Executive Committee Meeting - September 2006

1. Brittney Goodman agreed to serve was approved as the Secretary replacement for Ben Tri.
   
   
2. Amend agenda - Bill DeJohn's report will be moved to Agenda Item 6 or 7. Also added an agenda item as "Annual Meeting and possible conflicts with ACRL." Amendments to the agenda were approved.
   
   
3. Corrections/changes to minutes -none. Minutes from May 4, 2006 meeting were approved.
   
   
4. Dan Mollner suggested that we send a note of thanks to Ben Tri for being Secretary for the past couple of years and the committee approved.
   
   
5. Todd Digby's Minnesota State Colleges and Universities update/report:
   • Linda Richter serves as the Interim Director of PALS. MnSCU will be going through a formal search for this position. Position description is still at MnSCU HR to get approved, classified, before they can do a search. The search will begin this fall. Search committee will be comprised of staff in MnSCU (not other consortium members). They will have open sessions so that people from the Consortium can meet candidates and give input. Concerns were expressed that the non-MnSCU Consortium members would not be represented on the search committee. Todd agreed to ask again whether this would be possible.
   • Digby discussed that both MINITEX and a group of librarians (representation from state u's and technical colleges, administrators/provost, and non-library people) within MnSCU are groups looking at Level of Staffing Criteria for participation in MINITEX/Interlibrary Loan/minimum standards.
   • LibData and Assignment Calculator - there will be some trainings this fall - look for announcements.
   • Virtual Reference - Will be getting a committee together soon. Campuses will be able to choose whether or not they want to use "chat" or just use the reference question form at least initially.
     
     
6. User Council Report ( Michael Kirby reported for Kathleen Ashe)
   User Council discussed some governance documents:
   • --Governance Structure was discussed at User Council - User Council discussed a few minor changes in the wording. A subcommittee is proposing some rewriting. Clarifications of terms.
   • --Steering Committees were discussed - how steering committees are formed and purpose - they will be working on putting something together to describe purpose/function of
   • --Deans/Directors/Coordinators - will go by the name of Administrators & Coordinators.
   • --Discussed difference between task forces and working groups.
   • --Will work on clarifying wording that each consortium member will get one vote (rather than each library).
   • --User Groups meet October 23 and 24, 2006.
     
     
7. Director's Report (Richter)
   • PALS has hired a new technical services staffperson -- Luda Lindahl -- She begins Sept. 12.
   • Renegotiated a space with MSU Mankato - saving on annual lease payments (reduced space by cubicles).
   • Richter asked the group how many are attending in person versus conference call for the next Executive Committee meeting (November). Nov. meeting is in Eden Prairie rather than in Brooklyn Park.
   • Discussed the letter we received from Digby and Richter regarding the acceptance of Aleph software (July) - It means the beginning of our one-year warranty period - our warranty will end in July of 2007. Becky Bell, Richter, and Digby will be working with the attorney general and Ex Libris on a maintenance agreement for the future. Beginning in July 07 we will have some annual maintenance payments to Ex Libris.
   • The group discussed "the future of searching" and the consortium's role. There is much beyond the catalog that our users look to for information. What portion of resources should go to Aleph work versus the future and emerging searching/databases tools? At some point where does the OPAC fit in the picture - percentage of resources? PRIMO, for example, pulls data from your databases and stores them in a large searchable databases. Other topics discussed included metasearching, federated searching, Open URL, SFX, etc. The catalog is not the first or second place that patrons look...? The catalog has sometimes confusing and multiple steps. How will we support enhancements? This would be important for those of us who do not have the staffing or technical skills to support these types of enhancements and applications. "Users are calling the shots." It was discussed that our purpose is beyond that of Google - We teach people how to find the quality information, for example.
     
     
   It was also discussed that it would be interesting if this consortium did something tangible in the K-12 area - dealing not just with the students that you have, but who you are going to get. Information literacy initiatives and facilitating better communication with faculty was also discussed.
   
   What kind of system(s) are we presenting to our users? We want someone to figure that out in a smoother, smarter, savvier way. (Is this a role for PALS?).
   
   As we think about the future of the PALS office, staffing, budgets, should this be part of our future plan? Investing PALS and library staff time.... Should each library do it on our own? How does this fit in priority-wise with the other work we are about?
   
   One possibility would be to bring in a consultant - environmental scan with what's happening, and what are the options.
   
   The group discussion culminated in agreeing that these are consortium issues, but that it needs to be explored, perhaps through a consultant.
   
   
8. Bill DeJohn, MINITEX
   Bill DeJohn announced that in November, Roy Tennant (California Digital Library) is coming to speak to the CLIC libraries. Will be taped and be up on the MINITEX web site afterwards. It has been suggested that MINITEX have another Vendor Day - they have identified eight projects; Aquabrowser, etc. Presenters will include vendors plus librarians who have used the products. It will likely be before April.
   
   MINITEX Policy Advisory Council meets on Sept. 8. A "Criteria for Participation" subcommittee will meet afterwards (a subcommittee of the Advisory Council). They will be looking at the whole criteria, not just the staffing. This criteria has not been revised since 1999.
   
   MnLINK User Group meeting is Monday, September 11. Keynoter will be taped and up on the site.
   
   MLA Platform Committee - MINITEX will be putting in some requests for funding.
   
   DeJohn suggested the group take a look at the Minnesota Digital Library page. Take a look at the links - including an open source authoring program that will be available. MINTEX is also looking at a Virtual Reference statewide program - DeJohn will be sending information on that out in a few weeks. DeJohn and Digby are talking about our two virtual reference projects and how they work together for a win/win situation for all of us.
   
   OCLC User Groups meet on Oct. 16th. There will be a panel discussion - Future of Cataloging.
   
   MnLINK Gateway continues to progress. There are high user statistics.
   
   
9. Strategic planning for the future of the consortium.
   At our Spring meeting we talked about looking at Strategic Planning. Barbara Deming was present to talk about potential Strategic Planning services.
   
   Deming, who is with Management Analysis and Development (MAD) - Minnesota Department of Administration - does organizational development and analysis. Works with groups to help them build on strengths and identifying ways forward into the future. Her approach would be to do a one-day "visioning" session, then have another session, on a different day - building in some time to go back to constituencies. We would figure out our own actions/tasks. Perhaps we will want to do some data collection in between now and the visioning session -- perhaps a survey of users along with "best-practices" gathering. Deming handed out a proposal "Consortium of MnPALs Libraries: Proposal for Strategic Planning" and the committee discussed the proposal.
   
   A smaller group would first meet in late September to talk about the data that needs to be collected.
   
   The committee decided that we need to move forward with this and that we will have the first meeting in place of our next Executive Committee meeting, in conjunction with Users Council -- November 16 -- a full day - 9am-4 pm. Location: Hennepin Technical College Eden Prairie.
   
   The second meeting would be tentatively on November 28th - also a full day, 9am-4pm. Location: Hennepin Technical College Brooklyn Park.
   
   Volunteers were solicited for the small pre-planning group and Richter agreed to put out a call for more volunteers.
   
   
10. MnPALS Update (Becky Bell)
    Becky Bell gave updates as follows:
    We received two documents from Becky Bell - one was her report and one was on Aleph Version 17. Bell asked for question on her written report.
    • MARCIVE - It is now working except it does not create a second holding record if you have resources in paper and microfilm.
    • Bell gave some explanation of how we move from version to version of Aleph. Discovered in May that we didn't have enough disc space - that process took about a month (disc order, received, installed). Common questions in training sessions - people asking "what day will be live on Aleph 17" - We are still targeting the end of December/early January (before Spring semester begins). "We" are the testers. Let PALS know of problems. Encourage our staff to do as much as we can to test.
    • ELUNA (Ex Libris Users of North America) - Several PALS reps and library reps were attendance at the most recent meeting. There is a report of this group (from Sheila Hatchell) that Bell can get out to us. ELUNA includes all of the Ex Libris products, not just Aleph. There was a brief discussion of how big enhancements happen. When does voting happen? The timeline for this is changing. Next year's ELUNA Conference is in Spearfish during the first week of June.
    • Customizing the Web OPAC -Regarding the report, LaFleur suggested that it is important for the PALS Office to keep a running list of who's done what and keep it on the web site. We could see what each other is doing.
    • The Version Upgrade plan will be updated when we know for sure what the dates will be. It will be updated and more specific soon.
    • We will be asked to do our form edits again when we migrate to Version 17. Bell asked us to pass along to staff to document things in the forms when we make changes.
      
      
11. Governance/structure changes
    We received a copy of the last time the governance structure was changed. User Council focused on the last two sections - "User Groups" and "User Council." Our committee looked at the Executive Committee piece and made some suggested changes.
    
    Richter suggested the following global changes in the document:
    
    
    • For the office, Mnpals, Mnscu PALS, etc. - Every reference should say "PALS"
    • Name of consortium - "The Consortium of MnPALS Libraries"
    • "The Consortium of MnPALS Libraries Executive Committee"
    • "The Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Council"
    • "The Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Groups"
    • "Administrators and Coordinators (Group?)" for the group formerly known as DDC
      
      
    The following suggestions were made, and the document will be changed and brought back to our next meeting for approval.
    • 2nd sentence - add "private" to "colleges and universities"
    • "State government libraries" (rather than "state agencies")
    • "Planning for future services and technologies" (rather than "for the next generation of MnSCU/PALS")
    • Take out line "Participating libraries are those libraries...."
    • Add Todd Digby's position to the Ex Officio members. Title "System Director of Libraries".
    • Should we have a section on "Membership"? Should we put in those requirements.
    • There were questions about budgetary planning/decision-making. Executive Committee gives input but does not make the final decisions. PALS is an auxiliary enterprise - run more like a business. Perhaps this sort of information would be useful for a governance structure document.
      
      
    Revisions will be made and will be sent out.
    
    
12. Other:
    Date of the Annual Meeting currently conflicts with ACRL in Baltimore. Thus, it was decided that Thurs. the 22nd of March was approved as the new date for the PALS Annual Meeting.
13. Adjourned at 3:58 pm.
    
    

1. 1:00 Introductions, sign-in sheet
   
   
2. Amend/Adopt Agenda
   
   
3. Approve minutes from May meeting
   
   
4. 1:05 Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Update (Todd Digby)
   
   
5. 1:15 User Council Report (Kathleen Ashe)
   1. User Group meetings
   2. Other
      
      
6. 1:25 Director's Report (Linda Richter)
   1. PALS staff update
   2. Office space update
   3. Conference call option in November and February
   4. Aleph acceptance by MnLINK
   5. The future of searching
      
      
7. 2:00 Strategic planning for the future of the consortium
   
   

• 2:30 Break
  
  

8. 2:45 MnPALS Update (Becky Bell)
   1. ELUNA
   2. LaSSSI
   3. Workplan
   4. New Aleph versions
   5. MnPALS Reports
   6. Customizing the OPAC
      
      
9. 3:15 Governance structure changes
   
   
10. 4:00 Other/Adjourn
    
    

• Executive Committee meetings:
  • November 16, Eden Prairie
  • February 1, Brooklyn Park
  • April 26, Eden Prairie
    
    
• Annual Meeting:
  • March 29
    
    
• User Group meetings:
  • October 23 and 24, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • April 16 and 17, St. Cloud State University