replacement project.	OPLIN contracts with Lorrie Germann to provide 2 workshop/webinars per year. Don is considering how the format might change to better target public library patterns and needs.
Provide a filtering solution	Offer space to libraries in a designated area of the State of Ohio Computer Center
OPLIN has provided OpenDNS (now called Cisco Umbrella) since 2012. Currently 151 libraries with profiles. Working on renewal for FY2019.	Operations Goal: A current SOCC lease agreement with the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Office of Information Technology will be in effect at the beginning of each fiscal year. Met.
	Offer to sponsor at least one conference
	OPLIN was a Platinum Sponsor for OLC Convention and Expo 2017, and will be again for the 2018 event at Kalahari.

Priority:
Facilitate finding, retrieving and sharing digital information
Strategy:	Strategy:
Provide and maintain access to high-quality digital information for Ohioans	Offer to assist Ohio public library systems with digital communications
Provide subscriptions to selected databases	Offer a selection of archived email discussion lists
$1.2 million disbursed in subscription costs so far this fiscal year. Operations Goal: Meet with the CAC and any database purchasing partners at least once annually. CAC met March 28; LCO partners met at least monthly.	Operations Goal: Email discussion lists will be functional at least 99.9% of the time. Met; investigating tracking method.
Provide a website allowing free access to the online information	Offer generic public library websites
Operations Goal: Keep the public access website for the databases functioning as intended 99% of the time. Met, but no monitoring available.	Operations Goal: OPLIN-provided websites will be functional and accessible at least 99.9% of the time. Met; investigating tracking method. Laura and Karl moved all sites to https. Laura keeps all site software updates current.
Provide support for access to materials digitized by Ohio public libraries	Offer professional assessment of a library's website
OPLIN pays the DPLA membership fee for the Ohio Digital Network. Don is on the advisory committee for the Ohio Digital Network; Mandy participates in the Ohio Digital Interest Group and Community Engagement Center meetings. Ohio's first "ingest" of 10,000 metadata records is complete; ingests will occur quarterly.	Laura performed 6 audits, 2 current Webkit customers and 4 other library sites.
Provide the necessary technology to authenticate remote users	Offer a service that allows libraries to send notification messages
OPLIN provides EZProxy and flexible validation to cover a range of library options and subscription scenarios. Karl recently changed EZProxy logging for more accurate stats and to gauge load on the server. He also created algorithms that can block suspicious activity.	Operations Goal: Resolve any performance issues or open an incident ticket with the messaging vendor within 4 hours during regular business hours. Met.
Provide tools for integrating access to online databases
Libraries use OPLIN's links from their own websites to provide their patrons access. Recently, the Cuyahoga County Public Library has moved from their own local EZProxy installation to OPLIN's. Karl and Laura redesigned the library-card-entry page to be responsive to mobile screen sizes.
Operations Goal: Respond within one hour to malfunctions of database access during regular business hours. Met response goals. (Maybe not fixed in an hour, but responded.) Operations Goal: Make at least 80% of previous month database usage statistics available to public libraries by the 10th of each month. Met; Mandy does these on the 5th.

While not adding anything to the tactical plan officially at this point, in support of the first strategy, "Provide and maintain safe and reliable internet connections," Yarman said he intends to put marketing efforts into evaluating OPLIN's role in cybersecurity culture, and helping Ohio libraries become local leaders in cybersecurity response and information.

In FY2019, the OPLIN staff foresees these things on the horizon:

• A significant Drupal version upgrade (from version 7 to 8)
• Expansion of the Co-Location Center as more tenants join
• New EZProxy hardware
• A review of "What Tree Is It?"
• OIT Succession Planning
• New carpet and paint

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:30 a.m. and resumed discussions at 12:08 p.m.

REPORTS

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Yarman reported that he has been through the state's LeadOhio training program and found it valuable. He discussed OPLIN's new membership in the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee (OC3), a coalition of over 200 public, private, military and educational organizations across Ohio working to strengthen the state's cybersecurity culture. Their primary aim is to expand Ohio's educational opportunities to build a trained cyber workforce. Through capital budget appropriations, OC3 has overseen the development of the cyber range, a virtual training and testing environment within OARnet. Future goals involve developing volunteer cyber incident response teams to provide emergency assistance, notably to local governments. This last effort seems a great fit for the involvement of public libraries (local presence in all 88 counties; access through OPLIN to OARnet and the cyber range), and Yarman is eager to explore ways OPLIN can be involved in OC3's mission.

In early March, the Department of Justice notified OPLIN that 23 computers associated with IP addresses in 7 different libraries were compromised with Fruitfly malware, part of the indictment against computer programmer Phillip Durachinsky from North Royalton, Ohio, who is in federal custody. OPLIN notified the directors and technical contacts for each of the affected libraries, and is monitoring communications from the Victim Notification System as the prosecution proceeds.

Yarman will be going to the International Coalition of Library Consortia meeting in Detroit April 15, and from there will travel to Cleveland for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance's conference.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

On April 19, Laura Solomon will be speaking at the Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington D.C. about online tools. She reported that she has been working on new websites for Medina, Hubbard, and Liberty Center, and updating designs for a number of existing Webkit sites that have been around for a while.

Solomon and Jendretzky discussed their work with the old "What Tree Is It?" site, which was composed of a thousand static HTML files of different pages. They transferred the information from those pages into a database so they could create a dynamic front-end for it, and used Twitter's Bootstrap framework to create a responsive grid for mobile browsers.

Solomon reported that OPLIN currently hosts the websites for 31% of Ohio's public libraries - 75 sites are live, and 4 more are in progress. Because of on-going changes in staffing at those libraries, Solomon developed a new Welcome Packet to orient people taking over web management duties locally. She has revised the Website Kit Manual, utilizing bigger print, adding illustrations for most steps, and providing more video tutorials to demonstrate procedures.

Solomon discussed the coming upgrade from Drupal version 7 to 8, which entails a significant change to website backend: Drupal 8 employs new "engines" for both site mechanics and design. As was the case moving from Drupal 6 to 7, migrating existing customers to the new platform will likely involve hiring consultants to assist with the work.

Solomon outlined the webinars that she has been developing and delivering, including the Emerging Technologies webinars which usually fill to capacity, and expects that people will be very interested in more cybersecurity information. Her webinar earlier this year covering online privacy for patrons and staff was very popular. The webinar focus is content that library staff need which they are not finding elsewhere.

11.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp discussed highlights of the new set of Ohio Web Library resources purchased in cooperation with OhioLINK, INFOhio, and the State Library: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Very Short Introductions (a print series available in ebook form), Transparent Language Online, Chilton Library (the popular auto repair resource), and Kids Infobits (a resource for children's learning). World Book and the EBSCO core collection are remaining in the new package; some new resources have been added to the EBSCO collection: Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center, Home Improvement, and Small Business. The only current resource dropped from the collection is Science Online, which had very low public library stats. Knapp has received very positive feedback about this collection, especially for the addition of Chilton's. Knapp reported that OPLIN is continuing to work through the process of retaining refunds or credits for libraries that currently carry individual subscriptions for resources that are becoming statewide. Knapp and Jendretzky are working to make sure authentication is in place for all the resources, and Knapp is coordinating vendor-provided webinars to train library staff.

As the state's public library contact for E-rate, Knapp has been responding to many "program integrity audit" requests, mostly verifying the existence of individual library bookmobile services.

11.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Jendretzky discussed the continued success of the SMS Gateway service, which grows by 30% each year.

He called it a "model service": it serves 130 libraries, sips at funds, and doesn't take much staff time.

In response to problems reported by CLEVNET about spearphishing campaigns against library directors and fiscal officers, Jendretzky has been investigating the services of companies which provide benevolent phishing campaigns launched against companies for the purposes of vulnerability testing and targeted training. His vision is that OPLIN could license a set number of seats, create a 2-3 week campaign geared toward public library staff, let libraries join a queue for the testing/educational campaign, and move through the queue sequentially to get as much use of the seats as possible. While extended campaigns are the most successful, this program would introduce libraries to the threats and raise awareness, encouraging them to continue vigilance on their own. Penrod reported that his library has used KnowBe4 for the past three years to great success. Jendretzky will review the options and bring a proposal to the June meeting.

Jendretzky summarized major work at OPLIN's core in the SOCC. As a result of hardware and network port diversity built into the Spectrum handoff to OPLIN, Spectrum was able to move circuits around with no outages. New console servers were installed so Terry Fouts can quickly access all OPLIN's hardware. Fouts and Jendretzky are working to bring the secondary core back into production; it has been in testing mode since the outage in September 2017, when the software-based connection between the primary and secondary cores failed, and half the network was left without a path out to the internet. The planned new architecture will include a secondary OARnet pathway.

The next milestone in CLEVNET's move to the Co-Location Space is to bring up an aggregation port to accept circuits into the OPLIN core; traffic from CLEVNET members will be routed through OPLIN's core into CLEVNET's head end. Instead of installing separate, costly vendor handoffs for CLEVNET libraries, OPLIN is leveraging its existing handoffs to save libraries money. There is the possibility as more libraries move into the Co-Location center that OPLIN could handle library branches similarly. This provides value to the libraries by saving them the cost of headend ports, but it puts additional work on OPLIN network staff by putting OPLIN in the middle of library networks. Bumbico suggested that OPLIN continue to move forward with CLEVNET, and expand on a case-by-case basis to see how each situation adds complexity and whether that is sustainable.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

12.1. Approve recommendation from Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee -- Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, and Travis McAfee -

Billman-Royer praised the quality of the candidates. They selected those that best preserved Board diversity, including state geography, size of library, gender, and trustee roles. The committee nominates

Holly Varley, Collection Development Director of Dayton Metro Library, to fill Cindy Lombardo's unexpired term; Angela Baldree, Director of the Franklin County Law Library and former trustee of the Morley Library, and Garalynn Tomas, president of the Lorain Public Library System board, to fill the seats left by Billman-Royer and Brown.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the recommendation from the Nominations Committee; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Yarman announced that the Nominations Committee suggests Michael Penrod for Chair, Travis McAfee for Vice Chair, Chris May for Treasurer, and Jeff Garringer for Secretary. The Board will officially move on this recommendation in June.

12.2. Begin Director's evaluation process

Yarman distributed the criteria used in the past to evaluate the OPLIN director to see if the Board wanted to make changes. Penrod asked that the spreadsheet be emailed to the Board members for their review; members will send comments to him, and the Board can complete the evaluation at the June meeting.

12.3. Recognition

The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, JILL BILLMAN-ROYER has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since August 2011, and WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for seven years, and WHEREAS her previous service as trustee at the Southwest Public Library gave her an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS the insight she developed throughout her career have always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and WHEREAS her focus and attention to detail have often proved beneficial, and WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her expert opinions to OPLIN Board deliberations, and WHEREAS she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 13th day of April, Two Thousand and Eighteen the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by JILL BILLMAN-ROYER during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to JILL BILLMAN-ROYER for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Susan Brown seconded the resolution. All aye.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Michael Penrod, the Board adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

 
 1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

 

The one hundred sixty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:06 a.m. on Friday, February 9, 2018 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Justin Bumbico, Susan Brown, Jeff Garringer, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Chris May motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis gave updates on OLC’s efforts with HB312, concerning local government credit card use, and HB371, concerning property tax exemptions on new development properties. She reported that February PLF distribution was above estimates; so far, estimated revenue collections for the fiscal year have been on target. The general assembly is taking up the capital budget bill; no public library activity expected. Upcoming OLC events include the regional trustee dinners, fiscal officer CPIM conference, the first of this year’s New Director’s workshops, and most notably, a symposium on Ohio’s opioid crisis. The symposium will focus not on library services but of on the role of library systems as employers and public facilities. It will take place at the Fawcett Center on April 3^rd.

Beverly Cain reported that the public library data survey is now open; instructions have been shared more widely within the public library community than in the past, as often directors pass off sections of the report for other staff to complete. Congress has passed a federal budget that does not eliminate IMLS or Library of Congress. The State Library has fielded some questions about the impact of a federal shutdown; much of State Library does would not be impacted immediately.

The State Library, along with Ohionet and the regional library systems, is also working on an event in response to Ohio’s opioid crisis. This one focuses on impact on communities and explores resources for libraries and how they can position themselves as a resource for their community. This event will take place 4 times, starting in Gallipolis on August 6, and then in a different area of the state over the next 3 days.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 8 meeting

Jeff Garringer motioned to approve the minutes of the December 8, 2017, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee reviewed the financial reports, noting that disbursements are in line with estimates for this time of year. About $90,000 remains in unplanned spending authority, with a projected cash balance of $2.5 million remaining at the end of this fiscal year. The $500,000 increase from last fiscal year is due to the timing of E-rate reimbursements.

Justin Bumbico motioned to accept the financial reports; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — none

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. MOU between State Library of Ohio and OPLIN
Sec. 3375.66 (A)(5) says that the OPLIN Board shall “Appoint the state library of Ohio as the board’s fiscal  agent,” and outlines the services that entails. State Library staff estimates that these services account for about 5.5 hours of staff time per week, totaling close to $13,500 a year. The standing handshake agreement has been that the State Library absorbs the cost of administrative services in exchange for Internet connectivity and bandwidth, but as OPLIN’s bandwidth costs shrink relative to speed, and the State Library’s administrative budget tightens, it might be time to consider a more formal agreement. Don Yarman presented a memo drafted by State Library staff that outlines State Library’s responsibilities and proposes a payment of $10,000 to cover payroll costs for staff time. In response to Susan Brown’s question about dates on the draft, Pardee noted that this was a first draft and suggested drafting agreements to cover two years. Justin Bumbico asked whether it would be best to drop OPLIN’s payment of the State Library connection and simply pay the full, estimated cost of staff time. Karl Jendretzky said there was no benefit, as OPLIN is not maintaining equipment at State Library, and the State Library’s connection cost is currently just a clean line item in the consolidated bill; it would be more of a disruption to change the contract to move it off of there.

Yarman will work with State Library to revise the proposed agreement, which will include spelling out OPLIN’s responsibilities, and present the agreement for discussion at the April planning meeting.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Yarman reported that he and Jendretzky met with Terry Fouts, Greg Gicale, and Henry Smith on January 22 to discuss a plan for OIT installers to deploy the new routers at the libraries. Jendretzky has proposed six sets of 3-4 libraries around central Ohio to get them started, expecting that technicians can start their mornings at a larger library, then visit two smaller libraries in the area during the day. Jendretzky and Fouts will take guys out for first sites to show them how to do it, prepare them for different environments. Jendretzky estimates that the process could take about four months to complete.

Don Yarman and Mandy Knapp met with OLC’s Michelle Francis and Emily Modell of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation to review the draft RFP seeking on-line job training resources available from public libraries, verifying that the RFP addressed OWT’s goals. The RFP specifically highlights the list of in-demand jobs from JFS, and asks vendors to elaborate on how they will manage refunds to libraries that already subscribe. The plan goal is to release the RFP within a week; vendors will have about a month to respond, and the Content Advisory Committee can evaluate those responses at their meeting March 28. The target is to launch this close to July 1, with preparations far enough along so that it can be previewed at the June 12 OWT meeting at Columbus Metropolitan Library.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp is at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver so she submitted a written report.

eRate
All of our Funding Requests (FRNs) for eRate year 2017 (July 2017-June 2018) have been approved by USAC, the administrative entity that oversees the eRate program.  I have sent the information necessary to file the BEAR form for circuit charges incurred between July 2017-June 2018 to Lorrie Germann. We can expect to receive that reimbursement shortly. As you will recall, a BEAR form is the step in the eRate process where we specify our reimbursement amounts. We should receive funds in the amount of $116,891.86. We will file a second BEAR form in July 2018, which includes both circuit charges for January-June 2018 as well as internet access charges.

In addition, we have filed all of the necessary Form 470s for upgrades and moves as needed in the eRate year 2018 (July 2018-June 2019). A Form 470 acts as an RFP, and begins the eRate process. A number of these were needed to move circuits for the CLEVnet change.
On the eRate training front, OPLIN and State Library co-hosted a Form 471 Workshop on January 29th. Lorrie Germann presented the simultaneous webinar and in-person session. There were 19 attendees total.

Ohio Digital Network (DPLA Hub)
The Community Engagement Centers (CEC): Ohiolink, OPLIN and Ohio History Connection, met on December 13 at the State Library. The CECs discussed ideas for working together on future training. Similarly, on January 19, a larger Ohio Digital Network meeting has held. The majority of the meeting were updates on progress. In order for the first ingest of metadata to occur, the Ohio Digital Network must have a minimum of 50,000 records. I am happy to report that that number has nearly been reached and the first ingest should occur sometime this spring. Also discussed at the meeting was the need for a communication kit for the official launch of the Ohio Digital Network. As with other states, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has waited until the first metadata ingest from the Ohio Digital Network to occur before announcing the hub.

Ohio Web Library
As you can see from the attached sheet, there is an uptick in usage in January in EBSCO stats and searches as well as World Book use. In addition, Ancestry Library Edition usage appears to be declining this month; however due to our ongoing issues with statistics from Proquest, I would not take these numbers as final. On my return from ALA Midwinter I will recheck the numbers for accuracy.

Ohio Web Library Specialist (OWLS)
I am pleased to report to the board that OPLIN is working with SERLS (Southeast Regional Library System) to expand the reach of the OWLS program. SERLS has allowed the OWLS the use of their webinar software to present on any database.  To date, two OWLS have signed up to present in this fashion. SERLS is marketing these free webinars to both libraries in their region as well as libraries statewide.

Libraries Connect Ohio
Negotiations for the statewide databases are proceeding as expected. On February 5, the selection committee met for an update conference call. Although I cannot share details at present, suffice to say that progress is following our expected timetable.

RFP for Genealogy Resources & RFP for Career Resources
On January 11, OPLIN released an RFP for a Genealogy database. This RFP is posted to OPLIN’s website and emailed to relevant vendors. Responses to this RFP are due March 2. Selection will be made by the Content Advisory Committee at their March 28th meeting. Vendors will be informed shortly after, giving OPLIN plenty of time to prepare before our projected start date of July 1, 2018 for this database.

We are also making good progress on our RFP for Career Resources and are on-track to release it by the middle of this month.

In addition, Yarman reported that Knapp has drafted a communications plan for the new Ohio Web Library collection, anticipating our need to implement changes in the collection smoothly across the state.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon was unable to attend the meeting due to road conditions. Yarman reported in her absence that two new Webkits have been launched: Upper Sandusky and Euclid. By far, Euclid is the most customized site OPLIN has ever done. It included a lot of custom features, including the import of several thousand local history records (Recorded City Council meetings and issues of their [former] local newspaper), as well as various displays for custom content. Solomon is currently working on 4 new Webkits and 2 site redesigns for existing Webkit customers.

In January, Solomon finished the security review, ReCAPTCHA installation and backend cleanup of all of the Webkit installations, a project started in early 2017. The ReCAPTCHA installation was necessitated by the coming end of the currently-used Mollom service for spam protection. Mollom will cease operations in April 2018.

Solomon started a Facebook Group, the "OPLIN Water Cooler," as an advance move to head off the loss of engagement anticipated by the forthcoming split of Facebook's newsfeed.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
In December, CLEVNET’s Spectrum link between Columbus and Cleveland was converted into a “Q-in-Q trunk,” which allows CLEVNET to extend their VLANs across the state, effectively “stretching” their network. CLEVNET has now begun migrating their equipment down to the Co-Location Center in the SOCC; they are scheduled to move their integrated library system hardware overnight Saturday, February 10. OPLIN is preparing to file the orders to transfer CLEVNET library connections from Cleveland Public Library to the SOCC, timing the moves as best we can to the E-rate cycle. Between OPLIN connection moves and Cleveland’s branches, there will be nearly a hundred separate orders to complete the move.

On January 30, the Columbus Metropolitan Library moved their head-end into the SOCC, giving them, like CLEVNET, 20 Gbps of connectivity direct to the OPLIN core. The large capacity means that small DDOS attacks will not affect service to the libraries, as they can be easily absorbed. Because 20 Gbps is currently well beyond the highest anticipated traffic for those organizations, Jendretzky is weighing limiting those connections, to perhaps 300% of needed bandwidth, to prevent accidental saturation of the link.

All of OPLIN’s physical servers have been migrated out of 322 into NR3. All of this work – migrating OPLIN servers, moving Columbus and library consortia head-ends into the SOCC – has happened very smoothly, with services shutting down and coming back up cleanly.

Even though AT&T hasn’t finished migrating OPLIN’s circuits into the new 10G AT&T head-end, AT&T now proposes to implement full redundancy for large customers. So that each 10 Gbps of connectivity to us will be handed off with two separate pathways (20 Gbps of connectivity), AT&T intends to install four 10 Gbps head-end interfaces. We are billed for any 10G ports until they are filled to capacity, and since AT&T is responsible for the timing of this, they have agreed to stop billing us for our current interfaces. Once completed, this project provides OPLIN with redundant connectivity to every vendor – AT&T, Oarnet, and Spectrum – and frees up hardware we can use to build more redundancy for tenants in the Co-Location Center.

Jendretzky wrote an automated hardware inventory script which scans the network to keep track of equipment serial numbers and devices. As things go forward with the new router deployment, everything will be tracked and our records updated in real time; information will be stored in OPLIN’s internal databases viewable through our office Quick Info Tool, giving us a higher degree of visibility where the devices are in our network.

We had a small issue with Trumpia, the service that supports our SMS Gateway. Messages through our gateway are preceded by a period and a colon; if the first character of the message is a capital-O (as in “Overdue”), the :O is interpreted by most messaging clients as a screaming emoji face. Jendretzky solved the “problem” by adding an extra space after the colon.

In January, OpenDNS accidentally disconnected our reseller portal from the library accounts, which removed enterprise licensing for every library for a day. This didn’t disable filters in libraries, just prevented higher level functions on the accounts, such as library logos, bypass codes, etc. It was repaired quickly, resulting in a major outage but with a low profile. Currently, 150 libraries are configured in OPLIN’s OpenDNS service. On January 25, Yarman and Jendretzky spoke with staff of the Wisconsin South Central Library System about OpenDNS filtering for library consortia, which they are considering adopting.

The new Oarnet DDOS perimeter protection is up and running in manual mode. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the Worthington Library was hit with small attacks for about 10 minutes. On Thursday, it escalated to a 90 minute, 1 Gb attack. The system is actively mitigating all traffic to Worthington now, and we’re monitoring to make sure it doesn’t cause any issues, such as blocking legitimate traffic to and from the library. Our goal is to have automated notification, so that if Oarnet detects suspicious traffic they notify us, we verify against our tools to check for service degradation, and then we can activate mitigation and notify libraries of our action. As discussed, this service is paid for by not getting the usual reduction in cost in our annual bandwidth bill.

Michelle Francis asked if we knew the origins of the attack against Worthington. Distributed Denial of Service attacks are by nature impossible to pinpoint; botnets can be rented for attacks, and it is clear that’s what someone did for this one. OPLIN will work with OLC to provide them the information they need to answer questions about cybersecurity measures in place that protect public libraries.

EZProxy service; some libraries dropping their own local (Cuyahoga County). They individually have to fight the same things we are doing centrally.

Justin Bumbico praised the Co-Location Center with its level of resiliency and security, thanking Jendretzky and Fouts for their support during Columbus Metropolitan Library’s move into the SOCC.

 
9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Appoint Nominations Committee

Joe Greenward appointed Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, and Travis McAfee to the Nominations Committee. The committee will work with Don Yarman to select candidates to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the OPLIN Board and will develop a slate of proposed officers for election at the August Board meeting.

9.2. Review April planning meeting arrangements

At the request of the Chair, Don Yarman explained the usual procedures for the planning meeting and lunch arrangements. As no extraordinary items requiring extra discussion are anticipated, the Board decided to meet at the usual 10:00 meeting time rather than earlier.

9.3. Ethics training reminder

Board members are reminded that they must complete ethics training each year. Beverly Cain said the Ohio Ethics Commission has just released the link to updated training, and she will send to Don Yarman for distribution to the Board.

 
10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Jeff Garringer, the Board adjourned at 11:18 a.m.

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 8, 2017 by Board Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans reported that the December PLF distribution was slightly less than the Department of Taxation had projected, but overall, total PLF distribution for 2017 ($378.5 million) was higher than the 2016 total (an increase of 0.4%). Legislative Day has been moved from April 18 to April 11 as the General Assembly will not be in session on the 18th; Legislative Day headquarters will remain at the Capital Club. HB312 which specifies more stringent control policies for credit card use in local governments passed the house 95-0. OLC has been working to make some of the requirements more practical (in small libraries, there simply are not enough people to put into practice all the requirements the new law specifies), and they will continue their work now that the legislation has moved over to the Senate, which will take up the bill after the first of the year. HB371 exempts unsold but developed property from property taxes; this will have a big fiscal impact on some libraries, and OLC has joined with other local government organizations and the school boards association to express their concern.

Stephanie Herriott expressed Beverly Cain’s regrets for missing the meeting; she had a phone call with a legislator. Stephanie reported that the State Library Board would be meeting December 12 to consider a number of LSTA grant proposals. On the same day, the State Board of Education will be meeting to consider candidates for the State Library Board.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 13 meeting

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the minutes of the October 13, 2017, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports, highlighting the growing cash balance: $2.075 million at the end of FY2017, and a projected cash balance of $3.028 million at the end of FY2018. She stressed the importance of not letting the cash balance get too high so the Governor’s office doesn’t take the funds away. So far this fiscal year expenses are on target for what was projected. Our cost for OpenDNS licensing is approaching the state’s limit of $50,000; if it exceeds that, we will have to go to the Controlling Board for approval. Jamie budgeted $10,000 in travel reimbursements for OWL trainers. The report shows $613,287 in spending authority not currently earmarked for a specific projects or expenses.

Karl Jendretzky mentioned that, having upgraded all libraries to at least 100 Mbps, we should be seeing an increase in our monthly telecommunications costs. Jamie did not have on hand what Stephen anticipated would be the expected increase.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the financial reports; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS — none

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on History Day sponsorship
Don Yarman reported that OPLIN was asked to sponsor the Junior and Senior “Advanced Digital Researcher” awards for Ohio History Day, as we’ve done three times previously. The awards provide $125 each to the two students who make the best use of the Ohio Web Library in researching their projects.

Michael Penrod motioned to sponsor the Ohio History Day awards; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.2. Decide on OLC 2018 Convention sponsorship
The Ohio Library Council has invited OPLIN to sponsor the 2018 Convention and Expo, offering Platinum level sponsorship benefits for $10,000. Doug Evans thanked OPLIN for its past support of the Convention, and noted that OPLIN’s sponsorship of the event helps offset Internet access fees embedded in the rental costs at Kalahari Resort and Conference Center, and allows OLC to provide computers and charging stations for conference attendees. In addition to recognition of the sponsorship on conference materials, OPLIN will receive exhibit space with electrical service and meeting space for the OPLIN Annual Update meeting.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve Platinum level sponsorship of the 2018 OLC Convention and Expo; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT
Don Yarman highlighted major activities from the written report: the Ohio Web Library Product Selection meeting November 13, the addition of OWL Specialist mileage reimbursement to the budget, and information about the project to replace the fire suppression equipment at the SOCC. Only two of the five reviewers recommended the preliminary proposal to the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program for funding, so we were not invited to submit a full proposal. It does not appear that the development partners at Wright State University and the Greene County Public Library intend to resubmit. Don is working his way through the state’s training modules, has completed mandatory sexual harassment awareness training for supervisors, and the large telecommunications bills have begun to make sense.

8.1. Library Services Manager report
Laura Solomon reported that 24 libraries have installed the new emergency message function on their Webkit sites. We picked up 4 new libraries for Webkits since October. Laura rebuilt the Delaware County District Library’s existing Drupal site in the Webkit platform, and that was completed and launched at the beginning of December. Laura’s proposal to present about online tools at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington D.C. next April was accepted.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report
Mandy Knapp reported that OhioLINK is currently negotiating with vendors for the desired Ohio Web Library databases selected by the committees at the November 13 meeting. We can’t yet reveal what products were selected, but the public library representatives in the process were pleased with the recommendations. A few of the OWL Specialists have completed the paperwork to become vendors for the state so they can receive reimbursements for their travel to other libraries for training; Mandy doubts that we will spend much of what we have budgeted, but the Specialists were very thankful that reimbursements are available. Five Specialists have already delivered the training they committed to. SERLS, which already offers database webinars every two weeks, has offered us the use of their webinar platform and promotional network for OWL Specialist training in the area. Partnering with OhioNET, we’ve offered a few vendor-delivered webinars for the databases; Ancestry has proven the most popular.

We have received almost all of the expected E-rate reimbursements for service year 2016; our 2017 paperwork is still in review. Right now, we’re working on service year 2018 paperwork. Lorrie Germann’s fall E-rate workshop had 60 attendees: 50 online and 10 in person.

Mandy reported that we are having problems with the Ancestry statistics for October, so the statistical report shows a drop that should not be there. We’re working with Ancestry to address that.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report
Karl Jendretzky updated the Board on his work rebuilding the servers that handle public-facing services to make them as stable as possible. The SMS Gateway services (which picked up three new libraries -- Portage, Kent, and Reed) were moved from locally-hosted servers to AWS hosting, which involved rewriting much of the code to upgrade the service from PHP5 to PHP7, and in the process improved the error-handling. He also moved OPLIN’s custom code server, which is kept separate from the Drupal and Wordpress sites to limit damage if either the content management systems or Karl’s custom code is compromised. Moving the SMS Gateway and custom code services to AWS freed up hardware, which is now used as backup for the physical servers that have to remain within the network: EZProxy and the listservs. (The code that handles database authentication logic runs on the custom code server in AWS, so if remote access through EZProxy goes down, in-library access to databases won’t be interrupted.)

Next week, CLEVNET is scheduled to move its core from Cleveland to the SOCC. Once this is accomplished, it will simplify CLEVNET’s topology as OPLIN will accept the CLEVNET member library connections and deliver them to CLEVNET on a single connection inside their private network. In addition, it saves OPLIN money because it eliminates the need for head-end ports for library connections up in Cleveland.

On November 9, one of Juniper’s large carrier cards in the core failed, taking out roughly 60 Gbps of connectivity inside the OPLIN network. The only actual impact was to a single collector circuit with a few “oddball” services: the OPLIN office and the dedicated VOIP circuit (which took out Columbus Metropolitan Library’s phone system). The office has since moved to a Spectrum circuit (also eliminating another head-end port cost), and the VOIP pathway is being moved by OARnet onto the collector trunk, so that will have redundancy going forward. The goal: to be so resilient and reliable that our services are transparent.

Karl and Don met with OARnet about DDOS protection. OARnet’s solution is in production: the entire state is protected by two scrubbing centers from two different vendors. OARnet is building out the automation for notifications, ticketing, and methods for Karl to identify and remedy DDOS attacks. We will pay for this service by forgoing the usual reduction in annual bandwidth costs (which is bundled into the annual cost we pay to OIT for management, etc.).

Karl and Mandy are working on a 470 for about 40 libraries; about 10 libraries need bandwidth upgrades, and the rest are due contract intricacies of connecting CLEVNET libraries to CLEVNET services at the SOCC.

Karl has added monitoring the connections to high-profile, cloud-hosted catalogs(similar to the monitoring of library circuits) so we can offer better troubleshooting if a library calls to report problems. For example, we’ll be able to tell if SEO’s remotely hosted library system goes down, affecting 93 libraries across the state.

As reported above, the 30 year old sprinkler system at the SOCC is being replaced. Karl listened to a conference call for SOCC tenants detailing the careful plans for replacing it: all workers are cleared to work near law-enforcement systems; moving section by section, contractors will erect scaffolding around the racks, putting up dust barriers and filters to prevent debris from being sucked into equipment; they will clean ceiling tiles on both top and bottom before removal; all cutting and grinding of pipes will be done off site, not in data areas. The air barriers around the racks will have temperature sensors to check that equipment doesn’t overheat, and they’ll do hourly walk-throughs around the clock with staff to make sure everything is stable. Although the sprinkler system is disabled, the smoke detectors will still function. New pipes will be filled with compressed air for a couple days to make sure they’re solid, then they’ll be filled with water at city pressure to make sure there are no leaks, then finally brought up to 220 psi for final inspection. Data center work will begin in January. Jill Billman-Royer asked if there were any concerns that additional costs would be passed on to us; Karl couldn’t say for sure, but believed it was part of normal building maintenance.

Justin Bumbico asked for more clarification of DDOS protection mechanism. Karl explained that all of OPLIN and OIT are behind OARnet’s services. OARnet can get alerted on DDOS events, and they are programming their ticketing system to pass the alerts along. Preferably, if OARnet sees an attack on an OPLIN IP address, they will send Karl an email with a JSON-encoded string so Karl can develop a daemon that picks out IP, time, duration, source, etc., and sends an automated email to a library with details. We want to make sure that we don’t overreact to false positives; most of the times DDOS events last about 5 minutes, and we have a greater risk of blocking legitimate traffic than we have from attacks. Our goal is to let the system monitor the traffic and learn to recognize “real events,” so that we can begin moving into more proactive blocking of legitimate, longer duration attacks. Karl used the example of the copyright notices and vendor maintenance announcements to illustrate his plans: his scripts pick out important information from the emails we receive, and turns them into emails (or, in the case of maintenance announcements, calendar invites) that are sent out to our technical contacts.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT
Chair Joe Greenward asked Don Yarman to report that Cindy Lombardo has tendered her resignation from the Board because she is retiring from the Cleveland Public Library.

The Chair recognized Chris May to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, CINDY LOMBARDO has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2013, and

WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for four and a half years, and

WHEREAS her service as the Deputy Director at the Cleveland Public Library gave her an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and

WHEREAS the insight she developed as an experienced library administrator have always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and

WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her valuable opinions to OPLIN Board deliberations, and

WHEREAS he has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 8th day of December, Two Thousand and Seventeen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by CINDY LOMBARDO during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to CINDY LOMBARDO for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Michael Penrod seconded the resolution. All aye.

Don explained that this is similar to the situation last December when Marty Beets left the Board. The consensus then was to fill the unexpected vacancy as part of the normal Board search and nominations process that will begin when the Chair appoints a nominations committee in February. Our records show that Jill Billman-Royer and Susan Brown will be completing their second terms on the Board in July, and that Chris May and Travis McAfee are completing their first terms. Don also reported that he received email from Jamie Black who is leaving the Loudonville Public Library Board but will remain on the OPLIN Board.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 10:53 a.m.
 

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes – October 13, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 13, 2017 by Board Treasurer Travis McAfee at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, and Tara Sidwell.

Also present were: Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp, Laura Solomon, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Bill Morris, Jamie Pardee, and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Black motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans thanked the OPLIN Board for their generous support of the OLC Convention and Expo; OPLIN's contribution made it possible for the 700+ attendees to have free Wifi. Doug reported that the October PLF distribution was $29.5 million, a little under the estimate but as the Department of Taxation is getting more conservative with their estimates this is closer than it was in the previous fiscal year. On Wednesday, October 10, Debbie Saunders was recognized by Ohio Senator Bob Peterson on the Senate floor for her award as Librarian of the Year, and she also received a commendation from the Ohio House. Kim Fender (OLC's 2017 Hall of Fame Librarian) will be getting similar recognition by the general assembly. Michelle Francis is working with local governments on a proposal to address concerns about legislation proposed by the Auditor of State's office regarding school and local government use of credit cards. The proposed legislation requires distinct separations between the compliance officer that manages the cards, the fiscal officer that pays the bills, and those individuals who use the credit cards. In small libraries, there may not be enough people to separate all those duties between them. And finally, the OLC Board will be making an appointment in November to fill the term Don Yarman vacated when he resigned from the board to become OPLIN's Executive Director. The Board has also appointed Meg Delaney as Ohio's ALA councilor to replace Jamie Mason who recently resigned for personal reasons. In January, newly elected Board members Tom Dillie (Minerva), Carol Herrick (trustee, Washington-Centerville), and Rick Rubin (trustee, Cuyahoga Falls) will be joining the OLC Board.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 11 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes of the August 11, 2017, meeting as presented; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the financial reports. She reported that about $1.5 million in disbursements have been paid for the current fiscal year 2018. The cash balance at the beginning of the fiscal year was about $2 million, with projections indicating that with this year's Erate reimbursements we'll have a cash balance of about $3 million. Last year's balance went down a million because of the timing of Erate payments, so they'll double up this fiscal year. She cautions us to watch that significant cash balance or the office of the Governor will appropriate it.

Jamie Black motioned to accept the financial reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve State Library access to genealogy and continuous learning resources **

Don Yarman reviewed the current plans for licensing statewide content, including the $400,000 devoted to support genealogy resources and the $500,000 budgeted toward the purchase of resources in support of the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation project. Before leaving, Stephen Hedges recommended asking the OPLIN Board to specifically approve including the State Library in access to these resources.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded.

Doug Evans asked if by extending access to the State Library they would be available only to state employees and not to the general public within the State Library. The understanding would be that it would include the public within State Library as well as remote access (if licensed) via a State Library card. Karl Jendretzky pointed out that this concerns only those databases that are restricted to in-library use, such as Ancestry, as others are authenticated for use anywhere in the state. Mandy Knapp agreed, adding that this mostly concerned statistics gathering and access to databases such as Ancestry (which we have not committed to acquiring) that are restricted to in-library use. Don Yarman noted that, 11 years ago, the State Library was routinely included as part of the contracts for products OPLIN acquired for public libraries.

There was no further discussion, so the Treasurer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS - none

REPORTS

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Don Yarman thanked the Board for selecting him as Executive Director, noting that he's delighted to be back with the organization working with such talented and helpful staff. Stephen Hedges was an admirable leader and a valuable asset to the state, and it's an honor and a challenge to succeed him. He noted that today is the deadline responses to the Ohio Web Library RFP. Also, the Co-Location Service has been announced to the library community, and we already have our first live tenant, the Central Library Consortium.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon listed a number of libraries whose new Website Kits are nearing launch to the public: Euclid, Piqua, Upper Sandusky, and Delaware County. Staff from those libraries have been trained and are entering their data, or will be trained shortly. Our presence at the OLC Convention generated new interest in Website Kits and audits. We launched a new feature for the Kits – Flipping Book – which allows libraries to display PDF newsletters in a lightbox, with the interface replicating the look of turning pages. Laura will soon announce a new feature for the websites which allows libraries to easily place emergency announcements (such as emergency closures, maintenance issues, etc.) prominently on their site.

8.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reviewed the database usage statistics. She noted that the RFP for the Ohio Web Library closes today; we cannot see who submitted a bid, but we can see who looked at the RFP. The committees will meet in November to discuss the proposals, and we will have more information at the next Board meeting concerning the committees' early decisions and negotiating intent.

About 40 Ohio Web Library Specialists have all been trained. This program is similar to the iCoaches program developed by INFOhio. The OWL Specialists will be the point-person for database information and training in their library and they are available to travel to other libraries to conduct training as well (Mandy will help coordinate). OPLIN did not originally budget to reimburse the mileage for OWL Specialist travel, but we could allocate dollars from the “Unplanned Spending” line item.

8.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that as more Internet sites move to https, browser appliances are starting to register certificate errors. The OpenDNS filtering solution we provide to libraries has a problem with "HTTP Strict Transport Security," the next generation of http redirection to https for secure web transmission, which removes the ability of a browser to make security certificate exemptions. Karl is working with Cincinnati for a fix – installing the Cisco root certificate in the browsers – while OpenDNS seeks a solution on their end. (Generally, this will only be a problem if the HSTS-enabled site is caught in the content filter and the user requests to by-pass the filter for access.)

The SMS Gateway service has been steady, sending about 100,000 messages per month for the last 6 months. We still have enough credits to sustain the service for next 18 months. Karl has built in safeguards that will stop sending messages if too many go out, preventing a rogue process at a library from accidentally depleting our entire credit balance.

On September 19, the OPLIN Core developed issues stemming from the solution Juniper provided to bind two cores together. Juniper is reviewing the problem because, as this is the solution they proposed, it's something they need to fix. The outage changed our method for migrating to the new location within the SOCC, but hasn't slowed the migration.

In addition, we are bringing up new AT&T connectivity at the SOCC. Currently, all AT&T circuits use Oarnet as a transport middle-man to connect to OPLIN; the new AT&T 10 Gb/s headend connection lets us remove all OPLIN circuits from Oarnet and plug them directly into our network. Rather than having CLEVNET install their own AT&T headend, the member library AT&T circuits will go directly into the OPLIN headend. Once we exceed 5.5 Gb/s of subscribed bandwidth, the headend cost drops to $0; the added bandwidth of the CLEVNET circuits will prompt AT&T to give us a second 10 GB port for free, giving us a redundant set of 20 Gb/s of connectivity into the AT&T network, which will cost us $0 monthly.

In early September, all Spectrum (formerly TWC) circuits were migrated from the 10 Gb/s headend in NR1 (Network Room #1) to the new 20 Gb/s redundant link in NR2, freeing up the 10 Gb/s port in NR1 for CLEVNET. So with the new 10 Gb/s port from AT&T, we can complete the upgrades to the 53 AT&T sites we started as part of the eRate cycle, bringing all but 4 OPLIN circuits to at least 100 Mb/s. We have a plan for the remaining four libraries – Cadiz and Bowerston have upgrade orders placed with Horizon, Grand Valley is waiting on OIT to turn up their circuit, and Huron will get their upgrade once CLEVNET moves to the SOCC.

Travis McAfee asked if were getting feedback from libraries on the upgraded capacity. Mandy replied that she is hearing that libraries' internal networks are not being upgraded to match the new capacity, so they're aren't experiencing an increase in speed.

We've been using Amazon Web Services to host the Web Kits; we upgraded to a nice, beefy server and the service runs very stable and provides us with great analytics and flexible alarms. Fifty-three of the sites have been moved to https, and the remaining sites will be migrated shortly. Karl would like to move some of the other public-facing servers onto AWS to minimize any public service impact stemming from hardware issues.

Overnight September 27, the Central Library Consortium moved their servers into NR3, becoming the first tenant in the OPLIN Co-Location Space. Once both cores are completely installed in NR1 and NR2, we'll be able to take full advantage of the fiber infrastructure we've put into the SOCC: 24 strands of fiber from each vendor space to each of the 3 network rooms, and 24 strands of fiber to connect the rooms together in a pyramid. In addition, Karl has ordered new handles for the rack doors, equipped with combination locks to keep tenants out of each other's spaces. hardware issues.

With the expansion of our available bandwidth, we've exceeded the capacity of our old DDOS appliance, which protected us against small attacks but not against the attacks which are getting exponentially larger. Oarnet is implementing a new solution which, in the event of an attack, will adjust routes to shunt the extra traffic through them, preventing attacks from saturating us. Oarnet has the new solution implemented with one provider, but there has been a delay finalizing it with the other (AT&T); Karl expects the solution to be in place by the first of next year.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Joe Greenward did not send a report.

10. ADJOURNMENT

Susan Brown motioned to adjourn the meeting; Justin Bumbico seconded. The Treasurer adjourned the meeting at 10:53 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 11, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 11, 2017 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Jamie Black, Susan Brown, Justin Bumbico, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Michael Penrod and Tara Sidwell. Former Board member Becky Schultz was also present, representing the Executive Director Search Committee.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain (State Library); Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council); and Don Yarman.

ACTION ITEMS

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Current Board Chair Susan Brown presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Joe Greenward, Chair; Michael Penrod, Vice-Chair; Chris May, Secretary; and Travis McAfee, Treasurer. Susan asked if there were any additional nominations or questions, and there were none.

The Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so newly elected Vice-Chair Michael Penrod called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

4. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Susan Brown motioned to enter an Executive Session to consider the employment of a public employee; Chris May seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; and Michael Penrod, aye.

The Vice-Chair invited Becky Schultz to join the Executive Session.

The Board entered Executive Session at 10:04 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 10:09 a.m.

Michael Penrod motioned to appoint Don Yarman as Executive Director of OPLIN starting October 2, 2017 at an annual salary of $90,000; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2018

The Vice-Chair presented the proposed Board meeting schedule for Fiscal Year 2018 and asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: August 11, 2017; October 13, 2017; December 8, 2017; February 9, 2018; April 13, 2018 (9:00 am start); and June 8, 2018. The Vice-Chair also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 10, 2018; and October 12, 2018.

Jamie Black motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis shared information about the status of the Public Library Fund (PLF) since the beginning of the new state fiscal year on July 1; the current pending overrides of the Governor's vetoes should not affect the PLF. To date, revenues have exceeded official estimates, but the Ohio Library Council (OLC) continues to advise libraries to plan on flat funding this year. Michelle also provided an update on the work OLC has been doing with the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation to satisfy some of the budget directives about public libraries working with state job agencies.

Beverly Cain announced that 319 people had attended the State Library's Bicentennial ceremonies on August 4. She also reported that the participation agreements have gone out to the first wave of libraries and institutions (31 total) that will be submitting materials to the Digital Public Library of America through the Ohio Digital Network. The State Library is now accepting applications from libraries who wish to join a consortium for sharing library materials for a special round of LSTA grants. There are about 60 public libraries that do not belong to such a consortium, depending instead on the MORE service, which has now ended; the last time such grants were offered, over 20 libraries joined a consortium.

7. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 9 meeting

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes of the June 9, 2017, meeting as presented; Justin Bumbico seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee. He reported that Fiscal Year 2017 is now closed, and he reviewed a few accounts that had no activity during the year, explaining why they had been inactive. He also provided brief descriptions of most accounts for the benefit of new Board members. Stephen made note of the large expenditure during FY2017 to purchase replacement routers for the library sites and duplicate the core router. On the FY2018 report, Stephen pointed out several accounts that would see changes from FY2017 activity, particularly noting that the expenditure for the Ohio Web Library databases is much lower than had been anticipated four years ago when the current vendor contracts were negotiated. Stephen also called attention to the large amount of E-rate reimbursements expected in FY2018, caused by the delay in federal distribution of FY2017 E-rate funds.

Michael Penrod asked if E-rate reimbursements would be received in a timely manner this year, and both Stephen and Mandy Knapp reported that all indications are that the federal processes are moving much more smoothly this year.

Chris May motioned to accept the financial reports; Jeff Garringer seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

9. OLD BUSINESS — none

10. NEW BUSINESS

10.1. Approve continuous learning resources budget

Stephen Hedges called attention to language in the current biennial budget bill that promotes public libraries as "continuous learning centers" providing job and career information resources and training. Michelle Francis from OLC has been meeting with Ryan Burgess from the Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT) to develop ways to fulfill the budget directives, and Stephen described his attendance at one of those meetings to discuss job training resources and how they might be provided to the public through libraries. The budget does not allocate funds for purchasing such resources. Stephen pointed out that one of the basic principles of OPLIN has always been that every public library in the state needs to have access to important information resources to reduce local differences in the amount and quality of information available to the public, and he asked if the Board would allocate OPLIN funds to provide some continuous learning resources to all public libraries, as well as providing technical expertise.

Michelle Francis provided additional information, noting that public libraries now have a representative on the Executive Workforce Board, and that Ryan Burgess has been an advocate in the administration for public libraries. She also pointed out that all Ohio public libraries contribute to OPLIN funds through the PLF.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to budget $500,000 per year for purchasing continuous learning resources; Chris May seconded.

Susan Brown asked for clarification on the learning resources: would they be provided by educational institutions? Michelle said not necessarily; many libraries already purchase these types of resources from vendors, and libraries would have input as to which resources to purchase. Stephen noted that the purchase process would be very similar to the process used to select and acquire Ohio Web Library resources.

Michael Penrod asked if the intention was to include the resources in the Ohio Web Library interface or to develop a separate, individually marketed portal for them. Stephen said that has not been decided, and anticipated that vendor licensing restrictions may affect the eventual decision. Michelle noted that there is general agreement that the interface should be integrated with the Ohio Means Jobs website, but not be part of that website.

Chris May asked Michelle if there had been any discussion about OWT's role in promoting the resources. Michelle answered that OLC and OWT have divided the budget directives into several initiatives, and branding and promoting libraries as continuous learning centers is one of those initiatives; she described some of the promotional activites currently under discussion.

Stephen noted that the budget specifically called for more resources in the "Ohio Digital Library" ebook collection, and wondered if the OPLIN purchase of continuous learning resources would satisfy that directive. Beverly Cain pointed out that the budget language in this regard is fairly broad, and that there are not a lot of ebooks available that are pertinent to job skills training.

Susan asked if the branding initiative would also include smaller colleges. Michelle provided some background to the budget language and explained that it only refers to public libraries, so even though public libraries often partner with other institutions, the initiative from OLC and OWT will focus only on libraries.

Justin Bumbico asked about the amount of staff time that might be required. Stephen replied that had not been determined, and depended to some extent on whether the current Ohio Web Library interface was used or a new portal.

Jamie Black asked if the project could be completed by next spring, as planned, and Stephen said he was confident it could be. Beverly noted that this purchase process needs to be separate from the upcoming Ohio Web Library purchase process, since that will not be completed until next July.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Jamie Black, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Justin Bumbico, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Tara Sidwell, aye; and Michael Penrod, aye.

10.2. Approve paying half of DPLA membership fee

Stephen Hedges explained that the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has announced that they will now be charging state hubs a $10,000 annual membership fee. The State Library has committed to paying this fee for the first three years as part of their support for the Ohio Digital Network (ODN), Ohio's DPLA hub. Stephen asked if the OPLIN Board would consider paying half of the annual membership fee this year, as a way to support digitization in public libraries. ODN leadership has discussed the possibility of sending waived invoices for DPLA membership to current institutions contributing content, as a way to remind them that Ohio's DPLA membership fees are being paid at the state level.

Susan Brown motioned to pay half of the annual DPLA membership fee while the State Library pays the other half; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

10.3. Approve active aggressor policy

Stephen Hedges provided copies of an active aggressor response policy that had been developed for OPLIN by Stephanie Herriott. State agencies are now required to have such a policy, and Stephen noted that Stephanie had done a very thorough and complete job of drafting the policy.

Michael Penrod asked about staff training, and Stephen replied that all staff have viewed the required video, but he has not inquired about police training.

Susan Brown motioned to adopt the active aggressor policy as presented; Chris May seconded.

Susan asked if there was any coordinated building-wide plan for dealing with active aggressors, and Stephen replied there was not. Beverly Cain noted that the State Library building also has other tenants, and the Department of Public Safety simply advised them to let the other tenants know about the State Library policy. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that OPLIN provide a copy of this policy to building management.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

10.4. Approve closing OPLIN office at 2:00pm Sept.29

Stephen Hedges asked the Board for permission to close the OPLIN office at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29 for the Director's retirement reception.

Jamie Black motioned to close the OPLIN office at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 29; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the process of purchasing EZproxy, which has now been completed following Controlling Board approval. The software is now in operation. He also provided an update on the Ohio Web Library Invitation to Negotiate project, which is well underway under the guidance of a coordinating committee composed of Mandy Knapp, Amy Pawlowski (OhioLINK) and Erica Clay (INFOhio). The directors of the Libraries Connect Ohio partner organizations have met and established a budget for the acquisition.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted the Kent State iSchool advisory committee meeting, presentations by Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon, Karl Jendretzky's overnight work on the OPLIN network core at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC), and staff visits to Mansfield-Richland County Public Library, Ritter Public Library, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library Northside Branch.

Finally, Stephen thanked the Board for their guidance and support throughout his tenure as OPLIN Director.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that all of the website kits have now been moved to Amazon Web Services (AWS), a project she and Karl Jendretzky undertook to make sure all the kits were running on stable hardware in one place. She has also been recording instructional videos for some website kit features and has been working with kit customers to make sure they have a website privacy policy if they use Google Analytics. The anti-spam software module she had been using for the kits is no longer supported, so she is replacing it with Google's reCAPTCHA service. She is also investigating a module that will display library newsletters to look like flipping pages.

11.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp reported on the progress of the Invitation to Negotiate for the next five-year contract for the Ohio Web Library resources and explained the details of the process. The timeline is very aggressive, to make sure there is enough time for school and academic libraries to purchase additional resources. Mandy presented database usage statistics, which continue to reflect past trends. Finally, she reported that the data for our E-rate reimbursements has been submitted.

11.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained that any OPLIN public-facing service is being migrated to Amazon Web Services, alleviating the need for the complex fail-over systems he had devised. Only the servers supporting the listservs and EZproxy will remain at the SOCC, for technical reasons. The EZproxy system was completely reconfigured and the authentication was updated to make it easier for libraries to use OPLIN's EZproxy for authenticating their own resources.

Karl reported that 145 libraries still have active OpenDNS filtering systems. The SMS messaging gateway is sending about 100,000 messages each month to library patrons. A second path from the network core to the internet is in place now, providing redundancy and 20 Gbps of bandwidth. Karl reported on issues encountered in the overnight attempts to bind the two Juniper core routers together and the temporary solutions implemented by Juniper. This will enable many of the new 100 Mbps circuits to connect to the core.

Finally, Karl reported that the co-location space in the SOCC is set up and connectivity work is progressing to the point that we can soon announce the availablity of the co-location data center.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

In the absence of Joe Greenward, Stephen Hedges reported that he, Joe and Susan Brown had been corresponding about appointing Susan as at-large representative to the OPLIN Board Executive Committee, and that Joe will make that appointment by email to Stephen sometime after today's meeting.

On behalf of the Board, Vice-Chair Michael Penrod thanked Stephen for his service as OPLIN Director. Michelle Francis reminded Board members that Stephen will be awarded the OLC Citizen of the Year Award at the OLC Convention on October 4.

13. ADJOURNMENT

The Vice-Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:42 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — June 9, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 9, 2017 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Stephanie Herriott (State Library); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Justin Bumbico, who starts a new term on the Board on July 1 and was introduced to the other attendees.

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain shared news about the biennial budget process and efforts to restore the reduced State Library funding proposed in the House version of the budget. She also reported that the "Ohio Libraries Share: MORE" resource sharing service will end on June 30. The cost has continued to increase while the software that runs the system has not been updated for a long time and usage has dropped 71% over the last five years as more libraries join consortia for resource sharing. Beverly provided a brief history of the MORE service. She announced that new Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants will be available for libraries that want to join consortia and described some of the consortia options.

Doug Evans reported that state revenues and contributions to the Public Library Fund (PLF) have now fallen short of budget projections for eleven consecutive months. The current version of the proposed budget could result in an additional reduction of almost $18 million less for the PLF each year. Doug described some of the budget options OLC is pursuing. The Ohio Library Council (OLC) presented testimony to the Senate Finance Committee regarding the PLF funding in the biennial budget on June 7, and the testimony about the return on investment in public library funding seemed to be effective.

Doug reported that the OLC Board is working on updates to the OLC strategic plan. They also decided at their most recent meeting to no longer charge for downloads of OLC publications. Doug also listed the candidates in the upcoming OLC Board elections.

Stephen Hedges noted that the OLC Government Relations Committee is also meeting this morning and Michael Penrod is splitting his time between that meeting and the OPLIN Board meeting.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 14 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the April 14, 2017, meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented the financial reports prepared by Jamie Pardee. He noted that available balances in the FY2017 Administration accounts are what they should be this late in the fiscal year with the exception of a couple of accounts that are not used as much as in previous years. Stephen pointed out some available balances in the Other Library Support Services accounts that are also not likely to be used. He predicted that total unused account balances at the end of the year will be just under $300,000. He noted that he plans to work with Jamie to develop the FY2018-2019 budget once there is more information about the legislature's biennial budget intentions. Finally, Stephen reported that it is now almost certain that almost $900,000 in E-rate revenue will not be received until next fiscal year due to delays at the federal level.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the financial reports; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Stephen Hedges reported that he plans to work with the State Library to review the amount of resources used to provide fiscal and related services to OPLIN and may include some payment to the State Library in the new budget. For many years, it has been assumed that the internet services provided to the State Library by OPLIN offset the cost of provided fiscal services, but this may no longer be accurate.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented two documents: one was a copy of the current strategic plan marked to show how content was transferred to the second document, a reformatted plan that was discussed at the April Board meeting. Stephen reminded the Board that the reformatted plan is divided into sections covering items that do not change from year to year, and items that may change annually. Some fundamental aspects of OPLIN are unlikely to change in the next four years (two budget cycles): the Mission; the Priorities; and the Strategies. The Services, Operations, Marketing and Finances plans that support these fundamental aspects may change from year to year, and are included in a Tactical Plan section that would be reviewed annually.

Stephen noted that in April the Board had expressed a desire to retain most of the content from the current plan, condensing the three Priorities in the current plan to two Priorities in the new plan, and he described in detail how that content was re-organized and how wording was changed in some cases to be consistent throughout the new plan.

The Board was generally pleased with the new formatting of the plan. Cindy Lombardo asked that page numbers be added to the Tactical Plan and Jill Billman-Royer asked that "State of Ohio Computer Center" be spelled out in the Services summary.

Joe Greenward motioned to approve the new Strategic Plan with these two editorial changes; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve future database budget

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion during the April meeting regarding the discrepancy between the amount of funding OPLIN contributes to the purchase of the Ohio Web Library collection and the amount of usage the collection gets from public libraries. Stephen provided some additional data about this discrepancy. He noted that OPLIN has repeatedly received feedback clearly indicating that genealogy resources are very important to public libraries. Stephen reported that OPLIN's current average contribution to purchasing Ohio Web Library resources is about $1,427,000 per year, and proposed that the Board set a limit of about $1 million per year for Ohio Web Library resources, starting in FY2019, and use the balance for purchasing genealogy resources for public libraries or other resources identified by the Content Advisory Committee. It is important to let the other Libraries Connect Ohio partners know how much OPLIN will contribute before the process of identifying resources for the next five years begins.

Beverly Cain reported that the State Library had set a hard limit on the amount of LSTA funds that they would contribute to the Ohio Web Library several years ago. Stephen added that OhioLINK had set a limit of about $1 million annually on their contribution a couple of years ago.

Chris May motioned to set a limit of about $1 million per year for purchasing Ohio Web Library resources, starting in FY2019, and to inform our Libraries Connect Ohio partners that the next statewide purchases should be planned accordingly; Jeff Garringer seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, reported that the Executive Director position had been posted for six weeks and a number of good applications were received. The committee will meet after this Board meeting adjourns to discuss the candidates and the interview process.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on the status of two purchases approved at the April meeting: the EZproxy authentication software, which should be approved by the Controlling Board on Monday, and the contract with Lorrie Germann for E-rate consultant services. He also provided an update on the "HOLMES" project, reporting that the preliminary proposal for a National Leadership Grant to fund development of the HOLMES semantic web search tool for librarians had not been selected for an invitation to submit a full proposal; after consulting with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the project partners plan to resubmit the proposal in the next grant round. Stephen shared information about OPLIN staff participation in the American Library Association's National Library Legislative Day in Washington DC, and he reported that the State Library Board awarded a $1.6 million LSTA grant to Libraries Connect Ohio to help purchase Ohio Web Library resources for the fifth and final year of the current contracts. Finally, Stephen reported on a meeting of a newly formed collaborative working on extending the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Ohio.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted Mandy Knapp's visits to three of the digitization hubs and his attendance at a number of legislative budget hearings, as well as presentations about OPLIN given by Mandy at the SEO Users Group meeting and by Stephen at the OLC New Directors' Workshop.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that two new libraries have requested website kits, one after receiving a website audit from OPLIN. She also reported on her efforts to get information about purchasing Sitecues, a website accessibility product that was discussed at the April Board meeting, but there no longer seems to be a way to make contact with anyone since Sitecues was purchased by another company. Finally, she described the new way of presenting information databases that she has developed for website kit libraries; about a fourth of the website kit libraries have requested this change to their sites.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp presented usage statistics for the Ohio Web Library and noted that Ancestry Library Edition continues to be the most used resource. Mandy also reported on the recruitment of Ohio Web Library Specialists. She received 41 applications and has scheduled a meeting with the regional libraries to get their involvement if they wish. She plans to schedule training for these trainers near the end of the summer. Mandy announced an upcoming webinar/seminar at the Columbus Metropolitan Library digitization hub to provide some basic information to libraries interested in digitizing materials. The programs about the Ohio Web Library that she proposed for the OLC Convention this fall were not accepted, so she is working with OhioNET to present them as webinars. Finally, she reported that she has been collecting color scans of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the digitization hubs and is replacing some of the black and white scans currently in the Ohio Web Library.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the large number of circuit work orders currently pending as circuits are upgraded to 100 Mbps and the vendor connections at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) are upgraded and moved; in the next four months, there will be some change to every circuit in the network. Karl reported on the rerouting of OPLIN internet traffic so that it bypasses the circuit used by other state agencies and connects directly to OARnet, allowing eventual upgrade to 40 Gbps internet access. As for the duplication of the OPLIN core, Karl expects that project to be finished in about three weeks. The co-location space where libraries can install their equipment at the SOCC now has enough interested subtenants to require six racks, with Columbus Metropolitan Library planning to sublease an entire rack for their network equipment. Regarding the SMS messaging service, Karl reported that he still has about 3 million message credits that he was able to purchase at a sale price. Finally, Karl mentioned arrangements in progress for OPLIN to share OpenDNS filtering with OARnet, and for OARnet to share DDoS attack mitigation with OPLIN.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

10.1. Resolutions

Chair Susan Brown recognized Jill Billman-Royer, who proposed the following resolution:

WHEREAS, BECKY SCHULTZ has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2011, and WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SIX years, and WHEREAS her service as the IT Manager at Portsmouth Public Library and her knowledge of technical issues gave her a valuable perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS she has provided additional service as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2015 through June 2016, and WHEREAS she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS she has volunteered to lead the search for a new OPLIN Executive Director beyond her tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by BECKY SCHULTZ during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to BECKY SCHULTZ for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Joe Greenward seconded the resolution. All aye.

Chair Susan Brown recognized Cindy Lombardo, who proposed the following resolution:

WHEREAS, KAREN DAVIS has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since October 2010, and WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for almost SEVEN years, and WHEREAS her experience as System Administrator and Director of the Sylvester Memorial Wellston Public Library provided an important perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS she has provided additional service as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2013 through June 2014, and WHEREAS she has unfailingly contributed her valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of June, Two Thousand and Seventeen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by KAREN DAVIS during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to KAREN DAVIS for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Jeff Garringer seconded the resolution. All aye.

10.2. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Cindy Lombardo motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Karen Davis seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

The Board entered Executive Session at 11:29 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 11:33 a.m.

Susan Brown expressed the Board's appreciation to Stephen Hedges for his good work over the past year and provided him with a copy of his evaluation summary report.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Jeff Garringer the meeting adjourned at 11:35 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — April 14, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixty-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:02 a.m. on Friday, April 14, 2017 by Board Vice-Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); and Beverly Cain and Ashleigh Conkey (State Library).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain talked about her concerns over the proposed cuts to federal funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). So far, Ohio has only received about half of the IMLS funds expected this fiscal year. These funds are very important to Ohio libraries, so this funding will be a focus of the upcoming National Library Legislative Day. She is also concerned about the announced overall reduction in the state budget due to declines in revenue.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 10 meeting

Chris May motioned to approve the minutes of the February 10, 2017, meeting as presented; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented budget information as of the end of March 2017, including expenditures for the FY2016-2017 biennium and cash flow for the FY2014-2015 and FY2016-2017 bienniums. He reviewed expenditures for administration accounts, calling attention to the budget for advertising the Executive Director position and for new office computers, and also reviewed expenditures for new routers for the network. He pointed out the annual decreases in telecommunications expenses, but expects that cost to stabilize as most of the connections become covered by long-term contracts. Looking at expected revenues, he noted that the approval of the OPLIN E-rate application has been very delayed this year, which also affects the timing of the receipt of E-rate reimbursements. It is possible that a large portion of anticipated E-rate reimbursements may not arrive before the end of this fiscal year; however, delayed receipt will simply result in larger E-rate revenue in the next fiscal year.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on database authentication

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the February meeting about OPLIN purchase of EZproxy from OCLC and a number of possible configurations that could provide easy access authentication for users of the databases when they are not in a library. Soon after that meeting, it became clear that there was only one configuration that would work for OPLIN needs, so a quote for that type of service was received from OCLC for $37,422 annually. The configuration will authenticate users through proxy-by-port, so only one SSL certificate is needed which OPLIN already owns. OPLIN staff discussed the configuration with OCLC technical staff to make sure it would work as intended. Stephen also reminded the Board that this purchase would be combined with other State Library purchases from OCLC and would require Controlling Board approval.

Karl Jendretzky reported that some specialized database vendors are changing their products so that our current EZproxy software cannot handle authentication; the statewide databases are unaffected so far. For some libraries, he has been able to work around this by switching to proxy-by-port, but this does not solve the problem for all of the them.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the purchase of EZproxy stand-alone software licensing; Travis McAfee seconded.

Karen Davis asked if the libraries with database authentication problems would have to wait two months until the EZproxy purchase was complete before their remote users could use the databases. Karl confirmed that is correct, and reported that he has spoken with the affected libraries and they understand the problem.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on staff raises

Stephen Hedges explained that this is a repeat of Board action taken the previous two years. The state has allowed 2.5% annual pay increases for state employees, but the Board must approve the increases each fiscal year.

Cindy Lombardo motioned that, in that the E-1 salary tables in Ohio Revised Code 124.152 awards State of Ohio E-1 employees a 2.5% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2017 and allows increases up to 2.5% for other exempt state employees, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with the duties assigned by Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.5% salary increase for each employee beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2017.; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

PLANNING SESSION

8. Background reports from OPLIN staff

8.1. Budget background

Stephen Hedges presented information on the Public Library Fund (PLF) in the proposed state budget and how OPLIN funds are drawn from the PLF. He also reported on INFOhio lobbying to have their funding increased by $1.1 million in FY2018-2019, to correct cuts to their funding in the current budget biennium. INFOhio funding directly affects the Ohio Web Library databases, since INFOhio normally contributes about $500,000 each year to the cost of these databases, but has only been able to contribute a total of about $500,000 over the last two years under the current reduced budget. IMLS funding is also a huge component of the funding for Ohio Web Library purchases.

8.2. OPLIN/OIT/OARnet

Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky discussed the current relationship between OPLIN, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and OARnet. Stephen presented information about the history of the relationship between the three entities and noted that there currently seems to be more cooperation and less competition among them. Karl described some examples of this cooperation: sharing denial of service protection and possibly content filtering with OARnet; direct 10 Gbps connections to OARnet for internet access; and working with OIT to reconfigure and duplicate the OPLIN network core.

8.3. SOCC Co-location

Karl Jendretzky provided an update on the project to create space in the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) for library-owned servers and networking equipment, noting that the routers needed to link the equipment racks are expected to arrive any day. The OPLIN core will be first to move, which will require some brief downtimes for the network, as telecommunications vendors' connections to the network core are being re-designed.

Karl also reported that he is gradually deploying the new routers to libraries and will increase the pace somewhat this summer, but OIT staff will not be available to do the bulk of the work until the third quarter of the year.

8.4. Ohio Digital Network

Mandy Knapp explained that the Ohio Digital Network (ODN) is the Ohio Service Hub of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and OPLIN coordinates the digitization hub libraries to serve as the ODN Community Engagement Center for public libraries. Current work revolves around identifying and gathering metadata for the first submissions to DPLA. The State Library has hired a contractor to set up Repox, the software that will be used to aggregate the metadata from libraries. Mandy is thinking about the training and assistance that will be needed for libraries with limited digitization experience. Mandy and Laura Solomon are exploring ways that a library's digitized materials could be integrated into their Drupal website kit.

8.5. Website accessibility

Laura Solomon reported that she had seen web-based software last year called "sitecues" that adds zoom and speech features to websites. This can greatly increase the accessibility of the site for people with special needs. The product was relatively expensive and to integrate it into the website kits would either require doubling the annual website maintenance fee or a commitment by OPLIN to pay the cost, which would be a change from the current policy of recovering the costs of hosting website kits. The sitecues company has since been purchased and new pricing has not been published.

The Board expressed tentative interest in such a product to boost website accessibility, but it was agreed that no decision can be made about purchasing until current pricing information is available.

8.6. E-rate services

Stephen Hedges pointed out that OPLIN has been contracting with Lorrie Germann, the state E-rate coordinator for schools, to present workshops and provide E-rate assistance for public libraries, as well as preparing OPLIN's E-rate applications. Now Mandy Knapp, the state E-rate coordinator for public libraries, has joined OPLIN. Mandy should be able to do what Lorrie has been doing, but Stephen recommended continuing with Lorrie's contract for one more year because the E-rate system is still going through big changes, and Lorrie is still working on issues caused for OPLIN by those changes. E-rate reimbursements are such a big portion of OPLIN revenues, it is important to avoid mistakes. Mandy and Lorrie together would provide backup to each other until things stabilize. Stephen also pointed out that the E-rate changes have meant that fewer libraries qualify for E-rate discounts; this is something that should be kept in mind as the Board discusses the place of E-rate assistance in the OPLIN strategic plan.

8.7. Ohio Web Library Specialists

Mandy Knapp described a new initiative, Ohio Web Library Specialists, that she plans to announce next week. Based on the successful iCoaches program developed by INFOhio, OWL Specialists will provide in-person training to library staff in effective use of Ohio Web Library resources and will be acknowledged for their expertise. The Content Advisory Committee recommended that existing database experts among public library staff be identified, and Mandy intends to provide initial training to all Specialists in the fall. The eventual goal is to have at least one in every county.

Chris May asked if the initiative will be coordinated with the regional library systems. Joe Greenward asked if there will be a directory of Specialists on the OPLIN website. Mandy said she would make sure both things happen.

8.8. OWL Invitation to Negotiate

Mandy Knapp and Stephen Hedges presented information about the upcoming Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for new five-year Ohio Web Library database contracts. Mandy provided a general timeline and explanation of the process, with planning beginning as soon as the state biennial budget is set. Stephen pointed out that the end of the current five-year contracts could be a turning point for the Libraries Connect Ohio partnership, and gave a brief history of that partnership. He also distributed a chart showing the irregular history of INFOhio contributions toward the cost of the databases.

Stephen noted that he had attended an INFOhio Board meeting to discuss this, and they are well aware of the problem and already looking for more stable sources of funding than the state budget. Aside from budget pressures, both OhioLINK and INFOhio are being pressured by their parent organizations to provide more resources that directly support curricula, while public library users want resources that are of personal interest to them. Those two pressures — money and different user mandates — could alter or even split the partnership.

9. Outcomes of Content Advisory Committee meeting

Mandy Knapp reported on the annual meeting of the Content Advisory Committee held in late February. The committee discussed the difficulties in comparing usage statistics from different vendors. They also chose five people to serve on the OWL ITN selection committee and discussed ways to get feedback from the public library community on desirable databases. Mandy also discussed using vendors to provide database training to librarians, but the committee felt that training from a librarian was often better, so Mandy has proposed several programs for the Ohio Library Council Convention this fall that will combine both vendor and librarian trainers.

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:05 a.m. and resumed discussions at 11:45 a.m.

10. Review of current Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented the current plan with areas highlighted that might need changes and also a simplified one-page plan. He began discussion by asking for reactions to the one-page plan.

Several Board members expressed an appreciation for the ability to get a quick overview from the one-page plan, but also wanted the ability to see the more detailed content in the current plan that has been so carefully crafted. Stephen noted that organization of the one-page plan differed somewhat from the current plan.

Stephen then described proposed changes to the current plan which he feels are needed, noting that further changes could make it the detailed plan to accompany the one-page plan. Several services are new since the current plan was written, and there are also some questions about continuing a few current services, based on the morning's background presentations.

Travis McAfee noted that many libraries are not aware of all the services OPLIN offers. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that social media could be used to call attention to specific services.

Discussion turned to the E-rate training and support currently provided by OPLIN. In response to a question from Cindy Lombardo, Mandy Knapp reported that smaller libraries tend to be the ones that attend the training, while many of the larger libraries hire consultants to handle their E-rate applications. Travis suggested continuing the trainings until there was a noticeable drop in demand. Jill and Joe Greenward suggested changing the wording to "offer E-rate guidance" and Stephen remarked that he thought this activity should be moved from the Marketing category to Operations. The consensus of the Board was to accept Stephen's suggestion to continue Lorrie Germann's contract for another year.

Turning to the Ohio Web Library partnership, Joe noted that it is hard to make plans when the funding is so uncertain. Cindy wondered if the share of funding from OPLIN could be re-negotiated with the other partners, and Stephen replied that the partners had already had conversations about the mismatch of funding to usage and should be willing to re-negotiate. Stephen then clarified the various portals to the collection, noting that ohioweblibrary.org is available for use by anyone in Ohio. Beverly Cain speculated that the school representatives on the committee that selects the databases for the collection might have undue influence on the decision, and Stephen reported that the partners have also talked about possibly making some modification to the committee membership based on the amount of funding contributed.

Stephen also noted that both INFOhio and OhioLINK are under some pressures to provide "open educational resources" for schools and other resources specifically targeted to the classroom, while we know that public library users have very different interests. Chris May pointed out that as libraries buy their own resources to satisfy patron demand, usage of Ohio Web Library may continue to slip. Mandy noted that about 40% of public libraries buy their own databases. Stephen suggested that OPLIN could decrease the funds contributed to Ohio Web Library and use the savings to buy databases of interest to the public. Karl Jendretzky thought vendors may not be eager to sell OPLIN databases that they were successfully selling to individual libraries, and Travis confirmed that was his experience at NORWELD. Joe wondered if the ITN could be used to get quotes for databases for OPLIN only, and Stephen replied that could be done, but the other partners just buy their own resources outside of the ITN process. Stephen will make sure the wording of the strategic plan supports OPLIN paying a fairer share for the Ohio Web Library collection.

A few more items in the proposed plan were now discussed. It was decided to provide a circuit "for use by" the State Library, since the main circuit is now outside the OPLIN network. It was felt that mentioning the Ohio Digital Network by name was too specific. Some discussion took place about the pricing of extra user accessibility for website kits. Stephen and Laura suggested that the cost recovery model for website kits be dropped in favor of a fee set by the Board. Karen Davis suggested retaining the cost recovery model and making accessibility beyond the standards an option for libraries that want to pay. Since the strategic plan does not directly address website kit pricing, Stephen suggested that this debate be postponed until there is more information about the cost of accessibility options.

Stephen will prepare a revised version of the proposed plan for further review at the next Board meeting.

REPORTS

11. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz reported that the request for applications for the Executive Director's position would be posted on the state's website from April 17 to May 31. The Committee will review applications when they meet on June 9 and start making plans for interviews.

12. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges informed the Board that changes to the format and location of the RightClick conference this fall make it impossible to host an ice breaker the evening before. He also shared language that will be added to the OPLIN website to clarify that website kits have limited storage space on the servers, enough to host a large website but not enough to use for extensive storage of other files.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted his attendance at several budget hearings and at the ETM libraries meeting in Westerville, visits to Rockford and Coldwater libraries by Karl and Cleveland Public Library by Mandy, and presentations done for librarians by Laura and Mandy.

12.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are now 74 libraries using website kits, with three of those still in development. She has developed this year's Summer Reading Program templates, with sixteen orders so far, and has also been busy with a number of website redesigns lately. Laura has done four full audits of websites and 12 more audits of website kits. She also reported that she has taken down an old legacy OPLIN website, "Famous Ohioans," because the technology used to build the games on the site — the majority of the content — is no longer supported. Finally, she described a new way she has been perfecting of displaying information about the Ohio Web Library databases on a website kit.

12.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp shared database usage statistics and reported that she discovered an error in the aggregated data we were getting from Ancestry Library Edition, so those usage statistics are much higher now. She also noted that she has been answering a lot of questions from libraries about the new item in the state data report regarding "Successful Retrieval of Electronic Information."

12.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky informed the Board of a good promotional price he got on SMS messaging credits by buying about two year's worth of credits now.

13. CHAIR'S REPORT

13.1. Approve recommendation from Nominations Committee

Karen Davis shared a list of the nominations received to fill three open seats on the Board after July 1, and she also provided some demographic information about the current Board and the nominees. She noted that all candidates were very well qualified and the committee's decision was difficult.

The Nominations Committee recommended that the Board ask the State Library Board to appoint Jamie Black, Justin Bumbico, and Tara Sidwell to three-year terms on the OPLIN Board beginning July 1, 2017.

Karen briefly described the experience and qualifications of each recommended candidate.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the Committee's recommendation. There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the recommendation; all aye.

13.2. Begin Director's evaluation process

Stephen Hedges distributed the spreadsheet used in past years to evaluate the Director's performance and asked if anyone would like to suggest changes. In response to a question, he clarified that the Customer Focus section was added last year because the state now requires that evaluation for all employees.

Joe Greenward asked all Board members to send their evaluations to him no later than May 26.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jeff Garringer and second of Jill Billman-Royer the meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED SIXTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 10, 2017

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred sixtieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 10, 2017 by Board Vice-Chair Joe Greenward at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain talked about staffing changes at the State Library; Penelope Shumaker has been hired as the Ohio Digital Network metadata specialist and Anne Kennedy has been hired as a library consultant. Beverly reported about the State Library allocation in the Governor's executive budget for the next biennium is the same as the current allocation, and that the State Library and OPLIN had met with the Legislative Services Commission to provide background information for the LSC explanation of the budget. She is now waiting for her legislative testimony to be scheduled.

Doug Evans reported that state revenues and contributions to the Public Library Fund (PLF) continue to lag behind projections. The Ohio Library Council (OLC) is reviewing the executive budget, which proposes rolling back the PLF percentage of tax revenue to 1.66% instead of the current 1.7%. There has been good media coverage of the discrepancy between the Governor's remarks about the important role of libraries in continuous learning and his proposed reduction in funding. Doug encouraged everyone to attend Legislative Day on March 29. Doug also reported that the OLC Board has begun a new year with some new members and officers and noted that this will be the last year for Chapter Conferences.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 9 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the December 9, 2016, meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of January 2017. She called attention to year-to-date disbursements for administrative expenses, which correlates closely with the budgeted amount. She also pointed out almost $808,000 that has been added to the budget for purchase of new routers, the annual payment to the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) for internet access, and telecommunications expenses that are matching the budget pretty closely. She also reviewed past and anticipated revenue and expenditures.

Jamie explained the portions of the Governor's executive budget proposal regarding OPLIN. The numbers from the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) appear to reflect an increase in OPLIN funding, but in fact the proposed funding is exactly the same as it has been for the past six fiscal years. This was explained during the meeting with the Legislative Services Commission that Beverly Cain mentioned. Stephen Hedges noted that the introduced budget bill language regarding OPLIN is exactly the same as it has been for the past few biennium budgets.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the financial reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on Copyright Reform Statement

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the December meeting of a "Copyright Reform Statement from an eBook Perspective" being circulated for signatures by the Califa Group, a library consortium in California. The Board tabled this item of business in December, requesting more information about this initiative. Califa Interim Director Paula MacKinnon responded to an email from Stephen Hedges, reporting that Califa is launching the statement on change.org to facilitate signing. Stephen shared the URL of the statement on change.org and noted that OPLIN had supported OLC's work in the past on changing the ways libraries can acquire ebooks. He also noted that the change.org website does not list the current signers. Basically, Califa is asking that libraries be included in discussions of copyright change.

Several Board members doubted that the initiative would be effective as currently organized, though they also voiced no objections to the goal of the initiative. There was no motion to approve signing the statement. Stephen suggested that he monitor the progress of the initiative and bring this item of business back to the Board if it eventually looks like it might have some impact.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on OLC 2017 Convention sponsorship.

Stephen Hedges shared a letter from Lori Hensley, OLC, requesting that OPLIN again sponsor the OLC Convention at the Platinum ($10,000) level. This supports the internet connectivity at the Convention. Stephen noted that OLC provides free exhibit booth space to OPLIN and space for the OPLIN Annual Update, and has always been very good about acknowledging OPLIN support throughout the convention.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to sponsor the OLC 2017 Convention at the Platinum level; Jeff Garringer seconded.

Doug Evans reported that OLC hopes that they can also acknowledge OPLIN sponsorship on the "splash" screen that greets Wi-Fi users at the Convention this year.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.2. Decide on Ohio History Day sponsorship

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that in the past two years they have sponsored two "Advanced Digital Researcher" awards at each Ohio History Day, a large event where high school students present history projects for judging and selection to advance to the National History Day. These $125 awards recognize a junior project and a senior project that have demonstrated effective use of the Ohio Web Library resources. Stephen noted that he will not be able to present the awards in person this year, but from his experience in past years he believes the History Day organizers would do a good job of acknowledging OPLIN sponsorship.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to sponsor two awards for participants in the 2017 Ohio History Day; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7.3. Decide on database authentication

Stephen Hedges explained the need for a method of authenticating users of the statewide information databases when they are outside a library and described the current use of EZproxy software for that purpose. He reported that the current version of the software can no longer be upgraded without buying a new license; the software continues to work, it just cannot be upgraded for security reasons or to support new features.

Mandy Knapp reviewed alternative authentication methods and reported that none would replace EZproxy. Mandy shared four possible configuration options for EZproxy and the quotes she had received from OCLC for licensing each option, depending on how many "instances" are purchased to handle proxy authentication for individual libraries. Currently, many libraries use the OPLIN EZproxy to authenticate users of databases purchased locally.

Comments from Jill Billman-Royer, Chris May and other Board members indicated a preference for options that do not shift any costs for authentication from OPLIN to the local libraries. Travis McAfee speculated that many libraries may not currently know about the option to use the OPLIN EZproxy software for their locally purchased databases.

Karl Jendretzky and Mandy introduced a related issue; some database vendors are beginning to put their resources on HTTPS secure websites that require Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates for encrypted access. Depending on the type of certificates that EZproxy can use and how the proxy is configured, there could be significant costs involved. Some ways of configuring the proxy to save cost for SSL certificates might prevent users of some cellular networks from accessing the databases.

The consensus of the Board was to distill the options further and return to this business at the April planning meeting; the Vice-Chair also requested that OPLIN staff come to an agreement on the preferred option by then. Jamie Pardee noted that any expenditure to OCLC would require Controlling Board approval, because it would be an addition to the amount that the State Library already spends with OCLC annually. Stephen Hedges pointed out that this is a good reminder that we may not yet have all the information we need to make a decision.

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, shared a copy of the Search Committee's final draft of the Executive Director position description, incorporating suggestions from the Board and Stephen Hedges, and invited comments. There were none, so she asked for Board approval to post the position on April 17.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the Executive Director position description and post the position for applications beginning April 17, 2017; Travis McAfee seconded.

Becky reported that the timeline the committee has developed assumes applications would be accepted for four weeks. Stephanie Herriott provided some information about where the position would be posted. There was some discussion about budgeting for advertising the position and the length of time to accept applications, with Stephanie noting that applications were only accepted for two weeks the last time the position was posted. Several Board members felt that four weeks would not be long enough.

Jill Billman-Royer amended her motion: to approve the Executive Director position description and post the position for applications beginning April 17, accepting applications for six weeks. Travis McAfee concurred with this amendment.

There was no further discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges noted that another item of business at the December meeting had been approval to start looking for a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) that could handle DDoS attack mitigation for the OPLIN network. It currently appears that OARnet also plans to buy a DDoS mitigation service, which would probably protect the OPLIN network behind OARnet. Stephen is postponing the search for an MSSP until he has more information. Stephen also reported on the kick-off meeting for the Ohio Digital Network, the Ohio service hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA); Stephen is a member of the ODN Executive Committee and Mandy Knapp is the coordinator of the public library Community Engagement Center.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted: the ETM Libraries meeting in Yellow Springs; a meeting with Kendra Albright, the new Kent State library school director; Mandy's meetings with the Office of Workforce Transformation and INFOhio; several training presentations by Laura Solomon; and some work by Karl Jendretzky at the Fort Recovery Public Library.

Finally, Stephen reported that the preliminary proposal for the "HOLMES" semantic web reference tool for librarians had been submitted to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and is awaiting approval to develop a full project proposal.

Doug Evans excused himself from the meeting.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon announced that New Carlisle Public Library and Upper Sandusky Community Library both have new website kits, and she has been talking to Euclid Public Library about building a website kit for them. She also announced that she has launched the new website audit service, which offers an in-depth survey of non-kit websites for a fee and an overview audit of website kits for free (since OPLIN controls much of the behavior of website kits). Laura reported that she has been working on inserting linked data into website kits to better expose library event information when someone does a general internet search for library information, and she is beta testing this with one website. Finally, she and Karl Jendretzky have been researching progressive web apps, websites built to act and feel like mobile apps. There are currently important limitations, but Karl is interested in rebuilding the OPLIN Support website as a progressive web app to take advantage of the ability to push notifications to phones.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp provided a graph of database usage trends since August 2014; recent usage conforms to past usage by month. She noted that a repair to Science Online searching in ohioweblibrary.org resulted in a doubling of the usage statistics, showing the importance of that search interface for access. She also provided a map showing the number and locations of users accessing the databases through EZproxy in January. Mandy announced that she would be meeting with the Content Advisory Committee on February 23, with a major topic on the agenda being some database training options.

Mandy reported on a meeting she arranged with representatives of the Community Engagement Centers of the Ohio Digital Network to coordinate strategies; she has learned that she will be serving on the ODN Advocacy Working Group. She will also be meeting with the Digitization Hubs in March and plans to visit each of them in the near future.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the status of the new core and site routers, providing a diagram of the OPLIN network core as it will be configured when the redundancy rebuild is started and a diagram of the network core as he expects it to look in 2019, and he showed a piece of the fiber optic cable which will be used in the rebuild. OPLIN and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have been working together closely on this project, as well as the data center co-location project at the State of Ohio Computer Center. Karl reported that OIT deployment of the new site routers will probably begin within the next few weeks and will take a year or more to complete. Karl also provided a diagram of the OPLIN server cluster and load balancers for future hosting of the website kits, which is entirely based on open source technology.

Karl also reported that use of the SMS gateway for sending library notices continues to see strong growth. He also is investigating using the OpenDNS service to filter mobile hotspots belonging to a library. Finally, he reported that the orders for new 100 Mbps circuits to libraries have been filed.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

10.1. Appoint Nominations Committee

Following the wishes of Chair Susan Brown, as conveyed by Stephen Hedges, Vice-Chair Joe Greenward appointed Karen Davis, Becky Schultz and himself to the Nominations Committee. The committee will work with Stephen Hedges to select candidates to fill current and upcoming vacancies on the OPLIN Board and will develop a slate of proposed officers for election at the August Board meeting.

10.2. Review April planning meeting arrangements

At the request of the Chair, Stephen Hedges explained the usual procedures for the planning meeting and lunch arrangements. There were no objections to organizing the meeting as it had been in the past.

10.3. Ethics training reminder

The Vice-Chair called attention to a list of ethics training options for Board members. Stephen Hedges noted that Board members are required to complete training before the end of the year, and he asked that everyone send proof of completed training to him for record keeping.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Karen Davis and second of Jeff Garringer the meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-NINTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 9, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:04 a.m. on Friday, December 9, 2016 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); and Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, Jamie Pardee and Brad Schmidt (State Library).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain reported on the status of hiring staff at the State Library to work on the Ohio Digital Network, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Service Hub for Ohio; Jen Johnson has been selected as the ODN Project Coordinator, and the first meeting of committees will be in January. The State Library has also had a number of staff retirements. Beverly also reported that the State Library Board will award a number of LSTA grants to libraries at their December meeting.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 14 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the October 14 meeting as presented; Travis McAfee seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of November 2016. She called attention to the disbursement of about $6,000 to support the DPLA planning grant to Columbus Metropolitan Library. She also noted that almost $808,000 had been added to the budget for purchase of new routers, which has been approved by the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), leaving about $120,000 in E-rate funds that have not been allocated for any purpose.

Chris May motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Decide on SOCC co-location service

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at their October meeting about renting rack space at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) to allow Ohio public libraries to take advantage of the SOCC's hardened infrastructure. As noted at the last Board meeting, the CLEVNET library consortium plans to move the servers that provide services to the CLEVNET libraries to the SOCC because it is such a stable data center. OPLIN could expand this idea and reserve a cage of server racks at the SOCC for public library usage. Stephen provided details of rack capacity and costs.

Stephen suggested that OPLIN could provide free space for servers that provide services to more than one library, to encourage library consortia to use the SOCC for critical servers. For other libraries that want to put their equipment at the SOCC, OPLIN could pass the SOCC costs on to them. Stephen suggested that $360 per year per rack unit used should cover that cost, and he provided the calculations used to arrive at that figure. Stephen also noted that there had been a question at the last meeting about library IT staff access to the racks, and he has confirmed that key cards can be issued to library staff managing their equipment.

In response to a question from Jill Billman-Royer, Karl Jendretzky explained how power usage is monitored by the SOCC. Karl further noted that libraries could also locate their own network headends in this space, installing firewalls and bringing branch connections to the SOCC rather than locating the headend in the library. He has already had a discussion with one metropolitan library about this possibility. Servers located at the SOCC could also be protected against network attacks.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to lease a cage and necessary server racks at the SOCC for public library equipment, charging $360 per year per rack unit to the library for cost recovery, except for equipment in use by more than one library system, in which case there would be no charge; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Susan Brown confirmed that OPLIN would only be billed by the SOCC for power used, and also noted that there was no expectation that this service would ever "break even." Stephen and Karl both noted that they feel the SOCC has overestimated the typical amount of power used by a rack of equipment, but billing would indeed be based on actual usage, not the estimate. Karl also noted that OPLIN equipment would be located in the same cage.

Cindy Lombardo expressed her hope that there would be good publicity to the libraries about this service, which she feels would be beneficial for many of them. Michael Penrod asked what the benefit would be for a library like his, and Karl pointed out that any server which was important to the library could be located in an environment that was much more secure and stable than any environment the library could provide. Jill pointed out that OPLIN staff would also be located closer to a library's networked equipment in the event that assistance was needed.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

6.2. Decide on managed security services

Stephen Hedges noted that some aspects of this business item had already been explained in the previous discussion. The appliance OPLIN now uses to protect the network from attacks would not be able to mitigate a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) of the magnitude that is becoming increasingly common on the internet. Larger devices are now available, but the licensing is very expensive and they are still not large enough to mitigate a large attack. Stephen also pointed out that these appliances are actually intended for protecting servers, not an entire network.

Stephen explained that there are Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs) that offer a variety of managed security services including round-the-clock monitoring and management of intrusion detection systems and responding to emergencies. While most of them can detect and identify DDoS attacks, few of them actually offer to mitigate the attacks; more commonly, they just alert their client that an attack is underway. Stephen and Karl Jendretzky have found four services that look like they might be able to mitigate attacks. DAS has issued an RFP for managed security services, but they are not asking for DDoS mitigation service; however, Stephen suspects there are internal discussions happening about DDoS mitigation, since the rest of the state network is currently protected by the same type of appliance OPLIN is using.

If OPLIN were to pursue a contract with an MSSP for DDoS mitigation, Stephen pointed out that no Controlling Board approval would be needed if the annual cost is less than $50,000. Stephen's recommendation would be that the Board approve initiating the process of purchasing managed DDoS mitigation with the stipulation that no more than $50,000 per year can be spent. He noted, however,that this process should start with discussions with DAS before approaching vendors.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to initiate the process of purchasing managed DDoS mitigation with the stipulation that no more than $50,000 per year be spent; Joe Greenward seconded.

Karl Jendretzky pointed out that there is no need to replace the current appliance immediately and agreed that DAS is likely to purchase something for the state network, which might also protect the OPLIN network. Stephen estimated that the current appliance would need to be replaced within a year. Joe Greenward asked if $50,000 per year would be enough, and Karl and Stephen replied that they thought it would be, based on the information they had seen.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Decide on copyright reform statement

Stephen Hedges shared a copyright reform statement circulated by the Califa Group, a nonprofit consortium of libraries in California, in the hope that other library organizations will sign on to the statement. The statement addresses proposed changes to current copyright law and their effect on e-publications in libraries. Stephen briefly reviewed the problems libraries have with licensing of e-publications and reminded the Board of past support for the Ohio Library Council (OLC) project that raised awareness of these problems. He also shared information about the opposition of the Library Copyright Alliance to proposed copyright changes.

Stephen noted that he has not been able to find any list of library organizations that have signed the Califa statement, nor any website for this effort. In response to a question from Cindy Lombardo, Stephen said he did not know of any approaching deadlines for copyright reform.

Jill Billman-Royer asked if the State Library or OLC had signed the statement. Beverly Cain reported that the State Library had agreed to sign after receiving a request from Califa, but had not received any further information after they responded to the request. Chris May also reported that he had searched for more information about this initiative and was concerned that there was not more transparency. Beverly Cain provided some background information about Califa and noted that they are going through a transition right now; Mandy Knapp pointed out that the Copyright Office may also be going through a transition.

The Board asked Stephen to contact Califa and request more information about this initiative.

Beverly Cain excused herself from the meeting.

7.2. Decide on semantic search grant

Stephen Hedges asked for permission to open a conference call with Karl Cólon, Director of Greene County Public Library, and Pascal Hitzler, Director for Data Science at Wright State University, to provide background information.

Karl Cólon and Pascal Hitzler joined the meeting by telephone.

Stephen introduced Pascal and Karl and provided a brief overview of his conversations with them since last spring about the possibility of building a software tool that would use the semantic web to assist librarians with answering vaguely-phrased questions from patrons about library materials. The tool would tentatively be called HOLMES, and conversations have been started with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) about applying for a National Leadership Grant to fund research and early development of HOLMES.

Pascal explained that there has been remarkable growth in the last few years of structured data that is available on the web to semantic search tools, data that can be used by a software reference tool for librarians. Stephen said that it looks like the best organization to apply for a National Leadership Grant to build a prototype of such a tool would be OPLIN, rather than Wright State University or Greene County Public Library. There would be no cash match required from OPLIN, just some administrative work.

Karl Cólon provided some examples of how this tool might be used by rural and small libraries. He also clarified that Greene County would provide its MARC records for use in the project and would act as a beta tester. Cindy Lombardo asked Karl to compare the proposed tool to Ask Jeeves, and Karl replied that, while similar, Ask Jeeves relied heavily on keyword searching while the proposed tool would search structured data. Susan Brown asked if there would be any problem with OPLIN being the applicant while Wright State was the primary investigator, and Karl replied that Pascal and Wright State University had prior experience with such arrangements.

Michael Penrod motioned to apply for a National Leadership Grant from IMLS to fund research and early development of a semantic search reference tool for librarians; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Travis McAfee asked how the proposed tool would interact with other library software tools. Karl Cólon clarified that the proposed project was intended to test the feasibility of building a tool, and interaction with other tools was a much larger issue that would be addressed in follow-up grants if the project proved feasible. Pascal added, however, that he feels certain something can be made to work, he wants to find out how hard it will be to make it useful.

Karl Jendretzky asked if the project would basically be converting flat MARC files to data that could be searched semantically. Pascal answered that the project should go beyond that by combining the MARC data with structured data from the web that describes the same resource in different ways. Karl explained that his question was whether the MARC data would be added to the tool as flat files or would there be a live connection to the Greene County catalog, and Pascal replied that within the scope of the research project, this would not matter, and would be a question for later development if the tool is feasible.

Stephen reported that Jason Kucsma from Toledo-Lucas County Public Library had also expressed interest in having their digital strategist involved with the project.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jeff Garringer, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, Search Committee Chair, reported that the committee has almost completed the process of finalizing the job description and plans to post the Director's position on or about April 17, 2017.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on his attendance at the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, California and shared some information from a presentation he attended about the Culture in Transit digitization project in New York City. He also reported on this year's RightClick conference, which was well attended; he received positive feedback from several library directors who sent IT staff to the conference. Stephen provided an update on two projects the Board had approved at the last meeting: the 100 Mbps circuits for all libraries, and the purchase of new routers. Both projects are well underway.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted training sessions Laura Solomon had done in Indiana and on the internet, two being webinars about best website practices that the Board had discussed, as well as visits Karl Jendretzky made to Zanesfield and Delaware libraries, and a meeting he and Mandy Knapp had with INFOhio about their iCoaches program to see if something like it could be used for training public librarians to use the databases.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that the webinars she gave about best practices for websites has renewed interest in the website kits. She reported on the development of the website audit service that the Board discussed at the last meeting and explained that there will be free simplified audits available to website kit customers. The complete, paid audit service is currently in testing. Laura has completed an update of the website kits manual. She has also been investigating Drupal version 8, which will be a nice upgrade but does not yet support all the functions needed by the website kits.

9.2. Digital Resources Manager report

Mandy Knapp noted that this is the end of her second week at OPLIN. She presented database statistics using a graph in a new, more detailed format. Other graphs focused on the less-used databases and showed that while some are continuously increasing in usage, others are continuously declining. She has been working with the Digitization Hubs to publish some information about their experiences, modeled loosely after the Culture in Transit toolkits that Stephen learned about at the Internet Librarian conference. Mandy also noted that she had gathered a lot of useful information from the meeting with INFOhio about iCoaches. Finally, she reported that she is preparing for the Content Advisory Committee meeting in February.

9.3. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky began by providing a little more information about how semantic searches differ from keyword searches. He then reported that the SMS service is still growing at about 30% per year, and also reported on the status of the OpenDNS service and overall bandwidth usage. Since the last meeting, a new component card in the OPLIN core router failed, which disabled the entire network on a holiday weekend; he noted that this is a good example of why it will be nice to have a second core router. The web hosting service that OPLIN has been using for the website kits, thinking it would be more dependable than OPLIN servers, also failed, so he is building a new, more robust OPLIN hosting solution that will use redundant load balancers across redundant servers. Finally, as a result of the 100 Mbps circuit upgrades, the AT&T circuits to the SOCC may soon be moved to a headend direct to OPLIN, rather than passing through OARnet first.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Susan Brown reported that Marty Beets has tendered his resignation from the Board because he is leaving the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to take a job in private industry.

The Chair recognized Joe Greenward to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, MARTY BEETS has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2014, and WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for two and a half years, and WHEREAS his service as the Director of Technology Operations at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County gave him an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS his extensive knowledge of technical issues has always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his valuable opinions to OPLIN Board deliberations, and WHEREAS he has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout his tenure on the Board, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of December, Two Thousand and Sixteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by MARTY BEETS during his outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to MARTY BEETS for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the resolution. All aye.

The Chair noted that this opening on the Board was not expected, and asked Stephen Hedges to talk about the timeline for filling the opening. Stephen explained that the Board usually appoints a committee in February to start the process of soliciting nominations for Board openings created when Board terms end in June, so the State Library Board can complete the appointments in a timely manner. The OPLIN Board could adhere to this timeline and ask the State Library Board to appoint someone to Marty's position along with the other positions that will be opening, or the State Library Board could be asked to appoint one person to start their term on June 1, while the other terms would start July 1. The Board could also start a nominations process now for one position and another nominations process in February for the other positions. Jill Billman-Royer noted that the Board is otherwise at full strength now and there would not be a significant difference between filling Marty's position in June or in July. The consensus of the Board was to wait and fill Marty's position at the same time as the other positions that will be coming open.

11. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:40 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 14, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:05 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2016 by Board Chair Susan Brown at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott, Jamie Pardee and Brad Schmidt (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain introduced Brad Schmidt, an undergraduate intern at the State Library this semester. Beverly also reported that the Ohio application to become a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Service Hub had been approved; the State Library will now hire three people to work on establishing and managing the Hub. Nathan Tallman from the University of Cincinnati provided technical information to DPLA on a pre-approval phone call that Stephen Hedges was unable to attend.

Doug Evans thanked the Board again for their support of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention and Expo; there were 681 attendees, and OPLIN's support was prominently acknowledged. Doug reported that Public Library Fund revenue is a little lower than expected, but is still projected to be about $380 million in 2016. Michelle Francis is traveling around the state presenting information at twenty libraries about the upcoming state budget; the legislature will have to renew the current formula to maintain current funding. There are fifteen local library levies on the November 8 ballot. Doug also reported that this is the last day for OLC members to vote in a special election regarding changes to the OLC organization, including dissolving the five OLC Chapters. Doug explained the history of the Chapters and the reasons for the proposal to dissolve them.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 12 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the August 12 meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye, with Jill Billman-Royer abstaining.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of September 2016, the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Expenditures for Information Resources and for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have already been paid under annual contracts. Anticipating a discussion coming up later in the agenda, Jamie pointed out that the amount currently in the Unplanned Spending Authority line could be moved by the Board to any other budget line to pay for special projects. Jamie reported that the current cash balance is much lower than it was at the end of June because of the expenditures already paid under annual contracts and delays in receiving E-rate reimbursements. The E-rate delays relate to setting up the new system for receiving reimbursements, as now required, but everything is ready and OPLIN should start to receive E-rate monies again.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve plans for network enhancements

Stephen Hedges reviewed Board discussion at the August meeting concerning some possible network enhancements, after which the Board had asked for more detailed plans. Stephen provided a document with information about five possible projects, including advantages and disadvantages, cost estimates, and other options. Stephen talked through this information first and asked that the Board make motions to open discussion on any projects that interested them.

The first project would be replacing routers at the library sites. Manufacturer's support for most of the current routers will end in July 2018, and Karl Jendretzky pointed out this means there would be no more software patches to correct bugs and security vulnerabilities after that date. The last time OPLIN replaced routers the project took two years. Stephen described the recommended new routers and discussed the pricing. Most routers would be smaller and quieter than the current routers.

The second project would upgrade all OPLIN public library circuits to at least 100 Mbps, a total of about 100 upgrades except for a few sites where 100 Mbps is not yet feasible. Usage data indicates that many small libraries would not use that much bandwidth, but that is the minimum bandwidth recommended for public libraries by the Federal Communications Commission. Because that is also the bandwidth recommended for many schools, pricing from telecommunications vendors for 100 Mbps circuits is usually very competitive, and with OPLIN's E-rate discount the increase in annual cost would not be substantial.

The third project would replace the current security appliance at the OPLIN core with a hosted security service. OPLIN bandwidth will soon exceed the capacity of the current appliance, and buying a second appliance may not be a possibility due to company acquisitions. A hosted service would be more expensive over time than a second appliance, but has the advantage of being maintained and monitored 24x7x365. Purchase of such a service would most likely require Ohio Controlling Board approval. Karl Jendretzky noted that the proposed plan for this project would require more work before the project could be started.

The fourth project would add a second OPLIN core router at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) and upgrade the current router to create two identical routers that would be operated in tandem but located in separate areas of the SOCC, providing seamless redundancy in the event one of the routers fails. Almost all OPLIN data passes through the core router, so this would eliminate a single point of failure in the whole network. Stephen discussed pricing from one vendor; if the purchase were to proceed, quotes from three vendors under State Term Schedule contracts would be collected. Karl Jendretzky explained that the new core hardware would be able to do MACsec encryption, if this were ever required by the government. In response to a question from Travis McAfee, Karl noted that our current support agreement for the core router is next day replacement, meaning if some components of the current core router failed, the network would be down for a day.

The fifth project would provide equipment rack space in the SOCC free of charge for servers that provide services to more than one library. This would allow consortia to place their servers in an extremely stable, protected and secure building at the heart of the OPLIN network in an area dedicated to public libraries. SOCC charges are calculated by the rack, with a set monthly lease cost plus the cost of power used. It may also be possible to sub-rent rack space to libraries that want to house their own servers at the SOCC, and OPLIN could bill them for the monthly costs, but there are some questions that would need to be clarified with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to know if this is possible.

Michael Penrod motioned to approve all the projects; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

At the request of the Board, Karl provided more detailed information about the two models of new site routers that OPLIN and OIT have chosen. Jill noted that replacement of the routers would be a proactive step to maintain the network in good condition. Marty Beets noted that he had been in a situation in the past where routers with no available vendor support were used, and it was not a good experience.

Michael noted that duplicating the core router would not be as visible an improvement as new site routers, but was no less important to maintaining the network. He also noted, however, that the project to upgrade network security needed more planning and information. As background, Karl provided more information about network attacks and the current and proposed ways of stopping them. Karl and Stephen both agreed that the security proposal needs more work, but Stephen noted that something will need to be done within the next year due to the capacity limitations of the current security. Travis asked if duplicating the network core now would affect decisions about a future security method; after some consideration, Karl diagrammed the various network options to provide security under both methods currently under discussion.

Michael Penrod moved to revise his original motion to approval for just the purchase of upgraded site routers and the hardware necessary to duplicate the OPLIN core router, as well as related maintenance support, instead of approval of all five projects; Jill Billman-Royer seconded the revision.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the revised motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

The Board now reviewed the other possible projects.

Karen Davis motioned to approve providing at least 100 Mbps circuits to all libraries wherever feasible; Travis McAfee seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

Susan Brown pointed out that OPLIN already provides adequate bandwidth based on each library's actual needs, regardless of what the FCC may recommend; Michael Penrod agreed. Travis McAfee noted, however, that meeting the FCC recommendation could be a point of pride for many smaller communities, and the additional cost would not be substantial. Marty Beets shared that Cincinnati had upgraded all of their branches, regardless of size, to the same very large circuits and it was very well received, even though actual circuit usage did not change. Karl Jendretzky noted that such a large batch of upgrades would eliminate the need for the many small batches OPLIN currently does, and would also provide some spare bandwidth if a smaller library has a temporary internal network problem. Marty asked Stephen Hedges for his opinion; Stephen replied that he personally did not favor spending money on unnecessary things, but in this case the amount of money involved compared to the good will created makes these upgrades the politic thing to do.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Susan Brown, aye

Karl informed the Board that some of the upgrades would involve some contract negotiations and may take longer than others; they would not all be completed immediately.

The Board set aside the other two possible projects pending gathering of more information.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss website audits

Stephen Hedges reported that Laura Solomon's webinar on September 13 about common library website problems was very well attended and received. One of the participants asked if OPLIN offered any consultation or budget advice for library websites, which prompted an OPLIN staff discussion about the possibility of doing library website "audits" for a fee. Stephen suggested that a standardized checklist of things to look for on a website could be developed and used for such audits. OPLIN would not work with any website designers the library may have hired, nor would OPLIN offer discounts to libraries that subsequently decide to purchase a Dynamic Website Kit. OPLIN would simply use a standardized checklist to do the audit, would then create a report and delivery it to the library, and then invoice the library. Initially the fee could be based on the time spent, calculated using the same hourly rate as custom work on website kits.

Laura Solomon made some additional suggestions. Free audits might be requested quarterly or twice a year by current website kit customers. Laura has been doing performance tuning on many websites and has noticed that images are often used improperly; she has in fact planned a webinar on this topic on November 16. Laura also suggested that she might offer to do banner images for website kit customers for a reasonable price, since these images are sometimes particularly bad.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve offering website audits to Ohio public libraries for a fee; Becky Schultz seconded. The Chair called for discussion.

Jill remarked that website audits would be beneficial to the library community and asked if there was a general estimate of how much time an audit might require; Laura replied that a basic audit would probably take about an hour, and assumed most libraries would only be interested in a basic audit.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

8. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz, the Search Committee Chair, confirmed that Stephen Hedges' new retirement date is September 30, 2017. Based on that date, the committee has developed a new timeline, expecting to have the new Executive Director start on October 2, 2017 after appointment by the Board at the regular August 11, 2017 meeting. The committee does not feel that the special meeting planned for May 12, 2017 will be needed and recommends that it be removed from the Board meeting schedule. The committee will be meeting immediately after this Board meeting to finalize the job description, and plans to post the position in mid-April 2017. Becky also noted that her second term on the Board will end before the Search Committee work ends, but she would like to continue on the committee until the work is finished; there were no objections from the Board.

There was no discussion regarding the Search Committee's recommendation to revise the Board meeting schedule, so the Chair called for a vote on the recommendation; all aye.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges added some information to Beverly Cain's news about the approval of the application to DPLA to create an Ohio Service Hub, and reminded the Board that he will be serving on the Executive Committee of the Ohio Digital Network, as the Service Hub will be called. Stephen described his experience at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) annual conference August 14—19 in Columbus, where OPLIN displayed a floor banner on the Library Boulevard; more than 3,200 librarians from 145 countries attended. Stephen also reported on the OPLIN booth at the OLC Convention and Expo in Sandusky (September 28—30) and the OPLIN Annual Update at the convention, which was better attended now that it is no longer called the "Stakeholders Meeting." Finally, Stephen reported on a meeting Beverly Cain scheduled for October 11 with Paolo DeMaria, the new Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Ohio Department of Education, and the Libraries Connect Ohio partners, where there was a good discussion about INFOhio's funding.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted visits Karl Jendretzky made to Wauseon Public Library, Southwest Public Libraries and the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System, and also several training sessions Laura Solomon had done for librarians. Stephen also reported that he had attended Sandi Plymire's retirement reception at Muskingum County Library System and met with the CLEVNET Directors Committee at the SOCC.

9.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that everything that would have been in her report had already been discussed as new business.

9.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on several recent circuit changes, some of which should enable OPLIN to have a free headend from AT&T at the SOCC. Karl has also examined the Who's On My Wifi software that the State Library will be providing to libraries and can answer any questions libraries have. Turning to OpenDNS, Karl noted that 21 CLEVNET libraries are now using it since the advanced licensing became available, so there are 136 libraries statewide now using OpenDNS. Karl is also working on new secure proxy access for some libraries to their databases, and has also been working on moving the website kit servers to a hosted server company that will provide weekend support.

9.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that usage of documents retrieved from the databases was about 6% more than it was last year, even though the number of searches was about the same.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Susan Brown had nothing to report.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jill Billman-Royer and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 12, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:55 a.m. on Friday, August 12, 2016 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Jeff Garringer, Cindy Lombardo, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

ACTION ITEMS

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Becky Schultz presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Susan Brown, Chair; Joe Greenward, Vice-Chair; Cindy Lombardo, Secretary; and Michael Penrod, Treasurer. Becky asked if there were any additional nominations or questions, and there were none.

The Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so Chair Susan Brown called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2017

The Chair presented the proposed Board meeting schedule for Fiscal Year 2017. Becky Schultz commented that the Director Search Committee felt that a special meeting on May 12, 2017 would also be needed. The Chair then asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: August 12, 2016; October 14, 2016; December 8, 2016; February 10, 2017; April 14, 2017 (9:00 am start); May 12, 2017; and June 9, 2017. The Chair also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 11, 2017; and October 13, 2017.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as revised; Chris May seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis reminded the Board of events coming up at the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention in late September, particularly the OhioMeansJobs session and comments by Sen. Randy Gardner, as well as a legal update from OLC's legal counsel. Regarding the current Public Library Fund (PLF) distributions to counties, Michelle noted that actual distributions have been below estimates, but an increase is anticipated next year. Preparations have begun to try to get an increase in the PLF funding formula in the next biennium budget; Legislative Day is March 29 next year.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 10 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the June 10 meeting as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented budget information as of the end of Fiscal Year 2016 (June 30) and as of the end of July in the new fiscal year (2017). Expenditure amounts in FY 2016 were close to budgeted amounts except for the Telecommunications category, where expenditures were significantly less than budgeted; the FY 2017 budget has been adjusted accordingly. Jamie noted that the cash balance at the end of FY 2016 was large and anticipated to be larger at the end of FY 2017.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Chris May seconded.

Stephen Hedges called attention to the cash balance and presented some general information about plans to use these funds. He noted that the preferred use of the funds would be specific project support, rather than increasing ongoing annual costs. He also reminded the Board that support of digitization initiatives in public libraries is part of the OPLIN Strategic Plan, but at this point any costs involved with such support are unknown. Stephen demonstrated that much of the cash balance results from large E-rate reimbursements and lower telecommunications costs.

Cindy Lombardo asked how much the year-end cash balance should be. Stephen and Jamie agreed that it would be best to have $1—$2 million in reserve.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS — none

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Discuss plan for replacing network equipment

Karl Jendretzky reported that the current OPLIN routers at library sites have passed their end-of-sale dates. He would like the Board to consider replacing them with new Ethernet switches that have dual power supplies and support the current IEEE MAC Security standard (MACsec) to encrypt data.

Karl also reported that new hardware will soon be installed at the OPLIN network core to replace the current single 10 Gbps internet connection through the Office of Information Technology (OIT) with dual 20 Gbps connections through OARnet. The current network intrusion detection device can only protect one connection, so it would be ideal to purchase a second.

Karl suggested that a second network core router could then provide complete redundancy protection to the OPLIN network.

In response to questions, Karl answered that the current site routers are about seven years old, and that network core equipment that can handle more than 10 Gbps is more complex and significantly more expensive.

Stephen asked if the Board was interested in seeing detailed plans from Karl for expanding network capability and improving security at the next meeting, and they were.

9.2. Approve new position description

Stephen Hedges explained that Amie McReynolds has resigned her position at OPLIN, but her duties had changed quite a bit during the six years of her employment, so it would be better to fill her open position with someone doing other work that would be more valuable for supporting current OPLIN goals. OPLIN staff have discussed a variety of ideas. One idea was to hire a systems administrator to allow Karl Jendretzky to spend more time assisting libraries on site, but there is another way to do that which will be discussed later. Staff eventually agreed on a Digital Resources Manager who would work with the libraries and partner organizations on issues related to information databases, digitization and training; this person would also have to backup network support calls as needed. Stephen presented a rough draft of such a position description and suggested an annual salary around $50,000.

Susan Brown asked if most of the work would be done in the office or remotely, and Stephen replied that the person would need to be present in the office to backup network support, but would occasionally need to travel to conventions and meetings. Susan asked if an MLS/MLIS degree would be required and Stephanie Herriott replied that the similar positions she has identified require such a library degree. Stephanie also noted that postings for such positions often get a lot of response from librarians currently working at higher education institutions.

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the draft of the Digital Resources Manager position description with the understanding that Stephanie Herriott would edit it to final form; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

REPORTS

10. DIRECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT

Becky Schultz reported that the Director Search Committee has met a couple of times and developed a timeline for the process of finding a new director following Stephen Hedges' retirement next June. They plan to finish writing the job description in October.

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of a brief discussion during the last meeting about alignment between the goals in the Strategic Plan and the job goals of OPLIN staff, and he provided information about OPLIN staff goals. As part of the criteria for evaluating staff performance, each person has two "job goals" related to daily operations, one "project goal" related to a current OPLIN project, and one "stretch goal" for developing new skills and knowledge, and all are explicitly related to an OPLIN Priority from the Strategic Plan.

Stephen also reminded the Board of a question at the last meeting about the possibility of a follow-up to the database survey with questions about library staff database training and how usage statistics are collected and used. Stephen emailed the Content Advisory Committee to get their thoughts about a possible follow-up survey, and while committee members thought training and statistics information could be interesting, it was pointed out that the purpose of the survey was to help the committee with future database decisions, and training and statistics information would not be useful for that purpose. Stephen suggested that a new survey may be helpful after the new Digital Resources Manager has become established. The Chair asked Stephanie Herriott about the time required to hire a Digital Resources Manager, and Stephanie thought the process would move quickly, perhaps as quickly as six weeks.

Stephen reported that the LSTA-funded Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) in Ohio planning process has come to an end, so there was a meeting at the State Library to discuss the transition to governance of the Ohio Digital Network, as the Ohio DPLA service hub will be called. The Digitization Hubs, OhioLINK and the Ohio History Connection, the organizations identified as Community Engagement Centers for the Ohio Digital Network, decided that OPLIN should continue to play a role in this initiative as the communication point for public libraries and the public library representative to the Ohio Digital Network Executive Committee.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted a CLEVNET meeting he and Karl Jendretzky attended, where Stephen explained the OPLIN Strategic Plan. He also reported that Laura Solomon had been a speaker at the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute at Ohio Northern University.

11.1. Library Services Manager report

In the absence of Laura Solomon, Stephen Hedges reported that there has not been a lot of demand for new websites since the last Board meeting, but several other things have been happening. Laura will be teaching a webinar for TechSoup on August 24 on the basics of social media analytics. She will be teaching the first OPLIN webinar about common problems with library websites in September, using webinar software from the State Library, and the webinar will be recorded. Promotion of this webinar will begin next week; Michelle Francis reminded Stephen that OLC would also like to promote this webinar.

The Website Kit "Module Market" continues to be an effective way for libraries to order additions to their websites and to remind them of what is available. Finally, Laura and Karl have started testing outsourced hosting of the website kits.

11.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained that after discussions among OPLIN staff about Amie McReynolds' open position, it was decided to start exploring the option of using a hosting company for the website kits and other any high-profile OPLIN websites, rather than hiring a systems administrator to allow Karl to undertake different tasks. He has the OPLIN main website running with one such company and has been monitoring the performance and comparing it to the current servers he manages.

Karl reported that the State of Ohio had a subtle problem with their intrusion protection system that was restricting State of Ohio and OPLIN traffic to the internet at peak load times; that problem has been corrected. New "fabric" cards will soon be installed in the OPLIN network core router that will allow us to use a path to the internet that does not pass through the state's intrusion protection, which duplicates OPLIN's own intrusion system.

Karl also reported that the new OpenDNS licenses have allowed a number of CLEVNET libraries to begin using the system; 134 libraries now have OpenDNS accounts. Use of the SMS messaging system continues to see strong growth.

Karl explained that as library websites continue to move to the HTTPS (HTTP Secure) protocol, the EZ-Proxy software that is used to authenticate access to databases through the websites will cause problems. The solution is to buy wild-card digital certificates for each library, which cost about $80 a year. For now, OPLIN will buy those as needed, but it may be worth talking to OCLC about hosted EZ-Proxy, since the software we have will not be upgraded with any easier way to handle HTTPS.

Finally, Karl reported that CLEVNET has moved backup hardware to the State of Ohio Computer Center next to the OPLIN core.

11.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage continues to be slightly stronger than it was last year.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

12.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Chair Susan Brown appointed Becky Schultz to the at-large position on the OPLIN Executive Committee.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Karen Davis the Board adjourned at 11:15 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SIXTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — June 10, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:04 a.m. on Friday, June 10, 2016 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Jamie Mason (at 10:25), Chris May, Travis McAfee, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Stephanie Herriott and Jamie Pardee (State Library); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); Tim Diamond and Larry Finnegan (CLEVNET); and Jeff Garringer.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

The Chair requested that the first item under the Chair's Report ("Appoint Director search committee") be moved to the second item under New Business.

Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as revised; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Tim Diamond, Chief Knowledge Officer of Cleveland Public Library, introduced himself and Larry Finnegan, Information Technology Director of Cleveland Public Library, representing the CLEVNET consortium. Tim summarized the history of CLEVNET and its relationship with OPLIN, and expressed gratitude for this extraordinary partnership based on mutual respect and understanding. Tim also noted that CLEVNET is a little nervous about the upcoming retirement of OPLIN Director Stephen Hedges, and urged the Board to do their best to find an adequate successor. Stephen Hedges noted that CLEVNET predates OPLIN, and that much of OPLIN was modeled on CLEVNET. Stephen thanked Tim for his remarks.

Beverly Cain announced that the State Library was beginning the process of doing a new evaluation and five-year plan for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant program, and has released an RFP for a consultant to help with the process. She also reported that the federal LSTA budget is currently scheduled for a slight increase, though Congress has not finalized the budget. Beverly notified the Board that the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) organization is working toward revising the data collected nationally from libraries to gather more relevant data and make it available more quickly. This initiative is called "Measures That Matter," and some public libraries may be contacted to serve on the advisory committee.

Doug Evans reported that state revenues during the last few months have been less than they were projected to be, which means the Public Library Fund (PLF) is also distributing less funds to libraries. Doug noted that new federal overtime rules and the Ohio legalization of medical marijuana will both affect public library operations. Several other pieces of recent state legislation also affect libraries: an amendment to HB 390 now allows libraries to include local tax revenues in the calculation of their bond ratings; online voter registration is now possible; and the one-weekend sales tax holiday tested last summer is now permanent. Doug also reported that the Ohio Library Council (OLC) will be trying some workshops in Southeast Ohio next spring to replace the annual chapter conference. Library safety and security will be a focus of OLC education for all public libraries in the near future.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 8 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the April 8 meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee noted that Fiscal Services has been busy bringing the current fiscal year to a close, but there are no problems within the OPLIN budget. The budget for next fiscal year will probably be adjusted slightly in July to reflect projections based on this year's expenditures. The latest E-rate refunds are starting to arrive, but some may not get posted to accounts until next fiscal year. Jamie also pointed out that rent payments were doubled this year, due to an undetermined clerical error, so there will be no rent payments in the next fiscal year.

Doug Evans asked if the sponsorship funds for the OLC Convention would be reflected in next year's budget, and Jamie replied that was correct; the purchase order will be issued after July 1.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Ratify DAS MOU

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of the discussion at the April 8 Board meeting of possible network configurations, during which he had mentioned the possibility of receiving a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) proposal from the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Office of Information Technology (OIT) for internet access services. Stephen had promised to pass any such proposal from DAS through the Executive Committee. He did receive a proposed MOU, but he did not remember his promise until after he had signed the MOU and sent it to DAS, so he immediately emailed the Executive Committee and offered to ask DAS not to countersign the MOU if any of them had objections. No objections were voiced, but Stephen would still like to discuss the MOU in an open meeting and get a vote to ratify it.

The Board discussion in April concluded with the understanding that the Board wanted to maintain: the OPLIN network core; OPLIN's ability to secure the network; the ability of OPLIN to respond quickly to network issues; and OPLIN's independence within OIT. Controlling costs was a secondary concern. Stephen feels the MOU does all of that. In essence, the MOU keeps the status quo in place for another year — including cost — with the option to extend the MOU for two more years in the next budget biennium, which will eliminate the need to put OPLIN internet access out to bid every year for E-rate purposes.

Jamie Mason asked about the effect on the budget of the single annual payment rather than monthly payments. Stephen replied that the annual payment should not be a problem, and he did not anticipate receiving an invoice until August at the earliest.

Jamie Mason motioned to ratify the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, Office of Information Technology, for internet access services; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6.2. Discuss results of database purchase survey

Stephen Hedges reported on the survey conducted by OPLIN at the suggestion of the Content Advisory Committee (CAC) asking public library directors a few questions about their database purchases and usage. 108 libraries responded, which is an outstanding response rate, especially since some libraries that do not purchase databases decided not to answer any of the usage questions and skipped the survey entirely. Of the respondents, about 20% do not purchase any databases to add to the Ohio Web Library collection; Stephen noted, however, that some of these may actually be buying Novelist as part of their membership in the SEO or CLEVNET consortia, but may not think of that as a database purchase. About 40% of respondents purchase more than three databases, which would seem to indicate that libraries buying more than one database tend to buy more than a few, yet about two-thirds of respondents are spending less than $20,000 a year.

Of the libraries that are buying databases, about 40% buy Heritage Quest and some sort of auto repair database, about a third buy legal forms and directory databases, and about 30% have continued the Mango subscription which was dropped from the Ohio Web Library collection. When libraries were asked what patron questions they cannot answer, their answers reinforced these buying decisions; libraries that did not buy auto repair databases, for example, reported that patrons would ask for auto repair information and the library would be unable to respond.

When asked about the most and least useful databases (including those in the Ohio Web Library collection), about 25% mentioned Ancestry Library Edition first in their most useful list, but the EBSCOhost databases were also ranked highly, as were directory databases. The least useful databases mentioned — and there were not many — tended to be resources that have been owned outright by the Libraries Connect Ohio partners for many years and have old web interfaces.

Stephen offered a few observations after reviewing all the data, in no particular order. We should think very carefully before we stop providing high-quality genealogy resources to Ohio public libraries. People seem to turn to libraries only after they have tried to find what they want on Google, then they bring the impossible questions to the library. EBSCO still seems to be a useful foundation upon which to build a wider reference collection. And consortia and libraries in Ohio are not reluctant to purchase resources that are not in the base Ohio Web Library package, though that does create some disparity in the ability of libraries to fulfill requests for information, which should be a concern for OPLIN.

Stephen had no recommendations for action at this time, though he has started to review the RFP language for the next database selection process in late 2017. He believes there could be a way to change the list of subject requests to make sure there are bids in the subject areas important to public libraries.

Jill Billman-Royer asked how often requests to complete the survey were issued and if there had been any follow-up communication. Stephen replied that there was only one request sent out, since libraries were only given two weeks to respond, and he did send a brief summary of the most important findings out to all the library directors.

Travis McAfee asked if any of the questions dealt with the process of buying databases, since he had heard from some libraries that dealing with database vendors was sometimes unpleasant, with inconsistent pricing between libraries. Stephen replied that he was aware of that problem, but there were no questions in the survey in that area. Jill asked if the questions were structured with an opportunity to provide open-ended answers, and Stephen replied that they were, and there were many comments, especially to the question about the least useful databases.

Chris May asked if there were plans to send another survey with questions about staff database training and how usage statistics are collected and used. Stephen said there were no such plans, but he will ask the CAC for their opinions regarding a follow-up survey.

6.3. Discuss results of websites survey

Stephen Hedges started the presentation of the results of the library website survey by reminding the Board of discussion during the April planning meeting about the marketing of the website kits, during which it was decided to assess the current status of Ohio library websites. Laura Solomon led the OPLIN support team through a process of surveying the websites of 173 Ohio public libraries; metro library websites were not surveyed, and current website kit customers were skipped. Laura's survey looked for eight things: is the library's address on the home page?; is the library's phone number on the home page?; are the library's open hours on the home page?; is there a box for search terms on the home page?; is the Board of Trustees listed anywhere on the website?; is there a calendar (not a list) of events on the website?; is the website design responsive?; and does the website pass a Section 508 compliance test?

Laura Solomon explained that responsive web design is preferred to separate websites designed for mobile devices, and Section 508 compliance assures that a website is accessible to the visually impaired at a basic level. Only three websites passed a Section 508 compliance test. Laura also noted that two libraries still had no website at all. Stephen remarked that about a fifth of the population prefers to use a mobile device for internet now, so the high number (96) of websites that do not have a responsive web design is also concerning.

Stephen observed that in some cases, the library may have made a conscious decision to reject some of the practices checked by Laura's survey. Travis McAfee said that his library hosts so many events, for example, that the format of a calendar of events is awkward compared to a list, though his library's website provides both. In response to a question from Susan Brown, Laura clarified that she and the Support staff did not take the time to locate basic information about a library if it was not on their home page.

Stephen suggested that there is definitely a need for some education about good website design. As for the possibility of designing and selling "light" website kits, discussed at the April meeting, Stephen personally felt that the cost could not be lowered enough to be a compelling reason for a library to replace their current website. He noted, however, that OPLIN staff hold various opinions about offering such a kit or template. Finally, he pointed out that some of the libraries with the biggest problems do not participate in listservs or other normal channels of library communication.

Travis asked if OPLIN could provide libraries with a flat HTML webpage, but Karl pointed out that this would mean libraries could not make changes when staff or board members changed, unless OPLIN made the change for them. At some point it becomes easier to use a Drupal site, then the site would need the same basic upgrades and maintenance as the other Drupal sites.

Jamie Mason questioned if it was really OPLIN's responsibility to clean up library websites, considering the amount of technology leadership already coming from OPLIN. OPLIN has already made it widely known that the website kits are available.

Doug Evans and others noted that Laura's list of survey questions is a very clear, concise list of library website best practices, and there would be great value in distributing it to all libraries. Doug offered to use OLC communication channels to distribute a message including these best practices.

Cindy Lombardo pointed out the the cost of the standard website kits is so low, there's little point in trying to design a light version. Stephen will pursue providing increased education about website best practices, and if there is a resulting demand for some sort of light website kit, that can be reconsidered by the Board later.

6.4. Approve Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented the current Strategic Plan with proposed additions and deletions in red type. Some of these changes were reviewed in April, others are new following discussion in April. Stephen explained each of the proposed changes and reviewed earlier discussions.

There was brief discussion of alignment between the goals in the Strategic Plan and the job goals of OPLIN staff. There was also some discussion as to whether some goals might be accomplished by hiring contractors.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the Strategic Plan as presented, with the substitution of the word "offer" for the word "provide" in the general description of the Technology Support Priority; Chris May seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss Director position description

Stephen Hedges provided copies of his position description (PD), with a couple of minor suggested changes. He remarked that the PD had not been revised since he started as Director ten years ago, but he felt it was still a pretty accurate job description.

Cindy Lombardo asked if the percentages of time expected to be spent on each category of job duties was realistic, and after some reflection Stephen replied that they were probably not accurate. Stephanie Herriott remarked that it was important that the percentages be accurate, to give candidates a good idea of the extent of some duties. More detailed information can be included in the job posting.

Susan Brown noted that there is no mention of the time spent assisting the Board with recruitment of new members. Cindy and Stephanie noted that it is important to provide the candidate with a good idea of the challenges of the job, though Stephanie noted the PD was not the best vehicle for that; interview questions might be better.

Stephen will calculate more accurate percentages of his time spent in various duties and will add assisting Board members with recruitment.

Susan pointed out that the PD does not explicitly say that travel is required. Cindy suggested that five years' experience would be a more appropriate requirement than three years, and there was general agreement. Susan and Jamie Mason suggested that the candidate should have an advanced degree and the experience, rather than "and/or," also to general agreement. Susan also cautioned that the degree should be from a "regionally accredited" institution.

Stephanie asked the Board if they planned to require a drug test or background check; if so, that should be stated in the job posting. Jamie speculated that the Board might want to require a credit check also, but Jamie Pardee pointed out that all monies are handled by the State Library. In response to a question, Stephanie advised the Board to eventually adopt a drug-free workplace policy, using a forthcoming state policy as a guide; Doug Evans noted that OLC will also be providing a guide to public libraries.

Stephanie also mentioned that the Board should decide if the new Director would be covered by the Teleworking Policy.

7.2. Appoint Director search committee

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of some things regarding the Executive Director search committee that had been discussed at the April meeting. It had tentatively been decided that the search committee be limited to five people. There was some questions as to whether people other than current Board members could serve on the committee, and best practice seems to be that is OK so long as they are qualified and do not have an agenda. There was some concern about representation of library types on the committee, but Stephen pointed out that the committee will not be working on policies that affect the libraries, only acting on behalf of the Board to find a new executive. Stephen listed the people he knew of who had already expressed interest in being on the committee. Jill Billman-Royer pointed out that the duties of the search committee also need to be clearly defined.

Cindy Lombardo asked how committee members from outside the Board would be recruited and what the minimum qualifications would be. Travis McAfee asked if there was a compelling reason to include people from outside the Board. Jill noted that, while the search committee would do the interviews, the hiring decision would be made by the entire Board, so there is little reason not to include them. Joe Greenward suggested that the committee be limited to current and former Board members, so that everyone on the committee was familiar with OPLIN governance and administration. Jill wondered if the search committee could include some extra, non-voting people in the interview process.

If former Board members are invited to the committee, Jill suggested that the Board Executive Committee select the search committee members from the people who express an interest. Cindy suggested that people be asked to briefly state why they are interested in being on the committee, and Becky Schultz added that they should be made aware that they would be expected to attend all Board meetings until the committee's work is finished.

Jamie Mason asked if one of the four Board members who had expressed an interest should be appointed now as the chair of the committee, but that decision was deferred until the committee was established. Beverly Cain and Doug Evans pointed out that they believed the State Librarian was a member of the search committee the last time an OPLIN Executive Director was hired; Beverly confirmed that she would be interested in serving on the committee. Jamie suggested that with four interested Board members plus the State Librarian, there may be no need to recruit more people.

The Chair appointed Beverly Cain, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz to the ad-hoc Executive Director Search Committee.

7.3. Approve salary increases

Stephen Hedges explained that this is a repeat of Board action last year, when the state allowed 2.5% pay increases for state employees in fiscal years 2016 and 2017. The Board action last year only covered fiscal year 2016.

Jamie Mason motioned that, in that the biennium budget (HB 64) awards State of Ohio E-1 employees a 2.5% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2016 and allows increases up to 2.5% for other exempt state employees, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees, in accordance with the duties assigned by Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66, approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.5% salary increase for each employee beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2016; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the DPLA Ohio LSTA-funded project that is coming to a close and beginning the transition to the "Ohio Digital Network" governance under the leadership of the State Library. Stephen now thinks OPLIN may have an active role in coordinating communications with public libraries. Stephen reported that Chuck Gibson's speech at the Community Breakfast for Worthington Libraries mentioned OPLIN several times, since the Northwest Branch that opened twenty years ago had the first OPLIN internet connection. He also reported on the Ohio History Day awards ceremony, at which he presented the Advanced Digital Researcher Awards. Finally, Stephen announced that the State Library Board had approved the LSTA grant to Libraries Connect Ohio to support the Ohio Web Library databases.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted his visit to Dayton for their Northwest Branch opening, Laura Solomon's presentation at the Massachusetts Library Association conference, and Karl Jendretzky's network support visits to the Preble County and Dayton libraries.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that the OPLIN website now includes a marketplace for additional modules for website kits, and that she recently added a module for creating website forms in response to demand from website customers. Because some modules are complex to manage, she has begun creating short instructional videos for them.

8.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky informed the Board that OPLIN is about to release another E-rate Form 470 to get bids on upgrading connections to fifteen libraries, seven of them to be upgraded to circuits faster than 100 Mbps. Karl reported there are 131 libraries using OpenDNS, with a number of CLEVNET libraries joining, and about 100 libraries using the SMS messaging system, with CLEVNET accounting for about 16% of that traffic. Karl has been working with Columbus Metropolitan Library to set up a second circuit at the main library using City of Columbus fiber. Karl described an upgrade to software and hardware at the network core, during which it was discovered that additional hardware will need to be upgraded, contrary to what the vendor had said; consequently the vendor is offering the needed hardware at a deep discount. Finally, Karl reported on the progress of upgrading servers and installing HTTPS on website kit servers.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database searches in May were about 10% above May 2015, and items viewed was about 10% below last May. He also noted that with one exception, items viewed over the past twelve months had not varied by more than 10% when compared with the same month in the previous year.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Ethics training

Board members were reminded that they should send their certificates of completion of required ethics training to Stephen Hedges for recording.

9.2. Resolution

Chair Becky Schultz recognized Joe Greenward to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, JAMIE MASON has been a member of the Board of the Ohio Public Library Information Network since November 2009, and WHEREAS, he has helped ensure the success of OPLIN by freely giving his time and energy for almost SEVEN years of service, and WHEREAS, he has provided additional service as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2012 through June 2013, and WHEREAS, he has unfailingly contributed his valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS, he has been a dedicated and active advocate for OPLIN throughout his tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS, his experience as the Technology Manager at the Avon Lake Public Library, and as Deputy Director and Director of the Rocky River Public Library gave him an important perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 10th day of June, Two Thousand and Sixteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize and acknowledge the considerable contributions made to public libraries and library service by JAMIE MASON during his exemplary tenure with this Board, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to JAMIE MASON for his outstanding service as a member of this Board.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the resolution. All aye.

The Board recessed at 12:26 p.m. and resumed discussions at 12:31 p.m.

10. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Susan Brown motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

The Board entered Executive Session at 12:32 p.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 12:37 p.m.

Susan Brown motioned to adjust the salary of Stephen Hedges to reflect the same 2.5% increase resolved earlier in the meeting for OPLIN staff; Jamie Mason seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

The Board expressed their appreciation to Stephen for his good work over the past year.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Karen Davis and second of Cindy Lombardo the Board adjourned at 12:40 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Annual Planning Meeting

Minutes — April 8, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:05 a.m. on Friday, April 8, 2016 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Bill Morris, Stephanie Herriott, and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Stephen Hedges noted that the Executive Session at the end of the meeting for the purpose of discussing the procedure for searching for a new OPLIN Director could be moved to the open meeting if the Board so desired. After brief discussion the consensus of the Board was to move this agenda item to the open meeting; Karen and Jill agreed to change their motion to approve the agenda as amended.

The Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans provided an update on Public Library Fund (PLF) revenue, which is meeting projections. The Ohio Library Council (OLC) is busy hosting Chapter Conferences around the state and also preparing for OLC Legislative Day on April 13. This year the Legislative Day will feature a press conference announcing the results of a return-on-investment study of Ohio public libraries. The new OLC Communications Director is using social media to keep people informed about these OLC events.

In response to a question, Doug reported that the new OLC website has been favorably received by the libraries.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 12 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes of the February 12 meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of March 31. Expenditures look normal after three quarters of the fiscal year. Ohio Office of Information Technology (OIT) charges for the entire year are less than budgeted and have already been paid. About 37% of the budget remains for the last quarter of the year.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Travis McAfee seconded.

Stephen Hedges asked if the fees payment to the Ethics Commission indicated that all the Board members had already submitted their annual financial statements; Jamie replied that those fees are invoiced regardless of the submission of financial statements and any late penalties would be invoiced later. Stephen also reported that the $6,000 "Consultant" budget item refers to the grant match for the DPLA Ohio project, and that it might be carried over into next fiscal year.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. REPORTS ON STATUS OF OPLIN SERVICES

6.1. Network

Stephen Hedges introduced a document provided by Karl Jendretzky by clarifying that it had been prompted by the need to make decisions about the OPLIN network topology for E-rate purposes. The document explored several ways to configure the network since the current Internet access arrangement through OIT did not seem to be possible in the future. After Karl had prepared the document, however, Stephen had a meeting with OIT and it now appears that OIT may offer a multi-year contract for the current Internet access arrangement after all. Since it is not certain that a contract will be offered, that possibility has not been included in the document, but should be included in Board discussion.

Karl explained the five options in the "Network Possibilities" document: 1) Internet access outside OIT, with our bandwidth going directly to an Internet provider instead of passing through an OIT router first; 2) full state of Ohio OneNet migration, with all circuits routed through OARnet and the current OPLIN core hardware gone; 3) keeping the OPLIN network core, but phasing out OIT, so OPLIN would take over or contract for all network management services currently purchased from OIT; 4) purchasing Internet service at each library site directly from the vendor servicing that site, thus breaking up the OPLIN core; and 5) dissolving the OPLIN network entirely, letting libraries make their own arrangements for Internet connections. An online document provided to the Board before the meeting listed the "pros" and "cons" of each possibility, and Karl also summarized these verbally.

Stephen provided some financial background on the possibilities. Splitting the current Internet access arrangement so that network supervision stayed with OIT but bandwidth moved to another vendor would eliminate most of the E-rate discount OPLIN currently receives for Internet access. There were a few questions about this, so Stephen explained the details of the current OPLIN E-rate discounts.

Susan Brown recalled that the Board had decided to try OneNet at two libraries several months ago; Karl reported that OARnet never acted on that request.

Michael Penrod pointed out that the Internet traffic from public libraries is very different from other state government traffic, and he saw value in keeping the public library Internet traffic separate and independent.

Karl noted that problems with the network management seem to be aggravated when there are too many people and layers of bureaucracy involved; some of the network possibilities he had described could be worse than the current situation.

Travis McAfee expressed a concern that some of the network possibilities would remove the current security protections on the OPLIN network. Travis felt it was important to keep the network configured in such a way that the network core and the network security precautions could be retained. Cost considerations would come after that.

Susan noted that major changes to the network may not be a good idea right now, with Stephen planning to retire in a little more than a year, and Karl confirmed that most of the possible changes would take years to complete. Stephen suggested, however, that it should not matter who the OPLIN Director is; that person is charged with doing whatever the Board decides should be done.

Several Board members noted that the current network topology may not be ideal, but it also is not broken. Stephen summarized that his understanding is that the Board wants to keep the network core, keep the network secure, make sure OPLIN can respond quickly to network problems, and keep the network independent. Michael Penrod noted that the collaborative nature of OPLIN is also important. Other Board members expressed concerns with any plan that would break up the OPLIN network core.

Since discussion of network topology was abating, Stephen now asked Karl to describe the current situation with libraries wishing to implement Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone service over the OPLIN network using the state contract with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions (CBTS).

Karl reported that OIT has ordered 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps hardware to add to the OPLIN core to be able to support CBTS VoIP on the OPLIN network. Columbus Metropolitan Library has been waiting for this VoIP service for some time, so their traffic has been diverted to a separate port until the new core hardware can be installed. Stephen noted that this new hardware cost OIT several hundred thousand dollars, and the hardware will upgrade the OPLIN core to be able to handle much more traffic in the future. Susan Brown remarked that it was good to see this kind of effort from OIT.

Karen Davis asked if network neutrality was an issue in any of the network possibilities the Board had been discussing, particularly those that depended heavily on commercial Internet service providers. Karl replied that net neutrality is generally only an issue with consumer-grade connections, not the enterprise-grade connections libraries use. So long as OPLIN keeps its network core, it should be easy enough to switch service if net neutrality becomes an issue.

Stephen reiterated that it is the Board's desire to keep the network responsive and independent, and that it is very important to keep the OPLIN core. If the core is maintained, it becomes easier to address security and any other issues that arise.

6.2. Databases

Stephen Hedges reported on the February meeting of the Content Advisory Committee (CAC). The primary point of discussion was the method for selecting the databases, since some of the Ohio Web Library databases are of little interest to public libraries. From the CAC's discussions, it became clear that there is a need for better communication about the collaborative nature of the selections.

The CAC wondered if the RFP for the databases could be altered to place emphasis on databases of interest to public libraries, perhaps even asking for quotes for public libraries only. To find out what public libraries want, the CAC proposed a survey of libraries asking a few questions about their database purchases: What online resources are you currently purchasing?; What is your budget for such purchases?; What types of requests for information are you unable to satisfy?; What online resources (up to 10) do you consider indispensable?; and What online resources do you have now, including those in the Ohio Web Library, that you feel are not useful?

Stephen asked the Board if anyone had any objections to issuing this survey. There was none.

Michael Penrod noted that some consortia, such as SEO, also buy databases for their members. Stephen will therefore contact the consortia directly for information about their purchases.

Stephen had shared database usage statistics with the CAC, and now shared them with the Board. Over the last ten months, usage has stabilized, with article views in particular being almost identical with the same month in the previous year. In fact, averaged over the last ten months, searches are up 2% and article views up 1½%. Stephen also shared a report he found yesterday from Ithaka S+R indicating that college faculty nationwide are also starting to use library online resources a little more often when starting their research.

6.3. Website kits

Laura Solomon reported that there are currently 72 website kits in use, a number which has remained fairly steady over the past year, after the Board's decision to stop promoting them. That has allowed Laura do some some work on the websites that she had not had time to do before. All of the upgrades to Drupal version 7 have been completed, and Laura has also been implementing several new features, which she described for the Board. One of the most important has been drop-down menus that work with screen readers for the visually impaired. At the request of some website kit customers, she is now working on style guidelines for library staff maintaining site content, and has also been providing some refresher training for long-time website kit customers.

Stephen Hedges noted that Laura and Karl Jendretzky have also been implementing the HTTPS protocol for secure website communications in all the kits. A couple of customers had requested this encryption and Stephen decided it was important to use this protocol on all the website kits.

Stephen asked the Board if the website kits should be promoted to libraries again. He reminded the Board that the original intent of offering the website kits was to improve the quality of Ohio public library websites. The Board felt that there was still a need for the website kits; Travis McAfee suggested that the decision of whether or not to promote the service depended on staff time resources, and thus would be a management decision.

Doug Evans asked if promotion of the kits could be targeted to libraries that have either no website or a poor website lacking essential information. He noted that OLC encounters several such libraries in the course of their work. Several Board members remarked on the growing movement toward requiring that information about public institutions be available online. Managing a full website kit, however, may be beyond the staff resources of some libraries; Jill Billman-Royer suggested that a simpler webpage may be what they need.

Laura will do another survey of public library websites and report on her findings at the next Board meeting.

6.4. ExploreOhio

Stephen Hedges explained that the ExploreOhio website is the last of the link directories that comprised the original OPLIN website, this directory containing links about things in Ohio. Despite technology upgrades, it is still a link directory, and someone has to maintain the links manually. Usage statistics show that it is seldom used, mostly from library websites that include a link to it. Stephen questioned the wisdom of putting effort into maintaining the site, and suggested it be taken down. The Board agreed and had no objections to discontinuing the ExploreOhio website.

The Board recessed at 10:38 a.m. and resumed discussions at 10:54 a.m.

7. APPROVE CHANGES TO STRATEGIC PLAN

Stephen Hedges presented the current Strategic Plan with a few suggested changes. He noted that the Ohio Administrative Code, in the section governing the State Library, states that OPLIN will provide the State Library with a strategic plan following guidelines provided by the Department of Administrative Services (DAS). Stephen has seen no such guidelines and could find none online, but he did find a copy of the DAS strategic plan, and noted that the primary difference between it and the OPLIN strategic plan is the use of the term "Priorities" where the OPLIN plan uses the term "Goals." Accordingly, the biggest change in the presented plan is that change in terminology, with some measurable goals added to the end of each Strategies section. Stephen described these added goals.

Susan Brown noted that the goal to "support at least one digitization project in each budget biennium" depended on the existence of digitization projects to support. After brief discussion, it was decided to support digitization projects "regularly" instead.

Stephen noted that OPLIN staff had discussed the database marketing strategies that called for OPLIN to provide database training and database promotional materials. There is a feeling that this should be the responsibility of the database vendors. Michael Penrod noted that the promotional materials OPLIN currently provides are more useful than the materials available from vendors, and they promote the entire Ohio Web Library collection rather than specific databases.

In regards to training, Stephen stated that OPLIN seldom does training on database usage. Susan responded that OPLIN does provide opportunities for librarians to learn about the databases, even if it is only by linking to training done by others. Joe Greenward suggested removing some language and Becky Schultz suggested combining the training and promotion Strategies.

Michael asked if OPLIN had ever had to apportion Internet access, one of the Strategies for the Internet Access Priority; Stephen replied that this had never been necessary. Since a limitation on bandwidth based on financial ability is mentioned elsewhere in the plan, the Board felt this could be removed.

Stephen noted that OPLIN has not been presenting programs about Internet connections at conferences, as specified in another Strategy. Karen Davis suggested adding "as needed" to the language of that Strategy.

Susan remarked that current wording of the E-rate Strategy seemed to commit OPLIN to always file E-rate applications, though in some cases it may be best for the libraries if OPLIN did not E-rate some services. She suggested that the language of this Strategy be revised to make it clear that E-rate would be used when it was to the advantage of the OPLIN network.

Stephen will bring a revised version of the Strategic Plan incorporating these suggestions to the June Board meeting.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Approve policy manual

Stephen Hedges stated that during the February Board meeting, the Board had suggested that he prepare a complete policy "manual" for Board review at the April meeting or as soon as possible thereafter, paying special attention to removing procedures from policies. To that end, Stephen provided a packet of all current OPLIN policies divided into four groups: policies that he recommends for rescindment; policies that he recommends be combined into new policies; policies that he feels need revision (further subdivided by the extent of the revisions); and policies that he feels need no changes.

Stephen explained that the Bylaws require a special procedure to change, and probably need no change anyway, so he suggested that document be excluded from the current discussion. He also pointed out that the "Legal Perspective" on Internet materials harmful to juveniles was a document prepared by OLC's legal counsel in 1997, not an OPLIN policy, and suggested it be linked from the OPLIN website for information purposes, not as an OPLIN policy. All of the remaining "policies" were open for discussion.

The Board began by considering four policies recommended for rescindment.

Stephen noted that the "Policy on Acceptable Public Library Staff & Trustee Use of OPLIN" actually seems to be an old strategic plan, with a final section about email accounts that is no longer relevant. The "OPLIN E-List Guidelines" is listserv user information that should be posted on the listserv website instead of being contained in a policy. Both the "OPLIN Guidelines for Libraries Offering Patron Access to the Internet" and the "OPLIN Sample Policy: Patron Access to the Internet" are outdated; any requirements in them have been superseded by the Ohio Revised Code, and the recommendations, intended for libraries offering public Internet access for the first time, are no longer needed.

Michael Penrod motioned to rescind the "Policy on Acceptable Public Library Staff & Trustee Use of OPLIN," the "OPLIN E-List Guidelines," the "OPLIN Guidelines for Libraries Offering Patron Access to the Internet" and the "OPLIN Sample Policy: Patron Access to the Internet"; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Next the Board considered two policies recommended for limited revisions.

Stephen thought that the "Policy in Regard to Library E-list Hosting Service" should have the last paragraph removed, since it referred to outdated technology and services that libraries could acquire elsewhere for negligible cost, but otherwise he felt that the policy should be unchanged, since several library groups still use the OPLIN listserv hardware and software.

Susan Brown questioned the wisdom of the language that specified that OPLIN "will train" list moderators. Michael Penrod asked if the current list moderators ever contact OPLIN, and Stephen replied they do not.

Joe Greenward pointed out that having such a policy could require OPLIN to provide listserv services for any library groups that requested them in the future, and such services are now available elsewhere for negligible cost.

Jamie Mason motioned to rescind the "Policy in Regard to Library E-list Hosting Service"; Susan Brown seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Stephen presented the "Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN" with the numbered item about public email accounts struck out, since it is no longer relevant.

Michael wondered if the Ohio Revised Code language duplicated this policy, but Stephen explained that the Code is not as specific as this policy.

The Board discussed some of the wording of the policy and suggested changing "worldwide Internet" to "Internet" and "obscene and illegal materials" to "obscene and/or illegal materials," as well as deleting the item about public email accounts.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept all of the suggested changes to the "Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN"; Travis McAfee seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:48 a.m. and resumed discussions at 12:37 p.m.

Next the Board considered several policies recommended for consolidation into new policies.

Stephen felt that some parts of the "Statements Regarding OPLIN Participation & the Requirements of CIPA" are fairly important policy statements about local control of Internet access policies, but the rest of the policy is really procedure, and too specific. He proposed moving the local control policy statement into a new "Network Administration" policy along with another general statement about requesting information from libraries each year for E-rate purposes only.

Stephen also felt that the "OPLIN Community Good Neighbor Policy" is actually a list of procedures, not a policy. He proposed using some language from the end of the document to make a policy statement saying OPLIN proactively take steps to neutralize malicious activity on the network, and move that statement into the proposed "Network Administration" policy.

Stephen then argued that the "OPLIN Security Procedures" is also a list of procedures, not a policy, and he proposed that it be condensed into a policy statement within the proposed "Network Administration" policy.

Finally, Stephen presented the proposed new "Network Administration" policy built from components of these three old policies. He recommended that the old policies by rescinded and that the new "Network Administration" policy be adopted.

Michael Penrod motioned to rescind the "Statements Regarding OPLIN Participation & the Requirements of CIPA," the "OPLIN Community Good Neighbor Policy" and the "OPLIN Security Procedures," and that the new "Network Administration" policy be adopted; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Stephen turned next to two policies about the OPLIN website. The "OPLIN Web Site Privacy Policy" was written when the OPLIN website hosted links to information databases and was regularly visited by the general public. Most of the "OPLIN Disclaimer" was also useful when the OPLIN website was the public gateway to the information databases, but is no longer really relevant, with the exception of the last paragraph. Stephen proposed incorporating some of this material into the Privacy Policy and renaming it as "Website Policy," which he presented for Board approval.

Stephen clarified that this policy would be linked from the bottom of the OPLIN website home page, as well as from the Policies webpage, in conformance with current best practices for websites.

Susan Brown motioned to rescind the "OPLIN Web Site Privacy Policy" and the "OPLIN Disclaimer," and that the new "Website Policy" be adopted; Chris May seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Next the Board considered the "Policy on OPLIN Sponsorship of Events Planned by Others," which Stephen had recommended for major revision. Stephen noted that this is a useful policy, but too detailed and with specific information that is outdated. He provided a proposed shorter version.

Michael Penrod motioned to approved the proposed revision of the policy on "OPLIN Sponsorship of Events Planned by Others"; Susan Brown seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Next the Board reviewed two policies governing OPLIN office operations that were recently approved by the Board. Stephen explained that the policy on "Office Use of Internet, Email and Other IT Resources" was adopted in June 2015 to comply with a DAS directive, and the "Teleworking Policy" was extensively revised in February 2015. No changes were suggested for either policy.

Next the Board considered the current "Records Policy," which Stephen considered inadequate. It is simply a statement placed on the OPLIN website by Stephen when he became involved in working with the State Library on a records retention schedule, and now he feels this statement is inadequate. He proposed that it be replaced with a Board-approved policy stating how OPLIN will comply with state open records laws, and he provided a draft of such a statement.

Karen Davis motioned to approved the proposed "Records Policy"; Michael Penrod seconded.

Jill Billman-Royer suggested that the policy also name the OPLIN Director as the OPLIN records management officer. Karen and Michael revised their motion to include this statement.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Next the Board considered four policies not recommended for any changes.

Stephen argued that no changes were needed to the "Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries," the "Policy on Internet Connections to Library Systems That Have Merged," the "Policy on Extending OPLIN Connections Beyond the Library" and the policy on "Public Libraries that Withdraw from OPLIN Network Services." He felt that all four were up to date and relevant. The Board agreed with this assessment.

Next the Board considered the "Procedures for local library compliance with OPLIN policy to control access to obscene or illegal materials as defined in the Ohio Revised Code." Stephen felt that this is a list of outdated procedures without any real policy statement. OPLIN does need a policy about this, however, since the Ohio Revised Code says the OPLIN Board "shall adopt a policy that requires each participant to establish and enforce procedures designed to keep juveniles who use the participant's services from having access to materials or performances that may be obscene or harmful to juveniles and to keep persons who are not juveniles and who use the participant's services from having access to materials or performances that may be obscene." Stephen proposed that the procedural details be summarized and added to a policy statement using the Revised Code wording. He provided a proposed revision

Michael Penrod motioned to approved the proposed revision of the policy on "Controlling access to obscene or harmful materials"; Chris May seconded.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Finally, the Board reviewed the policy on "Information Technology Security Management," which was written to conform to State of Ohio security policies, and is very thorough. It directs internal OPLIN IT security and does not specifically address the security of the network connections to public libraries, which would be covered by the new "Network Administration" policy. The Board did not recommend any changes.

9. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges remarked that most of the OPLIN activities since the last Board meeting had been or will be discussed in other agenda items, but he did provide an update on the DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) Ohio project, which is nearing the end of the one-year grant period. The DPLA Service Hub that results from the project probably will be called the "Buckeye State Network." The current timeline calls for submitting the Ohio application to DPLA on June 30. Several members of the Steering Committee will be attending DPLAfest in late April to talk with representatives from other Service Hubs. Stephen also described the current discussion regarding public library representation on the governing committees.

Regarding the OPLIN office activities calendar, Stephen highlighted website kit refresher training done by Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky's visits to a number of libraries to investigate network issues. Stephen also reported that he had done a presentation on DPLA at the OLC Northeast Chapter Conference, and had attended a conference on the Future of Libraries in the Digital Age hosted at Ohio State University. Finally, he reported that the E-rate Form 471 workshop had been successfully hosted at the OPLIN office, since space was not available at the State Library.

10.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported on her attendance at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington DC. She is currently reviewing Drupal security for all of the website kits, and is also making some revisions based on usability recommendations from the Nielsen Norman Group.

10.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky noted that he has recently been getting more involved in trouble-shooting networks in smaller libraries and changing their router configurations to be able to remotely control some aspects of their networks. He also reported that the SMS messaging service has been growing by about 3% every month. Karl has been spending time moving servers to new virtual servers and simplifying the processes for recovering from failures. He reported that five CLEVNET libraries have been added to the OpenDNS service, and he expects more now that we have the new licensing. Finally, Karl reported that a failing 10 Gbps card has been removed from the OPLIN core router. In response to a comment from Stephen Hedges, Karl described the office VoIP system and reported that it has been performing well.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

11.1. Report from Nominations Committee

Becky Schultz asked Jamie Mason to present the report from the ad hoc Nominations Committee.

Jamie reported that the Nominations Committee had met by phone and considered eight strong candidates for the one OPLIN Board seat opening at the end of June. In considering the Board demographics, the committee looked ahead to next year when the Board would be losing both of the current representatives from small libraries. It is the recommendation of the committee that the OPLIN Board request that the State Library Board appoint Jeff Garringer from the Pickaway County District Public Library to the OPLIN Board, and that the request also include re-appointment of Cindy Lombardo, Joe Greenward and Michael Penrod to the Board.

Jill Billman-Royer asked if Jeff Garringer had been a candidate for the Board before, and Stephen Hedges replied that he had.

Jamie pointed out that in two years the Board will lose both public library trustees. Stephen pointed out that next year, the Board would lose not only the small library representatives, but also the only representatives from southeast Ohio.

The Chair called for a vote on adoption of the Nominations Committee recommendation; all aye.

Stephen will present the Board's request at the May 19 meeting of the State Library Board.

11.2. Director's evaluation process

Becky Schultz called attention to the Director's evaluation spreadsheet that had been distributed to the Board. Stephen Hedges remarked that he had reviewed the spreadsheet and felt that it is still a good evaluation tool, covering the job duties of the OPLIN Director.

Becky asked Susan Brown to collect the completed spreadsheets from the Board and collate them for the next Board meeting.

11.3. Ethics training reminder

Becky Schultz reminded the Board that everyone is required to complete the online training available from the Ohio Ethics Commission. Stephen Hedges asked that Board members send him a copy of their training completion certificates so he can record that training has been completed.

11.4. Director search process

Becky Schultz initiated a discussion of the process for searching for a new OPLIN Director to replace Stephen Hedges when he retires next year. Stephen distributed information about the search process that was used when he was hired in April 2006. He noted that the search committee was formed in May 2005, but the search process did not really start until September, following some meetings about the future direction of OPLIN. Stephen reported that Stephanie Herriott had already begun to lay the foundation for hiring a new Director.

Stephen suggested that October may be a good date for advertising the position and asked for Stephanie's opinion. Stephanie pointed out that there was no limitation on how long the position could stay posted, and reminded the Board that the Governor's office would also need time to formally approve the appointment of a new Director, so she felt the sooner the process is started the better. Stephen also asked Stephanie about the candidate interviews, which were done by the entire Board last time, and Stephanie replied that the better practice is to have the search committee handle all aspects of the search, including the interviews, with regular feedback from the entire Board. Stephanie also noted there did not appear to be any EEO component in the last search process.

Stephen remarked that the search committee included five Board members last time, and Stephanie felt this number was "more than enough." Jill Billman-Royer noted that the OPLIN Board represents the demographics of the Ohio public library community pretty well, and would have oversight over the process, so a large committee should not be needed.

Jill wondered if the search committee had to be limited to Board members, and ensuing discussion brought consensus that there was value to having non-Board members on the committee. Jill suggested that a first step would be to determine who was interested in serving on the committee and if anyone from outside the Board would be asked to serve.

Joe Greenward and Michael Penrod volunteered to serve on the search committee. In response to a question from Jill, Stephanie replied that the search committee did not need to be filled today, that there was time for people to think about it and appoint the committee at the next Board meeting. Stephen asked that Board members share their thoughts with him about committee membership.

Susan Brown and Stephanie had some questions about the timing and content of the Director's evaluation. Stephanie noted that all state employees now must be evaluated on their "Customer Focus" competency. Stephen will revise the spreadsheet and send it to Board members.

Michael Penrod asked Stephen if his job description had been revised since he was hired; Stephen replied that it had not. Michael asked that Stephen review it and bring suggested changes to the next meeting.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Karen Davis and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 12, 2016

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 12, 2016 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Bill Morris, Stephanie Herriott, and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans provided an update on Public Library Fund (PLF) revenue and libraries with levies on the March ballot. He noted that Ohio Library Council (OLC) Chapter Conferences begin in March, and that OLC Legislative Day will be held on April 13 and will include a press conference this year. Finally, he announced that the new OLC website is now expected to launch next week.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 11 meeting

Jamie Mason motioned to approve the minutes of the December 11, 2015 meeting as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of January 31 and noted that both revenue and expenditures are very close to what they should be seven months into the fiscal year. She did call attention to the low expenditure for telecommunications services from the Office of Information Technology (OIT), noting that OIT is switching to annual billing and the bill was received after January 31. Stephen pointed out that the amount of the bill, which was based on last year's total expenditure, was less than budgeted.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve Extending OPLIN policy

Stephen Hedges distributed a copy of the current "Policy on Extending OPLIN to Other Institutions," a copy of the current policy with extensive changes marked to convert it to a "Policy on Extending OPLIN Connections Beyond the Library," and a clean copy of the proposed revised policy. He reminded the Board of discussions related to this policy at the October and December meetings, and of the Board request that he bring a recommended policy to them at this meeting.

Stephen explained that his review of the previous discussions clarified that there were two issues that needed to be addressed by this policy: the sharing of OPLIN connections with other institutions; and the sharing of OPLIN connections with the general public outside the library premises. The Board had not seemed to support any change in the current policy regarding sharing OPLIN connections with other institutions. On the other hand, the Board discussions seemed to favor sharing OPLIN connections with the general public outside the library. Stephen also noted that the wording of the Ohio Revised Code language regarding OPLIN seemed to support these positions, so he tried to incorporate them into the proposed policy revision.

The policy proposal was reviewed by other OPLIN staff, with particular discussion about the best ways to enforce the prohibition against sharing an OPLIN connection with other institutions. The results of the staff discussions are included in the proposal.

Jamie Mason motioned to accept the revised policy as presented; Michael Penrod seconded.

After discussion, Jill Billman-Royer motioned to amend the policy by replacing "should remember two things" with "shall accept two conditions"; Susan Brown seconded.

The Chair called for a vote on the amendment; all aye.

There was no further discussion of the amended policy, so the Chair called for a vote on the original motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

6.2. Report on OpenDNS licensing

Stephen Hedges noted that at the last meeting there had been discussion of acquiring licenses for public libraries to use a more sophisticated product from OpenDNS for Internet filtering, but no quote had been received from OpenDNS at that time, so this item was held over for action at this meeting. After the December meeting, however, OpenDNS agreed to provide the better product to Ohio public libraries at no additional cost. Therefore no action by the Board is needed.

6.3. Report on OIT Network Services MOU

Stephen Hedges communicated to OIT the Board's December decision to decline the Memorandum of Understanding with OIT for billing Internet access costs, explaining to OIT the Board's concern that accepting the MOU at this time would leave OPLIN ineligible for E-rate reimbursements of OIT costs. It was Stephen's previous understanding that OIT would make a different proposal to the Board, but instead they have simply issued an invoice for all costs for fiscal year 2016. Since this does not involve any contractual agreement, the E-rate reimbursement is not endangered and no action by the Board is needed.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve sponsorship of OLC Convention and Expo

Stephen Hedges distributed a letter from Lori Hensley, Director of Education and Events for the Ohio Library Council, offering the opportunity for OPLIN to again be a Platinum Sponsor ($10,000) of the OLC Convention and Expo in September. The contribution would offset Internet access fees at the venue and allow OLC to provide several Internet computers and a device charging station for conference attendees. OPLIN would be acknowledged on conference materials and signage and would receive free space and electricity service in the exhibit hall, as well as meeting space for the annual OPLIN update.

Susan Brown motioned to provide $10,000 to OLC for Platinum level sponsorship of the OLC Convention and Expo; Michael Penrod seconded.

In discussion of the motion, there was a request for clarification concerning the name of the annual update session, formerly called the "Stakeholders Meeting," and the expected attendees. There was also a concern voiced that this expenditure might be viewed as a violation of state agency spending rules, since the motion does not specify how the funds would be used, but Stephen noted that the expenditure is really for one item — sponsorship of a convention — and is not a commitment to pay for other itemized costs.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

7.2. Discuss simplification of OPLIN policies

Stephen Hedges presented a document listing all of the current OPLIN policies, which are currently located in different areas of the OPLIN website and are difficult to find. With this one page listing, however, it becomes clear that some policies have not been reviewed for a long time and may either need to be changed or rescinded. For example, the "OPLIN Disclaimer" deals with the OPLIN website when it was the public gateway to the information databases, so it is now obsolete. Stephen discussed a few other similar examples.

Stephen asked the Board if: they agreed that a review of the entire body of OPLIN policies is needed, and if so; does the Board want to undertake this project in stages throughout the coming year, or; does the Board want to dedicate some time at the April planning meeting to reviewing all the policies.

Jamie Mason noted that some of these documents are not really policies and wondered if Board action was needed to remove them, but while Stephen agreed, he noted that they had been adopted by Board action, so he felt Board action was necessary to rescind them.

Michael Penrod suggested that Stephen prepare a complete policy "manual" for Board review at the April meeting or as soon as possible thereafter, paying special attention to removing procedures from policies. The Board was in general consensus with this suggestion.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on a number of activities related to the DPLA-Ohio (Digital Public Library of America in Ohio) project, which has been occupying much of his time recently. He has also been busy working with Lorrie Germann on E-rate materials, since the new online system this year is requiring much more time and effort to get things set up properly. Stephen informed the Board that he has completed the staff evaluations for 2015 and will now move on to creating evaluation materials for 2016, which will need careful attention, since there is a possibility that at some point in the future the state may start awarding pay increases based on employee performance. Finally, Stephen announced that the Content Advisory Committee would be meeting on February 17 to prepare recommendations and suggestions for the Board regarding online databases. In particular, he plans to discuss the current process of selecting the Ohio Web Library databases with the committee. In response to a question asking if it still makes sense to buy the databases in partnership, Stephen replied that the basic concepts of the original partnership are still valid, but the database selection has evolved over the years to the point where the Libraries Connect Ohio partners are concerned that the needs of the largest contributors are not being met.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that she has been upgrading the website kits to add new features that libraries have inquired about, and has been testing some other new features. One of these is a module that allows her to include drop-down menus on the websites and still keep them accessible to those who have vision impairments and use special software to convert websites to speech. Finally, she reported that she will be a presenter at the Massachusetts Library Association 2016 Conference in May.

8.2. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky provided more details on the improved OpenDNS licenses now available to libraries through OPLIN. He also reported that the last of the old T1 lines has now been replaced, which makes some old hardware available for other uses, and he described new servers going into production at the network core.

Karl reported that he had investigated TV whitespace hardware, to be able to advise libraries, and found that one company dominates that market and that the bandwidth capacity of the hardware is rather limited. Karl also reported that Cleveland Public Library has begun using the OPLIN SMS notification system, boosting usage to about 77,000 patron notifications a month.

Karl updated the Board on progress toward installing network cards that can handle up to 100 Gbps in the OPLIN core router to accommodate VoIP traffic from libraries. The Board expressed concern that Karl could be spending a lot of time on a project that only served a few libraries and advised caution in that regard.

Karl also reported that networked printers in libraries have been hacked recently if they are using a public IP address, so he has been advising libraries on re-addressing their printers. Finally, Karl reported that the OPLIN office has started using Slack for intraoffice communication.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that World Book statistics are still not available online, but World Book staff have been providing statistics spreadsheets to OPLIN, INFOhio, and OhioLINK. The database usage statistics in general have settled into a pattern that is almost identical to last year.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Board nominations committee

Becky Schultz noted that Jamie Mason will be leaving the Board after June, having served two full terms, and that Cindy Lombardo, Joe Greenward, and Michael Penrod are coming to the end of their first terms. She therefore appointed Jamie, Karen Davis, and Susan Brown to a committee to collect and review nominations for Board membership. Jamie asked that Stephen review last year's nominations as well.

9.2. Plans for April Planning Meeting

Becky Schultz asked Stephen Hedges to describe plans for the April 8 planning meeting. Stephen provided an overview of the meeting time, the agenda, and the lunch arrangements for the day.

9.3. Ethics form reminder

Becky Schultz reminded the Board that their annual Financial Disclosure Statements are due at the Ohio Ethics Commission by April 15.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Karen Davis and second of Travis McAfee the Board adjourned at 11:20 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 11, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:05 a.m. on Friday, December 11, 2015 by Board Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Jamie Mason, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain described several LSTA grants awarded at the State Library Board meeting on Tuesday. The State Library Board also has a member whose term is expiring, so they submitted names to the State Board of Education for possible appointment. Beverly shared information about the DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) in Ohio project symposium that was held at the State Library last week. Following discussions at the symposium, the State Library may take a leadership role in this project.

Doug Evans again thanked the Board for sponsorship of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention and Expo in Cincinnati in October. He expects that the OLC will request support in February for the upcoming convention in September 2016. Doug also expressed his appreciation for OPLIN co-sponsorship of the successful RightClick 2015 convention in November. Doug noted that the OLC was involved in one of the LSTA grants awarded by the State Library Board, which will train librarians in data analysis. Doug then provided an update on several initiatives pending in the state legislature that OLC is monitoring. The Public Library Fund (PLF) distributions to libraries have increased as a result of the successful effort to increase library funding in the new state budget, but some pending legislation could reduce the PLF. Finally, Doug announced that the new OLC website, part of their re-branding, should debut in January.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 9 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the October 9 meeting as presented; Jamie Mason seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye, with Jill Billman-Royer abstaining.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee discussed the financial reports provided to the Board. She noted that the Fiscal Year 2016 budgeted amount for the OPLIN payment toward the cost of the Ohio Web Library information resources had been adjusted. She noted that no bills had yet been received from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for telecommunications costs. In the Revenue/Cash Balance Report, she noted that E-rate reimbursements were being received a bit sooner than expected. Stephen Hedges explained that the adjustment in the payment for the Ohio Web Library resulted from circumstances surrounding the reduction in INFOhio's budget and the subsequent cancellation of the LearningExpress Library statewide subscription.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Discuss Extending OPLIN Internet to Other Institutions policy

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of the discussion of TV white space at the October Board meeting, where it had been decided to begin asking libraries to report such off-premises use of OPLIN circuits as part of the OPLIN E-rate process, and also to begin work on revising this policy. Stephen briefly explained the history of this policy, which was originally intended to keep libraries from sharing their OPLIN connection with schools and other local institutions. The current version has not been substantially revised in 15 years. The basic assumption is that OPLIN receives funds to provide services to public libraries, and thus OPLIN services should be limited to public libraries. If that assumption is still valid, there needs to be some way to control non-library use of OPLIN circuits.

Stephen presented three options for controlling non-library use of OPLIN circuits. One would be to simply forbid such use. Another would be the current policy, which ceases upgrades to a library's circuit if it is shared, though Stephen noted that the many overly-large circuits currently purchased to take advantage of financial incentives could make this a meaningless deterrent. The third option would be to charge the library for non-library use of circuits, which was discussed in 2012 and rejected due to the heavy burden of administering such a policy. Stephen noted that there is also a very basic question of how appropriate it is for OPLIN to dictate how a library may use their OPLIN circuit.

Ensuing discussion raised many questions. Does OPLIN need to change the policy? Would the legislature feel that public library funds were being misspent? Would some public libraries feel that non-library use of OPLIN circuits, funded by public library funds, was inappropriate? As long as the circuit is not shared with institutions, do some public libraries have the right to prevent other libraries from using the OPLIN circuit to serve their community as they see fit? There was consensus that OPLIN circuits should not be shared with local institutions, but general public use of OPLIN circuits should be handled differently. It was also understood that use of a library wi-fi connection that extends beyond the building walls to the parking lot or nearby buildings is ancillary use of the OPLIN circuit and not subject to this policy.

Should OPLIN ask libraries to provide a plan for how the library intends to use the OPLIN circuit outside of library property? Should OPLIN require that a library purchase a separate circuit for such non-library use? Since TV white space is the current technology that makes it feasible for a library to connect off-premises locations to the OPLIN circuit, should the policy specifically address TV white space, with the understanding that it will be revised as new technologies develop?

If TV white space is specifically addressed, should it be permitted or not? How much of a library's circuit is it likely to use? What if the library decided to provide TV white space Internet to an entire town? Is OPLIN responsible for providing technical support for such usage? Would the legislature feel that the library was competing with private businesses if it functioned as the Internet service provider for a community?

The Board asked Stephen to bring his recommended version of the policy to the February meeting for further discussion.

6.2. Discuss dissemination of CIPA requirements document

Stephen Hedges presented a document he had written about requirements for CIPA (Childrens Internet Protection Act) compliance. This resulted from an October Board meeting discussion about the need to better inform libraries about CIPA, since many of the recent E-rate Modernization changes put more emphasis on supporting services that require CIPA compliance for E-rate funding. He asked the Board for advice on how to disseminate this document, to get information to libraries without giving the impression that OPLIN advocates CIPA compliance.

The Board speculated that some libraries are not compliant with CIPA because they are uncomfortable with managing a filter, and Stephen noted that the document contains some information about using the free filter (OpenDNS) available from OPLIN. In response to a question, Stephen confirmed that OPLIN would receive more E-rate funds if more libraries were CIPA-compliant.

Stephen suggested that the document be posted on the OPLIN website and on the website the libraries use to report their CIPA status to OPLIN, but not disseminated through the email lists. Beverly Cain and Doug Evans also offered to link to the document from the State Library and the OLC websites. The Board felt that the availability of OpenDNS, however, should be well-publicized, and that many libraries would be interested in being CIPA-compliant if they had this information.

Stephen will place the document on the OPLIN website, provide a link to the document to the State Library and OLC for their websites, and will then start the process of informing libraries about the availability of free OpenDNS through OPLIN.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss OpenDNS licensing

Karl Jendretzky noted that the OPLIN OpenDNS filtering cannot be used by CLEVNET libraries, because of the configuration of the CLEVNET Domain Name System (DNS). OpenDNS, however, does have a more advanced product that would work for CLEVNET, and would also allow all libraries to have more control over how filtering is implemented on individual workstations. Licensing fees for this product would not be assessed at the site level, but at the workstation level. Karl does not know what those fees would be; OpenDNS has not provided that information yet.

Stephen Hedges explained that this item was included on the agenda in the hope that the costs would be known before this meeting, but since the cost is still unknown, he asked the Board for general thoughts about spending more for filtering and getting this better product. Travis McAfee and Michael Penrod reported that the cooperating libraries of Wood County do not use the current OpenDNS filtering because it does not have the advanced capabilities that would be available in the better OpenDNS product. The Board looked forward to having cost information at the February meeting and making a formal decision then.

7.2. Approve OIT Network Services MOU

Stephen Hedges provided copies of a Memorandum of Understanding that OIT has requested for setting the annual cost of their Internet services provided to OPLIN. This would change billing from monthly to a single annual bill for Fiscal Year 2016. Stephen had concerns about the effect of signing such an MOU on OPLIN's E-rate funding, since any contracts for Internet services should have been in place before OPLIN submitted the application last spring for E-rate discounts in Fiscal Year 2016. Lorrie Germann, state E-rate coordinator, confirmed that signing an MOU now that set pricing for Internet services would preclude OPLIN from receiving any E-rate discounts for OIT services this year; however, a document that simply changed the billing cycle would probably not cause a problem. OIT subsequently has edited the document to attempt to address this problem.

The Board discussed some other concerns with the MOU language and possible ways to make changes, but in general questioned the need for any MOU at all. In particular, the Board was uncomfortable with signing any document which could endanger E-rate discounts. It was also noted that OPLIN revenue is received monthly, so a large annual payment could be a problem.

Jamie Mason motioned to reject the proposed Memorandum of Understanding; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye, Susan Brown, aye, Karen Davis, aye, Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Further new business (Ohio History Day)

The Chair asked if there was any further new business to come before the Board. Stephen Hedges reported that he had been contacted about sponsoring awards for Ohio History Day, as OPLIN did last year, and asked if anyone had any objections to repeating last year's awards. There were no objections.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges seconded Doug Evans' remarks earlier in the meeting as to the success of the RightClick 2015 workshop. Feedback from participants was very positive. Jill Billman-Royer thanked Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky for the initial idea of hosting an ice breaker event before the formal workshop. The first of the annual E-rate workshops has been completed, and the online system for collecting E-rate forms required from libraries for OPLIN has been improved, with a new area for reporting the amount of bandwidth traversing the OPLIN network that originates off library premises.

Stephen reported on his appearance before the Sunset Review Committee, which is required every five years. The Committee asked questions about the activities of the Board.

Stephen also followed up on Beverly Cain's earlier comments about the DPLA symposium with further information about the progress of that project. Stephen distributed one of the possible organization models discussed at the symposium and noted that the public library area of the model needs further planning. OPLIN could assist with leadership and resources in this area, and Stephen asked how much the Board might be willing to do. Since many organization decisions will need to happen before the February Board meeting, he requested an idea of how much latitude he had for offering OPLIN resources to the project.

Since Beverly had indicated the State Library might take leadership of the currently planned three-year pilot project for a DPLA Ohio hub, Board members asked her some questions about what the State Library might need in the way of support. Stephen also refreshed the Board on the support OPLIN has provided so far. The Board expressed interest in generally assisting the State Library with its needs. Stephen suggested that as those needs are determined, he could consult with the Executive Committee about how much support could come from OPLIN, pending the next full Board meeting.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained some of the changes to the system for collecting E-rate forms from libraries, and also reported he had rebuilt the server handling SMS texting for libraries. Karl also reported developments with OIT and AT&T that could result in positive changes to the configuration of the OPLIN core. Karl reported that he has had good results dealing with Time Warner Cable directly for troubleshooting circuits, instead of working through the OIT Call center. Karl provided information about network attacks that the OPLIN DDoS hardware had successfully blocked. Finally, Karl reported on some changes to the OPLIN office infrastructure following a recent power outage.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that the website kit work has slowed down as the holidays approach, so she has been working on preparing some new features for the kits. Laura also reported on a successful, standing-room-only presentation about online tools at the Indiana Library Federation convention.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage statistics have been holding steady compared to last year, but he did note that World Book usage statistics are not included, since those statistics have not been available to OPLIN since September. World Book reports that the failure has been caused by work they are doing to upgrade their systems.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

The Chair had no report.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Michael Penrod and second of Karen Davis the Board adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 9, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 9, 2015 by Board Vice-Chair Susan Brown at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Chris May, and Travis McAfee.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Joe Greenward seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans reported on the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention & Expo and thanked the Board for their financial support of the convention. Doug noted that OPLIN sponsorship of the convention Internet was appreciated by attendees; the available bandwidth had to be doubled twice during the course of the convention. Doug also reported that the upcoming RightClick 2015 event co-sponsored by OLC and OPLIN on November 5-6 is coming together nicely.

Doug Evans left the meeting at 10:05.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 14 meeting

Travis McAfee motioned to approve the minutes of the August 14 meeting as presented; Chris May seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

In the absence of Jamie Pardee, Stephen Hedges presented information about the Budget/Expenditures as of September 30, the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2016. For most accounts, about a fourth of the alloted budget has either been disbursed or encumbered, although the quarterly invoices for the database subscriptions and for Internet access through the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have not yet been received. In the Revenue/Cash Balance report, Stephen pointed out the revenue received from website kits maintenance renewals in July.

Jamie Mason motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Karen Davis seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the Board.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss hot spot lending, TV white space and E-rate

Stephen Hedges shared some email correspondence about two current trends in libraries that could involve OPLIN: using TV white space, and lending of wireless hot spots.

Stephen explained TV white space, the wireless frequencies that are now available following the abandonment of analog TV broadcasts and can be used by libraries to establish short-range wireless connections to the library building. Library usage of TV white space is currently being promoted by the Gigabit Libraries Network. There are E-rate implications, however, since any Internet traffic that does not originate from library property must be cost allocated out of E-rate reimbursements. Thus far, when libraries have asked if OPLIN would allow TV white space traffic to traverse the OPLIN network, the OPLIN response has been to remind the library of the OPLIN "Policy on Extending OPLIN to Other Institutions," which pre-dates OPLIN involvement with E-rate.

Historically, OPLIN has tried not to restrict how libraries use their OPLIN connections. In order to comply with E-rate rules, however, Stephen noted that OPLIN must now at least ask if a library is providing access to the OPLIN network from locations that cannot be considered library property. If the library is providing such access, then OPLIN must ask them to report each year the amount of off-premises bandwidth that is entering the OPLIN network, so OPLIN can make the corresponding reductions in E-rate applications.

Another email Stephen shared inquired if OPLIN was considering a consortium purchase of wifi hot spots for lending to the public, so people could use a cellular network connection to establish Internet access for their personal devices. Several libraries have received a good amount of publicity for providing this service, and many larger Ohio libraries are actively considering it. Currently such devices do not use the OPLIN network, so E-rate is not currently an issue, and OPLIN policies on use of the network also do not apply.

Related to the discussion of how libraries might use the OPLIN network, Stephen also mentioned that the network equipment currently cannot provide Quality of Service (QoS), which is needed if a library wants to use the OPLIN connection for Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service. OPLIN has never tailored the network for specific services, opting to just provide adequate amounts of plain Internet bandwidth.

Stephen summarized by saying that libraries are exploring uses of the network that could require some changes in OPLIN policies and past practices.

Karen Davis asked if the current E-rate Modernization program might result in a change of E-rate rules regarding off-premises Internet access, but Stephen felt this was unlikely, since most of the E-rate Modernization changes relating to wireless services deal with internal wireless connections. Jamie Mason felt it was still appropriate to refrain as much as possible from restricting use of the network. Marty Beets noted that TV white space, if used to establish many E-rate ineligible community Internet access points, could have a noticeable effect on the OPLIN budget.

Discussion moved to E-rate Modernization and compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), since many of the E-rate changes shift funding from services that do not require CIPA compliance (telecommunications services without Internet access) to those that do (e.g. maintenance of internal wireless networks). Stephen noted a conversation he had with the director of a large library who felt that libraries could use more guidance on the minimum requirements for CIPA compliance. Travis McAfee noted that some small libraries may not be familiar with improvements in modern filtering, like the OpenDNS available for free from OPLIN. For some libraries, it could make sense for Karl Jendretzky to set up OpenDNS for them at their request, since it could increase OPLIN E-rate reimbursements for Internet access.

It was agreed that Stephen would notify libraries that OPLIN will be requesting information about off-premises use of the OPLIN network this year. For the next Board meeting, Stephen will bring proposed edits to the current OPLIN policy on sharing the network.

Regarding consortium purchase of wifi hot spots, Marty Beets noted that there is also a national consortium deal available to libraries from the non-profit Mobile Beacon through TechSoup for $10 a month per hot spot. The Board felt it would be very unlikely that OPLIN could negotiate a better deal than that.

OPLIN will also investigate how CIPA-compliance education can be improved and expanded.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on the test of the Ohio One Network authorized by the Board at the August meeting. OPLIN requested that Ohio One equipment be installed at two libraries which have networking issues and would be good test sites. To date, nothing has happened. He also reported on the annual Stakeholders Meeting, held on Wednesday, which was sparsely attended. Stephen speculated that many people think the Stakeholders Meeting is only for "stakeholders" and assume that does not include them. The Board agreed that a different name might be needed.

Regarding office activities, Stephen highlighted an ETM meeting at Geauga County Public Library, the Ohio Digitization Interest Group (OhioDIG) meeting at the Westerville Public Library, and preparations for the upcoming DPLA in Ohio Project symposium.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that the connection to Cleveland Public Library has been upgraded to 4 Gbps, and that OPLIN will be working with CLEVNET staff to try to find a way to make OpenDNS work for CLEVNET member libraries, which could boost OpenDNS usage to about 120 libraries. While investigating a possible network issue with the Cincinnati library, Karl implemented new monitoring tools and is now finding some hidden problems on other connections. The new circuit for Toledo has also been completed after a long delay.

Karl also reported that the SMS notification system for library patrons is now being used by Cleveland Public Library, which has boosted the number of notifications sent to about 75,000 each month. He has also set up some new virtualization servers for hosting the library website kits. Finally, Karl noted that a planned upgrade to the core router using capital budget funds would allow QoS configuration for libraries using their OPLIN circuit for VoIP.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that two libraries have contracted for new website kits. She has also built a new OPLIN website, using usage data from the old website to make the most frequently viewed content easier to find. She rebuilt the OPLIN 4cast blog site, too, to match the style of the new OPLIN website.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that over the past few months database usage compared to the same period last year has changed very little. World Book statistical reports have not included individual library usage numbers, but he was able to get overall OPLIN usage numbers from them.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

The Vice-Chair had no report.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Joe Greenward and second of Travis McAfee the Board adjourned at 11:15 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIRST REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 14, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fifty-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 14, 2015 by Board Chair Jill Billman-Royer at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Chris May, Travis McAfee, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council). Ann Watson (State Library) arrived at 10:15.

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Jill Billman-Royer presented the slate of officer candidates recommended by the Nominations Committee: Becky Schultz, Chair; Susan Brown, Vice-Chair; Cindy Lombardo, Secretary; and Michael Penrod, Treasurer. Jill asked if there were any additional nominations, and there were none.

The Chair called for a vote on the slate of officers submitted by the Nominations Committee; all aye.

Stephen Hedges thanked Jill Billman-Royer for her exceptional work as Board Chair.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2016

Chair Becky Schultz asked for approval of the following schedule of meetings, all at the OPLIN office starting at 10:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted: October 9, 2015 (at Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati); December 11, 2015; February 12, 2016; April 8, 2016 (9:00 a.m. start); and June 10, 2016. She also asked for approval of two further meetings for planning purposes: August 12, 2016; and October 14, 2016. All meetings are on the second Friday of even-numbered months.

Karen Davis motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Michelle Francis reported briefly on Ohio Library Council (OLC) discussions with directors of small libraries, the new OLC website under development, and the upcoming OLC Convention. She also distributed a summary of provisions in the new state budget that potentially affect libraries and described the more important ones. She noted that a webinar on the state budget has been posted on the OLC website.

Michelle described a meeting she and Stephen Hedges had with Rep. Terry Boose, who would like to do something special for libraries before he leaves the legislature and had heard good things about CLEVNET. Stephen suggested to him that extending OPLIN connections to branch libraries would be one thing that could be done to bring OPLIN closer to the CLEVNET model. Michelle and Stephen made it clear, however, that a prerequisite for such an extension of OPLIN would be moving OPLIN funding out of the Public Library Fund (PLF) and back into the General Revenue Fund (GRF).

Michelle has since had discussions with a few other legislators and a few library directors. Legislative leaders are indicating that moving OPLIN out of the PLF, so soon after a significant increase in the PLF, would be a very big request. In response to a question from the Board, Michelle noted that using more PLF money to fund an OPLIN expansion would create issues for libraries without branches who would not benefit, but would just see their PLF funding reduced. Stephen also explained that the financial benefit to many libraries that do have branches would not be significant, since they are often getting very high E-rate discounts on branch connection costs.

For these reasons, Michelle and Stephen do not plan to work on extending OPLIN connections to branches. Stephen did note, however, that he and Michelle had assumed that the OPLIN Board would support moving OPLIN funding out of the PLF, should an appropriate opportunity arise, and he asked if this was still the will of the Board.

The Board had some concern that removing OPLIN from the PLF would simply reduce the PLF by the amount of the OPLIN funding. Michelle noted that OPLIN funding is a fixed amount, while the PLF is calculated by a formula, so reducing the PLF by the exact amount of OPLIN funding was not likely, though some adjustment to the formula would be probable. Ann Watson asked if there were disadvantages to OPLIN funding coming from the GRF, and Stephen replied that OPLIN would be asked to prepare the same reduced-level budget requests that other state agencies funded from the GRF are asked to submit. Michelle noted, however, that as long as OPLIN is funded from the PLF there is no likelihood of requesting increased OPLIN funding either. The consensus of the Board was to continue to look for opportunities to remove OPLIN funding from the PLF.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 12 meeting

Michael Penrod motioned to approve the minutes of the June 12 meeting as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye, with Jill Billman-Royer abstaining.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

In the absence of Jamie Pardee, Stephen Hedges presented information about the Budget/Expenditures as of July 31, which now includes final budget numbers for Fiscal Year 2015. Stephen noted that Administration expenditures were 10.2% of total expenditures in FY2015, as opposed to 9.2% in FY2014, but this change was due to a decrease in total expenditures, rather than an increase in Administration expenditures. In FY2014 there were expenditures related to the Digitization Hubs grant and the extension to the subscriptions for NewsBank and Mango Languages; these expenditures were not needed in FY2015. While there was an exceptional expenditure in FY2015 for the network protection measures, this was offset by savings in telecommunications costs.

For FY2016, the approved expenditure for the DPLA in Ohio Project has not yet been added to the budget. Also, the amount due for the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) purchase of databases will be lower than currently reflected, since LearningExpress Library was cancelled after INFOhio's funding was cut in the new state budget.

Stephen also discussed the Revenue/Cash Balance numbers for FY2015, noting that the cash position at the end of the year was a little over $250,000 more than at the beginning of the year. Much of this is due to higher than anticipated E-rate reimbursements received within the fiscal year. Revenue from the PLF has not changed since FY2012.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jamie Mason seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Approve Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges provided a draft of the strategic plan that included changes discussed at the June meeting. Stephen summarized changes that had been presented and discussed at the June meeting and noted that the major change then requested was that a summary of the plan be added. The version now presented to the Board included such a summary; the time period covered by the plan was also changed to coincide with the state budget biennium.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the Strategic Plan as presented; Michael Penrod seconded.

During discussion, Board members expressed approval of the added summary.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Approve salary increases

Stephen Hedges explained that the state is offering "exempt parity" to state employees, such as OPLIN staff, that are not part of a bargaining unit ("exempt"). Since bargaining unit employees will be receiving 2.5% raises in the new state budget biennium, exempt employees are also being offered 2.5% raises for parity. In cases where boards have the authority to set salaries, which is the case with OPLIN, the agency board must pass a resolution authorizing the increase.

Stephanie Herriott explained that while one bargaining unit has agreed to 2.5% raises each year for three years, not all bargaining units have reached agreements with the state as yet, so agencies are asked to limit exempt staff salary increases to one year for now.

Chair Becky Schultz recognized Jamie Mason to offer the following resolution:

In that the new biennium budget (HB 64) awards State of Ohio E-1 employees a 2.5% salary increase beginning on the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2015 and allows increases up to 2.5% for other exempt state employees, the OPLIN board approves adjusting the compensation of each OPLIN staff member to one that reflects a 2.5% salary increase for each employee beginning with the pay period that includes July 1, 2015.

Jill Billman-Royer seconded the resolution.

Recorded vote: Marty Beets, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Chris May, aye; Travis McAfee, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

9.2. Discuss joining Ohio One network

Stephen Hedges distributed several documents related to the Ohio One network, reminding Board members that this statewide networking initiative had been discussed a bit at the April Board meeting. Stephen provided a brief refresher on the concepts underlying the proposed network. Stephen and Karl Jendretzky reported on a meeting with representatives of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and OARnet to discuss including the OPLIN network in Ohio One. This would entail installing additional equipment at the libraries.

Karl pointed out that the Ohio One concept increases the complexity of the network and the number of organizations which have responsibility for portions of the network. Stephen pointed out, however, that Ohio One proponents believe that Ohio One will ultimately streamline troubleshooting of network problems. Within the current budget, there would be no charge for any additional network maintenance or the equipment needed in the libraries.

After extensive discussion, Stephen recommended that OPLIN agree to the installation of the necessary equipment at one or two test locations and see if Ohio One provides any value. Board members questioned how the results of the test would be evaluated, and whether or not agreeing to a test would commit OPLIN to Ohio One if the test is successful.

After further extensive discussion, the consensus of the Board was to proceed with limited testing of Ohio One and report back to the Board, after which the Board would again discuss moving the OPLIN network into Ohio One. The estimated timeframe for the testing would be six months.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the DPLA in Ohio project, and also provided the website address where news and information about the project is published. A wide variety of organizations are actively involved in the project.

Regarding office activities, Stephen highlighted his attendance at a House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee hearing and an Ohio Digitization Interest Group meeting in Cincinnati; Karl Jendretzky's visits to eight libraries to troubleshoot network issues; and Laura Solomon's presentation at the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute at Baldwin-Wallace University.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that Cleveland Public Library will soon start using the SMS messaging service; currently the service sends about 70,000 text notifications to library patrons each month. Karl has installed a VoIP telephone system for the office and has established Google mail accounts for the OPLIN office, since we were unable to obtain government licensing for Microsoft mail accounts after repeated attempts.

10.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that Braindunk upgrades to the website kits have now been applied. Laura has been working on a new OPLIN website with better responsive design and clearer organization. Laura was also been working on a widget that libraries can use to embed links to the Ohio Web Library databases into the libraries' websites.

10.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage compared to the same period last year has changed very little. He noted that LearningExpress Library usage has been gradually declining as libraries increasingly promote usage of Ohio Means Jobs, though this decline has only a small effect on total usage.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Becky Schultz appointed Jill Billman-Royer to the Board Executive Committee. She also reminded the Board that the October 9 meeting will be held at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati in conjunction with the Ohio Library Council Convention and Expo. Stephen Hedges noted that the annual OPLIN Stakeholders Meeting will also take place at the OLC Convention.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jill Billman-Royer and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:49 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FIFTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — June 12, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fiftieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 10, 2015 by Board Vice-Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Cindy Lombardo, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz. Jamie Mason arrived at 10:15.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); and Chris May and Travis McAfee.

The Vice-Chair asked that everyone introduce themselves to Chris May and Travis McAfee, who have been appointed to the Board effective July 1.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Don Barlow motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation, and there was none.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 10 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes of the April 10 meeting as presented; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Stephen Hedges presented information about the current fiscal year budget as of May 31. With the exception of salaries and Board travel expenses, the Administration accounts should not change much before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Stephen noted that it also appears there will be no late fees this year for Board Financial Disclosure Statements. The Information Resources accounts and the Library Support Services accounts should also not change before June 30, but Telecommunications account balances will change until June 22, the last day to post payments in FY 2015.

Reporting on revenues and cash balance, Stephen discussed some of the remaining expected income. E-rate income will be much lower this year than originally anticipated, since delays in installations of new AT&T circuits will cost OPLIN $90,000 or more in lost E-rate reimbursements. Likewise, income from website kits has slowed while work shifted to upgrading sites. Some of the expected expenses, however, will also not be needed, so the final cash balance for June 30 that was projected at the beginning of the fiscal year will probably be fairly accurate.

Don Barlow asked if we expect similar income next year. Stephen noted that OPLIN funding in the new biennium budget is the same as it has been for several years now, so overall income should be very similar in the next two years. Michael Penrod asked if that would be enough income, considering that the cash balance left at the end of each fiscal year has been dwindling. Stephen replied that he expected disbursements for telecommunications costs to stabilize at a slightly lower amount once all of the current circuit upgrades are completed, which should also stabilize the cash balance.

Don Barlow asked what process would be followed to increase OPLIN state funding. Stephen replied that any increase would have to be included in the initial budget request made at the beginning of each biennial budget process, but he also cautioned that, since OPLIN funding at this point still comes from the Public Library Fund, it would be very wise to get the approval of the public libraries before such a request was initiated.

Michael Penrod motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Review draft of Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges provided a draft of a strategic plan that he created following Board discussions at the April meeting. Because the format of the plan is significantly different from the current plan, he proposed that he talk through the plan at this meeting, and that any Board action on the plan be postponed until the next Board meeting.

The most significant changes are: Discussion of the Ohio Revised Code has been incorporated into the introductory materials; marketing has become a strategy for achieving each goal, rather than a goal in itself; information about financing has been added; the "Databases" goal has been revised as "Online Information" to include more than just information databases; and "Activities" from the current plan are now listed within Strategy sections.

After a discussion of the amount of detail in the plan, Cindy Lombardo suggested that some sort of "executive summary" of the plan should also be created. The Board also thought that the plan could cover two years, to coincide with the biennium budget, but still wanted to review it annually.

Stephen will work on these changes and present the revised version to the Board in August for possible approval.

6.2. Discuss outsourcing of website kits hosting

Stephen Hedges briefly reminded the Board of discussion at the April meeting regarding hosting the website kits on external servers with technical support available after business hours.

Laura Solomon reported that she and Karl Jendretzky identified three reputable Drupal hosting companies, but quickly rejected two for various reasons. The third company was unresponsive, but Laura suspects that their annual pricing would have been in the six-figure range. She and Karl therefore started considering hosting companies that do not specialize in Drupal hosting, and would cost in the range of $5,000-$7,000 per year.

Karl pointed out that he is about to re-purpose the unused Zimbra server for website kit hosting, and questioned how much benefit there would be in outsourcing the hosting. Several Board members wondered how much after hours support website kit customers expect. Karl noted that he is not an on-call systems administrator, which is what you would get with a hosting company. He also noted that the intrusion protection measures recently implemented in the network remove the cause of many server problems.

Susan Brown pointed out that the website kits are not a universal service provided to all libraries, so OPLIN charges website customers to cover OPLIN costs, and would have to increase those charges if OPLIN decided to pay for outside hosting.

Don Barlow asked if the libraries' catalogs were dependent on the website kits; Laura replied that the catalogs run on separate servers, but access to the user interface is generally linked from the library's website.

Jamie Mason felt that the level of support we currently provide for website kits was commensurate with the annual price we charge website kit customers for maintenance. Karl noted that during business hours, he could completely restore a website server within an hour.

The consensus of the Board was to move the website kit servers to the more robust OPLIN hardware that is now available and possibly revisit this issue in the future as needed.

6.3. Discuss Service Objectives

Stephen Hedges noted that the Board had a similar discussion about service expectations at the April meeting, and Marty Beets had suggested it might be good to publish something like service level agreements (SLAs) for OPLIN services. Stephen then reviewed the services catalog published by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for state agencies. Based on OIT's practice, Stephen added two "service objectives" to the descriptions of OPLIN services on the OPLIN website: Incident Response, and Incident Resolution objectives. Stephen distributed a copy of the service objectives for each service and noted that these descriptions reflect current practice, so publishing these service objectives did not require any Board action.

Cindy Lombardo asked if OPLIN would be measuring how often these objectives were met. After some discussion, it was decided that the ticketing system already in use would provide sufficient performance measurement.

Discussion turned to Board uneasiness that so many services are dependent on Karl Jendretzky to fix them in the event of problems. The Board could not see any good remedy for this situation, other than communicating the problem to libraries if necessary.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve email policy

Stephen Hedges informed the Board of a new OIT policy on "Use of Internet, E-mail and Other IT Resources" that includes direction that state agencies shall also implement similar policies. Stephen provided the Board with a policy he had drafted accordingly and explained it briefly.

Susan Brown motioned to approve the Policy on Use of Internet, Email and Other IT Resources; Jamie Mason seconded.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on recent actions by the State Library Board that affect OPLIN. At their April 17 meeting, the State Library Board approved an LSTA grant in the amount of $39,916 to support the "DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) in Ohio" planning project. OPLIN is also supporting this project with $5,443. At their May 28 meeting, the State Library Board approved an LSTA grant in the amount of $1,600,000 to support the Ohio Web Library collection, and also appointed Chris May and Travis McAfee to the OPLIN Board and re-appointed Jill Billman-Royer and Susan Brown.

Stephen received an invitation to meet at OIT and discuss OPLIN and the Ohio One network on April 21. At that meeting, he cautioned that integrating OPLIN libraries into Ohio One must be a good move for the libraries and for Ohio One. A follow-up meeting that would include network engineers to discuss a plan to propose to the OPLIN Board that would benefit both parties was discussed. Before that meeting could be scheduled, however, OPLIN staff looked back at the history of service requests to OIT over the past six months and found that there were 29 unfilled requests dating back as far as last December. This is not the time to discuss integration into Ohio One until other issues are resolved, so Stephen canceled the follow-up meeting. Don Barlow cautioned that the Board should not lose control of the library network. Stephen and Karl Jendretzky answered numerous Board questions about the political and technical aspects of Ohio One.

Stephen shared his experiences at the April 25 Ohio History Day awards, where he presented the two special awards for "Advanced Digital Researcher" that the Board had approved. In choosing the award winners, Stephen reviewed 22 "process papers" describing the students' research work. He noted how often the student went to the library just to get books, and did not consider digital resources unless a librarian pointed them out.

Stephen reported that he was a panelist at the School, Hospitals, and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Annual Conference in Washington DC on May 21, speaking about library broadband planning and procurement.

Finally, Stephen informed the Board that the Ohio House's budget proposal reduces INFOhio's funding by about 42% from the current budget and the Governor's budget proposal. Most significantly for OPLIN, the House budget proposal removes the $500,000 that INFOhio currently contributes to the Ohio Web Library cost.

In regard to other office activities, Stephen highlighted presentations at Ohio Library Council Chapter Conferences and the SEO Directors Forum, and participation in the annual meeting of the LSTA Advisory Council.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on recent improvements to the support.oplin.org and ohioweblibrary.org websites. Karl also reported that he had assisted with the turn-up of Internet service as the Dayton Metro Library's new data center, and that many changes were taking place to circuits in the CLEVNET area.

Karl also provided information about recent changes regarding the company that provides the intrusion protection for the OPLIN network, which he considers to be a positive development. In response to Board questions, he supplied technical information about the operation of the intrusion protection measures.

Karl reported on continuing growth of the SMS messaging service, the progress of the VoIP installation at the OPLIN office, re-purposing of OPLIN servers, and a thorough review of the network which resulted in some housekeeping changes.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that Braindunk has completed work on the website kits upgrades ahead of the schedule specified in their contract.

Laura also reminded the Board of discussion at the April meeting about "ads" for the databases which libraries could use in newsletters, etc., to promote the databases to patrons. Interestingly, she is finding that libraries are using the ads she has created as links to the databases on their library websites. Laura had not intended to build ads for all the databases, but if libraries start using them as website links, there should either be ads for all the databases, or ads should intentionally be built to "expire" after a period of time to discourage their use as website links.

While it is flattering that libraries prefer Laura's graphics to those supplied by vendors, the Board questioned how much work would be involved in creating ads for all the databases. Karl suggested placing the ads in the same location where OPLIN places links to databases for libraries to use, with a note that more ads can be created if there is demand.

8.3. Database usage and LCO statistics

Stephen Hedges reported that searches for the last two months are below normal, while document retrieval is up. Stephen noted that both searches and uses of LearningExpress Library are down significantly from last year, but the most likely cause of the change in overall statistics is a lower number of searches and a higher number of documents viewed in the EBSCO databases.

Stephen also distributed copies of the statistics handout he had provided at the State Library Board meeting when requesting LSTA funding. The effects of the EBSCO Discovery Service used by INFOhio and OhioLINK are quite obvious. The handout also included costs for each database and the contributions of each Libraries Connect Ohio partner toward those costs.

8.3.1 New Ohio Web Library page

In the interest of time, Stephen Hedges elected not to demonstrate the new Ohio Web Library access page that will debut in early July, but instead asked Board members to review the page at http://dev.ohioweblibrary.org and email him any comments or suggestions.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

 

9.1. Resolutions

Vice-Chair Becky Schultz recognized Cindy Lombardo to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, DON BARLOW has been a member of the Board of the Ohio Public Library Information Network since June 2009, and WHEREAS, he has helped secure the success of OPLIN by freely giving his time and energy during SIX years of service, and WHEREAS, he has provided additional service as the Secretary of the OPLIN Board from July 2013 through June 2015, and WHEREAS, he has unfailingly contributed his valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS, he has been a dedicated and active advocate for OPLIN throughout his tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS, his service as the Director of the Westerville Public Library gave him an important perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 12th day of June, Two Thousand and Fifteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize and acknowledge the considerable contributions made to public libraries and library service by DON BARLOW during his exemplary tenure with this Board, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to DON BARLOW for his critical volunteer service as a member of this Board.

Jamie Mason seconded the resolution. All aye.

Vice-Chair Becky Schultz recognized Michael Penrod to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, BEN CHINNI has been a member of the Board of the Ohio Public Library Information Network since June 2009, and WHEREAS, he has unselfishly given his time and efforts to ensure the advance of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SIX years, and WHEREAS, he has provided additional service as the Treasurer of the OPLIN Board from July 2013 through June 2015, and WHEREAS, he has reliably contributed his productive opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee discussions, and WHEREAS, his experience as a Trustee of the Euclid Public Library allowed him to share a distinctive outlook on OPLIN operations and services, and WHEREAS, he has been a steadfast guardian of OPLIN interests throughout his tenure on the Board, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 12th day of June, Two Thousand and Fifteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize and acknowledge the noteworthy contributions made to public libraries and library service by BEN CHINNI during his distinguished tenure with this Board, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to BEN CHINNI for his vital volunteer service as a member of this Board.

Susan Brown seconded the resolution. All aye.

9.2. Director's evaluation

Susan Brown motioned to enter Executive Session to consider the compensation of a public employee; Michael Penrod seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

The Vice-Chair invited Travis McAfee and Chris May to attend the Executive Session.

The Board entered Executive Session at 11:58 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 12:12 p.m.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Don Barlow and second of Ben Chinni the Board adjourned at 12:13 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-NINTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Annual Planning Meeting

Minutes — April 10, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, April 10, 2015 by Board Chair Jill Billman-Royer at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Beverly Cain reported on the most recent ILEAD (Innovative Librarians Explore, Apply and Discover) immersion program, with three teams of librarians working on technology-related projects, which Beverly described. This is the second ILEAD session that the State Library has supported.

Beverly also announced the upcoming State Library Board retreat in Akron, with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) support of the "Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) in Ohio Planning Project" being a major agenda item. Beverly noted that federal funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which includes LSTA funding, is currently in jeopardy in Congress, though it still seems to have support in the Senate. Currently, $2.1 million of LSTA funds impact OPLIN, through the Libraries Connect Ohio requests for LSTA funds to purchase information databases and the LSTA funds for the Digitization Hubs. Beverly has prepared talking points regarding the importance of LSTA funds to Ohio; Stephen Hedges will email this document to the Board members.

After receiving congratulations on her new baby, Michelle Francis reminded the Board of upcoming Ohio Library Council (OLC) Chapter Conferences around the state, then provided an extensive report on the status of the Ohio biennial budget legislation. She reported that the House Finance Committee heard testimony on OLC's behalf from Tom Adkins of Garnet A Wilson Public Library of Pike County, who highlighted the need for an increase in the Public Library Fund (PLF) and described public library activities supporting workforce development. Three Representatives are now sponsoring an amendment to raise the PLF to 1.75% of the General Revenue Fund. The House substitute budget, including any accepted amendments, should be released in a few days. Michelle also shared information about the upcoming OLC Legislative Day.

Beverly Cain asked Michelle if she had heard anything recently about the status of Ohio Means Jobs, since many public libraries provide a link from their websites to the Ohio Means Jobs website. Michelle had no new information, but noted that legislators seem to be most interested in hearing about specific outcomes of public library support for workforce development.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 13 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the February 13 meeting as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented information about the current fiscal year budget as of March 31. Expenditures in all Administration accounts are on target for this time during the fiscal year. One large expenditure in the Support Services accounts is for part of the purchase cost of the system to combat denial of service attacks on the network; three invoices were submitted for different portions of the service, and the remaining balance of that encumbrance was paid after March 31. Jamie noted that the Office of Information Technology (OIT) now bills OPLIN for services quarterly, rather than monthly. Jamie also presented the actual and projected cash balance reports.

Jamie also informed the Board that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has completed lease negotiations and come to an agreement with the landlord for a small increase in rent for the OPLIN office during the next biennium.

Michael Penrod noted that the actual and projected cash balances get smaller every year. Stephen Hedges explained that OPLIN received some additional E-rate funds one year resulting from an appeal to the Federal Communications Commission, and that has provided some fiscal leeway; otherwise, the continuing drain on the cash balances would be a concern.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Don Barlow seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. REPORTS ON STATUS OF OPLIN SERVICES

Stephen Hedges proposed that the planning meeting begin with a review of the status of current OPLIN services.

6.1. Email

Stephen Hedges provided a brief description of the events which brought about the collapse of the OPLIN email service for library staff on Friday March 6, since detailed accounts of these events had already been published on the OPLIN website and distributed on the listservs, Facebook and Twitter. Essentially, the system suffered an unrecoverable breakdown, leaving only the possibility of starting a new OPLIN email service from scratch or notifying libraries that they would need to making arrangements for their own new email services, and Stephen judged that the most expeditious solution was to avoid the bureaucratic delays of establishing a new state-provided service and instead provide advice to libraries about quick replacement email services. As it happens, OPLIN staff are still waiting for state-provided email through OIT, and have been using personal email accounts for OPLIN business while waiting.

Jill Billman-Royer noted the difficulties faced in communicating with the libraries when the OPLIN email system was down, and Stephen shared feedback from one library that pointed out that they were also unable to communicate with OPLIN by telephone, since the office was closed over the weekend. Stephen cautioned that OPLIN should be wary of offering critical services, such as email, without any after-hours support. Don Barlow remarked that is had also been unwise to have a single point of failure for so many library email accounts.

Stephen reported that after he had decided not to pursue establishing a new email service, staff activities shifted to communications and remediation of the effects of the email demise. On Monday March 9, a forwarding server was set up and librarians who provided OPLIN with their old email address and a new address started receiving emails at their new address that had been sent to their old address. As of the Board meeting, about 1,400 librarians were using this forwarding service. OPLIN will probably use oplin.ohio.gov as the new email domain for staff email, so this forwarding server can operate without any conflict with the oplin.org email domain. On March 12, the Board Executive Committee agreed that this forwarding service could be provided indefinitely, so libraries would not immediately need to replace stationery and business cards with old email addresses printed on them.

Karl Jendretzky described the software he built to find and identify emails from the old system files and assign them to old email accounts. Once this software was built, it ran for three days to comb through all the files, after which librarians were able to login to a temporary server and download their old, unsorted emails that had been stored on the email server prior to March 6. This had been a major concern for many librarians, including OPLIN staff.

Cindy Lombardo asked about the response from libraries, and Stephen reported that a large majority of librarians had been very supportive, particularly those responsible for information technology in their libraries. Michael Penrod speculated that there may be more feedback at the Stakeholders Meeting this year. Jill Billman-Royer noted that all of the Board had received an email from one library trustee, to whom she had responded, and Stephen and Karl shared what they had already done to directly assist that library with setting up a new email service. Jill explained that trustees may not always know everything about a situation at their library, and she applauded this trustee for seeking information directly from OPLIN.

Michael Penrod asked other Board members if they had been contacted by anyone else about OPLIN email; several Board members reported receiving a telephone call from one librarian, and Michael reported receiving a call from a second librarian, but that seems to have been the extent of librarian communications with OPLIN Board members.

Marty Beets asked if libraries were using the free Outlook email service provided by Microsoft to educational entities, and Stephen answered that it was his impression that many of them had pursued that option. Regardless of the email replacement service libraries chose, Stephen noted that almost all of them would now have 24/7/365 support for their email. Jill thought it was important that libraries understand that the email forwarding service would not have after-hours support, and while it would be maintained indefinitely, it would not be maintained permanently. At some point in the future, the OPLIN Board will need to decide on an end date for the service and publish that information to the libraries.

The Board expressed their appreciation to the OPLIN staff for the work they did to ameliorate the effects of the email system collapse.

Michael Penrod asked how to respond if libraries asked how the SEO library consortium was able to offer their members email service so quickly. Stephen answered that SEO was using member fees to purchase outsourced email service, and thus were not obligated to follow procedures required of agencies spending state funds.

6.2. Server inventory

Stephen Hedges provided the Board with an inventory of OPLIN servers compiled by Karl Jendretzky. Many are too old to support modern operating systems, and a few are just being used for replacement parts. Replacing servers is difficult at the moment, because OIT prefers agencies to pay to use OIT servers rather than buying new equipment. Access to the current servers at the State of Ohio Computer Center, where OPLIN computers running services for the libraries are located, is increasingly restricted.

Stephen and Karl Jendretzky now reviewed the OPLIN services currently running on each server. They discussed the servers running Dynamic Website Kits and the possibility of hosting the kits through a company specializing in Drupal hosting, a hosting service not available through OIT.

Susan Brown noted that most of the meeting discussion so far highlighted the fact that many OPLIN services were dependent on Karl to keep them running and asked if there was a plan in the event that Karl was not available; Karl replied that OPLIN staff had diverse skills that allowed OPLIN to offer diverse services. Jill Billman-Royer remarked that this was a bigger problem than old equipment, and Cindy Lombardo noted that OPLIN did not have enough staff for succession planning. Michael Penrod expressed frustration with state policies that thwarted the ability of the OPLIN Board to acquire needed equipment and staff.

Stephen returned discussion to possibly moving the website kit hosting to a company specializing in hosting Drupal sites, to solve the current problems of aging servers and lack of after-hours support. Laura Solomon noted that there is one company that is clearly the best, but she has not yet received any pricing from them. Don Barlow asked about expected costs, and Stephen replied that it was possible the current annual maintenance fees charged to libraries would cover the cost of outsourced hosting. Jill Billman-Royer noted, however, that there would be no cost-recovery for the time Laura and Karl would still spend on the website kits, and OPLIN must recover all costs associated with the website kits service.

In response to a question about after-hours support, Stephen described the status of support for OPLIN services. All services are supported by the OPLIN Support Center from 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. OPLIN pays OIT to provide after-hours support for the Internet connections, but no other OPLIN services are supported after hours.

Jill Billman-Royer expressed caution about describing OPLIN services as "unsupported." Marty Beets suggested that a better approach might be to publish Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for the OPLIN services that would specify response times.

Marty was concerned about the age of the OPLIN servers and asked for more details about outsourcing Drupal hosting. Stephen promised to bring more information to the June Board meeting about outsourcing some OPLIN services, and drafts of SLAs for other services.

The Board recessed at 10:56 a.m. and Michelle Francis left the meeting. The Board resumed meeting at 11:03 a.m.

6.3. Website kits

Laura Solomon provided an update on the progress of the website kit upgrades being done by Braindunk LLC, which ran into a few problems but seems likely to still finish on schedule. There are currently 72 libraries actively using website kits and four more are in development. Cindy Lombardo asked which library using a website kit is the largest; Laura replied that there are several county systems, with Clark County perhaps being the largest.

6.4. SMS notifications

Stephen Hedges shared a chart showing the steady growth rate of the SMS notification system since May 2012, as well as a case study about the OPLIN SMS service which was published by Trumpia, the company that actually handles sending the messages to cellphones.

6.5. Databases — outcomes of Content Advisory Committee meeting

Stephen Hedges reviewed the minutes of the Content Advisory Committee meeting on February 26. Much of the discussion at that meeting was about marketing the databases, and in particular they felt it was important that libraries present the databases as if they were provided by the local library, rather than by a statewide organization unfamiliar to the patron. Don Barlow speculated that this could possibly make OPLIN less visible to legislators, but generally the Board agreed that the databases were more likely to be used if they were presented on the local library's website.

The Committee also recommended that a network of people available to assist libraries in their area with use of the databases, similar to INFOhio's iCoaches, might be a good way to increase usage. Beverly Cain noted that the development of the iCoaches program was supported by federal LSTA funds.

In regard to additional resources the Committee would recommend purchasing if the opportunity arises, they suggested Lynda.com, auto repair guides, and language instruction resources.

The Committee also reviewed some proposed changes to the Ohio Web Library search page, and Stephen showed the Board some screenshots of the proposed new page incorporating some suggestions from the Committee and some suggestions from attendees at the OLC Northeast Chapter Conference. He also showed screenshots of the database pages on the websites of some libraries where Content Advisory Committee members work.

OPLIN staff will continue to work on preparing a new Ohio Web Library search page that will probably replace the current page sometime in June. Stephen invited Board members to send him comments and suggestions at any time.

6.6. Network connections

Stephen Hedges reported that once the current round of upgrades is complete, OPLIN will have only 13 circuits at less than 20 Mbps speed, 113 at 20 Mbps, six between 20 and 100 Mbps, 116 at 100 Mbps, two at 500 Mbps, five at 1 Gbps, and one at 2 Gbps. With this many large circuits in place, future semi-annual upgrade cycles should only involve a few libraries. The consolidated Internet access used by the libraries hovers around 4 Gbps at peak times.

Stephen noted that working with OIT has become more complex whenever OARnet is also involved in provisioning a circuit, and response to service requests can be very slow. He reported that OPLIN staff may choose a willing library from the next upgrade cycle and try connecting that library directly to the Internet through the telecommunications vendor, bypassing the state network. Total cost for a 20 Mbps circuit acquired this way would be about the same as a state network circuit, once OIT management fees are added to the state circuit cost.

Karl Jendretzky explained some arrangements that telecommunications vendors would have to make to allow OPLIN to monitor such a circuit. Karl also noted that OIT Security has recently been blocking websites they do not want state agencies accessing, but this also blocks access from public libraries, a problem that would not occur if the library was outside the state network.

Stephen and Karl also reported that they have heard indirectly that OARnet may want to place additional switching equipment in libraries. There was discussion of the increasing complexity of working with OIT and OARnet. At this point, not enough trustworthy information is available to make any policy decisions.

Cindy Lombardo asked how OPLIN staff project future bandwidth needs. Stephen replied that the annual Cisco Visual Networking Index has been a pretty accurate indicator of future library bandwidth needs. Karl noted, however, that bandwidth usage has not increased since late last fall, and he suspects it has been capped by OIT at 4 Gbps.

6.7. Network testing

Stephen Hedges reported that this service is still offered to libraries, and Karl Jendretzky said he probably works with two or three libraries each month on identifying internal network problems. In most cases, Karl is able to diagnose the network without any need to travel to the library.

6.8. OpenDNS (filtering)

Stephen Hedges reported that this service is working well, and there have been no significant increases in license costs.

6.9. Intrusion protection

Stephen Hedges reported that the final invoices for this new service have been paid and it appears to be working very well. There have been rumors that the vendor of the solution may change in the near future, but that should not affect operations.

6.10. Communications with librarians

Stephen Hedges related the importance of social media in communicating with librarians after the OPLIN email service failed. Jill Billman-Royer noted that libraries are getting very good at using social media. Stephen then noted that much of OPLIN's communication strategy is still dependent on old techniques, such as the annual Stakeholders Meeting and the quarterly online newsletter. Stephen feels that smaller and more frequent communication, using both email and social media, would be more effective.

Don Barlow suggested that an emailed e-newsletter would be more effective than an online newsletter in pdf format, and several other Board members agreed. There was also discussion of the difficulties for an organization like OPLIN in using Facebook effectively. Discussion returned to effective ways to distribute e-newsletters and what should be included in the content. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that a summary of Board meeting activities would be appropriate content; other Board members offered additional content suggestions. Board members also suggested that information could be sent to OLC for inclusion in their e-newsletters. Michael Penrod also cautioned that communications should inform libraries of OPLIN challenges, too, not just OPLIN successes.

Stephen asked if we should continue to do Stakeholders Meetings, and the Board felt it was particularly important to do a Stakeholders Meeting this year.

The Board recessed for lunch at 12:12 p.m. and resumed discussions at 1:00 p.m.

7. DISCUSS CHANGES TO STRATEGIC PLAN

Stephen Hedges noted that the Strategic Plan will need some significant revisions this year, so he proposed talking about general issues today and bringing a detailed revision to the June meeting for further discussion. He suggested re-thinking the ways OPLIN fulfills the mandate of the Ohio Revised Code. He also suggested that the Marketing goal in the current plan should be folded into each of the other goals, rather than standing as a separate goal.

Susan Brown asked about the frequent references to "OPLIN participants," and Stephen explained that this wording comes from the Ohio Revised Code. Board members felt that it was important to specifically name public libraries as the recipients of OPLIN services, even if this added more words to the plan.

Michael Penrod asked about OPLIN's support of digitization activities in public libraries, and Stephen agreed that this should be added to the plan. Michael suggested that this could be done simply by changing references to "databases" to "electronic information."

Cindy Lombardo suggested that "Technology Leadership" was actually "Technology Support." She also suggested that actual leadership in the broad field of library technology is probably beyond the capabilities of OPLIN, and several Board members agreed.

(Agenda Item 8 was "LUNCH")

9. OLD BUSINESS

9.1. Approve support for DPLA planning grant

Stephen Hedges briefly reminded the Board of previous discussion about supporting the "DPLA in Ohio" planning grant that would develop the application for Ohio to join the Digital Public Library of America. Stephen reported that Columbus Metropolitan Library has now written an LSTA grant proposal that will request $39,916 in federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the State Library Board at their April 17 meeting in Akron; these funds would cover most of the cost of the planning process.

Stephen shared some images of the DPLA website and explained that Ohio would join DPLA as a single service hub, requiring extensive collaboration between all interested parties in Ohio, including the four public library Digitization Hubs. The DPLA application program interface (API) would facilitate building various online collections of digitized materials. The organizations leading the effort to join DPLA have decided to apply for an LSTA grant, with Columbus Metropolitan Library acting as fiscal agent, to hire consultants to coordinate a planning process for creating the Ohio application for DPLA membership.

When the Board discussed this planning process at the February meeting, there was reluctance to taking responsibility for additional costs beyond what would be covered by LSTA funds, since those costs had not been defined. Stephen now presented a grant budget which would require $5,443 in local funds to cover additional costs associated with the final phase of the planning process, which would be development of the final application to DPLA. Stephen now asked the Board to approve providing $5,443 to cover the additional costs of the planning process.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to provide $5,443 in support of the DPLA in Ohio planning process; Susan Brown seconded.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jill Billman-Royer, aye.

9.2. Joint IT conference with OLC IT Division

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of their previous discussion of a "TechFeis" social/sharing event for library Information Technology staff, and the Board's feeling that it would be better to combine such an event with some other IT workshop. Stephen reported that the Information Technology Division of OLC is planning to offer a one-day IT conference this fall for the first time in several years. Laura Solomon and Stephen met with most of the members of the IT Division and with OLC staff on March 12 to discuss the possibility of adding a social/sharing event the evening before the more formal IT conference.

The result of the discussion was a tentative plan for an event at the Holiday Inn Worthington that would start on the evening of Thursday, November 5, with an "icebreaker" social event, followed by a day of presentations in a more formal conference setting on November 6. Stephen shared a possible basic agenda for the icebreaker. The two days would be jointly sponsored by OPLIN and OLC, with OPLIN paying for room and equipment rental, which Lori Hensley from OLC estimates would cost about $750. Attendees would need to register through the OLC website; there would be no charge for the social event, but probably a $75 charge for OLC members for the formal event. People could register for one or both events.

Board members asked Laura Solomon if she thought this plan would meet her original goals for a social/sharing event, and she said it would.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the proposal for jointly sponsoring an IT event with OLC and to commit up to $750 toward allowable costs for such an event; Don Barlow seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

10. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT (with database usage)

Stephen Hedges reported on State Library budget testimony on February 19, which was held at the Ohio History Connection instead of the Statehouse. Beverly Cain did an excellent job, both in her testimony and in her responses to the committee's numerous questions, which generally had less to do with the State Library and more to do with libraries in general, especially public libraries. Only one question dealt directly with OPLIN: Shouldn't at least some OPLIN funding come from the GRF, since the libraries are providing so much e-government access?

In regard to other office activities, Stephen highlighted the INFOhio Board Retreat, where he, Beverly Cain, and Gwen Evens (OhioLINK) presented information on Libraries Connect Ohio.

Stephen also reported on database usage. He has worked with EBSCO to determine the cause of the large increase in searches in January, and they think it probably came from a special link they provided to a library promoting Consumer Reports. He also noted that the documents totals in the report now include views of abstracts, a change that resulted from discussion with INFOhio and OhioLINK staff in the process of preparing the LCO request for LSTA funds.

Karen Davis asked if OPLIN should provide libraries with special links to particular databases for promotion, since that seems to have been so effective. Jill Billman-Royer also suggested that such "ads" for databases could be published via social media. Stephen thanked the Board for the suggestions.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

 

12.1. Report from Nominations Committee

Chair Jill Billman-Royer requested a report from the ad-hoc Nominations Committee. Don Barlow briefly reviewed the nominations received, then explained the reasons the committee had decided to recommend Chris May, Deputy Director of Mansfield-Richland County Public Library, and Travis McAfee, Systems Administrator for the Way Public Library, to fill Board vacancies. Board members familiar with these individuals agreed that they would be good additions to the OPLIN Board.

The Chair called for a vote on the committee's recommendation; all aye.

Stephen Hedges will now take the recommendation to the State Library Board and ask that these two individuals be appointed to the OPLIN Board.

The Chair thanked the committee for their work.

12.2. Director's evaluation process

At the request of the Chair, Stephen Hedges provided an overview of the evaluation process used in the past and offered to make changes to the process if the Board so desires. The Chair asked Vice-Chair Becky Schultz to collect and collate the evaluations prior to the next meeting of the Board.

12.3. Executive Session to discuss discipline of a public employee

Michael Penrod motioned to enter Executive Session to discuss discipline of a public employee; Ben Chinni seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jill Billman-Royer, aye.

The Board entered Executive Session at 1:43 p.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 1:56 p.m.

13. ETHICS TRAINING

Stephen Hedges proposed that the Board complete the annual Ethics training by watching training videos provided by the Ohio Ethics Commission. The Board can either watch a series of short videos together at the end of meetings, or individually watch a longer video and notify Stephen when they have received the certificate of completion. The Board collectively decided to watch the longer video individually.

14. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Don Barlow and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 2:00 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 13, 2015

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 13, 2015 by Board Chair Jill Billman-Royer at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Jamie Pardee and Ann Watson (State Library).

Chair Jill Billman-Royer welcomed Ann Watson, the new Associate State Librarian for Library Services, and asked everyone to introduce themselves.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans provided an update on the Governor's proposed biennial budget and its possible impact on public library funding, but he cautioned that this will not be the final budget. Hearings on the budget are already underway in the House, with associated lobbying from interest groups.

Doug also reported that work on the federal Ebook Project has been paused pending an analysis of the new Congress' interest in the project. Doug also mentioned a number of upcoming Ohio Library Council (OLC) workshops and events, and thanked the OPLIN Board again for their support of the OLC Convention & Expo. He also announced that OLC Director of Government and Legal Services Michelle Francis recently gave birth to a new daughter.

In response to a question from Jamie Mason, Doug provided more details about the progress of the budget. Jamie Pardee noted that State Library staff and Stephen Hedges had a meeting with the Legislative Service Commission regarding the State Library's budget, and that testimony on that part of the budget has been scheduled before the House Finance Subcommittee on Higher Education. Michael Penrod asked if there were any changes in the proposed budget for the State Library and OPLIN, and Jamie reported that the proposed budget is essentially the same as the current budget.

Doug noted that the OLC Legislative Day is scheduled for April 28 and efforts will continue toward increasing the Public Library Fund (PLF) percentage to 2.2% of state tax revenue. The Office of Budget and Management is currently predicting an increase in tax revenue and the PLF under the Governor's proposed budget, but legislative changes to the budget could negate that increase.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 12 meeting

Karen Davis motioned to approve the minutes of the December 12 meeting as presented; Ben Chinni seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented information about the current fiscal year budget as of January 31. A little more than half of the administrative budget has been disbursed, which is as expected. One large open encumbrance is being held for purchase of the system to combat denial of service attacks on the network. Jamie also presented the actual and projected cash balance reports.

Stephen Hedges noted that the amount budgeted for fees for Board financial disclosure statements may not all be needed if Board members file their statements before the deadline, since about half of the amount budgeted is held for late filing penalties.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Michael Penrod seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve revised teleworking policy

Stephen Hedges reported that following Board action on revising the office teleworking policy at the last meeting, the resulting document was sent to the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) for review. DAS made a number of very good suggestions for improving the policy, which were reflected in documents Stephen provided to the Board. The intent of many of the changes was to clarify that teleworking is covered by the same employee policies as work performed at the OPLIN office, and to emphasize that OPLIN has the authority to offer or revoke teleworking arrangements at any time. DAS has already issued a letter of approval for the version of the policy incorporating their changes, and Stephen now asked the Board to grant their approval of the revised policy.

Stephen also noted that since the wording changes did not affect the original intentions of the Board, a roll call vote was probably not necessary.

Jamie Mason motioned that the revised teleworking policy with the recommended wording changes from the Department of Administrative Services be approved as presented; Karen Davis seconded. There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss possible OPLIN TechFeis

Stephen Hedges reported that OPLIN staff have discussed the idea of an annual social event for library IT staff in late spring or early summer that would provide some of the informal information sharing opportunities once provided by the TechConnections conferences. He has talked to Lori Hensley at the Ohio Library Council, who confirmed that the OLC IT Division does plan to do a formal event for library IT staff later this year — their first event in several years — but a spring social event would not affect their plans, and in fact they would probably be interested in knowing what topics were discussed at any such event. So far, the idea has been developed to the point that Stephen proposes an afternoon social event taking place for two hours at an Irish pub, calling the event TechFeis. ("Feis" is Gaelic for "festival".) The venue for such an event would need good parking and would also need to be within walking distance of good hotel space.

Jamie Mason questioned the two-hour timeframe as possibly too short, particularly if library directors are going to be asked to allow their IT staff to travel to the event. The Board in general agreed that informal meetings in a social setting were valuable sources of information, but suggested that an agenda would make it easier to initiate the sharing of information.

Karl Jendretzky admitted that he was not convinced that an afternoon event would work, and suggested the event could be held in the evening after a more formal conference. Doug Evans noted that there had been similar discussion in the OLC office, particularly in regard to the possibility of holding the social event in conjunction with the IT Division's fall workshop.

General discussion ensued about the timing of the event and ways to reduce the likelihood of attendees driving afterwards. Several Board members suggested that the event could be held the evening before the IT Division workshop, so attendees would have a good reason to stay overnight. Stephen will work with Lori Hensley to see if that can be arranged and will report back to the Board.

7.2. Approve support for DPLA planning grant

Stephen Hedges provided information about the new application process that the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has started. One desired outcome of the Digitization Hubs project is placing materials in the DPLA. DPLA can only handle one content "feed" per state, however, so many of the interested organizations in Ohio have started working on submitting a coordinated application for Ohio DPLA membership. After several meetings, these organizations have decided to apply for a grant, with Columbus Metropolitan Library acting as fiscal agent, to hire consultants to coordinate a planning process for creating the application. The State Library has indicated that about $40,000 of federal LSTA funds could be available for such a grant, which would probably cover the cost of the consultants themselves, but no additional costs, such as travel costs for a DPLA representative to travel to Ohio and assist with the process. Stephen asked if the Board would be interested in covering such costs, probably less than $10,000.

In response to questions, Stephen reported that these particular federal LSTA funds would not require matching local funds. There were also questions about the exact nature of some of the additional costs; Stephen replied that the planning process would probably be similar to the process that created OPLIN, with at least one large meeting to bring all interested parties together, and some of the additional costs would arise from that.

The Board was not comfortable with taking responsibility for just the additional costs, due to the nature of those costs, and discussed some other possible ways to provide financial support for the planning process. Stephen will work with the interested parties to find some other way to structure the grant funding, and may return to the Board with a more specific request for funding.

7.3. Approve support for Ohio History Day

Stephen Hedges provided a copy of correspondence with the Ohio History Connection regarding sponsoring a Special Award for student participants in Ohio History Day. Organizations usually set their own parameters for awards and those parameters usually support the organization's mission, so they suggested a monetary award of $100-$250 for the student who made the best use of the Ohio Web Library databases in their project. Stephen noted that almost 7,000 students across Ohio participate in this program each year, and the OPLIN Policy on Sponsorship of Events Planned by Others lists "awareness and usage of any kind related to OPLIN-provided databases" as an area eligible for OPLIN sponsorship.

Ben Chinni motioned that OPLIN sponsor an Ohio History Day award in an amount not to exceed $250; Jamie Mason seconded.

Susan Brown asked if OPLIN would develop the criteria for the award, and Stephen answered that he would do that. Jill Billman-Royer suggested that Stephen inquire if it would be possible to split the funds into two or more awards. The Board also asked Stephen to make sure no OPLIN Board family members received an award.

There was no further discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges noted that there were not many other significant events to report during the holiday season, but he did report on reaction at the ETM meeting in Lancaster to his question about interest in OPLIN building or providing Summer Reading Program software for libraries, a discussion item at the Board's December meeting. Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, one of the ETM members, reported that they have been working on building their own Summer Reading Program software that they intend to share with other libraries. Stephen offered OPLIN's help to Heights Library should they ever want it.

In regard to other office activities, Stephen highlighted the data security hearing he attended before the House Policy and Legislative Oversight Committee, an OPLIN-sponsored webinar on Managed Wireless, and presentations about OPLIN given to the State Library Board and the CLEVNET library directors. Stephen, Jamie Pardee, and Ann Watson also commented on the Legislative Service Commission meeting about the State Library Budget.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky provided a chart showing the increase in usage of the SMS notification system since 2012; the system is currently sending about 50,000 messages a month to library patrons. Karl reported that CLEVNET is considering using the system, which would add about 500 messages a day.

Karl also reported on a new hardware component for the OPLIN core router that would allow transmission of 10 gigabits per second. Over 110 circuits were upgraded and moved to new connections at the core in January.

Karl has also been revising OPLIN logos into vector art and rebuilding some OPLIN websites on a Bootstrap framework, for better response on mobile devices. Stephen noted that this work, as well as some other marketing that Laura has been working on, is being undertaken in preparation for the twentieth anniversary on June 30 of the original OPLIN enabling legislation.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon shared a summary of the scoring of the bids received in response to the Request for Proposals for re-theming of the website kits as they are upgraded to Drupal 7. OPLIN has contracted with Braindunk LLC to do this work and Laura has been working with them for about three weeks; she described the re-theming process.

Laura has now been able to work on OPLIN marketing, starting with some re-branding of OPLIN services, so they could be marketed as individual products. The target date for the re-branding is the June anniversary of OPLIN.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that the January EBSCO statistics have a drastic increase in searches, which is clearly an error, but to date he has not been able to trace the problem. He also reported that LearningExpress is now including Workforce Skills usage statistics within the regular LearningExpress statistics.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

 

9.1. Board nominations committee

Chair Jill Billman-Royer appointed Don Barlow, Ben Chinni, and Jamie Mason to the ad-hoc Nominations Committee. She charged the committee with working with the OPLIN Director to solicit nominations for the OPLIN Board, after which the committee will review the nominations and recommend two candidates to the full Board at the April Planning Meeting. The committee will also prepare a slate of officer candidates for consideration by the Board at the August election of Board officers.

9.2. Discuss April Planning Meeting

At the request of Jill Billman-Royer, Stephen Hedges provided an overview of the agenda and procedures for the Board's April 10 Planning Meeting,

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jamie Mason and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:37 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 12, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 12, 2014 by Board Vice-Chair Becky Schultz at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council); and Jamie Pardee (State Library).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Cindy Lombardo seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Vice-Chair called for public participation.

Doug Evans shared information about a Congressional Roundtable regarding e-books that the Ohio Library Council (OLC) hosted at the OCLC offices in Dublin on October 22. Local Congressmen Pat Tiberi and Steve Stivers attended and learned about library lending of e-books. The Ohio Legislature has also passed SCR22, asking Congress to ensure public access to e-books through public libraries.

The Ohio legislature is also discussing a sales tax holiday which could reduce the Public Library Fund by about $1 million per year. The legislature also came to agreement on re-districting reform. Doug explained that funds which the legislature allocated to townships was actually a re-purposing of funds that had been intended for grants to townships and not any indication that the legislature was increasing any local government funding.

Doug also distributed a graphic of the new OLC Strategic Plan draft and invited comments.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 10 meeting

Don Barlow motioned to approve the minutes of the October 10 meeting as presented; Ben Chinni seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented information about the current fiscal year budget, which looks as expected about half way through the year. The listed Office of Information Technology (OIT) charges are much lower than usual, because a change from monthly to quarterly billing introduced errors that have not yet been corrected by OIT. Stephen Hedges noted that OIT also changed some of the OPLIN global charges to charges assigned to specific libraries, which caused some initial confusion. He also reported that it appears as if total OIT charges will be reduced by about $3,000 per month, due to a decrease in bandwidth cost beginning July 1. Jamie then presented the actual and projected cash balance reports.

Stephen reported that OPLIN has just received word that their office building is under new management, which may affect the negotiations that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is about to begin for the next biennium lease.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the Board.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve maintenance credit for nineteen website kits

Stephen Hedges presented a list of nineteen (19) website kits customers who had been more severely affected by a Drupal security problem than the other website kit customers. Drupal released a critical security patch for Drupal version 7 late on October 15, then two weeks later announced that any website that had not been patched overnight had likely been compromised and would need to be completely rebuilt from backups done prior to their announcement. Laura Solomon did indeed detect evidence of intrusion in the Drupal 7 sites she had patched, so she and Karl Jendretzky worked with the libraries to make copies of all content they had added to their websites in the previous two weeks, and then rebuilt the sites from backups done early on October 15.

For the nineteen libraries under discussion, however, the October 15 backups were unusable, so those libraries had to recreate everything they had done on their websites since August 15, the date of the last usable backups. The backup system has now been repaired, but Stephen suggested that OPLIN also provide a year of free website maintenance and hosting to these libraries as compensation for the extra work they were required to do.

Don Barlow motioned to approve a year of free website maintenance and hosting to nineteen libraries as suggested; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

Stephen Hedges noted that none of the Board members present were employed by any of the nineteen libraries.

7.2. Approve RFP for outsourced Drupal theming

Stephen Hedges reported that Laura Solomon has been working on upgrading Drupal version 6 website kits to Drupal version 7 kits, which takes about a week for each library's kit. There are still thirty library website kits that need this upgrade, but Stephen proposed that it would be better to use Laura's talents on other projects and outsource the re-theming portion of the upgrade work, which is the part that requires the extended time commitment.

Stephen presented a draft Request for Proposals to perform the re-theming work and asked for Board approval, also noting that acceptance of any proposal would be much easier and faster under state procedures if the amount was under $25,000. Laura Solomon provided a more complete description of the work involved with the upgrades and the portion that would be outsourced. Jamie Pardee noted that such work, which would require specialized skills, was not available through any existing state contracts or IT Staff Augmentation through DAS.

Don Barlow motioned to approve release of the proposed RFP and give the OPLIN Director the authority to review proposals and enter into a contract for re-theming of thirty library website kits, as long as the cost did not exceed $25,000; Ben Chinni seconded.

During discussion, it was noted that outsourcing this one project allowed for more efficient use of OPLIN staff resources. In response to a question, Stephen clarified that the proposals would be reviewed by OPLIN staff. Stephen also noted that he hoped the work would already be underway by the Board's next meeting in February, since the contract end date had to be June 30, 2015, the end of the budget biennium.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

7.3. Approve State Library personnel policies, work rules, and payroll forms

Stephen Hedges called attention to the wording of Ohio Revised Code Section 3375.66(A)(5)(a), which states that the State Library shall prepare and process payroll and other personnel documents "that the board approves." While OPLIN has followed State Library personnel policies and procedures since it was created, the Board has not approved any of those policies since this language was added to the Revised Code in 2008. Stephen suggested that it might be wise to approve all existing payroll and personnel documents, which were distributed to the Board prior to the meeting.

Susan Brown noted that the Code language could be interpreted in more than one way, and Stephen agreed. Stephen also noted that the payroll document for recording work hours was restrictive when used by OPLIN, since it does not provide a place to log evening work hours. Several Board members noted that OPLIN staff are salaried, and questioned the practice of requiring a "time sheet" from salaried staff; this led to extensive discussion of how pay, leave and overtime is calculated for OPLIN staff.

Cindy Lombardo motioned that the Board direct the State Library and the OPLIN Director to make changes to the time log sheet to accommodate evening hours, and that the Board ratify the revised time log sheet and all existing State Library payroll and personnel documents for use by OPLIN staff; Susan Brown seconded.

During discussion, Jamie Pardee clarified that OPLIN staff are categorized as "overtime exempt" and are therefore expected to log 80 hours of work and/or leave in each two-week pay period.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, abstain; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

The motion passed with one abstention.

7.4. Approve revised 2008 teleworking policy for re-submission

Stephen Hedges explained that the State Library is writing a new teleworking policy; however, the OPLIN Board already approved a teleworking policy for OPLIN staff early in 2008 and sent it to DAS for approval, but never got a response from DAS. After discussing the situation with the State Library, agreement was reached that in this case, rather than following any State Library teleworking policy, it would be best to bring the 2008 OPLIN policy up to date and re-submit it, alongside the State Library policy, for DAS approval. He presented a new version of the policy with minor revisions for Board approval. Cindy Lombardo suggested a grammatical correction to clarify the meaning of one sentence.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the revised teleworking policy with the correction; Karen Davis seconded.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

7.5. Discuss Summer Reading Program software

Stephen Hedges shared an email he had received asking if OPLIN would be interested in hosting ReadingRecord software for libraries; ReadingRecord is an open source web-based application for libraries to track Summer Reading Program participants. Stephen pointed out that the Summer Reading Program is coordinated by the State Library, but OPLIN could work with the State Library on hosting this software if the State Library had any interest.

Board members were skeptical as to how much interest there would be among public libraries, since ReadingRecord would not replace all of the functionality of the popular Evanced products. Doug Evans suggested that feedback on this idea could be collected at the upcoming mid-sized library directors meeting, and Stephen agreed.

7.6. Approve expenditure for network protection solution

Stephen Hedges pointed out that acquisition of a network protection solution had already been approved at the last meeting, but he only recently received three quotes from vendors and decided to take the opportunity to again get Board approval, now that the costs were known. Since the quotes are from State Term Schedule vendors, no bid process is necessary.

Karl Jendretzky reported that he has been able to test the solution for several weeks and is very pleased with the performance. Both Stephen and Karl again cautioned that the solution would not completely stop a very large and sustained attack, but seems to handle "normal" attacks with no problem.

Karen Davis motioned to approve the expenditure for a network protection solution; Marty Beets seconded.

Karl Jendretzky explained the procedure for completing the implementation of the solution.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; and Becky Schultz, aye.

7.7. Approve 2015 OLC Convention sponsorship

Stephen Hedges noted that this request arrived after the draft meeting agenda had been distributed to the Board. The Ohio Library Council requests OPLIN Platinum Sponsorship of the Wi-Fi at the 2015 OLC Convention in Cincinnati. Stephen reviewed the history of OPLIN sponsorship of OLC conventions; OPLIN was most recently a $10,000 Platinum sponsor of the 2014 Convention, covering the cost of the Wi-Fi.

Susan Brown motioned to sponsor the 2015 OLC Convention in Cincinnati at the $10,000 Platinum level; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

Doug Evans informed the Board that the 2016 convention would once again be at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, where Wi-Fi is provided at no additional charge.

There was no further discussion of the motion, so the Vice-Chair called for a vote; all aye.

Doug Evans thanked the Board for their support. Stephen Hedges noted that OPLIN receives not only widespread recognition for its support, but also free exposition booth space, space for the Stakeholders Meeting, and space for the OPLIN Board meeting.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on contact between several Ohio organizations involved in digitization, including the Digitization Hubs, and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). DPLA wants all Ohio to work together and coordinate one connection to the DPLA. DPLA has just inaugurated an application process, so efforts are underway to organize a meeting of interested Ohio groups. He also shared his experiences as a panelist on a webinar sponsored by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) on broadband in American libraries. Finally, he reported on the progress of the E-rate workshops for libraries conducted by Lorrie Germann.

Stephen noted that he is interested in also providing a webinar for libraries on managed Wi-Fi, a point of emphasis in the new E-rate funding rules and a good way to gather valuable data, but he is reluctant to ask a commercial vendor to do such an informational webinar. He has, however, been in touch with a non-profit that supports managed Wi-Fi in schools, and asked how the Board would feel about sponsoring a webinar done by such a group. The Board felt this would be appropriate only so long as the content of the webinar focused on information rather than a promotion of the group's services.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura's online speaking engagements with a University of Illinois class and the Napa County (California) Library, his presentation to the Library Administrators Discussion Group, and his attendance at the final Connect Ohio Technology Association meeting.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that he and the OPLIN Support Center entered 140 orders in late November for upgrades to library circuits, meaning there are now about 180 active orders in process. Some of those orders are delayed by communication problems between the vendors, OIT, and OARnet. Karl also reported that some libraries have expressed interest in acquiring VoIP telephone service through the State, but OIT and OARnet have not agreed on how to implement the service within the OPLIN network.

Karl provided a status report on some other OPLIN services. A few new customers have recently requested OpenDNS service, bringing the total to about 100. He has been doing some work to optimize the SMS gateway, in anticipation of a large new customer; year-to-date, about half a million text messages have been sent to patrons through the gateway.

Karl has also been improving some in-house systems. The backup procedures have been revised following the problem encountered with the Drupal backups. The ticketing system used by OPLIN Support to track issues has been rebuilt.

Finally, Karl noted that peak core bandwidth use to the Internet is now just over 4 Gbps, with 10 Gbps available. He already has plans for upgrading the 10 Gbps connection, though that probably will not be needed for at least a year.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon had nothing further to report beyond what had already been discussed earlier in the meeting.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage continues to total about 20% less than last year. He paticipated in a discussion at the State Library about encouraging libraries to use database discovery services in their online catalogs; to the best of his knowledge only 26 libraries currently subscribe to such a service. Stephen also noted that he will be doing programs about the Ohio Web Library at all but one of the OLC Chapter Conferences next spring.

9. VICE-CHAIR'S REPORT

The Vice-Chair reminded the Board that the next meeting will be held on Friday, February 13 at the OPLIN office.

Doug Evans shared breaking news from the legislature, which had just passed the sales tax holiday bill, now estimated to reduce the Public Library Fund by about $500,000 next fall. OLC will be doing a webinar on legislative advocacy on January 20.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Ben Chinni the Board adjourned at 11:48 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SIXTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 10, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 10, 2014 by Board Chair Jill Billman-Royer at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); and Jamie Pardee (State Library).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair called for public participation, and there was none. Stephen Hedges noted that Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council) intended to visit the meeting briefly before it ended to offer remarks. The Chair will also allow public participation at that time.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 8 meeting

Don Barlow motioned to approve the minutes of the August 8 meeting as presented; Jamie Mason seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee reported on the completed Fiscal Year 2014 finances and the beginning of FY 2015 finances, which are on track to be generally the same. Regarding the Revenue/Cash Balance report, Jamie noted that the timing of E-rate reimbursements affects the balance on hand on June 30, but she currently anticipates a balance of slightly more that $1.1 million on June 30, 2015. Jamie also reported that the formal budget proposal for FY 2016-17 was submitted to the Office of Budget and Management the previous Wednesday.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Reconsideration of attack protection device

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion during the April planning meeting about the possibility of purchasing a device to keep library servers from being compromised by Internet intruders and used as part of a network launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on other targets. At that time, it was decided that good firewalls should be able to handle the problem.

Since then, there have been several instances of DDoS attacks in which a library was the target, overwhelming the library's Internet connection and knocking them offline. Stephen provided details to the Board, and reported that OPLIN and Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff believe that a Juniper DDoS protection device would work well with OPLIN's Juniper core router. Stephen also shared a vendor quote for such a device in an appropriate size.

Although the device can protect routers, it is primarily intended to protect web servers, and OPLIN website servers are also beginning to be targeted by aggressive probes for vulnerabilities. The device monitors Internet traffic to learn what is typical, and then takes action to limit traffic that is atypical when an attack occurs. As a byproduct of this monitoring, it provides detailed network statistics. Stephen noted, however, that an attack of sufficient size and duration can exceed the capacity of a protection device, and that it is possible that one of the recent attacks may not have been stopped by this particular device.

Marty Beets commented that he has some experience dealing with DDoS attacks in a previous private-sector job, and it is difficult. Jamie Mason asked if the device could stop probes and malware, but Stephen replied that the device is triggered by the amount of traffic on a circuit, not the type of traffic.

Doug Evans joined the meeting at 10:20.

There was also general agreement that action should be taken quickly, and that we cannot wait for the capital budget process to provide funds for a protection device. In response to questions, Jamie Pardee noted that OPLIN currently happens to have a fairly large reserve of funds that could be used for this purchase. Stephen suggested that OPLIN could also purchase a one-year license for now and work on a capital budget request for a long-term license later, but the Board felt this would end up being more expensive in the long run.

Jamie Mason motioned to authorize the director to spend up to $216,606 to acquire a denial of service attack protection device with perpetual license for the OPLIN network; Don Barlow seconded.

Susan Brown asked if OPLIN had broadcast any information about the attacks to the library community; it was generally agreed that it would not be wise to publish too many details of the attacks and our responses, but OPLIN should let the library community known that protection measures are being taken.

Don Barlow asked what the upgrade path to a larger device in the future might be. Susan Brown asked what would happen with the licensing in the event of an upgrade. Stephen will put these questions to the vendor.

The Chair called for a vote on the motion.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jill Billman-Royer, aye.

The Chair recognized Doug Evans, Ohio Library Council, for Public Participation.

Doug Evans thanked the Board for supporting the OLC Convention as the Platinum Sponsor, noting that he had received good comments about the wi-fi access OPLIN sponsored. The e-book video OPLIN supported, part of the eBook Access For All campaign, is previewing throughout the convention and will be sent out to libraries for their own use next week. OLC is hosting a meeting on October 22 with US Representatives Tiberi, Stivers and Beatty, and digital content will be one of the topics discussed.

Doug Evans left the meeting at 10:32.

6.2. Discuss Ohio Web Library marketing: survey results and comments, and OLC Chapters program proposal

Stephen Hedges presented the results of a just-completed survey of librarians regarding their use of the ohioweblibrary.org search and general Internet search engines. There were 362 responses to the fifteen questions, and 58 additional comments. Stephen noted that 50% of respondents do not use ohioweblibrary.org, and 21% were not familiar with the Ohio Web Library.

Frequent responses indicated that many librarians use their library's portal to the statewide databases and prefer searching within individual databases rather than using a federated search. Several Board members noted that reflects their experiences in their libraries, too. Respondents who use ohioweblibrary.org rated it better than general search engines for accuracy and trustworthiness, but almost half felt that general search engines have improved in the past few years.

Stephen noted that it makes little difference how librarians get to the statewide databases, so long as they know about them and know they are purchased by Libraries Connect Ohio. He has submitted a program proposal, "An exploration of ohioweblibrary.org," to all the OLC chapters for possible inclusion in their spring conferences.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss support for Hayes Ohio Obituary Index

Stephen Hedges described email correspondence from Becky Hill, Head Librarian at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. The Hayes Center is in the midst of redeveloping their entire website, including the Ohio Obituary Index, and wants to know if OPLIN would make a monetary contribution toward that cost in return for acknowledgement on the new website. The Index has already been incorporated into Ancestry Library Edition; when Ancestry users search for a name, they might get results from the Index, and clicking on those results takes them to the Index search results page, where they can either order a copy of the obituary from Hayes (if Hayes has it) or be directed to a Hayes partner library that holds the obituary. A similar arrangement is being offered with Ohio Web Library, or perhaps even better; Ancestry just gets periodic updates, so they never have the complete current index file.

There was no apparent interest from the Board in such an arrangement. Don Barlow pointed out that any such arrangement would involve sending public library funds to a non-public library. Stephen noted that the Index is now included in the genealogy sources on the ohioweblibrary.org resources page, which could result in increased traffic to the Index and possible increased revenue from the sale of obituaries.

7.2. Approve building and hosting an Ohio public library digital collections database

Stephen Hedges reported on a meeting with Lisa Long from the Ohio History Connection (OHC) regarding OPLIN's building and hosting a website for finding digital collections in Ohio public libraries. Lisa is working on a Library Leadership project that would include such a searchable directory, and liked the way the OPLIN Find-A-Library site functions. After further consideration, Lisa and OPLIN staff agree that a combination of the Find-A-Library interface and the ExploreOhio interface could be adapted for use in this project, assuming Lisa and her team are responsible for developing the specifications of the database that would support the search interface.

While Stephen noted that OPLIN's portion of the project could be completed in a few days, he also has cautioned Lisa that once the directory expands beyond Ohio public libraries, a different arrangement would need to be made for hosting the database.

The consensus of the Board was that this would be a valuable project, and OPLIN could build and host the database website so long as the data is limited to Ohio public libraries.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the activities of the Digitization Hubs, listing meetings since the last OPLIN Board meeting. The Hubs project communicates closely with the Ohio Digitization Interest Group, and has had conversations with the Digital Public Library of America, so a wide variety of digitizing organizations are aware of the project and interested.

Stephen announced that the presentation slides from the OPLIN Stakeholders Meeting at the OLC Convention have been posted to slideshare.net/OPLIN. He also highlighted Laura Solomon's service as a member of the OLC Convention Program Committee.

8.1. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are now 74 library website kit customers, and she has had inquiries from one additional library. The upgrades from Drupal version 6 to version 7 are progressing at a rate of about one per week, with 34 upgrades remaining. Drupal version 8 has been released in beta, but she does not expect it to be stable for a couple of years.

8.2. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that after working with EBSCO staff to develop a multi-step process to remove federated search statistics from the database usage statistics, he is including search statistics again in his report to the Board, and has used the new procedures to revise statistics over the last two years. He feels the usage charts now look more "normal." Nevertheless, they still reflect a gradual but constant decline in the usage of the Ohio Web Library databases. Considered together with the survey results he presented earlier in the meeting, Stephen thinks the databases may be a major point of discussion at next April's Board planning meeting.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

The Chair had nothing to bring to the Board's attention at this time.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jamie Mason and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:10 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 8, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:01 a.m. on Friday, August 8, 2014 by outgoing Board Chair Karen Davis at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Marty Beets, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz. Jamie Mason arrived at 10:15.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

Karen Davis congratulated Don Barlow on his selection as the Ohio Library Council 2014 Hall of Fame Librarian, and Jamie Mason on his appointment as Interim Director of Rocky River Public Library.

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Karen Davis informed the Board that the Executive Committee had met by phone on June 23 and now submitted a slate of Board officer candidates consisting of Jill Billman-Royer for Chair, Becky Schultz for Vice-Chair, Don Barlow for Secretary, and Ben Chinni for Treasurer. Karen asked if there were any additional nominations from the floor; there were none.

Karen Davis requested approval of the slate of Board officers submitted by the Executive Committee. All aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Don Barlow motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. There was no discussion, so Jill Billman-Royer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

3. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY2015

Jill Billman-Royer asked for a motion to approve the following schedule of Board meetings. All meetings except the April all-day planning meeting will begin at 10:00 AM and end about 12:00 PM. Meetings will be held at the OPLIN office, 2323 W. Fifth Ave., Suite 130, Columbus unless otherwise noted.

• August 8, 2014
• October 10, 2014 (at Columbus Convention Center)
• December 12, 2014
• February 13, 2015
• April 10, 2015, 9:00 AM (planning meeting)
• June 12, 2015
• August 14, 2015 (pending approval by the FY2016 Board)
• October 9, 2015 (pending approval by the FY2016 Board)

Karen Davis motioned to approve the proposed Board meeting schedule; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so Jill Billman-Royer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jill Billman-Royer called for public participation.

Doug Evans provided an update on the Ohio Library Council's (OLC) federal ebook project, "eBook Access for All," and the public awareness campaign supported by OPLIN. Doug shared the news that Macmillan has agreed to license their frontlist ebooks to libraries, the last of the major publishers to do so. The public awareness campaign already had a video and a website almost ready to inform the public of the ebook availability problem for libraries; now a new ending for the video will be created to shift the message to informing people that they can get ebooks at libraries. While pricing and licensing terms are still problems, and advocacy efforts will continue in Washington, these are not issues to motivate the general public.

Doug also reported on preparations to lobby the state government to return Public Library Fund (PLF) contributions to 2.22% of general state tax revenues. Information documents for legislators are almost ready, and Doug shared some of the library usage statistics from those documents. Michelle Francis has had good meetings with the legislators likely to be in House and Senate leadership positions next year. Doug also shared results of the recent elections for the OLC Board of Trustees.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 13 meeting

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. There was no discussion, so Jill Billman-Royer called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Don Barlow motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Karen Davis seconded.

Jamie Pardee reported on the completed Fiscal Year 2014 finances, and on the FY2015 budget, which should differ little from FY2014. Regarding the Revenue/Cash Balance report, Jamie noted that some significant E-rate reimbursements arrived after the close of FY2014, so E-rate revenue will look unusually small in FY2014, but unusually large in FY2015.

Jill Billman-Royer called for a vote on the motion to accept the Financial Reports; all aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

Stephen Hedges first took a moment to thank Karen Davis for her service as Board Chair over the past year, and noted that he had enjoyed working with her.

8.1. Report on the website kit workloads

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the previous meeting about the possibility of limiting the number of website kit customers, because it seemed that upgrades to existing kits' software were beginning to take all of Laura Solomon's time. There had also been discussion of the possibility of using some outside help with kit maintenance tasks.

Laura Solomon reported that on the newer website servers, she can now use an automated tool to handle Drupal security upgrades, which will save a lot of time. Some of the current website servers will need to be upgraded, however, before this tool can be implemented. As for migrating websites to newer versions of Drupal, she is no longer asking libraries if they want to make changes to their sites while she is doing the migrations. While doing changes concurrently with a migration seems like a good way to encourage improving websites, the extra work involved slows the migration process too much. These two process changes have improved Laura's work flow considerably.

Stephen also noted that OPLIN is no longer posting announcements when new websites go into production, which seems to have reduced demand. Jill Billman-Royer felt that OPLIN should be making such announcements to let libraries know what we are doing; the announcements could omit any type of recruitment of additional website kit customers. The rest of the Board was in agreement, so Laura will resume making these announcements.

Laura reported that there are now 73 website kits in use, and 42 of those still need to be upgraded to a newer version of Drupal.

8.2. Discuss marketing and focus groups

Stephen Hedges provided a document for discussion regarding marketing the Ohio Web Library, following discussion of this same topic at the last Board meeting, and discussion among OPLIN staff since that meeting. He proposed that the marketing goal was to make sure librarians know about these resources that are partially purchased with PLF money. OPLIN collects a significant amount of anonymous data about how the ohioweblibrary.org website is currently used, and it is clear that resources of personal interest to people are used much more often than general research resources; for example, Ancestry Library Edition accounts for over 50% of all items from the Ohio Web Library viewed in public libraries.

Stephen noted that the ohioweblibrary.org search site has been modified to improve the responses to some of the more common searches, but he speculated that the site might still be changed to highlight resources of personal interest to users, which would be a legitimate marketing activity. He also proposed that the best target for any Ohio Web Library promotions would be librarians. Stephen provided information about a 2001 professional campaign to market the "OPLIN databases" to the general public, which did not have the desired results. Finally, he noted that libraries seemed to prefer public promotional materials to which they can add their own branding.

Susan Brown asked if OPLIN had any data to indicate how many librarians were aware of the Ohio Web Library. Discussion turned to methods to gather such data, ranging from focus groups to surveys of librarians. Don Barlow noted that linking to Ohio Web Library from library homepages, something that is a standard feature of all website kits, would help increase awareness. Michael Penrod noted that it can be difficult to get small libraries to participate in either a survey or a focus group. Susan speculated that a good place to find librarians for focus groups would be at the OLC Annual Convention in October. Jamie Mason pointed out that the Chapter Conferences next spring might be a better venue, and there was general agreement and discussion of how best to do that.

Stephen will plan on doing a survey within the next couple of months, and will submit a proposal to the Chapter Conferences for a program that will gather librarian reactions and suggestions regarding the Ohio Web Library.

9. NEW BUSINESS — none

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on two recent meetings with Ohio Means Jobs (OMJ), starting with discussions between OMJ and Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) about LearningExpress Library (LEL) subscriptions. All of the content of LEL is available from OMJ through their contract with Monster.com. Because the OMJ site is much more useful for job seekers and students than the LCO subscription to LEL alone, LCO will encourage everyone to use ohiomeansjobs.com instead. The second meeting included Beverly Cain and laid the groundwork for OMJ training librarians on the resources available at their website.

Stephen also called attention to the recent FCC order modernizing the E-rate program. These major changes mean that the wait for a new Form 470 has delayed our usual schedule for requesting upgraded services for libraries. They also will necessitate much more E-rate training for libraries, so Lorrie Germann will be doing her Form 470 and Form 471 workshops at both the State Library and the regional library offices this year. Doug Evans has also offered the use of OLC's webinar capabilities to deliver the Form 470 workshop to a limited number of desktop computers.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Karl Jendretzky's trips to libraries for network troubleshooting, Stephen's visit to the Columbus Driving Park branch library opening, and a presentation about the Digitization Hubs to the Ohio Digitization Interest Group meeting at Columbus Metropolitan Library.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the many library circuit changes in the past two months, due either to upgraded bandwidth or moving them to a new 10 Gbps Time Warner Cable interface at our network core. He also reported that the new 100 Mbps circuit upgrades have exposed a considerable number of network problems within libraries, occupying a lot of his time. Karl also noted that Cleveland Public Library (and CLEVNET) will soon be the first circuit to exceed 1 Gbps, and he has identified some good hardware that will be needed to handle that large a circuit. Total aggregated OPLIN bandwidth at the network core now exceeds 4 Gbps. Many of the new upgrades involve OARnet as well as the vendor, which can create complexities that cause problems for a while.

Regarding the text-messaging service for library notifications, Karl reported that usage is still growing by about 25% a year. Use of the OPLIN OpenDNS filtering system remains consistent.

10.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon had nothing further to add to the information discussed earlier under Old Business.

10.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that as of July 1, he is not including search totals in the data provided to the Board. With the increasing number of discovery layer integrations between library catalogs and databases, as well as federated searches like ohioweblibrary.org, it has come to the point where the large majority of searches are initiated by a computer, not by a patron. That being the case, Stephen feels that search statistics have become meaningless clutter. The database usage statistics for July 2014 now simply show that 382,504 items were accessed by Ohio Web Library users, which is a 1% decrease from July 2013.

The Board had no objections to this change.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

 

11.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Chair Jill Billman-Royer appointed Karen Davis to the at-large position on the Executive Committee.

12. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to enter executive session to discuss the compensation of an employee as permitted by O.R.C. 121.22(G)(1), and invited Stephen Hedges and Jamie Pardee to attend the session; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Marty Beets, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jill Billman-Royer, aye.

The Board entered executive session at 11:20 a.m.

The Board returned from executive session at 11:36 a.m.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jamie Mason and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:36 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — June 13, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 13, 2014 by Board Chair Karen Davis at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Cindy Lombardo, Michael Penrod, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and David Namiotka (State Library); Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council), and Marty Beets.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Beverly Cain described activities at the State Library in preparation for the next round of Affordable Care Act enrollments.

Doug Evans provided an update on recent legislative actions affecting the Public Library Fund (PLF). A close estimate of the reductions to the PLF is being prepared by the Department of Taxation. Doug also reported on the resolution presented to Lynda Murray by the Ohio Senate.

As regards the Ohio Library Council's (OLC) federal ebook project, Doug described the June 2 field hearing in New York before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, which included some testimony about the problems of ebooks in libraries. The public awareness campaign will soon have a video and a website ready for use. Other state library associations are supportive.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 11 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the April 11 Board meeting.

Susan Brown motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

In the absence of Jamie Pardee, Stephen Hedges presented the Financial Reports for Fiscal Years 2012 to 2015 as of May 31. Stephen called attention to items in the FY 2014 budget that were one-time expenses, including the payment to OLC supporting ebook awareness, the 6-month purchase of Mango Languages and NewsBank, and the payment in support of the Digitization Hubs project. He also informed the Board that he would renew the contract with Lorrie Germann for E-rate support, but with five times as many workshops for libraries next year, distributed around the state; OPLIN also plans to pay a little more than $800 to extend the State Library's Webex contract to provide more seats for online attendees. Regarding the Revenue/Cash Balance report, Stephen noted that an additional $165,000 in E-rate reimbursements has been received from vendors since the end date of the report, and another $400,000 in reimbursements is expected soon from another telecommunications vendor.

Don Barlow motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Discuss firewall configuration on OPLIN routers

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that after discussion of network security at the April planning meeting, he had promised the Board more information about firewall software on OPLIN routers. Karl Jendretzky now reported that firewall software is already available on OPLIN routers and is put into use as needed. In some cases this software on the router has been used to replace outdated firewall hardware in libraries. Karl felt that this ad hoc approach to using the firewall software was sufficient for now.

6.2. Approve Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges provided a version of the 2014-2015 Strategic Plan for approval. Although the Board had requested no changes to the plan after the April planning meeting, Stephen made a few wording changes to bring some activities up to date, and now reviewed these minor changes with the Board.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the Strategic Plan as presented; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss limits on the number of website kit customers

Stephen Hedges reported that after Laura Solomon had worked the entire Easter weekend doing website kit upgrades, they had a conversation and agreed that not many more website kit customers could be sustained. Stephen recounted several ways he and Laura had discussed to limit the number of website kit customers, mostly involving refusing new customers after a certain number of customers had been reached, or on a given date. Stephen and Laura asked for the Board's opinion as to whether to limit the number of customers, and if so, how should it be done.

Board members asked questions about the nature of the work involved in maintaining and creating website kits, and speculated about ways to get assistance for Laura, keeping in mind that OPLIN staff is limited to five by the state budget. They also discussed the possibility of limiting the service to libraries that meet certain qualifications, such as size; Laura responded that a large majority of current customers are smaller libraries.

Jill Billman-Royer expressed reservations about putting more resources into the website kits, and questioned whether it was in OPLIN's best interest to grow this service any bigger, returning the discussion to ways of limiting the number of customers. Doug Evans pointed out, however, that there is an obvious demand for this service which would then be unsatisfied.

Cindy Lombardo asked how important the service is to current customers. Michael Penrod responded that for Wood County, it was an affordable, trusted solution to a problem; Michael also pointed out that for library staff their website kit has become the most conspicuous of all the OPLIN service.

Stephen promised to explore some of the options mentioned for allowing the website kit service to grow further, and asked that the Board continue to think about the question of whether or not it should grow, and this item of business will be continued to the next meeting.

7.2. Discuss marketing and focus groups

Stephen Hedges called attention to an email from OPLINlist suggesting that the Ohio Web Library could benefit from professional marketing, and also reminded the Board of brief discussion at the planning meeting about doing focus group sessions, which were last done in 2010. There is a professional focus group company in the same building with OPLIN, and Stephen asked what they typically charge, which ranged from about $3.000 to $10,000, depending on the services requested.

Ensuing discussion touched on whether or not focus groups would be effective, whether a graduate student could do a market study, the typical Ohio Web Library user, the role of the librarians in marketing, and the intended goal of the marketing. Stephen also described the differences between the OPLIN, INFOhio, and OhioLINK interfaces and marketing for the Ohio Web Library collection.

In response to a question from Don Barlow about users, Stephen skipped ahead to agenda item 8.3. Database usage and ohioweblibrary.org analytics to add information to the discussion.

Stephen described some of the information he interpreted from the Google Analytics of ohioweblibrary.org. For a variety of reasons, Stephen surmises that a big majority of users of ohioweblibrary.org are inside library buildings. Many of those users seem to be using the site for longer periods since the March 1 upgrade.

Beverly Cain suggested that Stephen might contact Dr. Jeff Fruit from the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science to find a contact at KSU who could provide some advice on the best way for OPLIN to approach Ohio Web Library marketing. Stephen will do that and also more research and bring that information to the Board at the next meeting.

Item 8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT, was postponed until after Item 8.2.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky began his report by announcing a new 10 Gbps connection between Time Warner Cable and the OPLIN core, and also reported on pending 100 Mbps circuit upgrades at about 40 libraries. Karl provided details related to a major outage of the AT&T network on May 28. He reported that the SMS (text messaging) service now sends about 9,000 library notifications a week from 94 libraries, at a cost of about $5,500 a year. The OpenDNS service now has 92 library accounts.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon noted that most of her report had been covered in the earlier discussion of website kits, but she did report on workshops she presented for the Southern Ontario Library Service.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that he met with State CIO Stu Davis and other Office of Information Technology (OIT) management to talk about the OPLIN network within the broader context of the statewide network plans; there was no indication that anyone wants to change the OPLIN network. Stephen also reported on the progress of the DataOhio legislation, which has been amended to provide a bigger role for the State Library and has been passed by the House committee.

Stephen also reported on efforts to determine the nature of Ohio Means Jobs access to LearningExpress Library content, since there may be an opportunity to combine the content licensing and save some money. iLearn Ohio has also asked about access to LearningExpress Library, prompting Libraries Connect Ohio to work with legal counsel to develop procedures that must be followed in order to stay within the terms of LCO's licensing.

Finally, Stephen announced that the Digitization Hubs project was still moving forward in a timely manner, despite the fact that one of the major vendors has gone out of business. The partner libraries worked together smoothly to overcome this setback, with significant help from Joyce Dodrill, Cleveland Public Library's counsel. The meeting of the Ohio Digitization Interest Group at Columbus Metropolitan Library on July 22 will feature the CML Digitization Hub.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Karl Jendretzky's on-site work at the Lima and Bellaire public libraries, Stephen's presentation of OPLIN information at the OLC New Directors workshop, and his presentation of the OPLIN resolution to Lynda Murray at her retirement reception.

8.3. Database usage and ohioweblibrary.org analytics

Stephen Hedges reported that two vendors have not yet provided May usage statistics, so he could not provide a complete database usage report, and the analytics of ohioweblibrary.org was previously discussed.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Karen Davis recognized Don Barlow to offer the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Sandi Plymire has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2008, and WHEREAS, she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for six years, and WHEREAS, she has provided superior leadership as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2010 through June 2011, and WHEREAS, she has unfailingly contributed her valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS, she has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout her tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS, her service as the Director of the Muskingum County Public Library gave her a valuable perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 13th day of June, Two Thousand and Fourteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize and acknowledge the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by Sandi Plymire during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to Sandi Plymire for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Michael Penrod seconded the resolution. All aye.

9.1. Executive session to consider the performance review and compensation of the director

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to enter executive session to consider the performance review and compensation of the director; Cindi Lombardo seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

The Board entered executive session at 11:38 a.m.

The Board returned from executive session at 11:55 a.m.

Chair Karen Davis offered the following resolution:

Pursuant to the duties and authorities assigned to the board under Ohio Revised Code 3375.66 section (A)(1), as confirmed by memo from the office of the Ohio Attorney General in June 2013, the board hereby fixes the compensation of the executive director of the network, Stephen Hedges, at $90,794 annually in recognition of constant exceptional performance during the six years since he last received an increase in compensation.

Don Barlow seconded the resolution.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Cindy Lombardo and second of Jill Billman-Royer the Board adjourned at 11:58 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Annual Planning Meeting

Minutes — April 11, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:05 a.m. on Friday, April 11, 2014 by Board Chair Karen Davis at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo (9:35 arrival), Jamie Mason (9:25 arrival), and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee and David Namiotka (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council, 10:15 departure).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Susan Brown motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Michelle Francis provided an update on Ohio Library Council (OLC) legislative activities. OLC Legislative Day on April 2 focused on lobbying for an amendment to the Mid-biennium Budget Review (MBR) to secure 2% of the General Revenue Fund (GRF) for the Public Library Fund (PLF), with testimony by Kim Fender from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County before the House Finance Committee that morning. Librarians received a lot of positive response from legislators that day, but the amendment was ultimately not added to the MBR, perhaps because the MBR also omitted the Governor's proposed reduction of the state income tax. There was also some concern that this would make the contribution to the PLF larger than to the Local Government Fund; both are currently at 1.66% of GRF.

Michelle also reported that the DataOhio suite of legislation is in the process of being amended. Stephen Hedges informed the Board of a meeting he, State Librarian Beverly Cain, David Namiotka, and Bill Morris (State Library) had with Rep. Mike Duffey, the sponsor of the bills. Rep. Duffey was very receptive to suggested changes from the State Library and inclusion of the State Librarian on the DataOhio board.

Regarding the OLC Federal Ebook Project, Michelle reported that the state legislature resolutions supporting federal action are moving along. She is hopeful that a hearing in the US Congress will be scheduled soon.

David Namiotka announced that the State Library had been named one of the 2014 Top Workplaces in central Ohio by Columbus CEO magazine.

 

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 14 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the February 14 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports for Fiscal Years 2012 to 2015 as of March 31. She noted that expenditures for FY 2014 are at or below targeted amounts and called attention to payments to libraries in support of the Digitization Hubs. Jamie reported that the budgeted numbers for FY 2015 will be adjusted in June based on this year's experiences. She reviewed actual and projected revenue and expenditure balances for FY 2012 to 2015.

Don Barlow motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Ben Chinni seconded. All aye.

6. DISCUSSION of status of OPLIN

Planning began with a discussion of the status of current OPLIN services.

6.1. Circuits

Stephen Hedges presented materials from the Federal Communications Commission and the State Educational Technology Directors Association regarding initiatives to increase broadband in schools and libraries, particularly targeting 100 Mbps circuits to each school and library. Stephen also provided a letter to the FCC from OARnet and a number of other Ohio agencies, including OPLIN, expressing interest in deploying more high-speed broadband in rural areas of Ohio, funded through the FCC Connect America program.

Stephen provided spreadsheets indicating that current plans call for 25% of main libraries receiving OPLIN connections to have 100 Mbps or greater circuits by the end of this summer. These upgrades are not driven by need so much as by pricing; new state telecommunications contracts provide 100 Mbps for a lower monthly cost than 10 Mbps under older contracts. Michelle Francis also noted that the MBR, as passed by the house, provided funds to Connect Ohio for increasing broadband availability in under-served areas of the state. This could be a good time to push for providing state (OPLIN) circuits to branch libraries as well as main libraries. Stephen estimated this cost would consistently be about $3 million per year; there was concern that this additional cost would come out of the Public Library Fund.

Stephen skipped ahead to agenda item 6.4. IT Optimization to add information about the Ohio One Network to the discussion. This is another effort by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to combine multiple state agencies into one network using the OARnet backbone, and Stephen has a meeting next week with OIT leadership to discuss how OPLIN might want to be included in this effort. Stephen suggested that, if the Board is interested, that might be a good opportunity to explore the possibility of adding library branches to the network.

Discussion shifted to the advantages and disadvantages of a scenario is which OPLIN would be absorbed by Ohio One, but branch libraries would also be provided with Ohio One connections. There were concerns about the level of support services that could be expected and responsiveness to libraries' Internet issues. Karl Jendretzky reported that OIT has had trouble providing timely services as they have grown and taken responsibility for more services. It was noted that OPLIN cannot be forced to participate in any OIT initiatives, so the Board's wishes are important.

Jamie Mason returned discussion to the federal initiatives to put 100 Mbps circuits in libraries and asked if OPLIN staff was hearing any demand from libraries for such service. Stephen replied that very few libraries have expressed interest in larger circuits than those which OPLIN would normally provide. The consensus of the Board was that neither the 100 Mbps circuits nor the connections to branches should be goals for the network at this time unless there are practical reasons to pursue them or demand from libraries.

6.2. Report from Content Advisory Committee

Stephen Hedges presented a report from the Content Advisory Committee meeting of February 19. The committee noted that the statewide databases are used by reference staff as well as the public, but remote access remains very important. Cindy Lombardo asked about standardization of usage statistics, and Stephen reported that the most consistent metrics used by the members of the committee to evaluate the databases their libraries buy were cost per use and number of remote usage sessions.

Stephen noted that the committee felt it was important to differentiate between free resources and paid resources, and suggested that the ohioweblibrary.org site should not intermingle them without some designation. Although the committee preferred some system to separate the two, Stephen reported that the recent upgrade to ohioweblibrary.org just removed free resources altogether to keep the site simple. The committee also suggested that OPLIN create a directory of database apps for mobile devices; several of the committee members preferred using apps to using the vendors' websites. The committee also noted that vendors should not be depending on librarians to market their databases for them; Karl Jendretzky commented that vendors should likewise automatically offer their apps to people who access their product from mobile devices.

6.3. Services support

Stephen Hedges reported that he had concerns about supporting some services, such as email, that libraries use everyday, but OPLIN support staff is only available Monday through Friday. After discussion, and noting that this is very rarely a problem, the Board felt that the current support arrangements are adequate. Discussion continued, however, as to the necessity of continuing to provide any email service for library staff. The Board recommended that the service continue for now.

6.4. IT Optimization/Ohio One Network

Discussion of this item already took place under Item 6.1.

The Board recessed at 10:35 and resumed meeting at 10:50.

7. DISCUSSION of possible new services

Planning continued with general ideas for possible new OPLIN services.

7.1. Attack protection

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of brief discussion at the last meeting of an increasing trend toward attackers seizing library web servers to launch attacks on other servers, perhaps because larger targets are increasingly well-protected. Stephen asked if OPLIN should investigate installing some central security device at the OPLIN core.

Karl Jendretzky argued that such a device would have to be very complex and expensive, and would only protect a relatively limited number of devices in the network. Karl suggested that it is more practical for libraries to install a number of smaller devices at the servers where needed.

Stephen asked if OPLIN should then be placing software or hardware firewalls on or near the OPLIN routers at the edge of the OPLIN network, noting that protection of the network is one of the objectives in the OPLIN strategic plan. In response to a question from Jamie Mason, however, Karl noted that the particular types of attacks we have seen recently look like normal web traffic and would not have been stopped by a firewall.

Stephen summarized the discussion to this point as: the current reactive approach to stopping network intrusion works well enough, there is no need to pursue a complex proactive approach. Karl did note, however, that installing firewalls on some routers would have other benefits, though that would increase the workload of OPLIN staff.

Stephen and Karl will prepare some detailed firewall options for the next Board meeting.

7.2. LOCKSS or similar fail-over network

Stephen Hedges provided some documents explaining "Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe" (LOCKSS) networks, something one of the digitization hub libraries had briefly proposed. These networks synchronize files in real time so that digital materials are always available for retrieval, even if the originating site is offline. While the digitization hubs rejected the idea because of the cost involved for the large files they will be creating, Stephen speculated that OPLIN might host something like a private LOCKSS network for other digital content created by libraries. Descriptions of existing private LOCKSS networks and their fee structures were presented.

Discussion returned to the digitization hubs and the cost of data storage. Were OPLIN to offer central storage, it would almost certainly have to be purchased as a service from OIT, which would be much more expensive than the cost if the digitization hubs expanded their onsite storage to house files from other hubs. For other libraries, a simple backup service should suffice. The Board therefore felt this was not a needed OPLIN service.

8. DISCUSSION of current Strategic Plan

Having completed discussion of background information, the Board now turned to a review of the FY 2013-2014 Strategic Plan.

Stephen Hedges noted that the first objective in the plan calls for providing "adequate" circuits to libraries, but because of current advantageous pricing, in many cases we will soon be providing much larger circuits than merely adequate to meet the libraries' needs; however, the Board saw no need to change the wording of this objective.

The objective about protecting the network may need to be changed in the future, depending on what is decided about firewalls on the routers, but this objective currently needs no changes.

Regarding the objective to offer website services, Stephen asked if the Board was still comfortable with charging a fee for this service, now that almost 30% of Ohio public libraries use this service. Considering the very low fees OPLIN charges and the fact that less than half the libraries use the service, the Board was comfortable with the current arrangement.

Cindy Lombardo asked how long it had been since OPLIN held a focus group; after some discussion, Stephen thought it had been three years. He noted that past focus groups have produced lots of positive feedback and few suggestions for needed services. The Board briefly discussed how to get better feedback. Stephen promised to work with OLC to try to set up an opportunity for a focus group at their October Convention.

Stephen encouraged Board members to feel free to suggest changes to the plan at anytime, but there seemed to be no need for changes at this point in time.

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:35 and resumed meeting at 12:25.

9. ETHICS TRAINING

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that they are required to have annual ethics training. To satisfy that requirement, Stephen distributed and discussed copies of the Ohio Ethics Commission publications "Helpful Ethics Guidelines for State and Local Board and Commission Members," and "Ohio Ethics Law Memorandum for Board and Commissions Members." He also noted that the Ethics Commission is very helpful and encouraged Board members to contact the commission if they had any questions about ethical activities.

10. OLD BUSINESS

10.1. Report from Nominations Committee

Susan Brown presented the report from the ad-hoc nominations committee, which included Susan, Cindy Lombardo, and Sandi Plymire. The committee was charged with recommending a replacement for Sandi Plymire, who must leave the Board at the end of June. The Board was provided with a list of nominees, many of whom had been nominated in previous years, and a spreadsheet of the demographics of current Board members. The strong list of nominees allowed the committee to focus on strengthening Board diversity, and they agreed that there was a need for more library IT staff representation. Having thus narrowed the field of nominees, the committee then considered recommendations received for nominees and decided to suggest that the Board submit Marty Beets, Technology Operations Manager at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, to the State Library Board for appointment to the OPLIN Board.

Jamie Mason pointed out that Marty would also be representing a metropolitan library system, another Board demographic that should probably be strengthened.

The Chair called for a vote on the recommendation from the committee that the Board submit Marty Beets to the State Library Board for appointment to the OPLIN Board. All aye.

11. NEW BUSINESS

11.1. Resolution honoring Lynda Murray

Stephen Hedges reminded Board members that the retirement reception for Lynda Murray will take place on May 16.

Susan Brown offered the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Lynda Murray was one of the four people who originally discussed the idea of creating the Ohio Public Library Information Network in 1993, and WHEREAS, she helped establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on OPLIN that developed that idea and worked to create OPLIN, and WHEREAS, she made the first successful request for state funds to support the OPLIN planning process, and WHEREAS, she guided the successful efforts to include OPLIN operational funding in all state biennium budgets beginning in July 1996, and WHEREAS, she immediately started working with legislators in 1996 to make OPLIN a permanent part of Ohio government, and WHEREAS, her efforts came to a successful conclusion twelve years later with the insertion of language defining OPLIN in the Ohio Revised Code in 2008, and WHEREAS, throughout her tenure with the Ohio Library Council she has been a steadfast supporter of OPLIN, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the OPLIN Board, on behalf of the current Board, all past Board members, and all members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on OPLIN, expresses its sincere gratitude to Lynda Murray for her outstanding counsel and labors on behalf of OPLIN since its very beginning, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Ohio Public Library Information Network Board honors Lynda Murray on the occasion of her retirement and wishes her well in this new chapter of her life. Adopted and recorded this 11th day of April, 2014.

Don Barlow seconded the resolution. All aye

12. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided updates on the Digitization Hubs committee meetings, the improvements to ohioweblibrary.org, lower rates for OPLIN Internet access costs, and the Big Data Futures conference.

OPLIN funds to match LSTA funds have been distributed to three of the four digitization hub libraries, and both the Oversight and the Technology committees have met. The project is beginning to attract a lot of attention from libraries and the digitization community in general, and at least two programs about the project will be presented this year. The interaction between the hubs continues to be very strong.

Stephen congratulated Karl Jendretzky on his complete re-write of the ohioweblibrary.org search page. While the site user will only notice subtle differences, the fundamental code now operates much faster and is easier to change and manage.

Stephen informed the Board that recent developments related to OPLIN's E-rate application will result in a reduction of our monthly Internet access cost from $8/Mbps to $3/Mbps starting July 1. He also reported that the OSU conference on "big data" was very good, and eventually resulted in the meeting with Rep. Mike Duffey concerning the DataOhio legislation that Stephen talked about earlier today.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Karl Jendretzky's work at the NEO-RLS office, and Laura's work on the OLC Convention Program Committee and attendance at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington DC, as well as his own attendance at three House and Senate committee hearings.

12.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that many libraries will see large upgrades soon as a result of the new state contract pricing, and this also means OPLIN will need to have larger connections to the vendors, so he is working on setting up a 10 Gbps link from Time Warner Cable to the OPLIN core. The process of filing the upgrade orders has been complicated, however, by a new service request tool that has been implemented by OIT that does not appear to be working as planned. Our orders for wireless Ethernet connections to the last of the libraries serviced by T1 lines are likewise delayed at OIT.

Karl noted that as more libraries move to 100 Mbps connections, we will need to think about upgrading our Internet access link from 10 Gbps capacity to 100 Gbps. We are currently only using about 3 Gbps, so the need is not imminent, but since the equipment will probably cost about $160,000, it should probably be considered for a capital budget request in the future.

Karl reported that 95 libraries are now using OpenDNS accounts through OPLIN, and everything is running smoothly. He rebuilt the SMS messaging system recently to work around some changes made by the provider (Trumpia) and to send out messages more quickly.

12.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that we currently have 76 website kit customers, but will lose a couple in June as they upgrade to even better websites. Fourteen libraries have purchased Summer Reading Program templates for their websites this year.

Laura also informed the Board that she will be in Southern Ontario next month presenting two full-day workshops to librarians on effective use of social media.

12.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges noted that the usage statistics are down this month compared to March 2013. Some of the reduction is due to loss of some resources that are no longer purchased for the Ohio Web Library, and EBSCO searches are down due to changes in their interfaces, though article views remained steady. Also significant, however, was a noticeable reduction in the usage of resources typically used by school students, which could be the result of many school closings due to weather in March.

13. CHAIR'S REPORT

13.1. Director's evaluation process

Chair Karen Davis called attention to the ratings grid used in the past to evaluate the performance of the OPLIN Director. Stephen explained how this tool is used and how results are tabulated for discussion at the June Board meeting. Karen asked Jill Billman-Royer to collect and tabulate the evaluations this year.

14. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jill Billman-Royer and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 14, 2014

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 14, 2014 by Board Chair Karen Davis at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow (10:15 arrival), Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Jamie Mason, Michael Penrod, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and Jamie Pardee (State Library); and Doug Evans and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Cindy Lombardo motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Doug Evans updated the Board on the progress of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Federal Ebook Project. Federal legislation has been drafted on tax incentives for publishers, working with Rep. Pat Tiberi. Legislation has also been drafted to narrowly expand the First Sale and Fair Use doctrines, working with Rep. Steve Chabot. OLC has been meeting with Glazen Creative Studios in preparation for a public awareness campaign, also supported by OPLIN funds. Lobbying efforts funded from other sources will soon resume. Other state library associations have been asked for resolutions of support from the library community; efforts are already underway in Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, and New York. In the Ohio Senate, progress has resumed on SCR22, which encourages Congress to address the ebook problems of public libraries.

Doug also introduced Michelle Francis, the new Director of Government and Legal Services for OLC. Michelle provided an update on the Data Ohio legislation, four bills (HB321-324) that are starting to work their way through the legislative process. The intent of the legislation is to increase government transparency. Michelle described the goals of each of the four bills. Library information is already more transparent than most, and is not likely to be affected by these bills, although HB322 does propose to create a more uniform accounting system.

Beverly Cain made the point that a great deal of information about libraries is already publicly available on the State Library website. She also announced two retirements from the State Library and current plans for replacements. She also called attention to the WebJunction Health Happens materials. Work continues on boundary issues in preparation for library levies.

 

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 13 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the December 13 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Michael Penrod seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 as of January 31. She called attention to new line items for payments to libraries in support of the Digitization Hubs, and to an Internet broker for assistance in securing a fiber connection at Rock Creek library. Jamie highlighted income of over $27,000 from website services.

Cindy Lombardo motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the board.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss amendment to Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN

Stephen Hedges presented an email exchange with a library that had inquired about offering Internet fax services to patrons rather than their current telephonic fax services, but had concerns that their library would be violating the OPLIN policy against charging patrons for Internet services if they charged patrons a cost recovery fee. Stephen had replied that it had never been the intent of the Board to force a library to offer Internet services at a deficit to the library, and that he would propose that the Board alter the current policy.

Stephen presented a proposed revision to the Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN that added the words "other than cost recovery fees" to the clause preventing charges for Internet services.

Don Barlow motioned to amend the Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN as proposed; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided an update on the progress of the Digitization Hubs. Everyone involved in the project joined a conference call on Feb. 5. Stephen traveled to Cincinnati with the newly hired Cleveland Public Library digitization project manager on Jan. 10 for a very productive meeting with the digitization staff there. Most of the current work involves trading ideas between the partners, as well as re-writes of the contracts with the vendors and requesting the necessary federal and OPLIN funds. In responding to a question about the grant funding, Stephen took the opportunity to point out that most of the cost of the project is the responsibility of the local library partners.

Stephen reported that the E-Rate application process is underway, but will not be completed until some new telecommunications contracts with the state have been signed. Stephen and Lorrie Germann have also agreed to discuss restructuring her E-Rate consultant contract with OPLIN next year, using the OPLIN office to complete some of the routine records-keeping tasks. Stephen mentioned that one bid received for Internet access has opened the possibility of acquiring that access from a commercial vendor rather than from the Office of Information Technology (OIT).

Stephen informed the Board of a meeting the Libraries Connect Ohio partners had with Controlling Board President Randy Cole on Feb. 10. to discuss improving the process of library requests to the Controlling Board. This seldom would affect OPLIN directly, but could potentially affect the Search Ohio public libraries, since requests for updates and changes to OhioLINK's library software often do involve the Controlling Board. Stephen also informed the Board that the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee will have their annual meeting next week, after which the new version of the Ohio Web Library search will be launched.

Finally, Stephen reported that OPLIN has begun the process with OIT to replace the current office phones with Voice-over-IP phones. Such phones would allow OPLIN to remain operational even in a snow emergency.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted the INFOhio BookFlix breakfast, where he was able to speak briefly with Chancellor John Carey and Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Ross.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky informed the Board of steps taken to counteract a recent exploit of Internet time server protocols that used library routers to launch Denial-of-Service attacks. Karl reported that he sees a trend lately toward targeting libraries as sites to host exploits, as larger targets implement measures to block such activity.

Karl also provided more technical details about the new version of the Ohio Web Library search. The search no longer uses the Z39.50 protocol, instead using various methods put together by OPLIN to return search results. OPLIN now has complete control over how the search works, and has included Ohio Digital Library ebooks, "hot links" for common search terms, and other features.

Karl updated the Board on recent activities involving the library Internet circuits. Some upgrades to install a new AT&T service that were ordered almost a year ago are finally being completed. The NEO Regional office is moving, and their circuit will now be a business class cable connection. Cuyahoga County Public Library now has a 600 Mbps connection that will be upgraded to a full 1 Gbps as soon as some engineering work is completed. Karl also provided more information about the Voice-over-IP phone service order.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that another library website kit has been put in use, bringing the total in active use to seventy-four (74). Meanwhile, most of her time is occupied with upgrading the existing website kits from Drupal version 6 to version 7. For the third year, she has worked with the State Library to design a special template that can be used to add Summer Reading Program information to a website kit, which OPLIN installs for a $50 fee.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that he has not yet received usage statistics for Ancestry Library Edition for January, so the statistics presented to the Board are calculated. In the course of doing those calculations, Stephen discovered that he had been reporting usage statistics for college and K-12 libraries as well as public libraries, so all previous Ancestry usage numbers have been corrected. The overall trend is still a gradual decline in database usage. The new version of the Ohio Web Library search will employ some caching of search results to improve response time, which may have a small effect on future search statistics, but will not affect the number of documents viewed.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Call for Board nominations

Chair Karen Davis asked Stephen Hedges to explain the timing of the Board nominations process. Stephen reminded the Board that the State Library Board appoints new OPLIN Board members at their June meeting, but the June OPLIN Board meeting this year is only a few days before the State Library Board meeting, leaving little time to communicate the OPLIN Board's recommendations. Typically, the OPLIN Board issues a call for nominations after the April Board meeting, but Stephen suggested it might be wise this year to call for Board nominations now and then decide on candidate recommendations at the April meeting.

Karen asked if there were any objections to calling for Board nominations now. Hearing none, she appointed Sandi Plymire, Susan Brown, and Cindy Lombardo to an ad hoc Nominations Committee to review nominations and present recommendations to the full Board in April.

9.2. Discuss April planning meeting

Chair Karen Davis asked if anyone wanted to discuss changes to the previous manner of conducting the April planning meeting. Stephen Hedges reviewed the general procedures and agenda items for the day. There were no suggested changes.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Michael Penrod the Board adjourned at 11:33 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FIRST REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 13, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred forty-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:01 a.m. on Friday, December 13, 2013 by Board Chair Karen Davis at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Jamie Mason, Michael Penrod, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Don Barlow motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Doug Evans updated the Board on the progress of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Federal Ebook Project. Lobbying efforts have slowed for the season, although work has been continuing with the staff of Rep. Steve Chabot, who serves on the House Committee on the Judiciary. A legal opinion, based on research funded by OPLIN, was filed in response to a report on copyright from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Meetings with media firms are being held in preparation for a public awareness campaign, also supported by OPLIN funds. In the Ohio Senate, committee hearings have been held on SCR22, which encourages Congress to address the ebook problem for public libraries; a lobbyist for the publishing industry has proposed amendments to SCR22, which thus far have not received any support from legislators. In response to questions, Doug said OLC has kept in touch with the American Library Association (ALA) as this project has progressed.

Doug also provided an update on the process of finding a new Director of Government and Legal Services for OLC, which is now in the interview phase.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 11 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the October 11 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015 as of November 30. After a brief discussion it was decided that future reports would include the payments to libraries for supporting the Digitization Hubs in the "Other Library Support Services" category. Jamie highlighted income of about $770,000 from E-rate reimbursements and $27,000 from website services.

Ben Chinni motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the board.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve sponsorship of OLC 2014 Convention

Stephen Hedges presented a letter from Lori Hensley, OLC, requesting that OPLIN sponsor Internet and email access at the October 2014 OLC Convention and Expo at the $10,000 Platinum Sponsor level. Stephen provided a brief history of OPLIN sponsorship of the OLC Convention back to 2007. The sponsorship would be acknowledged in Convention materials, and exhibit booth space and meeting space for the OPLIN Stakeholders Meeting would be provided at no charge. Jamie Mason noted that the Board would also need space for their meeting on Friday of the Convention.

Don Barlow motioned to approve a $10,000 Platinum Sponsorship of the 2014 OLC Convention and Expo; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported extensively on the progress of the Digitization Hubs project. On December 10, the State Library Board approved grants totaling $508,457 in LSTA funds to be matched by $251,964 in OPLIN funds that will be used to purchase equipment ($744,581) and software ($15,840) for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, the Cleveland Public Library, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library, creating a statewide network of coordinated Digitization Hubs that will digitize materials held by the institutions where they are located, but will also serve as regional digitization centers. Each library will also be heavily investing in space and personnel, as well as additional equipment, that was not included in the grant application.

Stephen mentioned some of the concerns expressed by the LSTA review committee, many of them related to the long-term effect of this project on statewide digitization efforts, which should be very significant. The Project Oversight Committee will be a non-governing group which should eventually include other Ohio institutions; this committee and the Metadata Advisory Committee will provide a venue for discussing and deciding best practices. Ultimately it would be ideal to have one online access point for much of the Ohio materials that have been digitized. Meanwhile, contracts for both the LSTA grants and the OPLIN funds have been sent to the four libraries to get the project started. The Board had several questions about timelines and committee structure; these will be decided more definitively once the Project Oversight Committee has met for the first time in January.

Stephen also reported on progress toward re-establishing the Content Advisory Committee. There are nine confirmed members so far, with the final member pending, and the first annual meeting is tentatively planned for February/March next year.

Stephen informed the Board that E-rate paperwork is now being collected from the libraries in preparation for filing the OPLIN E-rate application in a couple of months. The new procedures for handling circuit upgrades within the E-rate framework has resulted in difficulties in tracking the current and planned status of each library circuit, so Karl Jendretzky has built a new interface for the office that pulls library data from several separate sources into one place for viewing and editing.

Stephen reported that the new state system for doing employee performance evaluations is now ready for use and he will be doing staff evaluations before January 31. Finally, Stephen informed the Board of meetings going on in Ashtabula County between schools, public libraries, and academic libraries regarding ways to improve student success. Stephen feels these meetings may have important results and plans to follow their progress.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura Solomon's presentations in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Illinois. He also called attention to Karl Jendretzky's trips to libraries in Cadiz, Bowerston, and Dayton.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky provided more details about the interface Stephen Hedges mentioned that now makes it easier to track circuit changes. The timelines and planned events for such circuit changes can become complex and overlap to the point of causing confusion without such a system. Karl also noted that the current planned upgrades should replace the last of the old T1 circuits to libraries in about four months.

Karl also reported that he had purchased enough credits to keep the SMS messaging service operating for another year and a half, at a cost of about $4,200 per year and serving about 90 libraries. He reported that 88 libraries are now using the OpenDNS service provided by OPLIN, and he informed the Board that the Cincinnati public library should soon have a full 1 Gbps circuit, the third library in the state to have this size connection, followed soon thereafter by Cuyahoga County Public Library.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are now 73 libraries with website kits, with 67 of those in active use. Upgrading sites to Drupal 7 is underway but progressing slowly, since we did not find a student intern who could help with the process. She also described her work on the website for the State Library's Guiding Ohio Online initiative; David Namiotka provided more details about the initiative itself, which will use AmeriCorps personnel to provide technology training in rural libraries.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage continues to decline gradually, so he plans to begin more aggressive promotion of the databases. He also reported that many of the new contracts with database vendors have not yet been signed, due to ongoing issues with the transfer of fiscal agent duties for Libraries Connect Ohio from Wright State to Ohio State University.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Chair Karen Davis welcomed everyone to the OPLIN office; Stephen Hedges noted that it had been well over a decade since the OPLIN Board was able to meet at the OPLIN office, and thanked the State Library for hosting the Board meetings during those years.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jamie Mason and second of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:18 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED FORTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 11, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred fortieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:07 a.m. on Friday, October 11, 2013 by Board Chair Karen Davis at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Jamie Mason, Michael Penrod, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz. (Ben Chinni arrived at the resort but was unable to walk the distance to the meeting room.)

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee, Beverly Cain and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason motioned to approve the agenda as presented, but allow the Chair to suspend the rules and accept public participation at any time during the meeting; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Doug Evans updated the Board on the progress of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) "Federal Ebook Project" to ease restrictions on library lending of ebooks. Doug thanked OPLIN for financial support of the project and talked about drafted federal and state legislation. Legal research has been completed, so remaining OPLIN funds will be used to develop a public awareness campaign. Doug reported on lobbying activities, supported by other funds, which are encouraging; he expects major developments after the first of the year. Doug also reported on the search committee to find a new OLC Director of Government and Legal Services, following Lynda Murray's forthcoming retirement.

Stephen Hedges asked that OPLIN be notified of any plans to recognize Lynda Murray's retirement, since she has been so supportive of OPLIN from its very beginning.

Beverly Cain reported that the Ohio eBook Project and the SEO Digital Catalog will be combined to create the new Ohio Digital Library, involving 179 public libraries, on November 7. Beverly also reported on Ashlee Tominey's departure from the State Library and Evan Struble's promotion to her position.

Karen Davis introduced Michael Penrod, attending his first meeting as a new Board member.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 9 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the August 9 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of September 30; Report A covered fiscal years 2012 and 2013 for reference; Report B covered FYs 2014 and 2015; and Report C summarized actual and anticipated cash flow from FY 2012 through FY 2014.

The organization of Report B has been changed slightly. "Other Library Support Services" replaces the "Education, Training and Support" heading. This section will now contain all expenditures other than telecommunications and information resources that directly support libraries, including filtering support, E-rate assistance, and any equipment purchases supporting library services, such as email servers. All equipment expenditures supporting OPLIN office activities will be listed under the "Administration" heading.

Susan Brown motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Becky Schultz seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve Content Advisory Committee charter

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that they had reviewed a proposed new charter for the Content Advisory Committee at the August meeting and had discussed some changes, now reflected in a revised version of the charter. The current OPLIN Strategic Plan removed language about the type of databases which OPLIN should purchase, now delegating development of proposed database guidelines to the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee, which has been inactive for several years. The proposed new charter is based on elements of the old charter, examples of other committee charters, and portions of the previously-rescinded Electronic Resources Selection Policy.

In August the Board had noted that the committee is only required to meet once a year, so it could be a year before minutes of the last meeting are approved and posted, but during that discussion the Board generally felt that there was enough latitude in the charter to allow informal review and posting of the minutes before formal approval. At the Board's request, Stephen inserted language into the charter clarifying that committee recommendations should be submitted prior to the Board's annual planning meeting, and this is the only change from the version presented in August.

Jamie Mason motioned to approve the Content Advisory Committee charter as presented; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve financial support of Digitization Hubs project

Stephen Hedges reported that at the June 2012 Board meeting, following discussions started at the April 2012 Board planning retreat, the Board gave informal approval to supporting a statewide digitization project, at that time discussing the commitment of about $250,000 to $300,000 to match federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds to support expansion of the Cincinnati digitization project. Stephen now asked the Board to formally approve the use of OPLIN funds as a local match for an LSTA grant proposal. The current version of the proposal assumes an OPLIN contribution of a little over $260,000; LSTA funds amounting to about $500,000 should be available. LSTA funds and OPLIN funds would cover the cost of scanners and storage array hardware, while the four libraries involved in the project — the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, the Cleveland Public Library, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library — will likely make additional related purchases totaling about $140,000.

Susan Brown asked if individuals could have scanning done by the labs, and also if they would be restricted to certain labs. Stephen answered that the current vision would allow an individual to go to any lab, but depending on local policy there might be a cost-recovery fee. Stephen described some of the new digitization equipment which will be used in the labs.

Don Barlow moved the adoption of the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Ohio Public Library Information Network was established in the Ohio Revised Code for the purpose of ensuring equity of access to electronic information for all residents of this state, and WHEREAS, public libraries offer a wide variety of access to electronic information from public computer use to e-readers, but digitizing historical collections is often overlooked, and WHEREAS, public libraries are ideally positioned within their communities to also digitize and provide access to historical materials held by other local libraries, museums, archives, and the local communities, and WHEREAS, the major barriers to public library digitization activities are lack of equipment and software, lack of staff expertise, and lack of guidance in the form of policies and procedures, and WHEREAS, four metropolitan Ohio public library systems have initiated a "Digitization Hubs" project to overcome these barriers at regional digitization centers distributed across Ohio, and WHEREAS, this project will upgrade equipment and software at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, the Cleveland Public Library, and the Columbus Metropolitan Library, creating a statewide network of coordinated Digitization Hubs that will digitize materials held by the institutions where they are located, but will also serve as regional digitization centers serving other libraries, museums, archives, and the local communities, and WHEREAS, these coordinated regional labs will also insure consistent quality of digital materials and associated metadata, so that the digital materials created in these labs can be efficiently accessed by the public through the Internet, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 11th day of October, Two Thousand and Thirteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) commit up to $270,000 of available OPLIN funds to the support of the Digitization Hubs project, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) will also provide and maintain Internet circuits to each Hub location with sufficient bandwidth to enable data communications between the Hubs and public Internet access to the digitized materials, and if needed, will also provide a central web site for searching and retrieval of digitized materials. Adopted and recorded this 11th day of October, 2013. ATTESTED TO THIS DATE FOR THE OPLIN BOARD OF TRUSTEES Karen Davis, Chair

Susan Brown seconded the motion. The Chair put the question on the adoption of the resolution.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Michael Penrod, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that many of his current activities have been discussed already during this meeting, but he did talk briefly about the staff's work preparing for the OLC Convention, the Stakeholder's meeting, and the publication of the Annual Report.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Karl Jendretzky's trip to the Logan library and his own trip to Logan for the Digital Works center opening, and Laura's work as part of the OLC team preparing the Convention.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that circuit upgrades and contract changes have kept him busy; some of those upgrades will make use of the new Agile Wireless service, once Agile completes some E-rate paperwork. AT&T is working on a new state contract which should cut some upgrade costs. Karl also reported that the new email server has arrived and he will install it the next time he upgrades the email software, keeping the old server as a hot-swap backup machine. He also reported that he has been recoding the Ohio Web Library search to improve back-end functionality and compatibility with mobile devices; most users will not notice much difference, but the site's performance will be improved.

Karl described some of the changes currently happening at the State of Ohio Computer Center as part of the state's "IT Optimization" process and how he anticipates those changes will involve the OPLIN core router now that it has a 10 Gbps network card.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that 63 library website kits are in active use, with nine more in various stages of progress. Concurrent with that work, she is moving existing sites to Drupal 7, which is a major upgrade, and while doing that is working with the libraries to make their web design more responsive to various devices. This upgrade while take a long time, and she is hoping to eventually have a practicum student from Kent State University assist her. Laura also reported that she will be speaking in the next few weeks at the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA) conference, the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) conference, and at library conferences in Indiana and New York state.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that there was nothing unusual about database usage over the past two months, although he thought the statistics indicate that libraries are already reducing their usage of Mango Languages and NewsBank, the two resources which will be discontinued before the end of the year. He also reported that he had a conversation with a librarian at the Convention asking about overall usage trends, and has decided to publish the charts he distributes to the Board on the OPLIN website

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Update on personnel compensation request

Chair Karen Davis asked Stephen Hedges to update the Board on the status of Karl Jendretzky's pay increase following the Board resolution at the August meeting. Stephen reported that a Personnel Action (PA) was submitted to the Governor's office, along with the Board resolution and the memo from the Attorney General's office, on the same day the Board passed the resolution. The only way to change a state employee's salary in the state accounting system is through a PA submitted to the Governor. To date, there has been no action or response from the Governor's office, and there is no limit on the amount of time that office may hold a Personnel Action.

Stephen suggested that it could be more effective to have the Board write a letter to the Governor's office requesting information on the progress of the Personnel Action, rather than continued requests from him or the State Library, and Beverly Cain agreed. Chair Karen Davis will write such a letter on behalf of the Board and ask the Governor's office to respond to her.

Don Barlow moved that once the Personnel Action was approved, Karl Jendretzky's pay increase should be retroactive to August 9, but after Jamie Pardee explained that this was almost certainly impossible, the motion was not seconded.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown and second of Jamie Mason the Board adjourned at 11:09 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 9, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 9, 2013 by outgoing Board Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Joe Greenward, Cindy Lombardo, Jamie Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Jamie Mason reminded the Board that in June the Nominations Committee had submitted a ticket of Board officers consisting of Karen Davis for Chair, Jill Billman-Royer for Vice-Chair, Don Barlow for Secretary, and Ben Chinni for Treasurer. Jamie asked if there were any additional nominations from the floor; there were none.

Jamie Mason asked for approval of the ticket of Board officers submitted by the Nominations Committee. All aye.

Jamie Mason passed the Chair's gavel to Karen Davis; Stephen Hedges thanked him for his service as Board Chair.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY2014

Karen Davis called attention to the proposed Board meeting schedule, which in accordance with past practice set meeting dates as the second Friday of even-numbered months and extended beyond the end of fiscal year 2014 to October 2014, to allow Board members to plan ahead.

Susan Brown motioned to approve the proposed Board meeting schedule; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Doug Evans updated the Board on the progress of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) "Federal Ebook Project" to ease both budget and copyright restrictions on library lending of ebooks. OPLIN's financial support for legal research has resulted in a draft of possible federal legislation, which Doug distributed. OLC will also be pursuing a joint resolution from the Ohio legislature supporting federal action to secure library lending rights for ebooks. Doug gave a presentation regarding this project to other state library associations in June at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago and received considerable interest. Stephen Hedges noted that he and Doug will be reviewing the current contract between OPLIN and OLC now that the legal research is finished, and will contract for supporting development of communication materials, as the Board previously approved.

Beverly Cain reported that the State Library hosted a reviewer last week from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services evaluating the last five years of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funded activities in Ohio.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 14 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the June 14 Board meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

In the absence of Jamie Pardee, Stephen Hedges presented the Financial Reports as of July 31. For the first meeting of a new fiscal year, with new Board members, a complete set of reports was presented: Report A, covering fiscal years 2010 and 2011 for reference; Report B, covering the fiscal years in the just-completed budget biennium (2012 and 2013) and the new budget biennium (FYs 2014 and 2015); and Report C, summarizing actual and anticipated cash flow from FY 2012 through FY 2014.

Stephen pointed out the encumbrances in Report B for new office and Board furniture, which will total about $6,000 less than the amount authorized by the Board. He also noted that the amount budgeted for Information Resources will be reduced in future Reports by about $25,000 to compensate for the fact that INFOhio's budget now allows a larger contribution toward the cost of the Ohio Web Library databases. Finally, he proposed changing the heading of the section currently labeled as "Education, Training, and Support" to "Other Library Support Services" to make it clear than this category was for expenditures for any services that directly benefit libraries other than the Information Resources and Telecommunications; the current "Filtering" section of the budget would also be moved into this section. The Board agreed with this change, so long as the amount spent for filtering was still clearly and separately identified. Stephen noted that the new state budget still requires OPLIN to render filtering assistance to libraries, but no longer earmarks specific funds for this assistance.

Stephen noted that the E-rate workshops and consulting for libraries, which has been done in past years by eTech Commission employee Lorrie Germann, will now be done under a personal contract with Lorrie. The eTech Commission was dissolved in the new state budget and Lorrie was assigned to the Ohio Department of Education; ODE suggested the personal contract, since assistance to public libraries is not within Lorrie's new job description, and legal review of a Memorandum of Understanding between OPLIN and ODE for Lorrie's services would require too much time. Since this arrangement was suggested by ODE, the Board had no objections.

In reviewing Report C, Stephen pointed out the three-year trend toward reduced budget reserves and noted that additional fiscal restraint will soon be needed. He also noted that no funds have yet been received from the state for FY 2014.

Jamie Mason motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Approve Network Testing Service plan

Stephen Hedges presented two proposed revisions to the Network Testing Service document reviewed at the June meeting. This new service would allow OPLIN staff to assist local library IT staff with some network problem solving, to make sure local libraries are able to take full advantage of the bandwidth OPLIN provides to them. One version included only a minor change discussed by the Board at the June meeting. Stephen felt, however, that the document discussed in June was better suited as a description of the service, rather than a plan, so he also presented a possible reorganization of the document contents into an "Action Plan" format that was more suitable for use as a planning document.

Stephen reviewed the elements of the new service as proposed in the action plan, leading to additional discussion but no requests for further changes.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the action plan for the new Network Testing Service as presented; Cindy Lombardo seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Discuss Content Advisory Committee background and approve Charter

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that the current version of the Strategic Plan removed language about the type of databases which OPLIN should purchase, now delegating development of proposed database guidelines to the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee (CAC). Stephen distributed background information on the CAC, which was one of four advisory committees established in the earliest days of OPLIN, but has been inactive since early 2008. The background information also included a copy of the committee's original charter; some of the tasks assigned to the committee have since been passed to OHIONET by agreement, so a new charter will be needed.

Stephen presented a proposed charter, based on elements of the old charter, examples of other committee charters, and portions of the old Electronic Resources Selection Policy, which directed much of the work of the CAC but was rescinded by the Board in October 2011. The most notable differences from the old charter are: 1) the acknowledgment that the information needs of public libraries sometimes differ from the needs of Libraries Connect Ohio; and 2) the requirement that the committee meet as a "public body" under Ohio's Open Records and Open Meetings laws.

Susan Brown noted that since the committee is only required to meet once a year, it could be a year before minutes of the last meeting are posted, but the Board generally felt that there was enough latitude in the charter to allow informal review of the minutes before posting. Jamie Mason also pointed out that the committee should meet early enough in the year to be able to present recommendations to the OPLIN Board at the April planning meeting. Stephen clarified that the committee's recommendations would be presented to the Board by the OPLIN Director.

Stephen will make some changes to the proposed charter, based on the discussion, and bring it back to the Board for possible approval at the October meeting.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on a July 17 of the Libraries Connect Ohio directors with John Carey, the new Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, and he thanked Beverly Cain for arranging the meeting. On the same day, Stephen met with Dr. Tomas Lipinski, Director of the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University (KSU), during which the possibility of a practicum experience at OPLIN for a KSU student was discussed and Dr. Lipinski expressed interest in contributing some work on policy issues facing deposits of materials collected from the public to the regional digitization hubs project. Development of the LSTA grant proposal for that project continues on schedule, but the Ohio Historical Society has dropped out of the project and Columbus Metropolitan Library has joined. Stephen informed the Board of a new initiative from Connect Ohio, called Digital Works, which trains people for guaranteed telecommunications jobs; at the launch of the first site in Zanesville, Connect Ohio staff asked Stephen if some libraries now hosting Every Citizen Online training might be interested in becoming Digital Works sites. Finally, Stephen reported that OPLIN now plans to issue an E-rate Form 470 twice a year, to allow upgrades to library Internet connections without jeopardizing long-term eligibility for E-rate reimbursements.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura Solomon's presentations at ILEAD USA and the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI), and Karl Jendretzky's visits to libraries in Columbus, Fostoria, Louisville, and Alliance. He also noted that the Library Snapshot Day Committee, of which he is a member, has met and begun preparations for the 2014 Snapshot Day.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the work he recently completed building a new interface for the Sanborn insurance maps and described many of the new features. Stephen Hedges clarified that OPLIN purchased these maps in 2000 at which time they were hosted on an OhioLINK server, but recent changes in OhioLINK software altered the user interface for the maps and resulted in complaints. Rather than pay ProQuest $27,000 a year to host the maps, OhioLINK sent the data back to OPLIN and Karl built a custom interface. This interface has now been beta tested and enthusiastically approved by frequent users of the maps in libraries and state agencies.

Karl informed the Board that the SMS (messaging) service will require our second purchase of 500,000 message credits ($5,500) from Trumpia in a few months; the annual cost of providing the service is now averaging about $3,700/year. He is now working on adding location-awareness to Find-A-Library, so users can simply identify libraries close to their current location. Karl described some of his recent experiences beta-testing networks at library sites, and reported that the new network testing service should work well for libraries. Karl also provided more details about the new procedure for handling circuit upgrades by first issuing an E-rate Form 470 and why the change was needed in order to take advantage of newly negotiated circuit prices without forfeiting E-rate discounts.

10.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that she is involved now in a major project to upgrade all of the Website Kit sites from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7. This is a major upgrade from Drupal which requires a re-design on most sites so they will work properly on a wide variety of devices, a two-fold process; Laura hopes to have a KSU practicum student to help with this. There are now 62 website kits in use, and another eight under construction. Laura is also working with OLC to support the social media for the October convention; she also will be doing a presentation for the Indiana Library Federation in October, and possibly a presentation in New York.

10.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges explained changes to the previous report format to account for changes in the Ohio Web Library collection starting July 1. He also described changes in vendor procedures for collecting statistics that have affected the report over the past year and created difficulties in making meaningful comparisons. Over the last two years, however, the trend seems to be toward fewer searches but more document requests.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

11.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Chair Karen Davis appointed Jamie Mason to the at-large position on the Executive Committee.

11.2. October and December meeting locations

Karen Davis reminded the Board that the October Board meeting would be held at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, to coincide with the OLC Convention, and starting with the December meeting the Board will meet at the OPLIN office. Meeting times remain the same; only the locations change.

12. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Jamie Mason motioned to enter into Executive Session to discuss the performance evaluation of the OPLIN Director and the compensation of an employee as permitted by O.R.C. 121.22(G)(1); Susan Brown seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

Chair Karen Davis asked Stephen Hedges to attend the Executive Session.

The Board entered Executive Session at 11:30 a.m.

The Board returned from Executive Session at 11:52 a.m.

Cindy Lombardo moved the adoption of the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) provides broadband Internet connections and related information services to Ohio public libraries and was statutorily created as an independent agency within the State Library of Ohio (ORC 3375.64) with its own governing board, and WHEREAS, the OPLIN Board is entrusted to employ and fix the compensation of personnel necessary to carry out OPLIN's mission (ORC 3375.66(A)(1)), and all OPLIN employees are designated Administrative Staff (99580), and are exempt and unclassified, and WHEREAS, at their February 2013 meeting, the OPLIN Board resolved that the OPLIN technology projects manager is specifically a necessary position for the operation of OPLIN within the meaning of ORC 3375.66(A)(1) and is necessary to carry out the functions of the Board pursuant to ORC sections 3375.64, 3375.66, 3375.67 et seq, and WHEREAS, the Ohio Attorney General's Office has issued a memorandum to the OPLIN Board confirming that the authority granted to OPLIN by the General Assembly in ORC 3375.66(A)(1) expressly allows the OPLIN Board to fix the compensation of a technology projects manager, and WHEREAS OPLIN technology projects manager Karl Jendretzky (EmplID 10070313, PN 20010403) currently earns $64,584.00 annually, but has so far initiated and completed projects which realize documented savings to OPLIN of over $150,000 per year, and WHEREAS, during his six years as OPLIN technology projects manager, Mr. Jendretzky has added significant customer service tasks to his work, actively working with local library technology staff to help solve internal problems, a type of assistance that OPLIN had not previously been able to offer, and as a result has significantly increased OPLIN's customer service focus, NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the OPLIN Board, pursuant to ORC 3375.66(A)(1), fixes the compensation of OPLIN technology projects manager Karl Jendretzky (EmplID 10070313, PN 20010403) at $80,000 annually. Adopted and recorded this 9th day of August, 2013.

Ben Chinni seconded the motion. The Chair put the question on the adoption of the resolution.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Joe Greenward, aye; Cindy Lombardo, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Karen Davis, aye.

13. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Susan Brown the Board adjourned at 11:56 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — June 14, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:12 a.m. on Friday, June 14, 2013 by Board Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Susan Brown, Jamie Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee and Beverly Cain (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason announced that Karen Davis was ill and not able to present the results of the Director's evaluation, so there would be no need for the Executive Session at the end of the meeting.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the agenda as amended; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation.

Doug Evans updated the Board on the progress of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) "Federal Ebook Project," as they are calling the effort to ease both budget and copyright restrictions on library lending of ebooks. Doug thanked the Board for the first installment of OPLIN's financial support for legal research, which has been received and placed in a separate account at OLC. He provided a summary of research findings to date and reported that OLC hopes legislation will be drafted by September, although the process of legislative hearings and possible action may take several years. Ohio attendees at May's American Library Association (ALA) Legislative Day lobbied the Ohio congressional delegation for their support of the project, and OLC is pursuing a joint resolution of support from the state legislature. Doug will also be presenting information about this project at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

Doug also provided a brief update on the status of the state biennium budget bill. The Senate made only one minor change to public library funding from the House version of the bill to correct a drafting error in the transfer of funds from the Public Library Fund to OPLIN.

Beverly Cain noted that OPLIN Library Services Manager Laura Solomon will be presenting two sessions at the ILEAD USA meeting next week in Illinois. Beverly also reported that the State Library has just learned that their Guiding Ohio Online grant proposal, which will train Americorps volunteers to teach digital literacy through libraries, was successful. OPLIN will be hosting the website for this project.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 12 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the April 12 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of May 31. Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013; fiscal year 2012 is now closed and unchanged. As the end of FY2013 approaches, both revenue and expenditures in the current fiscal year are similar to what they were in past fiscal years, although telecommunications expenses may be a bit greater than last year. Jamie questioned whether the $81,000 earmark for filtering still needed to appear in future budget documents; Stephen Hedges replied that the earmark of a specific amount will not be in the new state biennium budget.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve revisions to Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented a document describing the changes to the Strategic Plan discussed at the April meeting, as well as a clean copy of the Strategic Plan with these changes incorporated. Stephen also summarized the April Board discussion of these changes.

Susan Brown motioned to approve the revisions to the Strategic Plan as presented; Becky Schultz seconded.

Gary Branson asked if the Content Advisory Committee needed to be better defined in the Strategic Plan. Stephen Hedges responded that his review of the current Content Advisory Committee revealed that most of the previous members are no longer employed in libraries; he therefore plans to ask the Board for separate action in August creating a new Content Advisory standing committee.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss draft Network Testing Service plan

Stephen Hedges presented a draft plan for a Network Testing Service, as discussed at the April Board meeting. Stephen reminded the Board that this service would provide limited assistance to libraries with internal networking problems that prevented them from taking full advantage of their OPLIN Internet connection, and he briefly described the types of assistance OPLIN would provide.

Jill Billman-Royer noted that the two-month time frame for completion of the testing and writing of a report could be too short. Karl Jendretzky responded, however, that it is his intention to put the results of testing into an email sent to the local library, rather than creating a formal report, and in that case two months is sufficient time. After discussion, the Board suggested that "report" be changed to "diagnostic summary."

7.2. Approve NewsBank contract extension

Stephen Hedges noted that the next two agenda items result from the decision by the committee reviewing bids for the Libraries Connect Ohio purchase of statewide databases for the next five years to drop some current subscriptions due to shortage of funds. Two of these subscriptions — NewsBank and Mango Languages — are heavily used by public libraries and many libraries are likely to want to replace them using local funds. Most public library budgets have been set for the 2013 calendar year, however, and replacing these resources beginning in July would be a financial hardship.

The proposed NewsBank contract would extend NewsBank access by public libraries and the State Library until October 31, after which NewsBank would work with libraries that want to maintain access using 2014 funds, at a cost of $100,000. The funds would come from OPLIN E-rate reimbursements. Because this contract and the proposed Mango Languages contract may also need approval from the State Controlling Board, Jamie Pardee explained the process for gaining such approval.

Gary Branson motioned to approve the proposed contract with NewsBank; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

7.3. Approve Mango Languages contract extension

The proposed Mango Languages contract would extend Mango Languages access by public libraries and the State Library until December 31 at a cost of $166,600. The funds would come from OPLIN E-rate reimbursements.

Gary Branson motioned to approve the proposed contract with Mango Languages; Susan Brown seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

7.4. Approve OPLIN office furnishings

Stephen Hedges informed the Board that OPLIN staff recently re-arranged their office spaces, during which it became obvious that much of the staff furniture was procured during the very first days of OPLIN and is now in need of replacement. The same re-arrangement of office space resulted in a open area within the office that is large enough to hold Board meetings, if Board tables and chairs are purchased. Stephen has done some furniture shopping and believes he can use Ohio Penal Industries and state contracts with other vendors to purchase new chairs and desks for some staff as well as Board tables and chairs for less than $20,000.

Sandi Plymire motioned to authorize the OPLIN Director to spend up to $20,000 to purchase furniture for the staff and Board; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.

Recorded vote: Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on his recent appearances before the State Library Board to request LSTA funds for the Libraries Connect Ohio databases purchase, and before the Senate Finance Education Subcommittee to provide testimony regarding a drafting error in the OPLIN budget. He also reported on his activities visiting the Ohio Congressional delegation during ALA Legislative Day in Washington DC. Stephen informed the Board of a trip he took with Karl Jendretzky to Cuyahoga County Public Library to discuss their network topology and an upgrade to their OPLIN connection; in the course of following up on this meeting, Stephen has decided to revise the current connection upgrade practices to make accommodations for E-rate regulations. Finally, Stephen reported on a meeting he attended where Ohio Rep. Mike Duffey explained the suite of legislation he plans to sponsor to promote open Ohio government data.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura Solomon's presentation at the OLC North Conference. He also made note of his attendance at the Worthington Libraries Community Breakfast and the memorial service for David Miller in Bowling Green, and his presentation at the OLC New Directors Workshop.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky announced the launch of the new Explore Ohio website, which makes use of location-aware services. Karl also reported on a number of problems with non-OPLIN state email and DNS services experienced by libraries, which he was able to help resolve. In regard to OpenDNS, Karl reported that there are now 76 accounts registered through OPLIN. Karl also reported that the SMS (messaging) service has 89 libraries actively using it.

Karl informed the Board that the first wireless point-to-point OPLIN connection has been installed at Puskarich Public Library and seems to be working well. He also reported that Columbus Metropolitan Library is considering changing to a different network topology offered by Time Warner, which may be of interest to OPLIN, too.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

In the absence of Laura Solomon due to a family illness, Stephen Hedges reported that there are now 62 live library website kits and eight more in various stages of completion. Those eight will be built on Drupal 7 and use responsive web design. Laura will soon be starting the process of making this major upgrade to all website kits.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that EBSCOhost usage statistics were particularly low last month, which significantly affected total usage statistics. The slump did not seem to be limited to any particular EBSCO interface or product.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Report from Nominations Committee

Representing the Nominations Committee, Gary Branson presented the committee's recommendation that the State Library Board be asked to appoint Cindy Lombardo, Deputy Director of Cleveland Public Library, Joseph Greenward, Director of Lane Public Library, and Michael Penrod, Director of Wood County District Public Library, to the OPLIN Board. This recommendation followed extensive discussions of the best candidates to maintain the diversity of the OPLIN Board.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to accept the recommendation of the Nominations Committee; Susan Brown seconded. All aye.

Gary also reported that the Nominations Committee developed the following slate of officers for possible approval at the August Board meeting: Karen Davis, Chair; Jill Billman-Royer, Vice-Chair; Don Barlow, Secretary; and Ben Chinni, Treasurer.

9.2. Resolutions

Chair Jamie Mason presented the following resolution to Gary Branson:

WHEREAS, GARY BRANSON has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2007, and WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SIX years, and WHEREAS he has served steadfastly as the Treasurer of the OPLIN Board since July 2010, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his exceptional opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS he has been a valued and active participant in Board activities, keeping the OPLIN Board focused on the goal of improving services to the Ohio public library community, and WHEREAS his service as the Director of the London Public Library and later as the Director of the Marion Public Library gave him an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 14th day of June, Two Thousand and Thirteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by GARY BRANSON during his outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to GARY BRANSON for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board. ATTESTED TO THIS DATE FOR THE OPLIN BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jamie Mason, Chair

Chair Jamie Mason also directed that the following two resolutions be read into the minutes:

WHEREAS, KARL COLÓN has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2007, and WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SIX years, and WHEREAS he provided exceptional leadership as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2009 through June 2010, and WHEREAS he has served steadfastly as the Secretary of the OPLIN Board since July 2011, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed outstanding opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS he has been an active proponent of OPLIN in many public library venues, including the Ohio Library Council Government Relations Committee, and WHEREAS his service as the Director of the Greene County Public Library gave him an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 14th day of June, Two Thousand and Thirteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by KARL COLÓN during his outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to KARL COLÓN for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board. ATTESTED TO THIS DATE FOR THE OPLIN BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jamie Mason, Chair

 

WHEREAS, JEFF WALE has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since June 2007, and WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SIX years, and WHEREAS he provided superior leadership as the Chair of the OPLIN Board from July 2011 through June 2012, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his valuable opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS his exceptional knowledge of technical issues has always been a helpful source of information for the Board, and WHEREAS he has been a steadfast and active advocate for OPLIN throughout his tenure on the Board, and WHEREAS his service as the Information Technology Manager of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library gave him an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 14th day of June, Two Thousand and Thirteen, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by JEFF WALE during his outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to JEFF WALE for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board. ATTESTED TO THIS DATE FOR THE OPLIN BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jamie Mason, Chair

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jill Billman-Royer the Board adjourned at 11:58 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BOARD RETREAT

Minutes — April 12, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:10 a.m. on Friday, April 12, 2013 by Board Vice-Chair Karen Davis at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Susan Brown, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Sandi
Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale. Jamie Mason arrived at 9:12.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee and David Namiotka (State Library). Lynda Murray (Ohio Library Council) arrived at 9:30.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation; there was none.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 8 meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the February 8 Board meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the minutes as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of March 31. Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013; fiscal year 2012 is now closed and unchanged. Both revenue and expenditures in the current fiscal year are similar to what they were in past fiscal years at this time.

Jamie Mason assumed the gavel.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

6. DISCUSSION OF STATUS OF OPLIN

Stephen Hedges started Board discussion with an overview of current OPLIN status and environment, beginning with a reminder of the OPLIN mission. Stephen also described changes to the way people interact with libraries and the Internet since OPLIN was started, and enumerated actions currently underway to move the final T1 library circuits to Ethernet. Total library Internet traffic continues to grow at about 30% each year, but lower costs for bandwidth have kept telecommunication costs within budget and recent upgrades to network core hardware should allow OPLIN to handle infrastructure demand for several years to come.

Stephen also reported that the Libraries Connect Ohio partnership remains active, and reminded the Board that other OPLIN services include technical support, optional Internet filtering, email for library staff, website kits, and text message notifications to library patrons.

The Chair now called on Lynda Murray to begin the discussion of ebooks in libraries (Item 6.3).

6.3. OLC work on ebooks

The Board first asked Lynda Murray to inform them of the status of budget negotiations in the legislature and she reported that it currently appears there will be no significant changes in public library funding from the language in the Governor's proposed budget. It is assumed that OPLIN funding will continue to be taken from the Public Library Fund in this budget and future budgets.

Lynda informed the Board that the Ohio Library Council (OLC) and the metropolitan libraries have begun to explore federal legislation to ease the problems public libraries experience with purchasing and lending ebooks. Former Congressman Zack Space has been contacting Ohio legislators in Congress to explain the problems, and the response from all of them has been encouraging. It has meanwhile become apparent that very little serious legal research has been done about the copyright and licensing issues that have allowed these problems to develop.

Stephen Hedges reported that he recently heard Patrick Losinski, Chief Executive Officer of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, describe the need for legal research at a recent OLC Board meeting. Stephen realized that it might be appropriate for OPLIN to use some E-rate funds to pay for legal research, as well as the costs of communicating the results of that research, since equity of access to electronic information such as ebooks is the core of the OPLIN mission.

Lynda noted that legal research is needed before Congress proceeds to any hearings on the library/ebook issues, and it is estimated that this research and development of communication and education tools would cost about $50,000. Don Barlow asked if legal research is an allowable use for public funds, and Lynda assured him it is. Don also asked if funds could be solicited from mid-sized libraries, and Lynda replied that since speed was essential at this point in the process, it would be better right now if fewer organizations were involved.

In response to questions from the Board, Lynda noted that the American Library Association has chosen to address the ebook problems by lobbying publishers, but they have no objections if Ohio public libraries want to pursue legal solutions. Stephen also noted that much of the day's discussion would revolve around best ways to use OPLIN E-rate reserves, and this legal research is one possibility. Several Board members noted that ebook problems are a critical issue for their libraries.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to commit $50,000 to the Ohio Library Council to be used for legal research and education in regard to library lending of ebooks; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Susan Brown, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

The meeting returned to the regular agenda order.

6.1. OPLIN mobile initiatives

Laura Solomon began by noting that many newer websites present themselves differently depending on the type of device being used to access the site. Recent upgrades to the base Drupal software have now made it possible for Dynamic Website Kits to employ Responsive Web Design (RWD) that tailors the look of the website to the appropriate device. Laura demonstrated the different looks of a website kit depending on whether the device used is a laptop, tablet, or smartphone of various sizes. In response to questions, Laura explained that the cost of upgrades is covered by the annual maintenance fees for website kits.

Karl Jendretzky explained work he has done while rebuilding the Explore Ohio search site to allow the website to take advantage of location awareness built into mobile devices and modern web browsers. Karl loaded geographic data for Ohio counties and zip codes into a database so users of Explore Ohio will now be able to limit their searches to websites of organizations near them. This functionality will next be extended to the Ohio Web Library authentication system to verify that users are located within Ohio, and the Find-a-Library tool, using the same base of geographic data.

6.2. Review proposed services discussed previously

Stephen Hedges presented a list of additional services to libraries that the Board has considered since the new services task force presented suggestions in 2011. Offsite data storage was offered as a service, but not used by any libraries. Supporting the creation of digitization labs is an ongoing project that will leverage LSTA funds; Jeff Wale provided some information about the challenges digitization projects present to libraries. Stephen also noted that at least $125,000 per year will be saved through new statewide telecommunications contracts, and the Board has discussed the idea of using this money to fund a two-year pilot project to provide limited subsidies for Internet costs of branch libraries.

Stephen also presented information about the most likely results of the Libraries Connect Ohio negotiations for the next five years of Ohio Web Library databases. The bid review committee recommended that statewide subscriptions to Oxford Reference, NewsBank and Mango Languages be discontinued on July 1, which could present a problem for public libraries that usually set their budgets for a calendar year. NewsBank has proposed an extension to the current contract to provide seamless access through December for libraries that subscribe in their next budget year starting in January. The Board requested more detailed information about usage of NewsBank and wondered if a similar contract extension might be worked out with Mango Languages. Further discussion was postponed pending retrieval of NewsBank usage statistics during the lunch break.

7. DISCUSSION OF STRATEGIC PLAN

Having provided background information, Stephen Hedges now presented a copy of the current Strategic Plan with highlighted areas he thought might need to be updated.

The Board suggested a few minor corrections and discussed some major topics. They felt that the limited financial support OPLIN might provide to subsidize Internet connections at branch libraries was not as helpful as OPLIN technical assistance with branch connections. There was some discussion of what OPLIN might do to assist with increasing use of personal wireless Internet devices in libraries and the security issues involved. This devolved into a discussion of increasing OPLIN assistance to libraries for configuring their local networks. Karl Jendretzky suggested that even a simple audit of local networks could quickly provide a lot of help for local library IT staff. Jeff Wale suggested this might be added in general language to the Strategic Plan, but a separate detailed service plan should also be developed. The Board also asked that the offer of rack space at the State of Ohio Computer Center for offsite data storage be removed from the Strategic Plan.

Regarding databases, the Board discussed the fact that some databases are more important to public libraries than they are to the entire group of Libraries Connect Ohio affiliated institutions. It was suggested that OPLIN might consider buying databases beyond those provided by Libraries Connect Ohio. Stephen Hedges recommended that the OPLIN Content Advisory Committee be revived if additional databases are to be selected for purchase.

In regard to other objectives in the Strategic Plan, the Board decided to make no changes to the current Dynamic Website Kits service. The Board also asked that the objective of moving OPLIN funding back into the General Revenue Fund be removed from the Strategic Plan.

The Board recessed for lunch at 11:50 and resumed meeting at 12:35.

The Board briefly discussed some NewsBank usage statistics which Stephen Hedges had gathered during the lunch break, and which apparently include usage of some newspapers not purchased by Libraries Connect Ohio. Some libraries would probably want to buy some newspapers regardless of usage. The Board asked Stephen to contact the libraries which use NewsBank the most to determine if there is any value to extending the contract.

8. ETHICS TRAINING

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that they are required to have annual ethics training. To satisfy that requirement, Stephen distributed and discussed copies of the Ethics Commission publications "Helpful Ethics Guidelines for State and Local Board and Commission Members," "Ohio Ethics Law Memoranda for Board and Commissions Members," and "Bulletin: Gifts and Entertainment, February 21, 2013." He also noted that the Ethics Commission is very helpful and encouraged Board members to contact the commission if they had any questions about ethical activities.

9. OLD BUSINESS

9.1. Status of employee compensation proposals

Stephen Hedges reported on ongoing communications with the Attorney General's office regarding clarification of the Board's authority to set compensation for OPLIN employees. Stephen reminded the Board that they had decided last October to request 4.7% cost-of-living increases for all staff. Stephen asked if the Board wished to revisit that decision for any reason; the Board still supported the 4.7% increase.

10. NEW BUSINESS

10.1. Resolution appointing State Library as fiscal agent

Sandi Plymire offered the following resolution:

WHEREAS, the State Library of Ohio has served as the fiscal agent for the Ohio Public Library Information Network since July 1, 1995, as specified under Section 69 of H.B. 117 of the 121st General Assembly, the biennial operating appropriations bill; and WHEREAS, subsequent biennium budget bills in effect until June 30, 2009 reiterated that the State Library would serve as the fiscal agent for the network; and WHEREAS, the Ohio Revised Code section 3375.66(A)(5) states that the board of trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network shall appoint the State Library of Ohio as the board's fiscal agent. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the board of trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network that: Appointment: The board of trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network hereby appoints the State Library of Ohio to continue to serve as its fiscal agent and provide all fiscal services described in R.C. 3375.66(A)(5)(a-e). Adopted and recorded this 12th day of April, 2013.

Jeff Wale seconded the resolution. All aye

10.2. Administrative Rule on Board eligibility

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that the wording of the Revised Code does not require a Board member to resign when they are no longer employed by an Ohio public library (with the exception of library trustees). The Attorney General's office has suggested that this could be remedied by establishing an Administrative Rule, and Stephen reviewed the procedure for doing that. The Board moved into a more general discussion of the procedure for removing members for malfeasance or other reasons. Ultimately, the Board felt that sufficient safeguards already exist in the Revised Code and that the rare instances when the Board would need to ask a member to resign could be handled as they arose.

11. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that much of his time recently has been devoted to the Invitation to Negotiate process for the Ohio Web Library databases. He also reported that he has reviewed the discussion from the last meeting regarding the possible policy of requiring libraries that have left the OPLIN network to pay the installation fee if they re-join the network. Stephen said he would not advise making this a part of OPLIN policy, reasoning that installation fees are really a normal cost of doing business for OPLIN, paid every time a circuit is switched to a new vendor.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his attendance at the meeting of the ETM libraries at Upper Arlington, his presentation to librarians from Kyrgyzstan visiting the State Library through the Columbus International Program, and two meetings related to the digitization labs project.

11.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that the installation and turn-up of the new 10 Gbps hardware at the OPLIN core went well, and he anticipates no further upgrade will be needed for about seven years. OPLIN's second 1 Gbps circuit to a library (Cleveland Public) is now coming online.

11.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported there are now fifty-nine live website kit libraries, with another ten in construction. Special graphics for the Summer Reading Program, which twenty-one libraries have purchased for creating a Summer Reading Program page on their website, are now being installed. In response to a question, Laura provided information about the process of upgrading all sites to Drupal version 7.

11.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that aggregated database usage continues to grow slowly, despite occasional changes to the way individual vendors report statistics.

12. CHAIR'S REPORT

12.1. Board recruitment

Chair Jamie Mason appointed departing Board members Jeff Wale, Karl Colón, and Gary Branson to an ad hoc nominations committee that will collect and review nominations for new Board members and report back to the Board at the next meeting. The committee will also develop a recommended slate of officers for the upcoming year. Jamie named Karl Colón to chair this committee.

12.2. Director's evaluation process

Jamie Mason asked all Board members to complete their individual spreadsheets evaluating Stephen Hedges' annual performance by May 31 and email them to Karen Davis, who will compile the results for presentation at the June 14 Board meeting.

13. ADJOURNMENT

Before adjournment, Stephen Hedges reviewed some decisions from the day's discussions:

• $50,000 will be spent for legal research on ebook lending;
• there will be no pilot project testing financial support for branch connections;
• OPLIN will pursue a plan to offer basic audits of local network configurations; and
• Stephen will gather more information about the need for an extension to NewsBank and report back in June.

On motion of Don Barlow the Board adjourned at 1:16 p.m.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIXTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes
— February 8, 2013

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:03 a.m. on Friday, February 8, 2013 by Board Vice-Chair Karen Davis
at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary
Branson, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Sandi
Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl
Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee, Beverly Cain, and Jonathan Campbell
(State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

Beverly Cain introduced Jonathan Campbell, the new
Executive Secretary to the State Librarian.

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Karen Davis asked if there were any changes to the meeting agenda.
Stephen Hedges asked that item 7.1, "Discuss Governor's budget," be
removed, since that discussion would take place as part of the
Financial Reports.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve
the agenda as amended; Karl Colón seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Karen Davis called for public participation.

Doug Evans gave an update on the Governor's budget for public
libraries and the upcoming OLC Legislative Day. Doug also reported on a
contingent from Ohio that will travel to Congress in late February to
talk to legislators about digital content in libraries.

Beverly Cain reported that the State Library budget is essentially
the same as the current budget, except that an unexpected removal of
funds by the state for IT Development support and mandated use of the
state email system will actually result in a small, unplanned decrease.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December 14
meeting

Karen Davis requested approval of the minutes of the December 14
Board meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to approve
the minutes as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

Chair Jamie Mason arrived at 10:24 and
assumed the gavel.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of January 31.
Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013; fiscal year
2012 is now closed and unchanged. Report C showed cash flow. In
response to a question, Jamie reported that cash flow and budget
balances were in keeping with what is expected at this point in the
fiscal year.

In regard to the Governor's proposed budget, Jamie reminded the
Board that the figure in the budget includes $2 million in spending
authority for OPLIN E-rate refunds, and that the actual amount of funds
drawn from the PLF is just under $3.7 million. She briefly outlined the
procedure for House and Senate approval of the proposed budget. At this
point, it looks like the OPLIN budget language will be almost identical
to the language in the last budget.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the
Financial Reports; Jeff Wale seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Discuss support for library
branch connections

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that at the December meeting he
had reported that he thought OPLIN could have
sufficient savings from lower telecommunications costs to fund a
two-year pilot project that would
provide limited financial support to public library branches that met
defined Internet connectivity standards. In the ensuing discussion, the
Board had concerns about OPLIN funding from the PLF, about defining
a "good" connection, and about how to account for users who bring their
own devices to access the Internet at the library. There was also
strong feeling that OPLIN should not in any way dictate the number of
public computers which a library should have.

While further
discussion will take place at the April Board Retreat, the Board agreed
to continue exploring more ideas in the meantime. It was suggested, for
example, that OPLIN might base the subsidy on either service population
or a percentage of E-rate reimbursement, rather than a public computer
count. Following up on those suggestions, Stephen determined that
service population is problematic, since that is determined by the
service area of the entire library system, rather than by branches.
Stephen also determined that publicly available E-rate data is too
general to be useful, but that so-called "Item 21 attachments" to
E-rate applications do provide the needed detail, and could be
requested from libraries as documentation to apply for branch
connectivity support.

Karl Colón asked if it would be possible to have any branch support
payments carry a notice that the funds came from a pilot project and
were not permanent, regardless of how the amount of support is
eventually determined. Jamie Pardee replied that state checks cannot
include a message, but a separate communication could certainly be
included with check mailings.

Jeff Wale speculated that there could be other valuable initiatives
OPLIN could fund with savings from lower telecommunications costs, such
as increased training for librarians. Doug Evans and Beverly Cain
assured the Board that they would be happy to work with OPLIN on
possible training initiatives. Stephen noted that there were a variety
of services to libraries and librarians which OPLIN might provide, but
that his hope would be to use telecommunications savings to further
support public Internet access in library buildings.

6.2. Discuss report on investigation of
outbound malware filtering

At the December Board meeting, Jeff Wale had asked if OPLIN could
investigate installing a central device in the OPLIN hub to prevent
virus-infected library computers from sending out malicious Internet
traffic, which could result in the library being
black-listed from the Internet.

Karl Jendretzky now reported that he and an engineer from the Office
of Information Technology (OIT) had investigated and tested several
possible solutions, but none would work because they require monitoring
the internal networks of the libraries, while OPLIN network activity
now stops outside the libraries' firewalls. While OPLIN could possibly
detect malicious traffic coming from a library, the only recourse to
stop it would be to block all traffic from that library, since OPLIN
would not have access to individual computers. That being said, Karl
felt that OPLIN might still be able to develop a way to detect problems
and then refer helpful information back to the local libraries'
technology staffs, and he plans to investigate further.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Amend OPLIN withdrawal policy

Stephen Hedges noted that the policy on libraries that decide to
withdraw from OPLIN was updated in 2007 to address the increasing use
of Ethernet connections as opposed to T1 circuits, but he recently
realized that the update had neglected to address the fact the Ethernet
connections are purchased under a term contract and that there are
financial penalties that result from disconnecting an Ethernet circuit
before the end of the contract term. He therefore presented proposed
changes to the policy to require that a library chosing to withdraw
from the network must reimburse OPLIN for any disconnect penalties that
result from early termination of telecommunications contracts for
network service to the library.

The Board discussed whether a library that has withdrawn and then
decided to rejoin OPLIN should be required to pay the installation fee
for the new network connection. There was some uncertainty about the
legality of such a requirement, so it was ultimately decided that such
a provision could be added to the policy as another amendment in the
future.

Karl Colón motioned to approve the
amended policy as submitted; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; Jeff
Wale, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

7.2. Discuss OLC Convention sponsorship

Stephen Hedges presented correspondence with the Ohio Library
Council concerning their practice of providing OPLIN with a free
exhibit booth at OLC conventions. OPLIN traditionally sponsors OLC
conventions at the "Gold" level, and Stephen had assumed a free booth
was provided to all Gold sponsors. This is not the case; OPLIN receives
a free booth because a decade ago they routinely paid for the
convention Internet connections, which could cost as much as $10,000.
Convention venues now routinely supply free Internet, but OPLIN has
still been receiving a free booth, unlike the State Library which
receives a booth at a reduced "partner" rental rate. Stephen therefore
asked the Board to consider paying both a Gold sponsorship fee ($4,000)
for this fall's OLC convention, as well as paying the partner rate
($250) for an exhibit booth.

Jamie Mason asked if many people stop at the OPLIN booth on the
convention floor. Stephen, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky all
agreed that they make a lot of valuable contacts at the exhibit booth.

Jill
Billman-Royer motioned to approve Gold sponsorship of the OLC
convention and booth rental at the partner rate; Ben Chinni seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; Jeff
Wale, aye; and Jamie Mason, abstain.

Doug Evans thanked the Board for their support.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that E-rate applications for the next
funding year are nearing completion, and some new contract offerings
may save as much as $120,000 per year in telecommunications costs
before discounts. He also reported on the progress on the Invitation to
Negoatiate for the next five years of Ohio Web Libray databases; bids
are due February 15. Stephen informed the Board that this year's Public
Library Statistics survey conducted by the State Library would for the
first time include questions to gather data needed by OPLIN. Finally,
he reported that the Department of Administrative Services Real Estate
division had visited the office as a first step toward negotiating a
new two-year lease with the landlord.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his
attendance at the grand opening of the Worthington Libraries Homework
Help Center and his Ethics Commission training.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that he continues to make improvements to
the SMS text notification system that libraries can use. About a third
of Ohio public libraries have at least tried it. He is also working
with Amie McReynolds on reorganizing the Explore Ohio website data. He
has installed some new intrusion detection tools on the OPLIN servers,
including those hosting library website kits. Karl reported that
Columbus Metro Library now has a 1 Gbps Internet connection. Finally,
he reported that the OPLIN network core hardware and firmware has been
upgraded to prepare for the switch to 10 Gbps Internet access.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported there are now fifty-nine live website kit
libraries, with another nine in construction. She spent a lot of time
recently making upgrades to the underlying Drupal software,
particularly the calendar functionality. Laura has also developed
special graphics for the Summer Reading Program, as she did last year,
which libraries can purchase for creating a Summer Reading Program page
on their website. The Board noted that the website kits service now
serves about a third of Ohio public libraries, and suggested that there
may come a time when more staff must be devoted to this service.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage remains strong, and
briefly discussed some recent changes to the way some vendors report
usage statistics.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Discussion of nominations for new
board member

The Chair requested a report from the committee that reviewed
nominations from libraries for the board position left vacant by the
resignation of Jason Buydos, which was sent to Stephen Hedges on
January 7. The committee presented a list of the names collected and
considered.

Karl Colón motioned to accept the
resignation of Jason Buydos, with regret; Gary Branson seconded. All
aye.

Speaking for the nominations committee,
Don Barlow nominated Susan Brown to fill the vacant Board position. All
aye.

Stephen Hedges will present the Board's
nomination to the State Library Board for appointment.

10. EXECUTIVE SESSION to discuss
compensation of an employee

Don Barlow motioned that the Board hold
an executive session as permitted by O.R.C. 121.22(G)(1) to consider
the promotion and/or compensation of a public employee. Jeff Wale
seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; Jeff
Wale, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

The Chair invited Stephen Hedges and Jamie Pardee to participate in
the executive session. The Board entered executive session at 11:45 a.m.

10.1 Resolution

The Board returned from executive session at 12:45 p.m.

Karl Colón offered the following
resolution:

Pursuant to the board's duties under Ohio Revised Code 3375.66 section (A)(1), the board finds that the technology projects manager is a necessary position for the operation of the Ohio Public Library Information Network within the meaning of Ohio Revised Code 3375.66(A)(1) and is necessary to carry out the functions of the board pursuant to Ohio Revised Code sections 3375.64, 3375.66, 3375.67 et seq.

Ben Chinni seconded the resolution.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; Jeff
Wale, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Ben Chinni the Board
adjourned at 12:52 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 14, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:02 a.m. on Friday, December 14, 2012 by Board Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Sandi Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason asked if there were any changes to the meeting agenda. Stephen Hedges asked that item 6.1 under Old Business be delayed until after discussion of item 7.1 under New Business, since the discussions would be related.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation.

Doug Evans had nothing to report from OLC. Karl Colón asked if OLC had done research on the impact any income tax cut might have on the Public Library Fund. Doug said he would send that information to Karl.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October 12 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the October 12 Board meeting.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the minutes of the October 12 meeting as presented; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of November 30. Report A detailed fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which are now closed and unchanged. Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013; fiscal year 2012 is now closed and unchanged. Report C showed cash flow. Stephen Hedges mentioned that the cash flow included some E-rate reimbursements that are requested every six months.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

Item 6.1, Branch connection for CLEVNET, was postponed until after Item 7.1.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discussion of support for library branch connections

Stephen Hedges shared his belief that OPLIN should have an interest in supporting Internet connections at library branch locations. Public computing at all library locations has become more important with the increase in e-government services and the prevalence of online job applications. Current Internet connectivity at library branches is inconsistent and in some cases unsatisfactory. If current budget and expenditure trends continue, Stephen thought OPLIN could have sufficient resources to fund a two-year pilot project that would provide limited financial support to public library branches that met defined Internet connectivity standards.

While the Board was interested in the idea of support for library branch connections, there was some discussion of how to define Internet connectivity standards and whether such standards would encroach on local library control. The Board was also concerned about the uncertainty of OPLIN funding in the upcoming biennial budget. Further discussion was therefore tabled until the April Board Retreat, by which time more should be known about the future OPLIN budget.

Item 6.1 from Old Business was taken up next.

6.1. Branch connection for CLEVNET

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that Cleveland Public Library (CPL) had requested an OPLIN connection to their Lakeshore branch to handle traffic resulting from their plans to construct a backup facility for CLEVNET libraries at that location. Stephen and Karl had discussed such "redundant" connections to major libraries with CPL quite a while ago, when the OPLIN Board was considering such a service. In light of the previous discussion about support for all library branches, Stephen suggested that he inform CPL that OPLIN had abandoned the idea of supporting a redundant connection at one branch and is instead evaluating the possibility of some support for all branches. By consensus the Board agreed with this suggestion.

7.2. Discussion of outbound malware filtering

Jeff Wale related a situation that occurred at the Toledo library that resulted in virus-infected machines sending out malicious Internet traffic, which in turn resulted in the Toledo library being black-listed from the Internet. Jeff explained how Toledo had solved the problem, but wondered if OPLIN could do something at the network core to keep similar problems from occurring in other libraries.

Stephen Hedges reported that some OPLIN library gets black-listed for malicious Internet activity a couple of times a year. Karl Jendretzky noted that monitoring the large volume of OPLIN data traffic could be technically difficult, but suggested that he work with Office of Information Technology (OIT) network engineers to explore possibilities for monitoring all outbound OPLIN traffic, or possibly just the traffic from a library that is having a problem with outbound malware.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that he has no news about the OPLIN budget since the email he sent all Board members after his October 18 meeting at the Office of Budget and Management. He expects the Invitation to Negotiate for the next five years of Ohio Web Library database subscriptions to be posted by Wright State University in the very near future. Stephen also reported that OPLIN is planning to test a wireless microwave connection to Puskarich Public Library, which may result in another possibility for connecting libraries to OPLIN.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his visits to SEO in Caldwell and the Pike County public library system, and Laura Solomon's visit to Geauga County Public Library and her presentation at the Indiana Library Federation annual conference. Stephen also noted the birth of Karl Jendretzky's son on November 1.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported he has been working with OIT to consolidate the remaining OPLIN T1 lines onto a single DS3 circuit at the core. He also reported that the Barracuda spam filtering device was replaced under warranty after he started noticing problems, and that he has had to rebuild the SMS notification software after that vendor switched to a new API. Karl reported that Columbus Metro Library is about to move to a full 1 Gbps connection, the first OPLIN "Gig" connection to a library.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that she is in the process of completing the annual software upgrades to the website kits, with the biggest changes this year being new software for handling library event calendars and a new way to handle file management. She also reported that she added a collection of high-quality images to the new file manager for libraries to use in their website content.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported on database usage, but noted that three databases were affected by recent changes in the way the vendors collected and reported their statistics. He regretted that such continuous changes make it difficult to evaluate patterns in database usage over long periods of time.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Discussion of nominations for new board member

The Chair initiated a discussion about open Board positions. Because of discussions with the Ohio Attorney General's office, the Board was not able to take any action in regard to recommending a new OPLIN Board member for appointment by the State Library Board. The Board expects to revisit this matter at their February 8, 2013 regular meeting.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:56 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 12, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 12, 2012 by Board Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Sandi Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee and Beverly Cain (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation.

Doug Evans encouraged Board members to register soon for the OLC Widen the Lens conference, since only a few openings remain.

Beverly Cain noted that applications for ILEAD USA are now open, which will involve five Ohio mixed teams of five librarians from at least two different types of libraries. Teams will work on using technology to improve patron services. The sessions will take place simultaneously in five states.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 10 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the August 10 Board meeting.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the minutes of the August 10 meeting as presented; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of September 30. Report A detailed fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which are now closed and unchanged. In response to a question from Jamie, the Board agreed that they no longer need to see these fiscal years unless they request them specifically. Report B detailed fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Jamie summarized these fiscal years, and noted that the FY 2012 report now reflects revenue and expenditure activity that was originally budgeted in FY2012, rather than being reflected in FY 2013 when it may have actually occurred, to make budgeting clearer. Report C, however, showing cash flow, reflects activity when it actually occurred, while noting the fiscal year in which it was budgeted.

Stephen Hedges mentioned that OPLIN had not yet received an invoice from OhioLINK for the first payment toward the cost of the Ohio Web Library databases this year, but he has asked OhioLINK to investigate.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jeff Wale seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Digitization project update

Stephen Hedges reported that he has been in contact with Kim Fender about the planned grant proposal to extend the digitization lab developed at the Cincinnati library to other locations across the state. A possible collaboration with OhioLINK for presenting the digitized materials on the Internet would not affect the need to first set up digitization labs. Kim is checking with other metro libraries to confirm their interest in hosting labs and will also draw up an equipment list. Beverly Cain confirmed that the LSTA grant application would not be due until next spring. Beverly also noted that the Ohio Historical Society has a nice digitization lab.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discussion of statewide IT projects

Stephen Hedges began by presenting background materials on statewide information technology (IT) projects in which OPLIN might join. He explained an August reorganization of OH-TECH, the higher-education technology consortium being developed by the Board of Regents. John Magill has been replaced by Gwen Evans as OhioLINK director. Ohio State University is now the fiscal agent for all components of this consortium, including OhioLINK. OARnet network operations and the Ohio Supercomputer Center have been combined, while OARnet research has been moved to a separate innovation lab associated with OSU.

Lynda Murray from OLC was in touch with Chancellor Petro about a year ago to talk about OPLIN working with this consortium. Stephen presented recent correspondence between Lynda and the administration about moving OPLIN funding out of the Public Library Fund (PLF) and including OPLIN in statewide IT consolidation projects. This correspondence has resulted in a meeting being scheduled on October 18 involving Randy Cole from the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), OLC, OPLIN, the State Library, the Board of Regents, the Office of Information Technology (OIT), OhioLINK, INFOhio, and eTech.

In order to provide the Board with background information relevant to discussions about including OPLIN in statewide IT consolidation projects, Stephen reported on OARnet, K-12, and OIT network projects.

Most of Ohio's universities are OARnet members, and they pay for their use of bandwidth. Portions of the OARnet backbone have been upgraded to 100 Gbps and connect directly to the Internet2 network, which entails significant additional costs for the universities. This upgrade project was scheduled for completion this month.

The K-12 network connects 3,500+ school buildings to the Internet. School districts get an average 6% subsidy from the state for their last-mile costs to connect to an Information Technology Center (ITC), then a middle-mile circuit connects each ITC to the OARnet backbone. Starting in 2015, the Department of Education will be looking for funding to support these middle-mile connections. K-12 and OARnet contend that this aggregation of circuits at the ITCs saves money. About 80% of school buildings have at least a 100 Mbps circuit, and the state proposes that all schools should meet this standard, at local district cost.

OIT's strategic plans call for "network operating consolidation" to save money. Their published plans are not detailed, except for a proposal to eventually cut the current 561 state employees that work on IT infrastructure to 200 individuals. OPLIN currently buys Internet bandwidth in partnership with OIT and pays OIT to manage OPLIN circuits, making OPLIN OIT's largest customer. Beverly Cain noted that OIT has just begun assessing a sizable "IT Development" fee on all state agencies, but has exempted OPLIN from paying this fee.

Karl Colón asked if incorporating OPLIN into IT consolidation efforts would affect the ability of the State Library to secure federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds. Stephen Hedges responded that since OPLIN is a line item in the State Library budget, reducing or removing OPLIN funds from the SLO budget would also reduce the state match for federal funds and result in less LSTA money. Beverly Cain noted that participants in the upcoming meeting are aware of this problem.

Doug Evans explained that one of OLC's goals is to move OPLIN funding out of the PLF, but without reducing the PLF by a corresponding amount. They also want to maintain the OPLIN governance, and are very interested in providing financial support for branch connections. None of Lynda's dealings with the administration have yet dealt with the technical specifics of accomplishing these goals, but financial discussions have been promising.

Discussion turned to whether or not the OPLIN Board would be effective if it were to become an advisory board. It was noted that policy decisions and the evaluation of the OPLIN Director and OPLIN services may not be within the purview of an advisory board. Karl Colón noted, however, that ultimately the question is, how would changing OPLIN benefit the public? Other questions, like the role of the Board, are secondary. That being said, Board members noted that in some circumstances, a loss of control by the Board could result in less robust service to public libraries and the public they serve.

The Board felt that they needed to see some specific proposals before they could provide meaningful guidance. On the other hand, they were aware that there may be a need for some quick decisions in order to accomplish changes within the budget timeline.

Jamie Mason directed Stephen to communicate at least weekly with the Executive Committee and provide information about efforts to incorporate OPLIN into statewide IT consolidation projects.

Karl Colón was excused from the meeting with the consent of the Board at 11:05 to attend the OLC Government Relations Committee meeting.

7.2. Branch connection for CLEVNET

Stephen Hedges reported that OPLIN has been approached by the CLEVNET consortium with a request to pay for a large connection to the Cleveland Public Library's Lakeshore facility. Cleveland was the only metro library to express serious interest last year in OPLIN's proposal to provide redundant Internet connections to large libraries. They now plan to develop a backup center at Lakeshore for CLEVNET libraries and have asked if OPLIN would pay for the Internet connection there. Stephen has replied that OPLIN may be undergoing some changes, including possibly providing some support to all libraries for branch connections, but promised to ask the Board if they want to respond to the request or postpone action until more is known about OPLIN's future within statewide networks.

The Board made no motion to act on the CLEVNET request, preferring to wait until they had more information.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that he and State Library Board President Steve Wood had traveled to Topeka at the invitation of Kansas State Librarian Jo Budler to talk about OPLIN as part of a planning session on ways to provide broadband connections to libraries. The Kansas legislature has directed that all schools, libraries and hospitals with a state KAN-ED Internet connection move to a commercial broadband Internet connection by June 30, 2013. Stephen also reported that the committee that will work on the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for the next five years of Ohio Web Library databases met for the first time on August 27, and also that OPLIN has contracted with Time Warner Cable for some "Type II" connections that are not covered by state contracts in order to replace some of the few remaining T1 lines. Stephen also reported that Gov. Kasich has signed a resolution making October Information Literacy Month.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his travel to Cleveland Heights for the ETM Libraries meeting, Karl Jendretzky's travel to Cincinnati to work on network equipment at the library and the SWON office, and a meeting with OIT and AT&T to discuss ongoing problems with the Columbus library connection.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that all the Juniper routers except a few that need special configuration have been installed, and also that parts for the 10 Gbps upgrade of the core router have started to arrive. A new website kits server has been launched to handle new library websites. At the SWON office in Cincinnati, OPLIN and OIT are testing a Time Warner Cable coaxial business class type of connection, which could possibly be used for the smallest public libraries if all the networking issues can be resolved. Karl also reported that the Barracuda spam filter license has been renewed for the fourth year; the filter is blocking about 66,000 spam emails a day, at a cost of about $1 per user per year. Karl also mentioned that he has had to do some upgrading to the SMS service, prompted by automated messages generated by some library automation software which should not be sent as text messages to a cellphone.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are 53 dynamic website kits in production and 14 more in development, so OPLIN is providing website services for over a fourth of the public libraries. In November, upgrades will be made to all kits, providing new events management and file upload capabilities, as well as direct links to the help manual. Laura is also going to pre-load website kits with a supply of high-quality graphics to discourage librarians from inserting low-quality clipart into their web pages.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that database usage declined slightly compared to a year ago, and that this statistic is now accurate, since we have had the Mango Languages and the Ancestry databases for more than a year now.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Nomination process for Board member replacement

Jamie Mason appointed Don Barlow, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz to a Nomination Committee that will work with Stephen Hedges to fill Jason Buydos' term on the Board. The bylaws permit this committee to recommend a candidate for appointment directly to the State Library Board, which will meet on December 11 and can appoint a new Board member to start at the December 14 OPLIN Board meeting. Jamie asked the Nominations Committee to share their choice with the Executive Committee before sending it to the State Library Board.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jeff Wale the Board adjourned at 11:34 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — August 10, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-third meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 10, 2012 by Board Vice-Chair Jamie Mason at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, and Sandi Plymire.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); and Jamie Pardee and David Namiotka (State Library).

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Jamie Mason reminded the Board of the suggested slate of officers proposed by the Executive Committee at the last meeting, but also noted that due to a subsequent change in employment status, Jason Buydos was not eligible to serve on the Board at this time. Jamie called for nominations from the floor for Vice-Chair. Gary Branson nominated Karen Davis, making the suggested slate of officers: Jamie Mason, Chair; Karen Davis, Vice-Chair; Karl Colón, Secretary; and Gary Branson, Treasurer.

Don Barlow motioned to close the nominations; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

Jamie Mason called for approval of the slate of officers. All aye.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2013

Jamie Mason called attention to the proposed Board meeting schedule, which in accordance with past practice set meeting dates as the second Friday of even-numbered months and extended beyond the end of fiscal year 2013 to October 2013, to allow Board members to plan ahead.

Stephen Hedges pointed out that the proposed October 11,2013 date fell on the last day of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky. The consensus of the Board was to keep that meeting date and move the meeting to Sandusky.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the proposed Board meeting schedule; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason called for public participation; there was none.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 8 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the June 8 Board meeting.

Gary Branson explained that on further reflection, he felt he should have abstained from the vote on the website kit pricing. After discussion, the Board noted that changing this one vote would not affect the outcome of the decision.

Karl Colón motioned to approve the minutes of the June 8 meeting as amended; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of July 31. Report A detailed fiscal years 2010 and 2011, which are now closed and unchanged. In Report B, FY 2012 is also closed; any future changes will be reflected in FY 2013. Report C showed a June 30, 2012 cash balance of $2.7 million.

Jamie then provided an overview of the FY 2014-2015 budget request process, which has started. Agencies drawing funds from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) have been instructed to request 90% of the FY 2013 funding, agencies drawing funds from other sources may request 100%. In both cases, agencies may also submit justified requests for an additional 10%.

Stephen Hedges reported that in drafting the OPLIN request and answering the required questions from the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), he has placed a lot of emphasis on the Board's desire for OPLIN funding to return to the GRF. In budget planning meetings, he had even proposed at one point to prepare a 90% "GRF" budget. Subsequent feedback that Jamie has received from OBM has indicated, however, that they will not move OPLIN funding from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to the GRF. Since it now appears that a change in OPLIN funding would have to be done through the legislature, Stephen and Jamie will submit a 100% budget request to OBM.

Stephen also asked the Board if they wanted to request cost-of-living salary increases for OPLIN staff. The last time OPLIN salaries were increased was August 2008, and Stephen reported that between then and June 2012 the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 4.7%. The Board discussion established that they were concerned about OPLIN staff leaving for jobs that provided better compensation. Jamie Pardee assured the Board that sufficient funds are available, since staff salaries are such a small percentage of the total OPLIN budget.

Karl Colón motioned to request 4% increases in all OPLIN staff salaries in the next fiscal year; Ben Chinni seconded.

In further discussion, Don Barlow made the point that the Board had CPI data to support a request for 4.7% salary increases to counteract the effect of increased living costs. Jamie Mason asked if there was any objection to adopting this amendment to the original motion and there was none.

The motion as now amended: to request 4.7% increases in all OPLIN staff salaries in the next fiscal year.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

Karen Davis motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Resume discussion of Extending OPLIN policy

Stephen Hedges presented the two draft policies regarding extending an OPLIN Internet connection to non-library entities that were tabled from the last meeting. These drafts described two different ways of charging a library for extra connection costs involved if the library wanted to share its OPLIN connection. Stephen also added a new, third version which essentially only changed references to "public libraries" to "OPLIN participants" and cleaned up some minor language.

The Board speculated extensively on various reasons for a library to share their OPLIN connection and legal issues that might be raised. While the Board was generally sympathetic to the possibility of libraries sharing their connection, they were concerned about the complexities of detecting, measuring, and invoicing extra connection costs, and the likelihood that not many libraries would have a desire to share their connection.

Gary Branson motioned to approve the third version; Karl Colón seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

9. NEW BUSINESS

9.1. 10 Gbps card for Juniper core router

Stephen Hedges explained that the OPLIN core router at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) uses a complex system of combined port channels to connect to the state's "edge" router that passes all state government traffic to the Internet. This amalgamated connection can supposedly carry 4 Gbps, but Karl Jendretzky and Terry Fouts (Office of Information Technology) have never been able to verify that, and the usage charts seem to indicate that this connection might only be able to handle about 2 Gbps. The surer way to make this connection is with a network card, and the appropriate size would be 10 Gbps. Installation of such a card would remove the weakest link remaining in our network. From the quotes OPLIN has received to date, the cost would be about $55,000.

Karl Jendretzky noted that this is both the most complicated and the most important connection in the entire network, and that he was concerned by his inability to adequately test it. Karl Colón asked if OPLIN should install an even bigger card, but Karl Jendretzky cautioned that the cost would be very prohibitive, and the current SOCC edge router could not handle the bigger connection anyway.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the purchase of a 10 Gbps card for the core router; Sandi Plymire seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on various meetings with Lynda Murray (OLC), John Conley and Gwen Evans (OH-TECH), and John Magill (OhioLINK) regarding the expansion of the Cincinnati library digitization project. An OhioLINK committee is working on switching the Digital Resource Commons to a new platform, so this was an opportune time to talk, but the fact that OPLIN is funded from the PLF is complicating this possible collaboration. Since feedback from OBM indicates that the Governor's budget will not move OPLIN funding back into the GRF, Lynda and Stephen are planning to start meeting with legislative leaders to make the change in the legislative budget. Stephen also reported that he and Karl Jendretzky had met with consultants hired by the Governor's office to do an inventory of all state agency networks to see if there are opportunities for consolidation and increased efficiency.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted onsite network activity by Karl Jendretzky at Mansfield and Cleveland public libraries, Laura Solomon's presentations for OLC and NEO-RLS, and his attendance at the reception for Bob Carterette's retirement from CLEVNET.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that only about 30 of the new Juniper routers remain to be installed. He also reported that the SMS service is now sending about 250,000 text messages a year for 78 libraries. Karl noted that OPLIN is testing a standard business cable connection at the Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries office, which has had to move twice in a short period of time. If the networking issues can be worked out, this might be an alternative connection type for small libraries currently using T1 connections. Karl is working with SEO Libraries in Caldwell to tune the Quality of Service settings on the network for their new library circulation software. Finally, Karl noted that Columbus Metro Library has qualified for the first upgrade to a full 1 Gbps connection.

10.2. Library Services Manager report

In the absence of Laura Solomon, Stephen Hedges reported that he and Laura had discussed the timing of major upgrades to the Drupal software running the website kits. The problem is that many independent software modules that are used in the kits are not upgraded until many months after the core Drupal software has been upgraded. The solution will be to remain on an older version of Drupal rather than the newest version; for example, the kits will continue to use Drupal version 6 until version 8 has been released, at which time they will be upgraded to version 7. Stephen also reported that he and Laura will be working with Lynda Murray to add a technology section to the OLC Administrator's Handbook.

10.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that the database statistics now include one full year of Mango Languages and Ancestry Library Edition, making year-to-year comparisons more meaningful. He also reported that the Libraries Connect Ohio partners have discussed how to count statistics for some of the databases that do not involve traditional searches and documents retrieval, and as a result of those discussions one small change has been made in the way Mango statistics are calculated starting this fiscal year.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

11.1. At-large appointment to Executive Committee

Jamie Mason appointed Jeff Wale to the at-large position on the Executive Committee.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:36 a.m.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes
— June 8, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-second meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 8, 2012 by Board Chair Jeff Wale at the
State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary
Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl
Jendretzky (OPLIN);
and David Namiotka (State Library).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jeff Wale requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the
agenda as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

David Namiotka answered a few questions about the transition of
statewide library deliveries from Pitt Ohio to Priority Dispatch.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 13
meeting

Jeff Wale requested approval of the minutes of the April 13 Board
meeting.

Sandi Plymire motioned to approve the
minutes of the April 13 meeting as presented; Karen Davis
seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

In the absence of Jamie Pardee, Stephen Hedges presented the
Financial Reports as of May 31, 2012.
Report A covered fiscal years 2010 and 2011, both of which have now
been closed. In Report B for FY2012, Stephen reviewed the available
balances remaining as the end of the fiscal year approaches. He also
reported on budget items that will remain the same next year — Hannah
and Gongwer subscriptions, and the eTech contract for E-rate support —
and things that will change — the contract with Past, Present and
Future will not be renewed, and filtering grants have been discontinued
in favor of OpenDNS.

In Report C, Stephen called attention to the large cash balance as
of May 31 resulting from the receipt this fiscal year of E-rate
reimbursements that had previously been denied.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the
Financial Reports; Ben Chinni seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. OPLIN replacement cost calculator

Stephen Hedges provided the Board with a spreadsheet calculating how
much it would cost libraries to purchase the basic services currently
provided by OPLIN, as per the Board's request from the April meeting.
Stephen explained how the costs for Internet access and EBSCOhost were
determined; he also explained why calculating individual library costs
for NewsBank proved to be both very complex and speculative, so these
costs were not included in the spreadsheet.

Stephen suggested that this information was valuable for showing
some of the overall cost savings to libraries realized through OPLIN,
and also to answer queries from individual libraries. He did not feel
there was any value in generally publishing the spreadsheet, since only
a couple of libraries have questioned OPLIN's value.

After some discussion about the data in the spreadsheet, the
consensus of the Board was to use the information as needed when
communicating with library directors and legislators.

In response to a question about the status of OPLIN efforts to
coordinate services with OH-TECH, Stephen replied that the current plan
is to work closely with them as the next biennium budget is developed,
which should be starting soon.

6.2. Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented the final draft of the Strategic Plan for
FY 2013-2014 and reviewed the major changes from the current plan. In
most cases, the changes were additions that recognize current aspects
of OPLIN and services to libraries that were not in previous plans.

There was discussion of the change to the objective, "Provide
Internet bandwidth to every OPLIN participant," which added language
about providing larger circuits at the request of a library. Since this
also would be part of a policy discussion under agenda item 6.4,
the Chair requested that item 6.4 be taken up at this point, being
relevant to the current discussion.

Item 6.4 was inserted at this point.

6.4 Extending OPLIN policy

Stephen Hedges presented proposed changes to the "Policy on
Extending OPLIN to Other Public
Institutions" that would allow libraries to share a larger OPLIN
circuit with other community organizations without restrictions, so
long as the library reimbursed OPLIN for 1) additional circuit capacity
beyond what OPLIN would normally provide to the library, and 2) the
additional Internet bandwidth used by the other organizations.

The Board extensively discussed the implications of such a change,
as well as the ability to verify that a library was not abusing the
policy. Jason Buydos noted that, while there currently is not a lot of interest in such shared
connections, if libraries begin planning to share their space with
other organizations, they are likely to offer to share Internet access,
too. Unless the internal library network was intentionally set up to
segregate Internet traffic, such sharing would be invisible to OPLIN.

The Board generally agreed that this proposed policy change deserved
very careful thought, since it affects aspects of public library
service that are evolving, and that some means of verification needed
to be incorporated. The Chair tabled this item for further discussion
at the next Board meeting.

Discussion now returned to Item 6.2.

6.2. Strategic Plan (resumed)

Discussion of the Strategic Plan resumed. In light of the prior
discussion, Jeff Wale asked Stephen Hedges if a delay or another draft
of the plan was needed. Stephen felt that there would be no problem
with simply removing the entire paragraph that dealt with over-sized
OPLIN connections from the plan, since that issue could be addressed in
the separate "Extending OPLIN" policy.

Stephen then completed the review of changes and additions, with no
further questions from the Board.

Ben Chinni motioned to approve the
Strategic Plan as presented and amended; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary
Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye;
Jamie
Mason, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

Discussion returned briefly to the
"Extending OPLIN" policy and how much enforcement might be necessary.

6.3. SMS proposal

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of the problems with the text
messaging (SMS) service for libraries that were discussed at the April
meeting. At that meeting, the Board asked Stephen and Karl Jendretzky
to quickly investigate options for moving the messaging service to a
commercial plan and develop a procedure to recoup the cost from
libraries using the service.

A commercial service has been engaged that will cost OPLIN about
$3,300 per year at current messaging rates. Stephen presented a
proposed plan to sell blocks of messages to libraries; most libraries
would pay $24 for a block that would last them multiple
years. The entire system, except for invoicing the libraries, could be
automated.

Since the cost of the commercial service was lower than expected,
Jeff Wale asked if it would not be more sensible to avoid staff time
involved in invoicing libraries and simply cover the messaging cost
from the OPLIN budget. While other Board members agreed, some pointed
out that as usage of the service grows, OPLIN may want to revisit such
a practice.

Jason Buydos motioned to provide SMS
messaging as a free service to public libraries until the cost to OPLIN
reached $10,000 per year, at which point this decision would be
reconsidered by the Board; Don Barlow seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary
Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye;
Jamie
Mason, abstain; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale,
aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Website Kits pricing

Stephen Hedges noted that is has always been the intention of OPLIN
to recoup the considerable staff costs involved in constructing and
maintaining the Website Kits for libraries. Based on the experience of
the past couple of years, it is clear that the current prices for
Website Kits are much too low to cover staff costs. Stephen presented
cost and revenue projections through fiscal year 2018 which projected
that OPLIN could cover staff costs by raising the price of the basic
kit from $300 to $795, and adding $40 per year to maintenance costs
until they reach $340 per year.

Board members expressed their belief that the Website Kits are a
great service, and will still be a bargain at the proposed new prices.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the
proposed price increase for Website Kits; Jill
Billman-Royer seconded.

Recorded vote: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary
Branson, abstain; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karen Davis, aye;
Jamie
Mason, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

Board members noted that prices could go up in the future if
it is determined that this new pricing is still too low.

7.2. Digitization project

Stephen Hedges reported that he had a conversation with the
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and the State Library
about expanding the Cincinnati Virtual Library project to include new
locations at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and the Cleveland
Public Library. Stephen felt that this would be a good project for
OPLIN involvement, since it involves making electronic information
available online to the public, and he  also noted that there may
be an opportunity to collaborate with the OhioLINK Digital Resource
Commons in this project. Jason Buydos explained the Cincinnati project
in detail and the developing plans to expand it to Toledo and
Cleveland, and eventually other locations, and answered many questions
from the Board.

Stephen asked the Board if they would entertain a proposal in the
future to use some E-rate reimbursement funds — probably about $250,000
to $300,000 — to match federal Library Services and Technology Act
(LSTA)
funds to support expansion of the Cincinnati digitization project. The
Board expressed great interest in entertaining such a proposal.

7.3. Draft "OPLIN overview"

Stephen Hedges presented a two-page summary of OPLIN and OPLIN
services for Board review; this was drafted in response to a request at
the April Board meeting. The Board was pleased with the document and
suggested no changes.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported on a productive meeting with John Conley,
Chief of P-20 Educational Technology at the Board of Regents, and Lynda
Murray to share information and ideas. All parties intend to stay in
touch during the process of developing the next biennial budget to
identify partnership opportunities. He also informed the Board about
the State Library award of LSTA funds to support the Ohio Web Library
collection for another year, and the development of another contract
with the eTech Commission for E-rate assistance to OPLIN and the public
libraries.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted his visits to
the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Legislative Day and the ETM Libraries
meeting at the West Chester library, Laura Solomon's presentations at
the OLC North and SE/Central Chapter Conferences, and Karl Jendretzky's
onsite work at Southwest Public Libraries.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky explained some of his work to rebuild the SMS
messaging software and the server that hosts the OPLIN listservs. He
has also reconfigured the email server used by public library staff to
increase security. The project to replace the routers at the libraries
is over half complete, although some shipping problems have caused
delays. There are now forty-seven libraries using the OpenDNS content
filtering service. Karl also reported that the Office of Information
Technology is planning to assign a very large block of the state's IPv6
addresses to OPLIN.

Item 8.3 was presented out of order.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that usage of the databases was stronger
than expected in May, although there was a slight decline compared to
last May if Ancestry Library Edition and Mango Language usage is not
included.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that forty-five libraries are actively using
Website Kits, ten more are waiting for libraries to complete their
training and content writing, and another ten are under construction. She plans to do some
major feature upgrades later this year, as well as an upgrade to the
next version of Drupal.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Board officers slate

Jeff Wale noted that there was no Nominating Committee needed this
year, so in its place the Executive Committee will propose the
following slate of Board officers for election at the August meeting:
Jamie Mason, Chair; Jason Buydos, Vice-Chair; Karl Colón, Secretary;
and Gary Branson, Treasurer.

9.2. Director's evaluation results

Jeff Wale asked Jamie Mason to report on the Director's evaluations
received from all the Board members. Jamie reported that in every area
and on every evaluation, the Director met or exceeded Board
expectations;
he also shared the general comments attached to the evaluations.

Jeff also noted that this has been the most volatile year in his
experience on the OPLIN Board, and he commended Stephen on his
leadership. Stephen likewise expressed his great appreciation for the
time and effort Jeff dedicated to OPLIN during a difficult year.

10. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair asked if there was any more
business. None appearing, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:58 a.m.

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirty-first meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 9:02 a.m. on Friday, April 13, 2012 by Board Chair Jeff Wale at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Sandi Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Jamie Pardee, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Lynda Murray (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jeff Wale requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Karen Davis motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Karl Colón seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Lynda Murray provided a brief report on current legislative issues of interest to libraries. She also reported that she has had some conversations about the Shared Services proposal to integrate OPLIN and OARnet, though she does not expect any serious discussions while the Mid Budget Review (MBR) is under discussion.

David Namiotka shared information on the process of transitioning statewide library deliveries from Pitt Ohio to Priority Dispatch, scheduled to take place this weekend.

Beverly Cain provided an update on staffing changes at the State Library. She also reported on the upcoming State Library Board retreat. The State Library Board is filling two vacancies on the Board resulting from resignations; Krista Taracuk (Worthington) has been appointed to fill Ward Murrey's seat, and Melissa Hendon Deter (Cincinnati) has been appointed to fill Lynn Grimshaw's seat.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of February 10 meeting

Jeff Wale requested approval of the minutes of the February 10 Board meeting.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the minutes of the February 10 meeting as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

Lynda Murray left the meeting at 9:20.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of March 31, 2012. Report A covered fiscal years 2010 and 2011, both of which have now been closed. In Report B for FY2012, Jamie reminded the Board that the Available Balance includes spending authority. Report C recorded the cash flow since July 2010 and reflected the cash balance as of January 2012. Stephen Hedges also called attention to the open encumbrance for network routers; that purchase has been delayed by AT&T concerns about E-rate. In response to a question from Don Barlow, Jamie reported that distributions from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to OPLIN occur monthly.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

6. DISCUSSION of Task Force on Stable Status of OPLIN (2001-2003)

Stephen shared information from the Task Force on the Stable Status of OPLIN which discussed funding and service alternatives about 10 years ago. At that time, the OPLIN Board took no action in response to a funding study commissioned from Levin, Driscoll & Fleeter, because it became clear that OPLIN funding would be taken from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) beginning in fiscal year 2005.

Jeff Wale discussed a conference call that took place between him, Stephen, two metropolitan library directors and their technology managers, concerning the disproportionate distribution of costs for OPLIN services and OPLIN policies restricting community Internet partnerships. Jeff also presented a spreadsheet he had developed to calculate Toledo library's "return on investment" in OPLIN. This spreadsheet accurately assessed what a library would have to spend individually to replace the statewide OPLIN services. Karl Colón suggested that the global spreadsheet the Board reviewed at last year's April retreat, which presented service costs, not replacement costs, should be re-done to reflect replacement costs. The value of OPLIN is that it saves the overall public library community money when compared to what it would cost them to buy the same services individually.

Beverly Cain cautioned that the OPLIN budget is actually part of the State Library budget, and as such, OPLIN funding is used as part of the state match for federal LSTA funds. Any measures the Board might consider that would reduce the OPLIN budget would likely reduce the LSTA funds which Ohio can retrieve from the federal budget.

Don Barlow noted that the real problem which needs to be resolved is moving OPLIN funding out of the PLF and back into the GRF. Jill Billman-Royer warned that there had not been enough discussion of the wider effects of potentially reducing the OPLIN budget, such as the effect on LSTA funding that Beverly had mentioned. Beverly also noted that she would be worried about the future of the Libraries Connect Ohio partnership if OPLIN database funding were to be cut.

Jeff Wale noted that the lengthy discussion to this point had identified one action item: the global spreadsheet of OPLIN value must be improved with accurate reimbursement costs, rather than the rough numbers previously used to evaluate service costs.

Karl Colón motioned that the Board reaffirm its support for drawing OPLIN funding from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) rather than the Public Library Fund (PLF), because funding OPLIN from the GRF has historically fostered exemplary statewide cooperation and proven to be very effective in reducing costs for public libraries' Internet connections and content, and returning OPLIN to the GRF would continue to foster cooperation among public libraries in the future.

The Board suspended the meeting for a break at 10:30 a.m. and resumed at 11:05.

The Chair asked Karl Colón to restate his motion, and he did.

Don Barlow seconded the motion. With the consent of Karl Colón, Gary Branson added a friendly amendment that GRF funding fosters cooperation among not only the public libraries, but cooperation with other agencies as well. All aye.

Discussion returned to a spreadsheet to be made public that would calculate each library's cost to replace OPLIN services. The Board asked that Stephen share a draft of such a spreadsheet with the entire Board.

7. DISCUSSION of Managed Wireless survey

Stephen Hedges shared the results of an online survey of 211 public library directors regarding wireless Internet in their buildings (current and future CLEVNET libraries were not included); the survey got a 64% response rate. He was surprised at the number of libraries (27) that already have outside contracts for management of their wireless network. Only eight libraries said they would be interested in managed wireless from OPLIN at about $40/month/access point, and those eight would only need about 32 access points. In Stephen's opinion, there is currently very little need for an OPLIN managed wireless service. After some discussion, the Board agreed.

8. DISCUSSION of Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented the draft strategic plan that was tabled at the December Board meeting. Stephen highlighted several areas that need to be re-worded in light of developments since this draft was written. He also reviewed the changes previously proposed in December.

There was some discussion of the sentence, "If a library chooses to purchase a larger circuit than the one provided by OPLIN, OPLIN will endeavor to provide financial assistance up to the amount of the cost of a circuit meeting this benchmark." It was not clear exactly what this means or how it could be implemented. The consensus was that OPLIN would provide whatever size circuit a library requested if the library paid the additional cost over the price of the circuit OPLIN would have provided under current policy.

Discussion then turned to how a library could use the additional bandwidth they purchased; would it be subject to the restrictions in OPLIN policies? The feeling was that so long as technical means could segregate the additional data traffic, there was no need for it to comply with OPLIN policies. Stephen will re-word this section to clarify and then distribute the draft to the Board.

Further discussion of the strategic plan resulted in a decision to re-word the plans for backup storage space at the State of Ohio Computer Center. The Board asked that an objective be added to the Marketing goal relating to efforts to return OPLIN funding to the GRF. No other major changes were suggested. Stephen will prepare a revised draft of the complete plan for the June Board meeting.

The Board suspended the meeting for lunch at 11:40 and resumed at 12:05 p.m.

9. ETHICS TRAINING

Stephen Hedges distributed documents and discussed ethical restraints on the conduct of Board members. He began with the Governor's Executive Order 2011-03K and then spent some time reviewing the relevant sections of the Model Ethics Policy published by the Ohio Ethics Commission. He also distributed copies of the "Ohio Ethics Law and Related Statutes" published by the Ethics Commission, and finished by informing the Board of the many other informational materials available on the Ethics Commission website.

10. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the Board.

11. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

12. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided updates on the Invitation to Negotiate for another year of a genealogy and a foreign language learning database, on the status of the OPLIN E-rate applications, and on the Information Technology consolidation efforts taking place in state government. If all goes as planned, this round of E-rate should result in only nine libraries still remaining on T1 circuits. He also reported that Laura Solomon has been selected as a participant in Library Leadership Ohio in July.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Laura's presentations at Ohio Library Council (OLC) Chapter Conferences and his attendance at the Worthington Community Breakfast.

12.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that 43 libraries are now using the OpenDNS content filter and all is going well. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has started the installation of the new Juniper routers at the libraries, while Karl has been building some new OPLIN servers from used parts.

Karl noted that he is having trouble with the SMS text messaging service, which seems to have become so busy that the SMS gateway services used by cellphone companies are starting to block messages as spam. He has worked extensively with AT&T on finding a solution, but there does not seem to be a way to make our current, inexpensive system work reliably at these volumes; the reliable solution is to send messages directly through a gateway service rather than through AT&T, which will be considerably more expensive.

Board discussion of this problem revealed that this service is fairly popular among the libraries, and also explored options for paying for more expensive service. There was also general agreement that the problem should be fixed quickly.

Don Barlow motioned that OPLIN staff find a workable solution to the SMS problem and take steps to pass the cost to libraries using the service by the beginning of June; Gary Branson seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye, Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, abstain; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

The Board now returned to a discussion of how a library might use a larger Internet connection than the one provided by OPLIN to support community computing; this built on the morning discussion of the Strategic Plan. The discussion served to clarify that the Board would expect libraries using a larger connection for purposes outside of those approved by OPLIN policy to pay for not only the increased circuit cost, but also all additional Internet bandwidth used for those purposes.

12.2. Library Services Manager report

Since Laura Solomon was presenting a session at today's Ohio Library Council Northwest Chapter Conference and unable to attend the meeting, Stephen Hedges presented this report. There are currently 42 website kits in use, six more in the training and content buildings stages, and thirteen under construction. New semi-automated update procedures were used recently to upgrade all website kits with an improved text editor.

12.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges reported that usage of Ancestry Library Edition and Mango Languages continues to be strong, but also noted that usage of the other databases continues to decline slightly.

13. CHAIR'S REPORT

Jeff Wale began his report by asking the OPLIN Director to create a marketing fact sheet about what OPLIN is and what OPLIN does, to be distributed to public library directors. He also reminded the Board of the sensitivity and complexity of the OPLIN "return on investment" information.

13.1. Board recruitment

All four Board members serving terms that expire June 30 are eligible for re-appointment to the Board. All four expressed an interest in continuing to serve.

13.1. Director's evaluation

A sample of the evaluation form used to evaluate the OPLIN Director was distributed, and the evaluation procedure was discussed. Stephen Hedges will email the evaluation forms to all Board members; Jeff Wale assigned Jamie Mason to collect and collate them.

14. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair asked if there was any more business. None appearing, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 1:05 p.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY
INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED THIRTIETH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — February 10, 2012

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred thirtieth meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 10, 2012 by Board Vice-Chair Jamie Mason at the
State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary
Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Becky Schultz.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN);
Beverly Cain, Jamie Pardee, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jamie Mason requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the
agenda as presented; Becky Schultz seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Jamie Mason asked all attendees to introduce themselves to Jamie Pardee, the new Head of Fiscal Services at the State Library.

Beverly Cain described the five-year evaluation of the State Library's
management of federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds
recently completed by Pelz Library Group, which was generally
favorable. This will become the foundation of a new LSTA five-year plan,
which is due for submission to the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) in June. Some LSTA funds support the purchase of
databases by Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO), and the evaluation contained
some good data about libraries' use of, and need for, those databases.

David Namiotka provided an update on the RFP process for choosing a
new statewide delivery contractor, after Pitt Ohio opted out of their
contract. The proposals are due at the Department of Administrative
Services (DAS) on February 15. They hope to have the contract awarded
by February 24, and transition from the current service to the new
service in early March. There may be a day or two of no deliveries to
clear all materials from the current system. Monies paid by libraries
for Pitt Ohio service are held by the State Library and will be applied
to the new contract.

Doug Evans reported that the omnibus bill of library issues is
scheduled to be introduced in the very near future. The Ohio Library
Council (OLC) is monitoring release of information from the Governor's
Office regarding the Shared Services Report and the Mid-Budget Review.
Doug noted the Governor's announcement of an upgrade to state broadband
in his State of the State Address, which interests OLC. Finally, Doug
thanked the Board for Laura Solomon's webinar presentation the day
before on ADA issues for library websites; the webinar had over 75
participants. (Stephen Hedges noted that Laura had a high fever during
the webinar and was too ill today to attend the Board meeting.)

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of December
9 meeting

Jamie Mason requested approval of the minutes of the December 9
Board meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the
minutes of the December 9 meeting as presented; Jill Billman-Royer seconded.
All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Jamie Pardee presented the Financial Reports as of January 31,
2012. Report A covered fiscal years 2010 and 2011, both of which have
now been closed. In Report B for FY2012, Jamie pointed out that the
amount disbursed in the form of filtering grants plus the amount
disbursed to OpenDNS for the first six months of statewide filtering
fell short of the $81,000 earmark by $717.33, so a line was added to
the budget documents noting that this amount will be applied to the
costs associated with the OPLIN Director's coordination of the
filtering grants. Stephen Hedges informed the Board that the amount
distributed in grants was less than what the Board had authorized
because three grantees decided to use the statewide OpenDNS instead of
a local filter.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the
Financial Reports; Ben Chinni seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve revisions to Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that there was discussion at the
last meeting about revising the current OPLIN Policy on the Provision of Network Services,
since as written it would preclude the possibility of providing more than one
connection to a library system. The issue was ultimately tabled so the
Executive Committee could work with Stephen on further edits to the policy.

Stephen presented the proposed edits developed in conjunction with the Executive
Committee. These edits simplify the policy greatly, by adding some language
at the beginning of the policy which repeats the Ohio Revised Code description
of OPLIN's purpose, and by removing much of the language describing the
connections provided to libraries, since that can be determined by the Board
within the regularly-reviewed Strategic Plan or other Board actions.

Jason Buydos asked if the Governor's recent announcement of upgrades to the
OARnet system would impact this policy, and Stephen replied that the upgrades would
not have any direct effect on the OPLIN network.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the policy as revised; Don Barlow seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni,
aye; Karen Davis, aye; Sandi Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jamie Mason, aye.

6.2. Discuss 2012 Stakeholders Meeting

At the last Board meeting, Stephen Hedges had asked if the Board wanted to
continue holding annual Stakeholders Meetings, and the consensus was that
these were valuable meetings, especially if they could be held online.
Stephen provided some details about costs for the 2012 Stakeholders Meeting,
which would normally be held in September in conjunction with the OLC Expo. Room
setup and Internet costs for a meeting held both in-person and online would
be about $2,000, not including any software costs. Stephen reported that he
had been unable to find any cost-effective single-use webinar software options,
but had talked with eTech and OLC about the possibility of using software
they have licensed. Doug Evans reported that OLC was examining their license,
but thought content broadcast from the OLC Expo should be permissible.

Becky Schultz asked about attendance at in-person Stakeholders Meetings,
and Stephen reported that those held at OLC Expos general drew about 50 attendees,
while those held at OLC Conventions drew much fewer. Jill Billman-Royer asked if
online attendees would have an opportunity to interact with presenters, and Stephen
replied that most webinar software allowed interaction through a chat room. Doug
also noted that the online broadcast could be archived.

The consensus of the Board was to proceed with both an in-person and an online
Stakeholders Meeting at the 2012 OLC Expo.

6.3. Discuss managed wireless service

Stephen Hedges presented information following up on the previous Board
discussion about implementing a new service that would manage wireless
Internet access points that would be installed in libraries, owned,
and managed by an outside contractor through controlling
hardware at the OPLIN core; libraries would then be charged a
monthly fee per access point for managing wireless Internet
connectivity. At last month's meeting, the Board had asked Stephen to
survey libraries and determine interest in such a service.

Stephen reported that he had not done the survey, because in determining
potential cost to the library of such a service, it became apparent that
OPLIN would need to charge a fairly steep fee per access point to break
even. Stephen explained his methodology for determining the necessary fee,
and noted that he did not want to release this information to the library
community in the form of a survey if the Board felt the fee was too high.
Stephen also noted that CLEVNET already provides this type of service to
their members, and requested that the survey be withheld from their area.

Don Barlow felt that a survey was still valuable in order to gauge interest. Jason Buydos questioned what would happen to wireless access points if the contractor withdrew from the service. Stephen felt that such considerations could be included in an RFP, if there is sufficient interest to proceed, or even in contract negotiations. Jason added another consideration regarding how much control of library switches the contractor would need.

The consensus of the Board was that a survey worded in such a way that it did not raise the expectation that OPLIN would provide managed wireless service could gather valuable data. Stephen will share the draft of the survey text with the Board before he releases it.

6.4. Approve contracts with Time Warner Cable, IFN, and Horizon Telecomm

The final item of business pending from the last Board meeting dealt with quotes from several
telecommunications companies for Ethernet connections to libraries that
are currently served by T1 lines, but for which the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has not completed and/or begun negotiations for Ethernet services. OPLIN has the legal authority
to negotiate telecommunications contracts beyond those negotiated by
OIT, but has never yet done so. The Board had asked Stephen Hedges to provide more details about pricing and services, and also that he have the Attorney General's office review proposed contract language.

Stephen reported that he worked extensively with the Attorney General's office to develop language that could be added to any standard telecommunications contract to make it acceptable to OPLIN. He also provided a spreadsheet summarizing costs and services proposed under the contracts in question.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the contracts with Time Warner Cable, IFN, and Horizon Telecomm; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss agenda, date for April Board retreat

Stephen Hedges pointed out to the Board that April 13, the date for the Board retreat, is also the date for the OLC Northwest Chapter Conference. The consensus of the Board was that the Board retreat remain scheduled for April 13. Stephen also reminded the Board that the Strategic Plan and ethics training will be major items of business for the retreat, and also reviewed items that are regularly part of the Board retreat agenda. He asked that Board members send him any other items they would like to have on the agenda. The Board agreed to start the retreat at 9:00 rather than 10:00 AM.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners had met earlier in the week to talk about the rationale and process for buying Ohio Web Library databases, in preparation for soliciting bids at the end of this year for the next five-year database contracts. LCO may involve the review committee earlier in order to help develop the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). Meanwhile, LCO has assembled a review team of librarians to review the responses to the current ITN for a genealogy and a foreign language database, with the intention of making selections in early April and requesting LSTA funding from the State Library Board on May 31.

Stephen participated in the Ohio Council of Library Information Service Organizations (OCLIS) meeting on December 19 to discuss the future of OCLIS. The organization had not met for quite some time, and the only activity in the bank account had been withdrawal of bank fees. The meeting attendees decided to close out all bank accounts and distribute the money remaining (approximately $685) in equal shares to Ohio Library Leadership and the Ohio Library Support Staff Institute (OLSSI).

Stephen will be meeting with Lynda Murray of OLC and NetWellness managers Dr. Susan Wentz (Case Western) and Dr. Phyllis Pirie (OSU) on February 16 to talk about health literacy initiatives. NetWellness has a grant from the National Library of Medicine to investigate how people search for and evaluate health-related information on the web.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted the E-rate
Form 471 workshop and his work on the Library Snapshot Day committee. He also pointed out that Karl Jendretzky had visited a number of libraries since the last meeting to work on technical issues, and also mentioned the website accessibility webinar Laura Solomon did for OLC.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported all of the new Juniper routers, except those to be purchased under E-rate, have arrived, and replacement of the old Cisco routers will soon begin. Karl also reported
on AT&T progress toward installing Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) circuits. He also informed the Board that he has implemented some software scripts that monitor the email server to prevent spamming activity. Finally, Karl reported that 24 libraries are currently in the process of implementing the new OpenDNS service.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Since Laura Solomon was ill and unable to attend the meeting, Stephen Hedges presented this report. There are currently 38 website kits in use, seven more in the training and content buildings stages, and fourteen under construction. Core security updates are to be applied overnight next Sunday. Stephen reported that update procedures are being reviewed, since the original procedures assumed a much lower number of website kit customers.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented database statistics, reminding the Board that the significant
drop in both searches and documents retrieved since October is a result of the fact that Biography Reference Bank was purchased by EBSCO, and usage is
now counted differently as a result of moving the database to EBSCO
servers.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Jamie Mason read a note received from Diane Fink thanking the Board for the resolution and gift presented to her at the last meeting. Diane also expressed her enjoyment of working with OPLIN since its beginning.

10. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:33 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY
INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — December 9, 2011

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-ninth meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 9, 2011 by Board Chair Jeff Wale at the
State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary
Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN);
Diane Fink, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jeff Wale requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the
agenda as presented; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Doug Evans again thanked the Board for their support of the Ohio
Library Council (OLC) Convention as the sponsor of the wi-fi Internet
connectivity. Doug also reported that the upcoming omnibus bill of
library issues has been drafted and is under review. Jeff Wale asked if
there were any developments regarding the OHTECH consortium, and both
Doug and Stephen Hedges reported that messages to the Chancellor and to
OARnet had not yet been returned. Doug further reported that libraries
had responded well to a survey from the Ohio Commission on Local
Government Reform and Collaboration, of which Lynda Murray is a member;
the commission is seeking good examples of local government
collaboration.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of October
14 meeting

Jeff Wale requested approval of the minutes of the October 14
Board meeting.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the
minutes of the October 14 meeting as presented; Karl Colón seconded.
All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of November 30,
2011. Report A covered fiscal years 2010 and 2011, both of which have
now been closed, so there is no change from last meeting's report.

In Report B for FY2012, Diane pointed out that the budget for
salaries includes about $14,000 that should not be needed after the
Office of Budget and Management (OBM) decided to include the extra 27th
payroll for calendar 2011 in FY2011 instead of FY2012. She also noted
the disbursement to OLC for sponsorship of the Convention. Regarding
rent, Diane reported that there has been no recent activity from the
Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Real Estate division toward
moving the OPLIN Office into the State Library facility. Diane reminded
the Board that OPLIN now makes payments for the Ohio Web Library
databases quarterly instead of annually. She noted that
telecommunications expenses have been shifting away from AT&T to
Time Warner Cable as new circuits are installed. Looking at the
filtering earmark, Diane reported that only a few of the approved
grants have yet to be disbursed; she also called attention to the new
line item in this part of the budget for OpenDNS. Finally, she reported
that two purchase orders have been opened for new routers.

Report C showed the revenue/cash balance for FY2012. Diane
reported that monthly transfers of about $335,000 from the PLF happen
around the 10th of each month. She also called attention to the income
from website kits, and to refunds resulting from AT&T circuit
disconnections.

Diane reported that OBM released budget guidance for a capital
budget in November, but had required very quick responses to the call
for budget items, and had also made it clear that this capital budget
would be very limited. Neither OPLIN nor the State Library submitted
any capital budget requests. Diane attended a meeting November 2
regarding the upcoming Mid-Biennium Budget Review (MBR), where fiscal
officers were notified that the MBR would focus on cost savings and
streamlining government functions.

One recent development that could affect OPLIN employment is the
establishment of a Personnel Action Approval Request system in the
Governor's Office to better track approvals of unclassified employee
hires. Diane also noted the recent terms of employment negotiated with
OCSEA, which are traditionally extended to unclassified employees as
well.

Finally, Diane informed the Board of her intention to retire
after 32 years as a state employee, the last 28 years with the State
Library. Her retirement will take effect at the end of January. She
expressed her pleasure with being involved with the OPLIN Board since
its creation.

Gary Branson read the following resolution:

WHEREAS, DIANE FINK has been engaged with the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees from their very first meeting on July 11,1995, and WHEREAS she helped the first OPLIN director set up the first OPLIN office, and WHEREAS she has continuously been an indispensable asset to all four OPLIN directors since then, and WHEREAS she has guided OPLIN through the intricacies of state government finances for seventeen years, and WHEREAS she has devoted unwavering attention to every detail of the OPLIN budget through all those years, and WHEREAS she has always quickly and efficiently resolved any and all financial issues between OPLIN and vendors and libraries, and WHEREAS she has constantly been a champion for OPLIN in dealings with other state agencies, and WHEREAS the OPLIN Board and staff will deeply miss her outstanding services as she begins her well-deserved retirement, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 9th day of December, Two Thousand and Eleven, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to OPLIN, to public libraries, and to library service by DIANE FINK, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to DIANE FINK for her continued service to that Board.

Jeff Wale presented Diane with a gift and expressed the Board's
gratitude for everything she has done for OPLIN through the years.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the
Financial Reports and the resolution honoring Diane; Jamie Mason
seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Discuss revisions to Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries

Stephen Hedges reported that he had met with the directors of the
metropolitan library systems to discuss the possibility of providing
redundant Internet connections to libraries that aggregate many library
buildings on their single OPLIN connection, a possible new service that
the OPLIN Board has discussed. The metro directors requested 3-year
data on the frequency and length of any failures of their OPLIN
connections, which Stephen provided to them after the meeting. The
general consensus of the group was that OPLIN outages do not occur
frequently enough to justify the expense of a redundant circuit;
however, individual metro directors expressed an interest in such a
service.

Since the current OPLIN Policy on the Provision of Network Services
as written would preclude the possibility of providing more than one
connection to a library system, Stephen presented the edits to the
policy that he had prepared for the last Board meeting. These edits
basically replaced "one connection" with "at least one connection" and
removed language intended to clarify exceptions to the one-connection
policy.

Jason Buydos asked why OPLIN has a one-connection policy; Stephen
responded that to his knowledge it is a historical artifact from the
earliest OPLIN practice of providing one T1 per library system, rather
than a response to library requests for multiple connections. Don
Barlow asked how this would affect libraries who might be considering
establishing community data centers; Stephen noted that OPLIN circuits
can connect at any location a library requests, but also cautioned that
they can only be used for library-related Internet traffic.

Jason expressed a concern that the edited policy would not prohibit
a library from requesting connections to branches, but Karl Colón
pointed out a clause in the policy that leaves the actual
implementation of the policy to the OPLIN director under procedures to
be reviewed by the Board. There was some discussion of the Central
Library Consortium/Wagnalls Library connection, but that request for
two connections to one building was ultimately denied because CLC is
technically not an OPLIN participant, not because of the one-connection
policy.

Jeff Wale thought the language could be clearer. Ensuing discussion
eventually changed "provide at least one broadband telecommunication
connection" to "provide telecommunication service" and removed
additional language from the first paragraph as a result of that change.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the policy as revised; Karen Davis seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni,
aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Sandi
Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

Don Barlow asked Gary Branson if he had reservations, since he
hesitated before voting. Gary noted that the policy as now worded,
particularly the mention of "significant financial support" for
telecommunications, may be too broad. Neither Stephen nor Diane Fink
could think of an instance where a library had requested such support,
and Karl Jendretzky noted that it was formerly intended to provide some
support to libraries that wanted to buy a larger connection than the
one provided by OPLIN. Some Board members were in favor of removing
this clause, but others noted that would not solve the problem of the
policy being over-broad.

Gary noted that this policy may actually be superseded by the
language of the Ohio Revised Code; however, a check of the Code
established that it did not address OPLIN telecommunications services.
There was general agreement among the Board that the wording of the
policy needed further work.

Gary Branson motioned to rescind the changes to the policy just approved; Ben Chinni seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill
Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni,
aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Sandi
Plymire, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

The Chair tabled the issue to the next Board meeting and requested
that the Director work with the Executive Committee to develop revised
policy language.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss RFP for language and genealogy databases (1 year)

Stephen Hedges reported to the Board that the one-year trial of
subscriptions to Mango Languages and Ancestry Library Edition has gone
well, so the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners are planning to
release a Request for Proposals (RFP) for one more year of a foreign
language and a genealogy database. If the bids are low enough, the
State Library believes there will be enough LSTA funding to satisfy a
request from LCO to purchase one-year subscriptions, after which
vendors could propose subscriptions as part of the general RFP for all
Ohio Web Library databases, anticipated for late next year.

7.2. Discuss E-Rate Technology Plan

Stephen Hedges distributed the OPLIN E-Rate Technology Plan for the
Board's information, which replaces the expiring three-year plan.
E-Rate rules have been changed this year, so technology plans are not
required for Priority 1 services, and required content of plans is
clearly specified. The presented plan follows those specifications and
revises the expiring plan, and positions OPLIN to be able to E-Rate
Priority 2 services during the next three years. Don Barlow asked if
individual libraries will be required to write their own technology
plans; Stephen noted that, in the past, libraries have been able to use
OPLIN's plan, but going forward most libraries will not need technology
plans for their E-Rate, and for libraries that intend to E-Rate
Priority 2 services, their Priority 2 needs would be very different
from OPLIN's, so the OPLIN plan would not be useful to them. Stephen
reported that this new plan has been approved by the State Library, and
will now be posted on the OPLIN website.

7.3. Discuss managed Wi-Fi services

Stephen Hedges reported that he and Karl Jendretzky had heard a
proposal from a vendor to implement a new service they are developing
that would manage wireless Internet access in libraries. The service
would install vendor-owned wireless access points in library buildings
and controlling hardware at the OPLIN core, and would then charge a
monthly fee per access point for managing wireless Internet
connectivity. This type of service appears to be eligible for E-Rate.
There seem to be very few companies offering such a service at the
moment, although it is rumored that the Office of Information
Technology (OIT) is considering such a service for state agencies. If
OPLIN were to contract for such a service, it would be very different
from current OPLIN services, and Stephen requested guidance from the
Board.

Jeff Wale asked if libraries had been surveyed for interest in this
service, and Stephen replied that the Board members were the first
people outside the OPLIN office to hear about this idea. Jeff felt, for
example, that another wireless option in his library would be confusing
to patrons, but other libraries might feel this would be a good service.

Ben Chinni asked who would pay for the service, and Stephen
suggested that OPLIN could calculate the actual cost after E-Rate and
charge that to the library, although the service could also be priced
to provide some income to OPLIN. Jason Buydos reminded the Board that
there have been previous discussions regarding increased OPLIN
involvement in local library networks, which this service would
provide, but OPLIN should be careful that this service has wide appeal
and that the vendor has the resources to support wide deployment.

Stephen noted that vendors will expect a guaranteed minimum number
of installs to support their business model, so a survey would be good
for that reason as well. Karl Jendretzky thought that low cost and
high-quality hardware would lead many libraries to consider this
service. There was general agreement that managing the demand for
wireless access will become more difficult for libraries in the near
future. Stephen suggested that OPLIN staff should compose a clear,
simple description of the service, calculate a general estimate of the
cost, and then survey the libraries for interest.

There was further speculation regarding the appeal for such a
service, particularly to larger libraries, but general agreement that a
survey was needed. Stephen will try to have survey results for the next
board meeting.

7.4. Discuss Strategic Plan FY 2012-2014 draft

Stephen Hedges reported that the current strategic plan had expired
in June, but he still found the format useful and had received approval
from the Executive Committee to prepare a new plan based on the old
one, rather than starting the Board process of developing an entirely
new plan. He presented a draft and reviewed major changes: adding
discussion of Board composition; adding a mention of providing routers;
adding content filtering to provided bandwidth; adding the offer to
libraries of rack space at the SOCC; making email service a separate
objective; and mentioning provided E-Rate workshops.

Since the proposed changes are coming late in the year, Jeff Wale
asked if there was any danger in waiting until the April Board retreat
to revise the plan, and Stephen replied that would not be a problem.
This discussion was therefore tabled until the April Board meeting.

7.5. Discuss future Stakeholders Meetings

Stephen Hedges reported on the recent Stakeholders Meeting and
provided an overview of how Stakeholders Meetings have been conducted
in the past, ranging from large all-day events to an online meeting the
year the OLC Convention was cancelled. He asked the Board to consider:
1) should OPLIN continue to hold Stakeholders Meetings; and 2) if so,
what should they accomplish?

Don Barlow felt it was valuable to do an annual report, ideally in
conjunction with OLC events. Karl Colón noted that attendance at the
online meeting a few years ago was greater than attendance at meetings
held during an OLC Convention, where Stakeholders must compete with
other programs. Jill Billman-Royer noted that, while an online meeting
could be archived for later viewing, a live, interactive online event
encouraged more participation than a simple video. Jason Buydos
suggested that an in-person meeting at an OLC event could also be
webcast.

Stephen summarized that the Board seemed in favor of holding annual
meetings, and found the online option attractive. Karl Colón suggested
that the Kent State University videoconference facilities at the State
Library might be available. Jason suggested distributing the annual
report prior to an online meeting. Stephen thanked the Board for their
ideas and will proceed with planning the next Stakeholders Meeting.

7.6. Approve contracts with Time Warner Cable, Com-Net, and Horizon Telecomm

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that OPLIN has the legal authority
to negotiate telecommunications contracts beyond those negotiated by
OIT, but has never yet done so. He now has quotes from several
telecommunications companies for Ethernet connections to libraries that
are currently served by T1 lines, but OIT has not completed and/or
begun negotiations for these services; Stephen requested approval to
proceed with these contracts.

Karl Colón asked if the Attorney General's office should review the
contract language; Stephen reported that the language used was mostly
copied from existing OIT telecommunications contracts, and most of the
pricing corresponds to the pricing in OIT contracts. Jeff Wale asked if
Stephen was asking for permission to negotiate with these vendors;
Stephen replied that negotiations are completed, and he is asking for
approval to enter into contracts. Jeff asked for details of the
contracts, particularly pricing, and Stephen replied that he did not
have those details at hand. Discussion ensued about E-Rate deadlines
for signing contracts, how best to proceed, and whether or not the
Executive Committee could take action on the request without a formal
meeting.

Don Barlow motioned to authorize the
Director and the Executive Committee to negotiate and sign these
contracts within the parameters of the OPLIN budget.

Jason Buydos noted that, according to Stephen, there was enough time
to bring this issue to the February meeting for full Board approval,
without causing any E-Rate timing problems. He felt this would be the
better way to proceed. Karl Colón reminded the Board that this could be
a sensitive decision, since these would be the first OPLIN
telecommunications contracts not negotiated by OIT.

Don Barlow withdrew his motion.

The Chair tabled this item until the next meeting, when contracts
reviewed by the Attorney General's office will be presented for full
Board approval.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that the OpenDNS contract has been signed,
and that a couple of libraries approved for filtering grants have opted
for the statewide OpenDNS service instead. He also reported that he has
notified the editors of the Explore Ohio website (Past, Present and
Future) that their contract will not be renewed next fiscal year; that
website is basically complete, and new additions and maintenance can
now be handled by OPLIN staff.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted the E-Rate
Form 470 workshop, and his attendance at the OHIONET Board meeting and
the opening of the remodeled Kent Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County
Public Library.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the progress of the Ethernet upgrade
project, which is nearing completion. The second and final wave of
Juniper routers has started to arrive, so the next project will be to
complete the replacement of the old Cisco routers. Karl also reported
that the SMS messaging service is experiencing occasional and unusual
message discards; AT&T Wireless is working closely with OPLIN to
identify and resolve the problem. In gathering data for AT&T, Karl
found that the service has been sending text messages to about 5,000
unique phone numbers.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Stephen Hedges reported that Laura Solomon was not in good health at
the moment, so he presented this report. Since the beginning of
November, Laura has been building mobile versions of all the Dynamic
Website Kits, and that project is now complete. Laura will now resume
work on new website kits.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented database statistics, noting a significant
drop in both searches and documents retrieved. The cause was a large
decrease in Biography Reference Bank usage statistics. This database
was recently purchased by EBSCO, and Stephen speculated that usage is
now counted differently as a result of moving the database to EBSCO
servers.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Ethics training

Jeff Wale called the Board's attention to ethics training DVDs that
were included in the Board packets. Stephen clarified that these DVDs
contain a recording of an ethics training session presented by Susan
Willeke of the Ohio Ethics Commission in December 2007. A Governor's
Executive Order requires all Board members to have ethics training each
calendar year. Next year, the training will probably take place at the
April Board retreat.

Jeff once again congratulated Diane on her retirement and wished her best of luck in the future.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:58 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes — October 14, 2011

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-eighth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2011 by Board Chair Jeff Wale at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Becky Schultz, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Laura Solomon, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Diane Fink, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jeff Wale requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Doug Evans thanked the Board for their support of the Ohio Library Council (OLC) Convention and Expo. OPLIN will be recognized as the sponsor of the wi-fi Internet connectivity in the OLC Living Room, as well as the Internet for the E-mail Cafe. Doug also reported on the OLC efforts to inform librarians of the proposed legislative changes to be included in an upcoming omnibus bill.

Beverly Cain reported on progress toward adding Westlake Public Library to the Search Ohio consortium. Search Ohio currently only includes libraries using Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III) library software; Westlake would be the first non-III library to join Search Ohio. Karl Colón mentioned that III has been working closely with Search Ohio libraries to develop the necessary technology, and that earlier work to connect Search Ohio with OhioLINK has been very successful. There was general agreement that this is a good example of collaboration between libraries.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of August 12 meeting

Jeff Wale requested approval of the minutes of the August 12 Board meeting.

Jill Billman-Royer motioned to approve the minutes of the August 12 meeting as presented; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of September 30, 2011. In Report A, Diane pointed out that fiscal year 2010 has been closed, and no encumbrances for fiscal year 2011 were still open. State agencies have five months after the end of a fiscal year to close the year; Diane believes all outstanding expenses for FY2011 have now been paid. In response to a question about the Available Balance for FY2011, Diane clarified that this reflects budgeted spending authority for possible non-state income that was not used.

In Report B for FY2012, Diane pointed out the disbursement to OLC for sponsorship of the Convention and Expo. She also noted that the budget for salaries includes about $15,000 that should not be needed, since the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) decided to include the extra 27th payroll for calendar 2011 in FY2011 instead of the original plan to include it in FY2012. Diane reminded that OPLIN will make payments for the Ohio Web Library databases quarterly now instead of annually, since revenue from the Public Library Fund (PLF) will be received monthly. She called attention to the $45,000 which has been paid to eTech Ohio for E-Rate support, and the $81,000 which is available for filtering support. She also reported that purchase orders are being opened for the new routers, with 46 routers qualifying for an 80% E-Rate discount.

Report C showed the revenue/cash balance for FY2012. Diane pointed out that monthly transfers from the PLF began in August. She also called attention to the income from annual support fees for website kits.

Diane also mentioned that general state tax revenue is currently about 4% above the budgeted estimates.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Approve Internet filtering grants

Stephen Hedges presented a compilation of the applications received for Internet filtering assistance grants. Forty-five (45) requests covering 113 buildings and 3,027 workstations were received, totally $73,681.67; since this amount is less than the $81,000 earmarked in the OPLIN budget for filter support, Stephen recommended approval of all requests. Three requests were for new filters, four were for upgrades to current filters, and several requests were limited by the $4,500 maximum allowed by grant rules.

In response to questions about how the unused balance of the earmark would be used, and how approval of these grants might impact the next item on the agenda, "Approve proposed services," Stephen responded that it was his intention to use the balance toward the cost of a central filter beginning in January, one of the proposed services.

Jeff Wale asked that item 7.2 under new business, "Approve OpenDNS contract," be discussed now, since it was closely related to the approval of the filtering grants.

Discussion of Item 7.2, Approve OpenDNS contract, was taken up at this point in the meeting.

Stephen Hedges explained that it had come to his attention recently that the schools and libraries in Maine were sharing one statewide Internet content filtering solution provided by the OpenDNS company. He contacted the company and determined that this solution could work in Ohio, and arranged for a test of the filter. Tests conducted at the OPLIN office and at two public libraries indicated that OpenDNS, unlike previously evaluated statewide filtering solutions, could handle the requirements of the OPLIN network while allowing libraries full control of how, or if, the filter was implemented in their library, so Stephen began price negotiations with the company.

The proposed contract would allow OPLIN to begin adding libraries to a statewide OpenDNS master account beginning in January 2012, with a limit of 90 library system sub-accounts until July 2012, when 251 library system sub-accounts would be available. The cost for the first six months for 90 libraries would be $15,000; the annual cost thereafter for 251 libraries would be $43,925. Part of the cost for fiscal year 2012 could be covered by earmarked funds that are not used for filtering grants, while the cost in succeeding fiscal years could be covered entirely by earmarked funds.

Discussion returned to Item 6.1., Approve Internet filtering grants.

Stephen Hedges noted that, if the Board approved the OpenDNS contract, he intended to inform recipients of grants for new filters or filter upgrades that they had the option of being added to the statewide OpenDNS filter in January, if they chose to decline the grant and the work associated with installing new filtering hardware and software. This could potentially leave enough earmarked funds unused for grants to cover most of the FY2012 cost of the OpenDNS filter. There was some discussion of also suggesting this to libraries receiving grants for ongoing annual filtering costs; however, libraries and organizations serving libraries had already planned on receiving grants, and no appreciable extra work for the library would be involved in renewing their filter for another year, until all libraries could participate in the statewide filter.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the FY2012 filtering grants as presented; Karl Colón seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, temporarily absent; Becky Schultz, abstain; and Jeff Wale, aye.

6.2. Approve proposed services

Stephen Hedges began by presenting information about OH-TECH, the collection of consortia within the Board of Regents recently created to eliminate duplication of services, since developments related to OH-TECH could affect the environment for new services.

Stephen reported that Lynda Murray had contacted him in August, while the OH-TECH plan was still posted for comment, to ask if he thought it would be a good idea to talk to Chancellor Jim Petro about the possibility of OPLIN joining OH-TECH. Stephen thinks there may be an opportunity here to re-model and/or expand the OPLIN network infrastructure, and Lynda sees a possible opportunity to remove OPLIN funding from the PLF. Lynda has met with the Chancellor, and he is open to talking with us; he is interested in being helpful to public libraries, but he is not interested in adding OPLIN to OH-TECH unless OPLIN requests that.

Jeff Wale noted that OPLIN often works with three of the organizations that were considered in the original OH-TECH plan: OhioLINK, OARnet, and eTech Ohio. Karl Colón asked how OPLIN governance might be affected. Stephen replied that he has no answer for that, and has many questions himself. Lynda had hoped to have a second meeting arranged with the Chancellor, Stephen, and the OARnet director before this OPLIN Board meeting, but that did not happen, so at this point there is only an agreement to talk further at some point. Stephen felt that everyone involved with OH-TECH is currently occupied with internal re-alignment of services, and it may be a while before they are ready to talk about OPLIN. Doug Evans assured the Board that he understood from Lynda that nothing would be considered that did not have a clear advantage to the public libraries. The Board was in general agreement that they would like to have more information about the possibility of OPLIN joining OH-TECH.

Since nothing is expected to happen in regard to OH-TECH for months to come, if ever, Stephen felt that it was still appropriate for OPLIN to complete the process of developing new services that was begun in February with the Ad Hoc Committee on Services.

Stephen submitted three recommendations for possible new OPLIN services to libraries, based on the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Services and meetings with technology staff of major Ohio public libraries, and focusing on services which are financially feasible.

The first service would provide an additional circuit to some libraries to be used in the event their primary OPLIN-provided circuit experienced failure. Some library circuits carry traffic from many library locations, and there is a much larger disruption in overall library service if such a circuit fails than there would be if a circuit that carries traffic from only one library
building failed. This "additional circuit" service would be offered to libraries that aggregate traffic from at least 15 locations on their current OPLIN circuit, and would install a redundant circuit at OPLIN's cost that is at least one-fifth the size
of the library's primary circuit. Where possible, the redundant circuit would be provided by a different telecommunications vendor from the primary circuit, and would be installed at a different location from the primary circuit. OPLIN would also offer to pay the cost for a bridge circuit to connect the primary circuit to the redundant circuit when the two circuits are installed at different locations. The estimated cost per year: $55,000 after E-Rate.

The second service would allow libraries to place storage devices, backup servers, or disaster recovery equipment at the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC), sharing unused OPLIN-leased rack space at that high-security location, at no cost to the library. All
equipment would be provided and managed by the library; OPLIN would only provide secured space with reliable power and a connection to the OPLIN network core. The estimated cost per year: $12,000.

The third service would be a statewide Internet content filter, as previously discussed under Item 6.1.

There was general agreement that the statewide filter was a service OPLIN should offer, especially since the cost would be covered by a legislative earmark in the budget. Ben Chinni expressed concern that OPLIN could then know which libraries filter their Internet and which do not, but Stephen Hedges clarified that OPLIN already has this information from the E-Rate forms OPLIN requires from all libraries. There was some discussion about offering SOCC space to libraries, mostly in the form of speculation about how many libraries would use it, and for what, but there were no strong concerns over this service.

The proposed redundant circuits generated the most discussion. There were concerns about how this would be implemented at libraries, and discussion of possible technical problems. Stephen Hedges noted that this service would have to be implemented in close consultation with the libraries, and that there could not be a standard implementation. There were also concerns about the ongoing cost of the service. Diane Fink assured the Board that enough funds were available in this biennium, but could not speak to future biennium budgets.

Karl Colón motioned to approve the statewide Internet content filtering service and the offer of SOCC space for library equipment, but postpone action on the redundant circuit service pending further refinement; Karen Davis seconded.

Jason Buydos offered a friendly amendment to simultaneously approve the proposed contract with OpenDNS for statewide filtering and retain any unused funds from the filtering budget to cover costs associated with implementing and administering the statewide filter; Karl Colón and Karen Davis both consented to the amendment.

Stephen Hedges noted that he thought the offering of a general statewide filter available to all libraries should preclude the future offering of filtering grants to individual libraries, and there was general Board agreement with this point.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, abstain; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Approve revisions to Policy on the Provision of Network Services by OPLIN to Public Libraries

Stephen Hedges reported that this Item was no longer needed, since it anticipated a need to amend the policy if redundant circuits were to be offered to libraries.

7.2. Approve OpenDNS contract

This item was discussed under Item 6.1 and approved under Item 6.2.

7.3. Rescind Electronic Resources Selection Policy

Stephen Hedges explained that in the process of reorganizing the OPLIN website, he discovered this extensive policy approved in 2000, which no longer conforms to the practice of selecting electronic resources since the establishment of Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) in 2003. Since the LCO partnership began, electronic resources have been selected by a committee of librarians representing OPLIN, OhioLINK, and INFOhio. This policy should therefore be extensively re-written or simply rescinded.

Jason Buydos motioned to rescind the Electronic Resources Selection Policy; Gary Branson seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Jill Billman-Royer, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, aye; Karen Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Becky Schultz, aye; and Jeff Wale, aye.

8. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges provided more information about the 80% E-Rate discount now available for 46 of the new routers; this resulted from an FCC reversal of funding denials previously issued by E-Rate. OPLIN has now implemented all the requirements of the Office of Information Technology's new "Enterprise Security Controls Framework" and Stephen can provide a copy of the implementation documentation to anyone who requests it. OPLIN staff completed a revision of the oplin.org website on September 8; while the site generally looks the same, the content was reorganized in an effort to make it easier for libraries to find the information they need. Finally, Stephen reminded the Board that the 2011 OPLIN Stakeholders Meeting will be held this year at the OLC Convention and Expo in Toledo, at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, October 26.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted meetings with library technology staff, Karl Jendretzky's work at library locations, and Laura Solomon's workshop presentation at the State Library.

8.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that the AT&T upgrades from old T1 circuits to new Ethernet connections have not been smooth, but Time Warner Cable has already completed 107 of their upgrades. He also reported that he has been spending a good deal of time getting quotes for the new Juniper routers so Diane Fink could open purchase orders. Finally, he noted that OPLIN now has the capacity to handle 4Gbps of Internet traffic at the network core, up from 2Gbps.

8.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that there are 33 libraries currently using Dynamic Website Kits, with 6 more in the process of receiving training or entering their content, and another 12 in the construction phase, for a total of 51 website kit customers. She is still receiving frequent inquiries from potential new customers. In November and part of December, she will cease new work on website kits while OPLIN upgrades the kits to interface better with mobile Internet devices. For next year, she is offering libraries a Summer Reading Program page template that they can add to their website kit for $50.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented database statistics, noting the large increase for September, but also noting that without Ancestry Library Edition and Mango Languages, usage would have been flat compared to last September. Karl Colón commended Beverly Cain on the decision to fund those two new databases with LSTA funds.

9. CHAIR'S REPORT

Jeff Wale reminded the Board about the OLC Convention in Toledo, and called attention especially to the planned tour of the Kent Branch of the Toledo Public Library for Convention attendees.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Gary Branson the Board adjourned at 11:36 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVENTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—August 12,
2011

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-seventh meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 12, 2011 by outgoing Board Chair Sandi Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Don Barlow, Jill Billman-Royer, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Becky Schultz, Jeff Wale, and Sandi Plymire.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, and Karl Jendretzky (OPLIN); Diane Fink and David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

Sandi welcomed new Board members Jill and Becky.

2. NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Sandi Plymire reminded the Board of the report from the Nominations Committee that was presented at the June meeting, which included this ballot of nominations for Board officers: Jeff Wale, Chair; Jamie Mason, Vice-Chair; Karl Colón, Secretary; and Gary Branson, Treasurer. Sandi asked for additional nominations from the floor, and there were none.

Sandi Plymire asked for a show of hands in favor of approving the Nominations Committee's ballot of Board officers. Nine yes; none no.

Sandi passed the gavel to Jeff Wale, who then appointed Sandi to the at-large position on the Executive Committee. Jeff acknowledged the two new Board members and asked all attendees to introduce themselves.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Jeff Wale requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Don Barlow motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

4. ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE for FY 2012

Jeff Wale requested approval of the proposed schedule of Board meetings for fiscal year 2012 and the first two meetings of fiscal year 2013. All proposed meetings would be on the second Friday of even-numbered months, in accordance with past practice.

Jamie Mason motioned to approve the Board meeting schedule as presented; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

There were no requests for public participation.

6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of June 10 meeting

Jeff Wale requested approval of the minutes of the June 10 Board meeting.

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the minutes of the June 10 meeting as presented; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

7. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented three Financial Reports: a report on the FY2010-2011 biennial budget as of June 30, 2011; a report on the FY2012-2013 biennial budget status; and a report on the fiscal year 2012 budget as of July 31, 2011. For the benefit of new Board members, Diane also presented an overview of state budgeting procedures and the fiscal relationship between OPLIN and the State Library.

In the first report, Diane pointed out that fiscal year 2010 has been closed, and only a few encumbrances for fiscal year 2011 were still open and waiting for invoices as of June 30. Payroll costs included a 27th payroll that the state assigned to fiscal year 2011.

The report on the biennial budget status detailed the changes to the requested OPLIN biennial budget as it moved through the Executive, House, and Senate recommendations and reached final approval. The requested OPLIN budget was not changed in this process, with the exception of minor changes to the budget for employee/employer contributions to the retirement fund.

The report on the fiscal year 2012 budget as of July 31, 2011 included three sub-reports. Report A showed that several of the FY2011 open expenditures were closed after receipt of invoices in July. Report B for FY2012 showed initial fiscal year activity for rent and database payments. Diane noted that OPLIN will make payments for the Ohio Web Library databases quarterly now instead of annually, since revenue from the Public Library Fund (PLF) will be received monthly. Report C showed the revenue/cash balance for fiscal year 2012. Diane pointed out that no transfer from the PLF was received in July; those transfers will begin in August.

Diane also mentioned that it is now expected that there will be no action on the pending capital budget bill for FY2011-2012; OPLIN had submitted about $480,000 in requests for that budget in February 2010. The next opportunity for capital funds will likely come early in 2012 for FY2013-2014.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Approve Internet filtering grant process

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board of discussion at the June meeting, when it was decided to continue distributing the $81,000 OPLIN budget earmark for filtering support as Internet filtering assistance grants. Stephen and Diane Fink proposed a simplified reporting process for grant recipients that is more closely aligned with the grant contracts, but all other grant parameters and procedures would remain as before. Stephen also reported that he had asked the state to investigate the possibility of establishing statewide contracts with filtering vendors, as the Board had requested; however, state contract personnel felt that they would not be able to negotiate anything better than the discounts several vendors already offer to public libraries.

Stephen also reported that he recently learned that Maine schools and libraries are using a central, statewide filter through OpenDNS. A preliminary inspection of the Maine implementation, discussions with OpenDNS, and information gathered from current Ohio customers of OpenDNS indicate this may be a viable central solution that would fit within the budget earmark. After discussion, the Board expressed interest in pursuing this option. Testing and purchasing paperwork will take a while, so this option is not feasible for this fiscal year, but might make it possible for OPLIN to offer free filtering to any Ohio public library next year. If the testing yields positive results, Stephen would want to share this information with libraries as soon as possible, so they can plan ahead.

Stephen reviewed the previous filtering grant process and the suggested changes, and requested approval to proceed as planned with another year of filtering grants.

Jason Buydos motioned to proceed with FY2012 filtering grants as planned; Sandi Plymire seconded. All aye.

8.2. Report from Ad Hoc Committee on Services

Jason Buydos reported that the committee was concerned that OPLIN funding taken from the PLF was disproportionately impacting the large metropolitan libraries when compared to the benefits they receive from OPLIN, so committee discussions had turned primarily to new services which would increase OPLIN benefits to those metro libraries. Several contemplated services from early discussions did not receive an enthusiastic response when feedback was solicited from some metro libraries. The service which the committee now recommended was a grant program to reimburse libraries for a portion of the cost of their branch Internet connections. Jason presented a spreadsheet demonstrating how such grants might be distributed to libraries if priority was given to branches in communities that qualify for high E-Rate discounts, branches which are open for a substantial number of hours each week, and library systems which operate a large number of branches in high-poverty communities.

Stephen Hedges clarified that this prioritization was his suggestion, and that the committee discussions had not reached this level of detail. The targeted amount of total reimbursement funds – $300,000 – was, however, discussed by the committee, and that figure came from the approximate annual cost of the NewsBank subscription. The committee had no desire to discontinue the NewsBank subscription, since that is heavily used by the metro libraries, but had speculated that it might be possible to pay that cost with federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the State Library.

Jeff Wale reported that most metro library directors are aware of the difference between what they now contribute to OPLIN funding and the value of the services they receive from OPLIN. He also noted that providing any support for the cost of branch connections would require a change to the current OPLIN policy of supporting one connection point per library system, but the metro libraries the committee consulted generally did not feel that the other proposed services – redundant connections to the library or offsite data storage – were as effective a use of OPLIN funds as some sort of support for branch connections would be.

Don Barlow pointed out that, had OPLIN funding remainded in the General Revenue Fund, the legislature might have made a larger reduction in the PLF to keep the state budget in balance, which would have resulted in the same negative financial impact for libraries without any of the current discussion regarding improvement of OPLIN services to libraries. He expressed support for the proposed reimbursement program, because it had the potential to benefit not only the metro libraries, but any library with branches in poor communities.

Diane Fink cautioned that the State Library is now receiving less LSTA money, so it might be difficult to find funds to pay for NewsBank. Stephen acknowledged that identifying a source (and amount) of funds would be a critical first step before this program could proceed.

Jamie Mason asked some questions about the return on investment spreadsheets which the Board had discussed in April. Discussion ensued about prioritizing branch support grants in ways that would have the biggest effect on changing the return on investment disparities.

There was also discussion of what actions the metro libraries might consider if OPLIN did nothing to improve the services provided to them. While it was generally agreed that it was unlikely any of them would actually want to harm OPLIN, Jill Billman-Royer pointed out that if talk of OPLIN "disparities" continues without any action from OPLIN to change this perception, then the reputation of OPLIN could be damaged in the library community.

Further discussion revolved around the reaction of other libraries if OPLIN developed a plan that only benefited metro libraries. Stephen Hedges pointed out that OPLIN intentionally sets the parameters of the filtering grants to the advantage of the small libraries and could set the parameters of a branch support grant program to intentionally benefit the large libraries. Diane Fink cautioned against calling it a "grant" program to avoid the need to get State Library Board approval for large disbursements and advised that the program could simply be a reimbursement for branch telecommunications costs.

Jeff Wale suggested that the Board reconsider this issue at the next meeting, after funds have been identified and other proposed parameters of the reimbursement have been developed, Jamie Mason also asked to see spreadsheets detailing how the proposed program would affect the libraries' return on investment. Stephen Hedges will also plan to attend the next meeting of the metro library directors to explain the ideas the Board is exploring.

Doug Evans also advised that any communications about the proposal should also make it very clear that the Board is not contemplating reducing any services to small and mid-sized libraries. He emphasized the importance of finding funds from some source that did not impact current OPLIN services. Ben Chinni questioned how it would look to legislators if OPLIN were able to find a significant source of "unused" funds within its budget.

9. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

10. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that the original quotes OPLIN received from vendors for replacement site routers referenced a state contract that expired June 30 and was not renewed. Juniper Routers has decided to submit their own statewide contract, which is currently under legal review. He also briefly reported that the Office of Information Technology has issued a new "Enterprise Security Controls Framework" which replaces the suite of security policies that were used to develop the OPLIN Information Technology Security Management plan. For the most part, the provisions of the current plan cover the new framework requirements.

Stephen reported that the Department of Administrative Services continues to express an interest in the OPLIN office moving to the State Library before the next biennium budget. Staff at the State Library have discussed this among themselves and with Stephen, and have provided DAS Real Estate with building blueprints and assurance that OPLIN would be able to place some equipment in the State Library server room.

Stephen informed the Board that he is in the process of moving all database usage statistics to the oplin.org/statistics webpage with the goal of providing more detailed statistics to libraries and ceasing updates to the old "ODURT" (OPLIN Database Usage Reporting Tool) webpage after December. He asked that anyone let him know if it came to their attention that this would create problems.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen highlighted Karl Jendretzky's work at library locations and Laura Solomon's workshop presentations.

10.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that since early this year over seventy (70) libraries have been moved from old T1 circuits to new Ethernet connections, leaving about fifty to do. This project has also resulted in the reconfiguration of the Central Library Consortium (CLC) network, with all circuits now coming back to the OPLIN core instead of the CLC office in Lithopolis. He also reported that the new Zimbra webmail service has been running smoothly for two months, with no complaints.

Karl noted that the SMS gateway service for library text messages has been in service for a little over a year and has sent about 125,000 messages, while he expects to send about three times that many messages in the coming year.

10.2. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented database statistics, noting that the addition of Ancestry Library Edition and Mango Languages had increased usage statistics considerably, but he also noted that without these two new databases, usage would have continued to decline slightly. Stephen also provided information on a Google Adwords campaign which he started for Ohio Web Library in mid-June. Costs are capped at $20 per day, and he is monitoring the analytics for the Ohio Web Library site to see if there is a noticeable increase in traffic. He will soon make a decision as to whether the Adwords campaign is cost-effective.

11. CHAIR'S REPORT

Jeff Wale complimented the work of his fellow members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Services.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Sandi Plymire the Board adjourned at 11:55 a.m.

OHIO PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIXTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—June 10,
2011

1. WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-sixth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 10, 2011 by Board Chair Sandi Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen Davis, Jamie Mason, Bonnie Mathies, Jeff Wale, and Sandi Plymire.

Also present were: Stephen Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Diane Fink, and David Namiotka (State Library); and Lynda Murray and Doug Evans (Ohio Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jeff Wale motioned to approve the agenda as presented; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Lynda Murray.

Lynda reported that OLC expects there will be legislative tuning of the complex state budget over the next year as problems surface. An area of concern for libraries is the removal of the OPLIN and the Library for the Blind funding from the Public Library Fund (PLF) without any reimbursement from the General Revenue Fund (GRF); in the current biennium, funds from the GRF were transferred to the PLF to offset the OPLIN and the Library for the Blind deductions. Stephen Hedges and Lynda have discussed the possibility of making a technical change that would allow OPLIN funding to rise and fall with the amount of funds in the PLF, rather than being a fixed number, and so long as such a change is "budget-neutral" the legislature would likely to be willing to accommodate it. Lynda noted, however, that if the library community asks for such a change, they have in effect made a long-term commitment to continuing to fund OPLIN from the PLF.

Karl Colón pointed out that OPLIN has fixed costs associated with Internet connections, so funding could not fall below a certain level. Doug Evans reported that in his recent meetings with small libraries, they have expressed concerns about the reduction in their funding due to the OPLIN deduction, but also realize that they depend on OPLIN. Lynda agreed that the larger libraries are probably the ones with more reason to object to the OPLIN deduction. Jason Buydos remarked that a long-term commitment to funding OPLIN from the PLF might be a bigger problem for libraries than the amount of the OPLIN deduction. Other discussion focused on the need to uncouple the OPLIN deduction and the Library for the Blind deduction, since the latter is more objectionable to libraries; OPLIN is governed by a board of public librarians, unlike the Library for the Blind.

Karl Colón reminded everyone that OPLIN now has a committee exploring services that would provide additional benefits to libraries that may not feel they currently get a good return on their investment in OPLIN. Stephen Hedges pointed out that no funding change could be made quickly, and that he sensed the general attitude of the Board now was to aim for returning OPLIN funding to the GRF, however unlikely that may be at the moment.

[Lynda Murray left the meeting at 10:24.]

The Chair recognized Beverly Cain.

Beverly reported that the State Library Board has decided to use excess federal LSTA funds from FY 2010 to fund one-year pilot subscriptions to three databases—Mango Languages, Ancestry Library Edition, and the World Book Early World of Learning—at the suggestion of the LSTA Advisory Council. The pilot subscriptions will begin July 1. Stephen Hedges also reported that the State Library Board agreed to pay for a portion of the OPLIN contribution to the EBSCO subscription, thus freeing up funds to allow OPLIN to complete the router replacement project that was begun in 2008.

4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of April 8 Board Retreat

Jason Buydos motioned to approve the minutes of the April 8 meeting; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

5. ACCEPTANCE OF THE FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of May 31, 2011.

Report A showed the budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 (now closed) and Fiscal Year 2011 through May 31. In the FY 2011 budget, Diane reported that payroll numbers will increase slightly because the state has directed that the 27th payroll of this calendar year will shift from FY 2012 to FY 2011. Also in Administration expenses, the encumbered amount for equipment is set aside for purchasing eight routers using E-Rate discounts. Throughout the report, "available" balances actually represented unused spending authority. In Telecommunications expenses, some previously budgeted amounts for Office of Information Technology (OIT) expenses were shifted to circuit expenses due to a reduced billing rate from OIT. All FY 2011 filtering funds have now been disbursed to libraries.

Report B showed the revenue and cash balances from July 2009 through May 2011. The cash balance in the past year increased about $350,000, primarily due to additional E-Rate reimbursements as well as refunds from telecommunications vendors for disconnected circuits following upgrades.

Report C showed the projected budget and expenditures for Fiscal Year 2012. The payroll budget will change slightly depending on the final version of the state biennium budget. Rent is slightly less than the amount in the budget submitted last fall to the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) because the rent increase was not as large as projected at that time. The amount budgeted for Information Resources has been reduced by $243,455, because of the State Library Board grant reported earlier by Stephen Hedges, and a new budget line in that amount has been created for Equipment/Routers for Network. OPLIN had submitted a request for capital funds to complete the router replacement project in February 2010, but nothing has happened with that budget, and the opportunity to use LSTA funds provided a different way to secure the necessary funding. Stephen Hedges noted that this solution was suggested by the State Library, and the Board expressed their appreciation to Beverly Cain.

Diane also presented Biennial Budget Reports, which now included not only the Executive Recommendation, but also the House and Senate Recommendations. All three budget recommendations were identical. Diane noted that the State Library's budget was also consistent in all three recommendations. Jeff Wale commended Diane for her thorough report.

Gary Branson motioned to accept the Financial Reports; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the Board.

7. NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN

Stephen Hedges presented a proposed new version of the Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN. Some libraries are planning to provide wi-fi connectivity in public spaces in their communities, so Stephen reviewed this policy to be sure it would not conflict with such plans. He found that the wording of the policy in general, which was last edited ten years ago, was outdated, and now proposed extensive changes. Several Board members argued that the section encouraging libraries to use their connections for certain services was no longer needed, that the sections describing what they are and are not permitted to do were sufficient. It was also noted that extensive use of wi-fi outside the library would increase OPLIN costs. Jason Buydos pointed out that the language prohibiting libraries from charging fees for Internet services "of any kind" might prevent libraries from charging routine fees for interlibrary loan, so those three words were removed.

Jeff Wale motioned to approve the discussed changes to the Policy on Public Library Use of OPLIN; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

7.2. Disbursement of filtering support funds

Stephen Hedges reported that all indications are that there will be no change in the filtering earmark in the OPLIN budget in the next two years. He proposed changing the way funds are distributed, however, suggesting that the application process could be simplified and funds could be distributed to libraries based on the number of filtered computers they have, rather than through grants and the current grant guidelines. This would allow funds to flow to all libraries, rather than just libraries with low revenues. He estimated each library would get about $5 per computer.

Jeff Wale asked if filtered staff computers would be separated from public computers; Stephen replied that he thinks they should be handled together, noting that the Childrens Internet Protection Act requires libraries to filter both in order to get E-Rate funds. Doug Evans reported that a few smaller libraries had expressed concerns to him about continued support for their filtering. Jason Buydos speculated that OPLIN might identify one filtering vendor and pay the entire $81,000 earmark to them to provide filtering in libraries. Stephen noted that NEO-RLS currently offers filtering through one vendor.

Discussion turned to how deeply OPLIN would then have to be involved in implementing local filtering policies, and also how differences in the earmark and the cost of the filtering would be resolved. Jeff Wale pointed out that negotiating for filtering statewide could bring the cost down to $5 per computer, perhaps less. Diane Fink warned that any expenditure over $50,000 to one vendor would require special procedures, unless there is already a state contract with that vendor. Karl Colón suggested that getting a vendor on a state contract could take a year, so that might be something to explore for the future. Ben Chinni questioned why OPLIN would want to get involved in such complexities, when the current disbursement of the earmark seems to be satisfactory. Karl pointed out that negotiations that lead to a state contract(s) for filtering could reduce costs for all libraries.

Stephen suggested that for FY 2012 OPLIN simplify the application and reporting procedures, but continue to distribute the funds via the grant process currently used; the Board can formally approve this plan in August, but he can now tell inquiring libraries that the filtering program will continue essentially as before for another year. Meanwhile, he will work on establishing a statewide filtering contract for FY 2013. The Board was generally in agreement with this suggestion.

7.3. Review strategic plan

Stephen Hedges presented a few minor changes to the strategic plan based on discussions at the April Board Retreat. The most notable changes were minor shifts in the way OPLIN approaches marketing through social media, to reflect current best practices. Stephen noted that this is just a beginning, and that more changes are likely after the ad hoc committee on OPLIN services completes its work.

8. REPORT from AD HOC COMMITTEE ON SERVICES

Jason Buydos began his report by ceding the floor to Karl Colón.

Karl Colón motioned to commend the OPLIN staff on their excellent work throughout the year; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

Jason reported that the ad hoc committee had an initial meeting and have identified two areas of service which are promising: network consulting and technology purchasing consulting. Network consulting could fit within an existing goal in the strategic plan, but purchasing consulting might require a new goal. The committee will continue to meet and refine these areas of service, with the expectation that some of the new services will benefit libraries that may not be getting as much benefit as other libraries from current OPLIN services. Jamie Mason noted that some of these services might conflict with services already offered by the regional library systems and encouraged the committee to communicate with NEO-RLS in particular.

9. OPLIN DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that the final Biannual Report to the Leadership of the Ohio General Assembly was submitted at the end of April; as a result of a change to language in the new biennial budget, future reports on library Internet filtering will be produced upon request rather than on a regular biannual schedule. He also reported briefly on ALA Legislative Day and thanked Karl Colón for his testimony regarding OPLIN before the Ohio Senate Finance Committee while he was away in Washington. Stephen also thanked OLC for the opportunity to explain OPLIN at their New Directors workshop. Finally, he thanked Karl Jendretzky for his outstanding work implementing the new Zimbra email server.

Regarding OPLIN office activities, Stephen called attention to the many presentations Laura Solomon has been giving at workshops, and the May 26 State Library Board meeting where LSTA funds were awarded to the Ohio Web Library.

9.1. Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky provided details of changes to the OPLIN mail servers resulting from the Zimbra implementation. He reported on tests of a Cisco centralized filtering solution, which was not able to handle our needs. He also described the routers which OPLIN now plans to purchase to complete the upgrade project and speculated that the new equipment should be large enough to serve most libraries for the next decade; OPLIN will be purchasing these routers directly rather than through OIT. Karl also noted that the OPLIN core has now been completely moved to the new Juniper router, so OPLIN can now proceed with setting up quality-of-service for special network needs.

9.2. Library Services Manager report

Laura Solomon described the programs on social media she has been doing at OLC Chapter Conferences. Demand for Dynamic Website Kits continues to be strong, with nine new libraries signing on since the beginning of the year. She continues to make improvements and upgrades to the kits.

9.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges noted that the number of documents viewed decreased drastically in May. Following an EBSCO system upgrade in mid-April, Stephen noticed that the number of EBSCO articles viewed dropped significantly, and he speculated that over the past year, when OPLIN saw searches decline but article views increase, the EBSCO statistics may not have been accurate.

10. CHAIR'S REPORT

10.1. Nominations Committee report

Jeff Wale presented the report from the Nominations Committee. In response to a call for nominations, the committee received eleven excellent nominations. The committee felt that the Board needed more representation of library trustees, and perhaps had too much representation from library administrators. With this in mind, two candidates stood out: Jill Billman-Royer, a trustee at Southwest Public Libraries, and Rebecca Schultz, the Technology Coordinator at Portsmouth Public Library. Testing these candidates against the geographic and library size representation of the Board also indicated they would be good additions. Sandi Plymire noted that this group of candidates was the strongest she had seen.

The committee recommended that the State Library Board be asked to appoint Jill Billman-Royer to fill Jim Kenzig's unexpired term, to appoint Rebecca Schultz to fill Bonnie Mathies' expiring term, and to re-appoint Sandi Plymire to a second term. All aye.

The Nominations Committee also prepared a slate of candidates for Board officers for election at the upcoming August meeting. Candidates who are willing to serve are: Jeff Wale, Chair; Jamie Mason, Vice-Chair; Gary Branson, Treasurer; and Karl Colón, Secretary. Jeff indicated that he would appoint Sandi Plymire to the at-large position on the Executive Committee.

10.2. Director's evaluation

Sandi Plymire reported that all Board members had submitted evaluations of the OPLIN Director, which were collated by Bonnie Mathies. Stephen Hedges met or exceeded all expectations in all areas on all evaluations, and comments were positive; she shared a few of those comments. Stephen thanked the Board for their support.

10.3. Resolution honoring Bonnie Mathies

Sandi Plymire read the following resolution:

WHEREAS, BONNIE MATHIES has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2004, and WHEREAS she has freely and unselfishly given of her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for SEVEN years, and WHEREAS she has served steadfastly as the Secretary of the OPLIN Board since July 2007, and WHEREAS she has consistently contributed her respected opinions to OPLIN Board and OPLIN Executive Committee deliberations, and WHEREAS she has been a dependable and active participant in Board activities, and WHEREAS her service as a trustee of the Washington-Centerville Public Library gave her an exceptional perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, and WHEREAS her service as an administrator of Wright State University, an OhioLINK institution, allowed her to contribute valuable information to Board discussions for the benefit of both OPLIN and OhioLINK, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 10th day of June, Two Thousand and Eleven, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by BONNIE MATHIES during her outstanding tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to BONNIE MATHIES for her continued volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Karl Colón motioned to place the resolution in the minutes; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

Bonnie noted that she has been involved with OhioLINK, OPLIN and INFOhio from the beginning of each organization, and while some issues have been resolved over the years, others continue to come up, so she will continue to take an interest in these organizations. She remarked that the people in all three organizations are passionate about libraries, and she felt such support of public information was very important.

11. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jeff Wale the Board adjourned at 12:04 p.m.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Board Retreat

Minutes—April 8,
2011

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-fifth
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 8, 2011 by Board Chair Sandi
Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Karl Colón, Karen
Davis, Jamie
Mason, Jeff Wale, and Sandi Plymire. Bonnie Mathies arrived at 10:30.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Diane
Fink and
David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

3.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Doug Evans.

Doug provided an update on legislative activity related to public
libraries, particularly the next state
biennium budget. Funding for OPLIN and the Library for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped are currently slated to come out of the Public
Library
Fund (PLF), which would increase the anticipated cut in library funding
from 5% to about 6œ%. OPLIN has also suggested amendment language to
re-direct the filtering earmark in the OPLIN budget to e-government
support.

Karl Colón and Jeff Wale asked about S.B. 5, the "collective
bargaining" bill. Doug indicated that Ohio Library Council (OLC) believes the bill would not
apply to library employees who are not union members. He also reported
that it has been suggested that some
language may be moved into the budget bill to preclude a referendum.

Don Barlow asked about retirement system changes in the budget
legislation. Doug responded that PERS has indicated that the proposed
shift in employee/employer contributions would affect the solvency of
the retirement fund.

4.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of February 11 Meeting

Karl Colón motioned to
approve the minutes of the February 11 meeting; Karen Davis
seconded. All aye.

5.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of March 31, 2011.

Report A showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 and Fiscal Year
2011 through March 31. Fiscal Year 2010 is closed, but Diane
noted that FY 2009-2010 Capital Funds for purchasing routers have now
been transferred to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for
router purchases in FY 2010, and that OPLIN submitted a request for
additional
Capital Funds in February 2010. In the FY 2011
budget, Diane highlighted the effect of furlough days on the OPLIN
payroll, and also noted the decrease in telecommunications costs
resulting from OIT's new rate structure this fiscal year. Report B
showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. E-Rate
reimbursements for funding year 2005 continue to arrive, so the cash
balance at the end of March was about $2.3 million.

Stephen Hedges called attention to the budget item for filtering
grants and presented the proposed amendment to the budget bill language
which would re-purpose the current $81,000 annual earmark for filtering
support, using it to support e-government services instead. He also
reported that the OPLIN office is testing some Cisco hardware that
might be able to implement centralized filtering within the budget
constraints of the filtering earmark, should the amendment be
unsuccessful. Individual libraries should be able to configure the
filter for their own library; Board members cautioned that libraries
would also need to have the ability to deactivate the filter on
individual computers. If both the amendment and the central filter
testing are unsuccessful, Stephen would like to have a future
discussion about changing the way filtering funds are distributed to
libraries.

Diane reported that the Department of Administrative Services (DAS)
has opened negotiations with the OPLIN landlord for the next biennium
lease. Although OPLIN has budgeted for an increase, DAS is resisting
any increase and is suggesting that OPLIN move into the State Library.
This would appear to be more expensive for OPLIN than paying a slight
rent increase at the current location, so OPLIN has asked DAS to
proceed with negotiations with the landlord; however, Diane, Stephen,
and Beverly Cain met to discuss the situation and have decided to also
request that DAS conduct space planning with OPLIN and State Library
staff to develop contingency plans for moving OPLIN into the State
Library location.

Diane
also presented Biennial Budget Reports, which include the Executive
Budget amounts released by the Governor. The only difference between
the submitted budget and the Executive Budget is a small reduction in
payroll
expenses due to the proposed shift in employee/employer contributions
to
the retirement system. The House Budget is expected on May 5. The cash
balance at the end of the biennium, assuming OPLIN used the entire $2
million in spending authority, would be just over $100,000. Jeff Wale
asked how this cash balance compares to previous years. Diane noted
that the projected cash balance looks low because of the difference
between the requested $2 million in spending authority in each year and
the
estimated $1.3 million in E-Rate funds expected to be received,
creating an accounting deficit of $700,000 in each year. In reality,
the
cash balance at the end of the next biennium will probably be about the
same as at the end of the current biennium.

Diane reported on Beverly Cain's testimony before the Higher
Education Subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations
Committee on March 31; the proposed State Library budget is 7.7% less
than the current budget. She also reported briefly on the open Request
for Proposals to supply statewide delivery for library materials.

Jamie Mason motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. OPLIN "Return on Investment"
spreadsheet

Stephen Hedges recalled that he had presented a draft document
titled "OPLIN Value" at the last Board meeting. The document was
intended to demonstrate the "return
on
investment" libraries receive from OPLIN in return for taking OPLIN
funding
from the Public Library Fund (PLF). The consensus of the Board had been
that the document should be revised
and then presented again at this April Board retreat. After the
February meeting, however, the Executive Committee worked with Stephen
to prepare a revised document, "Benefits of Collaborative Purchasing,"
which was presented to the OLC Board at their meeting and then used at
the OLC Legislative Day on March 24.

Now Stephen presented the full spreadsheet used to prepare the
"Benefits" document. He pointed out that this detailed data revealed
some surprising facts about how little the information databases are
used by some libraries. The data also showed that the large libraries
have a negative return on investment in OPLIN, which can be explained
by the fact that the most expensive service OPLIN provides to libraries
is the Internet connections, and these can be provided much more
economically to large libraries as opposed to small libraries.
Therefore the small libraries tend to show a positive return on
investment in OPLIN, even if some of them do not use the database
services.

Don Barlow and others pointed out larger libraries accept that, in
many ways, smaller libraries need more in order to keep library
services equitable across the state. Karl Colón noted that the data in
the spreadsheet was very valuable for the OPLIN Board, but also
demonstrated that OPLIN should clearly not be marketed as an
"investment" for libraries, and for that reason funding for OPLIN
should ultimately come from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) rather than
the PLF.

The Board discussed the value of OPLIN services to libraries, beyond
the expected "utility" of providing basic Internet connections and
databases. Satisfying the demand for e-government services in libraries
is dependent on maintaining robust and secure Internet connections,
which is beyond the technical expertise of many libraries. Many
libraries are dependent on OPLIN email services. There is a need for
more library websites that provide good access to the databases, as the
website kits do. OPLIN services may be especially valuable to smaller
libraries, but the real value for all libraries is not so much as a
provider of Internet connections and databases as a provider of
services that sustain and support the connections and databases. Should
this
service extend to audits of libraries' internal networks, something
which OPLIN is uniquely qualified to do? What would that cost, keeping
in mind that it could be spread over an extended period?

7.
NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

[The Chair recessed the meeting from
11:45 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. for lunch.]

8.
REPORT and DISCUSSIONS

The next portion of the meeting included reports on the current
status of OPLIN services and discussion of future plans.

8.1. Internet connections

Karl Jendretzky presented a list of all libraries receiving fiber
Ethernet upgrades as a result of the OPLIN E-Rate RFP, and the few
libraries that must still depend on T1 circuits purchased under the
SOMACS contract. Stephen Hedges clarified that the SOMACS contract has
just been renewed (2 years) for the final time. Karl noted that
improvements to the OPLIN core are also underway. The remaining router
upgrades are also planned if funding can be found. Looking to the
future, the core may soon reach the point where purchasing 10 Gbps
hardware will be more economical that maintaining multiple 1 Gbps
pathways.

8.2. Databases

Stephen Hedges presented statistics of databases usage, which still
show continuing slight increases in the number of documents retrieved
despite slight decreases in the number of searches. Google analytics of
the ohioweblibrary.org site confirms slight decreases in the number of
visitors to the site. There was some discussion of the technical
barriers to seeing EBSCO articles in Google search results. Stephen
also reported on the breakdown of payments for the databases from the
Libraries Connect Ohio partners and noted that LCO would be requesting
federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the State
Library Board again in May. Diane Fink also reported generally on the
status of federal funding for the LSTA program.

8.3. Dynamic Website Kits

Laura Solomon presented extensive information about how the website
kits are designed and displayed some "before and after" examples of
library websites. She also explained some of the custom modules which
libraries have requested and the step-by-step process of designing a
website kit. Interest in the kits continues to be strong. Looking to
the future, Laura would like to focus more on developing sites that
work well on mobile devices, and on encouraging libraries to pay closer
attention to their website analytics. In response to Board questions,
Laura clarified that the website kits can only be hosted on OPLIN servers,
to control upgrade costs, and that about 15% of Ohio public libraries
are currently using website kits. Board members noted the low cost and
suggested that OPLIN might actively approach libraries with poor or no
websites about purchasing a website kit.

8.4. Technology projects

Karl Jendretzky reported that OPLIN currently operates 19 servers,
17 of which have been rebuilt within the last three years on old
hardware and moved to the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC). He
reported that the SMS (text messaging) service is currently generating
about 14,000 text messages for libraries each month and should be able
to handle as many as 400,000 messages a month. The OPLIN email service
is about to move to Zimbra now that the latest version (7.0.1) of that
software, which fixed some bugs, has been released. Karl and Terry
Fouts (OIT) are still exploring methods for performing thorough testing
of circuit performance at library sites. The Board asked what sort of
requests for networking assistance come from libraries; Karl replied
that most issues are internal to the library, since OPLIN now upgrades
connections before bandwidth limitations cause problems.

Jason Buydos motioned that the Chair
establish a committee to explore the direction of future OPLIN
services, including local technical support and other services; Karl
Colón seconded. All aye.

The Chair asked for volunteers, then
appointed Jason Buydos, Karl Colón, Jeff Wale, and Don Barlow to an
ad-hoc committee to explore future OPLIN services.

Looking to the future, Karl Jendretzky reported that he would like
to rebuild the system which authenticates users for database access. He
also noted that OPLIN needs to buy more routers to complete the
replacement of end-of-life routers still in use, and also needs to buy
some new server hardware for redundancy.

8.5. Technology leadership

Stephen Hedges presented the portion of the current strategic plan
dealing with technology leadership and detailed activities in support
of that goal. He suggested no changes to the strategic plan in this
area.

8.6. Marketing

Stephen Hedges presented the portion of the current strategic plan
dealing with marketing and detailed activities in support of that goal.
He suggested that it is time to do focus groups again; the Board
suggested that focus group questions could come from the ad-hoc
services committee. Stephen also suggested that the activity using
social media to publish information about OPLIN services be removed,
since this is not the most effective way to use social media. Likewise,
he suggested removal of the activity using the router replacement
project to provide information about OPLIN services, since OIT staff
handle the actual router replacement, not OPLIN staff. Karen Davis
asked how the order of libraries receiving replacement routers was
determined; Stephen replied that it was based on a combination of
bandwidth need and any guidelines which may be set by the funding
sources.

Stephen will make changes to the current strategic plan based on the
day's discussions, and present proposed changes at the June Board
meeting.

8.7. Activities calendar

Stephen Hedges reported on office activities, highlighting
budget-related meetings and Laura Solomon's presentation at the
Computers in Libraries conference in Washington DC.

9.
CHAIR'S REPORT

9.1. Board member recruitment

Sandi Plymire appointed Jeff Wale, Karen Davis, and Jamie Mason to a
nominating committee to recruit Board member candidates, noting that
the Board is losing two members, one of them a library trustee. The
committee is also charged with recruiting a slate of Board officers.

9.2. Director evaluation process

Bonnie Mathies volunteered to once again collect Board member's
evaluations of the OPLIN Director and collate them. Sandi Plymire asked
all Board members to send their evaluations to Bonnie by May 16. Sandi
encouraged Board members to include comments on their evaluations. The
Executive Committee will review the evaluations prior to the June Board
meeting and report to the full Board.

10. ADJOURNMENT

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 2:11
p.m.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOURTH REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—February 11,
2011

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-fourth
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, February 11, 2011 by Board Chair Sandi
Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen
Davis, Jim Kenzig, Jamie
Mason, Bonnie Mathies, and Sandi Plymire.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain, Diane
Fink and
David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

3.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Doug Evans.

Doug noted that legislative activity related to public libraries had
been rare at the end of last year, but now there were a number of
pieces of legislation which the Ohio Library Council (OLC) is
monitoring, as well as watching for any news regarding the next state
budget. OLC Legislative Day is scheduled for March 24. Doug
particularly mentioned legislation affecting public employee retirement
and collective bargaining.

4.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of December 10 Meeting

Karen Davis motioned to
approve the minutes of the December 10 meeting after correction of a
typographical error; Jamie Mason
seconded. All aye.

5.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of January 31, 2011.

Report A showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 and Fiscal Year
2011 through January 31. Fiscal Year 2010 is now closed. In the FY 2011
budget, Diane noted open purchase orders for rent, staff travel, and
monthly consultant payments. Regarding telecommunications expenses, she
reported
that the Office of Information Technology (OIT) is behind on billing
for Internet access, but has also re-rated their services resulting in
lower costs for OPLIN. Diane noted that only two contracts for
filtering assistance grants are still outstanding. As of the end of
January, OPLIN has about $2.4 million in available spending authority.

Report B showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. The $1.3
million cash balance at the end of FY 2010 rolled over to FY 2011. In
the last two months, a considerable amount was received from E-Rate
reimbursements for funding year 2005. Diane noted the transfer out for
the quarterly savings from Cost Savings Days. The cash balance
as of January 31 was a little more than $3 million.

Diane
also presented Biennial Budget Reports, which are unchanged since the
last Board meeting. Executive Budget amounts will appear on these
reports once that budget has been released by the Governor.

Diane reported on other general news from the Office of Budget
and Management (OBM). In early January OBM released the 10% of General
Revenue Funds for non-personnel costs which agencies had been
instructed to set aside (about $130,000 for the State Library, but
OPLIN was not affected); after the new Governor was inaugurated, this
release was rescinded. Governor Kasich has issued five Executive
Orders, one of which concerns ethics training and will probably affect
OPLIN Board members. In news affecting public libraries, Diane reported
that the State Library and OhioLINK are working toward issuing a
Request for Proposal for statewide delivery services, to take effect
July 1, 2011.

Bonnie Mathies motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Jim Kenzig seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business to come before the Board.

7.
NEW BUSINESS

7.1. OPLIN "Return on Investment" document

Stephen Hedges presented a draft document titled "OPLIN Value" and
explained that at a recent meeting of the OLC Government Relations
Committee it was suggested that it might be a good idea to have "return
on
investment" information prepared in the event that libraries question
the value they receive from OPLIN in return for taking OPLIN funding
from the Public Library Fund (PLF). The document considered the three
primary
services OPLIN buys for libraries—Internet connections, EBSCOhost, and
Ohio newspapers—and listed the Internet connections currently provided
to each library and the undiscounted cost of EBSCOhost for each
library. Stephen requested feedback from the Board, with the goal of
developing a document which could be provided to OLC to be used as
needed.

Karl Colón noted that the document did not provide the amount each
library contributed to OPLIN through the PLF, so it would be hard for a
library to calculate their return on investment. Jason Buydos
questioned if the document should not be addressed to legislators,
rather than public libraries. Jamie Mason suggested that the amount
OPLIN pays for each library's connection be added to the document;
Stephen noted that some libraries might be able to purchase connections
locally for less than what OPLIN pays under statewide contract pricing,
but Board members generally felt this would still be valuable
information. Doug Evans noted that legislators would probably want to
see the monetary value their local libraries receive from OPLIN.

Jason Buydos reminded Board members that nine southwest Ohio
libraries jointly produced an ROI document several years ago that was
very useful. Other Board members noted that their libraries have
produced ROI documents and/or website calculators and found them very
valuable.

The consensus of the Board was that the document should be revised
and then presented again at the April Board retreat.

7.2. E-Rate RFP responses

Stephen Hedges reported that in response to an RFP
(oplin.org/erate/RFP2010.html) issued in conjunction with an E-Rate
Form 470, OPLIN received quotes from ValTech Communications, Time
Warner Cable and AT&T for providing data circuits beginning July 1.
The AT&T quote proposed circuits for all OPLIN connections except
two which currently are served by DS3 circuits. The types of circuits
proposed included OPT-E-MAN Ethernet, Meet Point OPT-E-MAN using
combined services from AT&T and various other local exchange
carriers (LECs), Ethernet Virtual Private Lines (EVPL), Private Network
Transport, and T1 lines. The Time Warner Cable quote proposed
business-class Ethernet services for 176 OPLIN connections spread
across the state. The ValTech quote was general and did not propose
solutions for specific sites; the offering was limited to libraries
within the AT&T LEC territories.

Responses were scored by Stephen and Karl Jendretzky, with low cost
and Ethernet technology getting the highest scores. None of the
proposals to replace any of the 87 current OPLIN Ethernet connections
were feasible once the penalty cost of breaking current Ethernet
contracts was added to the proposal prices. Stephen explained the
scoring in detail. Overall, the scoring indicated that of the libraries
and regional library systems currently connected with T1 circuits, 126
should be moved to Time Warner Cable Ethernet circuits, fourteen should be
moved to AT&T EVPL circuits, and twenty-seven should remain on T1 circuits.
Stephen noted that this would be a major upgrade to the OPLIN network,
while the overall cost would be nearly the same as current cost.

Stephen requested that the Board authorize opening negotiations with
AT&T and Time Warner Cable based on this scoring with the goal of
making a final determination of which libraries should be switched to
their Ethernet services and securing those services beginning on or
about July 1, 2011.

Karl Colón motioned to authorize the
OPLIN Director to negotiate with AT&T and Time Warner Cable for new
Ethernet circuits; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

7.3. OLC Convention
Gold sponsorship

Stephen Hedges explained that OPLIN has sponsored Internet
connectivity at OLC Conventions in the past, most recently paying for
wireless Internet in the exhibit area, and he has been in touch with
Lori Hensley at OLC about similar sponsorship at the Convention this
October. He noted that the Convention will also be the venue for the
OPLIN Stakeholders meeting this year. Lori has determined that the cost
of wireless Internet in the exhibit area, as well as connectivity for
the E-mail Cafe, would probably be about $4,000, which would qualify
OPLIN to be recognized as a Gold Sponsor of the Convention. Stephen
asked for approval to sponsor Internet connectivity for the Convention
at the Gold Sponsorship level.

Don Barlow motioned to sponsor the
OLC Convention at the Gold level; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye with
the exception of Karl Colón and Jamie Mason, who abstained because they
are members of the OLC Convention Program Committee.

8.
OPLIN DIRECTOR'S
REPORT

Stephen Hedges called attention to the copies of the OPLIN Annual
Report which were included in the Board packets. He commended Amie
McReynolds for her good work on the Annual Report, despite the fact
that she is new to OPLIN and was learning about the organization while
creating the report. Also included in the packet was a "one-pager"
about OPLIN which Stephen provided to Lynda
Murray (OLC) which she can
leave with legislators as she visits them.

Stephen reported that on a couple of occasions during the past two
months, OPLIN
experienced some unexpected circuit outages that affected a number of
libraries, sometimes for extended periods of time. One outage was
prolonged enough to violate the Network Availability guarantee (99.99%)
of the AT&T Service Level Agreement with the state, so AT&T
will be refunding part of our circuit charges. OIT set up a meeting
with AT&T on December 21,
which Karl Jendretzky and Stephen attended, to determine the cause of
these
problems and steps which might prevent similar problems in the future.
Basically, the problems all seem to have been communication-related.

Stephen informed the Board that Karl Jendretzky has installed a new
and improved system for tracking trouble
tickets. In the course
of migrating tickets from the old system to the new system, he also
removed many tickets that could have been closed earlier. OPLIN will
now have monthly staff meetings to review all open tickets and
identify problems that need further attention.

Stephen reminded the Board that he has worked with Bill Morris
(State Library) to submit altered budget language to OBM that would
change the OPLIN report
to the leadership of the legislature and the Governor on filtering
activities in libraries from a bi-annual report to an on-demand report.
Stephen has also asked Lynda Murray to keep in mind, as she meets with
legislators,
that OPLIN would have no objection to the removal of the earmark in our
budget for support of filtering in libraries.

Stephen reported that OPLIN recently began the process of developing
smartphone apps for
the Find-A-Library service; instead of
apps, however, a modified version of the service was built so it now
performs well in any mobile device web
browser. This mobile-optimized version can be found at
http://oplin.org/labs/mobilefal.
It has been coded to bypass a display
problem on iPhone screens, and library phone numbers
can be called (if your device is a phone) just by touching the number.
You can also touch the library's address to launch Google maps, which
can then provide you with other information, such as driving
directions. Finally, you can touch on the library's web address to go
to the library website.

Looking at the calendar of OPLIN office activities, Stephen
highlighted his participation in an EBSCO focus group on December 9,
Karl Jendretzky's on-site networking help at Putnam County District
Library, and Laura Solomon's workshop presentation for NEO-RLS on
January 19. He also mentioned that Laura will be doing a presentation
at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington DC in March.

8.1.
Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that the Support Center has been very busy
since the beginning of the year with ordering upgrades and branch
connections for libraries. The Support Center has also had to deal with
a considerable number of e-mail accounts that have been compromised
through phishing attacks. Karl also reported that he is pleased with
the performance of the new ticketing system.

Karl mentioned that the SMS messaging system is now processing more
than 2,000 library text notices each week. He reported that the project
to upgrade the OPLIN webmail service to Zimbra software is ready to
move forward again, now that the latest major version of Zimbra was
released four days ago. So far, it looks like this version of Zimbra
will offer improved document sharing.

Finally, Karl reported that he and Terry Fouts (OIT) think they have
developed a way to load an entire operating system and network testing
software on a bootable flash drive, which can easily be sent out to
libraries. These would be an inexpensive replacement for the more
cumbersome testing pod currently being used to track down network
problems at library sites. A further refinement might be to implement
similar software over the network for remote testing.

8.2. Library Services
Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that three new kit websites have launched,
bringing the total to twenty-eight website kits completed and seven
more in process.

Laura also reported on an ongoing project to transition the old
"personal" OPLIN Facebook account to an "organization" account. When
OPLIN first established an account, there was no option for
organization accounts. Now she is asking people to "de-friend" the old
account and "like" the new account, so she can close the old one.

Laura mentioned her upcoming presentation at Computers in Libraries,
but also reported that she will be doing presentations at most of the
OLC Chapter Conferences following her return from CiL.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented statistics of
database usage. He expressed some concern over the continuing trend
toward fewer searches and more article retrievals, which could mean
that fewer people are using the databases, even though those who do use
them seem to be finding more articles. OPLIN staff may try to use other
tools to determine if fewer people are using ohioweblibrary.org, for
example.

11.
CHAIR'S REPORT

Sandi Plymire read a resolution in honor of Jim Kenzig, who is
resigning from the OPLIN Board:

WHEREAS, JAMES KENZIG has been a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees since July 2006, and WHEREAS he has freely and unselfishly given of his time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for four and a half years, and WHEREAS he has consistently contributed his respected and expert opinions to Board deliberations, and WHEREAS he has been a dependable and active participant in Board activities, and WHEREAS his service as an information technology manager for the Cuyahoga County Public Library gave him a valuable perspective on OPLIN and its services to libraries, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 11th day of February, Two Thousand and Eleven, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by JAMES KENZIG during his tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to JAMES KENZIG for his continued volunteer service as a member of that Board. ATTESTED TO THIS DATE FOR THE OPLIN BOARD OF TRUSTEES Sandi Plymire, Chair; Bonnie Mathies, Secretary

Sandi reminded Board members to be sure they submitted their
Financial Disclosure forms to the Ethics Commission before April 15.
She also reminded Board members that the next meeting on April 8 will
be the all-day Board retreat, and they should bring money for lunch.
Stephen will provide a menu at a later date.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jim Kenzig
the Board adjourned at 11:17.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THIRD REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—December 10,
2010

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-third
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, December 10, 2010 by Board Chair Sandi
Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl Colón, Karen
Davis, Jamie
Mason, and Sandi Plymire. Bonnie Mathies joined the meeting at 10:11
and Jeff Wale joined the meeting at 10:20.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Diane Fink and
David Namiotka (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Jamie Mason seconded. All aye.

3.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Doug Evans.

Doug reported that OLC has been actively making contact with new
administration officials as they are appointed by governor-elect
Kasich. OLC continues to hear many rumors about changes which may be
coming in the new administration, but has not been able to confirm that
any changes have yet been discussed regarding public libraries. He
noted that tax revenues are currently running ahead of predictions, but
it is unknown what effect that may have on the next biennium budget. He
asked that Board members share any rumors or information they
might hear.

Don Barlow asked if there were any developments in the East Cleveland
Public Library effort to join with the Cuyahoga County Public Library;
Doug had nothing new to report in that regard. He did report, however,
that OLC has used an LSTA grant to engage Driscoll and Fleeter to
provide information to the State Library task force investigating
issues related to library mergers and consolidations.

4.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of October 8 Meeting

Don Barlow motioned to
approve the minutes of the October 8 meeting; Jason Buydos
seconded. All aye.

5.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented the Financial Reports as of November
30, 2010.

Report A showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 and Fiscal Year
2011 through November 30. Two FY 2010 purchase orders had small
balances that were canceled as of November 30, the last day FY 2010
purchase orders could remain open. The total "available
balance" of $469,507 for FY 2010 actually represents the unused portion
of OPLIN's $2
million spending authority for potential non-state income. Diane noted
that one large
purchase order to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for the
new Juniper routers is awaiting an invoice; these funds are available
from the last capital budget. OPLIN has another request for funds in
the current capital budget, but it is unknown when the legislature will
consider this budget.

Moving to the FY 2011 budget, Diane noted the expenditure for new
desktop computers to replace 7-year-old staff computers. She reported
that all fiscal year
funds going toward purchase of the information databases has been
distributed to Wright State University, and eTech
Ohio has been paid for E-Rate services and workshops. Diane pointed out
that no payments had yet been made to OIT as of November 30, but OPLIN
has since started to receive OIT invoices. She also noted that all the
filtering assistance grants approved at the last Board meeting have
been disbursed, with the exception of one library that requested a
delay until January 1.

Report B showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. The $1.3
million cash balance at the end of FY 2010 rolled over to FY 2011.
Shortly after the beginning of FY 2011 a transfer of $3.7 million was
made from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to OPLIN, and additional
revenue has been received
from E-Rate reimbursements and web services for libraries. The cash balance
as of November 30 was a little more than $2.8 million.

Diane
also reviewed the FY 2012-13 budget request that was submitted to the
Office of Budget and Management (OBM) on November 1.
She mentioned the payroll
budgeting increase in FY 2012, when an extra pay cycle falls
within the fiscal year; the total budget request, however, is the same
as the current OPLIN budget. As funding recommendations are developed
by the Governor, the House, and the Senate, they will be added to the
report. Regarding future cash flow projections, Diane noted that OPLIN
should receive about $1 million in E-Rate reimbursements from 2005,
following approval of an appeal to the Federal Communications
Commission. If all spending authority is used, the projected cash
balance at the end of FY 2013 will be about $100,000.

After the OPLIN budget request was submitted to OBM on November 1,
as part of the State Library budget, it underwent a technical review by
OBM staff, then OBM requested additional copies to forward to
the legislature and governor-elect. An IT Plan was a
required component of the budget request; David Namiotka assisted in
the preparation of this plan. On December 1, OBM publicly released all
agency budget requests. OBM also requested and received a
brief summary of the State Library budget request, organizational
structure, and services for the governor-elect. Diane noted that the State Library and
OPLIN should be able to retain all staff at the requested budget level;
however, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has also encouraged
all unclassified staff to submit their resumes to the governor-elect's
fixohionow.com website.

Stephen Hedges called attention to the ever-decreasing cash balance
at the end of each fiscal year, with a projected balance of only
$100,000 at the end of the next biennium, and noted that this will need
to be a topic of discussion at the April Board retreat.

Gary Branson motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Karen Davis seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Second round of Internet filtering
assistance grants

Stephen Hedges presented the applications
received from libraries for the second round of filtering grants. The
first round of grants was awarded at the last Board meeting, to help
libraries with the cost of installing new Internet content filters or
upgrading existing filters. This second round of grants will also
include renewal costs for existing filters. Forty-four (44) libraries
applied in the second round, bringing the total for both rounds to
fifty-three (53). (One library submitted separate applications in both
rounds.) $53,395.89 of the original $81,000 earmark is still available
after first-round awards; the total of the second-round requests,
however, was $79,313.09.
Because of the big difference between demand for assistance and
available funds, Stephen aggressively restricted his recommendations to
costs that are clearly for content filtering, removing requests for
funds to support server maintenance or security firewalls. Despite this
editing of the requests and the $4,500 maximum award per library
system, there are still three library systems (with relatively large
revenues) that would not receive any assistance in response to their
request; libraries with smaller total revenue receive a higher priority
for funding.

Stephen recommended that
the following requests, totaling $53,395.89, be funded:

New install
Shaker Heights Public Library	SafeSquid Business Edition	$4,494.10
Upgrades
London Public Library	SonicWall TZ 210	$2,430.20
Alexandria Public Library	WF300 Filter Appliance	$3,122.00
Monroe County District Library	Cymphonix EX220	$3,090.00
Barnesville Hutton Memorial Library	Cymphonix EX220	$3,090.00
Cardington-Lincoln Public Library	SonicWall TotalSecure	$3,765.72
Rock Creek Public Library	Websense filtering	$849.99
Madison Public Library	Websense filtering	$1,225.00
Renewals (in order from least to most total library revenue)
Grand Valley Public Library	Websense filtering	$250.00
Sabina Public Library	Content Watch	$169.90
Andover Public Library	Websense filtering	$200.00
Mechanicsburg Public Library (already paid?)	ContentProtect Pro Suite	$0.00
Wagnalls Memorial Library	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$199.00
Kingsville Public Library	OpenDNS Enterprise	$849.99
Henderson Memorial Library Association	Websense filtering	$250.00
Union Township Public Library	CyberPatrol	$319.20
Harbor-Topky Memorial Library	Websense filtering	$810.00
Plain City Public Library	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$199.00
Carnegie Public Library (East Liverpool)	Websense filtering	$400.00
Newton Falls Public Library	Websense filtering	$1,125.00
Hubbard Public Library	Websense filtering	$1,150.00
Brown County Public Library	Websense filtering	$1,890.00
Galion Public Library Association (quote pending)	Netsweeper	$600.00
Canal Fulton Public Library	St. Bernard iPrism	$1,435.50
Perry Public Library	Websense filtering	$510.00
McKinley Memorial Library	Websense filtering	$1,000.00
Kent Free Library	Websense filtering	$2,825.00
Marysville Public Library	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$398.00
Reed Memorial Library	Websense filtering	$1,550.00
Ashtabula County District Library	Websense filtering	$1,550.00
Pickaway County District Public Library	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$398.00
Briggs Lawrence County Public Library	RPPro	$376.89
Portage County District Library	Websense filtering	$2,500.00
Portsmouth Public Library	Content Filtering Service	$1,347.85
Twinsburg Public Library	St. Bernard iPrism	$2,133.00
Grandview Heights Public Library	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$199.00
Fairfield County District Library (second request)	8e6 R3000 Filter Support	$0.00
Putnam County District Library	CyberPatrol	$574.40
Geauga County Public Library	Websense filtering	$3,500.00
Westerville Public Library	Proventia appliance	$1,200.00
Warren-Trumbull County Public Library	Websense filtering	$1,419.15 or balance available after other grant adjustments, up to $4,500
Washington-Centerville Public Library	Websense filtering	$0.00
Greene County Public Library	Websense filtering	$0.00
Akron-Summit County Public Library	Websense filtering	$0.00

Stephen explained his reasoning for the requests not recommended for
funding. In the case of Galion Public Library Association, Stephen has
asked them to supply a vendor quote to complete their application; if
this quote is not forthcoming, their grant would not be awarded. Any
funds left over after award adjustments would be put toward the request
from Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, which was for $4,500.

Jeff Wale motioned to
approve the recommended filtering assistance grants as presented; Gary Branson seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, abstain; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye;
Ben Chinni, aye; Karl Colón, abstain; Karen
Davis, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Bonnie Mathies, abstain; Jeff Wale, aye;
and
Sandi Plymire, aye.

Jeff Wale suggested that in future OPLIN should investigate the
possibility of installing a central filtering solution, rather than
distributing grants. Stephen and Karl Jendretzky briefly explained why
they have previously not been able to find an acceptable central
filter, but agreed to investigate again.

6.2. Gayle Patton resolution

Stephen Hedges noted that he had neglected to prepare a resolution
honoring Gayle Patton at her last Board meeting, and now proposed that
the following resolution be approved and read into the minutes:

WHEREAS, GAYLE PATTON was a member of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees from July 2005 through September 2010, and WHEREAS she freely and unselfishly gave her time and efforts to ensure the success of OPLIN by serving on the Board for over five years, and WHEREAS her dedication and attention to the perspective of the public libraries maintained and enhanced the integrity and reputation of OPLIN, and WHEREAS she served ably as the Chair of the OPLIN Board for two years, and WHEREAS her experience as Assistant Director of the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library gave her a valuable point of view concerning OPLIN and its services to all Ohio public libraries, NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that on the 10th day of December, Two Thousand and Ten, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Public Library Information Network recognize the significant contributions made to public libraries and library service by GAYLE PATTON during her tenure with the Ohio Public Library Information Network, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its most sincere thanks and appreciation to GAYLE PATTON for her outstanding volunteer service as a member of that Board.

Karl Colón motioned to
approve the resolution and place it into the minutes as read; Jason
Buydos seconded. All aye.

7.
NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to come before the Board.

8.
OPLIN DIRECTOR'S
REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that OPLIN has finally received E-Rate
funding
commitments for the current year (July 2010-June 2011). Along with the
regular Priority 1
funding for telecommunications and Internet access, OPLIN also received
some Priority 2 funding for eight new routers for libraries that
average 85% discount. Approval of the remaining routers OPLIN requested
(at 80% discount) and approval for maintenance agreements for all the
new routers is still pending, so this purchase will probably be delayed
until next spring. Lorrie Germann from eTech has hosted the first of
two E-Rate
workshops (on the Form 470) for libraries. Because there are so many
changes this year, as a result of
the FCC's recently-released Sixth Order, the normal E-Rate process will
be delayed for a few weeks, and Lorrie is consequently going to do the
second workshop (on the Form 471) in January instead of December.
Meanwhile, the OPLIN office is collecting the Letters of Agency and
Forms 479 which we must have from all OPLIN participants in order to
apply for discounts on the services provided to them. Unlike previous
years, OPLIN is no
longer bound to purchase telecommunications services from contracts
negotiated by OIT, so OPLIN released
an RFP to accompany our Form 470 to provide a detailed
description of our needs to inform this year's expanded potential field
of bidders.

Stephen has submitted the October OPLIN biannual report to the
Governor and legislative leadership, and posted a copy on the OPLIN
website. In the cover letter, he proposed to supply this report on
demand, rather than on a biannual schedule, starting in the next
biennium. To date, none of the recipients of the report has
asked to continue receiving the biannual report instead of on-demand
reports. Changes to the OPLIN budget language submitted by the State
Library would put the proposed change into law.

On November 30, Stephen attended a day-long brainstorming retreat
hosted by Horizon
Telcom, one of the major recipients of ARRA funding for broadband
middle-mile fiber installs, to look ahead to broadband development in
southeastern Ohio after the ARRA projects are complete. The meeting
included a wide range of representatives from schools, colleges,
hospitals, local governments, development agencies, and business
people. Most
attendees agreed that some form of loose organization should continue
after the ARRA projects in order to facilitate communication between
all the broadband stakeholders, and to minimize duplicative projects.

Looking at the calendar of OPLIN office activities, Stephen
highlighted his visits to the SEO office in Caldwell and the Pike
County library's Appreciation Day, Karl Jendretzky's trips to review
the networks at the Cincinnati and the Lane libraries, and Laura
Solomon's presentation to the Medina County library staff on Veteran's
Day. He also mentioned a visit to the OPLIN office by Tim Rogers,
Executive Director of North Carolina's NC LIVE consortium, and a
Libraries Connect Ohio presentation to the INFOhio board.

Don Barlow asked if the OLC Government Relations Committee had any
reaction to the proposed OPLIN budget continuing to come from the PLF.
Stephen answered that he had conveyed this information both to the
committee and to the OLC Board, and there was very little reaction from
either group.

Bonnie Mathies asked if Stephen had any information to share about
possible changes to OhioLINK. Stephen reported that Jeff Trzeciak did
not take the position of OhioLINK Executive Director as was expected,
so John Magill will continue as Interim Director until the end of the
fiscal year and David Penniman has been hired to assist with
operations; other than that he had no information.

8.1.
Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported that the SMS messaging system is now
handling almost 2,000 messages per week, and he calculates that it
could handle as many as 13,000 messages a day. Two-way messaging is
also now possible.

Karl has installed a new ticketing system for the OPLIN Support
Center, with more capabilities than the old system. The new system will
also allow OPLIN to shut down the last servers still running Windows
server software. Karl Colón asked how much OPLIN still pays in software
licensing fees, and Karl estimated that cost is now about $2,000
per year.

Karl also reported that about 30 circuit upgrades are currently in
process, which is normal. More total bandwidth is now available at the
OPLIN core for use by libraries, with total usage approaching 1.5 Gbps.
Karl is finding that the larger circuits at metro libraries are raising
some unexpected issues, because some local network equipment
(particularly firewalls) may not have the correct capabilities or
configuration to properly handle circuits larger than 100 Mbps. OPLIN
works with library staff to identify such problems. Karl also noted
that a pending circuit upgrade to Pickerington Public Library will test
a possible new network topology for the Central Library Consortium.

Finally, Karl reported that the Barracuda spam filtering device has
processed about 80 million e-mails over the last two years, blocking
about 90% as spam.

8.2. Library Services
Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that almost all website kit development was
put on hold in November so she could upgrade all kits from Drupal version 5 to
Drupal 6. Five libraries have received training on using their
new website kits, so they should be going into production soon, and three
more library website kits are now under construction. Laura has been
working on implementing an alpha-version Drupal module developed at
Worthington Libraries that integrates the Evanced event scheduling
software into Drupal; this will enable libraries that use Evanced to
manage their events in one place, rather than having to update their
website manually. Similarly, she and Stephen have met with staff from
BookLetters about smoother integration of BookLetters content into
website kits for those libraries that subscribe to BookLetters.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented statistics of
database usage. The number of searches each month continues to
fluctuate, but document retrievals are still gradually increasing and
will soon reach half a million per month. Amie McReynolds recently
developed a brochure regarding the shortcut links OPLIN provides to
access the databases, such as "ohioweblibrary.org/tests," which are
easy to communicate to library users. One library suggested using the
Ohio Web Library business cards to write down shortcuts for library
users, and this suggestion has resulted in renewed demand for the cards.

11.
CHAIR'S REPORT

Sandi Plymire had nothing to report.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jason Buydos
the Board adjourned at 11:12.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SECOND REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—October
8, 2010

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-second
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 8, 2010 by Board Chair Sandi
Plymire at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Karen Davis, Jim Kenzig, Jamie
Mason, Sandi Plymire, and Jeff Wale.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and
Diane Fink (State Library); and Doug Evans (Ohio
Library Council).

2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Sandi Plymire requested approval of the meeting agenda.

Jason Buydos motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

3.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Beverly Cain.

Beverly announced that Jeffrey Trzeciak, currently at
McMaster
University in Ontario, will start his duties as the new director of
OhioLINK on December 13. She noted that he has a background in Ohio,
having worked for the Dayton library and been a presenter at an OLC
conference. Beverly also reported that the last State Library Board
meeting awarded LSTA large-project grants, with interesting
presentations from the grant recipients. Stephen Hedges mentioned that
the State Library Board also appointed Karen Davis to the OPLIN Board;
Sandi Plymire welcomed Karen to the Board.

The Chair next recognized Doug Evans.

Doug reported that the OLC Board continues to work on a
revised
strategic plan, with the intention of completing their work at their
November meeting.

4.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of August 13 Meeting

Jeff Wale motioned to
approve the minutes of the August 13 meeting; Jamie Mason
seconded. All aye.

5.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented two sets of Financial Reports: one as of
September
30, 2010; the second the proposed Fiscal Years 2012-13 budget.

5.1. Reports as of September
30

Report A in the September 30 set of reports showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 and the first
quarter of Fiscal Year 2011. A couple of FY 2010 purchase orders still
have small balances as we await invoices from the vendors; one large
purchase order to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for the
new Juniper routers also is awaiting an invoice. The total "available
balance" of $468,699 represents the unused portion of OPLIN's $2
million spending authority for non-state income.

Looking
at the FY 2011 budget, Diane pointed out the purchase cost of the new
e-mail server and noted that OPLIN has also asked OIT for permission to
purchase four new desktop computers to replace 7-year-old computers.
Regarding information resources, Diane reported that all fiscal year
funds going toward purchase of the information databases has been
distributed to Wright State University for eventual dispersal to
vendors. She also noted that OPLIN continues to contract with eTech
Ohio for E-Rate services and workshops. The unplanned spending
authority for unexpected non-state revenues currently stands at
$426,385.

Report B showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. The $1.3
million cash balance at the end of FY 2010 rolled over to FY 2011.
Shortly after the beginning of FY 2011 a transfer of $3.7 million was
made from the Public Library Fund (PLF) to OPLIN; simultaneously, the
Office of Budget and Management (OBM) transferred $5 million from the
General Revenue Fund (GRF) to the PLF to cover the deductions for OPLIN
and the Library for the Blind. After adding some revenue from received
E-Rate reimbursements and web services for libraries, and deducting
expenditures to date, the cash balance now stands at about $2.9 million.

Jeff
Wale asked about the status of the OPLIN appeal of our denied 2005-2006
E-Rate reimbursements; Stephen Hedges reported that the Funding
Commitment Decision Letters have now been received and OPLIN is in the
process of submitting invoices for the previously denied funds.

5.2. Proposed FY 2012-13
budget

Diane
reported that OBM has asked that "core
budget level" requests be submitted by November 1 at 5:00 p.m; the
OPLIN budget will be submitted as a "program" within the State
Library budget.
The Core Budget Level for agencies receiving GRF
funds is to be 90% of their FY 2011 budget; agencies such as OPLIN that
receive funding from other sources are not restricted. Diane reported
that the required State Library IT plan for OIT, which is part of the
overall budget submission and includes OPLIN IT planned expenditures,
was submitted on October 4. The November 2 election will determine the
timeline for the remainder of the budget process; if the current
Governor is re-elected, the Executive Budget will be released around
February 1, otherwise it will not be released until March.

Diane
presented the current version of the OPLIN budget that will be
submitted on November 1. She pointed out that payroll
budgeting increases noticeably for FY 2012, when Cost Savings Days are
scheduled to end, all state employees are scheduled to receive a
lump-sum payment for 32 hours salary, and an extra pay cycle falls
within the fiscal year. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS)
has
also advised OPLIN to budget for a small rent increase, since a large
decrease was negotiated at the beginning of the current biennium. The
budget also includes funds for a replacement server each year of the
biennium. In all other expenditure categories, the amounts budgeted
remain the same as the current budget. The projected revenue budget for
the current fiscal year includes an estimated E-Rate reimbursement of
$1 million from the successful appeal of the 2005-2006 E-Rate denial,
as well as $1.3 million for this year's E-Rate reimbursements and
$10,00 from web services; for the next biennium, the budget projects
that the $1.3 million and $10,000 income will continue each year.

Jeff
Wale inquired about the stability of the E-Rate reimbursements in the
future. Stephen Hedges replied that the FCC's Sixth Order, which was
released on September 28, contained some language that could possibily
be interpreted to mean that E-Rate reimbursements for
telecommunications expenses should be limited to libraries that are
CIPA compliant, which would reduce the amount of reimbursement OPLIN
receives. Stephen has discussed this with Lorrie Germann from eTech,
but at this point no one is certain how the FCC language is going to be
interpreted.

Gary Branson motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

6. OLD BUSINESS

6.1. Final focus group report

Stephen Hedges reported that OPLIN staff gathered a lot of
good feedback from the library community at the OLC Expo on September
10, starting with the Stakeholders Meeting, then through
individual conversations at the OPLIN booth, and finally from a small
focus group conducted by Wayne Piper. The information gained from this
final focus group was similar to what we received from e-mail questions
and the previous online focus group, with the addition of feedback
indicating that some libraries would like to have more communication
from OPLIN about the status of their Internet connections. Stephen said
he plans to start automatically sending results of our quarterly
bandwidth usage assessment to all libraries in order to address this
concern. Focus group participants also voiced concerns about the
struggles libraries are having with providing e-books to patrons,
though they did not see this as an OPLIN problem. (This prompted a
brief discussion among those present about e-book problems and future
plans.)

Now that the focus groups are finished, Stephen reported that
he had no recommendations for further Board action. He noted that the
Board had already authorized the purchase of a new e-mail server and
replacement of the current e-mail software in response to focus group
feedback. Staff have made other small changes in response to feedback.
There was one piece of consistent feedback which the Board does not
have the financial means to address, that is the desire to have
genealogy and auto repair databases in the Ohio Web Library collection;
however, focus group participants all seemed to understand that this is
currently beyond OPLIN's means.

6.2. Award first round of
Internet filtering assistance grants

Stephen Hedges presented the first round of applications for
OPLIN grants to
assist libraries with the cost of installing new or improved Internet
content filters which were
collected online between August 26 and October 1. He recommended that
the following requests, totaling $27,604.11, be funded:

Library	Request	Award
Licking County Library	New Cymphonix filtering solution to provide content filtering at all six Licking County Library locations	$3,835.00
Napoleon Public Library	New install of Website-Echo content filter for 39 staff and patron PCs	$2,315.75
Bristol Public Library	New Websense filtering software and server	$1,543.00
Chillicothe and Ross County Public Library	Add SonicWall Security appliance for children's areas at the Main library and Northside Branch	$1,496.21
Logan County Libraries	Replace End of Life filtering server with Cymphonix EX310H	$4,232.15
Pickerington Public Library	Replace R3000 filter appliance with WF300	$3,122.00
Fairfield County District Library	Replace R3000 8e6 filter appliances at the Main Library and Northwest Branch that will be End of Life in January 2011	$4,500.00
Nelsonville Public Library	Replace SonicWall with OpenDNS Enterprise content filtering service	$1,350.00
Lane Public Library	Upgrade from free version to Enterprise version of OpenDNS	$1,600.00
Rodman Public Library	Upgrade to SonicWall NSA 2400 Secure	$3,610.00

Stephen also recommended that OPLIN announce a second
round of funding with applications due December 1. The second round
would be for all types of applications, with new and improved
installations still getting top priority. The second round would
distribute the remaining funds in our filtering earmark, which will
currently be $53,395.89 after these awards are distributed.

Jim Kenzig motioned to
approve the recommended filtering assistance grants and proceed with a
second round
of grant applications; Jeff Wale seconded.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Karen
Davis, aye; Jim Kenzig, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; and
Sandi Plymire, aye.

7.
NEW BUSINESS

7.1. Discuss connections to
libraries that consolidate

Stephen Hedges reminded the Board that there has been
increased discussion lately regarding consolidating library systems and
he felt it was a good time to start discussing what happens to the
OPLIN-provided Internet connection if one library decides to merge with
another. The current OPLIN policy provides for only one connection per
OPLIN participant.

The Board quickly came to a concensus that OPLIN should
disconnect its Internet connection from a library system that becomes a
part of another system. Further discussion raised questions about the
timing of the disconnection, since it could require some considerable
time for a local library to have their own Internet connection
installed to replace the OPLIN connection. There was also brief
discussion of the cost to OPLIN resulting from contract penalties when
a circuit is disconnected, as well as costs from likely circuit
upgrades after libraries merge.

Jason Buydos motioned that
OPLIN must disconnect the OPLIN-provided Internet connection in the
event that an OPLIN participant merges with another, but OPLIN will
maintain the existing connection for a period of 90 days after the
effective date of the merger or consolidation. Don Barlow seconded.

Jeff Wale questioned if 90 days was long enough; Jim Kenzig
suggested that a library could place a request with the OPLIN Board for
an additional 90-day extension if needed.

Jason Buydos amended his
motion to include a provision to maintain the connection for an
additional 90 days upon library request to the OPLIN Board. Don Barlow
agreed to the amendment.

Roll call: Don Barlow, aye; Gary Branson, aye; Jason Buydos, aye; Karen
Davis, aye; Jim Kenzig, aye; Jamie Mason, aye; Jeff Wale, aye; and
Sandi Plymire, aye.

8.
OPLIN DIRECTOR'S
REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported that there was considerable interest
at the Stakeholders Meeting in the transition to Zimbra software on the
OPLIN e-mail server. Later in the day, at the OPLIN booth at the OLC
Expo, many of the individual conversations were about the OPLIN SMS
messaging service for libraries.

Stephen reported on the October 1 Connect Ohio Technology
Association meeting and the subsequent information session for
potential partners in Connect Ohio's Every Community Online (ECO) ARRA
grant. This is the grant originally identified as OPAL II because it
was paired with the OPAL I
grant from the State Library, which was not funded; the State Library
received the official rejection letter yesterday. Stephen mentioned
that he is making contact with the major organizations that received
ARRA grants (Com Net,Horizon Telco, OneCommunity, and Zito
Media) for installing additional fiber-optic circuits around
the state, since those grants encourage connections to libraries.

Stephen
called Board attention to the presentations Laura Solomon did for
TechConnections and the University of Hawaii, and Karl Jendretzky's
after-hours move of critical OPLIN servers from the OPLIN office to the State of Ohio
Computer Center (SOCC).

Finally, Stephen mentioned a meeting he
and Doug Evans attended with Telisys, a telecommunications consulting
company that hopes to make its services available through the Sourcing
Office in Northeast Ohio.

8.1.
Technology Projects Manager report

Karl Jendretzky reported on the process of moving the servers
to the
SOCC, which was made possible by a larger project to consolidate old routers
into the new Juniper router while securing a larger connection from the
OPLIN core to the Internet. When complete, this project will be a major
change for the OPLIN core and will provide access to 3 Gbps of Internet
access instead of our current 1 Gbps.

Karl reported on problems
he has encountered with the open source Zimbra software. The current
open source version fails under extreme loads, but the commercial
version does not. It appears that the open source Zimbra is usually one
version behind the commercial version, so he is investigating the cost
of the commercial version; if it is excessive, he expects to be able to
test the next open source version in a couple of months. The Board then
discussed approving an expenditure limit for commercial e-mail software
(Zimbra or another), but since such a purchase would have to go through
the state approval process, there will be time to consider a specific
proposal if necessary. Jeff Wale cautioned that Karl's work time should
be considered when comparing open source to commercial software.

In
the process of working on an Ohio Web Library phone app at Stephen's
request, Karl developed an Ohio Web Library API that can deliver the
search results in an XML format that can be included in any webpage. He
shared the screenshot of a sample of this API which has been installed
on the Stow-Monroe Falls library website and integrates Ohio Web
Library search results with Stow catalog search results. This feature
will be integrated into future Dynamic Website Kits.

Finally,
Karl shared usage statistics for the SMS messaging service. Usage
growth has been consistent, now reaching more than 150 messages a day,
and more libraries are using it all the time. The system has been
operating very smoothly; Karl calculates it could handle up to 12,000
messages a day.

8.2. Library Services
Manager report

Laura Solomon reported that twenty Website Kits are now in
active
use by libraries; nine more are at the stage where libraries are
entering their initial content; and four are currently in development.
In November all development work will temporarily cease while Laura
upgrades the Drupal version 5 sites to Drupal version 6. The Ohio Web
Library API will be added to all kits, as well as Facebook and
Foursquare buttons and a module that allows site users to share
content they like with others.

Laura explained that the
University of Hawaii class she taught was done through Second Life.
Unfortunately, Linden Labs has just decided to double the cost of
Second Life participation for educational institutions and non-profits;
as a result many of these institutions will probably leave Second Life,
and OPLIN will not plan on being active in Second Life after the change.

8.3. Database usage

Stephen Hedges presented statistics of database usage. Jeff
Wale
asked if there was an explanation for the gradual decline in the number
of searches, and Stephen said he had none, but pointed out that
document retrievals were gradually increasing and are probably a better
measure of the value of the databases.

11.
CHAIR'S REPORT

Sandi Plymire had nothing to report.

12. ADJOURNMENT

On motion of Jim Kenzig
the Board adjourned at 11:46.

OHIO
PUBLIC LIBRARY INFORMATION NETWORK (OPLIN)
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIRST REGULAR MEETING of the BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes—August
13, 2010

1.
WELCOME and CALL TO ORDER

The one hundred twenty-first
meeting of the Ohio Public Library
Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at
10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 13, 2010 by Board Chair Karl
Colón at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members:
Don Barlow, Gary Branson, Jason Buydos, Ben Chinni, Karl
Colón, Jim Kenzig, Gayle Patton, Sandi Plymire, and Jeff Wale. Board
member Bonnie Mathies arrived at 10:05.

Also present were: Stephen
Hedges, Karl Jendretzky, and Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Beverly Cain and
Diane
Fink (State Library); Lynda Murray (Ohio
Library Council); and Lynn Kenzig (guest).

2.
NOMINATION and ELECTION OF BOARD OFFICERS

Outgoing Chair Karl Colón recognized Gayle Patton, who
nominated
Gary Branson to replace her as Treasurer on the slate of officers
previously proposed by the Nominating Committee. Jeff Wale seconded the
nomination.

The Chair reviewed the proposed slate of officers: Sandi
Plymire,
Chair; Jeff Wale, Vice-Chair; Bonnie Mathies, Secretary; Gary Branson,
Treasurer.

Don Barlow motioned to
approve the proposed slate of Board officers; Jim Kenzig
seconded. All aye.

3.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

New Chair Sandi Plymire requested approval of the remainder of
the meeting agenda.

Gayle Patton motioned to
approve the agenda as presented; Jason Buydos seconded. All aye.

4.
ESTABLISH BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE FOR FY 2011

The Chair requested approval of the proposed meeting schedule
for the next 14 months:

• August 13, 2010
• October 8, 2010
• December 10, 2010
• February 11, 2011
• April 8, 2011 (Board Retreat)
• June 10, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• October 14, 2011

Don Barlow motioned to
approve the meeting schedule as presented; Jason Buydos seconded. All
aye.

5.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Chair recognized Lynda Murray.

Lynda
reported that the Ohio Library Council Government Relations Committee
has been discussing preparations for what are expected to be difficult
budget negotiations in the coming months. One item to watch will be
whether or not the current $5 million transfer from the General Revenue
Fund to the Public Library Fund, reimbursing the cost of OPLIN and the
Library for the Blind, is continued in the new biennium. Lynda also
noted that many public libraries are now depending on local tax levies
for support, with perhaps as many as 60% of all public libraries having
local levies after the November election.

Karl Colón asked if OPLIN could do anything to help promote
the
message that statewide funding of libraries is important and should not
be replaced by reliance on local funding. Lynda replied that a message
is being crafted that will highlight specific services that libraries
can deliver statewide; one service will probably be health information,
and OPLIN can help by identifying good health information databases and
assisting with delivery of some services.

The Chair next recognized Beverly Cain.

Beverly reported that she is settling into her new job as
State
Librarian and will soon be starting to travel around the state and
visit libraries.

Lynda Murray left the
meeting at 10:13.

Karl Colón motioned that
Gayle Patton,
who is retiring effective October 1, be officially recognized for her
years of service as an OPLIN Board member and OPLIN Board Chair, with
wishes for all the best in the future; Gary Branson seconded. All aye.

6.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
of June 11 Meeting

Jim Kenzig motioned to
approve the minutes of the June 11 meeting; Jeff Wale
seconded. All aye.

7.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
FINANCIAL REPORTS

Diane Fink presented two sets of Financial Reports: one as of
June
30, 2010; the second as of July 31, 2010. She explained that the first
set of reports reflected the status at the end of Fiscal Year 2010.

7.1. Reports as of June 30

Report A in the June 30 set of reports showed the
budget and expenditures for Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009, which are
unchanged from the previous meeting since those fiscal years are
closed; this is the last time this report will be presented to the
Board. Report B showed the
budget and expenditures at the end of Fiscal Year 2010 as well as
the budgeted allotments for Fiscal Year 2011. All "Available Balances"
at the end of FY 2010 are unused spending authority and not funds that
will be returned to the state treasury. Diane pointed out open
encumbrances (as of June 30) for printing of Ohio Web Library
promotional cards, the monthly cost of Past, Present and Future
consulting, and telecommunications bills. Report C showed the
revenue and cash balances for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010. At the end of
FY 2009 the cash balance was about $1.58 million; at the end of FY 2010
is was about $1.39 million.

7.2. Reports as of July 31

In the second set of reports, Report A still showed a few open
encumbrances for FY 2010, as invoices have not yet arrived for some
encumbrances. For FY 2011 (ending June 30, 2011), Diane reported that
each OPLIN staff will again have 10 Cost Savings (furlough) Days
removed from their salaries, as was the case in FY 2010, totaling just
under $15,000. Diane noted that Bobbi Galvin's open position has been
offered to a candidate, with the intention of the new employee starting
on August 30. (In response to a question from Gayle Patton, Stephen
Hedges reported that the candidate is Amie McReynolds from Springfield,
Ohio, a recent graduate of the Kent State University MLIS program.)
Diane also pointed out the open encumbrance of about $1.5 million to
Wright State University for eventual disbursement to database vendors,
and noted that that had been paid in August; she also called attention
to the completed payment of $45,000 to eTech Ohio for annual E-Rate
consulting.

In Report B, showing revenue and cash balances for FY 2010 and
FY
2011, Diane pointed out that the cash balance as of July 31 had
declined to about $1 million. She explained, however, that Office of
Budget and Management (OBM) cash transfers at the beginning of each
fiscal year move $5 million from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) into
the Public Library Fund (PLF), after which funds for the Library for
the Blind and for OPLIN are transferred out of the PLF. These transfers
had not taken place as of July 31, but were done in the first week of
August.

Diane then provided some general information about the status
of the
FY 2012-2013 biennium budgeting process. OBM has asked that "core
budget level" requests be submitted by November 1, with corresponding
Information Technology plans submitted to the Office of Information
Technology (OIT) about a month earlier. She has been attending a series
of meetings explaining how these components of the budget should be
written and submitted. The Core Budget Level for agencies receiving GRF
funds is to be 90% of their FY 2011 budget; agencies such as OPLIN that
receive funding from other sources are not restricted. As in the past,
the OPLIN budget will be submitted as a "program" within the State
Library budget. Diane also pointed out that payroll budgeting will be a
challenge for all agencies in FY 2012, when Cost Savings Days are
scheduled to end, all state employees are scheduled to receive a
lump-sum payment for 32 hours salary, and an extra pay cycle falls
within the fiscal year. The Department of Administrative Services has
also advised OPLIN to expect a small rent increase, since a large
decrease was negotiated at the beginning of the current biennium.

Diane
also reported that the purchase of a new e-mail server, as approved at
the last Board meeting, was also approved by OIT, and the server has
now been ordered, installed, and paid for.

Gayle Patton motioned to
accept the Financial Reports; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

7.3. First draft of OPLIN
budget request

Stephen Hedges presented a draft of the narrative portion of
the OPLIN FY
2012-2013 budget request. He noted that the narrative explains that
OPLIN benefits all residents of Ohio and not just public libraries.
Stephen particularly requested discussion of the language at the end of
the narrative, which requests that OPLIN funding return to being drawn
from the General Revenue Fund rather than the Public Library Fund; such
a request also requires that OPLIN explain how it can accommodate the
10% budget cut that would automatically result from such a funding
transfer.

Several Board members noted that OPLIN passed a resolution
last year
in support of keeping OPLIN funding in the General Revenue Fund.
Repeating that request now at a cost of 10% of OPLIN funding would
reduce OPLIN's ability to serve public libraries. Several other members
speculated that even if OPLIN did return to the General Revenue Fund,
the $3.7 million currently coming from the Public Library Fund to
support OPLIN may not be restored to the PLF. Ensuing discussion
resulted in general agreement that while the Board still supports
returning OPLIN funding to the GRF, it is not wise to include this
position in our budget request.

8. OLD BUSINESS

8.1. Focus groups

Stephen Hedges reported on the results of the online focus
group on the
afternoon of 14 July 2010 involving seven librarians who were chosen
because they had responded well to previously e-mailed "Questions of
the Week." The TokBox web-based video conferencing service was used,
with Wayne Piper facilitating. Participants were asked three groups of
questions based on the earlier e-mail "Questions of the Week," now
posed once again in this format
where they could hear each other's answers.

Among the noteworthy new information from this focus group was
that
when they have a problem with their Internet connection, their first
response is
to check for in-house problems that they can solve before involving
OPLIN. Stephen plans to respond to this by communicating that OPLIN is
happy to be contacted at any point in their problem-solving process.

Several
Board members noted the lack of enthusiasm for the databases expressed
by focus group participants. Gayle Patton pointed out that the focus
group members represented primarily small libraries, which she had
assumed should have the most need for OPLIN-provided databases. There
was general discussion of the composition of the focus group and
speculation as to how well they represented all OPLIN participants. The
feedback from this group seems to indicate that there is a need for
more promotion of the databases, and possibly more training.

Wayne
Piper will be leading another, in-person focus group at the OLC Expo on
September 10, after which Stephen intends to develop a plan for
responding to the gathered information.

8.2. Accept revised
Strategic Plan

Stephen Hedges presented a clean copy of the Strategic Plan
incorporating all the revisions discussed in previous Board meetings.

Jason Buydos motioned to
accept the revised Strategic Plan; Don Barlow seconded. All aye.

9.
NEW BUSINESS

9.1. Discuss Internet
filtering assistance grants

Stephen Hedges announced that several libraries have already
been
inquiring about the annual process of distributing the funds set aside
in the OPLIN budget for assisting libraries with the cost of Internet
content filtering. Normally this is an item on the October Board
agenda, but Stephen suggested that the process start earlier this year,
with a first round of grants for libraries that want to install new
systems or upgrade existing systems, and a second round later for
libraries requesting assistance with filtering maintenance costs. This
method would also allow OPLIN to delay distribution of all set aside
funds in case the set aside is reduced by budget adjustments later in
the fiscal year. Otherwise he recommended that the parameters of the
grants remain the same as last year.

Gayle
Patton motioned that OPLIN announce a first round of filtering
assistance grants covering new and upgraded filters, to be followed by
a second round of grants for maintenance of filters, and that all other
parameters remain the same as last year; Karl Colón seconded.
All aye.

10.
OPLIN DIRECTOR'S
REPORT

Stephen Hedges reported two items of good news.

In February
2005, OPLIN was denied all E-Rate funds for the period July 2005
through June 2006 because our applications were post-marked one day
after the deadline. In 2006, Stephen filed an appeal of this denial
with the FCC, based on an FCC decision that granted leniency for such
"clerical" errors in Funding Year 2004. That appeal has now been
granted, and the status of our 2005 applications had been changed from
"Out of window" to "Initial review," just as if our applications had
been received on time five years ago. If we successfully move through
the review process, OPLIN could recover about $1 million of what we
spent on telecommunications in state Fiscal Year 2006.

The other
item of good news involved a decrease in our bandwidth costs. Following
the Department of Administrative Services opinion that OPLIN was not
obligated to purchase bandwidth and network services from OIT, OIT
managers made a two-option proposal to OPLIN. One option involved
trying again to get a new pricing structure approved for all OIT
customers, which would benefit OPLIN by distributing costs across all
state agencies more equitably, and could save OPLIN about $250,000 per
year after E-Rate. The second option involved moving the OPLIN
network outside the network used by other state agencies, with OIT and
OPLIN acting in partnership to buy bandwidth directly from the vendors.
While the second option was slightly cheaper, the first option offered
network redundancy that was not present in the second. We expressed a
preference for the first option, and OIT was subsequently able to get
this new pricing structure approved by OBM. This new pricing should
take effect no later than August 1.

Stephen explained one
recurring item on the list of office activities that involves online
meetings regarding deve