User Council Meeting - May 2008

Minutes

1. Welcome and Introductions
   Bobby Bothmann thanked everyone, including outgoing and incoming UC members.
   
   
2. Amend/Adopt Agenda
   We added User Group evaluations to Item 8.
   
   
3. Approve minutes of November 1, 2007 meeting Approved.
   
   
4. Elections
   1. User Council Convener: Bobby Bothmann
   2. User Council Representative to Executive Committee: Michael Kirby
      
      
5. User Group Frequency
   • Ruth Anderson and Bobby Bothmann reported that the Reference and Cataloging User Groups favor having one annual User Group meeting and one annual workday. Bobby and Sharon Evensen said that User Groups could join together for a workday if their individual agendas aren’t enough for a full workday. Tammy Bobrowsky reported that the Acquisitions/Serials User Group hasn’t had a workday yet, but she posted a workday planning survey and there is interest in one. Kathleen Ashe and Robin Horowitz pointed out that workdays require a lot of planning and self-motivation; how much help would we get from PALS? Stephen Elfstrand said PALS would want to participate and help with workdays. Todd Digby and Adam Marsnik compared workdays with User Group meetings in terms of preparation time. It would be about the same amount of work for PALS, but workdays would require more work from steering committees than User Group meetings do. Bobby said Reference workday planning went faster because they were able to learn from the Cataloging workday experience. Michael Kirby suggested hosting multiple workdays at the same time, in one location, while User Groups that preferred a regular meeting to a workday could also meet at the same time and location. Tammy pointed out that this might complicate voting. Susan Dueis suggested offering a web meeting option for workdays. Adam suggested dropping the morning session and fitting all User Group meetings in one day. Orrin Ausen asked whether similar User Groups could have joint meetings. Circulation and ILL have done this. Keith Ewing asked whether the Consortium is directing or responding to PALS at spring User Group meetings. Stephen said fall is a good time for PALS to share what they accomplished during the summer and ask for direction for the year ahead. Kathleen added that it makes more sense to have User Group meetings in the fall, for that reason. Keith added that workdays are good for generating ideas, which PALS can then work on during the summer.
   • Adam Marsnik made a motion to have one User Group meeting per year. Ruth Anderson seconded. Motion passed.
   • Angela Wortham suggested that workday agendas could allow one hour for business that would otherwise occur during User Group meetings.
     
     
6. Meeting Dates
   • Kathleen Ashe made a motion to have User Group meetings in the fall. Keith Ewing seconded. Motion passed.
   • User Groups can hold workdays whenever they choose; workdays wouldn’t necessarily have to happen in the spring.
   • Robin Horowitz said elections could still take place at workdays. Bobby Bothmann added that User Groups might even get better participation if workdays have higher attendance than User Group meetings. Bobby said steering committees can decide when to hold elections.
   • PALS has scheduled fall User Group meetings for October 29th and 30th at MSU, Mankato.
   • We agreed on the following dates for User Council and Executive Committee meetings: September 18, 2008; November 13, 2008; February 12, 2009; and April 16, 2009.
   • The Executive Committee will decide when to hold the MnPALS Annual Meeting.
     
     
7. Workday Discussion
   Kathleen Ashe requested that PALS provide an outline for how they could support workdays. Bobby Bothmann said that PALS took care of registration, evaluation, and handouts for the Cataloging workday. Bruce Willms was able to provide space at Metro State University free of charge.
   
   
8. User Group Meeting reports and review
   1. Tammy Bobrowsky reported that the Acquisitions/Serials User Group voted to change all subscription records with the end date 12/31/2010 to 12/31/2025. PALS will finish this work prior to 12/31/2010.
   2. Bobby Bothmann and Robin Horowitz reported that the Cataloging User Group voted to have one User Group meeting and one workday per year. The Cataloging User Group also discussed the Koha demo, and agreed that WorldCat Local is not as user-friendly as Solr and VuFind. Good metadata and catalogers are necessary for discovery tools to work well. Keith Ewing asked whether a query in VuFind could be passed to WorldCat if an item isn’t available.
   3. Angela Wortham reported that the Circulation User Group discussed having a circulation workday. Many of the discussions begun at the User Group meeting will continue on the Forum. Kathleen Ashe added that they also discussed the MnSCU circulation policy.
   4. Sharon Evensen reported that the Interlibrary Loan User Group steering committee still needs a technical college representative. Discussions of ILL policies and procedures are continuing on the Forum
   5. Ruth Anderson reported that the Reference User Group voted to abolish the MATF and discussed WorldCat Local. Kathleen Ashe asked how we will decide on implementing WorldCat Local or other discovery tools. Stephen Elfstrand said PALS could provide WorldCat Local for any library that wants it. Keith Ewing said that VuFind could integrate with other databases using CONTENTdm records. Kathleen added that we should consider catalogers’ work (e.g. in 5xx fields) before using a service like WorldCat Local.
   6. Michael Kirby reported that the Systems User Group discussed the conversion from LibProxy to EZProxy. The Reports Work Group seeks new members. Michael will work on a Wiki page this summer that identifies which Aleph reports to use when submitting NCES and other surveys. The Systems User Group also discussed setting up ILL privileges in Aleph v.18 and voted to request that PALS investigate using LDAP authentication with Aleph.
      
      
9. Open Source ILS discussion
   • Stephen Elfstrand reported that a summary and recording of the Evergreen demo will soon be on the Wiki. Evergreen looks more professional and better designed for a consortium. An Acquisitions/Serials module is coming this summer. Evergreen uses a single shared bib record and doesn’t use holding records. Adam Marsnik said he found the OPAC and reporting functionality impressive, and asked if we could live without integrated ILL. Keith Ewing pointed out that this idea was rejected in the design of the original PALS ILS, and added that the Executive Committee and Todd Digby will need to discuss our ILS needs. Keith referred to a report explaining that integrated library systems are more alike than different.
   • Keith Ewing made the following motion: "In order to operationalize the Strategic Plan, the User Council recommends that the Executive Committee create a task force to establish processes to determine the needs of member libraries, to monitor future directions of technology to support library services and operations, and to move forward." Robin Horowitz seconded. Motion passed.
     
     
10. Reports
    1. Stephen Elfstrand reported that Mike Barnett is retiring and Cathy Colby’s responsibilities at PALS have changed. A recent patch for Aleph has caused p-circ-77 to require two hours per ADM again. Al Rykhus has made all 6 million MnPALS records available via VuFind.
    2. Todd Digby reported that he recently met with the MnSCU Library Advisory Committee. They discussed bylaws and membership and agreed to expand their membership.
       
       
11. User Council Report to Executive Committee
    Kathleen Ashe will present the User Council report to the Executive Committee.
    
    
12. Adjourn
    Adam Marsnik made a motion to adjourn. Robin Horowitz seconded. Adjourned.
    
    

Agenda

1. Welcome and Introductions
   
   
2. Amend/Adopt Agenda
   
   
3. Approve minutes of 1 Nov. meeting
   
   
4. Elections
   1. User Council Convener
   2. User Council Representative to Executive Committee
      
      
5. User Group Frequency
   User Groups discussed twice yearly vs. once yearly meetings. Review the User Group recommendations and make a recommendation to Executive based on these discussion.
   
   
6. Meeting Dates
   1. User Council/Executive Committee
      • Proposal for 2nd Thursdays of Sept., Nov., Feb., May
   2. User Group Meetings
   3. MnPALS Annual Meeting
      
      
7. Workday Discussion
   
   
8. User Group Meeting reports and review
   1. Acquisitions/Serials
   2. Cataloging
   3. Circulation
   4. Interlibrary Loan
   5. Reference
   6. Systems
      
      
9. Open Source ILS discussion
   Discuss needs assessment and process for identifying required functionality.
   
   
10. Reports
    1. PALS Director (Elfstrand)
    2. MnSCU (Digby)
       
       
11. User Council Report to Executive Committee
    
    
12. Adjourn