Minutes – April 14, 2023

Welcome and Call to Order

The one hundred ninety-fifth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 14, 2023 by Board Chair Tara Sidwell at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Ben Bolbach, Michael Butler, Roger Donaldson, Bill Lane, Sue Schuld, Garalynn Tomas, and Meredith Wickham.

Also present were: Jessica Dooley, Christine Morris, Laura Solomon, Derek Zoladz, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Wendy Knapp (State Library); and Michelle Francis (Ohio Library Council).

Approval of the Agenda

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

Public Participation

Wendy Knapp reported that the last of the old carpeting will soon be replaced at the State Library. The staff are working on a new strategic plan that will align more closely with the LSTA five-year plan. The Ohioana Book Festival will be held at the Columbus Metropolitan Library on April 22, the first time the festival has been in person since 2019. SEO is conducting a Customer Satisfaction Survey. Knapp is scheduled to testify about the State Library’s budget April 25.

Michelle Francis outlined recent and upcoming OLC events, including Trustee Dinners, Fiscal Officer training, and the Youth Services and Library Facilities conferences. A recording of OLC’s budget testimony is available on the OLC website, and OLC continues to hold budget update webinars. Library Legislative Day will be April 26, and will include a library services showcase in the Rotunda. Legislation with potential library impact includes HB 1, affecting property and income taxes. OLC’s next Ballot Issues workshop will include guidance for libraries about required resolutions and what is permissible during campaigns. 

Approval of the Minutes

Jamie Black  moved to approve the minutes of the February 10, 2023 meeting as presented; Meredith Wickham seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Acceptance of the Financial Reports

Don Yarman reviewed the financial reports as Jamie Pardee was unable to attend. Pardee predicts a cash balance of $1.36 million at the end of the fiscal year, down $200,000 from the end of last fiscal year; current cash balance is about $800,000. There is available spending authority to shift payment for next year’s Cisco Umbrella subscription to this fiscal year, so the renewal should go through before expiring and leaving libraries without Umbrella security and filtering coverage. Ben Bolbach asked if OPLIN could contract for three years of coverage, and Yarman explained that state agencies are not permitted to do that; software licenses and the like can only be purchased in 12 month terms and in most cases must be aligned with the state’s fiscal year.

Michael Butler moved to accept the financial reports; Ben Bolbach seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Unfinished Business – none

New Business – none

Strategic Planning

The OPLIN staff delivered a presentation reviewing OPLIN’s services in support of the current strategic plan in effect until the end of FY2025.

Yarman started the discussion about next year’s services plan by outlining some things he sees on the horizon. Some components in the OPLIN core will be reaching end of support in June 2026, so Yarman would like to request funds in the state’s next Capital Budget for core components and for the library site routers that are reaching the end of their lifespans. Ben Bolbach suggested that OPLIN might consider doing a consortium RFP for endpoint security monitoring which can be costly. Jessica Dooley said that OARnet is negotiating group purchasing options for services, which libraries would be eligible to join. Yarman added that SHLB and other E-rate partners have been advocating for the eligibility of cybersecurity services for E-rate funding.

Bolbach also suggested OPLIN explore providing a single sign-on service for libraries, and clarified for Yarman that this would be staff-facing service, not for patrons. Bolbach mentioned that libraries would also benefit from OPLIN providing a centralized storage solution for a variety of library needs: local history scanning projects, shared folders like OneCloud or Google Drive. Dooley said, budget-allowing, she would prefer contracting for cloud storage rather than on-prem, and Bolbach agreed that an MSP relationship with libraries paying OPLIN for console access. Dooley said a way to research how to proceed would be to survey how libraries picture using that storage: as an object store, or more concierge interfaces to connect their data with. OPLIN acting as a managed service provider for storage would be very low effort, although expensive to provide.

OPLIN Staff Reports

OPLIN Director's Report

Yarman discussed the progress of negotiations for renewing OPLIN’s genealogy package. ProQuest proposes year-over-year price increases in the subscription, but OPLIN’s cash reserves have been steadily decreasing. He listed some facts in support of his argument that one component in particular, Heritage Quest Online, is overpriced, and he would like to pressure ProQuest to lower those prices or cut it from the bundle altogether. Garalynn Tomas asked how the Board gave negotiating and decision power in the past, with Jamie Black and Meredith Wickham suggesting motions that would authorize Yarman to drop Heritage Quest or to negotiate for the best-possible contract. Ultimately, motions were withdrawn, as the Board does approve the final budget, and Yarman agreed to use the Board’s input to keep increases contained to slow growth, acknowledging that 5% increases year over year were not sustainable.

Digital Resources Manager’s Report

Christine Morris highlighted from her report that she found it exciting to work on the Branch Fiber Expansion project, noting how much OPLIN learned about library processes that will be helpful going forward.

Library Services Manager’s Report

Laura Solomon said she had nothing additional to add to her written report.

Technology Projects Manager’s Report

Jessica Dooley expanded on an element of the Branch Fiber Expansion project: OPLIN is permitting libraries to connect their branches to the OPLIN core at the SOCC, rather than back to their main libraries. This is something libraries have been allowed to do (two library branches are currently connected to the core), and as a result of this process OPLIN will add twelve more.

Chair's Report

Tara Sidwell said she had nothing to report. Jamie Black asked Yarman if there was any action required for nominations for OPLIN Board appointments. Yarman said the bylaws allow the Nominations Committee to make their recommendations directly to the State Library Board for appointment, so Yarman would work with the Committee to finalize those.

Adjournment

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 11:36 ᴀ.ᴍ.

Minutes – February 10, 2023

Welcome and Call to Order

The one hundred ninety-fourth meeting of the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) Board of Trustees was called to order at 10:03 a.m. on Friday, February 10, 2023 by Board Chair Tara Sidwell at the OPLIN office in Columbus, Ohio.

Present were Board members: Jamie Black, Ben Bolbach, Michael Butler, Roger Donaldson, Holly Richards, and Meredith Wickham.

Also present were: Jessica Dooley, Christine Morris, and Don Yarman (OPLIN); Stephanie Herriott and Wendy Knapp (State Library); and Michelle Francis and Jay Smith (Ohio Library Council).

Attending virtually: OPLIN Board members Travis Bautz, Bill Lane, and Garalynn Tomas; Laura Solomon (OPLIN); Jamie Pardee (State Library).

Approval of the Agenda

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

Public Participation

Wendy Knapp reported that the State Library’s requested 5% increase was included in the Governor’s proposed budget; Knapp will soon be testifying once the committee schedule is released. Ohio Digital Library showed an 11% increase in circulation, over 8 million, making it the second highest Overdrive consortium in the world. The State Library has taken on preservation stewardship for House and Senate journals and reports; they are one of six state libraries taking on this role with GPO. Jeff Winkle has been appointed to the State Library Board. Applications are open for summer reading programming grants and for ILEAD.

Michelle Francis outlined upcoming OLC events, including a Youth Services Conference at the end of March as Salt Fork, and the spring series of Trustee workshops. Jay Smith discussed the Governor’s draft budget language, a large document that creates a new Department of Children and Youth. In the Governor’s budget, the PLF percentage is increased in permanent law to 1.7% from 1.66%. There are no significant tax cuts in the budget plan, but both the House and Senate are likely to include tax cut proposals that will have an impact on public library funding. OLC is holding budget update webinars, and posting those recordings on libraryfunding.olc.org. 

Approval of the Minutes

Michael Butler moved to approve the minutes of the December 9, 2022 meeting as presented; Meredith Wickham seconded. There was no discussion, so the Chair called for a vote on the motion; all aye.

Acceptance of the Financial Reports

Yarman discussed the financial reports at the end of December, explaining that the cash balance was low due to some large expenses such as database subscriptions were paid early in the year before E-rate refunds were received. Overall, expenses are projected to come in under budget by about $68,000. Yarman wants to use that surplus to renew Cisco Umbrella in the current fiscal year before it expires June 30 and risks another service interruption. Jamie Pardee explained that OPLIN receives a transfer of about $307,000 each month from the PLF, so the cash-on-hand does build back up.

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

Unfinished Business – none

New Business – none

OPLIN Staff Reports

OPLIN Director's Report

Yarman outlined progress on the omnibus branch 470, noting that of the 97 locations listed, only 4 received no bids for service. Yarman is reaching out to specific vendors to see if additional bids might be forthcoming. The bids have been collated and assigned evaluation scores following OPLIN’s standard matrix, and libraries have been emailed with results. Decisions are trickling in. Many libraries are happy with their commercially-available business-class internet solutions, but some others are very happy about the speeds and prices that our statewide effort has collected.

With the assistance of OLC, Yarman and Dooley were able to meet with Peter Voderberg of Broadband Ohio to discuss how the state wants to position libraries in their broadband expansion plans, and to seek possible funds for OPLIN’s equipment needs—OPLIN will have to buy routers for those libraries that want to connect branch circuits directly to the OPLIN core.

Jamie Black asked whether the state’s broadband plans included financial assistance to libraries to cover the costs of being anchor institutions with enterprise broadband service (at least 1 Gbps). Michelle Francis said that the state’s plans aren’t at that level of detail, but very high level; broadband expansion is a large project that will take several years to roll out. Black asked how Ohio compared with other states. Francis replied that Ohio is somewhat in the lead, and is fortunate to have BroadbandOhio, which is nationally recognized. Ohio is leading the broadband expansion charge, but there is a lot of room to make up in the state. Yarman added that based on the coverage maps he’s seen from the FCC and from vendors, Ohio is generally well served along the freeway corridors, particularly northeast to southwest, but there are deserts spread all over the state—in northwest and southeast Ohio particularly.

Digital Resources Manager’s Report

Christine Morris noted thanks to OLC’s efforts, Ohio libraries have a seat at the table in state broadband plans; from her perspective on the ALA Broadband Task Force and in the SHLB membership calls, that isn’t universally the case. The recording of the E-rate 471 workshop has been posted to OPLIN’s YoutTube channel; OPLIN staff and Lorrie Germann will be hosting in-person help for libraries filing their 471. The selection of the next desired package of statewide databases has been completed, and the proposal will go before the State Library Board at their March meeting; Morris thanked the State Library leadership for their support for a small increase in requested LSTA dollars.

Library Services Manager’s Report

Laura Solomon expanded on her written report to note that OPLIN is waiting on development of about 10 different modules that will be necessary to move library Webkit sites from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10. Drupal 10 depends on a later version of PHP than Drupal 9.

Technology Projects Manager’s Report

Jessica Dooley noted that 48 of OPLIN’s 250 circuits will be renewed—most of them upgraded—during this year’s E-rate cycle. She worked with Mike Horsely to create training materials for OIT to aid them in after-hours support of OPLIN. She discussed some of the projects Derek Zoladz has been working on, including migrating the office to a new ticketing platform, taking the lead on library authentication support, and developing monitor code that checks library web domains for impending expiration. Dooley arranged for Sean Whalen to present a cybersecurity webinar geared toward library IT staff to be held March 29, and she is working with the Ohio Cyber Range Institute on identifying a pilot library system to begin public library outreach using its training materials.

Yarman added that Dooley oversaw the migration of the OPLIN office from LastPass password manager to BitWarden.

Ben Bolbach noted that Dooley’s written report includes VMware updates and asked if she’d installed the latest patch to ESXI management interfaces which protects against a ransomware vulnerability. Dooley replied that due to a previous firmware update from VMware that broke access to storage, she usually waits at least a week before applying updates, but added that OPLIN’s ESXI management interfaces are in an isolated subnet that is not routable to the internet.

Chair's Report

Tara Sidwell reminded Board members to file their annual financial disclosure forms and to complete the annual ethics training and send certificates to Yarman. She announced that Yarman will issue a call for nominees for OPLIN Board members.

She asked Yarman to discuss plans for the April Board Meeting. Yarman said that traditionally the April meeting is a longer meeting for discussing strategic planning, usually starting early and extending through lunch. Yarman expected the agenda to include a review of OPLIN’s services presented by the staff, and a discussion whether to request capital funds in the state’s next budget. Members agreed they’d prefer the meeting to start at 10:00, and ordering in lunch would not be necessary.

Adjournment

With no other business pending, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 10:56 ᴀ.ᴍ.