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:
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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:
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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.