MnPALS User Council/Executive Committee Joint Meeting

MINUTES

Present: (In Person)

Ruth Anderson, Pete McDonnell, Angela Wortham, Kevin McGrew, Stephen Elfstrand, Orrin Ausen, Michael Kirby, Pam Sukalski, Bobby Bothmann, Thomas Bremer, Larry Kellerman, Ruth Zietlow, Vi Bergquist, and Keith Ewing.

Present: (Web Option)

Adam Marsnik, Robbie LaFleur, Tammy Bobrowsky, Brittney Goodman, Robin Korowitz and Julie Rustad.

Orrin Ausen called the meeting to order Robbie LaFleur move to adopt minutes, seconded by Larry Kellerman.

MnSCU Report - Todd Digby

Most information in annual meeting minutes. There will be significant cuts. MnPals budget is OK. The legislature wants to limit IT spending.

PALS Executive Director Report - Stephen Elfstrand

(See annual meeting minutes.)

• Rasmussen College is withdrawing from Consortium, as most of their schools are not in Minnesota
  
• User Group at Wellstone Center October 28 and October 29. ExLibris user group October 27, 2009.
  
• ALEPH version 20 is delayed till August 2010.

User Council Report - Bobby Bothmann

• Discovery Tool Task Force disbanded, but is “open” for the next discovery tool or service the consortium might want to develop.

Old Business:

Governance Structure

Bobby reported on conversations about elections. When do they happen? How to increase participation? Should user groups be based on the ILS? Do consolidated, community, private, community, private, state university, and state governments work as divisions? How to govern
“the amoeba” (ambiguous, cross-functional, and non-ILS parts of the Consortium)? The Executive
Committee discussed this over a year ago. It was sent back to executive council.

Have more products with open ILS, not all libraries use all products. Need to base modules of ILS on new technologies. Consolidated colleges are the largest group, but the least represented. Most are one person libraries. The librarians do acquisitions, serials, cataloging, and reference. Maybe an all day technical services work day is needed. Recurring discussion on governance, need to be flexible. Larry Kellerman asked Stephen what he needed. Stephen needs to know priorities of membership. What does the group and the consortium need?

Keith Ewing mentioned that OLE (Open Library Enterprise) are talking about functionality around
core principles. A Bulgarian group is writing the software.

ALEPH's end of life is coming. (Versions 20 and 21)

Keith Ewing mentioned need for help pages, learning modules, etc. for Aleph ILS.

Adam Marsnik made a motion to the executive committee to form a group to address the governance structure issues, to make recommendations, and to report back to User Council and Executive Committee (after the Fall 2009 User Group meeting) Thomas Bremer seconded.
Motion passed.

Discussed questions on NAFT survey.

New Business:

Paul Dahl, Department of Health, (CALCO), is new chair of Executive Committee. Other new members include Thomas Bremer, (Winona State) and Kathy Malec, Pollution Control Agency, (CALCO); Brittney Goodman, (MSU - Moorhead) state universities alternate; Donna Davis, Dept. of Revenue, (CALCO) alternate; Ruth Anderson (MHS) special libraries alternate; Jan Carey, (Hibbing CC), Community Colleges alternate; Michael Kirby, (Dakota TC), Technical Colleges
alternate. Still need a private college alternate.

Nominations for secretary, Robbie LaFleur. Larry Kellerman moved to close nominations,
seconded by Michael Kirby. Motion passed.

Nominations for Executive Chair-Elect, Larry Kellerman volunteered. ? moved to close nominations, seconded by ?. Motion passed.

Executive and User Council meetings for 2009-2010:

Thursday, September 10, 2009 (in person); Thursday, November 12, 2009 (web only); Thursday, February 11, 2010 (web only); and Thursday, April 8, 2010 - Annual Meeting and joint Executive Committee and User Council (web and in person). Location for September meeting will be in the Twin Cities.

It was suggested that, since this year’s annual meeting seemed rushed, that next year’s agenda should be structured to include more time for the annual meeting, a “bridge” between the meetings with reports from MnSCU, PALS, Executive, and User Council, and then the joint UC/EC meeting. Location of April annual meeting and joint Executive Committee/User Council meeting tabled until September.

MnPals summer plans include looking at authority files, updating MnPals Plus, looking at spell check, foreign language, improved ILL functionality, Open Source OpenURL, and pursuing Open Source ILS.

Elfstrand reported that Horizon is closing, so their users might be source for new customers.

Keith Ewing reported that OLE project code should be finished by end of summer 2009.
Question was asked “What are functions needed by MnPals?”

Needs Assessment Task Force (NAFT) will have a presentation at User Group and will follow up with executive council in November. Do we want to add question on governance structure to survey? After discussion the decision was no.

Adam Marsnik said there needs to be communication between groups. Executive committee will create group to address issue of governance structure. Todd Digby did facilitate a large group discussion at fall 2006 user group meeting about defining the Consortium and its future.

The web link can be found here: http://www.mnpals.org/pals/minutes/main0610todd.pdf and should be reviewed by the new group looking at governance structure issues...

Meeting adjourned approximately at 3:15 p.m.

Submitted by,
Ruth Anderson (MHS)
Secretary Volunteer

AGENDA

• Introductions/Roll Call

  
  
• Amend/Adopt UC/EC Agenda

  
  
• Approve Executive and User Council minutes: EC February 2009 / UC February 2009
  
  
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Update - Todd Digby

  
  
• PALS Executive Director’s Report - Stephen Elfstrand
  
  
• Minitex Update - Bill DeJohn
  
  
• Old Business:
  • Governance Structure
    
    
• BREAK
  
  
• New Business:
  • EC Representative Nominations/Elections -
    
    • Thomas Bremer (WSU); Kathy Malec (CALCO)
  • Alternates -
    
    • Brittney Goodman (MSU-Moorhead), State Colleges & Universities;
      
    • Donna Davis (CALCO); State Government Libraries;
      
    • Jan Carey (Hibbing Community College), Community Colleges;
      
    • Michael Kirby (Dakota County Technical College), Technical Colleges;
      
    • Ruth Anderson (Historical  Society) Special Libraries
      
    • Private Libraries still need an alternate
      
      
  • Set dates for EC/UC meetings
    
    
  • MnPALS Summer Plans
  • Needs Assessment Task Force Survey
    
    
• CLOSING REMARKS
  
  
• ADJOURN