Executive Committee Meeting - November 2007

Rasmussen College, Brooklyn Park Campus, Room 102
November 1, 2007, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Present:

Sandra Fuhr, Brittney Goodman, Bill Dejohn (MINITEX), Stephen Elfstrand, Todd Digby, Emily O’Connor, Julie Benolken, Kathleen Ashe, Robbie LaFleur, Donna Davis, Dennis Meissner, Cathy Colby, Dan Mollner, Paul Dahl, Michael Kirby (conference phone), Cynthia Jorstad (conference phone).

Minutes

Introductions

Amend/Adopt agenda

Agenda was adopted. Emily O’Connor moved, Brittney Goodman seconded. Approved.

Approve minutes of Sept. 10 2007

Minutes from Sept. 10, 2007 meeting were approved. Emily O’Connor moved. Julie Benolken seconded. Approved.

Director’s Report (Stephen Elfstrand)

Version 18 Update

A recent downtime issue was due to a bad memory module on one of the boards. The production machine is now working. The development server for Version 18 is up and running and they are starting to do some testing.

The technical staff is looking to make changes in 18. Will this delay the 18 install date? If it does it will be no more than a week delayed. Proposed training dates went out to libraries.

The Easy Proxy and Discovery tool will go on the new LINUX server.

Open Source

Elfstrand went with some of the PALS staff to an Innovative Interfaces meeting. Open source may be a possible migration avenue for the future.

Site visits to MnPALS Libraries continue

PALS staff continue to visit MnPALS libraries. Upcoming visits to St. Cloud and Moorhead area are underway.

Improving Communication

Wikis and forums are up and running. Stephen passed out a handout developed by PALS staff outlining some communication strategies from the PALS Office, including a conceptual framework for receiving and retrieving tools. The main point is that we need to use multiple channels/means of communication to get the right kinds of messages to constituents/users.

Some concern was expressed regarding issues with duplication across communication channels.

Consultant’s Report on PALS Organization

The consultant’s report has not gone out to the general list yet. There is a copy of it in the Forum. You can go to the Forum itself. We decided to take a look at it more formally at the next Executive Committee. We will have this on the February agenda.

The general consensus was that it had some interesting ideas and the process itself was pretty good. The consultant seemed to understand our system quite well.

The recommendations for restructuring the PALS office revolving somewhat around size of library was interesting. There was not consensus as to if this is the right model or the answer.

Should there be an end date for people to provide comments?

There should be a password for each institution in the knowledge base, for the forum. If you are having trouble with the wiki or the forum, send a request to the PALS Support Center.

Budget

Elfstrand distributed a handout – PALS Fiscal Year 2007 Year-End Report (final 07 budget numbers)

The FY 07 deficit was $830,268 (mostly due to hardware to support Version 18).

Stephen wants to take the budget and show operations separate from the major capital equipment. It was asked whether we’ve done this in the past. Yes, but we had to manually do it. Stephen would like to separate RightNow out from the rest of the budget also.

Page 2 of the handout looks at expenses from FY 04 to FY08. It appears we will be cutting expenses in FY 08 from FY 07.

The operations reserve is dwindling. The idea is to spend the reserve down – rather than carry it forward for year to year. We hope that our income would meet our expenses. How much do we want in the reserve? Should we break down between a hardware reserve and another account?

Will we be getting a credit from ExLibris that will effect the budget? Ex Libris undersized our hardware, and the contract agreed that they would help us with getting the hardware up to speed. PALS is still in negotiations with them on what they owe us from the contract.

We could do something like freeze at a version, like 19, and then move some of our expertise to other things.

The group would like to explore products/services PALS could help us with that we can do as a group more cheaply than library by library. One idea is a link resolver/SFX server like Serial Solutions or SFX. For example, it would cost around $300,000 plus hardware to host SFX for all PALS Libraries. You would do proportionality based on size.

The second document, Fiscal Year 2009 Estimated Annual User Fees, was discussed. All MnSCU will be giving PALS 4 percent more for FY 09. There was some questions about the funding model and why some members went up or went down in percentage this year. Should the fee formula be reassessed?

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Update (Todd Digby)

Current IT Proposal

Todd was able to secure $65,000 from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities for upgraded Proxy Server and other technology innovations.

Todd will go to the Academic Affairs leadership in December and present needs. He will try to get their support to take this on to the Finance Committee (January).

User Council Report (Kathleen Ashe)

The group talked about User Group meetings

Cataloging group had a cataloging workshop that was very popular. Other groups are thinking of providing something like this. The consensus is that Spring would function much like user groups have in the past, but in the Fall user groups would do work days/hands-on sharing experiences. They are exploring the idea that not all subsystems would have their work groups on the same day – spread them out.

We discussed needing new leadership for the Access Task Force and how that would interface with the Discovery Tool Working group.

There were other informational topics that didn’t require action. They are There is work being done on the link between ISRS and the Aleph system.

Communication formats – email, wiki, forum, web site

We’ve already talked about this. Do we need a policy change? There had been some confusion about where to go for what information. PALS will continue to work on this.

Input to performance reviews

The group discussed what kind of input we should have for a performance review of Todd’s and Stephen’s positions.

Todd reported that his performance review has both a self-evaluation and something from his supervisor and peer reviews. We can contact Gary Langer directly regarding Todd’s performance evaluation.

Again, these questions tie into governance structure. What is the Executive Committee’s role and when is our time to give feedback performance reviews and other issues?

The group decided that what we need is a process that assesses how PALS and the System Director are getting things done/goals/expectations. We should provide direct advice when solicited for Stephen’s position. And we should have a list of concerns/issues drafted at one point and then come back to those concerns that we look at later. The Executive Committee and Stephen should come up with goals – not and then at each Stephen could address progress on these goals.

Stephen will present us with his goals and then we will select the ones that are most important to us for him to report on. We will either respond with our own goals or give input to those goals.

The consultant’s report notes confusion between roles for Todd’s and Stephen’s positions. But it should also be noted that we now have a a voice in the System office that we didn’t have before. There is a role there that positively affects the MnSCU campuses and also the other campuses.

Discussion of Governance Policy

Governance structure changes:
See draft revision from March 2007 at http://www.mnpals.org/sections/Consortium_Gov_Structure_Mar07Dr.html

The Executive Committee needs to define our role ourselves. What kind of role do we want to have?

Michael Kirby suggested we put the policy up on the Wiki for us to work on collaboratively. Step one, register and log in to the wiki (same as the forum). We all should look at the governance policy, log in to the wiki, and make comments/edits.

MINITEX Update (William DeJohn)

MINITEX is back to normal with typical Interlibrary Loan activity. Also, if you have any questions about Aleph ILL you can contact MINITEX (Alice Lee?).

MINITEX is working on a connect between MnPALS Ex Libris and MnLink.

There are about 170 people registered for the MnLINK User Group meeting tomorrow at the Northland Inn, Brooklyn Park.

MLAC is about 90 percent filled – will probably fill that up in the next year.

The criteria for MINITEX participation is still in the hands of the office of Higher Education. MINITEX is working with Todd on the libraries that do not meet the criteria. Redwing, Winona, Pine Tech are all without the minimal librarian support.

Dan Mollner asked about Rapid ILL. Rapid ILL is being used by Colorado state and some libraries on the east coast. It is similar to ILIAD.

Other

We asked Stephen about the Version 18 upgrade – and to remind us what is going on with ILL. The ILL database will be redone with Version 18 and the user interface will be integrated into the client (GUI). PALS will have to do a conversion of the existing ILL data first. They will do the upgrade kit with the Version 18 ILL, and will do a test conversion. Bill DeJohn says the GUI ILL is working well for the U of M. They are planning in-person trainings. You have to migrate your preferences and security stuff first.

Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 3:45 pm.

Upcoming meetings:

Thurs., Feb. 7 2008 – Location: Rasmussen College, Brooklyn Park
Thurs., May 1, 2008 – Location: Hennepin Technical College, Eden Prairie
PALS Annual Meeting/DDC Meeting: Thursday, March 20, 2008 – Hennepin Technical College - Eden Prairie Campus

Respectfully submitted,

Brittney Goodman
Secretary

AGENDA

1:00 1) Introductions, sign-in sheet

2) Amend/Adopt Agenda

3) Approve minutes of September 10, 2007

http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALS_Governance_EC_Sep07.html

4) Director’s Report (Stephen Elfstrand)

· Version 18 update

· Consultant’s Report on PALS organization: Mark Scipioni, Dept. of Administration / Management & Analysis

· MnPALS update

o Budget

o FY 2007 final numbers

o FY 2008

o Rates for 09

o Budget projections for future years

5) Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Update (Todd Digby)

· Current IT Proposal

· Next Steps

6) User Council Report (Kathleen Ashe)) User Council Report (Kathleen Ashe)

· Guidelines for the Import of Non OCLC MARC Records (Cat Spring Agenda topic 2b)
(approved/adopted at spring meeting, forwarded to Exec--status?)

· Forwarded to the Executive Committee as a point of information.

· Status of business office/Aleph circulation link request (UC April Agenda item 9) http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALS_TF_MARC_Records_Mar07.html Sonja said that Support Incidents have been sent to Ex Libris about problems with credits and PCash 9 and 10, and Al Rykhus is working on it when he gets information from ExLibris and as time allows; he is having trouble finding someone in ISRS to work with to create a workaround.

7) Communication formats: discussion of email, wiki, forum, website

8) Input to Performance Reviews: discussion

9) Discussion of Governance Policy

http://www.mnpals.org/sections/MnPALS_Governance_EC_Sep07.html

Governance structure changes

http://www.mnpals.org/sections/Consortium_Gov_Structure_Mar07Dr.html

11) MINITEX Update (William DeJohn)

4:00 12) Other/Adjourn